Dickinson Magazine: Winter 2016

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DICKINSON MAGAZINE WINTER 2016 VOLUME 93 NUMBER 3

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Dickinson Published by the Division of Enrollment, Marketing & Communications Publisher and Vice President Stefanie D. Niles Executive Director of Marketing & Communications Connie McNamara Editor Michelle Simmons Associate Editor Lauren Davidson College Photographer Carl Socolow ’77 Design Landesberg Design Printer Intelligencer Contributing Writers Matt Getty MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson Tony Moore David McKay Wilson Grace McCrocklin ’16 Caio Santos Rodrigues ’16 Magazine Advisory Group Gail Birch Huganir ’80 Jim Gerencser ’93 David Talton ’07 David Richeson Adrienne Su Robert Pound Patricia van Leeuwaarde Moonsammy Donna Hughes Nicole Minardi Website www.dickinson.edu/magazine Email Address dsonmag@dickinson.edu Telephone 717-245-1289 Facebook www.facebook.com/DickinsonMagazine © Dickinson College 2015. 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.

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Address changes may be sent to Dickinson Magazine, Dickinson College, P.O. Box 1773, Carlisle, PA 17013-2896.

13 President’s Report: In the midst of a challenging higher-education landscape, when many private colleges are struggling with declining enrollments, fragile finances and skepticism about the liberal arts, we can take great pride that Dickinson is truly thriving.

22 A Sense of Space: At Dickinson, you can find all sorts of innovation and collaboration in just about every nook and cranny. Here, we introduce you to three of them.

30 A Room of Her Own: Meet Susan Ellingwood ’87, editor of The New York Times’ Room for Debate.

32 Home Sweet Home(coming): There’s always football, but this year’s Homecoming & Family Weekend included remembrances of two former gridiron greats.

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Photo by Carl Socolow ’77

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your view

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college & west high

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fine print

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out of context

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in the game

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kudos

IN BACK

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COVER

UP FRONT

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beyond the limestone walls

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our Dickinson

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obituaries

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closing thoughts

[ your view ] Viva Bologna!

May I congratulate you on your [fall 2015] article featuring the Bologna program’s 50th anniversary! Both the commentary of fellow alumni and the photographs (especially of Professor of Political Science Mark Ruhl ’70, my program director) warmed my heart and brought alive memories of that incomparable experience and the value of Dickinson’s global studies program.

Without doubt, my Bologna experience changed the focus of my life. My love of the Italian language and culture was sparked that incredible year, and I went on to study both on the graduate level, first working in translation for Italy’s ENI-New York (my first boss was Bolognese!!) and later teaching at all levels.

Today, it is also my joy and privilege to prepare adult learners for travel to Italy (especially Bologna!) and to share many aspects of Italian life and culture with those of Italian heritage, as well as with many simply in love with all things Italian. Truly, not a day goes by when I do not draw upon my own experiences of “la dolce vita” in a way that continues to enrich both my teaching and my life.

Thank you, Dickinson Magazine, for so beautifully capturing the essence of that momentous year for so many of us! I look forward to more of your special features in the future and …Viva Bologna!

DONNA BALDINO SCALLY ’79

ALLENHURST, N.J.

Email

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dsonmag@dickinson.edu Snail mail

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Fact-Checking Ruffalo I was disappointed in “Not for Shale” in the fall issue of Dickinson Magazine. The article documented an interview with Mark Ruffalo, winner of the Sam Rose ’58 and Julie Walters Prize for Global Environmental Activism. I was surprised that Dickinson selected this individual to receive the substantial monetary prize of $100,000, and that the college publically recognized him in several forums as being a reputable activist who Dickinson students should admire. In the published interview with Ruffalo, his knowledge of environment and energy has several errors.

Having worked in, and close to, the energy industry, I am familiar with the topics Ruffalo addresses. His supposed facts are easily challenged and inaccurate, at best.

Ruffalo says that hydraulic fracturing uses “enormous amounts of fresh water … up to 13 million gallons of fresh water” per well.

A quick fact-check with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) would show that the median amount per well is 5.2 million gallons — not even half the amount stated. Moreover, it is not always fresh, potable water. The industry commonly uses nonpotable brackish water; in regions where water is scarce, the industry is turning toward recycling recovered frack water for uses such as irrigation.

A 2015 Duke University study found “that the water used in fracking makes up less than 1 percent of total industrial water use nationwide.” Did anyone ask Mr. Ruffalo if he knew what the other industrial uses are of the other 99 percent? A 2005 USGS study of total freshwater withdrawals in the U.S. shows that the thermoelectric industry uses 143 billion gallons per day. Although the Duke study was from 2015 and the USGS study was from 2005, fracking still would not significantly change the chart published by the USGS, which can be found at dson.co/water-use.

Another misleading statement Mr. Ruffalo offers is “what we’ve seen throughout history is that fossil fuels rise at about 12 percent above inflation.” Charts can be obtained at the Energy Information Administration (EIA) for a variety of historical periods. For example, oil prices were relatively flat 2011-14.

In May 2014 the average price was $100/ barrel, and in May 2015 the average price was $60/barrel, a 40-percent reduction.

Currently (November-December 2015) the average spot price is less than $50/barrel, a 50-percent reduction since December 2014.

A chart of spot oil prices (non-adjusted by inflation) since the large-scale development of unconventional resources from January 2009 through December 2015 can be found at dson.co/Crude-oil-2015.

Last, Ruffalo cites the energy industry as heavily subsidized by taxpayers. In 2012, the Pew Charitable Trusts’ report on U.S. energy subsidies listed the top 21 companies receiving federal grants and allocated tax credits since 2000. This study can be found at dson.co/gov-subsidies.

According to the report, electrical energy, not fossil-fuel production, reaps the most in tax subsidies. At the top of the list is Iberdrola — a company that provides renewable and thermal-electricity generation, electricity transmission and distribution and natural gas storage. Going down the list, one finds electricity and utility companies, not oil and gas producing companies, as Ruffalo implies. These are the exact “green energy” companies Ruffalo wishes to subsidize.

While everyone wants clean water and clean air, is it not the job of Dickinson to review the actual merits of the winner of the Rose-Walters prize? If this prize is meant to make Dickinson attractive to students interested in the study of the earth, environment and sustainable living, the college gets a failing grade with this prize winner. Can Dickinson not distinguish itself among the sea of other liberal arts institutions on its academic excellence, without the help of a celebrity?

BETSY STRACHAN SUPPES ’82

JOHNSTOWN, PA.

Bad reputation As Dickinsonians, we regret the damage done to the reputation of the college by giving a platform to the actor/activist Mark Ruffalo for his fearmongering against American energy.

Alumni wonder why the college would bother building new science facilities while also hosting the champion of a smear campaign that contradicts the geology, chemistry and physics that govern extraction methods in the Marcellus Shale.

A great and enduring institution like Dickinson should be above the juvenile temptations of celebrity worship. If Dickinson had intended to bring Mr. Ruffalo to campus to share his talents and experience with students, it would have been better done with the Mermaid Players.

GEORGE STARK ’89

VENETIA, PA. DAVID N. TAYLOR ’90

ELIZABETHTOWN, PA.

Editor’s Note: For information on the Sam Rose ’58 and Julie Walters Prize at Dickinson College for Global Environmental Activism, go to dson.co/rosewalters.

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[ college & west high ]

THE CAMPUS SEEN

Buddhist monks from Drepung Monastery’s Gomang College spent days constructing a sacred artwork out of sand, and when they were finished, they swept it away during a ceremony that included a moving tribute to one of Dickinson’s own, Jigme Nidup ’19, a native of Bhutan who was of Buddhist faith and who died in a swimming accident at the start of the fall semester. The monks had come to Dickinson from their adoptive home in India to serve a five-day residency on Buddhist principles, environmentalism and Tibetan culture. The residency included classroom visits, a cultural pageant, shared meals on campus and the construction of a mandala (Sanskrit for “circle”) in the Waidner-Spahr Library. Learn more at dson.co/meaningful_tribute. d i ck i n s o n ma gazi ne Winter 2016

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A. Pierce Bounds ’71

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1 > Janie Cole, musicologist, oral historian and founder of Music Beyond Borders, met with classes and gave a presentation on her ongoing research about South Africans during the anti-apartheid struggle. 2 > The latest members of the Queer Cap Society were inducted at the foot of the Old West steps. 3 > Erik Rivera ’17 was one of five student performers at the 13th Annual Diversity Monologues Contest. Read more at dson.co/dsonmonologues. 4 > The Dickinson community gathered for the annual Veterans Day run held this year at Dickinson Park. Also in attendance were members of the Warrior Brotherhood Veterans Motorcycle Club Pennsylvania Chapter.

5 > Expression and action collided in the Dance Theatre Group’s fall concert, Movement Matters, a program of dance works exploring the mathematics and physics of movement and the movement of change. Learn more at dson.co/movement_matters. 6 > Steven Strogatz, one of the world’s most highly cited mathematicians, presented the 2015-16 Joseph Priestley Award Celebration Lecture and led informal discussions on examples of synchronization in nature. Watch his lecture at clarke.dickinson.edu/ steven-strogatz. 7 > In a month packed with study days, finals, end-of-semester papers and class presentations, the college’s end-of-year concerts stood out as some of the most highly anticipated events of the year. See more at dson.co/celebratingtheseason. 8 > More than 100 artists participated in Carlisle’s largest Harvest of the Arts festival yet, and Dickinsonians — past and present — were on hand to enjoy it. 9 > In November, hundreds of students along with faculty and staff members gathered in the Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium to discuss inclusivity at Dickinson and begin to develop a list of action items to improve the climate of respect and diversity on campus.

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[ college & west high ]

fine print Artichokes & City Chicken: Reflections on Faith, Grief, and My Mother’s Italian Cooking

The Sense of Reckoning

Race and Poverty in the Americas

By Matty Dalrymple ’85 William Kingsfield Publishers

By Jan Groft ’71 River Grove Books

The Sense of Reckoning is the sequel to Matty Dalrymple ’85’s first Ann Kinnear suspense novel, The Sense of Death. It examines the effect that having an unusual skill — in Ann’s case, the ability to sense spirits — has on a person, and how that skill puts Ann and the people close to her in jeopardy. When Dalrymple completed her first book, she decided that independent publishing was a far more appealing option than the traditional route, especially with the growing popularity of “indy” in other industries such as film. She chose William Kingsfield Publishers as her imprint in honor of her father, who wrote under that pen name. (Google two of his short stories in Collier’s Weekly: “Tobe” from September 1952 and “Captain’s Counterfeit” from July 1954.) Successful independent publishing meant treating the business side of book creation with the same care as the creative side, including cover design, editing and promotion.

Dalrymple recently ventured into audiobook production and speaks to writers’ groups about the independent publishing process. Read more from Dalrymple on Page 52.

By Jacob Kim ’87 Race and Poverty in the Americas uses postmodernist deconstruction to present a libertarian understanding of race and poverty and discusses how, in today’s world, race is used for profit. It teaches race theory from a humanities perspective to help students understand how race is made and used throughout society.

The book also explains how the current state of race relations is conceptualized and suggests alternative ways to protect all minorities, especially the minority of the individual.

Years after her mother’s death, author Jan Groft ’71 faces the silence and secrets that separated them.

Prompted by a prolonged struggle with writer’s block, she embarks on a journey of listening with the heart.

Part memoir, part spiritual guide, Artichokes & City Chicken is a candid and poignant encounter with unresolved grief. Like the recipes of Groft’s mother sprinkled between chapters, the pages of Artichokes & City Chicken offer nourishment as they illuminate paths toward inner peace.

Dead of Summer

By Sherry Knowlton ’72 Sunbury Press In her second book, Sherry Knowlton ’72 returns to south-central Pennsylvania, where young attorney Alexa Williams is starting to recover from last autumn’s trauma of finding a dead body and the violence that ensued. With almost a year gone by, she can’t believe that her summer has begun with the discovery of another body. In a tale that takes her from Pennsylvania to Africa to the iconic Woodstock Music Festival of 1969, Alexa becomes embroiled in the dangerous world of sex trafficking and is entangled in a web of deception and danger that puts both her heart and her life at risk. By the time she discovers that the key to the present lies in the halcyon days of peace and music, it may be too late.

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The Color of Sundays — The Secret Strategy That Built the Steelers’ Dynasty

By Andrew Conte ’93 Blue River Press Andrew Conte ’93’s second book delves into the moments that shaped Pittsburgh Steelers history, both on the field and in the back room, and led the Steel City to four Super Bowl victories. The Color of Sundays tells the story of how Bill Nunn Jr., Art Rooney and the Steelers front office reshaped the franchise. Nunn’s strategy was simple: Scout talent where many other teams had failed, and bring in players from historically black colleges and universities. This period in Steelers history was instrumental in the building of the Steel Curtain defense, as well as the integration of important offensive picks, including the future Hall of Famer John Stallworth. Today the Pittsburgh Steelers are one of pro football’s most successful and prestigious franchises, thanks to the Steelers’ front office having its sights squarely focused on the future.

FULL PAGE

In November, Sam Rose ’58 and Julie Walters raised the profile of Dickinson and the Rose-Walters Prize for Global Environmental Activism, when they helped push the prize into The New York Times. The annual award was highlighted Nov. 13 in a full-page advertisement purchased by Rose and Walters and featuring this year’s recipient, actor and activist Mark Ruffalo, while also showcasing the many facets of Dickinson’s sustainability ethos.

Ruffalo donated the $100,000 honorarium to Water Defense, a water-resource organization that he co-founded.

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

FEB. 10

Morgan Lecture The Americans with Disabilities Act: Civil Rights Then, Now, and in the Future

Lennard Davis, University of Illinois at Chicago Stern Center FEB. 14

Faculty Recital: Prayers & Souvenirs

Rubendall Recital Hall FEB. 20

A Russian-American Night with Atma Trio

Rubendall Recital Hall FEB. 26, 27, 29 AND MARCH 1

Big Love by Charles L. Mee

Mathers Theatre MARCH 3

Clarke Forum Universal Design and Diverse Learners

Manju Banerjee, Landmark College Institute for Research and Training (LCIRT) Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium MARCH 4-APRIL 16

From Artist to Audience: Italian Drawings and Prints from the 15th through 18th Centuries

The Trout Gallery MARCH 22

Kenny Endo & Friends: 40th Anniversary Tour

Rubendall Recital Hall MARCH 29

Clarke Forum The Ferguson Conjuncture: Why the Humanities Matter Now George Lipsitz, University of California, Santa Barbara

Stern Center APRIL 7

Stellfox Distinguished Writer Edwidge Danticat

Allison Great Hall APRIL 10

Black Music Matters: Performance as Social Activism

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium 7

[ college & west high ] Out of context:

ADULT ACTION FIGURE

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“It was devastating,” he says, noting that after traditional hip replacements, patients generally can’t run, jump or do anything involving impact. “Not only was I worried that I wouldn’t be able to train in the martial arts anymore; I was afraid I was going to be in wheelchair by the time I retired.”

Using his statistical literacy skills to weigh the risks and benefits of different options, Forrester decided to undergo a somewhat controversial procedure called hip resurfacing at the Cleveland Clinic, one of the top rated orthopedic hospitals in the country. And now — three years later, with three pounds of metal in his hips — he’s back to practicing the martial arts with no restrictions.

And he’s back in the classroom as well.

“I like getting people excited about math, conveying difficult concepts in a way so that people who don’t even consider themselves good at math can understand it,” he says. “I think I’m good at it because I used to struggle with math and have a good idea of where people get tripped up.” (And speaking of difficult concepts, his article “Tightening Concise Linear Reformulations of 0-1 Cubic Programs” will be published in the journal Optimization.)

If he wasn’t leading students through the intricacies of mathematics — with a focus on OR, a complex branch of decision science — Forrester says, predictably, he’d probably be a full-time martial arts instructor. At Dickinson, he founded the Martial Arts Club (formerly known as the Chidokwan Karate Club) in 2002 and has been the head instructor and advisor since its inception. The club was awarded the Best Student Organization Award back in 2007 and currently has more than 50 members.

Though martial arts and math may seem worlds apart, for Forrester, they’re linked by a common thread. And it’s something he impresses upon his students in both realms.

“In karate, discipline is one of the most important aspects, and the biggest problem people have in math is that they give up too quickly,” he says. “So I learned discipline in the martial arts, and that carries over into mathematics in a big way.”

— Tony Moore

Carl Socolow ’77

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hat should one make of Associate Professor of Mathematics Dick Forrester? He’s an operationsresearch (OR) maven who was held back in third grade mainly because of math, a fifth-degree black belt who had his hips replaced at the age of 40 and a fifth-degree Superman hater who has an absurdly large collection of figurines inspired by movies, TV shows and video games.

On this last point, he makes a correction: “Technically they’re called adult action figures.”

Years ago he started collecting the figures but hid them away at the back of a shelf in his office.

Then one day he decided to embrace the hobby and slide the figures out into view. Now he has more than 100 in his Tome office, and he’s added to them such prop replicas as The Twilight Zone’s Talky Tina and the Mystic Seer, the Book of the Dead from The Mummy and the creepy book from The Babadook.

But there’s one figure you’ll never see in Forrester’s office.

“I despise Superman in every way, shape and form,” he says. “He’s completely invincible, with every superpower you could imagine. How is that any fun?”

Even as a fifth-degree black belt in Chidokwan — a blended style of karate that combines traditional and modern techniques — Forrester himself isn’t invincible. He got into the martial arts when he was 12 and during his formative years trained up to five hours a day. During one training session in high school, though, he was sparring with a college student and walked into a fist to the chest.

“It cracked my sternum, and my dad had to drive me to the hospital,” he says, beginning a story that soon sounds like something from a slapstick comedy.

“I vividly remember sitting in the car, and I couldn’t breathe, and it’s a horrible feeling, and then a deer ran into us — jumped up and hit the passenger-side door.

And when we got to the hospital I opened the door and deer fur was flying in the air.”

Years later, Forrester found himself face to face with something once again that reminded him of his mortality: Two weeks before he turned 40, he was diagnosed with early onset arthritis in both hips.

(WITH KUNG FU GRIP)

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Shifting into the Sweet Spot College twice, earning four-straight NCAA appearances and making it to the CC top 10 twice. Individually, he was named to the 2015 National Soccer Coaches Association of America NCAA Division III All-Mid-Atlantic Men’s Soccer Team, and he garnered several top-10 spots on conference and program record lists.

He also recalls feeling “fortunate and grateful” for the experience of playing on the new Phyllis Joan Miller Memorial Field, which was completed in 2013.

“It propelled us to play our attractive brand of soccer—‘jogar bonito,’ which means ‘play beautifully’ in Portuguese,” Hylton-Dei says. “Most of my memories were forged on that field.

“I hope I’m leaving behind a legacy that the other guys can follow and build their own legacies,” Hylton-Dei continues. “And that’s what I realized when the ref blew the final whistle—I had a good career and a good season, and I couldn’t have asked for better teammates.” — Lauren Davidson

Carl Socolow ’77

occer (or European football) is a fitting sport for global citizen Alfred HyltonDei ’16. The family is originally from Ghana, and his father’s job with the United Nations led them to Switzerland and Italy as well. When Hylton-Dei transferred to Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania, he set his sights on Division III college soccer.

“Playing soccer was a priority, but so was academics,” he says. “I was really attracted to Dickinson for the international aspect, the diversity, the globalization.”

A strong forward with a penchant for goal scoring—he was team MVP as a senior at Mercersburg—Hylton-Dei tried out for the team as a walk-on, committing to Dickinson without knowing for sure he had a spot.

Hylton-Dei made the team, and he also made an immediate impact. Shortly after one of his first appearances on the field, he was named a Centennial Conference (CC) Player of the Week. When a teammate was injured, Hylton-Dei stepped into the unfamiliar position of left midfielder.

“I think it helped that I was able to bring a different mindset to soccer because of my background, and it was the same thing in the classroom,” says the international studies and French double major. “When we would talk about experiences, it’s interesting to know the perspective of the next person and learn from them the way they learn from you.”

His junior year, he shifted back to his sweet spot at forward, and the team went six games undefeated in the CC, setting a school record. But after the team graduated several key players in 2015, this season was a difficult start.

“Our team was pretty young,” recalls Hylton-Dei, one of only two seniors on the squad. “It was important to encourage the younger players and have them become significant contributors by the end of the season. It took a lot out of me in the beginning, but by the end we were a formidable team.”

The Red Devils finished strong, advancing to the second round of the NCAA tournament but losing 2-1 to Lycoming College in the final minutes. They ranked in the top 25 of the NCAA and second in the CC. “It’s bittersweet,” Hylton-Dei admits. “But I’m proud of the achievements we made, proud to be part of Dickinson soccer.”

He’s also proud of the team’s accomplishments during his four years, including defeating rival Franklin & Marshall

[ in the game ]

Women’s soccer The women’s soccer team earned three spots on the All-CC squad, finishing 8-7-2 overall. Hannah Matlack ’16 made her fourth appearance on the team, earning her third-straight first-team honor.

Jenna Lamb ’16 was a second-team selection, finishing her career 10th on the all-time list for goals scored with 26. Briona Davis ’19 earned honorable mention, bringing exceptional speed and talent to the Red Devil defense while scoring three goals on the year.

Men’s cross country The men raced to third at the CC championships behind a first-team All-CC performance from Eli Howard ’16. Mason Hepner ’17 ran to second-team honors while Alex Predhome ’16 joined Howard on the All-Region team, as the Red Devils placed eighth in the Mideast.

Howard ran a strong race at the regional championship, placing 15th overall.

Women’s cross country The team turned in a tremendous effort to capture second place at the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships. The Red Devils had a remarkable five women run to All-Region honors as Dickinson claimed an automatic bid to the NCAA National Championships. The team placed third at the CC championships but turned things up a notch to move into the

Field hockey The team had another strong year, posting a 12-7 record and advancing to the CC semifinals with the program’s first CC playoff win. Defender Merritt Davis ’17 earned her second-straight first-team All-CC honor, setting school records with four assists in a game and 12 on the season. She was joined on the defensive unit by second-team selection Kim Monteferante ’18, who moved into a starting role this fall and proved to be a consistent and dominant defender. Caroline Karwel ’16 and Emily Fuss ’16 received honorable mention on the All-CC Team.

Karwel earned All-CC honors in 2012, while Fuss earned her second-straight selection as an All-CC goaltender. Karwel started a school record 72 consecutive games in her career, ranking sixth in assists with 16 and 13th all-time with 52 points. Fuss ranked second in the CC in save percentage and was selected to play in the North/South Senior All-Star Game.

Volleyball The team showed much improvement under new Head Coach Andrew Pile. Dickinson finished the season 8-17 overall but was competitive in every match and started off the season 3-0 at home. Libero Arielle Misrok ’17 had a great season, earning All-CC honors this fall. She led the conference in digs per set, ranking third on the school’s single-season list with 454. She ranks seventh all-time at Dickinson with 861 and tied the single match record with 10 service aces against Albright College. Hannah Smith ’19 joined her sister Emily ’16 on the roster this season. Emily capped a great career with a strong senior season to rank fifth in program history with 752 career kills. After just one season, Hannah already cracked the top 10 for assists with 590 on the year.

James Rasp

No. 2 spot at the regional meet. Sofia Canning ’18 placed fourth to lead five runners to All-Region honors. Canning was fifth at the CC meet, capturing first-team honors, while Abby Colby ’16 earned second-team recognition.

The Red Devils earned their 16th-consecutive bid to nationals, finishing top three in the region for the 17th-straight year.

Ned Ahnell

Men’s soccer The team made it to its eighth Centennial Conference (CC) playoff and its fifth-straight NCAA tournament appearance, advancing to the second round.

The Red Devils knocked off nationally ranked Franklin & Marshall College on back-to-back weekends, claiming the regular-season finale and the CC semifinal matches with 1-0 victories. Alfred Hylton-Dei ’16 (see more on adjacent page) and Ned Wagner ’16 were named first-team All-Conference while Chris Pollock ’18 and goalkeeper Jeremy Palcan ’17 earned second-team honors. Dickinson finished the season 13-5-3 overall.

Football The football team finished 3-7 but lost three games by one touchdown or less behind some outstanding individual performances. Linebacker Jake Myers ’16 went over the century mark with 103 tackles to tie for ninth on the school single-season list while tying for 10th in career tackles with 250. Kevin Sherry ’17 earned second-team honors on the All-CC squad while Cedric Madden ’16 and Teddy Airoldi ’16 received honorable mention.

Madden rushed for over 2,000 yards, ranking seventh all-time, and Austin High ’16 set the school record, averaging 37.6 yards per punt.

James Ward ’17 set a new mark with 62 kick-off (KR) returns, ranking second in KR yardage with 1,346. Carlisle native and quarterback Billy Burger ’19 came just shy of the school record for completion percentage in a season at 61.1. — Charlie McGuire, sports information director

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-by-game basis, so check the website regularly or follow @DsonRedDevils on Twitter for the latest updates.

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Kudos

Publications Cindy Samet, professor of chemistry, and Yike (Echo) Li ’14, a chemistry and physics

double-major who is currently in a graduate program in nanophysics at Northeastern University, published “Polymer Soft-Landing Isolation of Acetylene on Polystyrene and Poly(vinylpyridine): A Novel Approach to Probing Hydrogen Bonding in Polymers” in the Journal of Physical Chemistry B (biophysical chemistry, biomaterials and soft matter). For years the Samet research group has been using the matrix isolation technique — the freezing of molecules in an inert gas at close to absolute zero — to study hydrogen bonding. After their move to the Rector Science Complex, the team pioneered a new technique called Polymer Soft Landing Isolation, which is a twist on the conventional matrix isolation technique. In particular, molecules are now “soft-landed” onto a polymer surface, rather than on a clean surface.

This publication represents the second study employing the novel technique, which is unique to Samet’s research at Dickinson.

Brill published Associate Professor of History Jeremy Ball’s Angola’s Colossal Lie: Forced

Labor on a Sugar Plantation, 1913-1977. The book is the first in-depth study of forced labor on a Portuguese-owned sugar plantation in colonial Angola. A prominent Portuguese civil servant dubbed the labor system in Angola a “colossal lie” because the reality so contradicted the law. Using extensive oralhistory interviews with former forced laborers, Ball explains how Angolans experienced forced labor. Ball also interviews former Portuguese administrators to provide multiple perspectives on the transition to independence and the nationalization of the plantation.

Associate professors of physics and astronomy David Jackson and Brett Pearson and David Mertens, visiting assistant professor of physics, published “Hurricane Balls: A Rigid-Body-Motion Project for Undergraduates” in the American Journal of Physics, a publication of the American Association of Physics Teachers. The article discusses a project for students in an upperdivision course in classical mechanics, in which the authors analyze the motion of hurricane balls, two spheres that are welded (or glued) together so they act as a single object that can be spun like a top.

Associate professor of chemistry Amy Witter and Minh Nguyen ’11, a biochemistry & molecular biology and chemistry double major who is Ph.D. candidate in chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Arts & Sciences, published “Determination of oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur-containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in urban stream sediments” in Environmental Pollution (2015). The article is a follow-up to a 2013 article in the same publication, cowritten by Witter, Nguyen, Sunil Baidar ’09 and Peter Sak, associate professor of earth sciences.

Andrew Wolff, assistant professor of political

science and international studies, published “The future of NATO enlargement after the Ukraine crisis” in International Affairs. The article examines the history of NATO-Russian tensions over enlargement, considers how NATO’s enlargement policy factored into the Ukraine crisis and reviews options for the future of enlargement. Drawing on diplomatic history and geopolitical theory, Wolff explains Russia’s persistent hostility toward NATO’s policy of eastward expansion and highlights NATO’s failure to convert Russia to its liberal worldview. Wolff also argues that NATO should alter its current enlargement policy by infusing it with geopolitical rationales and focusing on how candidate countries add to NATO capabilities and impact overall alliance security.

Tara Vasold Fischer ’02, associate dean of

advising, college dean and coordinator of the community college partners, reviewed Learn or Die: Using Science to Build a Leading-Edge Learning Organization, by Edward D. Hess, in Phi Beta Kappa’s The Key Reporter. Fischer writes that Learn or Die provides a blueprint for individual and organizational learning and success. Based on the premise that consistent high performance is critically linked to high levels of employee engagement and organizational success, Hess defines factors that cultivate an ability to strategically problem solve, challenging readers to take an active role in shaping the culture around them.

Professor Emeritus of History John Osborne and Christine Bombaro ’93, associate director for research & instructional services published Forgotten Abolitionist: John A.J. Creswell of Maryland under the auspices of Dickinson’s

Browse more faculty publications at scholar.dickinson.edu/faculty_pubs.

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House Divided Project, led by Matthew Pinsker, professor of history, and with support from Dickinson’s Digital Humanities Advisory Committee. The authors explore Creswell’s life, from Southern schoolboy to conservative businessman to noted Republican leader and abolitionist, as well as his identity as a Dickinson valedictorian and, later, trustee. The book is available for download at smashwords.com/books/view/585258.

Grants & Awards

Associate Professor of Music Amy Wlodarski received a $13,860 research grant from the Paul Sacher Stiftung for her project “Postwar Humanism and the Music of George Rochberg.”

Les Poolman, retired athletic director, was inducted into the West Virginia University College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences 2015 Hall of Fame and named 2015 Outstanding Alumnus.

Dickinson Magazine garnered an Award of Excellence in the 46th annual design competition held by the University & College Designers Association. The international competition recognizes the best design work to promote educational institutions. The magazine was one of 165 selected from 1,091 entries.

The National Science Foundation awarded $12,000 to Julie Vastine ’03, director of the Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring (ALLARM), for the project “Learning to See, Seeing to Learn: A Sociotechnical System Supporting Taxonomic Identification Activities in Volunteer-Based Water Quality Biomonitoring.” The project is an Innovations in Development proposal to build and study a cyber-enhanced visual learning environment to support observational practices and classification skills in a citizen science context and focuses on the challenge of training volunteers to collect high-quality and reliable data. ALLARM is a partner with the lead institution, Carnegie Mellon University.

Vastine also received the 2015 Campus Sustainability Champions award by the Pennsylvania Environmental Resource Consortium during the organization’s fall conference.

731 ENROLLED IN THE CLASS OF 2019

41M

$

9.2M

$

TOTAL ANNUAL AID TO ALL CLASSES

IN GIFTS TO THE COLLEGE

CROSSING

BOUNDARIES

CONNECTING DISCIPLINES

CHALLENGING THE STATUS QUO

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

STATE OF THE COLLEGE NANCY A. ROSEMAN, PRESIDENT AND PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY

I

n the midst of a very challenging higher-education landscape, when many private colleges are struggling with declining enrollments, fragile finances and growing skepticism about the value of the liberal arts, we can take great pride that Dickinson is truly thriving. Thanks to the work of our expert and passionate faculty and our dedicated staff and senior leadership team, we are achieving many successes, and we continue to provide an outstanding education to our engaged and curious students.

Prospective students and parents take note of our momentum and understand that we offer a distinctive experience with the kind of useful and broad education needed in the 21st century. The class of 2019 is our largest in history — 731 students! What’s more, applications for the class of 2020 are even higher than last year at this time. We are in demand!

We also can celebrate that Dickinson is achieving its long-term goal of enrolling a student body that reflects the global community our students will inhabit. The class of 2019 is made up of 19 percent students of color; 11 percent of the class are international students, representing 27 countries; and 13 percent of our new students are first-generation college students.

I believe deeply in our founder’s vision that an educated citizenry is necessary for our democracy to thrive. Benjamin Rush understood that a residential liberal-arts education should not become limited to the wealthiest among us. Growing our ability to provide scholarships for future generations of Dickinsonians is essential.

As they have for generations, our students continue to make their mark on Dickinson and the wider world. Members of the class of 2015 earned five Fulbrights, led the basketball team to a Centennial Conference championship, advanced to the national Mock Trial championships, built a mobile app for The Trout Gallery and launched the Innovation Competition at Dickinson. They choreographed, exhibited and displayed

the fruits of artistic, scientific and fieldwork endeavors. They participated in service trips from Alabama to Ecuador, studied around the world through Dickinson programs and Mosaics and took to the streets in the annual Run for Steph and Color Rush 5K. Our faculty continue to receive recognition for their expertise and the quality of their scholarship, including an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, grants from the National Geographic Society and U.S. Department of State U.S.-Russia Peer-to-Peer Dialogue Program, groundbreaking boa constrictor research published in The Journal of Experimental Biology and a Cognitive Command training program being implemented in law-enforcement training around the country.

We must continue to invest in our faculty so that they have the tools and resources needed to expand the heart of college — the curriculum. But we must also invest in our students’ lives outside of the classroom. When we admit students to Dickinson, we must do all we can to ensure that they succeed during their four years. Both our residential life system, which must prepare them for life after Dickinson, and our academic program, which demands much from our students, must stand on a support system that fosters excellence in all our students. Because of the strength and dedication of our community, I believe we can provide a holistic education in a way that our peers cannot.

To continue our path forward, we began a strategic planning process in the fall. As the following pages will show, Dickinson is in an enviable position.

Together, we form a powerful community of Dickinsonians, dedicated to ensuring that current and future generations walk down the Old Stone Steps fully prepared for the challenges they will face. Working together, contributing together, we can be certain that Dickinson’s next decades will be the best yet.

From left: Michael E. Reed, vice president for institutional initiatives; Dana Scaduto, general counsel; Joyce Bylander, vice president and dean of student life; Nancy A. Roseman, president and professor of biology; Robert Renaud; vice president and chief information officer; Brontè Burleigh-Jones, vice president for finance and administration; Stefanie D. Niles, vice president for enrollment, marketing & communications; Neil B. Weissman, provost, dean of the college and professor of history; Karen Neely Faryniak ’86, chief of staff and secretary of the college.

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ACADEMIC AFFAIRS NEIL B. WEISSMAN, PROVOST, DEAN OF THE COLLEGE AND PROFESSOR OF HISTORY

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uring the 2014-15 academic year, the Academic Program & Standards Committee (APSC) led a broad discussion of Dickinson’s graduation requirements. In May, the faculty approved significant changes in our general education expectations — certainly the most important academic development in 2015.

Immediate, practical considerations played a role.

APSC was wrestling with the challenge of sustaining a very intensive and atypical science requirement of two laboratory courses at the same time that we are enrolling a record number of science majors. Yet the new requirements also reflect the long-term (and creative) evolution of Dickinson’s academic program. Many alumni will recall the traditional curriculum centered on discipline-based majors and general education requirements including three courses each in the divisions of humanities, social sciences and natural and physical sciences. Over time new developments challenged that structure. Examples include the rise of interdisciplinary majors (now enrolling nearly half our students) and the extraordinary expansion of opportunities for study abroad, internships and research.

As a consequence, an earlier curricular reform made room for new possibilities by reducing divisional requirements to two each. This year’s vote carried the process further, limiting divisional requirements in social science and laboratory science to one each.

APSC’s rationale for change is worth citing: The academic program at Dickinson can be envisioned in terms of three dimensions. The first is composed of elements infused across the curriculum … skills, such as critical thinking, and pedagogical approaches, such as active learning or interdisciplinary work. The second

dimension is constituted by an enviable set of majors, certificates, minors, off-campus study options, and research and internship opportunities. These offerings are the product of a creative faculty, which has the freedom and support to innovate. … In encountering these first two dimensions of the curriculum, students enjoy independence to craft individual educational programs. They are encouraged to find their own voices and to develop a sense of purpose as learners and citizens. The ability to follow their own interests enhances students’ intellectual curiosity and engagement, builds capacity for lifelong learning and inculcates a sense of accountability for decisions.

Responding to these richly varied and still expanding opportunities, the faculty loosened the third dimension of the academic program, general education requirements.

As the requirements were reduced, they were also revitalized. Recognizing the importance of aesthetic experience, we redefined the existing two-course expectation in the humanities to one in literature, philosophy or religion and the other in the arts. Acknowledging the emergence of sustainability as a defining dimension of our educational program, we added a requirement in that field as well.

I should add that our process matched the positive outcome. The most oft-repeated quote about program reform is, “Changing a college curriculum is like moving a graveyard.” While debate here was vigorous, the changes were approved and have been implemented readily. As APSC aptly reported, “Dickinson has achieved what most institutions seek and few achieve — a distinctive academic program that honestly reflects real strengths of our faculty and curriculum.”

9:1 STUDENT-FACULTY RATIO AND AVERAGE CLASS SIZE OF 15

6,031 FIRST-YEAR APPLICATIONS

73%

OF THE CLASS OF 2019 RECEIVES INSTITUTIONAL AID

2019 CLASS REPRESENTS 31 STATES, PLUS WASHINGTON, D.C., AND 27 FOREIGN COUNTRIES

A member of the class of 2019 signs in during Convocation.

ENROLLMENT STEFANIE D. NILES, VICE PRESIDENT FOR ENROLLMENT, MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS

S

mentioned in the previous report, many strong applicants come through organizations such as Prep for Prep, A Better Chance and the CollegeBound Initiative. In addition, our Discover Diversity at Dickinson program is in its fourth year. This event brings underrepresented students to campus in November to experience Dickinson during an overnight stay and our traditional open house. Since adding this program we have seen our greatest increase in qualified underrepresented students in our Early Decision round, which has had a positive impact on our overall applicant pool.

ince my arrival at Dickinson on July 6, I have been fully immersed in the Division of Enrollment, Marketing & Communications, getting to know the talented teams in each department and mining available data to better understand the successes and challenges in each area. I am eager to provide support and leadership to the division to enhance Dickinson’s position in the marketplace as we continue to attract the very best and brightest scholars to our community. Following are a few updates on some of the areas that were discussed in last year’s President’s Report.

•

Dickinson received 6,031 first-year applications for the class of 2019, making it the second largest applicant pool in the college’s history, surpassed only by the fall 2011 pool (the class of 2015) of 6,067 applicants.

The class of 2019 target was 600-620 students and we enrolled 731. While the large class presents challenges, it shows that demand for Dickinson is stronger than ever at a time when many of our peer institutions struggle to make their class.

•

Increasing student diversity continues to be a priority.

The class of 2019 includes 19 percent domestic students of color, and we increased our international student population from 10 percent to 11 percent. In addition, 13 percent are first-generation college students (neither parent has earned a bachelor’s degree). We continue to work with community-based organizations that help us to connect with talented, historically underrepresented students who might not otherwise consider Dickinson.

As well as from some of the longstanding partnerships

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•

We continue to enroll the most talented and diverse class that we can afford. More families are applying for financial aid, and many see their out-of-pocket education cost as a primary factor in where their student will enroll. While the actual cost to educate a Dickinson student is more than $75,000 annually, the direct price of a Dickinson education is $61,826 with the college’s endowment and annual giving subsidizing the gap.

•

The Dickinson Admissions Volunteer Society (DAVS) continued to grow this year, with 984 prospective students interviewed in 2014-15 by 644 DAVS members (533 alumni and 111 parents) in 34 states and 35 countries.

•

We enhanced our geographic outreach efforts this fall by hiring a regional director of West Coast recruitment, Phillip Moreno. We need to continue to saturate our primary markets through intensive recruitment efforts but use available data to grow new markets as well.

STUDENT LIFE JOYCE BYLANDER, VICE PRESIDENT AND DEAN OF STUDENT LIFE

T

his past year was spent solidifying our goals and objectives for providing layered support for our students. We believe that we have evidence of success as indicated by an increase in first-to-second year retention rates, from our already strong 90.4 percent to 91.9 percent.

As we prepared to welcome the class of 2019—at 731, the largest class in our history—we were mindful about making sure that these students have the same positive experiences that last year’s students did. We increased the number of college deans, and our Dean’s Council has developed thoughtful and intentional oversight and outreach to our students. The First-Year Interest Group (FIG) program continues to evolve and grow, as do the Pre-Orientation Adventures and other initiatives we put into place last year.

Student Leadership & Campus Engagement (SLCE) also expanded its intramural opportunities, added group outings to nearby cities for cultural events and launched weekly leadership lunches (for all students).

The larger-than-expected class has provided us with an opportunity to make renovations to the lower level of Allison Hall. These renovations will expand social space at a time when we have had to use some lounge spaces as quads for the large first-year class. We added televisions and furniture to the Community Room and created a game room and two additional lounge meeting spaces, which also are available for use by the Office of Conference & Special Events.

The next step for us is ensuring that our students are fully engaged as active members of the campus community

the entire four years they are here, and we continue to work closely with the Office of Academic Advising to create that experience for our students. To that end we are working collaboratively to develop the Dickinson Four: These four “big questions” will help us frame the experience and provide opportunities for students to craft their own narrative about their time here. The big questions begin with who, what, where and how.

Our message to first-year students is “Make Dickinson Yours.” Our sophomore theme is “Discover What Matters.”

91.9% FIRST-YEAR RETENTION RATE

The year is full of important decisions. Themes for the junior and senior years are in development. In addition to support from faculty and college deans, the Center for Global Study & Engagement, Career Center, SLCE, the Wellness Center and the Center for Service, Spirituality & Social Justice, to name a few, are poised to help our students understand and navigate all their choices.

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FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION BRONTÈ BURLEIGH-JONES, VICE PRESIDENT FOR FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION

T

hroughout the year, the Division of Finance & Administration maintained a disciplined approach in all aspects of budgeting to rebuild the college’s financial reserves while providing students, faculty and staff the resources needed to carry out the college’s mission at the highest level. As a result, Dickinson increased the cumulative financial reserve balance to $5.5 million after approving over $1.6 million in strategic reinvestments. These reserves provide a vital financial buffer for emergency expenses (including a segregated reserve for health care) and strategic investments in the near future.

•

Sustainability: Completed Climate Action Plan projects resulting in utility savings of $127,000 and emission reductions of 637 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2e) (11 percent of the college’s FY2020 carbon neutrality goal). Planned central energy plant enhancements that will save $400,000 to $600,000 and cut carbon emissions by 1,300-2,100 MTCO2e (one third of the college’s FY20 neutrality goal) annually.

•

Benefits Assessment: Partnered with Aon Hewitt to compare Dickinson’s benefits package with more than 60 peer institutions to ensure we remain attractive to current employees and potential new hires.

•

Salary Study: Benchmarked 85 percent of administrative positions to provide market comparisons, which will help create uniform salary standards to align the college’s compensation philosophy with its strategic priorities.

The division also made significant progress on the following: •

Capital Projects: Completed the research phase for the Allison Hall renovations, working with the architects Stegman & Associates and gathering input from the campus community. Selected construction management firm for pre-construction research for the new residence hall project; working group meetings are scheduled to begin mid-January.

LIBRARY & INFORMATION SERVICES ROBERT RENAUD, VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER

T

he Library & Information Services (LIS) team continued to enhance Dickinson’s digital presence this year. And while these digital and technological enhancements are a critical focus of our teams, we also continue to emphasize personalized, face-to-face service in the library, the media center and beyond.

•

15k

WORLDWIDE DOWNLOADS FROM DIGITAL SCHOLAR

Six faculty members completed the eighth Willoughby Institute, a weeklong immersion in the application of technology in learning, teaching and research. In total, 68 faculty members have participated in this valuable collaborative opportunity and have implemented new tools and strategies in their classes.

•

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Five members of our academic technology team attended the New Media Consortium conference and presented posters, “Dickinson Makes” and “Modding

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Games — Creating Historical Scenarios in Civ V.” They received two Judges Awards and a People’s Choice Award for their efforts.

•

The institutional repository Digital Scholar, managed by library staff and featuring an array of faculty and student scholarly work, now boasts more than 600 total papers available and more than 15,000 total downloads from around the world, making Dickinson scholarship accessible the world over.

•

The Dickinson Makes website was launched as a hub for all of the courses, locations and groups that support different areas of the maker movement. Read more at dson.co/dickinsonmakes.

COLLEGE ADVANCEMENT

7,212

T

hroughout the last year, the Office of College Advancement enhanced the connections among alumni, parents and Dickinson through revamped regional and on-campus events, a new website and a more focused outreach strategy. As a result, the college saw an increase in event attendance as well as a record-breaking single day of support on the Day of Giving, April 21, 2015, which generated 2,107 gifts amounting to $449,945 in contributions. This helped lead to $9.2 million in gifts and pledges for the 2015 fiscal year (July 1, 2014, through June 30, 2015).

Acting on feedback gathered from a comprehensive engagement survey conducted in 2014, the college offered alumni and parents more access to the intellectual experience that defines Dickinson. Live-streamed Clarke Forum lectures and One College One Community events bringing faculty to regional clubs enabled Dickinsonians around the world to reconnect with the liberal-arts education they enjoyed as students.

Additionally, advancement staff shifted to a more personalized and affinity-based approach to communicating and interacting with alumni and parents, including 1,015 personal visits—up more than 100 percent from recent years. This shift in approach resulted in increased traffic to the alumni website; the establishment of regional alumni and parent leadership councils in Washington, D.C., New York City and Philadelphia; and the recruitment of almost 250 new advancement volunteers. The Devils’ Advocates Student Philanthropy Council also recruited 30 students representing all four classes to raise awareness about, and solicit their peers on behalf of, the Dickinson Fund.

Recognizing that Dickinson families and graduates are the college’s most powerful resources, the Office of College Advancement will continue to refine this more regional, affinity-based and personalized approach to inspire new annual and leadership donors and volunteers committed to helping the college carry out its mission.

DONORS

2,285 PARENT DONORS

1,218

ATTENDEES AROUND THE WORLD AT REGIONAL EVENTS

FIGURE 1

ENDOWMENT REPORT

IN MILLIONS

The impact of endowed gifts can be seen in every corner of campus. Academic programs, endowed faculty chairs, research, scholarships and financial aid — all of these crucial aspects of the Dickinson experience depend on the more than $17 million the endowment provides to the college’s operations each year (FIGURE 1).

At the close of the 2015 fiscal year (July 1, 2014, through June 30, 2015), Dickinson’s endowment totaled $444.7 million (of which $371 was in the college-managed “pooled endowment”) (FIGURE 2). This all-time high has resulted in part from an average investment return of 8.4 percent in our pooled endowment since 2006.

ENDOWMENT SPENDING FOR FISCAL YEAR 2015

ENDOWED CHAIRS AND FACULTY SALARY SUPPORT: $2.2

SCHOLARSHIPS AND FINANCIAL AID: $7.1

$17.3 MILLION

LIBRARY: $0.2 LECTURES, FELLOWSHIPS, OTHER ACADEMIC: $0.6 STUDENT AND FACULTY RESEARCH AND TRAVEL: $0.3

OTHER PURPOSES: $1.4

CONTINUED ON PAGE 20 FIGURE 2

TOTAL ENDOWMENT MARKET VALUE, FISCAL YEARS 2006–15 OTHER BUDGET SUPPORT: $5.5

500 400 300

Note: To balance present needs with future stability, Dickinson spends 5 percent of the endowment’s prior 12 quarters’ market value average each year to support operations. The college employs this disciplined spending strategy to ensure that the endowment meets today’s needs while continuing to provide a foundation for the future.

$280.2 MILLION

$330.8 $349.8 MILLION MILLION

$280.1 MILLION

$312.3 MILLION

$360.2 MILLION

$355.8 MILLION

FY11

FY12

$388.6 MILLION

$436 MILLION

$444.7 MILLION

FY14

FY15

200 100 0

FY06

FY07

FY08

FY09

FY10

FY13

19

ENDOWMENT REPORT CONTINUED For the last decade, Dickinson’s pooled endowment has outperformed the S&P 500 (FIGURE 3) and the college’s strategic target of spending plus inflation (our 5 percent spending plus the Consumer Price Index plus 1 percent), a key benchmark for maintaining intergenerational equity. Those impressive returns have consistently placed the pooled endowment’s performance returns in the top 10 percent of the institutions tracked by the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO)/Commonfund Study of Endowments.

8.4%

FIGURE 3

GREAT THINGS HAPPEN WHEN DICKINSONIANS COME TOGETHER

10-YEAR AVERAGE ANNUAL RETURN

www.dickinson.edu/gift

7.9% S&P 500 | 7.6% SPENDING PLUS INFLATION

Fulfilling Dickinson’s bold mission depends on the entire Dickinson community. We’re continuing to achieve great things in the classroom and around the world. Imagine how much more we could do with your help. Because the Dickinson Fund harnesses the collective energy of our donors, even small gifts make a big difference.

MAKE YOUR GIFT TO THE DICKINSON FUND TODAY.

FIGURE 4

PEER INSTITUTION COMPARISON

0 ybloC yrubelddiM notlimaHniodwoByelsellee WromhtrawS

$0.25M

SWARTHMORE WELLESLEY BOWDOIN HAMILTON MIDDLEBURY COLBY

ktuScitclelanhnsoraCM & nilnkn oasn rFikciDnayelseWetagleokCoyloH tnunooMsdivaD rassaV

$0.75M $0.5M

003

006

$1.0M

009

0021

0051

ENDOWMENT DOLLARS PER FULL-TIME STUDENT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2014

VASSAR DAVIDSON MOUNT HOLYOKE

ENDOWMENT GROWTH Thanks to generous donors and sound financial management, Dickinson’s endowment has risen steadily throughout the last decade. As you can see in the chart on the previous page (FIGURE 2), the endowment has managed this growth despite facing turbulent years for the market, like 2009. The college’s longterm growth strategy allows the endowment to rebound from years such as 2009 and to continue to grow to meet Dickinson’s needs.

Despite its high rate of return and impressive growth during the past decade, Dickinson’s endowment still lags behind the endowments at many of the college’s peer and aspirant institutions. Many of the colleges and universities with whom we compete for students can spend more of their endowment per year on each of their students (FIGURE 4).

Dickinson can take pride in the way it has been able to “do more with less” and compete with these wealthier institutions. However, changing demographics, a rising need for scholarships and new fields of study will only make increasing demands on our endowment in the coming years. The best way to meet these demands is through increased philanthropy— through the vision and generosity of donors who believe in Dickinson and remain committed to helping the college build a foundation for the future.

COLGATE WESLEYAN DICKINSON FRANKLIN & MARSHALL

Dickinson’s endowment is composed of the pooled endowment, which is managed as part of a consortium of colleges and universities by Investure, and the nonpooled endowment, which consists of funds held in trust for the college, endowed pledges and other assets. The pooled endowment makes up roughly 80 percent of the total endowment, while the nonpooled assets make up about 20 percent. Throughout this report information about the endowment’s investment returns refer solely to the pooled endowment, while information about the endowment’s total value refers to the pooled endowment and the nonpooled assets. For more information, visit dickinson.edu/financialoperations.

CELEBRATING DICKINSON’S 5O YEARS OF GLOBAL EDUCATION

A. Pierce Bounds ’71

PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

he junior year abroad was still a fairly new concept in mid-20th-century America, when Dickinson founded its first study-abroad program under the leadership of Professor of Political Science K. Robert Nilsson. Fifty years later, the Bologna program is still going strong, as part of a network of 15 Dickinson programs and more than 20 partner programs around the world, and Nilsson’s legacy lives on in a new study-abroad scholarship.

In October, Dickinson marked the 50th anniversary of its flagship studyabroad program — and the 30th anniversaries of the Bremen, Norwich and Moscow programs — with a two-day celebration of global education that drew nearly 500 registrants. Hosted in Washington, D.C., the weekend opened with a Friday evening reception for alumni of the Bologna program, and it continued on Saturday with globally themed lectures and demonstrations led by faculty, study-abroad alumni and special guests.

Alumni connected at a Saturday afternoon tasting of French wines, a paella picnic and a talk on the future of global food production with Daniel White ’06.

They also attended a faculty-led lecture on Mediterranean migrations as part of the One College One Community program, followed by exhibition tours led

by Steve Busterna ’79 and Eric Denker ’75 at the National Gallery of Art. Others learned about wartime intelligence at the International Spy Museum, courtesy of its curator, and about the nearby U.S. Holocaust Museum’s newest exhibit, courtesy of Bremen alumna Kristy Brosius ’90, director of operations.

All were then invited to join President Nancy A. Roseman and Provost Neil Weissman at the DuPont Circle Hotel for a reception and discussion of Dickinson’s global programming, past and present, and the announcement of the K. Robert Nilsson and Juliana P. Nilsson Scholarship Fund, established by alumni to support students at the K. Robert Nilsson Center in Bologna. The day was capped off with individual class dinners for alumni of Dickinson’s Bremen, Cameroon, Málaga, Norwich, Toulouse and Moscow programs, hosted by former program leaders. — MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson

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Carl Socolow ’77

Multimedia specialist Brenda Landis is pioneering the development and publicity of makerspaces, including the Makery — a quirky synthesis of old and new.

d i ck d i cki i n sn on s on mamag gaziazi neneWinter Winter 2016 20162222

SENSE

OF ( x3 )

GREAT SPACES STIMULATE GREAT IDEAS. Truth:

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At Dickinson, there’s no shortage of great spaces that inspire great thinking— from the magisterial Denny 317 with its stained-glass windows to the soaring Rector Science Complex atrium. There’s the academic quad lined with limestone walls and stately oaks and elms. The west end of campus now boasts a state-of-the-art fitness center in the Kline Center expansion and the interdisciplinary Stafford Greenhouse for Teaching and Research. But there are other spaces that, while not quite as visible, are just as emblematic of Dickinson’s culture of innovation. Here we introduce you to three of them: the Makery, in the Media Center in Bosler Hall; the Norman E. Eberly Writing Center, in Waidner-Spahr Library; and the central energy plant, on the Louther Street side of Kaufman Hall. — Michelle Simmons

B

(Big) Kids at Play

By Grace McCrocklin ’16

Carl Socolow ’77

Between paper due dates, group project meetings, sports (varsity or club), community service, fieldwork and internships, who has time to let their minds wander — to tinker, explore or innovate?

Enter Multimedia Specialist Brenda Landis, who is pioneering the development and publicity of makerspaces on campus. The idea — an outgrowth of DIY and lifehacker culture — echoes Dickinson’s interdisciplinary philosophy, which focuses on ideas and techniques overlapping among courses and departments. “It’s a blending of spaces as well as the whole liberal arts concept,” she says, “that you’re not just in one class and you learn one thing.

“I started realizing that we have a lot of those things all around campus,” she continues, “and although people don’t call them makerspaces, under the umbrella of that term, there are a lot of them on campus.”

On the Dickinson Makes website, for example, spaces include the Asbell Center for Jewish Life’s upstairs kitchen, the Goodyear sculpture studios and the Handlebar bicycle co-op.

Though each space focuses on different skill sets, they all are dedicated to teaching and learning through hands-on experiences, collaboration and unstructured time.

The newest addition to the makerspace roster is the Bosler Hall Makery, a room packed with what some might consider junk — fabric remnant rolls of indeterminate age, castaway toys,

25

The Write Stuff circuit boards and spools of yarn and wire. But there’s also a 3-D printer, a sewing machine and iMacs. Student workers in the adjacent Media Center are on hand to assist nascent makers with the more complicated tools. “The coolest thing is getting to demo virtual reality and the 3-D printer,” says Mike Abu ’16.

Landis also wants to dispel the idea that creators and innovators need a groundbreaking idea to find themselves in the makerspaces. “It’s starting with just what people want,” she says. “If they want to create something and they have no idea what it takes to create it, then we teach them the basics.”

Most important to Landis is the idea that makerspaces should be accessible. She manages the Dickinson Makes Facebook page, where she posts about maker-related campus and local events.

A recent post highlights the Media Center’s time-lapse video of the Tibetan monks’ residency at Dickinson, creating a mandala in the Waidner-Spahr Library, with over three days of making condensed into a little over four minutes.

And her work is getting notice off campus as well. At the annual Idea Lab poster-presentation showcase hosted by the New Media Consortium, Landis and former multimedia specialist Andy Petrus earned the Judges’ Choice and People’s Choice awards for Dickinson Makes.

No matter the space, Landis reminds us that it is all about learning as you explore. “Kids learn through play, so we’re giving even big kids something that is interesting and fun,” she says.

“They can say, ‘I made this. Look at what I made.’ It might not be perfect, and it might have some issues, but that’s the beauty of it.”

“I STARTED REALIZING THAT WE HAVE A LOT OF THOSE THINGS ALL AROUND CAMPUS AND ALTHOUGH PEOPLE DON’T CALL THEM MAKERSPACES, UNDER THE UMBRELLA OF THAT TERM, THERE ARE A LOT OF THEM ON CAMPUS.” —BRENDA LANDIS

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By Grace McCrocklin ’16

As you pass the glass walls into the Waidner-Spahr Library’s quiet section, it’s hard not to peek in on the lobby of the Norman Eberly Multilingual Writing Center. You spy a student bent over her laptop hard at work; a pair of students are caught in an animated fit of laughter. There’s another quietly perched on one of the plush green sofas, nervously clutching a hard copy of his draft paper.

Elsewhere students and tutors lean over scattered papers, the center’s signature red pencils in hand. A different student sits politely next to an older gentleman dressed in a dark green camouflage uniform.

Established in 1978, the center has a prominent place in Dickinson’s writing culture. Students work one-on-one with other students — sometimes their friends or roommates — to fashion an outline, produce compelling transitions or finalize a senior thesis. Tutors are fully prepared after a semester-long training course led by Noreen Lape, associate provost and director of the writing program, and they serve as a constant reminder of their peers’ agency and ability to create an effective argument and articulate it clearly.

More important, though, is how these two rooms (and their multilingual counterpart downstairs) create community. Ask any tutor about the “WC Bubble,” and they’ll tell you immediately that the community of tutors is a tight-knit one, proud of its responsibility but also its quirks: During a particularly stressful week, you might see tutors, crayons in hand, working hard to fill in a cat-themed coloring book. Ranging from sophomores to seniors and majoring in everything from international studies and English to biochemistry & molecular biology, these students know that peer tutoring gives them an edge. “Tutoring is a twoway street, and my role particularly as a peer, not just a tutor, allows that conversation to happen and be more productive in the end,” says Claire Brawdy ’16, a history major and veteran tutor.

With the goal of “making better writers, not better writing,” tutors are focused on connecting with each student on a personal level. While the paper in front of them is always the first priority, tutors know that establishing rapport is essential. A writer confused about his outline may be distracted by tension with his roommate; the student stressing out about her grammar may have finished the paper late last night as her homesickness kept her awake. These 45-minute appointments can be both academic and therapeutic.

If nothing else, the student is able to leave the center with at least one less thing to worry about. “While there is a fine line between acting as a peer tutor and a therapist, the beauty of my position is that I can bridge that gap and use that information to help a student see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Brawdy says.

WITH THE GOAL OF “MAKING BETTER WRITERS, NOT BETTER WRITING,” TUTORS ARE FOCUSED ON CONNECTING WITH EACH STUDENT ON A PERSONAL LEVEL.

Carl Socolow ’77

Shogo Nishikawa, a visiting exchange student from Japan and teaching assistant, works with Asir Saeed ’16 on his Japaneselanguage paper.

Saeed spent his junior year in the Dickinsonin-Japan program in Nagoya.

The center is an intersection for various communities as well, especially for the English language learners (ELL) on campus.

The center hired an English-as-second-language (ESL) specialist in 2008 to teach ELL-focused writing courses. Peer tutors are trained specifically to work with these students and to help them navigate language barriers as they focus on higher-order concerns. Many are international students, but they also are officers studying as International Fellows (IFs) at the U.S. Army War College (USAWC), located nearby. “Dickinson students are always hungry for global perspectives,” says Lape, “and they really get global perspectives from these colonels and generals.”

The IFs are usually English language learners as well, coming to the center for assistance as they complete their studies at the USAWC’s School of Strategic Landpower. While their writing must be precise, their experience is just as important. “If they don’t get things like support in their writing, then they’ll have a really hard time and they won’t be able to experience things outside of the classroom, because all they’ll be doing is studying,” says Jeremy Beussink, IF writing instructor at the USAWC. “We want them to have a good experience and make relationships,” he continues, “and the center actually helps in this big purpose, this big mission for officers from other countries to come here and enjoy their year in the United States.”

Downstairs, the Multilingual Writing Center (MWC) reinforces that international focus, as students work on their essays for

foreign-language courses. Dickinson opened the MWC in 2010, starting with seven languages and adding three more in 2011.

Some peer tutors are international students studying abroad at Dickinson, and they assist students with papers in their native language. Other tutors, usually Dickinson seniors, begin tutoring once they return to campus after studying abroad.

The latest community introduced into the center’s space still involves letters, but in a completely different context: Students taking introductory quantitative reasoning (QR) courses now have access to tutors specializing in mathematical and scientific tutoring. Lape recruited a committee to help design and open the QR center, in collaboration with Sarah Niebler, assistant professor of political science. With majors like economics and computer science, QR tutors help students with the basics of their QR courses, like graphing and formulas.

“The target audience for the QR center is students who are apprehensive about their math ability,” says Niebler. “We wanted the center, and the committee wanted the center, to be a place where students can go and get help, to feel confident, to be able to do the math in the courses that they’re taking.” As the QR center is in its pilot year, Lape and Niebler are still collecting data before deciding on a plan of action for next year. Luckily for them, as Niebler says, “We have such a solid writing center here, which in a lot of ways is the gold standard.”

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Durwin Ellerman (left), recently retired associate director of facilities management, met Ken Shultes ’89, associate vice president of sustainability and facilities planning, when Shultes was a student. The two worked together for over two decades to make Dickinson more sustainable.

Carl Socolow ’77

“WHEN IT COMES TO ENERGY MANAGEMENT AND WASTE ELIMINATION, ALL ALONG THE WAY DICKINSON WAS OUT FRONT.”—KEN SHULTES ’89

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Origin Story

By Tony Moore

If you’ve wandered around campus, you’re probably familiar with Dickinson’s steely grasp on sustainable construction concepts and practices. For starters, we’ve got five LEED Gold buildings, and the Kline Center expansion is sure to become the sixth.

Sustainability in all its facets is so ingrained at Dickinson that you might assume the college has always been this way.

But that’s not the case. In fact, until about 25 years ago, very few really thought about this stuff at all.

“When I was a student here, the main thing happening in operations pertaining to environmental sustainability was a student-led recycling program,” says Ken Shultes ’89, now Dickinson’s associate vice president of sustainability and facilities planning.

That initiative spawned the student-faculty-administration Commission on the Environment (of which Shultes at times served as chair), which focused on reducing consumption of resources. Facilities Management soon joined the conversation, and Dickinson had just the right person to lead operational change: Durwin Ellerman, also known widely as “Whitey,” due to his snow-white hair.

Ellerman began his career at Dickinson in 1975 as an HVAC mechanic and worked his way up to become head of trades and finally associate director of facilities management, before retiring in 2014. Shultes sees Ellerman — whose three children, Jaimee Reed ’99, Jessica ’03 and Durwin II ’06, all attended Dickinson — as a major agent of change for a more energy-efficient and sustainable campus.

“When it comes to energy management and waste elimination, all along the way Dickinson was out front, largely because of Whitey’s leadership,” Shultes says. “He had a huge impact on the college’s operations efficiency.”

Ellerman simply saw improvements to campus operations as an extension of his lifelong ethos.

“I’ve always had an interest in being better — that’s what drives me,” says Ellerman, the prime designer of Dickinson’s central energy plant, which has dramatically reduced costs and emissions since its installation. “And I like to save money.”

Ellerman began by hooking up meters to every piece of energy equipment on campus, looking for wasted energy. And it didn’t take long for the results to come in. For example, he found a transformer in the Anita Tuvin Schlechter auditorium that was doing nothing for the building but was costing the college $17,000 per year to run.

“That made me wonder, ‘What are we wasting across the whole campus?’ ” he says, going on to note that the discovery led him to rework the way the campus energy system was configured and to find other ways to stem inefficient energy use.

When the price of natural gas spiked in 2005, Dickinson was socked with a $600,000 utility budget overage — basically overnight. In response, President William G. Durden ’71 asked facilities how to wrangle the budget in the face of rising energy costs. But he also understood that the gas spike was a precursor to larger sustainability challenges lurking in the future, and so he launched a new all-campus sustainability commission to identify issues and solutions.

“That was the moment when the conversation shifted from ‘We’re going to reduce energy consumption and costs’ to ‘We also want to reduce emissions,’ ” says Shultes. The ideas generated in those commission meetings led to a campuswide commitment to embrace sustainability in all its facets, including the decision to establish the Center for Sustainability Education (CSE), which serves as a hub for all sustainability-related activities and initiatives on campus. The new center “helped to frame the challenge and to connect the dots between operations, the environment and academics,” Shultes says. “And then it just exploded.”

Today, the campus is a living laboratory for sustainable operations — whether it’s biogas on the College Farm or a solarpowered recharging station on Britton Plaza.

Adding to the picture will be the installation of a “tri-gen” unit, which will allow Dickinson to generate its own electricity.

The unit also will use the heat generated as a byproduct for heating and cooling and will reduce energy costs by more than $500,000 per year and emissions by 1,900 metric tons per year.

“It’s probably the single biggest carbon-emissions-reducing project that we’ll do,” says Shultes. This project comes on the heels of a $46,900 rebate Dickinson received in July 2015 from PPL, Dickinson’s energy supplier, for energy-reduction strides made in the Rector Science Complex as part of Dickinson’s Climate Action Plan, which strives to make the campus carbonneutral by 2020.

With these advances in smart, sustainable operations and construction, Dickinson carries on Ellerman’s legacy, and his outlook is echoed in every new initiative: “I just never sit back and say, ‘That’s good enough,’ ” he says. “It’s just not who I am.”

29

he day after one of the sell-off of Chinese stocks roiled the international market, Susan Ellingwood ’87 sits with a note pad at the morning meeting of The New York Times’ top editors.

Ellingwood, who edits the media company’s Room for Debate feature, discusses the latest news with her team of three and decides what topic they’ll choose to spark an online conversation among readers from around the world. They’ll seed that discussion by soliciting unpaid 300-word essays from experts on their selected issue.

That day, her team whips up a debate on stock-market volatility, by posing the question: With Markets in Flux, Should We Panic or Have Patience? By the next day, essays are posted from five economic experts, including a capital analyst in Singapore, a Chinese professor of international management at MIT and U.S. economists from across the political continuum.

“We want the liberal view, the conservative view, as well as the voices of minorities,” says Ellingwood, who lives in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood, with husband Jake, daughter Beatrice and son Hiker. “We want it to be cocktail conversation, so you’ll be up on the latest views on the news.”

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Ellingwood’s team works on the 13th floor of the Times’ high-rise headquarters on 8th Avenue, a few blocks from Times Square. Ellingwood has a window seat, at a desk piled high with books. There are biographies of J.D. Salinger and Stokely Carmichael, a book on English usage and Taylor Branch’s history of the civil rights struggle.

Room for Debate has emerged as one of the paper’s popular online features, with its wide-ranging coverage of public affairs.

Questions run the gamut, with higher education often in the mix.

The top 10 most reader-discussed debates from 2015 included: Does the Confederate Flag Breed Racism? Is the Fight Against ISIS the West’s Fight? [What Happens When] A Generation Becomes Less Tolerant of Free Speech?

“Susan has created the best work environment I’ve ever had,” says Times editor Nick Fox, who works with Ellingwood to develop the questions, find the experts, edit the essays and then post them. “We have great discussions that ramble on in a very productive way. And the work ends up getting done.”

Ellingwood’s journalism career dates back to 1994, when she joined The New Yorker as an assistant to Washington Bureau

A Room of Her Own

Anna Herbst

SUSAN ELLINGWOOD ’87 SIFTS THE NEWS CYCLE FOR A SMART NEXUS OF INFORMATION AND OPINION. BY DAVID MCKAY WILSON

Chief Michael Kelly. An international relations and Soviet studies major at Dickinson, Ellingwood met Kelly in 1993 while working at the Council on Foreign Relations, where she organized the council’s seminars with international experts while writing and editing various reports — including one on arms control — which she concedes landed largely in recycling bins. She yearned for a broader audience.

She wrote to a slew of big-name journalists, seeking advice on how to jump-start a career in the news business, which, at the time, was booming. Kelly, then writing a book about Yugoslavia, was the only one to reply.

“He took me under his wing,” recalls Ellingwood. “And he became like a brother to me.”

When Kelly moved to The New Republic, Ellingwood came along, eventually becoming the magazine’s assistant managing editor. Ellingwood’s next stop was as editor on the foreign news desk at The Wall Street Journal. Her team of correspondents included Daniel Pearl, who was reporting on the rise of radical Islam in Pakistan. There, she learned the art of working with journalists on assignment abroad.

“These people were away from their families, in foreign settings,” she says. “You had to be careful with your tone in the emails you sent them. You wanted to make sure, if you were cutting the piece, that you could still make them feel good.

Writers have feelings, and egos.”

When Pearl was murdered in south Asia in 2002, Ellingwood became the editorial director at the Committee to Protect Journalists, a nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide.

A year later, Kelly was killed while on assignment in Iraq.

“It was devastating,” says Ellingwood, whose daughter Beatrice was named for the nickname Kelly gave her. “We had to send out news alerts about his death. That was really tough.”

Ellingwood, it turns out, had professional training in the realities of war. She grew up an Army brat, with her father transferred to new postings during her early childhood before settling in New Hampshire. At Dickinson, she was one of five members of the ROTC program, later serving eight years in the U.S. Army Reserves. As “morale officer,” Ellingwood made sure soldiers’ files were in order, which meant having a will and next-of-kin notifications. The file often included a “last letter home,” written by a soldier to be given to family members upon his or her death.

Those letters came to mind after she landed a job on the Times opinion page, and she became one of the associate producers of the joint Times/HBO documentary Last Letters Home.

That project showed the opinion editors the breadth of her abilities and her range of interests. Her current posting fits her well — a mix of news and opinion, on the front lines of public affairs. Room for Debate goes live each morning at 3:30 a.m., which the newspaper’s digital team has concluded is the best time to develop an online audience throughout the day.

“There are growing pains when you have to think digital, but the Times is very much in the game,” she says. “Still, we can’t be so obsessed with click-bait. People need to know what’s going on in the world.”

31

HOME

SWEET HOME

(coming)

d i ck i n s o n ma gazi ne Winter Fall 2015 201632 32

M

Carl Socolow '77

ore than 1,500 alumni and family members of current students came to campus for the 2015 Homecoming & Family Weekend.

Chock-full of social, educational and celebratory happenings, the three-day event drew the largest group of registrants to date.

Saturday morning, many gathered in front of Old West to say goodbye to Dickinson icon Benjamin D. James ’34, who died in July, just shy of his 103rd birthday. All were invited to the afternoon barbecue and to a panel and reception celebrating the 20th anniversary of Dickinson’s Mosaic programs. Some traveled to the College Farm to enjoy bluegrass music and fresh, local and organic fare. Sunday’s Run for Steph raised more than $10,000 for the McAndrews Fund for Athletics.

Although the Red Devils fell to Moravian College in the high-scoring shootout (55-38) on Saturday, fans gave a resounding cheer during halftime, as newly minted Athletics Hall of Famers Rachel Leverenz Wood ’02, Megan Shelley Dapp ’05, David Ayers ’60 and members of the 1990 football team were presented on the 50-yard line.

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Carl Socolow '77

D

ickinsonians also joined forces to honor and remember U.S. Navy Commander Michael T. Mazurek ’90, a two-time Athletics Hall of Fame football player, trauma surgeon and orthopedic specialist who died in 2009.

After son Adam kicked off the game with the coin toss (above), friends and family got a close-up view of the new Michael T. Mazurek Sports Medicine Room during their tour of the William G. Durden Athletic Training Center. (Photo, from left: Michael Garrett, Lea Garrett, Amy (Scarnecchia) Garrett ’91, Bob Garrett ’90, Lisa Mazurek and sons Spencer, Dylan and Adam.)

Through their gift of support, the Garretts were instrumental in making the Mazurek Sports Medicine Room a reality. Also instrumental in coordinating the celebration were Larry Barone ’90 and Kevin Nathan ’90.

[ beyond the limestone walls ]

Increasing our impact

Carl Socolow ’77

M I C H A E L D O N N E L LY ’ 0 2 , A L U M N I C O U N C I L P R E S I D E N T

G

reetings! I find myself sitting to write this column as I wear my new Dickinson sweatshirt and sweatpants that I purchased at the College Bookstore during my most recent visit to campus. It puts me in the Dickinson spirit, so to speak.

Since my last column, I have had the opportunity to participate in seven Dickinson experiences. October was my Dickinson month, in that I had an event to attend three weekends in a row: an Alumni Council meeting that coincided with the jointly held Volunteer Leadership Summit (VLS) and Career Conference; Dickinson’s Celebration of Global Studies in Washington, D.C.; and the Board of Trustees’ fall meeting.

I could not be more proud of the members of the Alumni Council who spent two 13-hour days, back-to-back, participating in meetings, advisory sessions, student and faculty presentations, receptions and fellowship. Suffice it to say that everyone was tired but excited! We definitely increased our impact on campus during that weekend!

In mid-October, close to 500 alumni and guests gathered to celebrate global education and the 50th anniversary of Dickinson’s inaugural study-abroad program, Bologna. The entire weekend was magical. The relationships that were rekindled, and the collective excitement of that weekend, was palpable.

Of special note is that a group of engaged alumni came together to raise funds to create an endowed scholarship to

support the studies of a Dickinsonian who is taking his or her junior year to study in Bologna. The K. Robert Nilsson and Juliana P. Nilsson Scholarship Fund was announced by President Nancy A. Roseman to a packed house of alumni, faculty, current and past study-abroad directors and advancement team members. The dedication of this particular alumni group is to be commended, and the opportunities that their gift will make for future Dickinsonians is nothing short of amazing.

In addition to these two extraordinary experiences, I also participated in the most recent Board of Trustees meeting.

As the president of the Alumni Council, I am afforded a fouryear term on the board. The next time you are at a regional event, an admissions fair or Dickinson gathering — whether on campus or elsewhere — I encourage you to take some time to introduce yourself to a trustee (dickinson.edu/boardoftrustees).

These fellow Dickinsonians have a sense of the pulse of the college, as well as the best interests of past, present and future students. I’m inspired by their individual successes and, at the same time, by the collective energy and expertise that goes into keeping our alma mater on a forward trajectory.

As I close my column, I want to reiterate that I was simply one person within a crowd of many Dickinsonians.

Together, we are uniquely strong and superbly united. As individual Dickinsonians, we are taught to be free thinkers and problem-solvers. Collectively, we recognize that we are who we are because our small, private, liberal arts college in Carlisle, Pa., while shielding us within its limestone walls, prepared us to be the leaders of today.

I hope that you have been reflecting on your involvement with the college and that you have taken the opportunity to attend a regional event; view an online livestream of a One College One Community presentation; made your annual gift; or, perhaps, most important, reached out to professors and fellow alumni with whom you have lost touch. The expanse of a Dickinson education is nothing short of amazing, and I urge you to take advantage of that and maintain (or rekindle) your Dickinson relationships.

As always, feel free to contact me with any thoughts, ideas, questions or concerns. My email address is profe207@gmail.com. Until next time, be well!

Learn more at dickinson.edu/alumni.

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[ closing thoughts ]

Trading one craft for another B Y M AT T Y D A L R Y M P L E ’ 8 5

W

hat do you do when two passions in your life vie for your time and energy? Is it possible to do justice to both? Must one eventually win out over the other?

For me those two passions are writing and flying.

My husband is a pilot and flies a 1979 Piper Arrow, which is suspiciously like the one the character Walt Federman flies in my novel The Sense of Death. As a frequent passenger in the Arrow, I decided to take a “pinch hitter” course, which teaches a non-pilot how to control and land a plane in case the pilot is incapacitated. I took my first lesson in a Piper Warrior — a sort of baby Arrow — at Brandywine Airport in West Chester, Pa. (which also makes an appearance in The Sense of Death). I was hooked.

I continued my lessons, and went from being nervous about even taxiing the plane to being so blasé about it that my instructor once asked me if I planned to take off from the taxiway — ah, yes, never taxi faster than a fast walk. I went from slewing all over the runway on landing to doing a fairly decent job of staying on the centerline. I even started learning about how the engine works and doing the calculations necessary to plan for fuel consumption during a flight, despite the fact that I never thought of myself as particularly mechanically — or mathematically — inclined.

I experienced such elation when I did something well, and such frustration when I did something badly, but gradually the elation started to gain on the frustration and I began to anticipate the thrill of actually becoming a licensed pilot.

But there was another consideration — my writing.

I found that when I took a lesson, my brain was on aerodynamics and radio communications and best glide speed long after the lesson was over. It would take me several days to clear my head of aviation to make room for writing and publishing. So in the fall of 2013, as I was getting

ready for the publication of The Sense of Death, I decided to take a hiatus from flying.

I intended to return to lessons once the book was published, but then I discovered the truth that promoting a book is just as timeconsuming as writing one.

Furthermore, I was working on the sequel, The Sense of Reckoning, and doing both of these things on top of my job as a project manager at QVC. Months went by and there were no new entries in my log book. I realized that trying and failing to fit in a flying lesson was even more distracting than the lessons themselves. I had embarked on the lessons because I loved flying, but it was becoming just another responsibility to discharge (and an expensive one at that). The hiatus soon became a sabbatical.

So here I am, grounded and rapidly forgetting all that hard-won aviation knowledge I had been packing into my reluctant brain. Do I regret my adventure in aviation?

Not at all. I believe that if it hadn’t been for my aviation experiences, the idea that I could actually write a novel, establish a business through which to publish it, and then manage its promotion to wider and wider audiences might never have occurred to me.

If I hadn’t taken that first pinch-hitter course I would have missed out on that feeling of pride when a landing won a high-five from my instructor, or when I felt that little bump on the completion of a turn around a point that meant I had completed the circuit at exactly the same point I had entered it. But I believe I also would have missed out on the thrill of seeing my book on the shelves of a bookstore or of hearing someone talk about my characters as if they were real people. I believe that my experience with aircraft enabled my experience with my writing craft.

And I look forward to a day when I can resume my lessons and fly myself to a signing for my latest, aviation-themed novel.

Matty Dalrymple ’85 is the author of the Ann Kinnear suspense novels, The Sense of Death and The Sense of Reckoning, released through her independent imprint, William Kingsfield Publishers (see Fine Print on Page 6). She lives in Chester County, Pa., with her husband and dogs.

Her dream is for a reviewer to compare her books to the Cormoran Strike novels by Robert Galbraith (aka J. K. Rowling).

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ONE MISSION: 24 hours.

2,020Dickinsonians.

Dickinson Day of Giving Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Last year, our community responded in a big way for our first-ever Day of Giving. In just 24 hours, 2,017 alumni, parents, students, staff, faculty and friends made gifts to the college. Together, we proved that incredible things can happen when our community comes together.

Follow our progress and make your gift on our second Day of Giving, April 19. Let’s celebrate the incoming class of 2020 by meeting our goal of 2,020 gifts!

#dsongives | dickinson.edu/dayofgiving

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

]

I’ve made my career in nonprofits and have seen, more than most, the power of philanthropy.

I believe deeply that giving matters.

JA N I N E M U S HOLT ’ 8 8 .

Read more at dson.co/musholt88.

I’m proud to be Denise Gibson’s son and to break the barriers between academia and my family by becoming the first in my family to go to college.

I S A I A H G I B S ON ’ 1 7 .

Read more at dson.co/gibson17.

I’ve always had an interest in being better — that’s what drives me. And I like to save money.

DURWIN “WHITEY” ELLERMAN,

retired associate director of facilities

management. Read more on Page 28.

TH AT’ S TH EI R F U NDAMENTAL MESSAG E, THAT W E SHOULD H AV E COM PASSION F OR EVERYBODY. A S S O C I AT E P R OF E S S OR OF R E L IG ION D A N I E L C O Z OR T ,

on the Buddhist monks of Drepung Monastery’s Gomang College who served a five-day residency

at Dickinson in November. See more at dson.co/meaningful_tribute.

I saw that I could make an impact at the college, and I wanted to. My professors and friends encouraged me to “be myself,” and I translated that into “I can do any project I want, and I’ll be fine. This school is like a testing ground for my ideas.”

A N A S TA S I A P U T R I ’ 1 6 .

Read more at dson.co/putri16.