Io Triumphe! The magazine for alumni, parents, and friends of Albion College

Vol. LXXII, No. 

The Year albion Beat notre dame 15

FALL

Bob armitage, ’70: what’s next in pharmaceuticals 18

homecoming highlights 52

IoTrIumphe!

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T he m AGAZINe

For

A LumNI

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F rIeNDS

Common Ground A look at new programs linking Albion to the world— and the women behind them

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A LBIoN C oLLeGe

A Couple of Couples • She’s from the Class of 1957, and he’s from the Class of 1956.

• They both worked hard to promote their 50th reunions.

• Together they contributed to the Class of 1957 Scholarship and the Class of 1956 Scholarship.

• They have been steady and generous supporters of the College, year after year.

• Albion is in their estate plan.

No, they are not “twin couples.” They just have a lot in common.

“Our Albion education gave us the skills to make wise choices and decisions. We have experienced an exciting and rewarding 50 years with our family, our professions, and our service to the community. And we are still growing and learning,” say Don, ’56, and Kathe Jewell Dempster, ’57.

“Fifty years ago we received a liberal arts education that benefi ted us in many ways, with lessons that have stayed with us throughout our lives. Now, we support Albion College so that today’s students may be challenged and inspired, just as we were,” say Dick, ’56, and JoAnn MacArthur Fluke, ’57.

Together they invite you to join them in service to and support of Albion College.

Don, ’56, and Kathe Jewell Dempster, ’57, (left) with Dick, ’56, and JoAnn MacArthur Fluke, ’57.

OFFICE OF INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEMENT 611 E. PORTER ST. ALBION, MI 49224 517/629-0242 advancement@albion.edu www.albion.edu/alumnigiving.asp

Susan Sadler is a partner in the law firm of Dawda, Mann, Mulcahy, The lux Fiat society ($50,000 and above) albion college Io Triumphe! and Sadler,The PLC, in Bloomfisociety eld ($25,000-$49,999) Giving societies The Trustees’ circle ($10,000-$24,999) Hills, Mich. She is currently a The president’s member of Albion College’sassociates Alumni ($5,000-$9,999) The purple & Gold society ($2,500-$4,999) Association Board of Directors.

The 1835 society ($1,835) The Briton round Table ($1,000-$2,499) The crest club ($500-$999) The shield club ($100-$499) The stockwell society (deferred gifts)

d. TrumpIe phoTo

• All of them have been active on various Albion boards and committees.

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IoTrIumphe!  2007

THe MagaZine for Alumni and Friends of Albion College

Features

8

Departments

Global Village Meet three faculty who bring the world to their students—and their students to the world.

15

The Year Albion Beat Notre Dame in Football Enjoy Frank Shipp’s delightful memoir of campus life in the 1890s.

18

The Structure of Innovation

3

Briton Bits

22

Albionotes

52

Alumni Association News

57

Li’l Brits

Learn about new directions in pharmaceuticals from industry expert Bob Armitage, ’70.

8 52 Cover photo by David Trumpie

18 Fall 2007 | 1

Perspect!ves

IoTriumphe!

Staff Vice President for Institutional Advancement: Eric Becher Editor: Sarah Briggs Contributing Writers: Morris Arvoy, ’90, Jake Weber, Bobby Lee

On Coloring Outside the Lines

Class Notes Writers: Nikole Lee, Luann Shepherd Design: Susan Carol Rowe Web Manager: Nicole Rhoads

In a recent edition of Newsweek, technology writer Steven Levy talked about the demise of the typewriter with the advent of the personal computer and about the leap of imagination that not only made the personal computer possible but put one in nearly every office and home in America.

As someone who started her writing career on a Smith-Corona manual, I can’t say I mourn for the days of the typewriter. I think nearly all of us “of a certain age” have at least one horror story connected to the typewriter. In college—this was back in the days when all term papers were prepared on a typewriter—a friend of mine was hard at work on a long paper the night before it was due. Well into typing the final draft, she took a break to get a glass of lemonade and brought it back to the desk where she was working. She resumed typing, and as she hit the carriage return (yes, typewriters had a “carriage,” and it had to be returned at the end of every line) over went the glass of lemonade onto her freshly typed pages. At that point, her only recourse was to retype the entire paper. To say she was dismayed by this turn of events is a gross understatement.

Clearly, the personal computer has changed our lives in countless ways, and like Steven Levy, I marvel at the creative insights that led to its development and continue to adapt this equipment to human needs and desires. In a liberal arts context, I think it is just this inventive turn of mind that we seek to cultivate in our students at Albion. A college education is about much more than learning facts and mastering theories. It also must be about seeing in new ways, making connections that no one has made before, and ultimately perceiving how revolutionary ideas can in fact benefit the larger society. | Io Triumphe!

This edition of Io Triumphe! celebrates invention on a number of levels. Our cover story features three women faculty, who with the advice and support of many of their colleagues, have in essence “colored outside the lines” in creating new interdisciplinary majors in women’s and gender studies, ethnic studies, and international studies.

Students in these programs can design their majors with courses drawn from a host of academic fields and can do so in ways that match closely with their personal interests and career goals. And as you will see, the teaching in these new programs is equally innovative, often drawing on a variety of media to get the message across and integrating field experiences that help make the learning tangible. Albion’s faculty have long prided themselves on their creative approaches to teaching; our cover story highlights only the latest manifestation of this tradition.

In another article in this issue, intellectual property lawyer Bob Armitage, ’70, talks about the role he plays in the national arena with regard to scientific discovery and creating a climate that fosters invention of all kinds.

To use a metaphor from the days when the typewriter reigned, you won’t find “carbon copies” here. And if you feel inclined to share a tale about your relationship with the typewriter, please feel free to write it on your PC and e-mail it to me at the address below!

Sarah Briggs, Editor sbriggs@albion.edu 517/629-0244

Io Triumphe! is published three times annually by the Office of Communications, Albion College, 611 E. Porter St., Albion, MI 49224. It is distributed free to alumni and friends of the College.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Office of Communications, Albion College, 611 E. Porter St., Albion, MI 49224.

World Wide Web: www.albion.edu Albion College is committed to a policy of equal opportunity and non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, or disability, as protected by law, in all educational programs and activities, admission of students, and conditions of employment.

About Our Name The unusual name for this publication comes from a yell written by members of the Class of 1900. The beginning words of the yell, “Io Triumphe!,” were probably borrowed from the poems of the Roman writer, Horace. Some phrases were taken from other college yells and others from a Greek play presented on campus during the period.

In 1936, the alumni of Albion College voted to name their magazine after the yell which by then had become a College tradition. For years, Albion’s incoming students have learned these lines by heart: Io Triumphe! Io Triumphe!

Haben swaben rebecca le animor Whoop te whoop te sheller de-vere De-boom de ral de-i de-pa— Hooneka henaka whack a whack A-hob dob balde bora bolde bara Con slomade hob dob rah!

Al-bi-on Rah!

T h e l ate s t n e w s a r o u n d c a m p u s

B r ! ton B ! ts the Rock

M. ARVOY PHOTO

Albion College sponsored a number of events in October to raise awareness of domestic violence and to educate the campus community on ways to address this issue on both a personal and a societal level. The College’s Anna Howard Shaw Women’s Center, Office of Residential Life, and Student Health Services sponsored these events in partnership with the Battle Creek domestic violence shelter, S.A.F.E. Place.

Olin Hall Gets Facelift during Summer Improvements Visitors will notice a number of changes made over the summer to campus facilities, most notably the removal of Epworth Hall and extensive renovations in Olin Hall.

Following the move of the Biology Department to newly constructed Kresge Hall last year, Olin Hall is now undergoing a thorough renovation to convert the former laboratory spaces on the first two floors for general classroom use. Office spaces are also being prepared for the Liberal Arts Institute for Premedical and Health Care Studies, the Education Department, and the Communications Studies Department, all of which will move into their new quarters in the coming months. The Psychology Department remains on Olin’s third floor, and renovations will be completed there as well.

Epworth Hall, which began life in 1916 as the home of the Physics Department and in recent years served as temporary office space, was demolished in July after it was determined that it could not be renovated due to structural issues. During the demolition process, metal from the building was recycled, and the limestone base and engraved nameplate were removed and saved for future use on the campus.

Epworth’s Spanish-style roof tiles were sold to a restoration roofing firm. The area has now reverted to green space, opening up the Quadrangle to unobstructed views of Goodrich Chapel and Wesley Hall. Future plans include creating a landscaped walkway connecting Wesley and Goodrich to the Quad.

Increasing student interest in the College’s equestrian program resulted in

the expansion this summer of the Held Equestrian Center’s Heathman Indoor Arena and the construction of a second 40stall stable block.

For more on the history of Epworth Hall, including a gallery of sheet signs displayed there through the years, go to our online edition: www.albion.edu/ iotriumphe/ .

Fall 2007 |

Br!ton B!ts

Correction In the Summer 2007 Io Triumphe! back cover photo featuring the Holocaust studies program’s trip to Poland, we misidentifi ed one of the students. Laura Willobee, ’07, should have been listed as one of the students pictured. We regret the error.

4 | Io Triumphe!

An October visit by the ASA Tel Aviv women’s soccer club made possible a cultural exchange on many levels. Here, members of the Israeli club, wearing medals presented by the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association, and the Briton women’s soccer squad pause for the playing of their countries’ national anthems prior to a scrimmage at Alumni Field. Later, the Israelis met with Albion students for an informal discussion led by College chaplain Dan McQuown.

landmarks & legends

m. arVoY phoTos

Eric Becher joined Albion College as vice president for institutional advancement in August. In this role, Becher oversees the areas of alumni/parent relations, major and planned gifts, corporate and foundaEric Becher tion relations, the Albion Annual Fund, and external communications. He previously served as vice president for institutional advancement, marketing, and institutional research at Concordia University-Ann Arbor.

“Eric Becher’s 27 years in higher education—both as a music faculty member and as an administrator—have uniquely prepared him to lead Albion’s Offi ce of Institutional Advancement,” said President Donna Randall. “He has extensive experience in strategic planning and a solid record of fund-raising success—both of which will be extremely valuable as we assess the opportunities we have before us here at Albion.”

While at Concordia University-Ann Arbor, Becher broadened the reach of the entire advancement program, which resulted in signifi cant increases in annual giving and number of donors. He also led the university’s comprehensive strategic planning process.

Prior to joining the national Concordia University System in 2003, he served for three years at the University of Connecticut Foundation, including two years on the senior staff team as assistant vice president. He worked on all aspects of the university’s $470million capital campaign, with a special focus on the fund-raising for the School of Fine Arts.

Becher began his career as a university music educator and band director. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music education from the University of Michigan and is a Ph.D. candidate in higher education administration at the University of Louisville.

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Becher Heads Advancement Staff

the stockwell Legacy In 1909, madelon stockwell Turner signed her last will and testament, creating a bequest to albion college in honor of her parents, charles and louisa peabody stockwell. charles was the first principal of albion college’s forerunner, the wesleyan seminary, and louisa was the daughter of an early settler in albion. Turner told then-president samuel dickie that she wished to fund the construction of a building on campus. however, on june 4, 1924, Turner died, with the whereabouts of the 15-year-old will unknown and the college’s claim to her fortune unsubstantiated. more than a week later, the will was finally located in a safe deposit box by investigators, and the college was informed that it had indeed inherited the bulk of her estate, totaling approximately $330,000. In her will, she also specified that the building—which finally took shape as stockwell memorial library— should “contain one room, wherein shall be properly arranged my carved rosewood furniture of eleven pieces, and all the pictures of my own work, both drawings and paintings, and all of my china paintings,” along with many other items. These personal effects remain on display today in the library’s special collections room.

Students Bring Home National, State Awards Albion College’s Mortar Board chapter recently received the Silver Torch Award and Project Excellence Award for the 2006-07 academic year at the organization’s national conference this summer.

The Albion College chapter was one of 51 chapters honored with the Silver Torch Award, exemplifying the organization’s ideals of scholarship, leadership, and service. Catherine Fontana, 2007-08 chapter president, was present to accept the award on behalf of the group.

The chapter also received a Project Excellence Award for their dedication to the Mortar Board national project, “Reading is Leading.” The award recognized their efforts in support of the 2007 Homecoming book drive. (For more on the book drive’s success, see page 52.) The chapter was one of only 24 to receive the Project Excellence Award.

Mortar Board is a national honor society that recognizes college seniors for outstanding achievement in scholarship, leadership, and service. The Chevron chapter at Albion College was founded in 1941.

The Michigan Collegiate Press Association recently honored Albion College’s student newspaper, The Pleiad, with seven awards, including two first-place awards, for stories and design in its 2006-07 editions.

News editor Holly Setter, who received awards for investigative reporting and an opinion column, said, “It was great to be personally recognized in two categories, but even more exciting was the fact that broader sections of the newspaper were recognized in three categories. Having the news page,

features page, and general excellence of the paper rewarded really lends itself to a sense of accomplishment.”

The Pleiad has won a number of recognition awards over the past three years in the weekly newspaper category.

In addition to these student honors, Laura Williams, Pleiad adviser and visiting assistant professor of English, was elected in September to serve a one-year term on the board of the Michigan Collegiate Press Association.

U-CAN Counters College Ranking Systems Albion College has come out in support of a new national initiative to provide objective information to help prospective students judge the quality of higher education institutions. The online University and College Accountability Network (U-CAN) was launched in September by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, with Albion as one of the more than 500 inaugural participants.

“This initiative is a direct result of criticism about the U.S. News & World Report rankings,” said President Donna Randall.

“There has been a groundswell of support

across the country for a new, objective system.” The primary concern among colleges has been the subjectivity and the potential for inaccuracy in the rankings published by U.S. News and other national media.

U-CAN provides institutional profiles that contain comparable data among institutions, along with links to the colleges’ Web sites for more in-depth qualitative information.

Visit the U-CAN Web site at: www.ucannetwork.org/ .

Biking and hiking enthusiasts now enjoy the Albion community’s new River Trail, formally opened in October. Beginning just west of Bellemont Manor, the paved trail runs 1.6 miles along the Kalamazoo River as it winds through Victory and Rieger Parks and passes in front of City Hall and through forested areas west of town. It connects with scenic back roads at each end point.

“We couldn’t have done it without the support of the College,” said Nidia Wolf, director of Albion’s Downtown Development Authority (DDA). Through its Gerstacker Community Grants Initiative, Albion College contributed $75,000 toward the $1-million price tag, as part of the matching funds needed to qualify for a Michigan Department of Transportation grant. Wolf noted that many College faculty and staff were involved over the past two decades in planning the project.

S. BRIGGS PHOTO

River Trail Opens

The new River Trail as it winds through the city parks.

The trail also includes a new dock and an access site near downtown, improvements that “make the river safer and more accessible

for canoes and kayaks,” according to College canoeing instructor Keith Havens.

—Jake Weber Fall 2007 |

Br!ton B!ts

Two Minutes with . . . Gary Wahl

short takes

By Morris Arvoy

Gary Wahl, assistant professor of art, specializes in photography and sculpture.

Wahl: One thing I try to get students to think about is that, in our culture, visual literacy is almost as important as written literacy. We see more images that we recognize each day—from a delicious bottle of Pepsi to a weary soldier in Iraq—than we do in written language, so it’s important that we learn how to see them and know how they function.

In your First-Year Experience seminar you have the students discover ways to better understand their new Albion community, photography, and themselves. How? In class, the students take pictures of the Albion community and also turn the camera on each other to learn what it’s like to be photographed.

At the Festival of the Forks, we take portraits of people in the community, and students see that even the 30 seconds of interaction that goes on when they take someone’s photograph changes their view of their subject. In class the students feel very scrutinized by the camera. But at the Festival of the Forks, they see people who are very willing to have their photograph taken. It changes the students’ perception of this society—they see Albion as being very friendly.

Students are learning more than the fundamentals of photography.

The act of taking photographs for class helps the students understand why we take what we take, why we leave out what we leave out, and why we choose some frames over others. They see that there is always a measure of the truth, but never the entirety of the truth.

| Io Triumphe!

D. TRUMPIE PHOTO

Io Triumphe!: How has photography changed our world view?

Photography professor Gary Wahl notes that many times people remember a photograph rather than an event itself. “We can get caught up in the images,” he says, “as a shorthand for our memories.”

You are a sculptor and a photographer.

How do those media work together?

As an artist, I am always looking. I have a camera on me as often as I can. I take digital images as a journal to remember those I wish to record later on film. But sometimes those original digital ones work best. From my photo work, I will often get ideas of some surfaces for sculpture, and I might react to the photos in creating a sculpture in concrete and iron. The different media address the same topics but use different metaphors.

Film is dead, right?

The rumors of film’s demise are premature.

There is a neo-primitive movement that is wary of digital. It’s always improving and upgrading—the constant game of catch-up can be wearying. Film, on the other hand, uses technology that changes much more slowly. With our department’s hybrid approach, you can take an image on film, scan it on a computer, output to inkjet media, go back to film, or even go back

to a 19th-century hand-applied emulsion on glass, tin, or paper. It really opens up formats and possibilities.

Data storage is always an issue with digital, as well.

Yes, film stores the data more permanently, you get a better grayscale, and the light matrix of silver on film is very stable. We have had over a hundred years of images on film. With digital images, I’m always waiting for my hard drives to crash.

You have said that, for many students, photography is the first and only exposure to art they will have in four years. Do you like working with them?

Often I have students who say they don’t have a creative bone in their body, and I wish I had an anatomy chart on the wall to show them that bone doesn’t exist in any of us. They end up crafting a great image that they are very proud of, and it excites me.

Go Br!ts!

An Albion Ace Neil Forster didn’t know he could fit so much into a day—and ultimately a college career— until he met Albion tennis coach Scott Frew.

Growing up in Midland, Forster began playing tennis at the age of four, and he went on to achieve a top-100 ranking on the junior circuit and first-team All-State honors for four years at Dow High School. Intent on entering the health care profession, Forster passed up opportunities to play at an NCAA Division I institution and instead chose Albion because of its strong reputation in premedical studies.

“I was hesitant [about playing tennis for Albion] at first,” Forster said. “I was hitting serves on my own one day, and Coach Frew asked me to come out for the team. He showed me a lot about scheduling and time management.”

After sitting out the tennis season his junior year to prepare for the Medical College Admission Test, Forster enjoyed a remarkable senior year. Academically, he graduated summa cum laude with a 3.99 grade-point average. This past summer, he worked as a research intern with Pfizer before beginning pursuit of an M.D. degree at the University of Toledo College of Medicine.

On the court, Forster led the men’s tennis team to its first-ever berth in the NCAA

j. meade PHOTO

By Bobby Lee Sports Information Director

Now a first-year student at the University of Toledo College of Medicine, Neil Forster, ’07, says his undergraduate research experiences, including a summer at Cardiff University in Wales funded by the National Science Foundation, gave him a competitive edge in applying to medical school.

Division III Championships and became the first Briton selected as the MIAA’s most valuable player in the sport. Among his post-season accolades, he received the Dr. Lawrence Green Award (presented to the MIAA’s top scholar-athlete in men’s tennis) and an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, and he was selected to the ESPN, The Magazine Academic AllAmerica first team.

During his senior year, Forster’s day typically started at 9 a.m. with classes and labs. Then he was off to tennis practice from 6-8 p.m. The evening hours featured more academic work, including writing the honors thesis he completed under chemistry professor Andrew French.

Now enrolled in medical school, Forster is still uncertain about his future area of specialization. He is interested in surgery, but he says he enjoyed his past research experiences so much that he may look into a career in academic medicine, allowing him to combine patient care and research.

After a highly successful career at Albion, Forster says he is grateful for all of the advice and support he received from the faculty and staff.

“They are so dedicated to the students. It is hard to put into words.”

Did you know that you can find all of the following on the Albion College sports Web site?

• Sports news and results

• SportsNet broadcast schedules

• Schedules and rosters

• Sports archives

Follow the Britons at: www.albion.edu/sports/.

It’s the next best thing to being here!

B. LEE PHOTO

Briton Sports on the Web To receive regular sports updates, sign up for Briton SportsNews at: www.albion.edu/sports/ or e-mail Bobby Lee at blee@albion.edu.

Forster led the 2007 men’s tennis team to its first-ever berth in the NCAA Division III Championships and claimed Academic AllAmerica honors.

Fall 2007 |

GLoBAL vILLAGe At this fall’s Matriculation Ceremony, history professor Marcy Sacks offered this advice to the new students gathered before her: As you pursue your education here, take advantage of the breadth of subjects that Albion has to offer. expose yourselves to new worlds and pursue your intellectual curiosities. read Greek philosophy, learn to identify the celestial constellations, explore the cultures of Asian nomads, and discover the rich biodiversity of the tropical rainforests. Learn to dance, sculpt, create computer programs, distinguish bird songs, and write poetry. By casting wide your intellectual net, you will leave Albion college upon graduation with the capacity to think, and therefore to live fully. . . . I encourage you to seize the opportunity that Albion college provides, to soar. Immerse yourself in the intellectual challenges of learning new things.

Push yourself beyond the familiar—not simply because it will possibly land you a job one day but

Her comments capture the essence of liberal arts education at Albion College. For decades, Albion has excelled in providing an education that crosses over academic boundaries and helps students see and understand the connections among diverse fields of study.

Through the “Liberal Arts at Work” Vision, the College has established three new programs that further underscore this commitment to an interdisciplinary view of the world: women’s and gender studies, ethnic studies, and international studies. In the following faculty profiles, you will learn more about the three dynamic women who, with the involvement of many faculty colleagues, are now giving shape to these programs, and how these programs are in turn making a lasting impact in students’ lives.

8 | Io Triumphe!

d. TrumpIe phoTo

because it will make your life richer.

During the 11 years she spent living in the American Southwest, Trisha Franzen developed a special interest in Native American cultures—she’s holding a replica of a Navajo hogan—and often incorporates Native American world views into her teaching on women’s and gender studies.

Meet three faculty who bring the world to their students—and their students to the world

Women’s & Gender studies

trisha Franzen

By Sarah Briggs The title of Trisha Franzen’s fi rst-year seminar, “Women’s Worlds: Gender in Global Perspective” reveals a lot about the course—and its instructor. For Franzen, teaching her students about the roles and contributions of women in the U.S. is in some respects merely a jumping off point for an examination of women in societies around the world.

“We need to understand how interconnected and interdependent women’s issues are across national boundaries,” Franzen says, “from who makes our clothes and grows our food to how we infl uence each other’s concepts of freedom.”

Using fi lms, novels, histories, and current events, Franzen engages her seminar students in looking at women’s roles in their families, in education, and in the workforce, and at how women across the globe are changing their own societies and working together for change across national borders.

One of the high points of the course is a trip to Mexico City during fall break. Franzen and her

student voices Being involved in albion’s women’s and gender studies program opened my eyes. I was always aware of the issues going on—gender inequality, sexism, homophobia—but never understood how they pertained to me. It wasn’t until I experienced sexism firsthand that the shock of the situation motivated me to learn why it was happening and how I could make sure that it didn’t happen again.

Through the women’s and gender studies program, I’ve gained the historical context, but it’s about so much more than that. Knowing what the issues are, learning the theoretical aspects, understanding the activism—I’ve grown so much in the way that I view the world, because I see how everything is affected. By ignoring the inequalities, you’re allowing them to happen.

students look at how Mexican women are portrayed, using resources as diverse as Aztec artifacts from Tenochtitlan, the sacred images at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and the Diego Rivera murals at the National Palace. And as they walk about the city’s various quarters and tour the local markets, they observe Mexican women today. It’s all about “active learning,” and getting students to see the world—and especially women—differently.

“My students often don’t realize the history or the current diversity of Mexican women,” Franzen explains.

“There’s a lot more to Mexican culture than what they imagined.”

The course ends with presentations modeled in format after a UN conference, in which the students exhibit what they have learned about women in a particular culture or nation.

Franzen adopts an active approach to learning in her “Introduction to Women’s Studies” course as well. In class and through analysis of assigned readings and current events, the students explore topics such as women’s health care, sexuality, race, violence against women, and images of women in the media. Class discussions on such emotionally charged issues can be intense and sometimes intimidating. Franzen, her students say, encourages everyone to express their views.

“She’s very good about making sure that you can voice your opinion,” senior Danielle Poulin says, “and even if she doesn’t agree, you don’t necessarily know that. You have the opportunity to discuss your ideas with the other students.”

Through her courses, Franzen observes, students begin to “look at themselves differently. They think about applying women’s and gender studies to everyday life. . . . I want them to think about their futures. Some of these issues won’t be signifi cant to them until they are faced with life decisions—whether to have a longterm relationship, whether to have children, balancing a career and family. They need to think about who makes those decisions and why.”

The exploration doesn’t stop there, however.

Franzen also has created an after-school “girls’ club” program one day a week at the Albion Middle School.

The College students in the introductory women’s

Danielle Poulin, ’08 Fall 2007 | 9

studies course spend time one-on-one with the young teens in sports and in activities that introduce them to science and the arts. “Our students gain a tremendous amount from this involvement,” Franzen says, noting it prepares them for a time when they will become infl uential decision-makers in their own communities and beyond. If you’re going to make public policy, she adds, you fi rst have to know more about others who may be different from you.

Danielle Poulin was attracted to women’s studies, partly because she could design her own major drawn from fi elds as diverse as art history, English, history, and theatre. “The interdisciplinary aspect is one of the things I liked the most,” she says. “You’re pulling from across different disciplines—seeing how it all comes together.”

Senior David Geer, who is completing a women’s studies minor in addition to his English major, says he was drawn to this fi eld because it is so universal. If you are “interested in making a better society and celebrating difference,” he notes, women’s and gender studies helps you fi rst understand your society as it currently exists.

Though common on virtually every college and university campus today, women’s and gender studies was just emerging as Franzen entered graduate school in the early 1980s, and she studied with some of the pioneers in the fi eld at the State University of New York at Buffalo and at the University of New Mexico.

“Women’s studies answered so many questions I had had,” Franzen refl ects. “I was a child of the ’60s—I had always been politically involved. But I had resisted feminism, as many people had. When I fi nally took a women’s studies class, I found that it answered so many of the questions I had about the situation of women in the world as well as about my own experiences. It also provided a framework that valued and validated the approaches developed by and for women.”

Franzen’s activist stance still infl uences her teaching.

She hopes her students will always challenge the status quo. “I want to empower them so they will then want to continue learning. Things are always changing . . . we need to open up people’s intellects . . . question what we know.”

Formerly the director of Albion’s Anna Howard Shaw Women’s Center, Franzen continues to be involved in activities outside the classroom that address current concerns in women’s and gender studies.

Poulin, as past president of Break the Silence, Albion’s gay rights organization, says Franzen’s role as 10 | Io Triumphe!

the group’s adviser was key in its being named 2006 Organization of the Year. “Learning with her and working with her on projects,” Poulin says, “I’ve felt she was always there to guide me in the right direction. . . .

She’s a very caring person.”

David Geer, who participated in a panel presentation with Franzen at the National Women’s Studies Conference in 2006, says, “Trisha is amazing. For the students in the program, it’s not like the usual professor-student relationship. She’s just really understanding. . . . She wants to help people learn, and she’s always interested in learning herself.”

He adds, “I don’t think I would be the person I am without Trisha Franzen—I can’t even explain how much she has affected me. It’s beyond words.”

Trisha Franzen came to Albion in 1992 as director of the Anna Howard Shaw Women’s Center, after completing her Ph.D. at the University of New Mexico. She was appointed as an associate professor of women’s and gender studies in 2003. Author of a book on independent women in the U.S., she is currently working on a biography of Albion alumna and national women’s suffrage leader Anna Howard Shaw.

ethnic studies

Diana Ariza

By Sarah Briggs One day early this semester, ethnic studies professor Diana Ariza treated her “Caribbean Identity” class to fried bananas which she had prepared and brought in for sampling. It proved to be a nearly perfect teaching moment. As the students tried out the Caribbean favorite, they learned more about the cultures for which bananas are a dietary staple. At the same time, the food became a springboard for a discussion about the changing global dynamics of this key agricultural export crop.

It was just one example of how Ariza weaves together the many threads that make up the complex fi eld of ethnic studies, which at Albion focuses on ethnic identity and immigration as well as the culture, history, and contributions of various ethnic groups in the United States.

student voices when people ask my major, they expect history, they understand art, but they are intrigued by ethnic studies. ethnic studies is an important way to understand your community, other communities, and the world. It provides essential insights and experience for anyone pursuing a career in non-profit administration, community relations, law, government, education, health care, and many other fields. ethnic studies, in my eyes, is about understanding and connecting the community as a whole. The professional world sees that albion college is making these connections and is willing to dedicate itself to a diverse yet more united community. The major is new at albion, but it has the power behind it to grow and become something extraordinary.

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“I draw on fi lm, music, and oral histories, as well as readings on race and ethnicity,” Ariza explains. “The course work has to be meaningful to the students.”

While her doctorate focused on ethnic relations, the subject is much more than a scholarly interest for Ariza. The daughter of a Polish-American mother and a Puerto Rican father, she lived most of her life up to the age of 17 in Puerto Rico. Her family then migrated to Florida, where she graduated from high school and college before moving to Michigan in 1983. Her heritage, she says, has given her unique insights into ethnicity and how diverse ethnic groups gain acceptance in American society.

She regularly challenges her students with questions like “What does it mean to be an American citizen but have these other identities?”

In her courses, she and her students spend considerable time defi ning ethnic identities. She fi nds that students whose families are far removed from the immigrant experience often struggle with this concept.

Likewise, they may also have trouble articulating what it means to be an American. So she fi rst asks them to trace their own ethnic heritage by interviewing family members and learning, sometimes for the fi rst time, what cultural infl uences are at work in their own lives.

They soon arrive at a better understanding of the immigrant experience.

“What I want my students to understand,” Ariza says, “is that ‘them’ is ‘all of us.’”

Senior Alex Leheta, whose grandparents emigrated from the Ukraine in the 1950s and who comes from a

The daughter of a Polish-American mother and a Puerto Rican father, ethnic studies professor Diana Ariza has long been fascinated by the ways in which ethnic heritage shapes our identity as Americans. Her current research deals with the challenges that Hispanic communities face in adapting to Anglo society while maintaining their ethnic identity. home that is still bilingual, says she appreciates Ariza’s sensitivity to students like herself for whom ethnic heritage is a point of pride. Leheta also praises Ariza’s ability to help students see diversity in new ways. “She incites a lot of thought and conversation,” Leheta says. “She’s very open and welcoming.”

Ariza’s Latina heritage is invaluable in teaching her fi rst-year seminar course on Puerto Rico. Drawing from music, dance, fi lm, literature, and history, the course looks at how some Puerto Ricans, like Jennifer Lopez,

Danielle Joseph, ’08 Fall 2007 | 11

have gained celebrity status, but also at how demeaning stereotypes still persist. And she and her students consider the complex relationship of the U.S. and its most populous territory, and how Puerto Ricans continue to be politically, economically, and socially marginalized regardless of their U.S. citizenship. This year, during the College’s winter break, the class will also spend eight days traveling in Puerto Rico. The trip will enable the students to apply what they have learned in class about identity and migration through observing San Juan and other communities, visiting museums, and engaging with Puerto Ricans in formal interviews and conversations.

In all of her teaching, Ariza says her goal is for students to take what they learn in the classroom and have it cross over into their daily lives. “That’s a ‘win-win’ situation for us as faculty.” Students do understand the relevance of ethnic studies, she says, and how it applies to other majors.

Alex Leheta, who wants to enter elementary education in a bilingual setting, sees her ethnic studies courses as a core part of her preparation. And she credits Ariza for setting her on this path. “Diana Ariza is the primary force behind what I’m doing. . . . As a woman teacher, she is a role model. She is a power to be reckoned with. I hope I can infl uence my students the way she has infl uenced me.”

Ariza points out that an understanding of cultural diversity is essential for students today, regardless of the career fi eld they plan to pursue. This understanding enables them “to thrive personally and socially in the United States and the rest of the world.”

Ariza fi rst came to Albion College in 2001 as its assistant dean of intercultural affairs, after having worked in that fi eld at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, and before that in college admissions. “At Albion, unlike other places where I have worked, there is an opportunity to cross ethnic borders,” she refl ects.

“You can be comfortable doing that here.” Albion recognizes, she says, that “majority” students need to be engaged and supported in intercultural dynamics as much, if not more, than the students from underrepresented populations do. “I really felt that this was a home for me in promoting that awareness.”

In her intercultural affairs role at the College, she led and helped secure $14,000 in grant support for the Albion Youth Initiative, a program that assists Albion High School students in preparing academically for college and shepherds them through the college application process. She also worked extensively with 12 | Io Triumphe!

underrepresented students on campus, helped develop a campus-wide diversity plan that is still in use, and advised 11 multicultural student organizations.

“My goal is for students taking ethnic studies to leave with more than just an appreciation for diversity,” Ariza concludes. “I hope they can take with them a deeper understanding by developing the sensitivity and the communication skills needed to interact with people from a wide range of ethnic/cultural backgrounds at work, and in their communities and neighborhoods.”

Diana Ariza was named assistant professor of ethnic studies at Albion in 2005, after serving for four years as the College’s assistant dean of intercultural affairs. She holds a doctorate in sociology from Western Michigan University with a concentration in race and ethnic relations. Her current research focuses on Florida’s Puerto Rican and secondgeneration Hispanic communities and the challenges they face in education, identity, and adaptation.

International studies

Midori Yoshii

By Jake Weber Lizzie Mitchell, ’05, recalls that in her “Power and Culture in the Asia/Pacifi c” seminar international studies professor Midori Yoshii put a unique spin on the standard research paper assignment. “We chose our own research topics, but the entire class had input on whether we all thought a given topic was interesting,” she notes. “That was really cool, because why should you write on something that no one cares about?”

Mitchell further explained that, each week in class, each student would give an update on his or her research progress, again with the expectation of incorporating other students’ suggestions into their work. “I voted for people to research things I wanted to learn more about,” she remembers. “People did papers on topics like the Vietnam War and Chinese/Japanese confl ict, and as they researched, I learned more. So the fi nal presentations were exciting for all of us.”

Combining learning and excitement, with an international focus, is both a professional and a personal goal for Midori Yoshii. A native of Japan and a specialist in U.S.-East Asian relations, Yoshii has published the results from her research on the Kennedy/Johnson administrations, and is currently working on how

President Nixon’s relations with China affected Japan and Taiwan.

Yoshii admits that American history and culture have intrigued her since childhood. She is a rabid Boston Red Sox fan and attends a dozen or more professional baseball games each year. As a teenager, she spent a year as an exchange student in Plymouth, Mich. It was the early ’80s, Yoshii recalls, a time when America’s view of Japan was split between fascination with Japanese history as depicted in the popular miniseries Shogun and fear over Japan’s growing technological prowess as embodied in Toyota and Sony. “I found this dichotomy paradoxical, and I was caught in it too,” muses Yoshii. “That was the beginning of my personal quest to learn how people in different cultures could understand or misunderstand each other.”

Yoshii earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Japan, and after completing a master’s in history at Boston University, began her college teaching career in Japan. However, she found she missed working with American students. “Japanese students have good ideas about complex issues, but oftentimes, their perspectives are similar because they go through a very uniform education system,” Yoshii notes. “Here, students come from different places with different educational backgrounds. You have students from all over the world.

And that makes for much more lively class discussions.”

Her own interest in pursuing wide-ranging ideas, Yoshii says, prompted her to apply for Albion’s

International studies is to me, and to many of my friends, one of the most interesting and fun majors that albion has to offer. I love its interdisciplinary focus and the variety of courses available in the major. Because there are so many ways to shape an individual’s major, two students with an Is degree could have completely distinct educations. and I think that is important, because there are lots of different kinds of people in the program.

I want to work for a human rights organization abroad someday, but my friends want to work for the un or some other diplomatic or governmental organization, or for an international corporation. all these different paths are possible with an Is major. most importantly, Is is becoming more and more relevant in our society, which is inarguably a global society.

Emily Weber, ’08

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student voices A native of Japan, international studies professor Midori Yoshii first came to the U.S. as a high school exchange student. “That was the beginning of my personal quest to learn how people in different cultures could understand or misunderstand each other.” international studies (IS) position, after she earned her doctorate in history at Boston University in 2003.

“In IS, I can teach global perspectives,” says Yoshii.

“Teaching helps me keep my eyes open to international problems. This works well for me.”

Citing topics such as global warming, free trade, immigration, and religious extremism, Yoshii notes that “global issues, by their very nature, cannot be fully understood unless you examine them from multiple perspectives at the same time. So the views of different

Fall 2007 | 13

nations and cultures and the analytical approaches of different disciplines all need to be integrated together.” The liberal arts college setting is ideal for the interdisciplinary study needed to fully understand and appreciate these complex concerns, she says.

Yoshii spends much of her time helping IS students custom-design their areas of concentration within the major. Always the emphasis is on looking at social, political, economic, and historical forces across national boundaries—so an IS major might choose to focus on international environmental studies or on Pacifi c Rim economics. Add in the IS requirement of at least two years of foreign language study and an off-campus experience, and it becomes clear that this major provides both broad and deep training in international issues and cross-cultural skills.

“My freedom to choose classes that I think will benefi t me in the future has allowed me to pursue my interests and begin to specialize in topics relevant to my career goals,” says senior IS and Spanish major Emily Weber. “Probably most valuable to my IS education has been the year I spent in Spain, including a fantastic internship with a non-governmental organization in Madrid. Every day, I was able to see how the world interacts, and how I play a role in the international community.”

The students note that Yoshii’s limitless curiosity about her subject makes her a valued mentor.

“We would have new ideas every time we met,” says Menna-Kristina Baumann, ’07, an international studies major who did a directed study with Yoshii on modern French immigration and naturalization issues. Baumann adds that at many of their weekly meetings Yoshii would give her lists of suggested research materials. “She was searching databases about my topic, because she said it was an interesting new topic for her too,” says Baumann.

Though trained as a historian, Yoshii includes relevant material from a broad array of fi elds in her teaching. “I try to give as many examples as possible to explain the multiple facets of a topic,” she notes.

14 | Io Triumphe!

“For instance, the signifi cance of World War II can be interpreted in many different ways, depending on whether you are a historian, political scientist, or psychologist. So I try to incorporate as many of these perspectives as possible to expand students’ views of such issues.”

Lizzie Mitchell, who is now teaching English in China, says that during their research review meetings Yoshii expected all students not to simply summarize their weekly progress, but also to give opinions on what they had learned. “She would play devil’s advocate,” Mitchell says. “No matter what we thought, she would always turn it around and make us look at it another way.”

Sophomore French and IS major Mark Anthony Arceno notes, “I remember one class when Dr. Yoshii asked how Americans perceived Asian women. I said we think they’re nice and compassionate and caring.

She said, ‘I hope I’m not that nice!’ She is that nice, but she’s also very tough. Sometimes you don’t want to hear the bad things about your paper, but she always fi nds a way to help.”

While her students might attribute the recent increase in IS majors to Yoshii, she is quick to credit Albion itself with fostering this program. “This very interactive atmosphere—it’s not necessarily American . . . it’s an Albion thing,” she refl ects. “This college really encourages close working relations between professors and students, and also among faculty and staff members in different departments. I think this is incredibly valuable, and it has created a wonderfully supportive environment for my work.”

A native of Nagoya, Japan, Midori Yoshii earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in international relations from Tsuda College in Tokyo, and a master’s and Ph.D. in history from Boston University. She joined the Albion faculty as assistant professor of international studies in 2004. Her research interests include the history of U.S. policy toward East Asia during the 20th century.

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. . . and other memories from Frank Shipp, Class of 1896 Frank Shipp originally came to Albion in 1889 to study in the Preparatory Department, which offered the equivalent of today’s high school course work. He stayed on to attend college and received diplomas from the Literary College and from the Business Department in 1896. The reminiscences below are excerpted from a memoir that Shipp wrote later in life. They provide revealing—and often humorous—glimpses of student life more than 100 years ago.

After graduating from Albion, Shipp went on to a career as a business executive and bank president in Gaylord, Mich. He passed away in 1951. Shipp was among the 10 individuals inducted into the College’s Athletic Hall of Fame at Homecoming 2007. The Albion tradition has continued in the Shipp family through Frank’s daughter, Eleanor Shipp Peterson, ’21, son, Leland Shipp, ’26, and three grandsons including Samuel Butcher, ’58, George Butcher, ’61, and Frank Shipp, ’61.

[When I entered the Preparatory Department at Albion,] my fi rst roommate was Willis Maynard. . . . We secured a room at the old Octagon House on Erie Street, for fi fty cents per week, and our meals cost us $1.75 per week, so you can see that our expenses were not high. We managed to live, tho’ I could have eaten all of the bread placed on the table for six myself, and still have been hungry. For two country boys who had worked hard and always had all we wanted to eat at home, it was pretty slim picking, but we did not have the money to pay more. So we contented ourselves with occasionally being extravagant enough to buy a pound of bologna and a pound of crackers for eighteen cents, and having a feed in our room to get fi lled up after we had eaten supper at the boarding club.

Shipp wearing his sartorial best near graduation time.

Fall 2007 | 15

It was a new world to me, and I was very shy and self-conscious, and took no part in the activities of the school this fi rst year. I had a very good $15 suit of clothes for best, but my everyday clothes were poor and ill-fi tting as was my overcoat.

Captaining the football team for the “Pink and Green.”

The original College Chapel as it looked in Shipp’s day.

next day and take his place on the “scrubs,” which I consented to do. After a little ball-tossing the teams lined up for practice. I was placed on the left end, and told to stop anyone who came around that way.

Jake Anderson was playing left half for the regulars, an excellent player and a hard runner. Soon I saw him coming my way and I tackled him low and stopped him in his tracks. That play was the turning point in my career at Albion. . . .

The last thing I had done that fall before going to school was to cut twenty acres of corn, . . . and I cut it in twelve days, tho’ an acre a day was good work in that kind of corn. I would be eighteen in a few days, weighed 160 pounds, and was hard as nails. Prof.

Samuel Barr . . . suggested that I had better come out regularly for practice. Someone found me a suit, and I always played until graduation. This experience gave me some of the self-confi dence I so much needed, for I had done something which won the applause of the students.

I had never played football, but I had watched the team practice the year before, and did the same when I returned [for my second year]. I would have liked to play, but I had no suit, and no money to buy one, for in those days everyone furnished their own outfi t.

The fi rst team was always looking for “scrubs” to come out and be pushed around, so the team could have some practice. One day a friend of mind who had a suit, and was to be away for a few days, brought I commenced the study of Latin, which Dad thought was a very foolish thing for a farmer to do. The his suit to my room and asked me to go out the Philozetian Society [a student literary society] was very prosperous. We met every Friday evening and had a fi ne program with much music and parliamentary drill. It usually ended with a grand march, which was the nearest thing to dancing we were allowed in this staid old Methodist school.

[In my freshman year of college,] my fi rst good luck was to obtain the stewardship of Mary’s Boarding Club, the largest and best club in Albion. Mary Heinbach owned the house, just across Porter Street from the chapel. There was room for forty-two boarders, and I always had it full. Mary furnished the house, dishes, and cooking for sixty cents per week from each boarder. I secured the boarders, bought all the groceries, collected for the board, and looked after all business connected with the club. Board was $2.10 per week. . . . For this work I received ten cents per week from each boarder, and my room and board. Room and board and $4.20 per week made me more than self-supporting, and paid my entire school expenses including clothes. . . .

16 | Io Triumphe!

I was now a full-fl edged college man, member of the Sigs [Sigma Chi fraternity], and . . . fi rst president of my class. . . . During this winter, [the conservatory] organized a college band. Always a lover of music, I wanted to join and play the trombone, but did not have the money to buy an instrument, as I had just bought a bicycle. . . . They put me on bass drum, saying that I could have a trombone later; but for three years I lugged that old drum around, and never did get to play the trombone.

[During football season in 1894,] we were on the fi eld every day at three-thirty, rain or shine, and usually evenings in the gym worked on signal practice. . . . We played eight games, lost one to the University [of Michigan], tho’ our score was 24-10, tied one with Notre Dame, score 6-6, and won six, winning all of the intercollegiate games.

Our most thrilling experience was with Notre Dame. In those days their team was not allowed to go away, and all of their games were played on their home grounds. Our fi rst game was November 8th—my 22nd birthday—and we held them to a 6-6 tie. They were so surprised and disgusted that they asked for another game Thanksgiving, and as we had no game scheduled, we accepted. Studebaker, of the famous auto family, was their coach.

If ever a team worked in preparation for a game it was ours. At last the fateful day came, and we went to Notre Dame. . . . We had never seen such a crowd at a game as we saw out on the fi eld. . . . We soon had the ball and it was given to me the fi rst play, and their quarter back in tackling me broke my nose. It bled terribly, and my jacket and pants were covered with blood, but I would not stop. I think that the game meant more to me than life itself.

At the end of the fi rst half the score was 12 to 6. McCormick had made one touchdown and

Frank Shipp (front row, second from right) made the final touchdown in the 1894 Albion victory over the Fighting Irish. Coach Robert Gage (second row, third from right), recruited from the East Coast, is wearing his Harvard letter.

Maywood the other. The third quarter had not progressed very far when I made a long run for a touchdown. We soon had the ball again and the fates were with me. The signal was for a run around right end with the left half carrying the ball. The play worked perfectly, for soon I was behind Maywood and McCormick, with only their full back between us and their goal. Mac took the full back out, and soon I dropped behind their goal for another touchdown. . . . The game was now called on account of darkness and we had really won.

We had no followers there, only the Coach and nineteen players, but I have never seen such a fi ne example of sportsmanship as the students showed that day, when they came by the hundreds to congratulate us before we left. Word of our victory had preceded us, and there was a big crowd at the depot to welcome us home. We were hauled to the campus in hacks by the students with ropes, a few speeches were made, and the big day and season were memories.

Fall 2007 | 17

d. TrumpIe phoTo

The Structure of Innovation

18 | Io Triumphe!

As general counsel for pharmaceutical maker Eli Lilly and Company and former president of the American Intellectual has an influential role in current debates over patent rights and access to medicines.

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Property Law Association, Bob Armitage, ’70,

By Sarah Briggs As Bob Armitage, ’70, was standing in the lobby of Hilbert Circle Theatre during the intermission of an Indianapolis Symphony concert several years ago, a call came in on his mobile phone. It was from the chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. Armitage had testifi ed before the committee several weeks earlier on a key provision in the Medicare Modernization Act. His testimony centered on patent protection for new medicines.

In his role as general counsel for pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, Armitage had been working for months on provisions in this bill. One section of the legislation would create a new Medicare prescription drug benefi t. Another would rewrite the way in which generic drug companies and innovator pharmaceutical companies, such as Lilly, would address disputes over patents. His congressional testimony— and nighttime call with Senate staff—related to a fl aw in the bill that, left alone, would have unnecessarily increased the cost of many drugs by limiting competition among generic companies once the key patents on those drugs had expired.

Armitage fi nally persuaded the staff that it was essential to change the offending provision. “At the end of the day, we did fi x the bill,” Armitage says.

“It protected our ability to invest in research into new medicines and accelerated competition among generic companies once our patent-based exclusivity periods had ended.”

To get a new medicine to market, Armitage says, involves a journey of 10 to 15 years from the initial concept for the medicine to the fi rst prescription written by a physician for a patient. The price tag for that research typically runs from one to two billion

dollars. Armitage has worked at Lilly over the last decade both as a legal and a policy advocate, overseeing the work to secure intellectual property protection for an array of new medicines that Lilly has brought to market and, at the same time, working for better and fairer legal and regulatory regimes for doing so.

The ever-growing cost of new medicines has resulted in harsh criticism of the drug industry in recent years, leading to calls for importation of lowercost pharmaceuticals from outside the U.S. to make cheaper drugs available for senior citizens and families living below the poverty line. Internationally, similar criticism has focused on access to drugs to fi ght HIV/AIDS and other deadly diseases in the developing world. Some say the drug industry has not been responsive enough on these questions.

Armitage contends pharmaceutical companies were initially slow to respond effectively to these concerns. “We need as an industry to demonstrate our deep commitment to responding to health care crises, such as the HIV/AIDS epidemic, because we—among other constituencies—must play our role as good corporate citizens. In very simple terms, we need to be seen as champions of access to medicines and show by deeds that we really mean it.”

One of the world’s largest developers of new drugs, Lilly currently is known for products that treat mental disorders, cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.

“We are one of the largest suppliers of insulin in the world,” Armitage notes. “I work in an industry that makes a profound difference in how people live their lives.”

Fall 2007 | 19

It’s imperative that the drug companies take meaningful steps to make their products accessible to those who need them and can benefi t from them, he adds.

While this has meant working for enactment of government programs, such as the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefi t, and better private insurance coverage, he points out that another key access initiative can be found in Lilly’s history of providing its medicines free to those who need them. Lilly currently has several such programs that provided over $300-million in free medicines to needy patients last year.

Ultimately, it’s Armitage’s job to ensure that the company understands the legal and regulatory framework in which its businesses operate globally.

As senior vice president and general counsel at Lilly for the past fi ve years, he has worked with Lilly CEO Sidney Taurel and other senior executives on setting the policy and strategic direction for the company and advising them on the legal issues related to compliance with government regulations.

“To me, it has been an almost perfect late-career challenge,” he says. “There is probably no industry today that faces more challenges on legal, regulatory, political, and social fronts than we as a pharmaceutical industry face.”

Armitage, who majored in both physics and mathematics at Albion, entered the fi eld of patent law in 1973 after completing both a master’s degree in physics and a law degree at the University of Michigan.

He joined The Upjohn Company in Kalamazoo, where he would spend the next 20 years of his career, tapping both his scientifi c background and his legal training while developing his expertise in intellectual property law. After six years as a partner at the law fi rm of Vinson & Elkins in its Washington, D.C. offi ce where he headed the offi ce’s intellectual property law practice, he joined Lilly in 1999 as a vice president in charge of its legal operations related to research and development.

20 | Io Triumphe!

While defending Lilly’s patent rights, Armitage has often found himself in the middle of policy debates focused on the tension between the needs of innovators to maximize the revenues from the sale of new medicines that support the research and development leading to the next generation of drugs and the importance of having medicines that can be affordable and available. Armitage notes that society benefi ts from getting this balance right—the needs of patients across a host of diseases and conditions will only be met through investments that translate ideas for new medicines into safe and effective drugs.

“At Lilly,” he explains, “we received approval this September for a new use of a drug we fi rst put on the market in 1997. After clinical studies involving thousands of women over more than a decade, we established that this drug was safe and effective to reduce the risk of invasive breast cancer in certain post-menopausal women. No company can sustain an R&D investment of this size, duration, and scope—and ultimately produce a new choice for patients at risk of developing a dreaded disease— without the foundation of patent protection that is long enough and strong enough to secure a suffi cient period of marketing exclusivity after approval.”

During much of his career, Armitage has contributed to patent reform efforts, particularly while serving as president of the American Intellectual Property Law Association and as chair of the National Council of Intellectual Property Law. He was involved in a six-year effort in Congress that resulted in the passage of the American Inventors Protection Act in 1999, securing support among bar and trade associations for its key reforms. “There were a number of provisions in that act that I worked on extensively. It was an effort to make the patent system much more open and, to some degree, more fl exible to use.”

More recently, he was involved in some of the legal and policy research that led to a set of sweeping recommendations by the National Academy of Science to modernize U.S. patent law. “The National Academy efforts, if they can be enacted into law, will simplify patent law, take it out of its antiquated 19th-century roots, and in many ways make it a more understandable and mainstream part of statutory law.”

Over the past two decades, Armitage has testifi ed numerous times in congressional hearings on aspects of patent reform. He was also a witness in Federal Trade Commission hearings that led to a set of 2003 proposals to improve U.S. patent law. Over the past two years, he has authored three law review articles on patent reform topics, the latest of which appeared in October in the Michigan Law Review’s First Impressions series.

“Rarely in my entire career have I come to work without looking forward to the day ahead of me,” he refl ects. “I simply like to solve—or attempt to solve— problems that are diffi cult. I’ve always managed to fi nd things that are intellectually challenging to work on and fi nd new ways of thinking through a problem.

This type of persistent curiosity is a testament to the liberal arts education that is Albion’s mission.”

While an undergraduate, Armitage remembers he was struck by the “very human and holistic look” that physics faculty members like Howard Pettersen brought to their subject. And mentors such as the late Charles “Bud” Ricker, ’50, a nuclear physicist who chaired the department at the time, made sure the students were exposed to the best research equipment available through trips to the University of Michigan’s Phoenix Memorial Laboratory and Ford Nuclear Reactor. “In my majors, I studied under a fi ne and dedicated collection of human beings, who fi rst and foremost wanted to be teachers, notwithstanding the other interests they had in their research or their lives outside of Albion College.”

These professors got him started on a quest he continues today, he says, and it has guided his focus on serving the public interest through “developing drugs that will be best for patients.”

“Albion taught me there was a broader world out there,” he concludes. “It prepared me to fi nd my own way to try, as best I could, to change the parts of that world that I would inhabit, both professionally and personally.”

Bob Armitage is a member of the Albion College Board of Trustees.

ISSUES THAT MATTER Bob Armitage reflects on some of the key questions facing “Big Pharma” today. on drug safety and the necessity of full disclosure in drug development and testing: as a long-time intellectual property lawyer, I have often advised that you gain advantages over your competitors by keeping competitively important information secret, whenever possible—not making your inner workings public. as a lilly executive, however, I have taken a diametrically contrary view on key issues of concern to lilly patients. I strongly supported, and helped to lead, my company’s transparency initiatives with respect to the results of all the clinical trials that we undertake. we led the industry with the lilly clinical Trial registry and our commitment to publish all important clinical trial results, whether favorable or unfavorable to our products. we recently did the same thing with our lilly Grants registry, where we make a prompt public disclosure of all our contributions in support of medical education and patient groups.

on encouraging continued innovation in the drug industry: The most innovative of promising new medicines typically take the longest time to develop. as a consequence, they generally provide the least potential for financial return. This paradox derives in large measure from patent laws that define a new medicine’s marketing exclusivity period based upon when patent protection for the discovery must be sought, not when the long process of drug development is concluded and the new medicine is approved for marketing. we need a system of more adequate, secure, and uniform marketing exclusivity.

on the next “big thing” in pharmaceutical research: let me suggest that there might be three big things that you will see in the next two or three generations of new medicines. I see the promise for more medicines that transform more cancers into manageable, chronic diseases. new medicines now on the horizon will make cancer a life sentence, not a death sentence, for many. also, I hope to live long enough to benefit from effective preventative therapies for diseases such as alzheimer’s disease. In another quarter century, half of my albion class of 1970 will be diagnosed with alzheimer’s disease unless we can develop such preventative measures. and third, as Type II diabetes manifests itself at epidemic levels, at ever-younger ages in every region of the globe, we will see an intense focus on medicines that better manage this disease and its otherwise debilitating consequences. we now see medicines in development that hold the promise for much better long-term outcomes for these patients.

Fall 2007 | 21

A L u M n ! A s s o c ! At ! o n n e W s d. TrumpIe phoTo

Students Catherine Fontana, Kelly Lamson, and Audra Masternak helped lead the Homecoming book drive that brought in over 1,100 children’s books for the Albion Public Schools and District Library.

Many Alumni ‘Share Their Stories’ at Homecoming 2007 “Share Your Story,” this year’s Homecoming theme, touched a chord not just for alumni, but for the entire campus and the Albion community. The theme gave rise to a Homecoming book drive that brought in over 1,100 children’s books, which have since been donated to the Albion District Library and Albion’s two elementary schools.

“People really liked the idea of Homecoming being a way to give back to the community,” commented Stacey Anderson Markin, ’99, associate director of alumni/parent relations.

All of Albion’s 12 reunion classes (1947-2002) contributed to the drive, as did many faculty, staff, and student groups. Albion College’s Student Senate purchased $1,000 worth of books from the city’s Books and More bookshop, owned by Gar, ’52, and Dorothy Hoisington Dickerson, ’54.

52 | Io Triumphe!

Two Albion alumni donated books they had written, and Markin said that many people went out of their way to tell her they were donating books written or illustrated by friends or Michigan authors. “People enjoyed the connection of donating a favorite book, or a book with some personal signifi cance,” said Markin. “It’s fun to have that personal investment in service.”

Warm weather greeted alumni and friends returning for a variety of activities, including the Athletic Hall of Fame induction ceremony, the Alumni Awards Ceremony, and numerous receptions.

Over 700 alumni and other guests attended the class reunions, and Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium was at capacity for the football game vs. the Hope College Flying Dutchmen.

The accompanying photos (through page 55) tell much more about the 2007 Homecoming events. For more Homecoming and reunion coverage (and lots of photos), go to: www.albion.edu/homecoming/ .

d. TrumpIe phoTos

Junior tailback Bill Bacarella rushed for 169 yards and three touchdowns, but it wasn’t enough as Albion lost a shootout with MIAA rival Hope College, 42-35. Offense was the story of the day as the teams combined for 1,049 yards.

President Donna Randall and her husband, Paul Hagner, congratulated this year’s Homecoming royalty, seniors Catherine Game and Chris Langholz.

Forrest Heaton, ’60, (right) and his wife, Mary, with President Randall and Dr. Hagner at the post-game Presidential Reception.

Plan now for Homecoming 2008 Sept. 26-28, 2008 Homecoming events will include reunions for class years ending in “3” and “8” (19482003). Visit www.albion.edu/ homecoming/ for more details.

Teleah Young-Hamilton, ’04, and her son, Tyland, were among the several dozen alumni attending the Black Student Alliance reunion at the College’s James Welton House.

Alumni band member Steve Jewell, ’69, joined his daughter, Elizabeth, a senior in the British Eighth color guard, for this year’s halftime show.

Fall 2007 | 53

D. TRUMPIE PHOTO

A L u m n ! a s s o c ! at ! o n n e w s

Pictured with President Donna Randall (center) are 2007 Meritorious Service Award recipient Edmund Jenkins, ’57, (second from right) and Distinguished Alumni Award recipients (from left) Gregory Eastwood, ’62, Debra Frey Fadool, ’85, and John Pickelman, ’67. Distinguished Alumni Award recipient Paul Stewart, ’53, was unable to attend the Homecoming awards ceremony.

Alumni Awards Honor Career Achievements and College Service The Alumni Awards Ceremony was held Sept. 29, 2007, during Homecoming Weekend. The award winners also met with students and faculty during classes and other events in the week prior to Homecoming.

Gregory L. Eastwood, ’62 Director, Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, Ohio

Distinguished Alumni Award Recipients

Debra Frey Fadool, ’85 Associate Professor of Biology Florida State University Tallahassee, Fla.

The Distinguished Alumni Award recognizes College alumni for their genuine leadership and dedicated service to others.

54 | Io Triumphe!

John E. Pickelman, ’67 Chancellor Emeritus North Harris Montgomery Community College District The Woodlands, Texas

Paul L. Stewart, ’53 Catherine B. Heller Distinguished Professor Emeritus University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Mich.

Meritorious Service Award Recipient The Meritorious Service Award recognizes College alumni for their leadership, dedicated service to others, and support of College initiatives.

Edmund L. Jenkins, ’57 Chairman (Retired) Financial Accounting Standards Board Tucson, Ariz.

For more information on this year’s honorees, go to: www. albion.edu/iotriumphe/ .

To submit a Distinguished Alumni Award nomination, contact Marcia Hepler Starkey, ’74, associate vice president for alumni/parent relations, at 517/629-0284 or via e-mail at mstarkey@albion.edu or go to: www.albion.edu/alumni/nomination_form.asp .

As the 1979 men’s basketball team took its place in the Athletic Hall of Fame during the 2007 induction ceremony on Homecoming Weekend, Albion also took the opportunity to honor Mike Turner, ’69, for 500 career wins as head men’s basketball coach. Turner, who has led the Britons since 1974, currently has a 508-303 career record, ranking ninth among active Division III basketball coaches. Over 30 of his former players and assistant coaches returned for the occasion which also saw the announcement of an anonymous $500,000 gift establishing The Michael and Peg Turner Men’s Basketball Team Travel Endowment.

Ten individual athletes (see list below) were also inducted during the ceremony. For more on this year’s inductees, go to: www.albion.edu/sports/halloffame/ .

2007 Athletic Hall of Fame Individuals David J. Abbott, ’77

John J. Farnese, ’88

Sarah C. Hall, ’84 Christie A. Cleland Hursey, ’96 G. Thomson Pantlind, ’65 (deceased)

D. TRUMPIE PHOTOS

Turner Saluted for Hoops Success

(Top left) At the Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Homecoming Weekend, President Donna Randall presented head men’s basketball coach Mike Turner, ’69, with a plaque bearing “500 W’s” recognizing his career record, now at 508 wins. (Top right) Milton Barnes, ’79, 1978-79 men’s basketball team member and now associate head coach at Southern Methodist University, spoke on behalf of the inductees. (Below) Former head football coach Frank Joranko (left) with Hall of Famers Kevin Schaefer, ’77, and David Abbott, ’77.

Inductions Majed J. Sahouri, ’88 Frank J. Shipp, 1896 (deceased) Steven D. Taylor, ’82

Robert L. Turner, ’67

Henry “Hank” Wineman III, ’92

To submit a Hall of Fame nomination, contact Marcia Hepler Starkey, ’74, associate vice president for alumni/parent relations, at 517/6290284 or via e-mail at mstarkey@albion.edu, or go to: www.albion. edu/sports/halloffame/nomination_form.asp .

Team 1978-79 Basketball Team

Where Are They Now? Christie Cleland Hursey, ’96, became the only woman in the history of the MIAA to earn first-team all-league honors in three sports in the same academic year when she starred in soccer, basketball, and softball for the Britons during her senior year.

Now an assistant girls’ soccer coach and physical education teacher at Mason High School, Hursey wonders if another Albion athlete will ever accomplish the feat because so many young athletes are choosing to specialize in a particular sport.

“I was extremely happy that so many coaches thought so highly of me,” Hursey says. “I wouldn’t have met so many people had I specialized in one sport.”

Albion athletics enjoyed a golden era during Hursey’s days on campus. She remembers the domination of the football program—especially the 1994 national championship team—and her 1995 soccer team finished second in the MIAA, the team’s highest finish in the league up to that time.

The camaraderie among athletes across sports is something that she has carried into her teaching and coaching career.

“I remember a ton of people would come out to watch us when we had big games,” Hursey says.

Formerly a high school girls’ basketball coach, Hursey has enjoyed a successful coaching career as she has mentored many talented athletes including Kristin Haynie (now a guard for the

Photo Courtesy of c. Hursey

Time out with Hall of Famer Christie Cleland Hursey, ’96

A three-sport standout as a Briton, Christie Cleland Hursey, ’96, (left) was selected for Academic All-America teams in soccer and softball as a senior. She now teaches and coaches at Mason High School.

WNBA’s Sacramento Monarchs) and helped the Mason girls’ soccer program to several league and district championships.

For now, she is raising two young children, three-year-old Andrew, and infant Rachel, with her husband Tyler, and she is happy to serve as a role model for the girls she coaches.

“I played on an all-boys soccer team for five years when I was growing up, since there were no good opportunities for girls to compete,” Hursey said. The international success of the U.S. Women’s National Team in soccer and the increased recognition for the WNBA have helped expand the opportunities for women athletes today, she believes. —Bobby Lee

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Commencement May 10, 2008

Elkin R. Isaac Research Symposium/ Honors Convocation April 24, 2008

Celebrating Our Shared History

27 Theatre: Anatomy of Gray (through March 1) 8 p.m.

Herrick Theatre 22 First day of classes, second semester

16-18 Music: Concert Series: Works by Beethoven 8 p.m., Friday & Saturday; 4 p.m., Sunday Goodrich Chapel

19 Art: Dirty/Pretty/Jess Larson (through Feb. 16) Bobbitt Visual Arts Center

2008 January January

14-17 Theatre: Le Bourgeois Avant-Garde 8 p.m.

Herrick Theatre

7 End of first semester

3-7 Final examinations

13 Music Guest Artist Series: “Bug” Jazz Ensemble 8 p.m.

Goodrich Chapel

23 Art: The Outside of a Horse/Yvette Franz (through March 29) Bobbitt Visual Arts Center

18-20 Theatre: You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown 8 p.m.

Herrick Theatre

17 Classes resume

25-28 Theatre: Workshop Theatre 8 p.m.

Herrick Theatre

Little Sibs Weekend Feb. 29-March 2, 2008

Y OUR A L U M N ! A SSOC ! AT ! ON

22 Music Guest Artist Series: Kalamazoo Brass Quintet 8 p.m.

Goodrich Chapel

2 Music: Festival of Lessons and Carols 7 p.m.

Goodrich Chapel 10 Art: Novel [Things]/Therese Buchmiller (through Dec. 1) Bobbitt Visual Arts Center

February 2008

7 Spring vacation begins

23 Music Guest Artist Series: Christian Ellenwood (clarinet), Elisabeth Ellenwood (viola), David Abbott (piano) 8 p.m.

Goodrich Chapel

5 Music Guest Artist Series: Fred Karpoff (piano) 8 p.m.

Goodrich Chapel

March 2008

23 Music Guest Artist Series: Lin He (violin), Lia Jensen (piano) 8 p.m.

Goodrich Chapel

December 2007 November 2007

www.albion.edu/calendar/ . For all Briton sports schedules, go to: www.albion.edu/sports .

at nominal charge. For more information on these and other campus events, please call 517/629-0445 or go to:

Albion College Events Calendar

All alumni, parents, and friends are welcome at the events listed below. Note that most are free, but some are offered

21 Good Friday Classes end at noon

Save the Date!

For the Fr!Dge

By Cheryl Henderson Almeda, ’91 Alumni Association Board of Directors I remember sitting in my sophomore English class, the first that would help determine my course of study in composition for years to come, and contemplating the “Albion Experience.” In our next essay assignment, Dr. Judith Lockyer suggested, we would consider why we chose to attend Albion College, and what experiences were shaping our tenure here. I thought of Wesley Hall, the freshman dorm which housed my new best friends, women who would share my aspirations and contemplations, and eventually would walk down the aisle before me at my wedding and gather on Michigan beaches with broods of children in our future.

I thought too of important faculty, professors like Mel Larimer, who met with music students daily and warmly greeted our parents and grandparents at performances. Looking to the lectern, I took in the sight of my advisor and mentor, Dr. Lockyer. I thoughtfully considered her open‑door policy, her willingness to speak directly to my strengths and inadequacies as writer and student, and her dedication to women’s studies and literature. I had yet to know that my “Albion Experience” would be shaped by members of the community like Jean Taffs, beloved wife of late composer, pianist, and professor Dr. Anthony Taffs. Jean was, and remains, a woman who chose to use her education and talents to lead Albion High School students to reach their potential in her English classroom, and, in the process, model for me what being a teacher could mean.

My “Albion Experience” meant all of these things to me, and was embodied in all of these special people. For my husband, Ramie, my friends, my Alumni Association peers, each of our experiences is marked by the unique characteristics of our passions, our educational pursuits, and our co-curricular interests. We have all been touched by different hands. Yet, we share the collective memories of the yellow‑ribboned trees at Homecoming. We remember gathering at the Christmas tree on the Quad and witnessing the brilliant display of light and color. Upper Baldwin, the Keller, Greek Sing, and Madrigal Dinner; study lounges, Victory Park, and graduation on the Quad—these shared experiences remain and continue to make Albion College a unique place, a campus unlike any other in this state rich with college options.

I encourage you to make your own trip back to Albion— whether it’s driving the winding road back to campus, or just taking some time with your thoughts on a lazy afternoon—and remember your “Albion Experience.” You will be richer for it.

L

L ! ’ l B R ! TS

Hitting the Right Notes: Get Your Family in the Musical Mood.

We extend a special thanks to Kristin McIlhagga, interim director of the Albion community’s Kids ’N’ Stuff children’s museum, for providing these suggestions for musical activities the entire family can enjoy.

Kristin happens to be married to Albion College band director, Sam McIlhagga.

High school-age musicians will want to note that Albion College hosts an honor band program each year. The 200708 honor band will perform in concert, Saturday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. in Goodrich Chapel. For more information, contact smcilhagga@ albion.edu .

Attend a Local Concert Create a Family Band

Illustrate a Song

Most communities have a variety of performance choices. Check with your local high school, college, or arts organization for concert offerings. Don’t overlook area youth orchestras or choirs. Try going to various types of concerts together and talk about the differences and similarities. Listen and watch for things like the shapes and sounds of the instruments, who leads the ensemble, and the number of people playing. A band, choir, and African rhythm ensemble will each offer a different listening experience.

Professional orchestras sometimes have “open rehearsals,” which are an opportunity to see how they prepare for a concert.

Listen to a piece of music, preferably without words. Practice intentional listening to really focus on the sounds and music. Now get ready to create a picture of the music. Play the music as much as needed while you draw or paint what you and your child hear in the music. After your masterpiece is complete, listen together again, and share the ideas that inspired your artwork. This is a fun activity to do with all ages because the artwork can be abstract lines and shapes or actual things you visualized while listening.

Musical Games for the Whole Family Instrument Four Corners (A Variation on “Four Corners”) Grades K-3 In each of the four corners of a room, put a sign for one of the four instrument families: Percussion, Strings, Brass, and Woodwinds. Start the game by calling out the name of an instrument (e.g., “tuba”). The children then go to the corner with the sign they believe shows that instrument’s family. Those who guess the family correctly keep playing; those who guess wrong sit down. The game continues until there is one child remaining. A more challenging version involves playing the sounds of the instruments and asking the children to match the sound with the instrument family.

What Instrument Am I? (A Variation on “20 Questions”) Grades 3-5 The leader silently picks an instrument from a list or set of cards. The children then try to guess the instrument through questions such as: Do I have a reed? Do I use mallets? They continue asking questions until one of them is ready to guess the name of the instrument. The first child to guess correctly then gets to be the leader and pick the next instrument.

Everyday items in your house can easily be transformed into instruments. Fill a plastic container with dried beans or rice, and you’ve got a maraca. A wooden spoon and an empty coffee or oatmeal container make a fabulous drum. Peel the label off an empty water bottle or vegetable can and scrape the rippled side with a wooden spoon, and you’re playing a guiro. What other sounds and instruments can you create? Put them all together, and you’ve got a family band. Make up your own composition or play along with a favorite recording.

Web Sites To find nearby cities that have youth orchestras and choirs, try searching these Web sites by city and state. metroyouthsymphony.org/ others.shtml (an international list of youth orchestras) www.choralnet.org/choirs/ advSearch.phtml (an international list of youth choirs) Here are some other sites with information on various ways to involve children in music. www.dsokids.com www.kindermusik.com www.creatingmusic.com www.childrensmusic.org

Books and CDs Peter and the Wolf by Prokofiev and Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saens are two pieces of music that were specifically written for children. Composed for orchestra, they introduce individual instruments and instrument families. They have been recorded many times and also made into movies and books.

Here are some books and CDs to look for: Avery Hart & Paul Mantell, Kids Make Music John Lithgow, Carnival of the Animals; The Remarkable Farkle McBride Lloyd Moss, Zin, Zin, Zin, A Violin Richard Perlmutter, Beethoven’s Wig (CD with witty lyrics sung to famous classical pieces) Brian Pinkney, Max Found Two Sticks Sergei Prokofiev & Janet Schulman, Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf (with CD) World’s Very Best Opera for Kids … in English!

(CD)

Fall 2007 | 57

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dancers from lansing’s Fantasia Ballet Folklorico provided a colorful finale for the ethnic dinner closing out hispanic heritage month in mid-october. other programs for the month included a salsa band (dancing lessons included), the “history of chocolate” (sampling included), and a quinceañera celebration (“coming of age” ceremony for young women as they turn 15).

COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE 611 E. PORTER STREET ALBION, MI 49224-1831 ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

non-proFIT orG. u.s. posTaGe PAID raVenna, mI permIT no. 320