Fall 2014 Dickinson Magazine

fall 2014 VOLUME 9 2

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NUMBER 2

DICKINSON MAGAZINE

FA L L 2 0 1 4

VOLUME 92

NUMBER 2

[ contents ] Dickinson Published by the Division of Enrollment, Marketing & Communications Executive Director of Marketing & Communications Connie McNamara Editor Michelle Simmons Assistant Editor Lauren Davidson College Photographer Carl Socolow ’77 Design Landesberg Design Printer Intelligencer Contributing Writers Matt Getty MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson Tony Moore Grace Fisher ’15 Sasha Shapiro ’15 Magazine Advisory Group Gail Birch Huganir ’80 Donna Hughes Jim Gerencser ’93 Matthew Fahnestock ’02 Marsha M. Ray David Richeson Adrienne Su Web site www.dickinson.edu/magazine E-mail Address dsonmag@dickinson.edu Telephone 717-245-1289 Facebook www.facebook.com/DickinsonMagazine © Dickinson College 2014. Dickinson Magazine (USPS Permit No. 19568, ISSN 2719134) is published four times a year, in January, April, July and October, by Dickinson College, P.O. Box 1773, Carlisle, Cumberland County, PA 17013-1773. Periodicals postage paid at Carlisle, PA, and additional mailing office.

16 Confronting the Contradictions Eight Dickinson professors, supported by a grant from the Luce Initiative on Asian Studies and the Environment, launch the Valley & Ridge Goes to China program. 22 Causes and Consequences Following a two-part Clarke Forumsponsored panel discussion, faculty experts weigh in on World War I’s impetus and aftermath. 26 Out of the Past A 41-year-old photograph circles back to Dickinson and reconnects several Carlisle families. 30 Independent From the Ground Up A behind-the-gavel look at John E. Jones III ’77, P’11, and at how this coal-region native decided two landmark cases: evolution in 2005 and same-sex marriage this past May. 34 Looking Back: Alumni Weekend 2014 Discover the many moments, big and small, that made this year’s festivities memorable.

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See Web exclusives at www.dickinson.edu/magazine.

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30 UP FRONT

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Dickinson matters

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your view

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our view

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college & west high

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kudos

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ask the archivist

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in the game

IN BACK

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Professor of Earth Sciences Jeff Niemitz captured this image of the Kunming, China, skyline to document the popularity of solar hot-water heaters in the region.

Go to Page 16 to read the full story.

beyond the limestone walls

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our Dickinson

54 obituaries 56

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ON THE COVER

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closing thoughts

[ Dickinson matters ] Diverse communities, common purpose NANCY A. ROSEMAN, PRESIDENT

O

ur students mirror the broader world they eventually will enter. This can be seen in their rich and diverse representation of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, religious and political beliefs, sexual orientation and gender presentation. As members of the class of 2018 begin their journeys as Dickinsonians, it is exciting to note that over 18 percent are domestic students of color and over 10 percent are international students. To put this in perspective, just five years ago, the entering class included only 13 percent students of color and 6 percent international students.

A tangible example of how this increase in diversity affects our students came when we looked at the composition of First-Year Seminars (FYS). Each seminar has no more than 16 students. Among those 16 are, on average, four to six students of color and one to three international students. The FYS is a clear example of our commitment to small class size within a global context and to the fostering of mentoring relationships with faculty from day one.

On an intimate college campus full of young people who often are experiencing their first time away from the familiar, many aspects of diversity can be challenging, but navigating socioeconomic difference can be particularly discomforting.

Our increase in financial-aid spending means we have an increasingly wide range of voices from across the socioeconomic spectrum, and regardless of how much a family is able to contribute financially to a student’s education, every student on our campus must feel part of this community — socially and intellectually. Economic disparity is something we must address head-on in our community.

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At Dickinson, we encourage our students to explore and understand themselves and others through student organizations, athletics, study-abroad programs, social and service activities and, of course, their academic work. The college’s diversity team — through the newly named Popel Shaw Center for Race, Ethnicity & Class; the Office of Community Service & Religious Life; the Asbell Center for Jewish Life; the Women’s & Gender Resource Center; and the Office of LGBTQ Services — focuses its efforts on all aspects of the human experience.

In a world where religious differences are too often polarizing, at Dickinson our differences enrich the student experience through groups such as Dickinson Christian Fellowship, Hillel, Muslim Students Association, Newman Club and Secularist Students United. And in a world where the political landscape is deeply polarized as well, Dickinsonians practice the art of engaged listening, civility and collaboration through activities sponsored by organizations like College Democrats, College Republicans, Students for Social Action and Sustained Dialogue. This is just a sample of the many student groups that, through their activities and programming, regularly bring our community together as part of a healthy process of self-discovery and then share those discoveries with others. Being stretched by being exposed to the unfamiliar is at the core of our mission. Our increased diversity, no matter how you define it, makes that possible.

With every new class, we bring together a rich mix of people who interact with, engage with, challenge and learn about one another. This interaction is not limited to the classroom — it takes place in the Dining Hall, in the fitness center, in the residence halls or while sitting in our iconic red chairs all over campus. Additionally, there are hundreds of caring adults, our faculty and staff, who help our students move beyond their comfort zones in a safe and supportive environment that allows them to grow into the engaged citizens the future needs.

In short, Dickinsonians are comfortable with being uncomfortable. And that is something that will allow our graduates to live their lives with confidence and purpose. Today, employers are seeking employees who are able to seamlessly transition into new settings, work with colleagues and customers different from themselves and be integral parts of a diverse community with a common purpose. This is where Dickinson excels.

[ your view ]

A missed opportunity I just graduated from Dickinson in May with majors in English and American studies.

I was excited to read about Commencement in the summer issue, particularly the detailed conversation that students had with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and the acknowledgment on the adjacent page of graduates’ “Awards & Outcomes.” However, I was disappointed to find that, while that short column mentions the Peace Corps, Teach for America and Fulbright scholars as notable positions, it fails to mention AmeriCorps.

I recently began a 10-month service commitment with City Year Boston, an AmeriCorps program that seeks to increase high-school graduation rates among low-income students across the country — and that has very high success rates. In her Commencement address, Albright even mentioned City Year — along with shout-outs to the Peace Corps, Teach for America and military service — in discussing Dickinsonians’ commitment to service. I know of other graduates, both from my year and from past years, who likewise have chosen to complete AmeriCorps programs after graduation.

I wish that Dickinson Magazine had acknowledged our commitment and mentioned AmeriCorps under “Awards & Outcomes.” I value Dickinson’s commitment to creating global citizens, but I also recognize the importance of service through domestic work and support.

Let us now praise Dining Services The article “Evening Shift” by Celeste Hippolyte ’15 in the summer issue brought a tear to my eye. Sue Holloway was one of the first people I met when I started working at The Underground (before it sold sushi and when it was the only coffee shop on campus!) in fall 2000. She was always there for a hug and a word of support throughout those earlymorning rush-hour shifts in my first year and always threw a chocolate croissant into the toaster for me.

When The Quarry changed management from a student-run social space to a Dining Services space, she was firm but loving when I grumbled about the change. Eight years later, I was on campus for an interview and had my breakfast at The Quarry.

She made sure I got my toasted chocolate croissant and a big hug for good luck. In June, at my 10-year reunion, Sue got a hug from me before my friend Brian, who I was meeting there.

The men and women who guide our students through their experience in Dining Services don’t always get paid the big bucks or have the biggest titles, but they definitely have the biggest hearts.

Thank you for recognizing these awesome people in the Dickinson community.

COLLEEN HAGGARTY BUNN ’04 OXFORD, OHIO

LEAH SHAFER ’14 WEST SIMSBURY, CONN.

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[ your view ]

Deep roots go deeper

I also take particular pride in the fact that this college of ours produced two members of the Supreme Court and one president.

I read with interest the summer issue and was particularly drawn to the story “Deep Roots.”

Our daughter, Margaret, was a legacy, graduating in 2010. The article states that one of the first legacies to graduate was Robert Cooper Grier, in 1812. His father, Isaac Grier, was a member of the second graduating class at Dickinson, in 1788. Readers might be interested to know that Robert Cooper Grier was a judge of the Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.

The county seat of Allegheny County is Pittsburgh. I am a member of that court, as well as various other Dickinsonians.

Grier went on to become a U.S. Supreme Court justice, when he was appointed to that position by then President James Polk in 1846.

Grier retired from the Supreme Court in 1870, and it was believed at the time that he served under more presidents than any other sitting justice of the court.

It is interesting to me that this small college of ours has produced at least two members of the U.S. Supreme Court: Grier and Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, class of 1795. People of my era will remember Dickinson President Howard Rubendall’s oft-spoken declaration that when Abraham Lincoln took his oath of office, “to his left stood a Dickinsonian and to his right stood a Dickinsonian”: James Buchanan, class of 1809, was the outgoing president, and Taney, who swore in President Lincoln.

It is my belief that these accomplishments outrank the accomplishments of probably 95 percent of the law schools in this country.

MICHAEL A. DELLA VECCHIA ’68 PITTSBURGH, PA.

Send letters via e-mail to dsonmag@dickinson. edu or mail to: Dickinson Magazine, P.O. Box 1773, Carlisle, PA 17013-1773. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

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Bike riding 101 revisited A brief letter in the summer issue exhorted the Dickinson cycling community to “get some helmets installed on your riders.”

Good intent, but bad information. Google “bicycle helmet Europe” and look around.

JOHN B. GILPIN ’58 CHAMPAIGN, ILL.

Dubious connections The article on the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in the summer issue might have also touched on a long-ignored cultural issue at Dickinson — the college’s sports teams’ mascot, the Red Devil. Given the recent call for other sports teams to give up their racially and culturally insensitive names (i.e., Redskins, Indians and Braves) it is certainly time for Dickinson to rethink its choice. Red Devil was a standard 18th- and 19th-century pejorative for Native Americans. While the college claims that its name was given by a 1930s sports writer, surely the connection with the Carlisle Indian School was not lost on anyone. It’s time to change the name. In honor of Dr. Benjamin Rush’s medical nonsense of bleeding patients, how about the Dickinson Leeches, or if we want something more bloodthirsty, how about Bloodletters?

GEORGE E. THOMAS ’66 PHILADELPHIA, PA.

[ our view ]

Creating a caring community JOYCE BYLANDER, VICE PRESIDENT AND DEAN OF STUDENT LIFE

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he academic year has opened with energy and enthusiasm. We welcomed 619 first-year students, 15 transfers and our first exchange student through our newest partnership with the Eco League consortium of schools.

During Orientation it was wonderful to walk around greeting so many of the incoming students and their families. With the arrival of returning students, my calendar has been filled with appointments to catch up. Many students want to share all that they did over the summer or during their year of study abroad.

Their stories are amazing, their growth clearly evident.

It also is gratifying to see the change in the makeup of the incoming class since I began here 16 years ago. This class is more racially and ethnically diverse, religiously diverse, internationally diverse and regionally diverse than any previous cohort of Dickinson students. That is just the diversity we can see. From talking with students, we will discover so much more.

Our commitment to all of these young people is a community that helps them become Dickinsonians. We want them to become independent thinkers and actors in this place, and to do so we must provide the right level of challenge and support.

To that end, we made some significant changes this year that will help our students jumpstart their Dickinson careers.

First, we brought back Pre-Orientation to give students a chance to meet some of the excellent individuals with whom they will share their lives. The programs included outdoor adventures in West Virginia, Pine Grove Furnace and Laurel Lake. Others provided students with the opportunity to dive into community service and to learn about the diversity of

Carlisle and the region. Students also got a taste of campus activities through theatre programs, WDCV and the Idea Fund.

Second, we changed the class dean system so that rather than all 619 students having the same first-year dean, each of our incoming students have been assigned to one of seven individuals who will be committed to their success over the next four years. We already have seen the difference: When students have felt the tension or anxiety of adjustment, they’ve reached out to their college dean. When parents have had concerns about their child’s adjustment, they’ve reached out to us as well.

Our ability to have caring adults touch base has been helpful in making a successful transition to college.

And finally, we had the good sense to create First-Year Interest Groups (FIGs). These FIGs are coordinated by upperlevel students who applied for this yearlong commitment to new students because they want each of them to find their place at Dickinson. What’s great about these 43 individuals is that all of their Dickinson journeys are different. Some have loved this place from the moment they stepped on campus during the search process. Some got here and thought, “What was I thinking?” Others have worked hard at finding their place here.

But every one of these FIG mentors calls Dickinson home now, and they are poised and ready to help new students find their place here and begin to call it home.

I believe that relationships are at the heart of the liberal-arts experience and that community is actively created. I have had the importance of our restructuring reaffirmed by a recent book on higher education that repeats what many of us believe to be true: In How College Works by Daniel Chambliss, the author writes that entering and belonging are two of the most important tasks students must do to maximize not just their social but also their intellectual experience. “[G]ood people, brought together in the right ways, we suspect are both necessary and perhaps even sufficient to create a good college,” he writes. “In one sentence: What really matters in college is who meets whom, and when.”

We have been intentional about the communities we have created. We have been extremely thoughtful and careful in the selection of our residential-life staff, first-year mentors, our caring campus adult mentors and our alumni mentors. We have optimized the environment for interaction. This is critical to helping students connect and be able to focus on their true intent for being here — achieving a world-class education.

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[ college & west high ]

From new squash courts to a seriously upgraded fitness center to the Juice Box (the new smoothie bar), everyone can find something to love in the Kline Center expansion.

d i ck i n s o n ma gazi ne Fall 2014

The new structure is surrounded by rain gardens and bioswales, areas designed to gather water for hydrophilic plants, thereby keeping excessive amounts of water from entering the storm-water system.

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The perimeter screen is one of the Kline Center expansion’s energysaving features, as it greatly decreases the amount of direct sunlight on the building, thereby cutting down on heat gain.

The outdoor stretching patio is a great spot to warm up or cool down while getting some fresh air.

Kline expansion: Open for fitness & sustainability

Events music art forums debate Calendar of Arts: dickinson.edu/coa The Clarke Forum: clarke.dickinson.edu (includes event podcasts)

OCT. 28

The Clarke Forum

Dickinson Debates: In a Republic Does a Citizen Have the Duty to Vote?

OCT. 31-NOV. 1, 3, 4

Fiddler on the Roof

Mathers Theatre NOV. 6-7

Lorrie Moore

Recipient of the 2014-15 Stellfox Visiting Scholars and Writers Award NOV. 14-FEB. 14

The Trout Gallery

Elsewhere: Studio-Art Faculty Exhibition NOV. 20

Carl Socolow ’77

The Clarke Forum

here have been a number of enhancements to Dickinson’s campus during the last few years, and one of the most notable is sitting at the corner of Cherry and High streets. Opening its doors Aug. 5, the Kline Center expansion is a sleek 29,251-square-foot structure that’s sure to become a destination for athletes and non-athletes alike.

Linguistic Relativism: Language, Culture and Thought John Baugh, Washington University NOV. 21-23

Vox, Velocity and Vectors

Mathers Theatre

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Kudos

[ college & west high ] Publications

Vice President for Library & Information Systems and Chief Information Officer Robert Renaud’s co-authored article, “Choosing our Futures,” originally published in 1996 in College & Research Libraries (C&RL), was identified by the C&RL editorial board and a group of past C&RL editors as one of seven “landmark” articles for the 75th-anniversary issue of the Association of College and Research Library’s flagship journal. The article presciently argues for radical, fundamental changes in how academic libraries conduct business—from technology and acquisitions to organizational culture and structure.

Jorge R. Sagastume, associate professor of

Spanish and Portuguese and current director of Dickinson’s program in Málaga, recently published the refereed article “Cervantes inmortal: lo apócrifo en el Quijote y en Borges” in Palimpsestos hispanoamericanos, edited by María Stoopen, Galán, FFL UNAM. Sagastume also published the following two books: Cervantes novelador: Las novelas ejemplares cuatrocientos años después, a collection of studies on Cervantes’ Exemplary Novels in commemoration of the 400 years of its publication, edited Jorge R. G. Sagastume, Fundación Málaga; and Sirena(s): Poesía extranjera fundamental en traducción castellana, a selection of translations from English, German, Bulgarian, Portuguese and Hebrew poetry into Spanish, published by Fundación Málaga, in which selections, edition, introduction and translations are by Sagastume.

Alberto Rodríguez, professor of Spanish,

published the refereed article “Retórica y retrato: el caso de La Gitanilla” in Cervantes novelador: Las novelas ejemplares cuatrocientos años después., edited by Jorge R. Sagastume, Fundación Málaga, 2014.

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During a pre-tenure sabbatical leave, Margaret Frohlich, assistant professor of Spanish and Portuguese, authored a journal article, “Reimagining Puerto Rican History in Seva Vive,” in Studies in Documentary Film.

Assistant Professor of Sociology Amy Steinbugler won the William J. Goode Book Award from the Sociology of the Family Section of the American Sociological Association for her book Beyond Loving: Intimate Racework in Lesbian, Gay, and Straight Interracial Relationships, which was published by Oxford University Press.

Director of Institutional Research Mike Johnson, Christian Millichap ’08 and James Cousins ’14 co-authored “The Math Behind College Admissions” in the September issue of Math Horizons, edited by David Richeson, professor of mathematics.

Christine Bombaro ’93, associate director

for information literacy & research services, published “Overcoming the Barriers to Information Literacy Programs: CALM Lab for English Majors at Dickinson College” in References Services Review, vol. 42, issue 2.

Dickinson in the News

Dickinson was one of just 24 colleges and universities nationwide, and one of only three liberal-arts colleges, to earn a spot on The Princeton Review’s 2015 Green Honor Roll.

Dickinson scored No. 3 on Sierra Club’s “Cool Schools” list for sustainability leadership.

The Daily Meal named Dickinson one of the “75 Best Colleges for Food.”

Dickinson ranked among the top 25 for best college brands by Global Language Monitor.

Dickinson’s archaeological project on the Mycanean citadel of Glas in southeastern Greece was featured in the September issue of Popular Archaeology magazine. The project, headed by Associate Professor of Archaeology Christofilis Maggidis, took place during the summer and involved excavation and surveying of the ancient city. Learn more at dson.co/archaeologymaggidis.

Grants

The National Science Foundation awarded a three-year $256,855 grant to John Henson, professor of biology, for his project Collaborative Research/ RUI: G Protein Regulation of the Actin Cytoskeleton in the Cleavage Stage Embryo. Henson’s research, in collaboration with New Mexico State University, will focus on the mechanisms underlying cell division in the early seaurchin embryo, with a focus on how actin and other proteins are regulated and how they allow cell division to occur. Learn more at dson.co/hensonnsf.

Joyce Bylander, vice president and dean of

student life, received an $1,800 grant from the Partnership for Better Health for her work in the CONNECT/CALC Collaboration, a four-week summer program between Dickinson College and Carlisle Arts Learning Center targeted at enriching the lives of at-risk teens through workshops in art, health and creative writing.

ask the archivist (or, the archivist asks you …)

Tony Pires, associate professor of biology,

received $248,040 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Ocean Acidification program for his project Ocean Acidification / Collaborative Research / RUI: Effects of Ocean Acidification on Larval Competence, Metamorphosis, and Juvenile Performance in a Planktotrophic Gastropod. This three-year collaborative project, with Tufts University, will take place on the Dickinson campus during the academic year and at the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Labs during the summer. The research goals are to understand how ocean acidification, caused by rising atmospheric carbon dioxide, affects the life history of marine organisms. Learn more at dson.co/co2problem.

Rebecca Connor, assistant professor of chemistry, has been awarded $217, 580 by the National Science Foundation Chemistry of Life Processes to conduct research on RUI: Electrophilic Modulation of the Heat Shock Response System. The proposed research will study how electrophilic modification of certain amino acids affects heat shock proteins in human cells. Learn more at dson.co/connorNSF.

worthy Three Dickinson scientists received individual grants from the National Science Foundation — with a combined total of $722,433 — to further research in ocean acidification, the heat shock response system and the proteins that comprise the cytoskeleton. dson.co/dsonresearchnews

At about the time the fall semester opened this year, I saw a news story about the passing of Sir Richard Attenborough. I recalled that he had been the 1983 Commencement speaker. John Osborne, professor emeritus of history, who had been Attenborough’s liaison during his visit, mentioned to me once how powerful that Commencement address had been and that the students immediately rose to their feet with enthusiastic applause at the completion of his address. We had occasion to digitize a recording of that address, so I had the pleasure of listening to Sir Attenborough just last year.

Throughout its history, Dickinson has welcomed scientists, religious leaders, musicians, military officers, industrialists, poets, athletes, entertainers and elected officials from all levels of government. These visitors have received awards and accolades of every type in recognition of their many achievements. From my own undergraduate days, I recall Seamus Heaney, Dickinson Arts Award recipient, being the Commencement speaker the year I graduated. I remember, too, that Public Affairs Symposium speakers during my years included activist Ralph Nader, Ambassador John Scanlan, and actor Jack Palance.

In my role as college archivist, I frequently have the pleasure of hearing from alumni about their memories and experiences. People have told me about their excitement at meeting authors whose works they admire. They’ve shared stories about dining with dignitaries and having world-famous artists and musicians visit their classes. I recall, most notably, an alumnus telling me about Martin Luther King Jr.’s sermon in Allison Church and how this event cemented his commitment to become a minister.

So I would like to ask all of our readers, what guests to the college do you recall from your own time at Dickinson?

Who gave a speech that resonated with you? Who shared ideas that changed the way you looked at the world?

Whose visit affected your career choice or other major life decision? Among the many accomplished people who visit Dickinson each year, which interesting personalities had an impact on your life?

—Jim Gerencser ’93, college archivist

John Osborne (left), professor emeritus of history, with Sir Richard Attenborough during Attenborough’s 1983 visit to Dickinson.

Send your responses (or questions) to dsonmag@dickinson.edu for inclusion in a future issue of Dickinson Magazine.

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[ college & west high ]

scholars FINDING FUTURE

I

t’s no secret that the future of higher education is uncertain. The media and state and federal government, as well as individual families, continue to raise questions and concerns about the value of a college degree. Many factors are at play, but three stick out: flat or declining family income, decreases in financial aid availability and the changing demographics of high-school graduates. From small private institutions to large public universities, higher-ed leaders are seeking new paradigms and ways to deal with the shifting landscape.

Dickinson is no exception.

Cost vs. Value

The Lawlor Groups Trends for 2014 Report cited that 67 percent of families eliminated colleges from consideration at some point in the search and admission process due to cost. While Dickinson’s admissions and aid staff seek to make education affordable, they remain vigilant about not allowing the discount rate (the amount of unfunded institutional aid as a percentage of gross tuition revenue) to rise to the point that it affects our ability to fulfill our mission.

While the direct price this academic CLASS OF 2008 year is $59,664 (tuition, fees, room and board), what many don’t know is that the cost of a Dickinson education is about $75,000, and students the college’s endowment subsidizes approximately $13,000 of that cost.

Moreover, 68 percent of the current student population received a further male/female ratio reduction, with $41 million in total institutional financial aid this year.

Dickinson also remains percentage of domestic committed to educating the wider students of color world about the value of a liberal-arts education when the question, “Is it worth it?” is on the lips of nearly percentage of every parent who sees that price tag. international students A recent study by the Georgetown University Center on Education and Workforce estimates that by 2020, 65 percent of jobs will require workers percent received with at least some college education. $6.2 million in In the U.S. alone, there will be a institutional aid

shortage of five million workers with post-secondary degrees.

And proponents of the liberal arts are spreading the word: We know that one-third of all Fortune 500 CEOs have liberalarts degrees (Huffington Post), and numerous employer-survey results indicate that the critical-thinking skills and the ability to connect disparate topics indicative of liberal-arts graduates are the must-have qualities in job-seekers.

Who’s There?

So what’s this “shifting demographics” talk all about?

A National Center for Education Statistics report projects that of students graduating high school across the country, there will be a 25 percent increase in African-American students and 42 percent increase in Hispanic students by 2021, but only a 4 percent increase in white students. In addition, in 1994, 63 percent of recent female high-school graduates and 61 percent of recent male high-school graduates enrolled in college in the fall following graduation. By 2012, the percentage of women increased to 71 percent while the percentage of men remained unchanged.

CLASS OF 2018 The chart to the left comparing the incoming class of 2008 with the new class of 2018 illustrates these national trends. A more students diverse student body has been a long-standing priority for Dickinson, and our definition of “diversity” has grown more inclusive over the male/female ratio years, to encompass race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, religious and political beliefs, sexual orientation, percentage of domestic gender identity and expression, students of color international citizenship and first generation to attend college. While a more diverse student body provides percentage of a richer experience for the entire international students community, the challenge lies in ensuring that Dickinson can afford to support the increased financial need that may accompany some of percent received that diversity.

606 616

46/56 39/61

14.5 18.9 4.8

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10

70

$11.7 million in institutional aid

Cost vs. Value 65 percent of jobs will require workers with at least some college education. In the U.S. alone, there will be a shortage of five million workers with postsecondary degrees.

Partnerships with community-based organizations such as Posse Foundation, Philadelphia Futures, College Match and NJ Seeds, as well as with high schools committed to college preparation and access for underrepresented students (Cristo Rey schools, Noble Network of Charter Schools, Mastery Charter and Young Women’s Leadership Schools), are growing. The students from these programs who graduate from Dickinson become some of our greatest champions and most impressive success stories. So while these programs are expensive to maintain, they are imperative. Dickinson is committed to ensuring access but could be doing so much more if the financial resources were available. The admissions team has more applicants they would like to admit, enroll and help succeed, but do not have the funding to make it possible.

In addition, the college-bound population is getting smaller: The National Center for Education Statistics reports that the share of students matriculating for a liberal-arts degree, as a percentage of all college graduates, dropped slightly from 2004 to 2010, from 3 to 2.8 percent. With fewer than 300 liberal-arts colleges in the country, Dickinson is competing for the same talented students with institutions that have larger endowments and can provide more financial aid.

When illustrating the increased pressure faced by colleges and universities, Inside Higher Ed reported that in 2014, 61 percent of admissions directors said they had not filled their fall class by the traditional May 1 deadline. Thirty-two percent recruited applicants after May 1 who had already committed to attending other institutions. Fortunately, Dickinson was not in this position.

Who’s there?

There will be a 25 percent increase in African-American students and a 42 percent increase in Hispanic students by 2021, but only a 4 percent increase in white students.

Web Wise

While these challenges are, well, challenging, they also are full of opportunities. Among this Web-savvy millennial generation, the Journal of Higher Education Web Professionals found that 70 percent of prospective students are primarily using mobile/ tablet technology in their college search. In 2007, 61 percent of colleges and universities were using some form of social media.

That same survey conducted in 2014 found the number has increased to 100 percent.

The increased need to “meet students where they are” is leading to innovations in the use of social-media channels both traditional (Twitter, Facebook) and trendy (SnapChat, SCVNGR). And with the national conversation focused on the cost of higher education, colleges and universities are taking a hard look at what solutions they can offer to ease the pressure.

— Lauren Davidson

Jud Guitteau

Web wise 70 percent of prospective students are primarily using mobile/tablet technology in their college search.

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[ college & west high ]

W

hen I stepped off the plane in September 2013 into Heathrow Airport, lugging along two enormous suitcases and running on two hours of sleep, all I wanted was to collapse into a bed. Yes, I finally had made it abroad, and yes, my adventurous junior fall semester in England was about to begin.

But first, I needed sleep.

When Professor of English Susan Perabo met my classmates and me outside our terminal, though, I learned that my wish for a 12-hour nap was not about to be granted. She handed us each 20 British pounds and two maps: one of the London Underground and one of Central London. “I’ll meet you guys back at the hotel!” she said, and sent us on our way.

Two hours and four blisters later, I had maneuvered my way through a foreign transportation system with my group and made it to our hotel with our embarrassingly large suitcases.

It was here, 3,500 miles away from Carlisle, where I first felt like a real, accomplished Dickinson student.

That isn’t to say that my classes and on-campus involvement in my first and sophomore years weren’t rewarding.

Saying goodbye to my roommates and my favorite classrooms in East College was certainly difficult. But it was when I allowed myself to leave those familiar comforts and throw myself into the biggest challenge of my life thus far that I discovered how able I am to thrive, academically and culturally, in a world beyond the red Adirondack chairs. Many of my classmates

Stacy Innerst

Far and away

and I learned that, as Mike Monahan, associate provost and executive director of The Center for Global Study & Engagement, puts it, “study abroad is, above all, an intellectual project.”

Palmer Murray ’15 discovered the same in Brisbane, Australia, where he took a course that correlated directly with his job back at home at Webb Mason. Chris Noonan ’15 put his two years of Chinese language study at Dickinson to the test in Beijing. After Professor of English Carol Ann Johnston served as the faculty advisor to the Norwich, England, program in 2000, she launched a creative-writing exchange program, returning to Norwich with eight students two years later and giving them the opportunity to have their writing inspired by some of England’s most beautiful landscapes.

What makes Dickinson’s programs so strong is a focus on the whole student. “The main things that attracted me to Dickinson were its highly recognized abroad program and the very strong lacrosse team,” says Murray. “Dickinson made it so easy for me to participate in both, which is extremely hard to find in a college.”

Caitlin Simpson ’15, a Latin American, Latino & Caribbean studies major, studied in Argentina in the fall and then went to Chile for the spring.

Hongyu Chen ’15 was already studying abroad as an international student at Dickinson, but after learning about the college’s programs, she could not pass up the opportunity to travel to Bologna. “Being an Asian student at an American school who was then studying in Italy gave me a whole new way to understand my own nationality,” she says.

For Casey Colburn ’15, study abroad was about being able to experience something as different as she possibly could.

“I chose Copenhagen because I was eager to be in a place that didn’t speak English. I didn’t know a word of Danish, which was actually so exciting for me, and thankfully Dickinson didn’t require any Danish language experience for the program. I got to immerse myself completely in an entirely new language, and I learned so much.”

Of course, we missed the campus. There’s the community: Simpson and Chen missed the personal connections made with faculty, while Murray felt the absence of his lacrosse teammates.

worthy More than 400 Dickinson students reported completing internships or research experiences in summer 2014, and they took place in 30 states and 14 countries. dson.co/interns-in-action

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Carl Socolow ’77

But there are also the everyday luxuries: Elizabeth Graye Robinson ’15, who studied in Cameroon, missed daily hot showers and consistent Wi Fi, and Noonan was eager to return to classes taught in his first language.

Robinson recognizes all of these challenges, though, and encourages anyone studying abroad to document as much of it as possible. “Memories of day-to-day activities will fade and only a few big stories will stand out,” she says.

“A journal will help you to not forget that each day abroad was special in its own right.”

And those experiences and the confidence gained are what make life at Dickinson post-study abroad so different — and even more meaningful. “When I got back from Copenhagen, I got an e-mail about an opening for vice president of the class of 2015, something I never would have thought myself capable of before studying abroad,” Colburn says. “But I thought about what I had just accomplished the past semester. I had nothing to lose. So I ran for the position, got it and have loved being in Student Senate.”

Colburn is now the class president.

Studying in Norwich made Brandon Goldson ’15 realize the limits he had been placing on his future. “Since going abroad, I now see how many more options there are for life after graduation,” he says. “I didn’t want to go too far from home, but now I know I can handle being away, while still maintaining my important personal relationships. Being abroad helped me to create new relationships, and now I know I’m capable of doing that anywhere.”

For Robinson, life in Cameroon opened her eyes to the way she could improve her life back in Carlisle: “All too often, I find myself busy and stressed with what I do at Dickinson, but I’ve learned in Cameroon that we learn so much more about one another, and about ourselves, when we take the time to talk to each other.”— Grace Fisher ’15

Twain’s World On Aug. 31 Professor of Theatre Todd Wronski brought the iconic work of Mark Twain to Mathers Theatre for the U.S. premiere of Mark Twain Abroad.

The one-man play, performed for one night only, focused primarily on the writer’s international travels in 1895-96, and the production at Dickinson marked the 10th performance of the play.

The concept for the show came to Wronski while he was working on another Twain project, Dickens and Twain: Crossing the Pond, a two-person play. “I was aware of Twain’s affection for England,” he says, “but as my research deepened, I realized the notable extent to which Twain created written and spoken observations of other countries.” Mark Twain Abroad premiered in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 2011, while Wronski was serving as director of Dickinson’s study-abroad program in Norwich, England.

Although Wronski was the only performer on stage during Mark Twain Abroad, he had some assistance behind the scenes. Holly Kelly ’15, a double major in music and theatre arts, served as the show’s production coordinator and stage manager, while Tony Frost, director of the University of East Anglia’s Drama Studio, directed the production. It was sponsored by the Department of Theatre & Dance with support from the Narol Console Student-Faculty Research Award and the Bernard A. and Rebecca S. Bernard Foundation.—Grace Fisher ’15

Wronski’s physical transformation into Twain took only about a half hour. When a producer spoke to him about the possibility of licensing another Wronski script that was focused on Twain, the producer also asked about makeup.

“I replied that the makeup was fairly minimal and I did it myself,” Wronski recalls.

“His reply, well intentioned, was, ‘Well, you don’t look like that, do you?’ Alas, I replied, ‘More or less, yes, I do!’ ” Much trickier than the wigs and the costumes was getting into the right mental state to portray the legendary writer. “The key,” Wronski says, “is getting the concentration, focus and point of view sorted out, especially during what was a very busy time — the start of the academic year.”

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You Gotta Want It

Carl Socolow ’77

“My main focus looking at colleges was, what’s a good academic school that has football where the coach wants me to play quarterback?”

[ in the game ] C

Road game Members of the Red Devil men’s basketball team made their first appearance in the NCAA Division III Elite 8 last fall, and this summer they made their first European appearance in five years.

With stops in Nice, Cannes and Monaco as well as Barcelona, team members hit the hard court while immersing themselves in local cultures.

The NCAA allows teams to travel abroad for cultural experience and competition once every three years, so during the trip the Red Devils got some valuable experience playing against European club teams — AC Golfe Juan Vallauris in France and C.E. Bisbal Basquet, C.E. Palamos and AEC Collblanc-Torrasa in Spain.

“The trip was an amazing opportunity and experience,” said Chris Cox ’15. “The best part was meeting people of a different culture — breaking down cultural barriers from languages and finding a common ground was great. It proved that we are all alike in some ways, and basketball united us.”

— Tony Moore Read more at dson.co/basketballculture.

Ryan Connolly (Tapwatr Studios)

ole Ahnell ’15 is the kind of student-athlete who will be talking football and suddenly gets sidetracked by a thought he has on the economy viewed through the lens of the most recent unemployment numbers. So it’s no surprise when he says, “My main focus looking at colleges was, what’s a good academic school that has football where the coach wants me to play quarterback?”

Clearly, he found a great fit at Dickinson.

“Cole was recruited as a defensive back or slot receiver by most schools,” says Darwin Breaux, head football coach. “But his competitive nature, leadership, football IQ and athleticism made him an excellent fit for our offense.”

When Ahnell circles back from discussing the economy to football again, specifically the idea of his name appearing in the Dickinson record books, the international business & management and economics double major is way more humble than he has any right to be. “I haven’t looked at my stats,” he says.

“And the way our offense is structured, it’s very diverse, in that we run the ball a lot, so my passing stats won’t be that great.”

Of course, his passing stats are pretty great: If Ahnell has just an average season this year, he could move into the top two or three in both career passing yardage and career total offense. This is all the more impressive when taking into account that he stands 5'6" in a position that increasingly sees players well over 6 feet tall.

“There’s an advantage to being able to hide behind blockers when I’m running or throwing,” he says. “The defense can’t see my release points and can’t get their hands up. Being small helps me be quicker and just hasn’t hindered me at this level.”

Breaux doesn’t see any hindrance either. “He’s an elusive runner and very effective passer,” he says.

“He is a complete player and a real competitor.”

Now he’s turning that competitive spirit toward his senior year, with some specific goals in mind.

“For me the most important thing is winning,” he says, “especially the Bucket, the Wagon and the Boot.” The mention of these games against Gettysburg and Franklin & Marshall and the Centennial Conference championship, respectively, triggers a memory for Ahnell — what he refers to as his best football memory, and one that shows just what Dickinson football means to him.

“Freshman year in the Wagon, it was my first game start, and we were down 21-0 at halftime,” he begins. “We ended up coming back and winning 31-24. What really made that memory for me was seeing the elation on the seniors’ faces — seeing how badly they wanted it and how hard we fought as a team to win it.”

We already know how badly he wants it, so all he’s waiting for is the elation. — Tony Moore

Need more Red Devil sports? Check out all the stats, scores, schedules and highlights

at www.dickinsonathletics.com. Information about live streaming and radio broadcasts is available on a game-bygame basis, so check the Web site regularly or follow @DsonRedDevils on Twitter for the latest updates.

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[ cover ]

They burn half of the world’s coal. They build more solar cells than any other country. They are the planet’s largest CO2 emitter. They rank first in the world in renewable hydro- and wind-power capacity. They produce so much pollution that scientists have compared air quality in their largest cities to a “nuclear winter.” They designed the first planned, selfsufficient, car-free city.

by Matt Getty

Jeff Niemitz Kristin Strock

Confronting the Contradictions

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They are China.

And when it comes to energy, the environment and sustainability, they are rife with contradictions. Yet, considering that they account for 20 percent of the world’s population, a global sustainable future depends on understanding this country of 1.3 billion as more than a distant “they.”

To do that, eight Dickinson professors, supported by a grant from the Luce Initiative on Asian Studies and the Environment, headed to China this summer to launch the Valley & Ridge Goes to China program. The goal: Go beyond the conflicting facts by seeing the country’s environmental challenges firsthand and bringing lessons back to their classrooms from the people struggling to guide the Middle Kingdom toward a cleaner future.

Far left, top and center: Marcus Key; bottom: Jeff Niemitz

“To understand what’s happening there, you need to get beyond the images of China’s polluted cities that dominate the media,” explains Professor of Anthropology Ann Hill, who led the study group along with Professor of Earth Sciences Jeff Niemitz.

Sponsored by the Center for Sustainability Education (CSE), the trip was based on the successful Valley & Ridge program, which takes its name from the Appalachian Valley and Ridge that defines the landscape surrounding the college. Since 2008, the two-day summer program has helped more than 60 faculty members incorporate local, place-based sustainability issues into their courses.

Exporting the experience from the familiar environs of Central Pennsylvania to East Asia, however, meant going well beyond two days. After a 2013 planning trip to China’s Yunnan province, which Hill has studied for nearly two decades, she, Niemitz and Matt Steiman, assistant director of the College Farm, crafted a 21-day itinerary that included Yunnan Normal University’s alternative energy conference, Chengjiang’s early Cambrian geological site and a trip to the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain region in the foothills of the Himalayas. This summer, the rest of the study group joined them to see some of China’s contradictions for themselves.

“There were some real eye-openers,” says Professor of Earth Sciences Marcus Key, who’s incorporating examples of China’s unsustainable farming and water use into his Earth History and

Energy Resources classes. “You could look out over the hills and see how almost every inch was terraced so they could farm as much of the land as possible. We saw huge dams where the lakes had dried to puddles because they’re in the midst of a five-year drought. But then you could see cities where the roof of every apartment building was filled with solar hot-water heaters.

Everyone’s got them. So, when it comes to renewable energy at least, in some ways they’re far ahead of us.”

The faculty team, which also included Assistant Professor of Archaeology and Anthropology Maria Bruno, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Kristin Strock, Professor of Philosophy Susan Feldman, Associate Professor of Physics Hans Pfister and Assistant Professor of Political Science Vanessa Tyson, didn’t simply shrug at these contradictions. Because of its interdisciplinary nature, the team was able to take a deeper, multiperspective look at their surroundings.

“Everyone came from a different field of study, so we had different reactions to everything we saw,” says Bruno. “I would look at the landscape and see how the people were using it. The earth scientists in the group would see the deeper history of the landscape from its stratigraphy, and all of our experiences were enriched by each other’s points of view.”

Similarly, when the scientists among the group saw how the Yunnan province’s indigenous farmers were struggling to wrest

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View a photo gallery at Dickinson.edu/magazine.

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Marcus Key

concept of dam removal. “They were looking for answers to their environmental problems but were realistic about the need to support a large population,” she explains. “These conversations provided the kind of insight I wouldn’t be able to get without being there and meeting with the people.”

Now, having returned to Carlisle, Strock and the other professors are incorporating what they’ve learned into courses ranging from philosophy to archaeology. And they’ve brought that interdisciplinary, cross-cultural approach back with them as well. Pfister, for instance, is using examples of how policies in the Yunnan province affect the environment in his units on entropy in his introductory and advanced physics courses, while Niemitz is featuring case studies of China’s role in climate change in the Global Climate Mosaic, which will be taking students to Peru later this year to observe countries trying to hammer out climate-change policies at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

So while the faculty were the ones who observed China’s struggles with sustainability firsthand, their students — who will be the ones grappling with global sustainability challenges in the future — are the ones reaping the benefits.

“This program typifies the way Dickinson prepares students for the future,” says Niemitz. “Any solution to the looming climate crisis is going to have to be a global solution. That means you’re going to wrestle with different cultures, different political systems.

To do that, you need to have a deep understanding not only of the science but also of how that science interacts with people.

This generation is going to be one of the first to feel the impact of climate change. By combining an interdisciplinary approach with sustainability and with global study, we’re uniquely situated to help students to take on that challenge.”

Marcus Key

a living from a landscape scarred by decades of deforestation and erosion, the social scientists were able to provide political and historical context. In some areas, farming practices that worked well for centuries when local people were nomadic turned destructive after they were forced by the government to settle in permanent villages in the 1950s.

“Central government policies have played a big role in environmental degradation, especially deforestation,” says Hill. “You can never talk about China without talking about history, culture and government policy.”

This multidimensional view, says CSE Director Neil Leary, is the best way to approach sustainability.

“Problems like climate change are complex and call on multiple areas of expertise,” he explains. “You need to look at the science, the social issues, the political issues. That’s why we take an interdisciplinary approach in everything we do with sustainability at Dickinson. And when you’re looking at another country, where you’re going to have to collaborate with people from different cultures, that approach is even more vital.”

In addition to examining these issues across a range of disciplines, the faculty met with professors from Yunnan University, the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences and Yunnan Normal University as well as local party officials and entrepreneurs exploring biogas, sustainable farming practices and other environmental initiatives in the region. Their conversations not only revealed new information but also provided insight into the cultural differences that manifest themselves in the disparity between how Americans and the Chinese view nature.

When Strock gave a presentation on America’s clean-water policies to the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences, for instance, she was surprised to see how her audience responded to the

Kristin Strock

“Problems like climate change are complex and call on multiple areas of expertise.

You need to look at the science, the social issues, the political issues. That’s why we take an interdisciplinary approach in everything we do with sustainability at Dickinson. And when you’re looking at another country, where you’re going to have to collaborate with people from different cultures, that approach is even more vital.” — Neil Leary

From left: Hans Pfister (physics), Marcus Key (earth sciences), Jeff Niemitz (earth sciences), Susan Feldman (philosophy) Vanessa Tyson (political science), Maria Bruno (archaeology), Kristin Strock (environmental studies), Ann Hill (anthropology) and Limei Yang of Yunnan University.

China connections run deep

Valley & Ridge Goes to China was far from the first or only innovative way Dickinson has embraced China in its curriculum. The college’s first study-abroad program in China operated during the 1920s. Subsequent political upheaval and Mao Zedong’s rise to power made the trip impossible in the following decades, but in 1962 Dickinson launched its first formal East Asian courses, 10 years before Richard Nixon’s historic meeting with Chairman Mao. During the next few decades those courses grew into the East Asian Studies Department, which was launched in 1984 with the help of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The second (and current) Dickinson in China program launched in 1992 and grew exponentially over the next two decades, moving to Peking University in 1998, incorporating a home-stay option in 2002 and doubling in enrollment during the early 2000s.

More recently, Dickinson earned a grant from the Luce Initiative on Asian Studies and the Environment that has enabled the college to assemble a 15-member faculty study group exploring new ideas for incorporating Asian environmental content into academic courses and research, host a series of lectures on campus by Asian scholars with expertise in environmental issues and pilot multidisciplinary summer immersion programs for students in Shanghai in 2012, then in Japan in 2013 and — coming up in 2015 — in Jingdezhen, a Chinese manufacturing town famous for its pottery.

“Asian studies and environmental studies are not a traditional pairing, but the combination is natural for us given Dickinson’s strength in global education and our leadership in sustainability,” said Dickinson Provost and Dean Neil Weissman when the grant was first announced. “This gives us an opportunity to demonstrate the impact of sustainability across national borders and to expand the study of Asia at Dickinson across academic borders.”

Valley & Ridge Goes to China built on this long history of engagement, ensuring that even students who don’t study abroad in China or take East Asian studies courses learn about sustainability issues in the region that will likely have the biggest impact on global environmental concerns for some time to come. Additionally, the program deepened and expanded many of Dickinson’s longstanding partnerships in the region.

“The relationships we cemented with Yunnan University and other colleagues in China are really another great outcome of this trip,” says Professor of Anthropology Ann Hill, noting that members of the Valley & Ridge Goes to China study group plan to collaborate with paleontologists, professors and entrepreneurs in the region. “That’s important because it’s not just about what we can take from this one experience but also how we can build on this experience going forward to continue to enhance the study of China across the curriculum.” — Matt Getty

Donald W. Flaherty taught political science and Asian studies at Dickinson from 1951 to 1983. Flaherty also held a post-World War II residency as a teaching fellow at West China Union University in Chengdu, Sichuan province. Top left photo is of Flaherty traveling from Chengdu to Chongqing; bottom left is of Flaherty at the Great Wall.

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causes & consequences

“

ent double, like old beggars under sacks, / Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, / Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs / And towards our distant rest began to trudge,” begins “Dulce et decorum est,” Wilfred Owen’s heartbreaking poem about World War I. On Sept. 8-9, the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues hosted two panel discussions to commemorate the centennial of a conflict that resulted in the collapse of empires and ushered in the age of modernism. The panels comprised Dickinson and U.S. Army War College faculty and explored the causes and consequences of this world-shattering event from multiple and diverse perspectives. We asked several of the panelists to give us an abbreviated version of those discussions. You can view both panel discussions at dson.co/exploringWWI.

Karl Qualls Kamaal Haque

“

T

he assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand caused the First World War.” This is what many people have been taught about what was called at the time the Great War. The reality, of course, is more complicated, though it is true that Franz Ferdinand’s killing did put into place a chain of events that led to war; the tragedy is that there were many missed chances along the way, where a different outcome could have been achieved.

Perhaps chief among these missed chances was the response of Imperial Germany. A week after the June 28, 1914, shooting, Germany gave the Austro-Hungarian Empire a “blank check” of support in a war with Serbia and for any consequences that might arise out of one.

Nevertheless, upon Serbia’s response to Austro-Hungary’s demands, even the German Kaiser Wilhelm II objected that “every justification for war has fallen away.”

That World War I came to pass despite the Kaiser’s view depended on the machinations of two highly placed German officials, Chancellor Thoebald von Bethmann-Hollweg and the German military’s chief of staff, Helmuth J.L. von Moltke. While the former managed the behindthe-scenes negotiations with Austro-Hungary and other European powers with an aim, the latter pushed for war in German political circles.

Bethmann-Hollweg belatedly tried to stop events, but only shortly before war began and only after he realized that Britain would enter into the war against Germany.

Recently, Christopher Clark, in his book The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914, has argued that blame for the beginning of World War I should be spread widely around the European powers.

There is plenty of reason to contend that no participant country was faultless in the run-up to World War I, and Clark is surely correct in helping to rectify a narrative that places blame solely on the Germans and Austro-Hungarians. Nevertheless, if we must single out one cause, the actions of the German government and military do stand out.

Kamaal Haque is assistant professor of German. His research interests include German film, the literature and culture of the German-speaking Alps and the influence of the Middle East in German culture. He has published on such diverse topics as the German mountain film, the poetry of Goethe and Muslim minorities in Germany today.

In addition to courses at all levels of German language and culture, he has taught recent courses such as The Mountain in the German Cultural Imagination, Minority Cultures in the German Context and Modern German Film.

A

s a historian, I’m never comfortable with monocausal explanations, or monocausal blame, in this case. But we can simply look to the Austro-Hungarians’ failure to run their own empire in any sort of humane way. In the east we have the Russian empire, trying to figure out what it’s going to do, trying to protect its Serbian brothers. And this whole cascading effect of secret diplomacy, which few people knew about, led to a much wider war that could have been contained. It was a failure of politicians but also of institutions and of the new paradigms that were being created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

For me, the rise of global capitalism and of nationalism earlier in the 19th century is the root of the problem. The Austro-Hungarian Empire is a very confused and complicated multi-ethnic empire. To the east the Russian empire is even worse, and we have the decaying Ottoman Empire. Those three were dealing with their own problems of holding together these populations.

When you factor in globalization during the last decade of the 19th century, it gets even worse, because you bring in the major powers of Western Europe. Looking at a map of Africa in 1890, you have 90 percent autonomy, of Africans ruling themselves. Just 10 years later you flip that on its head; 10 percent of Africa actually rules itself, the rest being taken over by European powers: Belgium, the British, the French and the Dutch. And of course we have Southeast Asia, where this division is going on as well.

This is part of capitalism’s need to compete, to look for necessary resources and markets, but also the European “need to civilize.” All these things are coming together at the same moment: Empires are crumbling, and capitalism is bringing in competition among European countries trying to hold those markets, including new capacity on the seas to protect those markets. So you have an arms race, especially a naval arms race between Germany and Britain.

This explains a lot about the movement toward war in the decades preceding it, and then the tinderbox of Franz Ferdinand’s assassination begins to set all these things into motion. Had we not had such a hodgepodge of multi-ethnic empires, and had we not had such a fast burst of global capitalism at this time, we might have seen a very different world, and a very different war.

James Gordon Steese, class of 1902

Professor of History Karl Qualls’ teaching interests include Russian and German history, comparative revolutions (political, social and cultural), dictators, urban history and more. His book From Ruins to Reconstruction: Urban Identity in Soviet Sevastopol After World War II challenges notions of totalitarianism, investigates the creation of historical myths, and outlines the role of monuments and urban space in identity formation in a city torn between Ukraine and Russia. He is currently working on a new book about children who fled the Spanish Civil War and were raised in the Soviet Union.

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Douglas T. Stuart

Douglas T. Stuart is professor of political science and international studies; J. William Stuart and Helen D. Stuart Chair in International Studies, Business and Management; and adjunct research professor, U.S. Army War College. He has received the Ganoe Award for Inspirational Teaching (1990-91) and the Dickinson Award for Distinguished Teaching (1995-96). His teaching and research interests include American foreign policy, national security affairs and Asian and West European security.

T

he defeat of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I still casts a shadow over the region. Indeed, we can see the roots of today’s conflicts in Gaza, Syria and Iraq in the fallout from World War I. At war’s end, British forces controlled the empire’s Arab provinces from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. A plan to divide those territories had been set when British and French diplomats signed the Sykes-Picot Accord of 1916. At the Paris Peace Conference, London and Paris rejected U.S. President Woodrow Wilson’s principle of selfdetermination for the Arabs because it would have thwarted Britain’s and France’s ambitions to expand their imperial spheres.

Instead, they carved up the Arab lands into three zones: Syria for France and Iraq and Palestine for Britain. France then further divided Syria when it established Lebanon as a haven for its Maronite Christian allies, and Britain split Palestine between an eastern zone that became Transjordan (today’s Jordan) and a western zone where London allowed Jewish colonization.

Redrawing the political map of the Middle East was bound to have enduring effects. Imperial divide-and-rule policies sowed the seeds for chronic political strife by deepening sectarianism. In Syria, the French pitted religious minorities such as the Alawis against the Sunni Arab majority, while in Lebanon, the French crafted political arrangements that privileged Christians at the expense of Muslims. In Iraq, Britain installed a monarchy that promoted the interests of Sunni Arab notables. Efforts to develop institutions that would represent Iraq’s Kurds and Arab Shiites never reached fruition, leaving a population riven by sectarian suspicion. When Britain established Palestine as a separate territory, it had a large Sunni Arab majority. London, however, was committed to the creation of a national home for Jews in Palestine, a project that put Jewish and Arab national aspirations on a collision course.

David Commins is professor of history and Benjamin Rush Chair in the Liberal Arts and Sciences, and his teaching interests are in modern Middle Eastern history with an emphasis on Islamic thought and political movements. His forthcoming book Islam in Saudi Arabia will be published in 2015. Other publications include The Gulf States: A Modern History, History The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia, Historical Dictionary of Syria and Islamic Reform.

David Commins

Imperial War Museums

I

n The War That Ended Peace, Margaret MacMillan’s fascinating study of the causes of World War I, she reminds readers that “Very little in history is inevitable.” True, but while the war was not inevitable, it certainly was “overdetermined”— a term that social scientists use to describe an event attributable to many overlapping and mutually reinforcing factors. Historians have been studying these factors since the end of the war. More recently, international-relations scholars have begun to look at the war’s causes to extract general theories of war causation and war avoidance.

The war’s causes can be studied at three levels: structural factors that made conflict likely, domestic factors that predisposed governments toward confrontational behavior and national leaders’ worldviews and policy decisions that made it difficult for these men (they were all men) to think imaginatively about alternatives to war.

At the structural level, several developments during the late 19th century contributed to an increasingly brittle Europe, but none was more important than the 1871 unification of Germany. With the second largest population in Europe (after Russia) and a central location on the continent, Germany was too powerful to be trusted by its neighbors. German leaders, meanwhile, mistrusted Russia, which was enjoying dynamic economic growth and harboring expansionist ambitions. Great Britain, helming the greatest empire in history at that point, hoped to work with Germany to sustain order and share prosperity. But it grew harder for London to remain optimistic as Berlin built up its navy to support a new doctrine of global assertiveness (Weltpolitik). European leaders also were witnessing the erosion of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of the United States and Japan.

Domestic developments such as the growing influence of public opinion, unions and interest groups made it harder for leaders to sustain foreign policies. New forms of communication and transportation made it more difficult to manage events, and improvements in the instruments of war encouraged all governments to develop the capability to land the first punch.

The situation posed severe diplomatic challenges. Unfortunately, the individuals in charge, lulled into complacency by relative peace, simply were not up to the task: Time and again they had seen governments threaten war and then find ways to either avoid it or mitigate its consequences. When Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated on June 28, 1914, many of these leaders failed to give the event the attention it required. Some even sought ways to exploit the crisis for national advantage, on the assumption that others would back down.

The start of World War I provides no end of lessons for scholars and diplomats. But perhaps the most important lesson is that significant structural changes of an international order demand ambitious diplomacy rather than incremental adjustment. This is a lesson for Washington today, as it looks for ways to cope with the rise of China and Russia’s efforts to carve out a post-imperial sphere of influence.

Dominique A. Laurent

Associate Professor of French Dominique A. Laurent’s current research concentrates on Woodrow Wilson’s image in France during the Paris Peace Conference. He teaches French language and civilization classes and senior seminars such as America in French Eyes and France Between the Wars. He also has taught first-year seminars The Great War and America in the Eyes of the World.

W

orld War I gave rise to many social, economic and political changes, both globally and in the United States. For African Americans, perhaps one of the most far-reaching consequences was World War I’s unfulfilled promise of democracy.

In a speech to Congress on April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson asserted, “The world must be made safe for democracy.” With this statement, Wilson made the case for declaring war on Germany. In addition to pledging the U.S. to join the fight for global democracy, President Wilson also defined the U.S. as “one of the champions for the rights of mankind.” At first skeptical about joining the war effort, many African American women and men pledged their support because they thought supporting the fight for democracy abroad would pave the way for equality at home.

Unfortunately, Wilson’s commitment abroad did not translate to equality in the United States. Despite the sacrifices African American men made in the military and African American women made on the home front, during and after the war they still faced racial discrimination, segregation and harassment — treatment that Congress and the Wilson administration did little to eradicate. Although several prominent African Americans met with President Wilson before and after the war, he refused to support civil rights, and he maintained segregationist policies in federal offices.

Not only did African Americans continue to face racism and segregation in the highest branches of the federal government but they endured worse treatment in rural towns and urban areas across the United States. As African American servicemen returned home and demanded respect and recognition for their service, racial violence erupted across the United States. Lynch mobs brutally murdered African American veterans, some still wearing their uniforms. Those African American servicemen who managed to survive the war abroad and the lynch mobs at home found it difficult to translate their military service into tangible economic outcomes.

And although African American women served in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, sold defense bonds and worked in the nation’s defense industries, after the war they, for the most part, returned to work in the domestic-service industry. Although the Great War had ended, the war against racial and economic inequality raged on, and Jim Crow would not be defeated easily.

For African Americans, the disappointing realization that patriotism and military service did not lead to first-class citizenship deepened their quest for justice and freedom, a quest that has continued into the 21st century. And it is this quest for global democracy — championing the rights

James Gordon Steese, class of 1902

I

t would be difficult to overestimate the consequences of World War I. Such vast portions of the world were radically affected by the conflict that one could argue that the 20th century actually began in June 1919 with the various treaties officially ending the war, rather than in January 1900.

Old imperial regimes such as the Romanovs in Russia, the Hohenzollerns in Germany, the Habsburgs in Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Turks disappeared, giving way to a myriad of new nations.

The maps of Europe, the Middle East and Africa were transformed.

The new ideologies of communism and fascism, which appeared as a consequence of the war, would dominate the world for most of the century. The tragic history of conflicts in the Middle East, which continue to rage today, is undeniably a result of the carving out of the region by Britain and France after the Ottoman Empire’s defeat.

In my opinion, however, the most important consequence of the war is the emergence of the United States as a world power. The rise of the U.S. began with the Spanish-American War of 1898, in which the young nation swept away the last vestiges of the once mighty Spanish colonial empire, but it was with WWI that the process was completed. American participation in the war—economic and financial at first, and military after 1917—made the United States the most powerful country on earth.

By 1919 the U.S. had trained, equipped and sent two million men to France. The AEF brought victory to the Allies by playing a crucial role in defeating Germany’s spring 1918 offensive and bringing the country to its knees. Even though those troops returned home, the U.S. remained the creditor of the main European nations and the dominant economic power.

Although America returned to isolationism in the 1920s and ’30s, the rising threat of Nazi Germany in Europe and, even more so, of Japan in the Pacific forced the U.S. to realize that it could no longer escape its destiny — a destiny that had been made manifest with the Great War. As David Fromkin argues in his 1995 book, In the Time of the Americans, WWII offered America a second chance to become engaged on the world stage and to transform itself first into “the arsenal of democracy” and then into its main warrior throughout the rest of the century.

The mission of “making the world safe for democracy,” first coined by Woodrow Wilson in the 1917 declaration of war, became America’s mantra — at least officially — and has provided the rationale for U.S. world hegemony to the present day.

of mankind — that is one of World War I’s most enduring legacies.

Assistant Professor of History Crystal M. Moten focuses on 20th-century United States history with specializations in women’s / gender history and African American history.

Her research examines black women’s struggles for economic justice in the 20th-century urban north, and she teaches classes related to U.S. history, urban history, African American history and women’s and gender history.

Crystal M. Moten

25

From left, Tressi (Palmer) Werdebach, Barbette Jackson and Tessie Palmer-Waters, as seen through the lens of Pierce Bounds ’71, in the summer of 1973. This photo brought the girls together again more than 40 years later.

A. Pierce Bounds ’71

out of the

A 41-year-old photograph circles back to Dickinson and reconnects several Carlisle families. By Tony Moore

“

’m reaching out to see if you could forward this message to A. Pierce Bounds …”

And after Jim Gerencser ’93, Dickinson’s archivist, read on, he found one-time Carlisle resident Tanya Gardner unraveling the unknown and unlikely history of a photograph taken

by Bounds ’71 in the summer of 1973. The photo shows three little girls, happily gathered together on someone’s front porch. It looks old, from another era, and the girls look happy the way only children can.

1973-1982

“I took that picture on the very last day I photographed at 442 North West Street,” says Bounds of the photo, one of a series he took of neighborhood children in Carlisle that summer. “I had no particular reason for doing it other than I liked taking pictures,” he says.

“The kids, they’re just beautiful: outgoing, fearless, friendly. And they loved to mug for the camera.” He stops for the memory. “But they were usually just being themselves …”

Nearly 10 years after he took it, Bounds, who went on to become Dickinson’s college photographer from 1983 to 2010, submitted the photo to Alive Now!, a spiritual magazine, and it was picked up for publication. Soon after, the Rev. Cecil Gray, then an undergraduate student at the University of Virginia, received the magazine in the mail from his mom, who always sent him Alive Now! when it came out. He usually just read it and discarded it, but this issue was different.

“There was this picture of these little girls,” says Gray. “I saw it and said, ‘There’s something going on here, and it’s a blessing.’ And I propped it up and saw it every day.”

1991

In 1991, Gray was at Temple University working on his Ph.D. and serving as executive director of the Church and World Institute, and he had the magazine, opened to display the photo, thumbtacked up over his desk. A woman named Mary Jackson was working with Gray, and she came into his office at the end of the day. When he looked up from his work to ask her what was going on, she simply said, “Nothing. Just heading home for the day.”

And she turned and left, returning the next day as usual.

“Years later,” begins Gray, now a United Methodist Church pastor, “Mary told me she came in to quit that day. She said, ‘And I saw that picture, with my child and neighbors, and God was telling me that I should stay.’ ” The child was Barbette Jackson, and the neighbors were Tressi and Tessie Palmer. Mary never mentioned seeing the photo to anyone beyond Gray. So none of them would find out that this photo existed, that it had such a lasting effect on Gray or Barbette’s mother, for another 23 years.

27

2014

… into the future

Mary Jackson passed away in February after a brief struggle with cancer. During Gray’s eulogy, he told the story of Jackson coming into his office that day, mentioning how all the good work they had done together over the years would never have happened had she not seen that photo, had she not stayed on.

“At the funeral, Barbette and I were in the first row,” says Gardner, one of Mary’s four daughters. “And he’s telling the story and we’re trying to process it, because we had never heard about it before. Later, we showed the other girls the picture, and they just sat there crying, saying, ‘We cannot believe this.’ ” After her mother’s funeral, Gardner set out to find the photographer, and Googling the name on the photo credit brought her eventually to Bounds and his long history with Dickinson. So she sent the e-mail to Gerencser, and he forwarded the note to Bounds, who was struck by it as powerfully as the Jackson family had been by his photo.

“I was overwhelmed,” Bounds says. “I just read it over and over and over and was just … bowled over.”

Since then, Bounds has visited the family and hosted an emotional family reunion on campus — an event that was filled with tears and more revelations.

“I teach,” says Gardner, assistant professor of communications, arts & humanities at Delaware County Community College, “and my former dean [Clay Railey ’77] is also one of the people in the pictures Pierce took. We looked at the series of pictures, and it was him in one and me in the next, so we were on the porch together.”

And Tim Palmer, known previously as the Dyn-O-Mite!

Kid because of the hat he wore in the pictures, is the son of Margaret Palmer, who has worked in Dining Services for 18 years. But if the memories of that summer, of that group of children, can be distilled to one image, it’s the one Gray has been pinning up over his desk for 32 years now.

“When I look at it, it gives me joy,” he says. “Miss Mary’s still at work, orchestrating this, bringing us together. I mean, come on. This is like a movie that someone sat down and wrote and created all these connections. But this is real.”

View a photo gallery at Dickinson.edu/magazine.

Carl Socolow ’77

Pierce Bounds ’71 nearly brought down the house at an August reunion, as his full portfolio of photographs started a cascade of memories for many of the two dozen attendees. Top: Tressi (Palmer) Werdebach, Barbette Jackson and Tessie Palmer-Waters. Left: The Rev. Cecil Gray. Right: Pierce Bounds ’71 and Tim Palmer.

“This is like a movie that someone sat down and wrote and created all these connections.

But this is real.”

— The Rev. Cecil Gray 29

[ profile ]

*

T

here’s something about geology and Judge John E. Jones III ’77, P’11.

Jones was born and raised in Schuylkill County, deep in Pennsylvania’s anthracite-coal country. His grandfather William, born in 1895 to Welsh immigrants, was one of the thousands of breaker boys working 10 hours a day, six days a week sifting and sorting slate and other impurities along the conveyor belts and chutes that spit out tons of coal each day. With only an eighth-grade education, William eventually completed correspondence courses in civil engineering and bought stakes in the mines he had worked in as a child.

“He was a totally self-made man, who believed in education,” Jones says.

At the time, no one could imagine the trajectory his family would take, that about a century later William’s grandson would be appointed as a federal judge to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

And no one could further imagine that Jones would decide two cases, nearly 10 years apart, on two of the three issues that arguably form the bedrock of social conservatism in the United States: evolution in 2005 and same-sex marriage this past May. The first lawyer in his family, Jones majored in political science at Dickinson, earned his J.D. from the Dickinson School of Law and clerked for Guy A. Bowe ’40, president judge of Schuylkill County and an important mentor. He then moved to private practice — still in his home town of Pottsville — while becoming a mover and shaker in Pennsylvania GOP circles. In 1995 he was named to chair the Pennsylvania Liquor Board, where he served for seven years, until his appointment in 2002

by President George W. Bush to the federal bench.

From the beginning of his tenure, Jones showed a propensity for independent thought, along with a clear, concise prose style. A few cases nibbled at the edges of the culture wars, such as Bair v. Shippensburg University, in which he struck down provisions of the university’s speech code; but in 2005, he drew Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, the first federal legal challenge to the teaching of intelligent design.

The trial triggered massive, 24 / 7 media coverage.

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30

* JUDGE JOH N E. JONES III: INDEPENDENT FROM TH E G ROUND UP

BY MICH EL L E SIMMONS

Carl Socolow ’77

d i ck i n s o n ma gazi ne Fall 2014

32

PennLive / Mark Pynes Wesley Elsberry

In a widely lauded — and reviled — 139-page decision, Jones took the Dover School Board members to task not only for their “breathtaking inanity” in pursuing a creationist agenda in the classroom but also for outright lying during earlier depositions. “The students, parents, and teachers of the Dover Area School District deserved better than to be dragged into this legal maelstrom, with its resulting utter waste of monetary and personal resources,” he wrote.

This focus on the personal, individual consequences of the cases over which he presides would become a hallmark for Jones. “I tell my clerks, every one of them, when they come on board, these are not just files,” he says. “These are not screenshots on a computer. These are people. And trite though that may be, 22 years of practicing law taught me that every case has a face.”

Jones himself was catapulted into a maelstrom of another sort. “We got bags of mail — I mean, bags,” he recalls.

“We were pouring them out on the table, and that went on for days.” Some of the mail contained threats against him and his family serious enough to warrant round-the-clock U.S. Marshal protection, and he became a favorite punching bag for conservative commentators, who wasted no time in condemning him for his “judicial activism.”

“What was repeatedly misapprehended about the Dover case was that it had to do with the origin of man,” Jones explains in Blindfolds Off: Judges on How They Decide.

“What was on trial — the somewhat seminal question in the case — was this concept known as intelligent design. … It dovetailed extensively with creationism and was really the successor to the concept of creation science, which had been rejected in prior court decisions.”

Dover endowed Jones with a celebrity status rare among the judiciary. In 2006 he was named by Time magazine to its 100 Most Influential People in the World list. In a New Yorker article about the case, the writer described him as having “the rugged charm of a 1940s movie star; he sounded and looked like a cross between Robert Mitchum and William Holden.”

There was speculation that Tom Hanks would play Jones in a film about the trial.

“The experience had some surreal aspects to it,” he deadpans.

Jones has used that status to his advantage and has become a different sort of activist — one for the concept and practice of “judicial independence”—and he speaks as much as his heavy schedule allows in its defense (including an upcoming Dec. 2 visit to Dickinson for a panel discussion hosted by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues).

in the limelight Since his 2002 appointment to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Judge John E. Jones III ’77, P’11 has drawn national attention for his decisions on several cases, including Pennsylvania’s ban on same-sex marriage (top) and the teaching of intelligent design (bottom).

“We don’t rule to please the person who appointed us,” he says. “We rule according to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and the law that we are applying in any particular case.

A lot of people say, ‘Who is this one judge to decide this case?’

Well, federal judges are appointed by the U.S. president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. So, in the popular sense we may be unelected officials, but we don’t just fall out of the sky and onto the bench. We are a product of the process, and we are a member of a co-equal branch of government.”

This summer, Jones had another opportunity to educate the public about the importance of judiciary independence, when he drew the high-profile case Whitewood v. Wolf, in which he struck down Pennsylvania’s ban on same-sex marriage. His decision, appearing among a rapid succession of similar verdicts in other states, heralded a shifting-of-the-ground-beneath-yourfeet kind of change in the culture wars.

This time, in a much briefer opinion (only 39 pages), Jones laid out the long history of systemic discrimination against LGBT individuals, such as the criminalization of homosexuality, the bans against hiring LGBT individuals or denying them housing and the prevalence of hate crimes. The case did not go to trial, as both sides agreed on the facts: “The lawyers concluded that the harms were evident,” says Jones, “even though they disagreed on the legal result.” In essence, the defendant (the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania) was arguing that governmentsanctioned discrimination was perfectly constitutional.

Jones drew from another civil-rights battle to undergird his decision. “In the 60 years since Brown [v. Board of Education] was decided, ‘separate’ has thankfully faded into history, and only ‘equal’ remains,” he wrote. “Similarly, in future generations the label same-sex marriage will be abandoned, to be replaced simply by marriage. We are a better people than what these laws represent, and it is time to discard them into the ash heap of history.”

In the following days, he again was both hailed and pilloried in the national media (with social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook amplifying every comment), and his staff got the requisite cranky calls, but he notes that this case didn’t get the same “visceral reaction” as Dover had.

“Maybe on this issue the public is a little more enlightened,” he muses.

Meanwhile, Jones continues to manage his mountainous case load (“several hundred civil cases that are active and probably about 100 criminal cases on the docket”) and teaches a course in criminal law at the Pennsylvania State University Dickinson School of Law. He still commutes every day between his Pottsville home (often stopping first at a local donut shop for his morning coffee) and Harrisburg, where his chambers are located.

And while many of his neighbors might disagree with his views — some of them vehemently — he’s still a hometown favorite. “People are so wonderful and respectful,” he says, “not because I’m so great, but because I’m their guy. My wife always says, ‘They can argue about stuff, but if John did it, it’s OK.’ ”

“On any given day, my docket can involve myriad differences, scientific points, engineering.

So the tools you get and the intellectual curiosity that’s developed as a liberal-arts student — all of that comes to bear when you have to pivot from one case to another.”

His chambers, which overlook the State Capitol Building, feature an assortment of awards and honors he’s received over the years, including the Geological Society of America’s President’s Medal, which sits next to an award commemorating his service to a local fire company. Nearby hangs a pair of boxing gloves signed by Muhammad Ali (a gift from legendary trainer Angelo Dundee), and on his desk rests a gavel, carved from anthracite.

“We are called, as federal judges, the last great generalists,” Jones says. “On any given day, my docket can involve myriad differences, scientific points, engineering. So the tools you get and the intellectual curiosity that’s developed as a liberal-arts student — all of that comes to bear when you have to pivot from one case to another. Nothing prepared me better than the liberal-arts education I received at Dickinson.

Obviously, you need the legal education, but the intellectual curiosity is a parallel tool in what I do, day after day.”

In 2009, when Jones received the Geological Society medal on the bicentennial of Charles Darwin’s birth, among the 1,000-plus audience members was Noel Potter, professor emeritus of geology. “When I sat in Noel Potter’s geology class some 36 years ago, neither Professor Potter nor I could have imagined this day would come,” Jones told the assembly of scientists. “And for those of you who think there’s some guy sitting in the last row of your classroom and he’s not paying attention. … I’m here to tell you that maybe he was paying attention, and maybe he was actually learning something.”

Watch a video interview with Jones at Dickinson.edu/magazine.

33

Looking back: Alumni Weekend 2014 reliving Alumni revisited their favorite places —

especially those that had created and strengthened their Dickinson experience: They reminisced on Morgan Rocks, had dinner in the HUB, attended classes in Althouse and enjoyed performances in Rubendall.

sharing

celebrating

Alumni shared their Dickinson stories with classmates and caught up on one another’s lives.

Members of the class of 1964 marked their 50th anniversary with a parade down High Street.

Alumni celebrated friendships and class reunions and gathered to honor Ben James ’34, who was named President for a Day to commemorate his 80th class-year anniversary.

exploring Alumni biked to the College Farm for a tour and luncheon, then headed back to campus to join friends in newly designated “class lounges.”

bonding From the McAndrews Golf Tournament to the Men’s Glee Club/Octals reunion, alumni participated in some of their favorite annual traditions.

learning With the launch of Alumni College, alums experienced the weekend as students again, with classes on topics ranging from Financial Management 101 to a history of the farm-to-table revolution.

35

Alumni and parents gathered Aug. 1-3 for the second-annual Volunteer Leadership Summit. It was a chance for everyone to learn about ways to volunteer for the college, hear from senior leadership, create new connections, receive training and resources and provide input to help strengthen the college’s volunteer program.

It was also a time for celebration, as the Alumni Council Awards were presented to three members of the community for their outstanding commitment to the college.

Admissions Parent Volunteer of the Year

Holly Barnes P’16 Admissions Alumni Volunteer of the Year

Danielle Weisbrot ’06 The Walter E. Beach Distinguished Alumni Award for Service was presented to Albert ’63, P’93 and Pamela Searles Miller ’65, P’93.

Immediately after graduation, Al completed a master’s degree in international studies at Johns Hopkins University and launched a global-economic-development career at Citibank. The couple spent the next 17 years living and working in Latin America. While Al helped expand Citibank’s operations in that region, Pam taught English in international schools. She earned an M.A. in education from the University of the Americas (Mexico City) in 1982 and would continue her career in the U.S., teaching English as a Second Language at the community-college level. When they moved back to the East Coast, they seized the chance to become more actively involved with Dickinson as members of the Dickinson Admissions Volunteer Society and class agents. Al also served on the Alumni Council for eight years.

Christopher Sharples ’87 received

Justin Gold ’00 was recognized

the Distinguished Alumni Award for Professional Achievement. A history and fine arts major, Sharples earned a master’s in architecture from Columbia University and became founding principal of SHoP Architects and SHoP Construction. His portfolio includes the Barclays Center, the new home for the Brooklyn Nets; the Botswana Innovation Hub; the Konza Technology City in Nairobi, Kenya; and a new 1,350-foot “superscraper” in New York City. The firm also has received the American Academy of Arts and Letter’s Academy Award in Architecture. This year found SHoP being named Fast Company’s No. 1 most innovative architectural company in the world and No. 33 on its overall Most Innovative Companies list. Sharples also serves as a professor at Cornell University and has taught at Yale; Parsons School of Design; the City College; City University of New York; the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University; and at the University of Virginia as Shure Professor of Architecture.

with the Outstanding Young Alumni Award. In 2004, Justin launched his eponymous brand of organic nut butters, now one of the country’s fastest-growing natural product companies. Justin’s has received numerous accolades, including Clean Eating magazine’s 2014 Clean Choice Award (for its Maple Almond Butter 80-Calorie Squeeze Packs), Prevention magazine’s 2014 Cleanest Packaged Food Awards (for its Classic Peanut Butter) and Vegetarian Times magazine’s 2013 Foodie Awards (for Best Nut Butter). The company has been ranked in the top 15 on Inc. 5000’s Fastest Growing Companies list in the Food and Beverage category two years in a row, and Justin was recognized in 2013 as Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year in the Mountain Desert region. Going hand in hand with the company’s organic approach to making its nut butters, Justin’s is a sustainable enterprise, hearkening back to Gold’s time as an environmental-studies major.

Career Champion of the Year

Donald Nagle ’76 Class Correspondent of the Year

Michael Pennington ’07 Limestone Award for Distinguished Service to the College

Pamela Byron Fukuda ’93 Outstanding Class Agent Award

Aaron Pratt ’03 Outstanding Reunion Volunteer Award

Holly McLaughlin Tiley ’84 Regional Club Program of the Year

New York City Career Connections Regional Leadership Award

Grace Lange ’12 The 1783 Award

Nicole Tanguy ’09

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[ beyond the limestone walls ]

New directions

Carl Socolow ’77

BY TY SAINI ’93, ALUMNI COUNCIL PRESIDENT

A

s I write this column, I am just returning from our first Alumni Council meeting and, as always, I find myself energized and excited about the coming year.

We have 41 members, 12 of whom are new. Some come from as far as California (in fact, three do!) and Florida, and they represent a variety of decades, professions, hobbies, passions and affinity groups.

The intentional goal of achieving this diversity and magnitude of volunteer strength has been a challenging and lengthy task. We have been seeking dedicated and energetic alumni who will work together to help fashion new ideas and collaborate with the college on its initiatives to advance the international reputation of Dickinson. I am very proud of how much the Alumni Council has grown in a short period of time.

This past spring, we heard from Joyce Bylander, vice president and dean of student life, about a new program to strengthen the student experience. Known as First-Year Interest Groups (FIGs), this opportunity brings together firstyear students with junior/senior and faculty/staff mentors (see Page 5). After hearing about this wonderful approach to enhancing a first-year student’s experience and building a

stronger community, Alumni Council members asked if they could add New Alumni another dimension. As of today, Council Members 40 alumni also are volunteering as Stan Springel ’68 FIG mentors.

A. Pierce Bounds ’71 The recently launched and Albert Masland ’79 well-received One College One Artrese Morrison ’92 Community program is a chance Tania Conte ’93 for all Dickinsonians to understand, Francesca Dea ’93 discuss and debate a meaningful Monique Ribando ’93 and relevant topic. This will occur Darren Silvis ’00 each semester and is an extension Michael Pennington ’07 of the high-quality and compelling Caroline Salamack Clark ’08 education we received as students.

Jason Fine ’09 The Alumni Council helped the Darrell Pacheco ’12 college consider how to unveil this latest offering to alumni and ensure that our graduates could participate in the dialogue, no matter where they are.

Finally, the Alumni Council continues to enjoy shaping and participating in the Career Conference (formerly known as Networking Day). Being able to talk with seniors and help them navigate future plans or address questions and concerns (which we can all remember having), brings a great deal of satisfaction, knowing you had an immediate impact on a future alum. These students are bright, articulate, driven and proud to be at Dickinson. We can expect great things from them.

Soon, the college and the Alumni Council will unveil a new structure and support mechanism for all alumni to connect with Dickinson. It is our intention to empower and strengthen the alumni network around the world.

In the meantime, if you are looking for a way to renew your commitment to our alma mater, please consider supporting one of the activities I mentioned above. I can promise you it will not take much time to realize how worthwhile, easy and fun it can be to stay connected. Thank you to all the Alumni Council members for your great work, and I wish a warm welcome to our new members!

37

[ closing thoughts ] Going to Dickinson was a big mistake JOAN GETTIG NAGLE ‘53

W

Dan Bejar

hat did I know? I was only 16.

Neither of my parents had gone to college. My two aunts had, but they’d become teachers, and that was the one thing, the one course of study my father said he would not pay for. (He’d had enough of his sisters’ heavy-handed attempts to “educate” him.)

My high-school science teachers had said I should major in chemistry, because I’d done well in their classes.

“Will I be able to get a good job when I graduate?” I asked. (This was in the late 1940s, and the Depression was not yet forgotten.)

“Oh yes,” they assured me.

All right. Chemistry it would be. And when I learned that someone named Ben James, from a school named Dickinson, would be visiting my high school to interview prospective students, I signed up. I didn’t know anything about the place, but I needed to find something.

Dr. James was very encouraging. He thought not only would I be accepted but I probably could get a scholarship (which I needed). OK, sounded good. What I didn’t know enough about college, though, was that a liberal-arts school like Dickinson was not the place to major in chemistry [then]. That’s the mistake part.

But I applied, was accepted and enrolled. Chemistry professors Ernest A. Vuilleumier, Horace Rogers ’24 and David Gleim were wonderful teachers, and I graduated with honors. I was immediately hired by DuPont — a dream job, at a salary that I later learned was more than my father had ever earned in his entire life. It was also the opportunity to meet my future husband, a Lebanon Valley College (LVC) graduate who had been working for DuPont for three years.

Hard to see why anyone could call this a mistake. I had pulled it off: good job, good soul mate.

It was the liberal-arts factor that made it both a drawback and an advantage. At the time, I didn’t really have enough, or the kind of, chemistry courses I’d have needed to become a top-notch chemist.

But because of Dickinson’s course-distribution requirements (and also because all my friends were English majors, and I wanted to be able to talk to them), I took some — a good many, in fact — English courses.

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Fast forward a couple years. I married the LVC guy, he was drafted, put in the U.S. Army’s

Chemical Corps and sent to a nerve-gas testing facility in Utah. I followed him there, thinking that I could get a job on the site.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Mrs. Nagle,” the personnel person said when I applied. “We have all the chemists we need.” Actually, they had a lot more than they needed, to the point where there were Ph.D.’s washing glassware in the laboratory. This was just after the Korean War, during which all scientists had been deferred. Now they were being rounded up and put in uniform. “Instead,” he continued, “how would you like to be a writer?”

Hmm. Sounded like indoor work: no heavy lifting and no burning acid holes in my clothes (or in my skin). I took the technical writer position to work on test reports and proposals, and I have been writing ever since.

Those English courses paid off. I did public-relations work for a number of years, writing press releases and newsletters for a racially troubled school district. Then I got back into technical writing.

My background gave me two distinct advantages: I knew how to organize my thoughts on paper, and the technical stuff didn’t scare me (as it did many English majors). I made myself a career as a writer, one that was very satisfying. It also has paid off in retirement. When my last employer, Westinghouse, offered me a golden (or at least bright yellow) parachute, I hesitated, wondering what I could find to do as a retiree. The answer appeared in the form of an offer to write a book.

The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), for whom I’d edited an archival journal, offered me a book contract. Handbook for Preparing Engineering Documents, a total brain dump of all I’d learned over the years, was the result, and it also did well.

I’m still writing. Now living in a retirement home in northern Virginia, I publish a biweekly newsletter for residents and the occasional brochure.

It turns out that people with the skill and inclination for writing are popular in the volunteer world.

None of this would have happened if I’d gone to, say, MIT. Sometimes it’s the mistakes that put us on the right track. (Didn’t Robert Frost say something about that?)

Thank you, Dickinson.

They all started

here:

Creating a proud community of Dickinsonians since 1783 ‌ From community comes connection ‌ With pride comes engagement.

Learn more at www.dickinson.edu/alumniinaction.

P. O . B O X 1 7 7 3 C A R L I S L E , P A 1 7 0 1 3 - 2 8 9 6 PERIODICAL

W W W. D I C K I N S O N . E D U / M A G A Z I N E

P O S TA G E P A I D AT C A R L I S L E , P A AND ADDITIONAL MAILING OFFICE

[

well-stated

]

If you’re going to work at the scale of a small, sustainable farm, you have to not only be the farmer, but also the marketer and sales person.

K A LY N C A M P B E L L ’ 1 0

in “The Raw Truth.” Read more at dson.co/therawtruth.

r e j e c t c o m p l a c e n c y : b e c o m i n g s at i s f i e d after an achievement can be detrimental t o s u c c e s s . i f yo u r e m a i n h u n g ry, yo u r d e t e r m i n at i o n w i l l s p e a k f o r i t s e l f.

ISAIAH BOSWELL ’15.

Read more at dson.co/boswellQandA.

Think about that: taking an ancient language associated with the academic elite and reviving it as a remedy for the nation’s reading problem.

F R A N C E S S T E A D S E L L E R S , “Spoken Latin,” The Washington Post. Read more at dson.co/spokenlatin.

I love connecting with students on a personal level. I love becoming part of their lives the same way they become part of mine. in “Teaching for Life.” Read more at dson.co/teachingforlife.

BECCA GOOD ’04

The key thing that I have learned about volunteering is that we all have so many more things in common than one would expect. Our Dickinson experience is an everlasting bond.

LARRY RAND ’65.

Get the latest news on Rand in Our Dickinson (Page 42).

Dickinson offers a microecosystem in which [students] can hone their abilities as activists and see tangible social change take place on campus.

DAV I D DE A N ’ 1 3 .

Read more at dson.co/shiftingculturaltides.

The relationship between the government and the media is like a marriage; it is a dysfunctional marriage to be sure, but we stay together for the kids.

M A T T H E W P I N S K E R , associate professor of history, in “Bloggers, Surveillance and Obama’s Orwellian State,” Time magazine.