A Great Professor of Great Books
Fall 2007
Vol. 12
By Elleanor H. Crown
In August, I sat down with Professor H.D. Cameron to talk about his memories of the Great Books Program and Honors. Great Books was part of a curricular reform instituted in 1947 primarily to fill the needs of returned World War II veterans. The course was envisioned as a humanities class for freshmen taught by full professors “of great fame,” as Cameron puts it. That was also the year in which the current scheme of “concentration” and “distribution” came into being. When the four-year Honors Program was initiated in 1957, Great Books was a natural centerpiece for the beginning curriculum. The founders of Honors wanted a course that would allow students to immerse themselves in the study of a significant culture, and classical Greece seemed the obvious choice. It was with no purpose higher than getting a pesky requirement out of the way that Professor Cameron began his association with Great Books. In his tribute to Frank O. Copley published in the Classical Studies Newsletter, Summer 2005, Cameron reminisced, “I arrived as a freshman at the University of Michigan in the fall of 1952 intending to be a mathematician, but I was forced by a dutiful academic counselor to take one course in the Humanities. By what Frank Copley would call ‘a divinely inspired accident’ I chose his Great Books section.” This “accident” clearly changed Cameron’s life. He eventually majored in Classics, earned his Ph.D. in Greek at Princeton and, in 1959 he returned to his alma mater as an Instructor of Greek. For many years now, he has been both Director of the Great Books Program and principal lecturer of the Honors Great Books class. Over its now sixty-year history, Great Books has gone through many transformations. The instructional responsibilities of the program have shifted from the Classics faculty to English and back to Classics again in the mid-1960s when Professor Cameron was beginning Professor H. Don Cameron his teaching career. In addition to Frank Copley, he spoke of many who have contributed to the program over the years – Harry Ogden, Morris Greenhut, T.V. Buttrey (who Cameron graciously praises as the better lecturer when the two of them shared the teaching of Great Books), William Ingram, Leo McNamara, Bert Hornback, and, of course, Ralph Williams who still comes in each year to teach Dante.
Prof. Cameron and I looked through some old newspaper clippings about the Honors Program we had gotten from the Bentley Library. He was particularly interested to see Edwin Moise who taught him what would become Honors math. Moise was a classicist turned mathematician so he and Cameron wrote amusing comments to each other in Latin on homework and test papers. The clipping from the Dec. 2, 1959 Michigan Daily spotlighted Honors courses notable for their interdisciplinary focus and for their not using text books for instruction. Featured were Moise’s Honors freshman math and an interdisciplinary science course, “Revolutionary Ideas in Science,” taught by Lawrence Slobodkin. Continued on page 8
Honors Celebrates 50 Years This fall begins the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the LSA Honors Program. We are planning a wide array of interesting events, and we hope you will want to be involved. On October 12 at noon in the Honors Lounge in 1330 Mason Hall, Kenneth A. Buckfire, co-founder of Miller Buckfire, will kick off a series of alumni and alumnae speakers who will come to Ann Arbor to share their experiences with our students. Then on Friday of Parents’ Weekend (October 26-29), at 4 pm, Professor H. Don Cameron, will talk to parents, students, and alumni/ae about his experiences with Great Books over the years. Professor Cameron has been an important part of so many of our lives, and this will be a fascinating opportunity to reflect on what these experiences have meant to all of us. In early December, the Honors Program goes to Chicago! Rick and Judy Perlman have graciously agreed to host a 50th Anniversary event in their home on Sunday, December 2. This should be wonderful event; we hope all our Chicagoland alumni/ae will be able to join us to celebrate the 50th. The climax will be a Friday/Saturday event in southeast Michigan in the Spring for both students and alumni/ae. We hope everyone will want to take part.
LSA Honors Director Stephen Darwall Associate Director Donna Wessel Walker Assistant Director TBA Scholarship Coordinator Elleanor H. Crown Program Coordinator John C. Cantú Graduation Auditor John B. Morgan Office Manager Vicki Davinich Receptionist Jessi Grieser Admissions Assistant Jeewon Lee Faculty Advisors Samuel Brenner Maria Gonzalez Santhadevi Jeyabalan Vadim Jigoulov Margaret Lourie Robert Pachella Leanne Powner Contact Information LSA Honors Program 1330 Mason Hall 419 S. State St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1027 Phone: 734-764-6274 Fax: 734-763-6553 Email: honors.alums@umich.edu http://www.lsa.umich.edu/honors/ Regents of the University Julia Donovan Darlow, Ann Arbor Laurence B. Deitch, Bingham Farms Olivia P. Maynard, Goodrich Rebecca McGowan, Ann Arbor Andrea Fischer Newman, Ann Arbor Andrew C. Richner, Grosse Pointe Park S. Martin Taylor, Grosse Pointe Farms Katherine E. White, Ann Arbor Mary Sue Coleman, President (ex officio) The University of Michigan, as an equal opportunity/ affirmative action employer, complies with all applicable federal and state laws regarding non-discrimination and affirmative action, including Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The University of Michigan is committed to a policy of non-discrimination and equal opportunity for all persons regardless of race, sex, color, religion, creed, national origin or ancestry, age, marital status, sexual orientation, disability, or Vietnam-era veteran status in employment, educational programs and activities, and admissions. Inquiries or complaints may be addressed to the University’s Director of Affirmative Action and Title IX/ Section 504 Coordinator, 4005 Wolverine Tower, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1281, (734) 763-0235; TTY (734) 647-1388. For other University of Michigan information call: (734) 764-1817.
Kudos by Elleanor H. Crown
Honors Program Awards Thanks to the generosity of Honors alumni and friends, we are able to support and reward our outstanding students for their accomplishments. Special awards to Honors seniors are part of our graduation ceremony each year. In April 2003 we initiated a group of awards made possible by the Goldstein family, Ellen, Joseph, Laura Bassichis and Paul, all of whom attended our ceremony and assisted in the presentation. Named for distinguished UM alumni and associates, the Goldstein Prizes reward excellence in humanities, arts, natural sciences and mathematics, social sciences, public service, humanitarianism and teaching. Students are nominated by their departments for these awards. Hollis Richardson, an Honors graduate with Highest Honors in French was awarded the Robert Hayden Humanities Award. Her thesis titled, Le style de la difference: La literature et l’histoire dans la Nouvelle allegorique d’Antoine Furetiere.was praised by faculty readers as demonstrating an exceptional insight in the study of literature and a near-native ability in French language which has allowed Hollis to develop a distinctive wry voice in her writing. The Arthur Miller Arts Award went to Douglas Nicholas who graduated with Highest Honors in Screen Arts and Cultures. His thesis, Glass, Concrete, Stone, is a unique integration of scholarship and creative film production. Doug is researching and writing about the aesthetics of ruin and destruction while simultaneously producing a film project that creates an aestheticized view of demolition. He is using the destruction of the Corner House and the Frieze Building here on the Michigan campus for parts of his film montage. Doug had a video project screened at the 2006 Ann Arbor Film Festival—a rare distinction for an undergraduate. Next year, he will be working at a local record label Ghostly International and will then attend graduate school. The Jerome and Isabella Karle Award for Natural Sciences and Mathematics was shared by two exceptional students, Janelle O’Brien, who graduated with High Honors in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Matthew Becker, who completed his degree with Highest Honors in Physics and High Honors Mathematics. Janelle’s thesis, Genetics of Autosomal Regions that Interact with the X Chromosome in a House Mouse Hybrid Zone, is the result of several years of research in an on-going study of introgression (the movement of genes from one species to another) as a means to identify the number and kinds of genes involved in reproductive isolation between 2 species of house mice. Matthew’s thesis, The Velocity Structure of MAXBCG Galaxy Clusters From the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, resulted in a first-author paper which has been submitted to The Astrophysical Journal. Thomas Talhelm, who graduated with Highest Honors in Psychology and with a concentration in Spanish, won the Marshall Sahlins Social Science Award. His thesis titled Preference Fluency and the Status-Quo Bias: Order Effects in Sequential Decision Making, studied the depressingly familiar phenomenon of people who are facing difficult decisions letting things happen rather than actively making a choice to resolve the dilemma. His thesis advisor says that he is confident that Thomas’s research will lead to a publication in a top decision journal. Tom has done much cross-cultural research on social cognition and decision-making in Beijing, and he is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, and Mandarin Chinese. The Gerald Ford Public Service Award winner, William Bornstein, earned High Honors in Political Science for his honors thesis Understanding Opposite-Party Gubernatorial Victories in Solid Red and Blue States in which he sought to determine why solidly blue states such as Massachusetts and California both recently elected Republican governors. Will served as manager of a local field office in a recent Minnesota gubernatorial campaign. This whetted his appetite for the political arena which he experienced in the Michigan in Washington program in Winter 2006. His ultimate goal is to enter politics and become governor of his
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Honors Program Awards continued from page 2
Virginia Voss Memorial Scholarships are awarded each year to senior Honors women for excellence in writing. They pay tribute to the memory of the late Virginia Voss who graduated from Michigan in the 1950s and became College Editor of Mademoiselle Magazine. After her untimely death, the Voss family provided funds for the awards. This year’s winners, their departments of concentration and their thesis topics are listed below.
native Minnesota. Before that he will take a year off from school to work in a political campaign and then enter either Law or Public Policy School. The Raoul Wallenberg Humanitarian Award was presented to Dorothy Gannes who was awarded Highest Honors for her English thesis, Gossip and Aggression: Adolescent Boys and Girls and their Respective Language Patterns. Not only is Dory is an extraordinary student, she has been the driving force behind a project to assist the orphaned children of Tanzania by building chicken coops and providing other material support for orphanages. She now is concentrating on a fund drive for one particular orphanage and has already raised more than $35,000, which will be used to build classrooms and living quarters for the children. Next year, Dory will be teaching at the Laurel School in Cleveland and will continue her work with the Tanzanian Orphanage Project. She was featured in an LSA Magazine article last year, and a picture of her (and information about her work in Tanzania) can be found in the rotation of images on the main LSA web page (www.lsa.umich.edu).
For Academic Writing: Katherine Sato Green, Physics, Transport Properties of Carbon Nanotube/Polymer Composite Films Rebecca Ametrano, Psychology, Violence Exposure, Traumatic Stress, and Health Outcomes for Incarcerated Youth Whitney Crutchfield, Independent Concentration in Artistic Exploration of Gender Studies in Modern Greece, Generations of Entanglement, Weaving Traditions and their Transformations Through Women of Modern Greece Karen Spangler, Anthropology, Grounded: An Ethnology of Community Gardening in Ann Arbor Emily Beam, Economics, Emily’s thesis, The Effects of Maternal Employment on Investment in Children’s Human Capital and Children’s Outcomes Abigail Smith, Political Science, Trade and Identity: A Comparative Analysis of Thailand’s Free Trade Agreements with Australia, China, Japan and the United States Susanna Groves, English, Cuban-American Literature of Exile: Embracing Liminality in Achy Obejas’ Days of Awe Katherine Stanutz, English, The Unity and Disunity of Poetics in Piers Plowman Kathleen Bachynski, Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Le vanin bastidment: Human systems and Philosophy in Montaigne’s Apologie de Raimond Sebond For Poetry: Rachel Morgenstern-Clarren, Creative Writing, No Latin Term and other Poems Rachel Harkai, Creative Writing, In Danger: Poems For Imaginative Prose: Kate Schmier, Residential College Arts and Ideas, The Beauty of Falling Roses
The Sidney Fine Teaching Award is given to students who show exceptional promise as future educators. Emily Bembeneck, an outstanding young classicist, was nominated by several faculty in Classical Languages and Literature for her potential as a scholar in their field and for her thesis, Lucius and Psyche: Apuleius’ Looking Glass. It examines the origin of “ass stories” upon which Apuleis based the Cupid and Psyche allegory in the Golden Ass. She uses a newly discovered papyrus as well as a variety of folk traditions to come up with a paper her thesis advisor praised as being researched “with admirable precision, and argued with genuine flair that is supported by a deep knowledge of the text.” Next year Emily will begin a Ph.D. program in Classics at the University of Chicago, where she has been awarded the top graduate fellowship. Honors Alumni Prizes for outstanding achievement and service to the Honors Program and the university were presented to Mary Shelly and Jaye Stapleton. Both Mary and Jaye have been invaluable student employees and outstanding representatives of the Honors Program for several years. Mary is a recent graduate who was Continued on page 8
National Awards We are delighted to report that Lyric Chen, whose report you may have read in our last newsletter, (https:// www.lsa.umich.edu/honors/news/newsletter.htm) has completed her year of research in China supported by a Fulbright Fellowship and will begin a two-year masters program at Oxford University as the winner of a coveted Marshall Scholarship. Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships are presented to sophomores and juniors for excellence in math, natural science and engineering. Four-year schools are allowed to nominate up to four students for this competition. This year, Kevin Wilson, a junior Honors math and computer science concentrator from Shelbyville, KY, and Eszter Zavodszky, a sophomore Honors neuroscience major from Holt, MI, were awarded Goldwater Scholarships. Kevin grew up on a dairy farm where he learned independence and patience from the cows while he taught himself a lot of sophisticated mathematics. He is interested in complexity theory and algebra. Eszter is from Hungary. She moved with her family to the US in the mid-90s. She is interested in the neurological basis for decision-making in adolescents.
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50 Years of LSA Honors By Steve Darwall “It gives me great pleasure to inform you that you have been selected, after careful screening of the incoming freshman class, as one of those who are being invited to participate in the Honors Program of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.” So began a letter received by over two hundred unsuspecting freshmen in July of 1957. The letter was signed by Robert C. Angell, a nationally known sociologist and past President of the American Sociological Association, who was Director of the LSA Honors Council and, as such, the leader of the nascent LSA Honors Program. As Angell’s letter went on to describe, the College had had versions of Honors Concentrations in some departments for many years. What began in 1957 was a complementary program to which incoming students might be invited for the first two years, together with a radical expansion of Honors Concentrations and thus upper-division research opportunities. The program Angell described, in which 153 students would take part that first year, was not very different from what the Honors Program has been ever since: special advising to set students on their own intellectual journeys, special classes in a wide variety of departments, and programs to give students the greatest choice. At Michigan, our emphasis has always been less on a core curriculum than on helping students find their own paths through one of the greatest universities in the world. But why in 1957? What was the impetus for LSA Honors? In “The Honors Program at the University of Michigan: Its Aims and Procedures” (Journal of Higher Education, 1960), Robert Angell notes that by 1960, three years after the LSA Program’s founding, a national movement to establish honors programs at universities throughout the country had arisen. Angell observes that this was likely an effect of the launching of the Soviet satellite Sputnik, with a consequent perceived national crisis about American education, especially in the sciences, together with a national initiative by the Inter-University Committee on the Superior Student funded by the Carnegie Corporation. But the founding of LSA Honors pre-dates both of these national phenomena. The first Sputnik did not go up until October 1957, when LSA’s first Honors students were already in their classrooms, and the Inter-University Committee on the Superior Student, led by Joseph W. Cohen of the University of Colorado, didn’t get going until 1958. The launching of the LSA Honors Program was a decidedly local phenomenon, although one with national implications. The proposal to establish the Honors Program grew out of a report by the LSA Committee on Curricular Flexibility, which responded to complaints by upper-division students that they had been insufficiently challenged in their first two years. The idea was to provide a more demanding and stimulating academic program that would extend over a full four years and to expand dramatically the opportunities for individual work and original research by upper-division students. As now, this meant that the Program had to take on the challenge of identifying LSA’s “most capable and eager” students before they arrived on campus. It is fascinating to read Angell’s account of the careful process of holistic review that the Program followed from its earliest days, trying to gauge both intellectual talent and the desire for an Honors experience. From the beginning there were the same issues we face now: how to assess intellectual creativity and insight rather than what Angell called “pedestrian grade-getting;” and how to detect students’ curiosity and, as Angell called it, their “eagerness.” Another question inevitably faced by any honors program is how separate it should be from the larger college. From the outset, Angell notes, Michigan “follow[ed] a middle course,” between programs with entirely separate curricula and residences, on the one hand, and those that are just a set of
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courses, on the other. We strike the balance somewhat differently today, since we now offer an Honors Housing experience for about half of our first- and second-year students. But as then, we still seek to draw students into the wider College and University, enabling them to take advantage of a university that, if anything, is even better today than it was 50 years ago. There is, however, one important difference between the current Program and its earliest years. Whereas Angell noted that extra-curricular discussion groups led by Honors faculty were not generally well attended in the first years, today’s Honors students regularly take part enthusiastically in a wide variety of informal intellectual events. After launching the Program, Angell left Honors in 1961. The man who succeeded him, Otto Graf, Professor of German, would stay for eighteen years until his retirement in 1978 and put his stamp on the Honors Program as no one had or has before or since. For many LSA Honors grads, the Honors Program simply was Otto Graf, and vice versa. Graf imbued the Program with his energy, passion, and wisdom, always realizing that the heart of LSA Honors is the students themselves. “You and your classmates,” he told the entering class in 1963, “are the actual differentiating factor,” between Honors courses and courses generally available to LSA students in their first two years. Graf also understood the importance of generating intellectual engagement, and he always emphasized depth of understanding and curiosity rather than grades. When he retired, Otto Graf said he would “advise his successor to do everything possible to create some real intellectual excitement for honors students at the very outset of their studies.” During Graf’s tenure, the Program grew from its early years, admitting just over 400 students in 1964. (We currently aim for an entering class of 500 students.) It was marked by [an integrated science curriculum], the beginning of the Great Books component, and personal advising, often by Graf himself. Since Otto Graf’s retirement in 1978, the Honors Program has been blessed with a series of fine leaders. Jack Meiland, Professor of Philosophy, presided over an expansion of the Program to its current size during his tenure from 1978 to 1983. David Shappirio, Professor of Biology, followed Meiland in 1983 and led the Program for eight years, until 1991. Ruth Scodel, Professor of Classical Studies, served as Director for much of the 1990s, from 1991 to 1997. In 1997-1998 Professor Michael Martin, of Biology, served as Interim Director. And Rob Van der Voo, Professor of Geology, became Director in 1998 and served until 2003. I have had the privilege of finishing the 50 year period. I began in 2003 and my term ends in 2008. Finally, Professor David Porter served as Acting Director in 2005-06, while I was on research leave. The lifeblood of the LSA Honors Program has always been the people who compose it: its wonderful students, faculty, and staff. If we suppose that entering classes have averaged around 400 and that an average graduating class will have roughly 200 Honors graduates who did not take part in the Program during their first two years, that means that something like 600 have been added annually to the rolls of remarkable students who have experienced LSA Honors, or approximately 30,000 students during our 50-year period. This is a remarkable Michigan story of extraordinary education on a grand scale. So many national fellowship winners (Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, Goldwater, Beinecke, Churchill, and on and on) have come through these halls. So many students who have gone on to make a name for themselves in their respective fields. So many stimulating and thoughtprovoking teachers like Don Cameron and Ralph Williams have enriched our curricula and inspired our students. And, of course, the treasured Honors staff, the “fixers” who made things happen from Bill Schrock to, more recently, Liina Wallin, Donna Wessel Walker, Elleanor Crown, and John Cantú. These are the people who have made LSA Honors so special. It has been a privilege for each of us, with memories we all will cherish. Read this article about LSA Honors from the Jan. 12, 1966 Michigan Daily and other historical materials on the Honors website. www.lsa.umich.edu/honors Just click on Alumni/ae and Friends for a link.
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From the Director Stephen Darwall, LS&A Honors Director Dear Friends: This is a year for marking passages: the celebration of our 50th anniversary, the retirement of former Associate Director Liina Wallin after almost fifteen years of extraordinary service, and the beginning of my last year as Director. When I first came to LSA Honors four years ago, my main aim was to make the Program more of a real community. The Honors Program has always been an exceptional academic program since its beginning in 1957, and being situated within one of the world’s truly great universities has given our students an almost dizzying array of intellectual opportunities from the beginning. Yet it seemed to me that we could do more to give students the kind of supportive and vigorous intellectual community, including informal exchange with faculty, that students need to discover their real interests and to take the risks necessary to enjoy Michigan’s riches fully. Nothing has pleased me more over the past four years than to see how quickly our students have taken to the increased opportunities for informal intellectual engagement that we have been able to provide. We start right at Orientation, meeting with students in groups of fifteen or so during the summer for a catered lunch during which we all share our intellectual interests and I get the students involved in a philosophical discussion. (What do you expect from an old moral philosopher?) When entering students come to Ann Arbor in the fall, we are at it again, even before classes start, with more discussion at Honors Kickoff, this time focused on the Honors Book (this year: James Kynge’s China Shakes the World). We begin with an assembly at which faculty experts help frame discussion, and then we break down into groups of ten to fifteen, led by
Honors faculty and staff. And this is only the beginning! Through the year, we build our community with a variety of events. There is the monthly “Lunch With Honors,” featuring such interesting and noteworthy people as Poland’s past President Aleksander Kwasniewski; New Yorker Cartoon Editor, Bob Mankoff; Honors alum and international lawyer, Javier Rubinstein; Dr. Michael Stein, author of The Lonely Patient; and Honors alum and English and Women’s Studies scholar, Gabrielle Civil, among many others; with a dazzling array of biweekly discussions, excursions, and other events hosted by Honors Fellows (detailed in John Morgan’s article also in this issue); occasional Fresh Ideas sessions I host in the Perlman Honors Commons and Honors Roundtables, which take place in Honors Housing in South Quad. The energetic student leaders come up with new ideas all the time. The Honors Resident Advisors in South Quad organized a variety of events over the year. The Honors Peer Mentors threw a pumpkin carving bash in the fall; more seriously they put together the first “Honors Papers” conference. In all these ways and others, the Honors Community is knit together. Nothing has been more fun; nothing has given me greater satisfaction. I realized that all of our efforts were paying off when I heard Honors graduate Whitney Crutchfield’s remarks at Honors Graduation this past May (also printed in this issue). Drawing on her experiences studying in Athens, Whitney likened the community she found in the Honors Program to the protected center of the ancient Greek marketplace or agora: as she put it, “the point of balance for communal and civic life.” She describes how the Program is able to bring the riches
of the University and the wider world into the community by hosting “world leaders, philosophers, musicians, artists, academics, political figures, activists, and so many others,” but able also to provide essential protected spaces, as in the center of the agora, for the kinds of conversations through which students can discover themselves in relation to these newly discovered perspectives. She concludes: “Through the Honors Program, I have really been able to focus on and celebrate my individual interests . . . bringing together my deep interests in Modern Greek culture, gender studies, and the fine arts. I have had the opportunity to create my own plan and to find a unique place within the University community. And my experience began here, at our communal center of the agora, and took me to one of the most ancient meeting places known, thanks mostly to the people of the Honors Program and the Modern Greek department and the zeal they have inspired in me.” As we begin our 51st year, these are precisely the kinds of experiences we will continue to try to provide for our students. The idea of talented, interesting, and interested students and faculty interacting, or as we might say these days, hanging out, together, and discovering, developing, and sharing their intellectual interests has been central to the Program since it began in 1957. It is no less valid today than it was then or even, indeed, than it was in ancient Greece when Socrates engaged passersby with his (sometimes nettlesome!) questions in the agora of Athens. We are all so much richer for having been able to participate in the LSA Honors community. When I hang it up in a year’s time, it will have been one of the most precious experiences of my life. All best, Steve
Thank you, Liina Wallin
AARON HANDELSMAN
I wish you could have been with us in the Perlman Honors Commons in late July for the gala retirement party for Liina Wallin. The place was absolutely packed to honor Liina for her extraordinary service to the Program and to the College of LSA. I have been to a lot of retirement parties over the years, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like this one. The reason, of course, was the honoree: Liina Wallin, who served the Honors Program as Associate Director for almost fifteen years and who was an academic advisor in LSA for many years before that. Dean Terry McDonald, who made sure to be there despite his busy schedule, began the festivities with a glowing tribute to Liina, recalling how she had shown him the ropes when he began as an Honors History Concentration Advisor years ago. What might generously be called a “musical interlude” followed, including some Liina-fied lyrics to popular songs sung by a chorus of Honors staff and friends. Then Liina’s son, Nick, who is a rising conductor and member of the music faculty at Washington State University, brought the house down with a song to the tune of “The Ballad of Davy Crockett,” which hilariously revealed, among other things, Liina’s skillful combining of professional and familial roles to the benefit of her son’s love life. (It may be relevant here to know that Nick is now married to Alice Swan, an LSA Honors graduate in History of Art (1996), who, along with the rest of the family, was in attendance at the festivities.)
Liina Wallin and Steve Darwall at 2007 Honors Graduation Ceremony
Most moving, perhaps, were the tributes and hilarious memories provided by Don Cameron (who has been so important to generations of LSA Honors students through Great Books) and several former Directors of the Program who recounted the myriad ways in which Liina had helped them and who acknowledged, as if everyone didn’t already know, that it was Liina who really made everything work. Professor Cameron gave a Continued on page 7 6
Sanctuary of the Twelve Gods, the visible remains of which are quite bare. He explained the immense significance of the sanctuary during the glory days of Classical Athens, that it was one of the most sacred buildings in the agora, and that it was often used as a marker to measure great distances. Many believed that the sanctuary was the very center of the world. For this reason, he said, it was sometimes referred to as the umfalos, or in Modern Greek, afalos, literally, the belly button of the world. Though seemingly unromantic, the term was quite accurate. The sanctuary and the agora served as the focal point of commerce, the point of balance for community and civil life. It was a meeting place for everyone from the most notable to the most common citizen, a venue for philosophy, politics, and learning. Though the times are obviously quite different, I cannot help but think of our university and our own Honors community here as something strikingly similar. We know now that Ann Arbor is not the center of the world (though the idea may occasionally slip into our minds), but we have the great privilege of residing and learning in this integral meeting place. From day to day, the University and the Honors Program in particular welcome countless notable figures: world leaders, philosophers, musicians, artists, academics, political figures, activists, and so many others. Small local venues, roundtable discussions, favorite cafes, and the consistently open spaces for free speech and thought draw these figures to the community again and again. On any given day, we, as students and citizens, have the opportunities to interact with and learn from these people, while at the same time, we have the privilege of learning from each other. I have found that the University and its community serves as the focal point for so many of us, offering a balance of ideas, thoughts, and positions. The interchanges that occur in this place foster and encourage unique experiences and aspirations, as can surely be seen in the incredibly diverse interests and goals of all of us. Through the Honors Program, I have really been able to focus on and celebrate my individual interests, as I have completed the Honors Individual Concentration Program, bringing together my deep interests in Modern Greek culture, gender studies, and the fine arts. I have had the opportunity to create my own plan and to find a unique place within the University community. And my experience began here, at our communal afalos, and took me to one of the most ancient meeting places known, thanks mostly to the people of the Honors Program and the Modern Greek department and the zeal they have inspired in me. Many of us are now faced with the challenge of moving on from our niches at the University of Michigan. What lies ahead may throw us off balance, and there will probably be times when we wish that we were back in this lively meeting place. I encourage you, though, to celebrate the experiences you’ve had here, and, while I expect that we have all found our bellybuttons by now, I hope that each of us will find our own afalos, wherever and whatever that may be.
Student Perspective My Afalos
by Whitney Crutchfield
Speech delivered at the April 27th 2007 Honors Graduation Ceremony My undergraduate experience at U of M began just like so many of yours. I was a nervous, bright-eyed, curious freshman, disregarding ideas of structured academic plans and taking advantage of notions of exploration and uncertainty. So many of us faced the obligatory language requirement, and as I sat answerless in that German placement exam during orientation, I realized that something different had to be in store for me. And so I blindly registered for Modern Greek 101. As one of the only fair-haired students in the class, with not one Greek in my family tree, I was at first intimidated by the jubilant salutations and obvious familiar connection among my classmates. Little did I know that these days in elementary modern Greek were the first of many that would dictate my path as an LSA undergrad and offer some of the most pivotal Whitney Crutchfield at Mt. Lykavitos experiences here. After several semesters of getting to know the language, the professors, and the students, which could be attributed to the age-old Greek tradition of hospitality, I seized the much-encouraged opportunity to spend a semester in Athens, thanks, in large part, to the guidance of my Honors advisor. During my stay in Athens, I began to better understand where the hospitality and warmth I had discovered in our own Modern Greek department came from. The constant physical presence of historical artifacts and celebrated structures and ideas allowed me to begin to realize the significance of history in this vibrant city. Many of our classes were conducted at archaeological sites, and I found myself particularly inspired one morning in the ancient Greek agora, or marketplace. The professor took us to the site of the ancient
thank you liina continued from page 6 very amusing account of first seeing Liina when she was a graduate student playing a role in Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s Die Physiker. Ruth Scodel talked about the “Liina look,” a way Liina had of rolling her eyes (without quite actually rolling them) when a director or someone else had an idea that risked sending the Program off the rails. Rob van der Voo talked about how Liina always got a big round of applause when she ended the sessions with incoming students, whereas he did not. He asked her, “How did you do that?” Liina stood up and simply said, “Well, I just looked at them all warmly and said, ‘Thank you so much for being here, and we are all really looking forward to seeing you in the fall.” That, of course, was the key. In addition to all her wisdom and good sense, Liina had the gift of relationship, and she understood that, in the end, that is what the Honors Program is all about. Liina’s ebullience and warmth kept the office staff in good spirits and made sure we and the students all had as much fun as she did. And the interest she took in each of her students, especially her advisees, gave them the support they needed to make their own way and made them feel part of something genuinely human and significant. As we begin our 51st year, the Honors Program will begin its first year in the last fifteen without Liina Wallin. We will miss you, Liina. Thanks for all you have been for each of us. 7
Honors Program Awards
a great professor of great books continued from page 1
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awarded High Honors in Comparative Literature for her thesis, Pickled Fellini: The Impact of Federico Fellini’s Films on the Work of the Pickle Family Circus. She concurrently earned a Bachelor of Theater Arts with Highest Honors. Mary has been a head peer advisor for Honors summer orientation and also taught a section of Honors 135 that explored Clown Logic. Jaye graduated with Highest Honors in Brain, Behavior, and Cognitive Sciences for which she wrote a highly praised thesis titled Timing of Luteinizing Hormone Surge and the Role of the Suprachaismatic Nucleus in Octodon degus. She also taught a section of Honors 135, Things Every Doctor Should Know: Controversial Issues Facing Today’s Medical World. The Honors Program makes annual grants to outstanding Honors juniors. These include the Otto Graf Scholarships and Prizes and the Jack Meiland Prize. Otto Graf, German scholar and humanist, was Director of Honors for eighteen years. The awards given in his honor are made to students distinguished by their academic excellence and commitment. The work of Jack Meiland, Philosophy professor and Honors Director, was noted for its interdisciplinarity. The Meiland Award is made annually to the student whose studies best reflect his ideals of quality and breadth. This year, Christine Beamer, an Honors English, Music Viola joint degree student won the Jack Meiland Award. The Otto Graf Scholarship went to Neil Rao (Honors English and Cellular and Molecular Biology). Graf Prizes were awarded to Andrew Bollinger (Honors Mathematice and Voice Performance), Feng Yi Chew (Honors Political Science and Economics), Jeremy Levine-Murray (Honors History and Sociology), and Matthew Owens (Honors Political Science and Philosophy). The Honors Program Global Learning Travel Fellowships are designed to provide financial assistance of up to $3000 to support the international learning experiences of currently enrolled Honors students. Eligible programs include intensive language study, semester- or year-long study abroad programs, short- or long-term internships, volunteer opportunities, or individual/collaborative research projects. This year’s grants were awarded to Sonia Isard (Honors Russian and Eastern European Studies) who attended the Summer Field School of the Interdepartmental Center for Jewish Studies at the European University at St. Petersburg and to Erin Lichtenstein (Honors History) who traveled to Lyon, France, to conduct archival research for her Honors thesis on the ways in which the production of silk cloth was gendered. Many of our students received funds from the Honors Program to help with the costs of their thesis research, to enable them to attend and present results at conferences, to assist with the cost of special study abroad programs or to subsidize the cost of unpaid internships. We congratulate all of them for their excellent work.
directors of the Honors Program. He hardly knew Robert Angell, but worked with Otto Graf for years. In addition to Graf’s clear vision and erudition, Cameron remembers how impressed he always was with the fact that, as a young man, Graf had played piano for silent movies in Ann Arbor. Of Jack Meiland, he says “Calm, solid, cheerful, thoughtful. Meiland wrote a book about how to be a successful undergraduate student which is, in fact, a profound introduction to the educational theories of Plato.” He comments that, as Honors Director, David Shappirio was a great friend to Great Books and a firm believer in the underlying intellectual ideals of the Honors Program. “He was a scientist who bridged the chasm between the sciences and the humanities.” Cameron understands this concept well since, in addition to being a classicist, he is also an accomplished arachnologist. He observes that the methods of research and problem solving in science and humanities are fundamentally the same. When Don Cameron hangs up his proverbial hat and turns the Great Books course over to a worthy successor, whoever that may be, he will be greatly missed but remembered with respect and admiration. Just as Frank Copley opened his eyes to the richness of classical studies, Cameron has opened up a new world of intellectual inquiry to students in all disciplines. I am never surprised when I ask a senior majoring in physics, political science, history of art or mathematics, “What was the best course you had at Michigan?” Almost without fail, the answer is “Great Books.”
Otto Graf Honors Director 1961 - 1978
Jack Meiland Honors Director 1978 - 1983
David Shappirio Honors Director 1983 - 1991
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Ruth Scodel of our Classical Studies Department led Honors students and staff in a demonstration of English Country Dance, accompanied by live music. After the break, Silvia Pedraza of Sociology took students to the world premiere of Joseph Zettelmaier’s play “Language Lessons” at Ann Arbor’s Performance Network. The play deals with issues of communication between strangers, including cross-culturally. Students were also treated to dinner out and a discussion of the play. Nadine Naber, an anthropologist and member our Women’s Studies faculty, presented a panel discussion involving several leaders of the local Muslim community about the impact of 9/11 on U.S. immigration policy, as well as on the lives of immigrants already in the U.S., especially Muslims living in Michigan. Catherine Squires of Afro-American and African Studies as well as Communication Studies presented an event co-sponsored with the Lesbian Gay Queer Research Initiative: a talk by Daniel Brouwer from Arizona State University. Dr. Brouwer, whose work has focused on the rhetoric of queer publics and HIV/AIDS, discussed how blogs maintained by American military personnel and their families responded to the protests held by the Reverend Fred Phelps at funerals of U.S. military personnel who have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Vadim Jigoulov, a graduate student in Near Eastern Studies and Political Science as well as Honors Advisor, presented a seminar on “David, Solomon, and the Roots of Western Culture.” It centered on recent findings by Israeli archaeologists about the historicity of existing accounts of the Biblical figures of David and Solomon and implications for the JudaeoChristian messianic tradition. David Gerdes, a member of our Physics faculty, gave a group of our students an especially memorable experience when he hosted them on an overnight trip to the Fermi Lab near Chicago. Sociology graduate student Ethan Schoolman offered a seminar on “Nature and Democratic Culture,” which concerned the possible relationships between Americans’ experience of nature and their view of themselves as citizens of this country. Finally, historian and Honors advisor Samuel Brenner gave a presentation: “On the Nature of War Crimes.” Having recently published a book of documents on war crimes during the Vietnam War, Sam was able to help frame important issues about war crimes, including concerning the War in Iraq, for our students. This list of events may help to give you some idea of the wonderful feasts of ideas and experiences that our Honors Fellows have brought to our students. We look forward to another fascinating series this coming year.
Honors Updates Honors Fellows events for 2006-2007 By John B. Morgan The Honors Fellows program was initiated by Honors Director Steve Darwall during the 2003-04 academic year to foster engagement between Honors students and faculty and to bring new, interesting Michigan faculty into the Honors community. In an innovation instituted by Interim Director David Porter in 2005-06, faculty and senior graduate students submit proposals for intellectual and cultural events and excursions and the Program selects the most promising. Honors Fellows are also involved in the Program in other ways, including in Honors Kickoff, reading applications, and taking part in other Honors events. Over the past four years, the Honors Fellows have done much to help reinvigorate the Honors community. Last year’s events provide a good example. The year began with Annie Hesp of Romance Languages recreating a medieval-era pilgrimage. Hesp discussed and presented artifacts she has gathered from the 500-mile Camino de Santiago, route of a pilgrimage in northern Spain to reach the relics of St. James in Santiago de Compostela. This was followed by a two-hour recreation of a pilgrimage in the Nichols Arboretum, which simulated elements of an actual pilgrimage and explained the significance of each along the way. Leanne Powner from Political Science and recently a new Honors Advisor put together an event focused on the 2006 midterm election. Participating students prepared their own exit polls and surveys, which they then administered at local polling places and analyzed to help determine voters’ motivations and how to gather data via a hands-on process. The next event was hosted by Medha Tare, a developmental psychologist who presented a seminar on current theories about how children develop language proficiency. This was followed by a visit to the University’s Children’s Center, where students had the opportunity to observe preschoolers at play and see what clues might be derived about their linguistic behaviors. Sayan Bhattacharyya of Comparative Literature held a panel discussion, which involved several University faculty members, on “The University as a Global Citizen.” The main focus was the recent controversy on campus over the presence (and subsequent banning) of Coca-Cola products. Then, as a special treat just before Winter Break, former Honors Director
Honors First-Year Book Program joins forces with College Summer Reading Program by Donna Wessel Walker As you probably know, for eight years the Honors Program has given a book to incoming students as a focus for our start-up activities each fall. An article in the New York Times at the beginning of August highlighted the recent growth of summer reading programs for first-year college students, which made us realize that we have been ahead of the curve on this trend. This year, after a year or so of study, focus groups, and planning, the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts inaugurated a Summer Reading Program, targeted initially for students in Michigan Learning Communities. We decided to work with the College in its new venture, so Honors students are joining over a thousand incoming first year students in ten other Michigan Learning Communities in reading the “summer book.” This year’s book was chosen in conjunction with LSA’s 2007-2008 theme year: “China Now: A Contemporary Exploration”. The book is China Shakes the World, by James Kynge. James Kynge is the former China bureau chief for the Financial Times in Beijing. He has spent decades living in Asia, exploring and writing about Chinese politics, economics and culture. The book raises critical issues about China’s economic and political transformation and the impact this transformation is having and will continue to have on the world. As one critic writes, “At the moment, the biggest story on the planet is what’s going on in China. Most of the reporting about that story is superficial and gushing; James Kynge captures both the dynamism of its growth and the powerful worldwide trends, some of them dismal, that growth has accelerated.” Mr. Kynge will be visiting campus this fall to give a public lecture, visit classes, and meet with students. We will have a reception for him while he is here, to give Honors students a chance to meet him. China Shakes the World was the focus of Honors Kickoff day, August 31. That morning, we hosted a discussion of the issues raised by the book featuring a panel of UM faculty specialists, followed by small groups led by Honors faculty and staff. There were many differing views about the changes Kynge chronicles, so we enjoyed hearing a wide variety of viewpoints during our discussions. 9
Holistic Review brings large, strong class
Lunch With Honors By John Cantú
by Donna Wessel Walker This year’s incoming class is bigger than the past several: this fall we greet 523 new Honors students. The overall class profile is similar to previous years’ groups: 53% of the class are women (we are bucking a national trend), and 56% are Michiganders (slightly lower than last year). New York and Illinois remain the leading sources for out-of-state students, but the class also includes students from such far-flung places as North Dakota and South Carolina, New Mexico and Maine, and overseas. The academic profile of this year’s class is very strong: a median SAT I range of 1400-1500, and a median ACT range of 33-34. Six Honors first-year students had perfect SAT I scores of 1600; a different six had perfect ACTs of 36. Fully half the class had perfect high school GPAs. While we are proud of the numeric indicators of our students’ strengths, however, we do not measure them by numbers alone. This year we continued the admissions process we started last year, asking for a supplemental essay from every student eligible for Honors and every student who asked to be reviewed. We changed the questions this year, broadening their scope to allow applicants even more freedom of choice for a topic. We asked students to tell us about the things they are interested in, whether they already know something about it or are just intrigued in something new. We also gave them the opportunity to propose an ideal Honors event, an activity they would like to see the Program launch while they are here. We read the entire files of every student who submitted an essay; we also did outreach into the database to read files of students who chose not to write our optional essay. With the help of 18 faculty and graduate students, we read the file of every student who expressed interest in the Program by writing an essay, or whose initial profile was exceedingly strong. No student was admitted to Honors on test scores and grades alone. Because of the strength of the entire pool of LSA applicants is always so strong, we do not pretend to have read the files of all the students whom we might want to consider; we will probably never achieve that. However, we are proud that we have admitted the entire class on the basis of a holistic review of every file, and intend to continue that process for future classes.
We want to hear from you!
AARON HANDELSMAN
Please go to www.lsa.umich.edu/honors – Alumni/ae and Friends – for the link to a form to keep us updated. You can also send information to honors.alums@umich.edu.
This academic year’s LS&A Honors programming included visits ranging from national heads of state and creative talents from around the world to philosophers and educators from across the country. “Lunch with Honors” kicked off in September with U-M Political Science professor Edie Goldenberg discussing the College’s “Michigan in Washington” program. In October LS&A Honors hosted lunch for President Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland. November was a busy month. First, Javier Rubinstein, Honors alum (1984), discussed his international legal and business career as Global General Counsel for PricewaterhouseCoopers. Later in the month, the Royal Shakespeare Company’s assistant director, Steve Marmion, joined actress Mariah Gale (Miranda, The Tempest) for lunch during this international renowned acting troupe’s visit to Ann Arbor. Finally, David Kostelancik, deputy counselor with the U.S. mission to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, was hosted for lunch. U-M Honors grad (1995) and Professor of Women’s Studies at the College of St. Catherine (St. Paul, MN), Gabrille Civil, was feted with “Lunch” in January 2007. Chinese classical pipa musician, Yang Wei, delighted us with his music and his humor during his lunch with Honors in February. March’s first “Lunch” guest was Brown University medicine professor Michael Stein discussing his best seller, The Lonely Patient. Our second March guest was Duke University Philosophy professor, Allen Buchanan. And the month concluded with a visit by cartoon editor of The New Yorker magazine, Robert Mankoff. April saw the visit of U&-M Copernicus lecturer, Chairman of the Borderland Foundation and editor-in-chief of the Krasnogruda magazine, Krzysztof Czyzewski. And the year’s “Lunches” concluded with a visit from U-M president Mary Sue Coleman.
“Ideas in Honors” Mini-courses for first-year students taught by Honors seniors continue to gain in popularity. For a list of classes and descriptions of each, go to www.lsa.umich.edu/cg/. Just look under “Honors” for any given semester and you will find all the information there.
Steve Darwall talks with President Aleksander Kwasniewski 10
Honors extends gratitude to the following alumni/ae and friends who have contributed to the program over the past year. Without your support, many of the resources that enhance the Michigan Honors experience for our students would be impossible.
THANK YOU! Joel S. Adelman, Julie D. Allen and Stephen Doll, Mark and Marlies Anderson, Henry and Lisa Armbruster, Denise K. Au, John U. Bacon, Dorothy Bambach, Terry and Shoko Tsuji Barnes, Miriam E. Bar-on, Charles S. and Janis L. Barquist, Richard K. Bauman, Robert and Camilla Beattie, Martin Bell, Sanford A. Bell, Richard Bendix, Jr., Guy Benian, Susan G. Berkowitz, Shyam Bhakta, David L. Birch, Howard and Barbara Birshtein, Elizabeth S. Bishop, Scott Bjerke, Elizabeth Block, Joseph Block, Laird and Sara Bloom, Laird Bloom - Wyeth, Jonathan Bokor, Thomas and Denise Bombelles, James and Pamela Boughton, David L. and Eva F. Bradford, Lawrence Bram, Robert Brammer, Kathryn Brandt, Samara Heyward Braunstein, Thomas and Mary Brink, Thomas M. Brocher, Bruce Brumberg, Timothy J. Buchowski, John and Pamela Burch, Peter Burian, Francis and Susan Carroll, Richard L. Carter, Diana D. Chapin, Paul N. Chardoul, Stuart M. Chemtob, Mark D. Cheng, Cynthia Chua, Susan and Jerome Ciullo, Marshall Cohen, John Owen Cook, Dan L. Curtis, Sandra H. Davis, Mark D and Paula Debofsky, Steve and Lisa Diamond, Nicole G. Discenza, Julie Allen and Stephen Doll, Robert and Cynthia Domine, Ronald and Patricia Dubwy, Stephen and Alice Edwards, Sophia Holley Ellis, Arthur G. Epker and Medha Sinha, Judit Farkas and Frank C. Detterbeck, Richard Feferman, Mark I. Feng, Jonathan and Kathryn Ferrando, Larry Fink, Robert Fink, Courtney and Craig Finlayson, Kenneth
R. Florin, Paul and Marcia Foldes, Mary Foster, Bryant and Mary Frank, Richard L. and Beth S. Frank, Stanley Freeman, Marty Friedman and Sarah Allen, Michael Froy, Darch Fryer, Thomas Gamble, Stuart H. Gannes, Paul Ganson, David A. Gass, Andrew Gaudin, David M. Gay, Elizabeth and John Geise, Michael and Janelle Gelfand, Joan N. Gerson, Grant P. Gilezan, Robert and Sharon Glaser, Michael and Robin Glenn, Stephen Gold, Albert and Miriam Goldbert, Jeffrey Goldsmith, Scott Gordon, Andrew Gorlin, Bonnie S. Gottlieb, Shoshanna Gottlieb, Ann Dinsmore Gralnek, Judith Grey and Robert Schmitz, David Greenblatt, James W. Greene, Bruce Greenwald, Robert A. Schmitz and Judith Grey, Cheryl Grood, Lawrence A. and Lynda K. Gross, Wendy and Jeffrey Guilfoyle, David Handelsman, Steven Handler, John C. Hart, Robert Havlik, Julia M. and Jeffrey Healy, Nancy Heller, Joan Hellmann, Thomas and Carol Herbig, Stephen M. Heyman, Virginia Hilbert, Elliott B. Hochman, Jacqueline N. Horn, William S. Hortos, Liane Houghtalin, Mary and Robert Hutchens, Scott Hvizdos, William A. Irwin, Laurence and Diane Istvan, Alan D. Jacknow, Pamela Sue Jacobson, Jennifer Jaruzelski, Timothy and Jo Johnson, Jeffrey M. Kaplan, Sarah Keidan, John Patrick Kennedy, James and Judith Kleinberg, Paul E. Klotman, Jon Henry Kouba, Mark Kowalsky, Kenneth Kraemer, Kevan Kreitman, Ronald Krone, Jonathan Lorenz Kuhn, Daniel Landes and Sheryl Robbin, Elizabeth Weiss Lang, Warren Laski, Albert Y. Lau, Judith and Ken Lauter, John K. Lawrence, Jerold and Judith Lax, Andrew D. Leavitt, William and Linda. Leavitt (in honor of Donald Perigo and Laurence Goldstein), Steven N. Leber, Ruth O. Legon, Michael and Janet Leroy, Linda Levy, Sandra Robin Lieb, Michael Lieberman, Gail H. Lift, James and Marci Lindsay, Steven and Nancy Lippman, Mark Litchman, Deborah Reise Litvin, Richard M. Longnecker, Lisa Magnino, Jan Maisel and Douglas Currens, Susan Mann, Lynn V. Marentette, Robert Margo, Jacob and Ellyn Margulies, Zofia Marshall, Elizabeth Martin, Marjorie and David Mastie, Derek C. McCalmont, Jeffrey and Linda McIntyre, Anne Middleton, Gregory B. Milkins,
Laura Ariane Miller, Ross Miller, Simon and Sandra Miller, Martha L. Minow, Joel and Elaine Moranz, Ann Nachbar, William Nealon, Mary Beth Norton, Marsha Novick and Harvey Rosen, Everett J. Oliven, Hesed Padilla-Nash and William Nash, Sondra Panico and Stuart J. Levin, Cecilia M. Parajon, Justin Perl, Mark E. Perrin, John and Terry Pfefferle, Sue Pick, Steve Poceta, Michael and Penelope Pollard, Lawrence H. Price, Stephen Price, Barbara L. Quint, Linda L. Randell, Nancy L. Rando, Robert B. Ransom, Ruth Reichl, Mitchell S. Revsine, Cecilia Ridgeway, Liana Rinzler, Daniel and Sheryl Robbin, James Roelofs, Mitchel D. Rose, Carolyn Rosenberg, Jeffrey S. and Janice M. Platt Ross, Thomas Michael Rosseel, Patrick Rothwell, Robert Salipante, John E. Schafer, Randy J. Schafer, Shira A. Scheindlin, Bradley Schram, Howard and Laura Schwartz, Thomas and Maryellen Scott, Jerrold and Naomi Senser, Ralph Shahrigian, Ann Shapiro, Jacqueline R. Shapo, David G. Shappirio, Daniel M. Share, William Sharfman, Barbara and Stephen Shepard, Scott H. Shore, Jasvinder S. and Trepanjeet K. Sidhu, Marvin S. Siegel, Joseph Linda Wolk Simon, Devan Sipher, Michael and Barbara Sitrin, Louise Z. Smith, Michael E. Smith, Douglas and Alicia Sprigg, Robert and Sally Springstead, James Spurrier, Joseph A. Starr, Marc Isaac Steinberg, Mitchell Stengel, Elizabeth Sterenfeld, Susan Stevens, Andrew and Meredith Stoehr, Lynn and Thomas Streeter, Mark Daniel Sullivan, Mark Sutton, Alan D. Tannenbaum, Duane and Shelia Tarnacki, Stephen B. Tatter, Judith and Michael Thoyer, Elizabeth Y. Turner, Michael Useem, Nina Vinik, Dietmar Wagner, Joseph and Alyssa Wallen, Edward and Leigh Washabaugh, Mark Weber, Timothy E. Wilens, David and Carol Willen, Myra L. Willis, John H. Wilson Jr., Joseph Hays Wimsatt, Ken Wirt, Sally Benjamin Young, Jay H. Zimbler, Jeffrey and Elizabeth Zucker, The Benedek Family Foundation, The Fred and Cynthia Bodker Charitable Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City , The Weiner Family Foundation
Kenneth Buckfire Scholarship for Fifth Year Studies Through a generous gift from Honors alumnus Kenneth Buckfire, Co-Founder and Managing Director of the Wall Street consulting firm, Miller Buckfire, Honors was able to provide scholarship support to four exceptional students whose ambitious programs require a fifth undergraduate year at Michigan. Matthew Coleman came to UM with an Associates Degree from Washtenaw Community College and the long-term goal of teaching philosophy at the college level. In order to prepare an Honors thesis and to develop the depth of preparation necessary for a top-tier graduate program, Matthew will spend a fifth undergraduate year supported by the Buckfire Award. Elissa Dickson spent her junior year at the Université d’Aix-en-Provence where she discovered that, in addition to French and ecology, she found her interests all coming together in the field of anthropology. She will spend her fifth year laying the theoretical and methodological background she will need for graduate work in that field. Franco Muzzio was born in Argentina and came, with his family, to the US when he was a child. He did well in math and science and planned an engineering career similar to his father’s. What he did not expect was that his real passion lay in English literature despite that fact that English was not his first language. Having transferred from the College of Engineering, he needs a fifth year to complete his Honors thesis which will focus on Latina/o Literature. Peter Troyan came to UM prepared to major in physics and he has excelled. However, in his study of theoretical physics, he was introduced to advanced topics in pure mathematics which he found compelling. His fifth year will allow him to develop the kind of mathematical sophistication he will need for graduate study in pure math. You may have seen Pete’s excellent showing in last spring’s “Jeopardy! College Championship.” 11
Honors Launches New Website www.lsa.umich.edu/honors Be on the lookout for the new Honors website coming soon. Addresses for internal pages will change, but it will be easily navigable.
Honors Program The University of Michigan 1330 Mason Hall Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1027
NONPROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID ANN ARBOR, MI PERMIT NO. 144