Red Square

red square

Inside

Safe travels, Clarkies | Finding strength in disaster | Sox appeal | A not-so-tall tale

My father has given me the gift of perspective.

Michael Ross ’93, with his father, Stephan Ross, survivor of

10 concentration camps

Photo by Steven King

Winter 2019 9

red square

‘Three Exits’ makes its entrance

Juliet Kyaw ’19 models a WooSox cap.

Three Clarkies got together last summer to put on a play.

Together they made “Three Exits” — written by Professor Gino DiIorio ’83 (pictured above) and featuring Boston-based actors Karin Trachtenberg ’83 and Mary Potts Dennis (who started with them at Clark but transferred in her junior year).

“We were a tight-knit group in the Theater Department, dedicated to learning as much as we could about the art form and having a lot of fun doing it,” Trachtenberg told the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.

“Karin wanted me to write something, so I did,” DiIorio says. She also secured the play a spot at the Providence Fringe last summer — the first time DiIorio had a work produced in his hometown of Providence, R.I. The play looks at three lives from the angles of an ex-husband, ex-wife, and ex-girlfriend.

“Three Exits” capped off a good summer for DiIorio. “James Hemings,” his play about Thomas Jefferson’s slave chef (and Sally Hemings’ brother), was selected for the Great Plains Theatre Conference in Omaha. The plot involves Thomas Jefferson promising freedom for Hemings, provided he train his younger brother Peter in the art of French cuisine.

DiIorio’s “CRIB” was produced at the Playhouse on the Square in Memphis (it won the Playhouse’s 2016 New Works Competition). “CRIB” tells the story of a professor who discovers one of her students, a basketball player, is involved in a plagiarism scandal. “It becomes a battle for the student-athlete’s soul, between her and the coach,” DiIorio says.

Sox appeal

The Boston Red Sox won the World Series, but Worcester also hit a home run when it was announced in August that the city had lured the Sox’s Triple-A affiliate out of Pawtucket, R.I., and into the heart of the commonwealth. The Worcester Red Sox (aka WooSox) will play in a $100 million ballpark that will be built on an empty industrial lot in the Canal District, near Kelley Square and within walking distance of Clark. Those who recall the terrors of navigating Kelley Square in their car (“Just close your eyes and go!”) will be happy to learn the infamous traffic maze is getting a major redesign with an eye toward vehicular sanity.

The first pitch is in spring 2021.

10 clarku.edu

Fabulous 50 at Anderson House

Legend has it that a pot of gold awaits at the end of the rainbow. How appropriate, then, that the Clark University English Department this fall celebrated a golden anniversary — 50 years in Anderson House. Alumni, faculty, and students reconnected over bowls of clam chowder at the department’s annual Chowder Fest on Oct. 19, and the following day, at a Homecoming event, faculty held a series of literature discussions with students and alumni. And that rainbow appearing over Anderson House a few days later? Though not part of the official festivities, English majors can surely attach some symbolic meaning to it.

Diversity and inclusion efforts awarded

Clark University received a 2018 Higher Education

Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine.

Given annually, the HEED Award measures an institution’s level of achievement and intensity of commitment to broaden diversity and inclusion on campus through initiatives, programs, and outreach; student recruitment, retention, and completion; and hiring practices for faculty and staff.

Clark offers numerous initiatives and programs through the Office of Diversity and Inclusion that help celebrate the talents, perspectives, and contributions of all students, faculty, and staff on campus. Among them: the Diversity and Inclusion Certificate Program, which promotes critical dialogue and in-depth examination of diversity, difference, power, and privilege; the President’s Diversity Advisory Council, which advises campus leaders and makes recommendations about best practices in creating a diverse and inclusive campus community; and the D’Army Bailey Diversity Fund, which helps talented students from

historically underrepresented backgrounds finance their education at Clark and assists in the recruitment and retention of a more diverse faculty.

Winter 2019 11

red square

Alto saxophonist Godwin Louis and vocalist Pauline Jean brought together an all-star group of musicians in the Haitian Jazz Project, which infused The Grind with the energy and vibrancy of Haiti during an October concert. The rollicking performance was part of the Geller Jazz Series.

A special visitor

Dr. Azra Khan, Ph.D. ’53, returned to the Clark University campus this past summer for the first time since earning her doctorate from the Graduate School of Geography 65 years earlier. Rinku Roy Chowdhury, Ph.D. ’03, associate professor of geography, found Dr. Khan and her son, Jaleel, roaming the halls of the Jefferson Academic Center and hosted them for lunch at her Worcester home, where she heard stories about Clark in the 1950s.

Finding strength in disaster

There was a day when the word “hack” only carried negative connotations, whether referring to an untalented artist or the hijacking of digital information. But don’t tell that to Clark computer science students. This fall, Clark earned top prizes at “hackathons” hosted by MIT, Harvard, Wellesley, and Aalto University in Finland. These are intercollegiate competitions at which students are given a short window of time to solve a problem through software development — a sort of mad rush merging intellect with adrenaline.

Among the winners were Geva Segal ’21 and Abdur Rahman Muhammad ’20, who joined more than 1,000 college students from around the world at HackMIT. With a team that also included an MIT student and a student from Tufts, Segal and Muhammad brainstormed technological solutions to real-world problems. They found their inspiration in the weather.

“HackMIT took place as Hurricane Florence was flooding cities along the U.S. coastline. We found that in times of disaster, there is an outpouring of desire from the public to help,” says Segal. “Our team decided to develop a mobile app that aims to connect communities during disasters.”

They branded their project Stronger Together. With the app, neighbors can help neighbors by volunteering time or resources such as shelter, water, medicine, clothing, hygiene products, and more. The judges were so impressed by this combination of technology and altruism, they awarded the team the “Exploring New Territory” award — one of only six prizes given out to the 250 competing teams. It was a strong showing in any connotation.

T

12 clarku.edu

A father’s story. A son’s voice.

by Jim Keogh

he audience in Dana Commons sat silent, sifting and absorbing the story they’d just been told. There were tears. ¶ They had watched “Etched in Glass,” a documentary chronicling the harrowing saga of Stephan Ross, who survived the horrors of 10 Nazi concentration camps. From the age of 10 to 14, the Polish boy was tortured and starved; he had his back broken, was made to drink chemicals, and hid in a latrine to escape being shot. At Auschwitz, he was selected to die, but fled, and clung to the underside of a train as it rolled out. His entire family, except for one brother, was wiped out in the camps. ¶ Near death and robbed of hope, Ross was “rescued from hell” by U.S. troops who liberated Dachau on April 29, 1945, including a soldier who shared food with Steve and gave him a miniature American flag. That act of kindness reignited the boy’s spirit and restored his faith in the goodness of humankind. He devoted most of his adult life to being a force for both positive change and remembrance, counseling troubled teenagers and teaching schoolchildren the terrible lessons of the Holocaust. Steve spearheaded the creation of the New England Holocaust Memorial in Boston in 1995; former Boston Mayor Raymond Flynn called him the memorial’s “conscience.” ¶ “My father has given me the gift of perspective,” Michael Ross ’93 acknowledged following the screening. “He’s helped me understand the world better.” ¶ Michael Ross visited campus with filmmaker Roger Lyons in October to talk about the documentary, as well as Steve’s 2017 book, “From Broken Glass,” an account of his journey of survival. With his

father’s ability to communicate impaired by a stroke, Michael, who wrote the introduction and helped research and edit the book, has done much of the speaking for him. Just this past summer, the two were profiled in a segment on NBC’s “Today” show, and have been featured on the news in Boston, where Michael practices law and served on the City Council. ¶ Ross told the Clark audience that for many years his father rarely talked about his ordeal, but certain behaviors hinted at what he’d endured. Food, he said, was always important to Steve, who weighed only 50 pounds when Dachau was liberated.

“Planning around food, talking about food, not wasting food. Food is everything when you can remember what it’s like not to have it.”

¶ In his early forties, Steve Ross began opening up about what he’d experienced. As the film depicts, his most awestruck

Michael Ross '93 with his father, Stephan Ross. (Inset) Stephan as a boy, during his confinement in a death camp.

audiences have been Boston high school students, to whom he’s offered wrenching personal testimony while sometimes dressed in a striped uniform like the one he wore in the camps. ¶ Michael has been at his side for many of these presentations, and bore witness to some remarkable family history. In 1989, Steve Ross appeared in an episode of the program “Unsolved Mysteries,” seeking to connect with the anonymous soldier who’d comforted him at the gates of Dachau. It wasn’t until years later that the man was identified as Lt. Steve Sattler, who died in 1986. On Veterans Day 2012, Steve Ross met with Sattler’s extended family, kindling a friendship that endures today. The reunion is captured toward the end of “Etched in Glass,” punctuating with joy a story that began with such sorrow. ¶ “Every proud son should have a movie like this about their father,” Michael Ross said. “He’s been a source of hope and inspiration during dark times, and as damaged as he was by what he went through, he has always been a great dad. I’m a lucky guy.”

Winter 2019 13

red square

E

Safe travels, Clarkies

ver heard of “Clark Far”? The term describes the way aClark student’s brain distorts their perception of distance oncethey’ve arrived on campus. For example, you know objectively thatany campus destination can be reached on foot from the spot whereyou are now standing in less than five minutes. But under theinfluence of Clark Far, the distance between those two points seemsto expand, until the prospect of making the trip becomes exhausting.

Alison Everett ’20 wrote a tongue-in-cheek piece in The Odyssey Onlineexplaining the phenomenon, and a follow-up post about the article onClark’s Facebook page inspired a few prime examples of Clark Far:

• Clark Far is when you’re sitting in the front of the caf, and you didn’t discover the pizza bar in the back until sophomore year.

• Clark Far is if you move to Hollywood Street, and you might as well have moved to Hollywood, Calif.

• [Reaching the] Traina Center … from everywhere! We will be happy to report back once the analysis of Clark Time has been completed.

How a Clark student perceives the distance from Goddard Library to the dining hall.

Earth’s Molotov cocktail

If wildfires in California and melting sea ice in the Arctic

aren’t enough to convince some people that climate change is a real threat, what’s left? How about vodka and tomato juice in a glass? The website GrubStreet took on the issue of global warming with the provocatively titled story “Could Climate Change Destroy the Bloody Mary?” The article illustrated how the components of a typical Bloody Mary — including that signature stalk of celery — are in danger of being dramatically curtailed because of climate change-induced disruptions to the food chain. A micro-example of a macro-problem.

Among the experts quoted in the story was Ed Carr, director of the International Development, Community, and Environment Department at Clark, who warned that we’ve yet to fully experience the impacts of changes to the modern food system. “The unpredictable ways in which our food system takes up shocks and stressors is the really compelling story here and it is going hugely underreported,” said Carr, who has done extensive research in rural sub-Saharan Africa. “The entire global food system is a nightmare on the horizon.”

14 clarku.edu

A not-so-tall tale

The date was September 7, 1968. Steven Rubin ’71 attended a mixer

in Little Commons and spotted two of his fraternity brothers, both basketball players, chatting with an attractive young woman. After greeting his friends, he turned to her and said, “These guys are much too tall for you.”

Steven and Doris Terens Rubin ’72 began dating and married three weeks after she graduated from Clark while Steven was attending Tufts Dental School. They ultimately moved to Long Island, raised two children, and Steven became a partner in an oral and maxillofacial surgery group practice in Manhattan. He retired from that practice in 2014, and the couple moved to Needham, Mass., to be near their daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren. Steven now teaches part time at Tufts and is a surgeon for a group practice one day a week.

Fast forward to September 7, 2018. Steven wanted to do something special to mark the 50th anniversary of the day he and Doris met. He’d collaborated with Kim McElroy of Clark Dining Services to set up a private room above the Clark Dining Hall where he could surprise Doris. A red rose, a bottle of their favorite wine, Clark memorabilia, and photos of the couple through the years, including a candid photo from the 1970 Clark yearbook, adorned the table.

Steven had convinced Doris they were going to dinner in Worcester after they first stopped by the campus. He brought her to the room, and when Doris saw the table, she broke into tears. “I think I did something right,” Steven says with a laugh.

They toasted their 50 years together, then had dinner in the Dining Hall surrounded by Clark students.

Steven still marvels at the good fortune that brought them together five decades ago. “I just went to see who was hanging out at the mixer that night,” he says. “You never know what’s going to happen!”

The consensus? We’re great.

We know Clark is a pretty terrific place, but sometimes it’s nice to receive validation from others. College Consensus recently named Clark one of “50 Underrated Colleges Doing Great Things,” describing us as “one of the most innovative colleges in America.” Among the virtues cited were Clark’s commitment to Worcester, our emphasis on student engagement and community partnerships, the LEEP undergraduate curriculum with its emphasis on experiential learning, and the Accelerated B.A./Master’s Degree Program that allows qualified students to earn a master’s with the fifth year tuition-free.

Winter 2019 15