RED
SQUARE FROM THE PODIUM Food for thought
Weighty issues
Our dire deferral
What is failure?
Ron Shaich ’76, founder and CEO of Panera Bread, delivered the
The topic of obesity and its
“It’s a tough sell, asking people
Capping the Higgins School of
terrible
to pay up front for benefits they
Humanities’ Difficult Dialogues
2014 Commencement address,
consequences
and challenged Clark’s newly
the
won’t see.” So noted Scott Schrag,
series on the nature of failure,
annual Family Impact Seminar
director of the Harvard University
minted graduates to listen, to
hosted
Carnegie Mellon historian Scott
Mosakowski
Center for the Environment, in
A. Sandage used the historian’s
learn, and to forge lives that
Institute at the Massachusetts
the President’s Lecture he gave
lens to examine the shift in
they can respect. “If there’s
State House. A panel of experts
to a packed house in Tilton Hall.
attitudes toward failure in the
one lesson that I take from
illustrated
the
Schrag said that while many
United States — a nation that,
my thirty years as a business
deadly toll exacted by obesity and
perceive climate change as a
paradoxically, defines itself in
builder, it is this: Knowing what
diabetes, especially on minority
dramatic threat, they are generally
terms of optimism and success.
matters dramatically increases
and low-income families here and
resistant to undertaking the costly
Over time, he said, the vocabulary
the probability that you will
abroad. Clark University Professor
measures needed to address
of
produce
you
Barbara Goldoftas described the
it because the results won’t be
entwined with notions of failure,
desire,” he said. Shaich advised
“population perspective,” which
seen for many years. Ultimately,
with terms like “third rate” and
grads not to wait to conduct a
factors in social and environmental
he said, climate change is a moral
“good for nothing” used as
post-mortem of life and career
determinants like the nature of
issue, just as slavery evolved into
shorthand to describe lack of
years down the road, but to
neighborhoods, chronic stress and
a question of morality centuries
achievement. “We have become
do self-assessments early and
environmental contaminants, and
earlier. “Climate change is the
the outcome of our careers,”
often and not be afraid to make
said easy explanations are elusive
great challenge of my generation,
Sandage said. “The language
changes. Once you've figured
in places like rural Nicaragua,
of
of business has been applied to
out what brings you joy, he said,
where she’s researching the high
generations beyond you.”
“any path will take you there.”
incidence of type 2 diabetes.
the
outcome
health
by
and
societal
headlined the
for
legislators
your
generation,
and
the
economic
status
became
the soul.”
Why did the Thrift Store cross the road?
fall 2014
AS EVICTIONS GO, it was both amicable and inevitable.
clark alumni magazine
10
The student-run Community Thrift Store, which opened in 2010 in the former Monahan Pharmacy building, needed to find a new home when the structure was razed in anticipation of the Alumni and Student Engagement Center (see story on page 22). Fortunately, it didn’t have to go far. On Sept. 5 the Thrift Store reopened at 930 Main St., next to Acoustic Java and across the street from its former location. The Clark
and Main South communities can continue shopping for quality used items at reasonable prices as they support the student venture. Lloyd Schramm ’15 spent the summer as a LEEP Fellow delving into the history of the Thrift Store and created a fresh aesthetic and logo to express its core values and vision. He was supported by the store’s management team of Geory Kurtzhals, GSOM/IDCE M.B.A. ’15, Jeff Stanmyer ’14, and Robert (Gus) Meissner ’14, and the employees.