Summer Scene 2017

scene Summer 2017

College man: President Brian W. Casey Many countries, one Colgate Battle of the brains returns News and views for the Colgate community

scene

Summer 2017

24 Many countries, one Colgate

Recently graduated international students reflect on what lessons they’ll be taking home from Hamilton.

28 College man

For President Brian W. Casey, Colgate is more than a place.

It’s a calling.

32 Battle of the brains returns

Quiz bowl’s back at Colgate. How have the Raiders fared through the years in the intercollegiate trivia competition?

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Message from President Brian W. Casey

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13346 — Inbox

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Work & Play

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Tableau: “I ripped my pants and I liked it”

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Adirondack retreat: Colgate Camp

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Life of the Mind

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Arts & Culture

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Go ’gate

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New, Noted & Quoted

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The Big Picture

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Stay Connected

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Class News 65 Marriages & Unions 65 Births & Adoptions 65 In Memoriam

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Salmagundi: Trivia out of the inn — test your knowledge

DEPARTMENTS

On the cover: Sahara-Yvette Zamudio ’17 was one of more than 700 graduating seniors who turned their tassels and officially became Colgate alumni. Photo by Andrew Daddio Left: As summer arrives in the Chenango Valley, lush greenery frames Memorial Chapel and Lawrence Hall. Photo by Andrew Daddio

News and views for the Colgate community

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scene team

Contributors

Volume XLVI Number 4 The Colgate Scene is published by Colgate University four times a year (autumn, winter, spring, and summer) without charge to alumni, parents, friends, and students.

Meredith Dowling ’17, longtime student writer for the Scene, penned several pieces sprinkled throughout this issue.

While at Colgate, she double majored in history and English, served as president of the ski and snowboard club, and studied abroad in London. Now a marketing intern at HarperCollins, she plans to continue pursuing a career in publishing.

Amy Nelson ’89 (“I ripped my pants and I liked it,” pg. 12) is communications director for the ecological planning and design firm Biohabitats. She is also the editor of Leaf Litter, an e-publication for people involved in ecological restoration, conservation planning, and regenerative design.

Vice President of Communications Laura Jack Managing Editor Aleta Mayne Editorial Director Mark Walden Creative Director Tim Horn Senior Designer and Visual Brand Manager Karen Luciani Senior Designer Katherine Laube Junior Designer Katriel Pritts University Photographer Mark DiOrio Production Assistant Kathy Owen

Oliver Weiss (illustration on pg.

68) works in mixed media for magazines, newspapers, books, and kitchenware products.

He is dividing his time between Berlin and New York City. His clients include Random House, Kiplinger, New Scientist, Milken Institute, Scientific American, and Der Spiegel.

Contributors: Daniel DeVries, Admission Marketing and Media Relations Manager; Matt Hames, Communications Strategist; David Herringshaw, Digital Production Specialist; Jason Kammerdiener ’10, Lead Information and Digital Architect; Brian Ness, Video Journalism Coordinator; John Painter, Director of Athletic Communications

Opinions expressed are not necessarily shared by the university, the publishers, or the editors.

What’s online

Contact: scene@colgate.edu; 315-228-6669 colgate.edu/scene Colgate University: 315-228-1000

Reunion 2017

Printed and mailed from Lane Press in South Burlington, Vt.

colgate.edu/reunion2017 colgate.edu/reunion2017vid Check out our photo gallery and video to either relive this year’s reunion weekend or see what you missed!

Moving? Please clip the address label and send with your new address to: Alumni Records Clerk, Colgate University, 13 Oak Drive, Hamilton, NY 13346-1398 or call 315-228-7453.

Our best moments

Mark DiOrio

colgate.edu/uniquelycolgate President Brian W. Casey reflects on what makes our campus uniquely Colgate.

Art for a cause

colgate.edu/pfister17 Kris Pfister ’17 talks about her senior art project that supports queer youth in homeless shelters across New York State. For more senior art projects, see pg. 19.

Colgate news

colgate.edu/news Visit our blog to keep up with the latest universityrelated happenings.

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scene: Summer 2017

Engage online

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To stop receiving the printed Scene, e-mail scene@ colgate.edu with your name, class year, address, and e-mail address, and put Online Mailing List in the subject. We’ll send you an e-mail when we post new online editions (colgate.edu/scene).

Non-discrimination notice: Colgate University does not discriminate in its programs and activities because of race, color, sex, pregnancy, religion, creed, national origin (including ancestry), citizenship status, physical or mental disability, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, veteran or military status (including special disabled veteran, Vietnam-era veteran, or recently separated veteran), predisposing genetic characteristics, domestic violence victim status, or any other protected category under applicable local, state, or federal law. The following person has been designated to handle inquiries regarding the university’s non-discrimination policies: Marilyn Rugg, Associate Provost for Equity and Diversity, 13 Oak Drive, Hamilton, NY 13346; 315-228-7288.

Title IX notice: In compliance with requirements under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Colgate University does not discriminate on the basis of sex in its educational programs and activities. Colgate’s Title IX Coordinator is Marilyn Rugg, Associate Provost for Equity and Diversity, 13 Oak Drive, Hamilton, NY 13346; 315-228-7288; mrugg@colgate.edu.

Message from President Brian W. Casey I write this column in the summer following my first year at Colgate.

As with anyone looking back at their first year in college — not unlike the reflections I surely must have had after my own freshman year — I am surprised by emotions attendant to being a new person, in a new year, on a new campus. Campuses are always places of strong feelings and intense experiences. My first year at Colgate was, by that measure, perfectly typical.

But we don’t live in typical times. As a nation, we live in an era filled with heated and often divisive rhetoric. And — as has been widely commented on in many books, journal articles, and magazine essays — we seem less capable these days of listening to each other, less understanding of each other. American campuses are, of course, not

“We must be an institution of intellectual examination, free debate, and high expectation.” immune to these circumstances. In fact, given their core work, they face these conditions with particular concern. We are communities engaged in education. And we do this in close proximity, on campuses in which we live and learn with and next to each other. If the basic sense of community is impossible today, how then are we to go about our work as a university?

I think it is wise, at all times, but especially now, to remember two key fundamentals to Colgate, basic principles that can guide us. In the year ahead, as we prepare to celebrate Colgate’s Bicentennial, I plan on speaking about these more in various settings, but in this moment of reflection on the year, it is good to state them in this column.

First, Colgate must always be committed to academic achievement and rigor. No matter what issues of the day might concern us, we must always remember that we have assembled in Hamilton a faculty of first order and a national and international student body of remarkable promise. The only way to gain the most from this convergence of extremely talented people is to demand of that population a type of rigorous academic engagement that is the hallmark of the great colleges and universities in the world. We must be an institution of intellectual examination, free debate, and high expectation. Whatever is said or felt in the heat of any moment, we must return our students and our community to that work.

A recent New York Times column by David Leonhardt used the words of American judicial philosopher Learned Hand from a speech Hand gave in New York’s Central Park in 1944, to remind readers of the need for an openness to the ideas of others. Hand noted, “The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right.” He went on to argue that “the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias.”

This disciplined and clear engagement with others in an academic setting is extremely hard work, and it requires considerable and consistent support for the work of faculty and students. To lose sight of this, though — to consider the primary mission of the university to be anything other than this sort of academic engagement — would be to have lost our institutional compass.

A second fundamental principle of Colgate — of any truly outstanding residential college — is less tangible than the first set forth above, but it is still essential. It is the duty of the university to understand and nurture meaningful connection and community.

As I meet alumni across the country, so many graduates speak of their love for Colgate. It is clear that the university provided, for decades, a setting and a context that fostered within our students a lasting affection for Colgate and connection with each other.

You might say that Colgate students in past decades had an easier time building such a sense of community with each other because the world was less complex then. But while the forms of community might look different now, strengthening the bonds of those in this university to each other is part of Colgate’s responsibility. We must find ways for students to build and sustain meaningful connections to each other.

And to Colgate.

It might seem retrograde, or self-serving, to argue that Colgate should

“It is the duty of the university to understand and nurture meaningful connection and community.” wish that our students develop and sustain a meaningful and heartfelt connection to their alma mater. But I believe that connection to the university — one that makes available the world of ideas and sets the stage for lasting friendships — is a worthy and necessary goal.

In the months and years ahead, I hope to speak to as many alumni as possible about the steps we should take to ensure that Colgate remains an academic institution of the highest academic regard. I will also speak of the steps we should take to ensure that those who come to this campus find the means to connect to one another, and to Colgate, in ways that are sustaining and meaningful. In the most complicated of times, these fundamentals will strengthen Colgate, and help us to move forward with energy and confidence.

I look forward to this work and to the academic year ahead of us.

News and views for the Colgate community

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Inbox Applauding Aveni

The Scene welcomes letters. We reserve the right to decide whether a letter is acceptable for publication and to edit for accuracy, clarity, and length. Letters deemed potentially libelous or that malign a person or group will not be published.

Letters should not exceed 250 words. You can reach us by mail, or e-mail sceneletters @colgate.edu. Please include your full name, class year if applicable, address, phone number, and/or e-mail address. If we receive many letters on a given topic, we will print a representative sample of the opinions expressed.

I wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed reading about Tony Aveni, especially the stories he told himself (“In a class of his own,” spring 2017, pg. 22).

I was a second semester first-year, still unsure about a major (eventually geology — not too much math!), and I saw the course Stellar Astronomy.

I was (and still am) a huge science fiction fan. I decided it would be fun to learn how a lot of that stuff actually works.

Professor Aveni made it way more than just “fun.” I was hooked. Every time I returned to campus, I’d try to

I had the pleasure of being a student of Dr. Aveni in the “very early days” — and he was as good then as he is now.

This [past] weekend (I was there for my 50th Reunion), I had the pleasure of spending much of an afternoon with Dr. Aveni and his wife and a few other students just talking on the porch at his house in Hamilton. It was the highlight of our reunion weekend.

My 50 years of technical success is surely the result of being a student of Dr. Aveni.

Encore: a cappella at Colgate

Steve Shapiro ’75 Houston, Texas I enjoyed this fine tribute to one of my most esteemed colleagues, especially the section by Tony himself. But he is a very modest man, so this does not tell anywhere near the whole story. I want to add that he was the inspiration behind a major rejuvenation of the entire general education program when he was the head of University Studies. He provided the energy, administrative skills, and many of the ideas that lay behind this. For many years, all Colgate students, most of whom never took a class from the man himself, benefited greatly from

scene: Summer 2017

Nigel Bolland Charles A. Dana Professor of sociology and Caribbean studies, emeritus

Lynn T. Finley ’67 North Providence, R.I.

find Professor Aveni and get him to autograph his newest book. And every time, he remembered me like we had just seen each other yesterday.

Most recently, he had a program during reunion weekend in the Ho Science Center’s Visualization Lab. So awesome.

Thank you, Professor Aveni, for your many lectures, books, and helpful comments.

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his dedicated work because they took courses in this interdisciplinary program. Working with Tony was a pleasure and a privilege.

Thank you so much for all of the work you do to create the Scene. I continue to enjoy the variety of subjects, pictures, etc., and I look forward to each issue to keep up with what’s happening at my beloved alma mater.

I was especially excited to see the history of a cappella at Colgate in the last issue (“A pitch pipe, a song, and a smile,” spring 2017, Page 13). I am a former Swinging ’Gate (’81–’85), and being a member of this group formed much of my overall experience at Colgate. It was nice to get an overview and timeline of the different a cappella groups that have formed since I was there.

I’m not sure how much has changed since my time, but for me, being a Swinging ’Gate was a profound experience. I don’t think many of my fellow first-years understood what we were getting into when we tried out for the group, that the experience would be bigger than any of us could have ever imagined. Soon enough, we discovered that the ’Gates, along with the Colgate Thirteen, were ambassadors for the college, providing a link between the alumni, parents, and the university. Besides entertaining our peers on campus, life on the

Swinging 'Gates, 1981 road was an expectation to navigate alongside our studies. On weekends, we’d pile into our maroon van and the Thirteen into their famous Grunt, to perform for alumni and parents at tailgates and receptions at the away football games. We booked additional gigs throughout the year to perform at schools, alumni functions, other college jamborees, etc. We also sang the national anthem at every hockey game and performed at the main graduation and reunion concerts.

We became very skilled at doing our homework in the back of a van.

Being one of the first all-female collegiate a cappella groups in the country also came with other challenges, as we had to learn how to deliver our songs without the power that comes from the low bass that women don’t typically have. We wrote our own arrangements and figured out ways to showcase other strengths. I have watched with intrigue how a cappella arrangements have transformed over the years, moving from traditional four-part harmony to imitating instrumental parts, to the addition of the percussive beatbox sound that we hear in almost every contemporary a cappella tune today. It’s a genre that I believe will continue to develop as we experiment with all the ways our mouths can produce sound.

Swinging ’Gates alumnae might chuckle when remembering all of the uniforms we tried out over the

Bob Connelly ’84

years. Overall, male collegiate groups haven’t had to stray too far from blazers and khakis. In my four years, our attempts of balancing tradition and contemporary sometimes succeeded … and sometimes didn’t. We went from maroon sweaters with jean skirts, to custom-made silk ruffled shirts (cringe) with maroon skirts, to my favorite: the black pants, rainbow vests, tuxedo shirts, and bowties.

Everyone who’s been a member of an a cappella group will appreciate the sublime joy of being able to break out into four-part harmony, at any given moment, at any location. Long before Pitch Perfect, The Sing-Off, and The Pentatonix, we were harmonizing on subway cars and fishing piers, happily oblivious to the world around us. I continue to be an a cappella fan and aficionado and am currently in the process of writing a musical with mostly a cappella numbers. I owe my passion for this musical genre to my experience in the Swinging ’Gates.

Carla Imperial ’85 Northampton, Mass.

The other Professor Busch After reading Ms. Mullen’s excellent Tableau piece from the spring 2017 Colgate Scene (“Frederick Busch and Me,” pg. 12, by Caitlin Mullen ’10), I wanted to add a few thoughts regarding Professor Busch and me. Although I did meet Professor Frederick Busch

once, the Professor Busch that I have in mind was Briton Cooper “Tony” Busch, who was both my mentor and friend. He shaped not only my appreciation of Colgate, scholarship, and how to be a mentor, but even my ongoing understanding of the world today. Professor Busch was an accomplished historian, being the author of thought-provoking, deeply researched, historical books on the Middle East, the Persian Gulf, and in his later years, naval and military history.

He was one of — if not the — most dedicated and thoughtful professors I ever had the privilege to know during my years at Colgate and in law school thereafter. As a teacher, he was genuinely and deeply involved in the thought process of his students.

His expectation was, I believe, that Colgate students would be interested, interesting, and involved with the academic process. Professor Busch was always supportive, but intellectually challenging, friendly, yet thought provoking. Through his unique approach of questioning, lecture, and humor, he stimulated his students’ thoughtfulness in a way that gave me a deeper understanding of the world, the historical context of its modern history, and in hindsight, most importantly, my own intellectual curiosity. While some professors had multiple-choice exams, Professor Busch never did. His expectation was not that students would know the difference between Sunni and Shia in a multiple-choice format, but rather, knowing the distinction [in order to] have an understanding of how those differences impacted the geopolitical dynamic of the Middle East at the turn of the 20th century. He could do all that and make you laugh. In fact, Tony Busch was such a unique teacher filled with humor and personality that an hour class filled with unique insights, details, and concepts seemed just five minutes long. I remember on more than one occasion checking my watch after class because I could not believe the time had flown by so quickly.

As a member of the Colgate London Study Group, he helped me formulate the topic for the independent research study that I worked on in

Call for nominations: Colgate Board of Trustees The Nominating, Governance and Trustee Development Committee of the Board of Trustees welcomes recommendations for new members to bring guidance and wisdom to the university’s governing board.

The board seeks energetic and committed people with expertise in areas including, but not limited to: higher education, finance, the arts, technology, global learning, legal affairs, marketing, or media relations.

Nominees should display the ability to exercise informed, independent judgment and to act in the best interests of Colgate to properly steward the university’s academic, program, and fiscal resources.

Candidates should be willing to fully immerse themselves in the work of the board. They should place Colgate as a priority in terms of time and philanthropy, and be committed to staying abreast of the changing landscape of higher education. The full board meets three times a year, and trustees are expected to participate in committee meetings and conference calls at other times. Trustees are also often asked to attend and/or host other university events.

Each year, the board welcomes three to five new trustees for threeyear terms that may be followed by two additional three-year terms.

Recommendations may be made by mail to: Nominating, Governance and Trustee Development Committee, c/o Robert L. Tyburski ’74, Secretary, Colgate University, 13 Oak Drive, Hamilton, NY 13346; or by e-mailing rtyburski@colgate.edu.

London, regarding the impact of crossnationalism in Asia — a topic that is, if anything, more important and relevant in today’s world than then.

He was ahead of his time in so many ways. He was always so insightful and thoughtful about some minutiae of Indian history I had just read as well as the world, yet we would still enjoy the pleasantries and humor of lunch in an English pub or dinner at his home. In addition to my time in London, I acted as a research assistant for his book Britain, India, and the Arabs (1914–1921), and remain honored to be listed in the credits.

I kept in contact with him for years after graduation. In fact, during my honeymoon, I sent him a postcard on how I had visited a spot in Salzburg that he had mentioned in class (my new wife, a Skidmore graduate, could not believe I was writing to my college professor!).

His impact on my life and career with his thought-provoking approach, sense of humor, and personal grace is felt to this day.

The Scene is planning another ’Gate gift guide article. Do you create, design, or sell something gift worthy?

scene@colgate.edu Send a brief description of your product and, if available, photos to: scene@ colgate.edu; The Colgate Scene, 13 Oak Drive, Hamilton, NY 13346.

Ronald S. Herbst ’73 New York, N.Y.

News and views for the Colgate community

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work & play

Campus scrapbook A

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Students perform with flying colors at spring Dancefest. Photo by Andrew Daddio

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The Men’s Track and Field team sweeps the competition at the Hamilton Mid-Week Invitational, hosted by Hamilton College on April 18. Photo by Bob Cornell

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Students lounge in two of the Quad’s 13 new Adirondack chairs, which were built by Sherburne-Earlville High School students. The specially designed mahogany chairs are inscribed with “1819.” Photo by Mark DiOrio C

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Anthony Castillo ’19, an astrophysics major from Los Angeles, adjusts a switch on his Whack-A-Mole project during the Electronics Presentation: Digital Arcade at the Ho Science Center in March. Photo by Mark DiOrio

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Students decorate Whitnall Field — and each other — with vibrant pigments during the Holi Festival of Colors. Photo by Samto Wongso ’19

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In the satirical comedy Rhinoceros, written by Eugene Ionesco in 1959, students explored themes of culture and conformity. Photo by Andrew Daddio

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Resolutions reunite: A celebration of the a cappella group’s 25th anniversary brought together multiple generations at Akfest 2017. Photo by Andrew Daddio

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Wrapping up QueerFest week, this year’s Drag Ball highlights included a dance-off, other performances, and host Mister Sister. Photo by Samto Wongso ’19

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News and views for the Colgate community

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There is no hush like the peace before a bagpipe procession.

At 10:28 a.m. on May 21, thousands of parents, alumni, and friends quietly stood and turned in unison to the back doors of Sanford Field House. The silence was broken by the sound of the Mohawk Valley Frasers, whose sonorous pipes and insistent drums led more than 700 Colgate University seniors and their beaming professors to Commencement 2017.

With traditions stemming from 195 prior graduation ceremonies, the university conferred degrees on the singular Class of 2017. The event marked the final moments in a celebration that began the morning before with brunch for the class’s firstgeneration graduates and an initiation ceremony for 41 seniors who were elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

The evening of May 20, seniors, along with their families and teachers, gathered in Memorial Chapel for the annual baccalaureate service. The Rev. Gayle Fisher-Stewart, associate rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., and founder of the Center for the Study of Faith in Justice, addressed the class, calling on them to be prophets for a new age.

“Each and every one of you has the power to change the world — to speak and act prophetically; to place your stamp on the world,” Fisher-Stewart said. “When I look out at you, I see hope; hope for a different future; hope for a better and brighter future; hope for a future in which every single person has the opportunity to live up to their potential, to be a valued member of this community we call America. This country needs each and every one of you. This country and this world are waiting for you.”

“When I look out at you, I see hope; hope for a different future; hope for a better and brighter future.”

— Rev. Gayle Fisher-Stewart A cappella concerts, a torchlight procession, and receptions rounded out the evening’s festivities, setting the stage for graduation itself the following morning.

President Brian W. Casey, in his first remarks before a Colgate commencement crowd, reminded students in Sanford Field House of another Class of ’17 — 1917 — whose selfless pursuits deprived them of their own graduation celebration.

The Class of 1917 commencement ceremony was canceled due to the fact that three-quarters of the campus had been deployed to The Great War.

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scene: Summer 2017

Actress shares her vision

Orange is the New Black and Jane the Virgin actress Diane Guerrero reflected on growing up as a child of immigrants during her keynote speech for Africana Women’s Week. Guerrero’s parents were deported when she was 14, but she didn’t let that dictate her future.

“I wanted more,” she said in Love Auditorium on March 23.

“I had a huge imagination, and I had a vision for myself.”

After her parents were deported, Guerrero stayed with friends, moving from home to home. “It was the first time I realized what community can do for each other,” she said. “If you care for one another, you can survive.”

Her speech, “Moving Past Survival: Healing as a Catalyst for Growth,” was in conversation with her recently published book, In the Country We Love. Guerrero said that she wrote her book for the millions of children who are in her same situation.

“Sharing my story taught me the importance of using my voice. It has been a beautiful struggle, everything I’ve had to do to get to this point. I feel stronger for it.”

An immigration activist, Guerrero Diane Guerrero of Orange is the New said that last year’s Black and Jane the Virgin elections motivated her to become more outspoken and involved. When she heard the rhetoric surrounding her community, immigrants, and other things that she held dear, like education, she knew that she had to act.

“I wanted to be a woman who stands up for what she believes in,” Guerrero said. She now volunteers with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, a nonprofit organization that educates immigrants about their rights. She also works with Mi Familia Vota, encouraging residents to become citizens and register to vote.

Africana Women’s Week also included a poetry reading with Ijeoma Umebinyuo, a brown lag lunch with Art as Resistence: 3Realms Collective, and Night of Sisterly Love: SORT Sleepover. The events were coordinated by Sisters of the Round Table, a student organization that fosters sisterhood among women of color and their allies.

Justin Kunz ’19

Mark DiOrio

work & play

Celebrating the Class of 2017

“To double up the degree of celebration by congratulating not just the Class of 2017 but also the Class of 1917 seems like a very fine thing to do,” Casey said. “We celebrate when we wish to mark achievement. We celebrate to remind ourselves of that which is important. We celebrate because to do so makes us human and makes us a community, and we are one today.”

Thanking the class for its generous welcome in his inaugural year, calling them “his class,” Casey said, “Please accept our congratulations and our best wishes as you go into a world that is so in need of your leadership, your energy, your grace.

We are proud of all of you.”

Poet and Yale professor Claudia Rankine reinforced those congratulations in her commencement address. “It matters to me that you know all you have achieved, because unless you understand that you can succeed if you wish, you won’t be willing to attempt the impossible, you won’t be willing to work toward a goal knowing you might fail.”

Inaugural Mosaic Weekend

Bringing together students and alumni of color, Colgate’s first Mosaic Weekend on March 24 and 25 featured a keynote speech by noted ABC News anchor and correspondent T.J. Holmes. In addition, the weekend included alumni career panels, networking opportunities, and a reception with Holmes.

Students were integral to the planning of Mosaic Weekend.

They coordinated with alumni relations and career services staff members to design alumni panel conversations around topics such as the transition into the workforce for graduates of color and industries with progressive hiring practices. They also planned both formal and informal networking sessions — moments when they could discuss with alumni serious topics surrounding diversity and inclusion, as well as time simply to bond over shared Colgate experiences in a relaxed atmosphere.

The weekend also included the first meeting of the Mosaic advisory board, which is composed of alumni, including representatives of the Alumni Council and the Alumni of Color organization, as well as students and staff members from several campus departments.

“Relationships were integral to my emotional welfare as a student. I want to be available to current students as a resource, as a sounding board. I want to help to change the institutional culture,” said advisory board member Jaleith Gary ’09. “It’s not just that we have to be there. It’s us being part of the fabric.”

The Mosaic advisory board will meet with campus representatives twice per year to provide ideas and feedback on matters such as student recruitment; student life, academic support, and career development; and alumni engagement efforts.

Interested in learning more? Contact Veronica “Ronnie” McFall ’89, who has joined the Colgate staff in the new role of assistant director of alumni relations for affinity and identity programs, at vmcfall@colgate.edu.

Entrepreneurship Fund winners at work

If Grace O’Shea ’11 could describe her perfect work environment, there’s a good chance it would sound something like Colgate’s Thought Into Action Incubator located in the heart of downtown Hamilton. After all, its spacious layout, flexible seating options, and co-working environment are exactly what her spatial design company, room2learn, creates for its clients.

Luckily enough, O’Shea spent the beginning of her summer in the incubator working to grow her company as one

Founder Grace O’Shea ’11 (second from right) and her colleagues from room2learn, a company that provides custom-design solutions for school communities. She developed the idea for the company when she was working as an 8th grade science teacher and realized the need for more flexible classroom space.

integral to a liberal arts education, explained Meg BlumeKohout, visiting assistant professor of economics and TIA faculty mentor. “The TIA student-entrepreneurs throw their hearts, time, and effort into creating something new, and for many of them, their venture is an expression of their own identity and social consciousness,” she said.

As for O’Shea’s secret to success? “Figure out if you have something valuable to offer,” she advised hopeful entrepreneurs.

“Talk to people about it. Put a prototype in the hands of someone else. Don’t be afraid to take the first steps toward putting your thought into action.”

— Erin Burnett ’19

Overheard at reunion A record number of alumni returned to the hill during Reunion Weekend 2017 — 1,850, to be exact. Also setting records were the classes of 2012 and 1967, which had 44 and 33 percent of their members attend, respectively. Throughout the weekend, campus was energized with alumni reconnecting, reminiscing, and story swapping.

Here are some of the things we overheard.

“How exciting! Do we get to hear more?”

“Yeah, in five years.”

“I heard Stillman was renovated.

I used to live there!”

“People don’t tell you when you’re young that you should live by your parents.”

Mark DiOrio

Mark DiOrio

ABC News anchor and correspondent T.J. Holmes spoke in the chapel about race and discrimination in the media. His lecture was part of Colgate’s first Mosaic Weekend for alumni and students of color.

of the 2017 Colgate Entrepreneurship Fund winners. She belongs to one of five teams that received a $12,000 grant, mentoring, and use of the incubator space for the summer.

The other winners included Patrick Crowe ’18, founder of Loophole; Rob Carroll ’15 and Nick Freud ’15, co-founders of Vision; Matthew Glick ’19 and Jack Zamore ’20, co-founders of Gipper; and Cody Semrau ’14, founder of BetterMynd. The fund was established in 2013 by Dan and Linda Rosensweig P’15, ’17 to support the business ventures of action-oriented start-ups that have at least one Colgate member on their founding team.

Although O’Shea and her team are still determining how they will allocate their funding, she said that the intellectual guidance they’ve received from alumni and professors is priceless.

“Colgate has an alumni network like no other,” O’Shea said. “All the human capital that Colgate has to offer and the way that people lend their ears and advice to the TIA community — I think that’s pretty amazing.”

Successful entrepreneurism draws heavily on ways of thinking that are

“You see people you haven’t seen in 25 years!”

“You would think I had a shrine to Colgate at my place.”

News and views for the Colgate community

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Mark DiOrio

work & play

Student club supports pollinators and sweet tooths

Ian Helfant, associate professor of Russian and Eurasian studies and environmental studies, transfers honeybees from a nucleus box to a hive at the Colgate Community Garden in May.

Colgate’s newest housing accommodations are now home to about 60,000 new residents — honeybees.

A collaboration between the university’s food service provider, Chartwells, and a group of students looking to support the local honeybee population led to the installation of two hives in a newly established apiary in the Colgate Community Garden. The new endeavor also resulted in the creation of a student beekeeping club.

“In the beginning of the fall semester, I thought it would be a good idea to bring an apiary to Colgate, but it would only work if we had enough students to take care of it,” said Isabel Dove ’19, a geology major from Collegeville, Pa., who is club president and an intern in the Colgate Office of Sustainability.

Even though Dove has no previous beekeeping experience, she wanted to do her part in supporting the local honeybee population in light of the difficulties bees have been having with colony collapse disorder nationwide.

“The beekeeping club, which now has 30 members, will be responsible for the maintenance of the hive and harvesting the honey,” Dove said.

This summer, club adviser Ian Helfant, associate professor of Russian and Eurasian studies and environmental studies, has helped care for the newly established hives.

Such maintenance is nothing new for Helfant, who operates 10 beehives of his own.

Depending on environmental conditions, each hive has the potential to produce about 40 pounds of honey each year, and club members plan to sell the results of the bees’ labor on campus. The club is also planning educational outreach events to bring in local community members to learn more about the bees and their role in the environment.

Village Green

Mark DiOrio

Adding to the success of their Broad Street Tap Room, Carrie Blackmore ’08 and husband Matt Whalen recently opened The Good Nature Farm Brewery. The brewery expands on their “farm-to-glass” philosophy, offering beers and food sourced from local ingredients. Their handcrafted, unfiltered ales can now be enjoyed on brewery tours and in a spacious beer garden.

One popular pour is The Great Chocolate Wreck, an imperial stout with cocoa nibs and powder, named for the annual Hamilton festival.

The seasonal menu currently includes hand-cut fries with artisan sauces, crispy flatbreads featuring ingredients like lamb sausage and harissa sauce, and grilled Carrie Blackmore ’08 in her new Good Nature Farm Brewery on Route 12B.

10

scene: Summer 2017

Celebrating LGBTQIA+

As the Class of 2017 prepared to don black robes for commencement, a rainbow celebration honored the LGBTQIA+ community during the Lavender Graduation and Awards Ceremony on April 27.

Seven awards honored individuals and one group who have advocated for LGBTQ people, issues, and causes on campus. In addition, there were 28 Lavender graduates — seniors who identify as part of or provide support to the LGBTQ community.

“The beauty of Lavender Graduation is that so many people come together to celebrate ourselves and our accomplishments: faculty, staff, and students,” Em Rubey ’18 said. “It’s a time to acknowledge the moments, the people, and the actions that are making this campus a better place for LGBTQ people.”

Rubey received this year’s Emerging Leader Award. An intern with Colgate’s LGBTQ Initiatives, Rubey spearheaded the effort to bring the Spectrum Conference to campus next year. With the theme Intersections in Queerness, this event will bring together students, staff, and faculty from the NY6 Consortium schools to learn from each other.

cheese sandwiches pressed on Utica Bread’s multigrain or Heidelberg French peasant.

More than 50 children and adults gathered at the Colgate Bookstore on April 22 for Earth Day activities.

They read two books — Listen to Our World and Make the Earth Your Companion — and then made cards from recycled magazines. For a snack, the kids were given “dirt cups,” chocolate pudding with Oreos and gummy worms. The event was part of the bookstore’s regular events lineup, which is open to children of all ages.

It’s what’s on the inside that matters. From February through June, the Zen Den’s Yogic Reflective Group met twice a week to learn about the fundamental philosophies of yoga. Their main goal was to explore the Yamas, which can guide people in pursuing a life of connection, cooperation, mutual respect, and tolerance.

— Meredith Dowling ’17 and Melanie Oliva ’18

Andrew Daddio

Mapping the way

Lavender Graduation, which began eight years ago, has been steadily growing, according to khristian kemp-delisser, assistant dean and director of LGBTQ Initiatives. Each Lavender graduate received a certificate, a ceremonial rainbow cord, a keychain from the Office of Alumni Programs, and a mason jar full of notes of encouragement from community members and peers.

“It is a celebration of the whole community,” kempdelisser said.

— Melanie Oliva ’18

Board of Trustees votes to remove Cutten name

Colgate has removed the Cutten name from the residential complex located between Whitnall Field and Huntington Gym. Each of the four houses that compose the building — Brigham, Shepardson, Read, and Whitnall — is now known by its existing name and street address, 113 Broad Street.

Upon its opening in 1966, the building was named after President George Barton Cutten. Having led the university from 1922 to 1942, he oversaw a building boom on campus, a reorganization of the curriculum, and an increase in the university’s endowment.

However, Cutten was also an advocate for eugenics — the belief that a race can be improved through selective breeding — a position widely denounced by scholars and scientists in his own time. “Moreover, research conducted in connection with the university’s bicentennial celebration has revealed that President Cutten took steps with the specific intent of profoundly limiting racial and religious diversity on the campus during his tenure,” Casey wrote in an e-mail announcement to the campus community. In light of this research, the Board of Trustees voted to remove the Cutten name from the residential complex at its April 8 meeting, following recommendations from the faculty, University Planning Committee, and the Student Government Association.

“We are neither rewriting nor erasing the history of George Cutten’s presidency,” Casey wrote. “Instead, we are acknowledging that his efforts to limit diversity at Colgate and to advocate for eugenics are contrary to the university’s past, present, and future values, which rely on equal opportunity and the recognition of merit wherever it is found.”

Moving forward, a bicentennial subcommittee will be responsible for the creation of guidelines for naming future campus buildings.

Before leaving campus this spring, one graduating senior ensured that future generations of students can always find their way through some of the university’s most scenic terrain.

Environmental geography major Jenna Lilly ’17, of Miami Shores, Fla., created a new map and signage system for the Harry Lang Cross Country, Fitness, and Hiking Trails, in an effort to help Colgate and the surrounding community utilize the trails to their fullest potential.

A few years ago, Lilly and her academic adviser, Professor of Geography and Department Chair Peter Klepeis, were searching for a project that would allow Lilly to use her geography training to benefit the community.

“We started talking about the trails, since we both like to walk on them, and Professor Klepeis said that some of the first-years in his seminar had gotten lost up there,” Lilly remembered. “We thought, well if there was a better map, maybe people wouldn’t get lost, so I should make one!”

The project began with research into existing maps and signage. Weather had damaged maps posted outdoors, and maps online only displayed portions of the trail network. Additionally, trails themselves weren’t marked with a universal signage method.

To remedy these problems, Lilly created an updated map using Colgate’s Geographic Information Systems computer lab.

The new map contains all of the trails in the network and is color coded. Data for the map came from a previous student’s work and a GPS device Lilly carried as she walked the paths. Additionally, Lilly researched trail signage methods and developed a recommendation for clear and systematized markings along the Harry Lang Trails.

Her project has received support and funding from departments across Colgate, including Outdoor Education, the Shaw Wellness Institute, the Office of Sustainability, physical education and recreation, and the Student Government Association. The updated map is now live on the Colgate website, and will be posted at various trailheads.

The Harry Lang Trails host a number of visitors, including runners, hikers, snowshoers, and others who want to enjoy Colgate’s 575 acres of central New York woodland. Those wishing to access this pastoral scenery may now do so with greater ease of mind.

Go figure: Flaherty Film Festival 10th year

that the seminar has come to Colgate

63rd annual seminar 42 films

screened over 7 days

3 gallery installations 16 structured discussions 10 featured filmmakers 170 attendees

came from 22 countries and 5 continents

35mm projection equipment available in Golden Auditorium, Little Hall

$25,000 awarded to the seminar from the National Endowment for the Arts

News and views for the Colgate community

11

Tableau

I ripped my pants and I liked it

originating from the decomposing Speckles. Gross, I know. Yet it is comforting to think about the closed loop system within which nature’s goods and materials are designed. Nothing is wasted. All is used, broken down, and recycled in a way that

By Amy Nelson ’89, Biohabitats communications director fosters new life. Not so with my split pants.

Sadly, the dominant model of consumption for apparel is pretty darned linear: extract, manufacture, use, and dispose. And in today’s world of “fast fashion,” where While bending over to yank some invasive English ivy from the herb garden in my new trends pop up with greater frequency and tenacity than English ivy in a subfront yard, I split the seat of my pants. urban herb garden, consumers are generating an insane amount of clothing waste.

It took approximately four seconds for my brain to connect the soft, gentle According to the Council for Textile Recycling, the average American contearing sound and the oddly satisfying sensation of flesh being liberated from tributes 70 pounds of textiles into our landfills each year, 95 percent of which confinement to the fact that the layer of fabric covering my 50-year-old, pantied could be recycled. Disposable clothing is no longer limited to the paper gown in (thank goodness) fanny had just burst wide open. your doctor’s office. And don’t even get me started on footwear. According to a Survival instincts kicked in, and with the speed with which we are taught as report by the UK’s Centre for Sustainable Manufacturing and Reuse/Recycling youngsters to “stop, drop, and roll” should our clothing catch fire, I dropped the Technologies, 95 percent of the 20 billion pairs of shoes consumed annually worldivy vine and promptly plopped my exposed bottom onto the herb garden walkway. wide are landfilled. And for a shoe, especially a running shoe, life in the landfill I dared to look around. Thankfully, the chilly morning had kept neighbors inside. is loooooong. Ethylene-vinyl acetate, a Relief was soon eclipsed, however, material commonly used in the soles of by another feeling. On top of the running shoes for shock absorbency, can humiliation that comes with a pantal last for as long as 1,000 years in a landfill. blowout — even when no one sees Absorb that shock. Given the already it — there was a sense of failure, of environmentally damaging apparel supply things falling apart. It was similar to chain, the act of trashing used clothing is the sinking feeling I had when I broke a like a gut punch to an injured planet. tooth last summer and realized that I After finishing up in the garden, I was actually decomposing. changed into sweatpants and grabbed a I removed my sweatshirt and, withpair of scissors. As I cut my torn pants into out rising, deftly wrapped it around my cleaning rags, I wondered how much humanwaist. I attempted to resume weeding, kind’s clothing donations to landfills would but the disruption of a pants-splitting decrease if the apparel industry followed has a way of tearing one from routine nature’s closed-loop model. tasks and thought patterns. So I sat There is a growing movement among there and took in the garden scene. fashion designers, manufacturers, and re Decay was everywhere. Dead tailers toward more sustainable clothing. leaves from a nearby silver maple carThe outdoor clothing company Patagonia peted the herb garden, their fractured has gone as far as to encourage their cusbits providing a surface area smortomers, through advertising, to buy fewer gasbord for worms, beetles, and who One of Nelson’s chickens, Speckles, is laid to rest in her garden. of their products. Even global retailers knows how many invisible microorganlike H&M are embracing “slow fashion.” isms. Hunks of last year’s mulch, overLast year, H&M released a sustainability report in which they not only shared turned from my aggressive ivy yanking, were marbled with mycelium. Having just the environmental and social impact of the sourcing, manufacturing, transport, written about fungi for work, I knew that those delicate, lacelike threads belied sales, and use of their products, but they also stated their intention to become the fact that fungi — neither plant nor animal, but a creature of its own kingdom “100 percent circular.” According to the report, this means using only recycled or — is a decomposing powerhouse, constantly converting dead stuff into organic sustainably sourced materials, designing clothes that can easily and ethically be matter. Who knows, I thought, maybe in consuming the mulch, that fungi released worn and cared for from season to season, and relying on only renewable energy nitrogen that now nourishes my oregano. in their value chain.

My seat on the walkway provided me with a direct sightline to the backyard Could this movement be the beginning of the trend to end all trends in fashchicken run where, five years ago, my kids witnessed a red-tailed hawk kill Speckion? When discussing apparel, could the term “obsolete” become obsolete? les, their favorite chicken. The shrieks I heard from inside my house that day The next time I split my pants, might I simply toss them into the garden, knowwere of a pitch and decibel level indicative of an imminent trip to the emergency ing that part of them may one day season my shepherd’s pie? room. I bolted outside to find two hysterical children and one dead, partially Believe it or not, this is possible. Artists and designers in the Netherlands and the United States are crafting clothing and footwear out of fungi. A Londonbased company makes a leather-like textile out of pineapple leaves. A Dutch artist/entrepreneur has even come up with a way to make fabric out of animal poo.

I look forward to the day I can wear long-lasting, eco-friendly, compostable clothing. But until then, this is my tribute to my torn pants, from their first incarnation as cropped denim jeans, to what they taught me in their afterlife about the disemboweled Speckles. According to my neighbor, who witnessed the scene (and fashion industry. Those pants were old. I purchased them back when my fanny was described it as Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom-esque), the hawk swooped into higher, tighter, and covered by far fancier panties than those exposed by the rethe run, pounced on Speckles, and held her down for several seconds. Apparently, cent ripping incident. They had seen me through many seasons — of weed pulling, when my kids started screaming, the hawk flew away and dropped the chicken. herb snipping, vacations, kids’ sports … of life itself. Given the faded, threadbare I tried — and failed — to comfort the kids by telling them that Speckles likely condition of those pants, a tear was inevitable. They were, in the truest sense of provided a much-needed snack for the hawk. Later that day, when the horror wore the term, well worn. off a bit, we buried Speckles beside the sage in my herb garden.

It hadn’t occurred to me until that moment, sitting on the herb garden walkway — This essay originally appeared on the City Creatures blog, a publication of the with the chill of cold slate penetrating my sweatshirt-covered bottom, that five Center for Humans and Nature (humansandnature.org) Thanksgiving turkeys may have been seasoned with herbs containing nutrients

The next time I split my pants, might I simply toss them into the garden, knowing that part of them may one day season my shepherd’s pie?

12

scene: Summer 2017

Adirondack retreat

BY J I M LE AC H

The charm of Colgate Camp keeps generations of families returning year after year.

SOME THINGS HAVE CHANGED AT COLGATE CAMP OVER THE YEARS, BUT MORE HAVE REMAINED THE SAME. he camp consists of the T same rustic structures, but they’ve all been refurbished with knotty pine interiors, new wiring, and modern plumbing.

In 1896, Sidney Colgate — third-generation head of the Colgate Company — bought land on the northwest shore of Upper Saranac Lake, N.Y., on which he built Camp Beechwood. His family summered there, traveling from New Jersey by overnight train and completing their journey by horse and buggy and guide boat.

Unlike some of the palatial “Great Camps” in the neighborhood, the Colgates’ camp was always modest, consisting at first of canvas tents. Later, tent platforms and walls were added, and eventually Beechwood developed into a handful of simple, connected cabins and outbuildings. That understated camp was a perfect base for family and friends to share one another’s company and venture into the Adirondack wilds.

In 1953, the Colgates gave Beechwood to the university, and the family camp became, well, a family camp. But now the families are mostly related to the university’s alumni, faculty, and staff, and Beechwood has become known as Colgate University Camp.

To this day, the camp’s charm and character continue to flourish in the timeless beauty of the setting. From a cabin porch or the lakefront, guests can watch the sun rise behind Whiteface Mountain as the mist lifts around the islands and loons wail hauntingly in the distance.

With nine two-bedroom guest cabins, Colgate Camp can accommodate up to 40 people and has become a summer-vacation tradition for campers who return to explore the Adirondacks and rekindle friendships. Faculty, staff, and students fill the camp on weekend outings in the spring and fall.

Trying to chronicle all the alumni and faculty families who return to Colgate Camp generation after generation is a fool’s game, but it’s worth noting that descendants of Colgate’s 10th president, Vincent Barnett Jr. (1963–69), have been the first family in camp each summer season for more than 50 years, filling the place to capacity.

A few things to do in the neighborhood: • Climb any or all of the 46 High Peaks • Tour Lake Placid, site of the Winter Olympics of 1932 and 1980 • Explore the Wild Center (natural-history museum in Tupper Lake)

Kids are excluded from the lakeside circle at cocktail hour (and have no trouble finding alternative activities).

olgate Camp has always operated C on the American plan, serving three squares a day. Friday’s fare is still lobster and steak and Sunday night continues to feature a cookout.

Bob ’52 and Jean Sheldon no longer run the camp, as they did for 35 years, but the Sheldons’ youngest daughter, Sandy ’88, and her husband, Greg Drechsel ’88, (pictured above) are in their 20th year as managers/caretakers. The Sheldons’ eldest daughter, Debbie, cooks, as she has for nearly 30 years.

13 Page 13 is the showplace

for Colgate tradition, history, and school spirit.

Learning from bird brains

The exhibition Deo ac Veritati: Pursuing the Classics at Colgate includes historical course materials.

scene: Summer 2017

For God and for truth: Colgate and the classics

The Doric columns of Memorial Chapel. The Latin inscription on James C. Colgate Hall. The university motto. Students and faculty encounter these vestiges of the classical world on campus almost daily. As the university’s bicentennial approaches, a spring seminar course and current exhibition highlight these classical traditions alongside the history of Colgate.

The exhibition Deo ac Veritati: Pursuing the Classics at Colgate is the culminating project of the course the Classics and the History of Colgate University, taught by Rebecca Miller Ammerman, classics professor. Located on the third floor of Case Library, the exhibition will remain open until next April.

As visitors ascend the third-floor staircase, they’re surrounded by transparencies that line the staircase’s glass panels on three sides. Mirroring the old within the new, the transparencies depict the interior of the university’s first library, which was located in James B. Colgate Hall until 1959.

“The transparencies are enlarged reproductions of the original glass plates captured by the photographer,” explained Michael Holobosky ’19, who developed the idea for the visual backbone of the exhibition. Holobosky is not only a student in Ammerman’s class, but he’s also employed at Colgate as a specialist in graphic design and digital print.

The exhibition also includes textbooks that belonged to Colgate’s early classics professors; portrait busts of Homer, Virgil, and 19th-century pastor and Colgate professor Walter Brooks; Greek homework assignments; and a side-by-side comparison of a classics student’s desk from then and now.

“I hope visitors realize that the ideas of the ancient Greeks and Romans were formative to many of our own,” Ammerman said. “There’s great value in cultures that make us reflect upon our own situation.”

Megan Delaney ’17 and Erica Hiddink ’17 have collaborated with Holobosky to make their findings available online to students and alumni worldwide at deoacveritati.colgate.edu.

“I want people to come away with a new appreciation for the classics; not just how it’s shaped Colgate’s identity but also how it’s shaped the American collegiate educational system,” Delaney said.

— Erin Burnett ’19

Professor Wan-Chun Liu’s lab is filled with the mellifluous tweets and squeaks of zebra finches, a small songbird native to Australia. The birds are highly social animals that teach their young to sing, much the same way that humans teach babies to talk.

“In both cases, [the young] have to interact with adults,” explained Liu, an assistant professor of neuroscience who joined Colgate last fall. “If they don’t have this early exposure, they cannot learn as well.”

Liu has been examining how the songbirds develop that vocalization in the brain and, in the process, trying to develop a better understanding of neurodegenerative disorders that affect speech in humans — diseases like Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s. To further his research, Liu received a $155,000 grant this spring from the Picker Interdisciplinary Science Institute, which supports collaborations between Colgate faculty and outside researchers. The grant will allow him to use the relatively new technique of optogenetics — which gives scientists the power to manipulate genes using light — to study the effects of social learning on the brain.

In studies that he began at the Rockefeller Institute, Liu focused on the part of the brain called the basal ganglia, which is present in both songbirds and humans. During the critical period when the birds are learning their songs, several genes are highly expressed in this area, meaning that their DNA is actively involved in making proteins.

“It is also the first area to have damage from neurons dying when someone has Huntington’s disease,” Liu said.

By inserting a human gene for Huntington’s into zebra finch embryos, he has been able to create a strain of finches afflicted with the disease to understand how those genes affect brains. Relying on that new information, it may be possible to manipulate those genes, using therapies such as the genome-editing tool CRISPR to suppress the disease. “If we can use these types of genetic tools to silence the genes before they start to express and transcribe to RNA, maybe we can prevent the disorder from happening,” he said.

Recently, Liu has been looking at the connection between the basal ganglia and autism, a spectrum disorder that

iStock/pauly49

Mark DiOrio

life of the mind 14

“ There’s great value in cultures that make us reflect upon our own situation.”

— Professor Rebecca Miller Ammerman

Colgate neuroscientist Wan-Chun Liu is using songbirds to understand better how the human brain learns to speak — and gain new insights into diseases that affect speech.

is associated not only with learning difficulties but also problems related to social interaction and communication.

He is working on creating a new strain of transgenic zebra finches afflicted with autism, which he will then study using optogenetic techniques.

By inserting light-sensitive genes (opsins) into the finches, Liu and his collaborator, molecular-biologist Atsushi Miyanohara (UC San Diego), hope to make the birds start or stop singing by shining light on them. Working with neuroscientist Dmitriy Aronov (Columbia University), Liu will build a computer system to automatically track the interactions between different family members of finches, testing the effects of social interaction on the development of vocal learning and autism-like disorders.

“If you have autistic birds that have difficulty interacting with other birds and imitating song from the father tutor, what [changes] will happen in their brains?” he asked. “The overall goal is to better understand how genetics and the environment can affect vocal and other forms of social learning.”

— Michael Blanding

Colgate’s applied-mathematics minor has graduated to become the university’s 55th major.

The consistent popularity of the minor and continued interest from students led to the creation of the full major this year, according to Daniel Schult, Charles G. Hetherington Professor of mathematics.

Applied mathematics is the use of mathematical theory and formulas to address real-world physical or computational problems.

“It doesn’t describe what kind of math we’re using as much as it describes the philosophy of how we’re using it,” Schult said. “In a regular mathematical setting, we’re working to prove whether something is true or not. With applied math, we’re saying that something has been proven — now what can we do with that?”

He also noted that there has been a recent trend of students creating their own applied-mathematics–themed majors through the natural sciences. That fact, combined with feedback from senior exit interviews, resulted in the development of the new major.

The major requires a senior capstone experience — a project-based class similar to thesis development — that relates back to the student’s focused area of application.

“ In a regular mathematical setting, we’re working to prove whether something is true or not. With applied math, we’re saying that something has been proven — now what can we do with that?”

— Professor Daniel Schult “We also decided there should be more computer interaction,” Schult said. “Most mathematicians are using computers in some way to do their mathematics now, so we’ve added a class at the sophomore level to introduce students to the mathematical computations that would normally be behind a website or in the guts of a software package. We’re trying to get to the nitty-gritty software-development level of programming. That will also allow us to use the computer in new ways in some of the higher-level classes.”

Didier Descouens

Applied mathematics named 55th Colgate major

Professors shed light on pearl oysters

It’s rare to find an oyster with a pearl in it, but the iridescent material — called nacre — that coats the inside of oyster shells is actually made of the same material. Physics professors Rebecca Metzler and Enrique Galvez are leading a team of Colgate researchers to find out more about nacre’s structure, which is known for its strength and luster.

“There’s a lot of research into how that structure exists, but we wanted to probe it in a new way,” Metzler said. “Long-term understanding of biological materials, such as nacre, provides engineers with the ability to come up with new and improved ideas for material designs,” she explained.

In 2013, she and Galvez received a Picker Interdisciplinary Science Institute grant for this research, which uses imaging polarimetry — a new technique that involves measuring the polarization of light — to examine the formation of biominerals. The project brings together Metzler’s biophysical knowledge and Galvez’s understanding of physical optics.

With the help of visiting physics professor Joshua Jones and Anthony D’Addario ’18, Metzler and Galvez used a combination of imaging polarimetry and scanning electron microscopy to look more closely at the structure of the nacre.

They discovered that the myostracal layer — the part of the shell where the organism attaches — is composed of a structure of block-like crystals, making it very different from the nacre that surrounds it, which is made up of lines of tablets. They found that the tablets of the nacre that occur after the myostracal layer were much thicker and more uniform than those that occurred before the myostracal layer.

“We found that the [myostracal] layer appears to cause structural changes,” Metzler said. “We’re really intrigued by that. We aren’t sure yet if it’s a direct correlation or if it just happened that way.”

She and Galvez plan to continue their research with imaging polarimetry to find out more about this connection, and they’re also interested in using it to look at other biomaterials, such as chitin, a biomaterial that forms the exoskeleton of many insects.

Their current findings were published in the Royal Society Open Science online journal in February.

— Meredith Dowling ’17

Jake Bensky ’19, of St. Louis, Mo., was leaning toward majoring in traditional mathematics, but he ultimately chose the applied-mathematics major because of his interest in statistics, data science, and the idea of putting complex computation to work.

“I am interested in how data and statistics can be used to solve problems and find insights,” Bensky said. “An applied-math major, along with my computer-science minor, can give me the background needed to excel in data science or any other role that uses data extensively.”

News and views for the Colgate community

15

she’s unable to attend the California-based group’s meetings, Padula decided to enter their annual creative-writing contest.

She is one of three winners, along with a Stanford University alumnus and a current Stanford student.

In “Humanistic Tendencies,” the character Dr. Padula learns about the importance of humanity in the practice of medicine through a long-term relationship with one of her patients. The scene where she reaches into the pocket of her white coat for a poem to read to her patient is a pivotal moment in which the two connect.

“Now more than ever, I think it’s important to take the time to value patients for who they are and listen to what they’re going through,” Padula said. “If doctors lose sight of that because they’re so busy — that’s the worst that can happen.”

— Meredith Dowling ’17

Fulbright in Brazil: identities and health

Kevin Iglesias ’17, of Silver Spring, Md., has been awarded a Fulbright research grant to travel to Brazil to study public health.

Iglesias, a peace and conflict studies major, will conduct research in the city of Salvador, Bahia, on the relationship between black/Afro-Brazilian LGBTQ identities and ethnic forms of traditional healing in Afro-matrix religions (AMR). While there exists separate research on Afro-Brazilian identities, LGBTQ identities, AMR, and public health, Iglesias’s project puts all of these into conversation with one another in a novel way.

He aims both to shed light on the lived realities of overlapping identities and also to understand the sense of empowerment that comes from the holistic-health attitudes found within AMR communities.

“Candomblé, which as a religion is wholly absorbed into everyday Brazilian life, has been a space where LGBTQ people are embraced,” Iglesias said. “For example, there are aspects of

Mark DiOrio (2)

In the short story “Humanistic Tendencies,” by Allegra Padula ’19, one of the main characters — Dr. Padula — decides to read her patient a poem. “Why not?” the character asks.

“It is paper, ink, passion. It heals on a different level.”

The story received the 2017 Irvin David Yalom, M.D., Literary Award's Allegra Padula ’19 received the honorable mention.

2017 Irvin David Yalom, M.D., LitAlthough it is fictional, erary Award's honorable mention. the story does contain elements of truth. The main character, after all, is named Dr. Padula, and the author Padula is a molecular-biology major who plans on becoming a doctor but also has a passion for poetry and is working toward an English minor.

“It’s easy to think that the creative process is lost in the scientific process, but for me, the most important thing is finding a balance between those and finding the creative parts of science,” she said.

Padula has always enjoyed writing, but after taking a poetry class last semester with Professor Peter Balakian, she started to think more seriously about it. “He taught me a lot about the power of creative writing to sustain people in hard times,” she said. “It inspired me to write my own poetry.”

Wanting to incorporate writing into her study of medicine, Padula searched online for kindred spirits and found the Pegasus Physician Writers group at Stanford. Although

Mark DiOrio

life of the mind

Combining passions in fiction and in life

In Moore Town, Jamaica, study group participants learned firsthand about the Maroons and their culture. Pictured on the left, Colonel Wallace Sterling explained to students how his people use certain plants and roots for medicinal purposes.

On the right, a resident tells students about life in Moore Town and prepares traditional food for them at her home. Professor Kezia Page led this Jamaica Study Group during the spring semester, taking the students on trips across the island to supplement their studies that began at Colgate and continued at the University of the West Indies at Mona.

16

scene: Summer 2017

Retirees granted emeritus status

the religion that recognize that a male or female spirit can inhabit the body of an opposite gender. So being queer or being gay is accepted.”

As a junior, Iglesias spent a semester in Salvador, where he laid the foundation of this Fulbright project. During that semester, he conducted interviews with members of the LGBTQ community and people who provided public-health services to that community.

On campus, Iglesias is the promotional officer of the Latin American Student Organization and a member of the Spanish Language Debate Society; he’s also involved in theater and several dance groups.

With the end of the 2016–2017 school year, Colgate granted seven professors emeritus status: Tony Aveni (astronomy, anthropology, and Native American studies), who has been at Colgate for 55 years, helped to develop the field of archaeoastronomy and is considered one of the founders of cultural astronomy. He has more than 300 research publications to his credit, led study groups to Central America and Peru, and received multiple awards for teaching.

Build it and they will heal

We may picture our cell membranes as smooth surfaces, but, actually, they are bristling with spiky structures called glycoproteins. “Some people call them the icing on the cake,” chemistry professor Ernie Nolen said. In healthy cells, these structures consist of a protein chain with a group of sugars attached on the end. Those sugars interact with molecules outside the cell. In some people with diseases such as cancer and muscular dystrophy, however, these glycoproteins break down and lose the all-important sugar on the end.

“If the sugars are not put on properly, the cell can migrate to other places, which in cancer is metastasis,” Nolen said. “In muscular dystrophy, if the sugar layer isn’t there, you don’t get adhesion to their support structures in the cellular matrix.” With a new, 3-year, $300,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health, Nolen is working to recreate structures like these artificially in order to detect diseases more accurately and potentially help to cure them.

Gloria Bien founded and shaped the Chinese language and literature curriculum and developed the Chinese major and minor programs. A 35-year veteran, she also served as department chair of the East Asian languages and literatures department for multiple terms. She played a central role in developing the China Study Group in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Beijing.

A professor in the theater department for 22 years, Marjorie Kellogg has done set design for multiple productions on Broadway and off Broadway, as well as in theaters and opera houses around the country. She has designed more than 40 productions at Colgate. She is also the author of several novels and two produced plays.

iStock

Sociology and anthropology professor Rhonda Levine has been active in professional organizations and published numerous articles in a range of sociological journals. Since 1982, she has been on the advisory committees of many departments at Colgate, including Africana and Latin American studies, peace and conflict studies, and Jewish studies.

Chemistry professor Ernie Nolen has spent his career building complex synthetic molecules. Now he is bringing his expertise to detecting and defeating diseases like cancer.

Nolen has been working to create natural and synthetic molecules in his lab for more than 30 years.

Oftentimes, these molecules are the keys to creating medicines that Mother Nature is ill-equipped to mass produce. The cancer drug Taxol, for example, originally came from compounds in the Pacific yew tree. But one 200-year-old, 40-foot tree only supplies 0.5 grams of the drug, when a typical treatment requires about 3 grams, Nolen said. “You’d have to harvest lots of trees for just one treatment.”

To make these complex molecules, Nolen first has to identify a useful compound and then come up with a construction plan, using reactions involving acids, bases, and other reagents to get them to adhere. “Most of my time I spend hammering one molecule onto another,” he said.

For the glycoprotein project, he is working to create a molecule just similar enough to those present in the body, but with a few crucial differences so the body recognizes it as foreign. He expects that the immune system will produce antibodies to the synthetic molecule, serving as a marker for the disease. “I’m trying to train the immune system to recognize certain structures so the antibodies that are formed can be a diagnostic of the early presence of a disease state,” he explained. That is crucial for diseases like muscular dystrophy and some forms of cancer, which are difficult to detect early on.

In addition, once the body starts producing those antibodies, then it will continue to produce them. The antibodies might aid in helping to kill the diseased cells as a way of treating the disease.

“To some extent, your body is attacking cancer cells all the time,” Nolen said. “We want to amp up the immune system so that it gets angry and creates a better immune response.”

— Michael Blanding

Jay Mandle is a leading scholar in African-American economic history, economic development, and the effects of globalization. Having been at Colgate since 1990, he has more recently turned his study to American democracy and equality. Mandle is the author of 14 books and more than 100 articles and book chapters.

In 2016, educational-studies professor Barbara Regenspan received the Professor of the Year award from the American Association of University Professors. At Colgate, she has been a valued coordinator of MAT and undergraduate social studies and English teacher certification programs.

Since joining Colgate in 1982, Roger Rowlett, the Gordon and Dorothy Kline Professor of chemistry, has established himself as a leader in undergraduate research. He has authored 17 primary research articles and three scholarly reviews and has brought more than $2 million to Colgate through external grants. Rowlett served as president of the Council on Undergraduate Research from 2015–2016.

News and views for the Colgate community

17

Good intentions

When filmmaker Joe Berlinger ’83 appeared at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 25 for the premiere of his latest documentary, Intent to Destroy, he had another member of the Colgate community by his side: English and humanities professor Peter Balakian, whose class Berlinger had taken years ago. Intent to Destroy takes a close look at the Armenian Genocide and the Turkish government’s continued denial of it. Balakian appears frequently in the film to provide commentary on the genocide’s historical context and the way stories about it have evolved over time.

The film marks a departure from Berlinger’s usual style of documentary filmmaking, where he chronicles events as they unfold in real time, such as in Brother’s Keeper, about an alleged murder in rural New York, and the Paradise Lost trilogy, about three men wrongfully convicted of murder. However, Intent to Destroy still adheres to Berlinger’s core purpose.

“My intention as a filmmaker has always been to seek the truth, especially in circumstances that risk distorting or silencing it,” said Berlinger. “Throughout my career, I have used my camera to give a voice to the voiceless — whether it be those caught in an unforgiving judicial system or fighting to be heard from deep within the U.S. penal system — and I hope to bring this same force to Armenians worldwide.”

Berlinger developed the idea for Intent to Destroy when he heard about director Terry George’s latest film, The Promise, which was in production at the time. The Promise — starring Oscar Isaac, Christian Bale, and Charlotte Le Bon — is an epic love story that unfolds in the midst of the Armenian Genocide.

“ I have used my camera to give a voice to the voiceless.”

— Joe Berlinger ’83 Berlinger realized that The Promise was the perfect way to connect the Armenian Genocide to the present. He received permission to embed himself and his crew into the set of George’s film so that he could make a documentary that not only examined the historical and political aspects of the Armenian Genocide, but also considered the challenges faced by people trying to tell these stories today.

“I finally felt there was an interesting way to create a documentary about the subject that would add something new to the existing films already out there,” said Berlinger.

18

scene: Summer 2017

Seeing Through.

Art is always subjective, based on the viewer’s perspective. But visitors to the spring exhibition Through. by David Shaw ’87 also experienced each sculpture differently depending on their literal vantage point.

As visitors moved through Clifford Gallery, the sculptures changed colors as the lights hit the holographic material from different angles.

“It’s like a poor man’s kinetics,” Shaw said. “You’re the motor that drives this thing, and your understanding of the piece is based on your perspective.”

Sculpture titles like Railing and Bent connote the exhibition theme, which Shaw described as “moving through the surface of something or through some passage, whether that’s temporal, emotional, or physical.” He added: “Like railing at the world — there’s anger … and there are passages through.” Bent is one in a series of what Shaw calls his Hangups — both because they are suspended and also because of the implied joke indicating a preoccupation or fixation. Meanwhile, he likened his piece Net to “a neural net or synaptic net — brain space.”

When the artist discusses his work, there are hints of the college student who concentrated on psychology until the end of his junior year. Shaw was planning to attend medical school and become a surgeon, but had second thoughts. “I realized my interest in all of the science and the neurochemistry tended to be conceptual,” Shaw said. He’d always expressed his creativity, and the art department professors opened their arms to him.

Mark Williams

Timothy Grajek

arts & culture

Joe Berlinger ’83 (far left) filming his documentary Intent to Destroy.

He sought to feature a diverse mix of scholars, historians, and filmmakers in the documentary. Serendipitously, Berlinger’s former professor — Balakian — published one of the most seminal books on the Armenian Genocide. What’s more, Balakian’s writing provided some of the inspiration for The Promise’s script, although the professor didn’t know it at the time.

“To be able to collaborate with Peter — with his vast knowledge and personal connection to this subject matter — was an exceptional opportunity,” Berlinger said.

Balakian has previously appeared in a number of other documentaries, including PBS’s 2006 film Armenian Genocide, but working with Berlinger was especially exciting.

“It’s always great to see former students go on to be wonderful, successful, creative artists,” Balakian said. “Joe is a superb artist, and this is a very important film. He did an extremely fine job creating a complex narrative.”

Intent to Destroy played on the film festival circuit throughout the summer and will have a limited release in theaters this fall. For updates, check http://joeberlingerfilms.com.

— Meredith Dowling ’17

Colgate Alumni Collect

A British iPad drawing, a beaded Cameroonian sculpture, a battle helmet turned lyre, and an Impressionist oil painting may all seem worlds apart, but these works have come together in Hamilton, N.Y. They’re four of many pieces on display in the Picker Art Gallery’s exhibition Colgate Alumni Collect, which merges the artistic mind-sets of four alumni who collect artwork from around the globe.

Paul Jacobs ’67, Rick Stone ’81, Oscar Seikaly ’83, and Anne Huntington ’07 lent pieces from their private collections for the exhibition, which was on view through June. The works range from tribal antiquities, like the Ghanaian goldweights of Jacobs’ collection (below), to modern mixed-media pieces (above) from Seikaly’s selections.

“We wanted to highlight that these collectors all have Colgate in common, and yet the art that they’ve collected is from around the world,” said Natalie Ramirez ’19.

She, along with Natalie Bryt ’17, Kally Mott ’17, and Julia Wolf ’17, curated the exhibition by interviewing the

A selection of senior art projects The Roses that Grew from the Concrete Acrylic paint and spray paint on canvas with accompanying wall mural

Sara Rahbar (American, born Iran, 1976), Flag #49: A Time of Anxiety, from the series Flags, 2010. Mixed media, 65 × 35 in (165 × 89 cm). Private collection of Oscar ’83 and Carole Seikaly, Miami, Fla. © Sara Rahbar, courtesy of Carbon 12 and the artist.

collectors, writing the catalogue, and carefully selecting pieces for the show.

“This project offered our students the opportunity to be mentored by professionals in the field to learn about the museum profession and to engage directly with alumni collectors and their works,” said Anja Chávez, director of university museums.

After Bryt, Mott, and Wolf graduated in May, Ramirez stayed on campus to perfect the finishing touches of the exhibition, including the final layout of the pieces. Ramirez explained that they organized the art by collector, so that each section represented each alumnus’s or alumna’s style.

Stone, who lent some of his American Impressionist paintings and contributed financial support to the exhibition, said: “You really see how people have completely and utterly different tastes in art, and that’s OK. The part of life that you learn after graduating college is expressing yourself.”

— Erin Burnett ’19

Five Royal Goldweights, Ghana, ca. 16th–18th century. Brass, dimensions vary.

Photo by Eileen Travell. Collection of Paul Jacobs ’67.

“ The Roses that Grew from the Concrete is a series of eight portraits and accompanying wall art highlighting and celebrating where I come from. I grew up in a neighborhood that was surrounded by family, drugs, love, violence, graffiti, concrete, and flowers, and it is the culmination of both the beautiful and the ‘unbeautiful’ that inspired this project. I created portraits of the women in my family who live in the neighborhood I grew up in. These women represent resilience and power in a place that is not conducive to their survival. I symbolically associate their image with the white rose bush that grew outside my house despite the Texas heat and lack of watering. I juxtapose their images with grafitti-esque wall art to highlight their beauty and their strength despite what is around them.” — Bennie Guzman ’17

Mark Williams (3)

In the exhibition, pentagonal shapes and what Shaw calls “atomic, synaptic chunks” displayed his fascination with the intersection of science and consciousness, technology and nature.

Through. was a survey of Shaw’s work but it also included two pieces — Net and Railing — that he built at Colgate for this exhibition. The Brooklynbased artist worked on the pieces from January of this year until the opening in March.

Shaw characterized his works as his unconscious way of addressing “some rather dramatic moments in my life,” he said. “This exhibition demonstrated that, even under incredible pressure, and seemingly impossible hardship, the only way out is through.”

For more on Shaw and the exhibition, watch colgate.edu/david-shaw.

Casting Off Reclaimed yarn, paper, ink, cardboard “ Queer youth are disproportionately represented in the homeless population, and shelters often lack the resources and knowledge to support these individuals. I am taking discarded clothing and altering its lifecycle to serve the discarded LGBTQ homeless youth population. Both subjects are neglected by the general public, but I transform one to serve the other in a very practical sense, giving the old clothing new purpose. Hats denote comfort and care, but may also be used as tools for protection when living without a home. Each shelter will receive a hat in a box containing various resources on how to help queer youth.” — Kris Pfister ’17 Adversaries: General sensibilities Steel sheets, 120 x 60 inches each “ Space is never neutral. Adversaries works to expose the way in which we have become accustomed to certain spaces through the addition of simple configurations of industrial materials. I select spaces outside of the traditional gallery in order to force viewers to confront the object and renegotiate their surroundings. These installations aim to reshape the intersections between viewer, material, architecture, and space.

The viewers become actors in relation to the piece, not only becoming conscious of their own position within the space, but also their position in relation to the work and their perception of its construction and material.”

— Daniel M. Berry ’17

News and views for the Colgate community

19

go ’gate

phia, including gold by the Freshman 4+ crew of David McCarthy, Andrew Pratt, Luke Smith, Alex Damjnovic, and coxswain Sophie Boyd. The Freshman 4+ also captured the Lindy Cup for the second year in a row. Colgate’s Varsity 4+ — Justin Manzi, Matt Oakley, Clarke Cady-McCrea, and Alex Damjanovic, with coxswain Ben Halligan — earned silver; and the Varsity Pair, Liam Emmart and Peter Rex, took home bronze for the Raiders’ best overall showing since 2008.

Anne-Marie Lemal Brown

Taking football safety to the next level

Women’s rugby takes national title

The women’s rugby team fought its way to victory at the National Small College Rugby Organization (NSCRO) 7s National Championship tournament held April 29–30 at Founders Field in Cheswick, Pa. On the first day of the tournament, the Raiders maintained their undefeated record, beating out Simpson College (22–17), Endicott College (38–0), and York College of Pennsylvania (19–12). The wins earned the Raiders a spot in the national semifinals the following day.

“Amidst tears and cheers, we gathered on

the pitch to revel in a long-awaited win.”

— Bria Vicenti ’17

In the semifinals, Colgate’s faceoff against Lee University ended in the Raiders’ favor with a win of 19–17.

After a long break, Colgate returned to Founders Field for the last time to take on six-time national champions Wayne State College, which beat out Colgate for the NSCRO 15 National Championship in early December. The Raiders were determined to secure a national title, though, and with strong defense and patient attack play, won 15–12.

“Amidst tears and cheers, we gathered on the pitch to revel in a longawaited win,” reported scrum-half Bria Vicenti ’17. As the Raiders came off the pitch, they were greeted by a standing ovation from other teams.

During the awards ceremony, Ciara Pettinos ’17 was named to the all-tour-

20

scene: Summer 2017

nament team and was also named the championship MVP. She was later recognized by the Rugby Breakdown (an online source for U.S. girls’ and women’s rugby) as player of the week and player of the month.

Vicenti reflected: “Huge thanks to all of the fans and alumni who cheered us on from around the world, and so much love and gratitude to anyone who has ever been a part of our community. You all made this win possible, and we can never thank you enough.”

Raiders row to three medals at Dad Vail

Colgate and the Dad Vail Regatta, the largest collegiate regatta in the United States, continue to be a match made in rowing heaven.

The Raiders medaled three boats at this year’s competition in Philadel-

During spring practice, Colgate football added yet another layer to student-athlete safety with the implementation of Riddell’s InSite Impact Response System for helmets. The Raiders equipped 20 helmets with the cutting-edge technology, which features sensors throughout the helmet that record impact data.

Coaches, equipment staff, and athletic trainers not only get real-time alarms if a player takes a big hit on the practice field, but they can also analyze all of the hits after the fact. They can use that data to discuss changes in tackling techniques to make players safer and correct mistakes that might lead to injury.

“It’s been great,” head coach Dan Hunt said. “We can study the data and ask ourselves if a drill needs to be tweaked and if there is too much contact to the head, or if it’s a case of an individual player who might be lowering his head too much and the bulk of the contact is on the top of his head.”

For Hunt, the best feature of the new technology is knowing that a player has received a major hit during practice.

New helmet technology is helping Colgate coaches evaluate hits as well as how to avoid future injuries.

Raider Nation

Fan spotlights with Vicky Chun ’91, senior associate athletic director “We know instantaneously if a player sustained a large hit to the head — it sets off an alarm for the equipment managers and trainers.”

The information from the sensors is downloaded every night, offering a precise record of which players are receiving impacts to the head, how many a player receives, and where on the head they are occurring.

In addition to overall player protection, the goal of the new headgear is to improve fit, stability, and vision inside the helmet.

“Player safety is foremost to us,” said Hunt.

“We firmly believe we can be a physical football team but also practice smart and teach the game the right way.”

Two former Raiders are helping implement these important safety measures at Riddell: Dan Arment ’84 is company president and CEO, and Pat Friel ’13 is product manager.

She won the bronze for ice hockey with the Switzerland national team in Sochi in 2014. Next, she and the Switzerland team will be heading to the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.

Football to open season on Week O

Colgate’s 2017 football season kicks off a little sooner than originally planned. Twenty-four hours sooner, to be exact.

The Raiders and Cal Poly Mustangs have agreed to move their game to Saturday, August 26, at 4 p.m. Pacific time (7 p.m. Eastern). That’s one day earlier than initially planned and all part of Week 0 scheduling negotiations with ESPN. The game remains a big part of the ESPNU opening slate of televised college football. It is confirmed as the only Football Championship Subdivision game on tap that day and one of just a handful of games on the national landscape during the final weekend of August.

This is Colgate’s first California visit since the Raiders played at St. Mary’s in 1999. Cal Poly is set to complete the two-game series against Colgate in Hamilton during an upcoming campaign.

COLGATE

#28 STARTED PLAYING HOCKEY AT AGE

7

Raiders continue NCAA academic excellence

“ I always wanted to do what my big brother did, so I convinced my parents that I wanted to play, too.”

POSITION Defense HOMETOWN Arosa, Switzerland BIGGEST FANS Her parents. They’ve come to campus to watch her play. And her dad watches her games on Livestream — even if it’s the middle of the night in Switzerland.

ROLE MODEL Fellow Swiss Roger Federer because, she said, the professional tennis player “is an overall great sportsman.”

ALTMANN IN ONE WORD

Positive

Mark DiOrio

Student-athletes maintained their standing for another year among NCAA Division I leaders in academic achievement, with 18 Colgate teams earning perfect Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores for 2015–16.

Colgate also received 13 NCAA Public Recognition Awards for the second-straight year and saw 11 teams once again record perfect multiyear APR scores. For men’s golf, it’s the 12th straight year of a perfect APR score — one of just 93 programs nationwide to hold that distinction.

The APR is an annual scorecard of academic achievement calculated for Division I sports teams nationally. Teams must meet a certain academic threshold to qualify for postseason competition and can face penalties for continued low academic performance. The APR measures eligibility, graduation, and retention each semester or quarter and provides a clear picture of the academic performance for each team in each sport. The most recent APRs are multiyear rates based on scores from the 2012–13 through the 2015–16 academic years.

MAJOR Economics

News and views for the Colgate community

21

new, noted , & quoted

Books, music & film Information is provided by publishers, authors, and artists.

Mustache Shenanigans: Making Super Troopers and Other Adventures in Comedy Jay Chandrasekhar ’90 (Dutton)

Part humorous memoir, part film study, Mustache Shenanigans informs, entertains, and tells readers what drinking multiple bottles of maple syrup is really like.

Author Jay Chandrasekhar has spent the past two decades writing, directing, and acting in film and TV. With Broken Lizard, a comedy group he originally formed at Colgate with four of his classmates, Chandrasekhar has produced and directed cult classics like Super Troopers, Beerfest, and Club Dread. Now, with the upcoming release of the long-awaited Super Troopers 2, Chandrasekhar is ready to tell the ridiculous, madcap, dead-honest story of how he built his career, how he started Broken Lizard, and, ultimately, how he made Super Troopers.

College for Every Student: A Practitioner’s Guide to Building College and Career Readiness Rick Dalton ’71 and Edward P. St. John (Routledge)

College for Every Student shares best practices for raising aspirations and increasing educational opportunities for underserved students. Based on his years of research and experience in working with underserved youth, Rick Dalton offers resources and tools for educators and professionals to help students prepare for college and careers. This guidebook highlights proven strategies for promoting core student skills: aspiration, grit, perseverance, adaptability, leadership, and teamwork.

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scene: Summer 2017

Why Gesture? How the Hands Function in Speaking, Thinking and Communicating

Edited by Spencer D. Kelly, Colgate psychology and neuroscience professor; Martha W. Alibali; and R. Breckinridge Church (John Benjamins Publishing Co.) Co-speech gestures are ubiquitous: When people speak, they almost always produce gestures.

Gestures reflect content in the mind of the speaker and frequently use rich mental images that complement speech. This book, co-edited by Spencer D. Kelly, is the first to systematically explore the functions of gesture in speaking, thinking, and communicating — focusing on the variety of purposes served for the gesturer as well as for the viewer. Chapters in this edited volume present a range of diverse perspectives (including neural, cognitive, social, developmental, and educational), consider gestural behavior in multiple contexts (conversation, narration, persuasion, intervention, and instruction), and utilize an array of methodological approaches (including both naturalistic and experimental). The book demonstrates that gesture influences how humans develop ideas, express and share those ideas to create community, and engineer innovative solutions to problems.

The Lost Pipers of CraigDhuin and Other Adventures

Owen Magruder (pen name for retired Colgate professor William E. Edmonston Jr.) (Cozy Cat Press) The fifth installment of Owen Magruder’s John and Mary Braemhor Mysteries series, The Lost Pipers of CraigDhuin revisits the Braemhors and their strange encounters in Scotland and the colonies across the pond. A haunted house in the colonies reveals the legacy of a mass murder.

Meanwhile, the Braemhors investigate strange happenings closer to home.

Puzzles arise when two pipers and the brother of the head of an established Scottish home suddenly go missing. The Braemhors are also tasked with investigating unusual happenings at Sutors Cove and sighting of lights in the sky over the Firth of Tay.

Underground Railway Theater: Engine of Delight and Social Change Wes Sanders ’63 (Smashwords)

An interactive and multimedia e-book, Underground Railway Theater is a vivid, often amusing account of Underground Railway Theater’s (URT) touring years, written by its founding artistic director, Wes Sanders. The book traces URT’s origins in the U.S. experimental theater scene of the 1970s and describes its innovative combinations of puppetry, acting, and music during the troupe’s first 25 years. It details the ensemble’s process for devising –– from research and improvisation –– original, interracial productions on the crucial issues of our time. The richly illustrated narrative includes sidebars with colorful commentary from URT’s collaborators and, to learn more, readers can watch video excerpts from the productions using hyperlinks in the text.

Passionate Purpose: A Global Governance Journey Jack J. Schramm ’53 (New Insights Press)

In his autobiography, Jack Schramm details the many dimensions of his life: challenging military service, a 3,000-mile motorcycle adventure across the Middle East, his eight-year tenure in the Missouri House of Representatives, and White House recognition for groundbreaking initiatives as a senior regulator with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. For decades, he worked in international governance consulting, where he wrote laws, recommended pioneering man-

agement change in 25 countries –– including innovations widely adopted

by USAID and the World Bank –– and gave rare insights into governance practices in places like China and Iraq that unmask preconceptions. Schramm’s life journey is a tour-de-force through tough policy decision making and governance issues at all levels.

Windfall

Jennifer E. Smith ’03 (Delacorte Press) Alice — the main character in Jennifer E. Smith’s new novel — doesn’t believe in luck, but she does believe in love, and for years she’s been pining after her best friend, Teddy.

On a lark, she buys him a lottery ticket for his 18th birthday, and when he ends up winning the $140 million jackpot, everything changes in an instant. It seems like a dream come true, especially considering how unlucky they’ve both been in the past — Alice’s parents are both dead, and Teddy’s father racked up a lot of gambling debt before abandoning the family when Teddy was a kid.

Through everything, Teddy and Alice have always had each other, but Teddy’s luck starts to feel more like a curse when it begins to tear the two of them apart. As Alice and Teddy navigate the effects of Teddy’s newfound wealth, Alice begins to see how luck and love just might intersect.

The Big Rig: Trucking and the Decline of the American Dream Steve Viscelli ’96 (University of California Press)

Trucking used to be one of the best working-class jobs in the United States, but today, the typical long-haul trucker works the equivalent of two full-time jobs — often for little more than minimum wage. The Big Rig explains how this massive degradation in the quality of work occurred, and how companies achieve a compliant and dedicated workforce despite it. Drawing on more than 100 in-depth interviews and years of extensive observation, including six

In the media

months spent training and working as a long-haul trucker, Steve Viscelli explains in detail how labor is recruited, trained, and used in the industry. He explores how deregulation and collective action by employers transformed trucking’s labor markets into an important example of the costs of contemporary labor markets for workers and the general public.

“I get accused of always looking on the bright side — and I’ll take that.”

Also of note:

“Hollywood has become drunk and addicted to superhero movies.”

In his debut novel, Death Postponed (TouchPoint Press), Gustaf Berger ’66 tells the story of a journalist — the daughter of a firefighter who died on 9/11 — and her pursuit of two men who benefited from her father’s death.

Setting out to expose their scams, she embarks on a journey of desperation, self-discovery, love, and sacrifice.

In To Divorce or Not to Divorce (Xlibris), Lenard Marlow ’54 focuses on a critical point of indecision facing many husbands and wives. He encourages couples to concentrate on the causes of their problems — rather than the symptoms — to remedy their marriages.

Jim McCoy ’82, an award-winning life coach, unveils the key to finding an authentic connection using real-life experiences from dozens of daters and nondaters in The Last Place You Look: A Contrarian’s Guide to Dating and Finding Love (Merlin Coaching).

— Jeffrey Fager ’77, executive producer of 60 Minutes, in an interview for Smart Business magazine

— Jay Chandrasekhar ’90, actor, writer, and founding member of Broken Lizard comedy troupe, in an interview with WGN Radio (Chicago)

“It could serve to keep younger people and people who tend to support Bernie Sanders engaged in the political process.”

— Political science professor Matthew Luttig in the Christian Science Monitor, weighing in on the new podcast The Bernie Sanders Show

“What we feel bad about and won’t admit to is we don’t have a market-based solution to unemployment, underemployment, and poverty. I want us to be bold enough as a community to admit to that problem.”

— Barbara Regenspan, educational studies professor and organizer of the group Decarcerate Tompkins, speaking to the Jail Study Committee on flawed in-jail services for behavioral health clients at Tompkins County Jail, as reported in the Ithaca Times

Helen Saul Case ’00 addresses common questions about the dosing, safety, and effects of vitamin supplementation while providing information about eating, exercise, and good health in her new book, Orthomolecular Nutrition for Everyone: Megavitamins and Your Best Health Ever (Basic Health Publications Inc.).

“If you’re still on the job hunt, don’t panic — plan it.”

Value and Quality Innovations in Acute and Emergency Care (Cambridge University Press), co-edited by Jennifer L. Wiler ’96, explores ways in which health care services can be made more efficient and effective.

— Jesse Winchester ’08, former NHL player and new head coach of the Brockville Braves, to the Brockville (Ontario) Recorder

— Michael Sciola, associate vice president for institutional advancement and career services, offering advice to 2017 graduates in his USA Today College article

“I want [kids] to be able to move on … and hopefully one day live their dream like I did.”

Notable:

A chiropractor who is dedicated to relaxed self-healing, Andrew Cort ’73, MAT’78 recently received the Gold Nautilus Book Award in the category USA Spiritual Growth and Development for The Beauty and Nobility of Life: The Restoration of Meaning in a World Overwhelmed by Commercialism, Scientism, and Fundamentalism (CreateSpace, 2016). Cort weaves the spiritual mantras of his practice into his writing, asking readers to thoughtfully reflect, love one another, and think independently.

Critiquing the willingness of modern society to conform to narrow–mindedness and disrespect, The Beauty and Nobility of Life provides a guide to combating the static mind-set and surpassing mental limitations. The Nautilus Book Awards are presented annually in recognition of outstanding works that thoughtfully contribute to spirituality, conscious living, and new possibilities.

News and views for the Colgate community

23

IN THE SUMMER OF 2013, COLGATE SENT THESE INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

MANY COUNTRIES, ONE COLGATE

DIGITAL CAMERAS TO CAPTURE THEIR EXPERIENCES AS THEY PREPARED TO TRAVEL ACROSS THE GLOBE TO CAMPUS FOR

BY DAN DEVRIES

MOVE - IN DAY. FOR MOST OF THEM, IT WAS THEIR FIRST TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES. NOW, FOUR YEARS LATER AND WITH DIPLOMAS IN HAND, THE STUDENTS REFLECT UPON THEIR TIME ON THE HILL.

ABENEAZER

FOR MORE ON THEIR JOURNEY:

Mark DiOrio

colgate.edu/internationaljourney

24

scene: Summer 2017

STEVEN

ABENEAZER Chafamo ’17

Hometown: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Majors: Computer science and economics Activities: Club soccer, debate, African Students’ Union Andrew Daddio

Hongyi “STEVEN” Huang ’17

Hometown: Dalian, China Majors: Economics and international relations Activities: Office of Admission tour guide and student ambassador, Link staff in Office of Residential Life, Konosioni Senior Honor Society, Geneva Study Group, participant in This Is Not a Play About Sex

Technically minded An interest in computers and an entrepreneurial drive spurred Abeneazer to join Colgate’s Thought Into Action program. Through the student incubator, he and Michael Sorin ’18 developed an online platform called InstaTute, which supports student learning outside the classroom.

“It’s aimed toward making students at an institution like Colgate have more accessible academic resources,” Abeneazer explained. “It allows students to have instant access to tutors in any of the courses that they are taking.”

In developing the app, Abeneazer used the concepts he learned in his computer-science courses, including how to program and code for mobile applications. He also spent a summer working with Assistant Professor Michael Hay on the evaluation of machine-learning algorithms that incorporate privacy protocols into data collection.

Day-two disaster

CHINA Campus to campus

STEVEN EMBRACED THE LIBERAL ARTS MODEL OF LEARNING.

ETHIOPIA

Mark DiOrio

Abeneazer’s overall experience was far better than his second day on campus, when he lost his passport.

“I was afraid I might have to go back home,” Abeneazer said. “But the international student services office [OISS] was an incredible support system. Makiko Filler [assistant director] looked up all the necessary information and explained the procedure for applying for a new passport. It was very unsettling, but it was handled very well by the OISS.”

A few short weeks before graduation, Steven wasn’t sure what he would be doing after walking across the stage and accepting his diploma from President Brian Casey.

During his four years, Steven embraced the liberal arts model of learning. He found trying many things to be more enticing than having a razor focus on a single subject or concept.

“I came here all the way from China, so I figured I should choose the classes I’m interested in and explore. That’s the whole point of a liberal arts college,” Steven said. “I realized that you’re not required to find out what you will be passionate about for the next fifty years of your life before graduation.”

It was outside the classroom, as a student ambassador and tour guide in the Office of Admission, where he ended up learning the skills that would lead to his first job after graduating. Steven is now a member of admission at NYU Shanghai.

"My roles in Colgate's admission office came with valuable experiences that have prepared me with multiple skill sets to work for the NYU Shanghai admission office,” Steven said. “Interactions with prospective students, families, and admissions officers have helped me a lot throughout my job-application process as well."

News and views for the Colgate community

25

TA N Z A N I A Identity exploration MARIADORIN

African culture

MARIADORIN Shayo ’17

Andrew Daddio

Hometown: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Majors: Physical science and Africana studies Activities: Model African Union, African Students’ Union, Community Leader, Sisters of the Round Table, Student Government Association

With a desire to inform people about Africa, MariaDorin created the African Fashion Show.

“Not many people know much about Africa outside of the usual things they see in the media,” she said. “I wanted people to know about the fashion, the food, and the people.” She established the event as a member of the African Students’ Union, an organization for which she later became president.

She is now working at Dalberg Global Development Advisors in Tanzania, assisting nongovernmental organizations and foundations with development challenges and public-health issues in sub-Saharan Africa.

WILSON

scene: Summer 2017

MAKING CONNECTIONS ON CAMPUS CAME NATURALLY FOR WILSON, WHO IS THE KIND OF PERSON WHO LIGHTS UP A ROOM WITH HIS SMILE AND OPENNESS TO ENGAGE. First impressions When Wilson arrived on campus in 2013, he mistakenly missed international student orientation (due to his own admittedly poor planning) and found himself lost on the first day of classes. He wasn’t even sure where to buy books. Fortunately, his academic adviser, literature professor Margaret Maurer, helped him get everything in order.

“She was very patient with me,” Wilson said.

“She just took my hand and helped me get to where the other students were. I can’t imagine where I would be without her help.”

A warm smile Making connections on campus came naturally for Wilson, who is the kind of person who lights up a room with his smile and openness to engage. As a result, he became president of the French Club and a frequent participant in Model African Union.

K E N YA

26

WILSON Ochar ’17

Hometown: Nairobi, Kenya Major: Political science Minor: French Activities: Club soccer, Student Government Association, French Club

Andrew Daddio

Coming to the United States for college during a time of national debate regarding issues of race and class, MariaDorin was prompted to more closely explore her identity as an African student.

“I didn’t think much about my identity growing up. I was just Maria, my father’s child,” she said. “Coming to Colgate made me confront who I am as a person because you have to engage with people from different cultures and backgrounds, and you have to ask yourself who you are and determine your goals. You can’t know your goals or how you are going to situate yourself without knowing your identity.”

During her sophomore year, a campus sit-in occurred, which had a profound impact on how MariaDorin viewed herself and saw her place among her Colgate peers.

“At that time I wasn’t sure of my identity as a black person,” she said. “I never thought of my identity as black because I came from a predominantly black society, so it wasn’t particularly salient. I had to figure out how I fit into that whole discussion, not only as an African but also as a black person at Colgate,” she said. Reading civilrights activist W.E.B. Du Bois in her Challenges of Modernity core class helped shape her views.

Opportunity supported Wilson received summer funding from Colgate’s Center for Career Services, which helped him return to Kenya for an internship in the country’s ministry of tourism.

“Colgate has such [vast] resources and generous donors contributing this money. [I got this opportunity], and career services came in and said, ‘You don’t have to worry. We have your back.’ I am so thankful for that,” Wilson said.

GHANA

Personal growth Although quiet and reserved in her first few weeks on campus, Izzy found her voice by joining student organizations focused on cultural identity and support.

As a member of the African Students’ Union, she worked with fellow international student MariaDorin Shayo to establish the African Fashion Show, which took place for the third time in November 2016. Izzy was also an active member of the Sisters of the Round Table, which provides an opportunity for women of color to connect, bond, and share their feelings about the minority experience in America.

IZZY

Research Izzy spent the summer after her sophomore year in her hometown, Ghana’s capital city of Accra, as an intern with an anticorruption nongovernmental organization. The following summer she spent in Accra researching her thesis, which focused on how LGBTQ people in the country are involved in advocacy and how their involvement affects their identities and their daily lived experiences.

“I learned that there is an LGBTQ presence in Ghana and they want recognition and protection,” she said. “They want to live their lives like any typical Ghanaian.”

Maria Isabel “IZZY” Kubabom ’17 Hometown: Accra, Ghana Major: Anthropology Minor: French Activities: African Students’ Union, Sisters of the Round Table

In D.C.

Zoe Zhong ’17

JULIA

Izzy is currently a social media intern for the nonprofit Brace Institute in Washington, D.C. She is also looking for a full-time job in research or a nonprofit development organization.

H O N G KO N G

JULIA Zschiesche ’17

Hometown: Hong Kong Majors: Economics and political science Activities: Colgate International Community, University Chorus, a cappella with the Mantiphondrakes, University Theater, leader for international-student orientation

Initially concerned with Colgate’s rural location, Julia ultimately found it to be the catalyst for forging strong friendships. “You can’t just escape into the city.

You have to bond with the people around you. I think that makes the transition easy, because you are making that transition with everyone else,” she said.

Andrew Daddio

While part of Colgate’s Washington, D.C., Study Group, Julia interned as a research assistant with the International Economic Development Council.

Speaks five languages

YOU HAVE TO BOND WITH THE PEOPLE AROUND YOU.

A SNAPSHOT OF COLGATE’S INTERNATIONAL REPRESENTATION STUDENT BODY:

15% (including dual citizens) 74 countries represented China (98), Canada (66), and South Korea (28) have the largest representation on campus

CLASS OF 2021:

Applications from 145 countries 11% international in enrolled class 37 countries in enrolled class represented (including dual citizens)

ALUMNI:

Live in 90 countries

News and views for the Colgate community

27

College Man For Brian W. Casey, Colgate is more than a place. It’s a calling.

By Mark Walden

One early morning in the fall of 2016, newly inaugurated Colgate President Brian W. Casey walked out of James B. Colgate Hall, through the parking lot, and across Campus Drive. The hill was awakening. Cars delivered faculty and students to class, prospects to tours, staff to work. Birds sang in the slowly swaying branches of the stately old Norway spruce outside Merrill House.

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scene: Summer 2017

Mark DiOrio

Acer, Maple

“ You plant trees that won’t be at their full maturity for 70 years, because the beauty of the campus is quite important.”

C

asey strolled up Alumni Drive toward the future home of Benton Hall, at this point occupied only by a sign, a few wooden stakes, a trio of young maple trees … and a man with a chain saw.

The president called out, “What are you doing?”

“I’m going to cut down these trees,” the man replied.

“No, you’re not.”

“Yes, I am. Here’s my card.”

“No, you’re not. Here’s my card.”

The maples were pardoned. They can be seen today in their new home on the other side of Alumni Drive, in front of Merrill House.

For Colgate’s 17th president, protecting individual maples isn’t micromanagement. Quite the contrary, it’s an act of what can only be thought of as macromanagement. “As a president, one of your jobs is to shape the institution, and to have a sense of the length of time affected by major decisions,” Casey said. “You plant trees that won’t be at their full maturity for 70 years, because the beauty of the campus is quite important. You build large and complex buildings — and when you do that, you have made a 100to 200-year decision. And there are few things that impact the institution more than the faculty you hire. When a faculty member is hired, and granted tenure, that’s a 40- to 45-year decision for the university.”

Casey’s love affair with the American college has been a 40- to 45-year obsession, fed by education and inclination. After a year at Colgate, he is drawing on his experience, applying his eye for detail, and embracing long arcs of time as he begins to invest in the faculty, focus the university

on the academic experience, enhance student life, and usher in the greatest building boom on campus since 1960.

A campus odyssey

As Casey himself tells the story, his father, Don, took him to a swim meet at Yale University back in the mid-1970s. Lost and late, they parked on the wrong side of campus and ended up sprinting together from one quadrangle to the next, searching for the pool. With each passing Gothic building, the younger Casey became less interested in the swim meet, more interested in the place in which he found himself. What did people do here? Why does this place look like this? It was nothing like anything he had ever seen before, and he didn’t want to leave.

Those swim meets paid off, and Casey was accepted as a varsity swimmer at Notre Dame, where he majored in economics to please his father and philosophy to please himself. He studied for his courses, and he also spent considerable time studying the college. By his own admission, he knew every construction site on campus, and he used to sneak in to see what was happening, track progress, and ponder why certain things were done certain ways.

Casey graduated in 1985 and headed to Stanford Law School. “It wasn’t because I wanted to be a lawyer,” he told members of the Ciccone Commons during a visit last year. “I thought it was just more school. I was getting my Master’s in School.” But three years later, whether he wanted to be a lawyer or not, Casey landed a coveted position as an associate at

the prestigious Wall Street firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell, and his school days were over. He traveled between the firm’s offices in New York City, London, and Beijing, sealing financial deals. He was living a life full of social and financial capital, but he wasn’t enjoying it. “I kept thinking that I would come around, that I would fall into this work with passion. I thought that maybe I wasn’t working hard enough or, maybe in another couple of months, I would figure out what it was that I liked about the job.”

A couple of months stretched into four years before Casey finally admitted that he was deeply unhappy as a lawyer and needed to make a career change. He took a soul-searching sabbatical, and he slowly realized that he had belonged on a university campus since the day he and his father lost themselves on the way to the swim meet.

(This fact was long apparent to many people who knew Casey. A law school classmate gave him a copy of Paul Venable Turner’s tome Campus: An American Planning Tradition as a graduation present.) He needed to head back to college for the long haul. “It was visceral,” Casey said. “I’m happiest on a campus. I’m fascinated by them. I just had to be back there.”

He went off to Harvard to earn a PhD in history, focusing on the intellectual history of the United States and particularly on the development of American colleges. Meanwhile, he began commuting to Brown University, where he worked as a special assistant to its new president, the legendary Gordon Gee. “I was writing a dissertation about American higher education in the mornings, and then I would go and be in a president’s office at Brown in the afternoons,” News and views for the Colgate community

29

Casey said. “So, my administrative life began early and intensely.”

After completing his dissertation in 2001, Casey joined the administration at Brown as assistant provost. He was back at Harvard in 2005, appointed associate dean for academic affairs in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. DePauw University found him there in 2008 and invited him to take on the presidency, which he held until his arrival in Hamilton in 2016.

Creating a leader

Casey’s father, Don, was more than a swim-meet chauffeur. He was TWA’s senior vice president of marketing with executive experience at firms like Exxon, Procter & Gamble, and Johnson & Johnson.

While Brian’s schoolmates in Holmdel, N.J., were going down the shore for summer break, he and his siblings were planning extensive trips with Don and their mother, Carole, to Madrid or Moscow.

These weren’t just sightseeing excursions, either.

Don and Carole required that each Casey child draft a report on an interesting aspect of the locale to which they would be traveling, and those reports were due prior to boarding. The Caseys might meet with the pope during a layover in Rome. Or Ralph Lauren in New York City — Don hired Lauren in the early days of the designer’s career to reimagine the look of TWA, from the upholstery on the aircraft seats to the flight attendants’ uniforms.

Back on the ground, Brian and his father took long drives to look at architecture and foliage. On

President Brian W. Casey addresses the Colgate community — and his parents, Don and Carole — in Memorial Chapel during his inauguration ceremony on September 30, 2016.

these drives, and in his travels during the years that followed, Brian developed a love for the American elm. The tree of the college campus was brought down by Dutch elm disease, which spread across the country in the ’60s and ’70s. Before the blight, the elm had a lot going for it. According to experts at Harvard — where elms once dominated the august yard — it was ideal because it was abundant, fast growing, transplantable, and tall. Its

30

scene: Summer 2017

canopy started high on the trunk and created a natural roof over the lawn, where students could sit, study, debate, and read. As a graduate student at Harvard in the late-1990s, Brian watched the university undertake an ambitious replanting of the yard. He paid close attention to the varieties of trees selected and the way that landscape architects ensured that the replacement trees had no limbs below 7 feet — an accurate reproduction of the elm canopy, under which deep thoughts and conversations took root.

Trips and talks with his dad trained Brian, from his earliest childhood, to observe details like these in his environment. Don helped him to understand that seemingly small touches,

achieve victory. He is determined to keep Colgate’s focus on its academic program, the quality of the student body, their campus experience, and the campus itself. The headers are straightforward, but the task is complex.

For starters, more than half of Casey’s initial cabinet members — the leadership team responsible for advancing his agenda — were serving on an interim basis when he arrived on campus in July 2016. Since his first day in James B. Colgate Hall, he has hired a new provost, dean of the college, chief information officer, vice president for communications, and vice president for finance and administration.

The categories also have many constituent

Beauty is not a luxury on a university quad, which is the heart of a campus. It is a vital component in an intentional design that furthers important intellectual work. like the height of a tree limb or the colors of a uniform, can have an impact on people and on the outcomes of their work. Parts should create harmonious wholes. Beauty is not a luxury on a university quad, which is the heart of a campus.

It is a vital component in an intentional design that furthers important intellectual work.

By coincidence or good fortune, some two decades after watching the replanting of Harvard Yard, Brian Casey was appointed to the Colgate presidency. Architects were finishing designs for three new buildings: Benton Hall on the edge of the academic quadrangle and two new residence halls on what is commonly known as the old golf course. The new president trained his eye on the plans and realized that the university was about to disrupt the architectural cohesion of the campus’s historic center. “I’m proud that, in some of my first moments as president, I was able to change the designs of these buildings that were going to be radical departures from the traditional look of the campus,” he said. “Every now and then you should have buildings that are provocative and look different, but I think in the historic core of campus you have to be deeply respectful of context.”

Embracing complexity, retaining focus

In February of 2017, four months after his inauguration, Casey gathered university staff in Memorial Chapel for a meeting. “To be at Colgate,” he said, “there is an obligation — to those who went before us, and to the nation — to ask how best to produce the most excellent version of Colgate possible.”

Like the NCAA Division I swimmer that he is, he has broken the obligation into a series of four strokes that the university must hone to

parts. When Casey speaks of the academic program, he means everything from faculty recruitment and retention to the course load that each professor bears while conducting groundbreaking research. He means financial resources available to fund the research, and he also wants to ensure that the courses the university offers are evolving to fit the needs of today’s undergraduates. “The most important thing for a president to do is to support the academic mission of the institution,” Casey said. “Students generate a lot of lovely and joyful noise, and you listen to it. But great presidents must have an intellectual vision, and they must ruthlessly and perpetually and persistently pursue it.”

Time and tide wait for …

Ruthless and perpetual. The words also apply to a college president’s schedule. It’s tempting to think that there was a time when college presidents sat in mahogany-paneled, book-filled offices and thought deep thoughts. “That’s not true,” Casey said with a laugh. “I don’t think there ever was such a time.” Yes, thanks to social media and other technological advances, the pace of a presidency has increased, but its rigorous schedule is timeless.

Every Friday, on his way out of the office door, Casey receives two cards. One contains his schedule for Saturday, the other for Sunday. “There are times when you are working seven days a week for weeks on end,” Casey said. “There are times when you just feel like you aren’t sleeping.”

The president’s tactics for combatting job stress are becoming the stuff of campus legend. He does laps each morning with the varsity swim team.

There are the walks with his dog, Emrys, around the Quad every evening. On airplanes, flying toward his destination, he reads Colgate memos and

writes e-mails to Colgate faculty and staff; on the way home, he reads for pleasure. And every night at 10 p.m., he tries to shut down his e-mail.

“The biggest challenge of this job,” Casey said, “is that you have very little time that is under your control. You go from place to place, from meeting to meeting. So, you have to force yourself to back off and think about bigger things, because the job does not lend itself to long-term thinking.”

Here’s another misconception that Casey studied in detail while researching his dissertation at Harvard: “Institutions like to promulgate the notion that they are timeless,” Casey said. “In fact, they are always changing. Some of those changes are slow moving, but they are always changing.”

A university’s place in time is a bit like a Cracker Jack hologram card: depending on perspective, you see the old or the new. Stand in the middle of the academic quadrangle and focus on Memorial Chapel, and you will enjoy roughly the same view as a member of the Class of 1935. But rotate 180 degrees, and you will spy some of the most advanced science facilities in the nation.

Benton Hall, the new home of career services, will feature local stone of the same variety used in the university’s oldest buildings. Its interior features reflect the motifs of James B. Colgate Hall, and its front portico, looking out at Hascall Hall from between Olin and McGregory halls, invokes the Robert H.N. Ho Science Center. Yet, activities inside the building will be completely modern. Similarly, Colgate’s new residence halls will mirror East and West halls in form while being entirely up to date in function. “Our architects were challenged to create brand-new buildings that instantly look 100 years old,” Casey said.

Inside classrooms, the core curriculum still bonds generations, but course topics, syllabi, and educational technologies — guided by the interests and curiosity of today’s faculty as well as the needs of 21st-century students — are constantly evolving.

Embracing the university’s past and learning from history while moving relentlessly forward — it’s more than academic. “There are a small number of truly national, important colleges and universities like Colgate,” Casey told staff that day in the chapel. “These institutions produce an overwhelming majority of our leaders and thinkers. What these institutions do shapes the nature of education in America. Along with our great industries and other cultural institutions, these colleges and universities are foundational to the nation. Colgate is one of these institutions.”

Colgate’s value(s) proposition

Casey will readily admit that the excitement of scrutinizing architectural renderings and recruiting a new management team masks something that, in his words, can sound “incredibly dull” to those who don’t live and breathe the American university.

Q&A SCENE: What kind of advice did you receive from various members of the Colgate community during your first year as president?

BWC: Be present. Be visible.

It was clearly a signal that the school was hungry for someone to represent the institution. One of my responsibilities — and one of the natural attributes of this job — is to represent Colgate, to embody the institution. So you need to be present; you have to have really good ears; you have to walk around the campus and feel what’s going on and understand it.

SCENE: As you met with alumni, parents, and friends of the university last year, did any questions come up with regularity?

with President Brian W. Casey BWC: “Is Colgate more like Williams or Dartmouth?”

And I have to admit that I find that question a bit irksome.

My job is not to make Colgate more like Williams or more like Dartmouth. My job is to make Colgate the best version of itself. There are certain intrinsic qualities of this place, and its excellence will be built on those things.

When I look at what Colgate does, it’s larger than most liberal arts colleges. So I think whatever happens with Colgate, it has to recognize that scale. There’s something else about Colgate: it tends to be a place where people connect. Colgate students tend to move in groups, and they are doers. Colgate has a type of energy, a spirit.

“We are creating processes and governing structures so that people understand that Colgate is well managed, so that people understand how decisions are made,” Casey said. “Whether you agree with them or not, you can understand that the decisions were legitimate.”

As he creates processes, Casey is also delving into an issue that became apparent to him during his earliest conversations with the Presidential Search Committee. “I believe that Colgate has allowed itself to think in terms of oppositional postures, outlooks, and perspectives that are, by definition, zero sum — whether it’s Greek life versus non–Greek life, academics versus athletics, sciences versus the humanities, tradition versus social justice,” Casey said. So, when he’s not reviewing faculty tenure cases, listening to that joyful noise from students, or making sure that the university’s pool of undergraduate applicants is growing in strength and numbers, he’s asking himself, “How do you focus the institution on larger values, goals, and missions that will free you from this zero-sum, either/or thinking?” According to Casey, great universities throughout history find clarity by identifying aspirations and characteristics that are, instead, unifying. “One of my jobs,” Casey said, “is to help people recognize those deeper values of the institution, values that belong to all of us on this campus.”

Right place, right time

It’s tempting to wonder: Did Casey always know he wanted to be a college president? Maybe not consciously. Maybe not when he was sitting in that office on Wall Street. But what about when

SCENE: How do your conversations with Colgate students differ from the discussions you’ve had at Brown, Harvard, DePauw, and elsewhere?

BWC: Colgate students speak of faculty more readily than students at other places, absolutely. If I were at another institution, they would say, “Well, I'm in microeconomics, and I’m learning about …” They define their courses in terms of a larger subject. Here, when you ask students to tell you about their classes, they will very quickly say, “Oh, I’m in Professor ______’s course.”

They label the course by the faculty member, not by the topic, and that’s something that cuts across all student groups here.

It’s a source of incredible power and joy.

he went to Harvard? Did he sit under an elm and think about being president of a college?

People frequently ask.

“That question — did you always want to be a college president? — is, I think, a real misframing of what is at stake,” he said.

“When I began the interview process, I was interested in being president of Colgate, of this place, at this time, facing these issues.”

Colgate features the characteristics that Casey loves most in an American university. It is small enough that he can know the faculty and the students personally. It is big enough to support robust faculty-student research, Division I athletics, and a top-tier infrastructure. The university has a long history and a compelling mission. And it has, at its core, the liberal arts. “I believe in the liberal arts,” Casey said. “That’s not just rhetoric. I actually do think it’s the best way to educate people.”

Beyond knowing what Colgate is, Casey knows what it could become. “I had the sense that Colgate has this remarkable history and remarkable characteristics, but somehow the narrative had become blurry. It needed someone to come in and say, ‘There are greater aspects of this institution that we can all embrace together to move the institution forward.’

“Historians always write in terms of presidencies, whether I like it or not. I dream that, at the end of my time here, they will write ‘Due to his leadership and his work with many constituencies, Colgate became profoundly stronger.’”

News and views for the Colgate community

31

BATTLE OF THE

B RA I NS

Richard Myers

RETURNS

BY A L E TA M AY N E

1960, NBC's College Quiz Bowl, New York City

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scene: Summer 2017

1955 Elvis Presley was taking the Louisiana Hayride to fame, polio met its match with the Salk vaccine, Jim Henson gave birth to Kermit, and Dwight Eisenhower became the first president to hold a televised news conference.

On the radio waves, more than 2,281,000 weekly listeners were tuning in to College Quiz Bowl, launched two years earlier.

When NBC invited Colgate to participate, “it was a big deal,” remembers team member Jim Wachtel ’55.

The chapel filled with eager students that spring, rooting on the Raiders as they were connected through a radio hookup with their opponents, who were on their own campuses, and with host Allen Ludden, who was in a New York City studio.

Colgate was on a roll when Life magazine featured the match against Cornell. In its article titled “From Campus High-Brows to Campus Heroes,” Life noted that, for the 50 competing colleges, the quiz bowl had become as exciting as a football game, “converting college eggheads into campus heroes.”

?

Richard Myers (2)

“ Wachtel, one of those braniacs-turned-big-shots, recollects: One evening, in February 1955, during my senior year, I walked into the dorm lounge where a group of about 10 or 12 students was seated in a circle attempting to answer what we would now call trivia questions. After I’d joined in, Keith MacGaffey ’55 commented, “You’re very good at this.” I responded, “Thank you, but what are we doing?” Keith explained that NBC had invited Colgate to enter a team for the College Quiz Bowl program and that I had walked into an unofficial practice session. He suggested I come to the practices, which I did for the next three sessions. A four-man team was to be selected by a vote of the participants. After the voting, the team was made up of Paul Schmidt ’55, Peter Gould ’56, Marty Heyert ’56, and myself. I am the only surviving member.

Lloyd Huntley ’24, student activities director, provided suggestions for studying and conducted the weekly practices.

During the practice sessions, we answered questions and Huntley kept track of the percentage each participant answered correctly.

Before we voted, he distributed that data. He did a fine job in organizing the team.

Our first match was against Mount Holyoke in March. Each team was at its own campus, and quizmaster Allen Ludden was at Radio City in New York City. Although we couldn’t see the other team, we could hear their responses. The score was announced several times during the competition. At Colgate, most of the matches were held in the largest venue on campus, the chapel, which held 1,200 seats, most of which were occupied during the matches.

Contestants had buzzers to signal that they wanted to answer a question; the first person to signal had the first crack at the question. If the individual’s answer was correct, that team was eligible for a bonus question on which the team members could confer. If the answer was incorrect, the other team was given an opportunity to respond.

The last answer of the first match was the most outstanding of the series, in my opinion. When Ludden announced that the time was nearly up, we had a small lead. The question was: “What animal was known to the ancients as the camelopard?” My first thought was, “This is hopeless; we’re going to lose.” I was greatly relieved when Paul Schmidt answered, correctly, that the camelopard was the giraffe. When the program ended seconds later, we gathered

“What animal was known to the ancients as the camelopard?”

MY F I R ST T H O U GH T WAS , “ T H I S I S HOPE LE SS; WE ’RE G OING TO LOSE .”

— J I M WACHTE L '55

Life magazine, 1955

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around Paul asking, “How did you know that?” He told us he didn’t know it, he had figured it out. “Pard,” he told us, “means a spotted animal. For example, the leopard is a spotted lion.

So I thought, ‘What animal would be a spotted camel?’ and it had to be a giraffe.” I’ve always believed that being able to figure out an answer should be worth more credit than knowing an answer outright.

Nowadays, I would hesitate to answer a question on the basis of as little knowledge as I had about some of those subjects, but in those days, taking a guess seemed to work well. For example, “What did these men have in common: Brewster, Bradford, and Winslow?” I answered that they all were Pilgrims from the Mayflower. I was pleased that although the official answer was that they were all signers of the Mayflower Compact, my answer was acceptable.

Our third match was against Cornell, and we were told Life magazine was going to cover it. They sent out three teams of photographers, one to Colgate, one to Cornell, and one to NBC’s New York City studios. The photographer at Colgate took approximately 300 photos during our match.

He had 10 Leica cameras, which he reloaded on the fly.

In that match, Ludden asked, “Name the fictional ship that is manned by the following men: Flask, Daggoo, Queequeg, and Stubb.” I meant to say, “That’s in Moby Dick. The ship is the Pequod,” but what came out was, “That’s Moby Dick.” As soon as I realized I had answered incorrectly, I threw back my head in disgust, and as I did so I thought, “I’m going to be in Life magazine” — and I was, on page 104 of the April 4, 1955, issue. Schmidt, our leader, was irked, too, because he missed a question and there’s a picture of him looking like he was about to die. We felt that, to read the article, one would think Colgate had lost instead of trouncing our opponent.

The night we went up against Duke in our fourth game, we were displaced from the chapel because a sold-out Boston Pops concert was scheduled there at 8 p.m., just as our broadcast ended. We were told to go to the back door of the chapel so that after the first number was finished, we could be escorted to front-row seats saved for us. As the second half of the concert started, [conductor] Arthur Fiedler announced our winning score in his charming European accent. The audience roared — and we felt just great.

When our loss to Mt. Holyoke ended our College Quiz Bowl run in April 1955, we had a record of five victories and a final defeat. We won against Mt. Holyoke, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, and Georgetown before losing to Mt. Holyoke in a second match. Except for the two close matches with Mt. Holyoke (one victory, one defeat), the matches were very one-sided.

After each match, Good Housekeeping magazine donated $500 to the winning college. Colgate asked the team to decide what their winnings should be used for. Because the university would be replacing the old library with a new building, the team voted to donate its $2,500 in winnings to the building fund. Coincidentally, $2,500 was the amount needed to have a study carrel in the new library, named for the team.

“ Name the fictional ship that is manned by the following men: Flask, Daggoo, Queequeg, and Stubb.”

I M E ANT TO SAY, “T H AT ’ S IN MOBY DICK . T H E S H I P I S T H E PEQUOD ,” BU T WH AT CAM E O UT WAS , “T HAT ’ S MOBY DICK .” — J I M WAC H T EL '5 5

We are the champions

Quiz bowl returned bigger than ever in 1959 when CBS took the competition to TV. Between six to 10 million people watched The G.E. College Bowl every week. Sponsor General Electric shelled out $1,500 for each victory, to be applied to the winning school’s scholarship fund.

Colgate declined an invitation the first year because the event coincided with commencement, but the following year, the Raiders took the game by storm. For six Fridays that spring, they flew down to New York City on an all-expenses-paid trip. “Imagine … staying at the Biltmore, room service for champagne and caviar, free tickets to popular shows, free dining, whatever we wanted,” recalls team member William McDonald ’61.

The Raiders handily defeated five colleges, starting with New York University and finishing off with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The rules designated that a school had to retire after five wins, and Colgate was the first to win five in a row. “The show had been on TV for five years and nobody else had done this,” says team member Richard Grote ’63. Retiring undefeated earned the team an extra $1,500 ($3,000 total for that match). This brought their total winnings to $9,000. But the Raiders weren’t done yet.

“ It was really a speed game, not a knowledge game.”

— William McDonald ’61 CBS announced a playoff round for the following October. Colgate was to take on Rutgers, for a prize of $3,000. Led by William Thoms ’61, the Colgate team included Grote, McDonald, and Stephen LeFrak ’60. They sported suits and ties, as well as “Kennedy for President” buttons, which incurred the ire of the G.E. vice president at the time. In fact, afterward, he threatened that Colgate would never again have the chance to appear on The G.E. College Bowl.

During the game, this was unbeknownst to the four Colgaters, who were already fighting to overcome their nerves. “The pressure was unbelievable,” Grote says. As the host explained the rules, Thoms bounced and shifted in his chair.

Grote yawned and took deep breaths, looking like he was on the verge of throwing up. After a commercial break advertising G.E.’s “first push-button clock radio with snooze alarm,” the questions began. Rutgers got the first one right.

Watch the 1960 playoff game against Rutgers: colgate.edu/collegebowl

Alyssa Schukar

Dick Broussard

Then, on the toss-up question, Colgate’s Thoms buzzed in and answered correctly. LeFrak patted him on the back, and the team became energized.

“It was really a speed game, not a knowledge game,” McDonald said. “[Thoms] was so confident that he would sometimes hit the response button before he quite knew the answer to the toss-up question, knowing that in the split second while his name was called, he would remember it. As a result, our team got most of the toss-up questions, giving us sole access to the bonus questions and preventing the other team from scoring.”

At the first half, the score was Colgate 100, Rutgers 60. A commercial introduced the G.E. Twin Power cleaner, Ludden briefly chatted with the teams, and footage from the previous night’s football game played. Although Rutgers beat Colgate at pigskin, they couldn’t catch the Raiders at quiz bowl. The final score was Colgate 185, Rutgers 125. A commercial for the miniature snooze alarm clock aired, and the Raiders put their quiz bowl run to rest.

With a total of $12,000 in prize money, the team designated their winnings to start a scholarship fund for students from Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). It was the team’s idea in order to bring international students to campus and introduce Colgate students to new cultures.

Also, because Northern Rhodesia was in a period of transition, the university was in a position to “contribute to the education of leaders and aid in the growth of this nation,” according to a Maroon article. Others helped to grow the fund, which brought three Northern Rhodesian students to campus the following year.

The new wizards of wit Gavin Gao ’19 and Cameron Pauly ’19 met, where else, but through trivia night on campus. Pauly wasn’t actually at Donovan’s Pub that night, but Gao played with Pauly’s roommate and learned that Pauly, like Gao, was in competitive trivia as a high schooler. There was no question that the two would become friends and restore the quiz bowl tradition at Colgate.

In the club’s first year, they’ve attracted 10–12 regular members but are hoping to spread the word and grow. “Everybody has knowledge that’s useful,” Gao said, because of the multifarious topics covered in competition.

“At practice, people are surprised at what they know. [For example,] they didn’t know that Nirvana was relevant,” Gao added.

“Or something they learned in class,” Pauly chimed in. (The syncedup friends have a habit of finishing each other’s sentences.)

This year, the group participated in five competitions and earned a bid to participate in the Intercollegiate Championship Tournament (ICT), held in Chicago in April 2017.

A valiant effort Invited back on the scene in 1969, Colgate enjoyed a brief stint of success as that team triumphed in its first two games. Composed of Joseph Baldanza ’72, Robert Diamond ’70, Warren Joseph ’70, and William Mendez ’72, the team defeated Trinity University and then the University of Illinois.

For Mendez, the highlight was the G.E.-sponsored trips to New York City, especially the tickets to any Broadway show of their choice (he saw Hair). Also, Colgate broadcast the shows in the dining hall during Sunday dinner, “so on Monday morning, people were slapping me on the back,” Mendez recalls. “I got to be a big man on campus instantly as a freshman, which was nice.”

Unfortunately, they fell in their third match, against Davidson College. “It was a letdown,” says Baldanza (who later got another shot at trivia fame when he appeared on Jeopardy in 1987).

From their first two victories, the team totaled $7,000 in prize money. They voted to give their winnings to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Fund (a Colgate-endowed scholarship).

Rather than receiving silver bowls, as previous teams had for their wins, the 1969 team members could have their pick of a G.E. product. “I asked for an electric toothbrush,” Baldanza remembers, “but I never got it.”

The quiz bowl format has stayed much the same over the years: participants still ring in with handheld buzzers, and making an educated guess continues to be a popular strategy. But the competitions are less glamorous than the G.E. days. This year’s group flew to Chicago with their club funds; they weren’t offered free Broadway tickets or caviar; and there was no prize money.

Even so, Gao and Pauly were happy to have made it as far as they did. “Despite being a new club, despite having new members who have not done trivia at the college level before, we were still able to do very well at all of our tournaments, make it to nationals, win sectionals, and place well individually,” Gao said. “I think the reason Colgate’s done so well this year is we have the core curriculum, and that goes a long way in giving people a breadth of knowledge.”

At ICT, the group finished 26 out of 32 Division II teams, but “going to nationals at all in our first year was an impressive feat,” Pauly said. Their favorite moment from the tournament? Going buzzer to buzzer with the University of Chicago, which was ranked one of the top four teams and came in seventh. “We were the only team to beat them that finished outside of the top five,” Pauly said.

“It was quite an upset,” Gao emphasized.

Photo above (L to R): Malachi Jones ’20, Justin Mailom ’20, Cameron Pauly ’19, and Gavin Gao ’19

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Mark DiOrio

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stay connected

Alumni programs, volunteer opportunities, career networking, and more

L to R: Lisa Bernhard ’87, Carole Robinson ’83, P’18, Elisabeth Goodridge ’97, Jonathan Dienst ’90, Robin Garfield ’88, Christopher Guenther ’97

The Office of Alumni Relations is pleased to offer many ways for alumni to stay in touch with each other, and with Colgate! E-mail me with questions or concerns at tmansfield@colgate. edu. – Tim Mansfield, associate vice president, institutional advancement and alumni relations Questions? Contact alumni relations: 315-228-7433 or alumni@colgate.edu 38

scene: Summer 2017

Alumni media panel: challenges facing journalism In May, alumni and students convened in New York City to hear from some of the university’s leading members of the Fourth Estate. In a professional network panel conversation titled “The Challenges Facing Journalism in the Age of New Media,” alumni from Reuters, the New York Times, CNN, BuzzFeed, NBC, and News Corp delved into the challenges facing news organizations in the wake of a societal shift to online news consumption and the vast proliferation of social media.

“The overarching theme here is ‘where, ultimately, is the consumer going to land?’” Lisa Bernhard ’87, Thomson Reuters national journalist, asked the panel. “How do we monetize that, how do we stay in business, but also, how do we stay pure as well?”

At News Corp, where Christopher Guenther ’97 is senior vice president and global head of programmatic, the media company is constantly trying to understand ways to monetize content — but finds that to be more and more of a challenge since many of the platforms are not under the content creator’s control.

“If you go to our websites, that’s one way we can sell advertising,” Guenther said. “Then, people are sharing on Facebook, or on Google and Snap — if it’s on a platform you don’t control, it’s a challenge. How do you balance all that?

How do you drive up revenue to support large news-gathering organizations?”

The New York Times, where Elisabeth Goodridge ’97 is a deputy editor, is now a subscription-first business that has added more than 300,000 in the first quarter of this year.

The organization has been directing more efforts toward the way content appears on mobile phones and platforms like Facebook and Snapchat. Goodridge added that they have also been very cognizant of the need for information about this presidential administration. “So we have poured five million dollars into our Washington operation, hiring fact-checkers, data journalists, and investigative journalists to make sure we get the story out,” she said.

Jonathan Dienst ’90, chief investigative reporter at NBC 4 in New York City, said his job of finding a scoop, verifying

that informa“ We have become tion, and getting increasingly dependent it out first hasn’t on the social media changed much, but reporters are we receive from our now increasingly viewers. Of course, gathering news we need to verify that from the public, thanks to the and make sure it’s abundance of accurate; we don’t just smartphones and throw things up on the the rise in social media usage. newscast.”

“We have — Jonathan Dienst ’90 become increasingly dependent on the social media we receive from our viewers,” Dienst said. “Of course, we need to verify that and make sure it’s accurate; we don’t just throw things up on the newscast.”

Every organization represented on the dais relayed how they are now closely examining the ways in which the public shares and consumes news.

“We look at what people say when they share our content, and we put that into the development process,” said Carole Robinson ’83, P’18, chief communications officer at BuzzFeed. “For example, [food company] Tasty is one of our biggest brands. We know a lot about which Tasty videos have been shared the most and why. That’s direct data that we get from the audience.”

CNN is ramping up efforts to understand the audience by collecting data from its products, surveys, and focus groups.

“We’re looking, as we always have, at the motivation and behavior of viewers,” said Robin Garfield ’88, senior vice president of research and scheduling at CNN. “Because the platforms have multiplied — and in these times, the news cycle has sped up so much — everything has gotten more complex.”

Following the panel conversation, students, and parents gathered to network.

Lorenzo Ciniglio

Matthew Glick ’19 presents his sports app, Gipper.

Entrepreneur Weekend in NYC During the sixth-annual Entrepreneur Weekend on April 29, student entrepreneurs pitched their ventures and gained business insights from notable alumni.

The New York City event featured a panel conversation moderated by Forbes magazine tech editor Steven Bertoni ’02. The panel included Samantha Radocchia ’11, co-founder and chief product officer of Chronicled, a blockchain and IoTfocused technology company; Cliff Sirlin ’89, co-founder of the Domino Media Group and now managing director at LaunchCapital LLC; and Ram Parimi ’05, cofounder and vice president of sales at the event-planning platform Social Tables.

The panelists started the conversation as advisers, offering insights into building a business after graduating from Colgate. Following a lively conversation, they took on the role of judges, critiquing venture pitches delivered

by Thought Into Action (TIA) student entrepreneurs.

The day also included the announcement of the Alumni Council’s 2017 Entrepreneur of the Year award winner, Oak Atkinson ’87, TIA mentor and founder of tumbalina, an artisanal card company.

Colgate University, TIA, and the Entrepreneur Professional Network hosted the event.

Coast to coast with Calo

Colgate Thirteen alumni from six different eras gathered June 10 to honor one of their group’s founders, Bill MacIntosh ’44, who passed away on May 17.

Traveling from nine states to MacIntosh’s memorial service at the First Congregational Church of Western Springs, Ill., 13 Thirteeners sang the alma mater and the “Colgate Hymn.” The service also included words of remembrance from Bud Hedinger ’69 and Ed Hines ’63, two Thirteen alums who knew MacIntosh well.

A flower arrangement of maroon and white carnations in the shape of the Colgate Thirteen shield decorated the altar.

At the reception afterward, the group sang three more songs: “Great Day,” “Old Colgate,” and “Back in 1942,” sung to the music of “1819” but with new lyrics honoring MacIntosh and the founding Thirteen.

Forty-eight years separated the youngest member of this group, Felix Dai ’11, and the eldest, Hines. As they parted ways, members reflected on how special the day had been and agreed that the “spirit that is Colgate” has a unique and memorable quality.

At each of the museums, Calo and alumni engaged in stimulating conversations about the pieces on display. Of the four diverse exhibitions, Calo described WWI and American Art, which commemorates America’s entry into the war, as the most eye opening. One unusual piece the group encountered in the exhibition — an enormous painting titled Gassed by John Singer Sargent — depicts the victims of a poisonous gas attack in the trenches.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Calo said. “It’s worth going to the show just to see that painting.”

On the opposite coast, alumni who toured the Seattle Art Museum enjoyed viewing landscape paintings. Many were of Venice, Italy, where Calo will accompany a Colgate group in the fall. While the paintings all depict the same city, each differs due to the approach, style, and era of the artist.

If you missed this round of tours with Calo, don’t fret; she hopes to give a series of talks every year in museums across the country. In fact, future visits to museums in Boston and New York City are already in the works.

Hoping to draw interest from alumni and students alike, she added: “I hope that these events, in addition to providing opportunities for facultyalumni engagement, also raise consciousness about the arts at Colgate.”

— Erin Burnett ’19 © Imperial War Museums

When Professor Mary Ann Calo leads museum tours for alumni-club members, she often sees familiar faces in the crowd. The tours she’s given so far this year were no different — many of the attendees were former students of Calo, the Batza Professor of art and art history emerita.

From January to May, she led tours of four exhibitions at museums across the country. Calo and alumni explored Frank Stella: A Retrospective at the de Young Museum in San Francisco; Seeing Nature at the Seattle Art Museum; WWI and American Art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Museum in Philadelphia; and Matisse and American Art at the Montclair Art Museum in New Jersey.

Remembering a founding Thirteener

Gassed, John Singer Sargent, oil painting, 7’ 7” x 20’ 1”, 1919 News and views for the Colgate community

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Trivia out of the inn Every Wednesday night, the Colgate Inn’s Green Room is abuzz with the sounds of teams vying for a top spot in the weekly trivia challenge. The gathering has become a Hamilton staple, growing in popularity since “Quiz Master” Doug Chiarello ’98 — who is also Colgate’s assistant vice president, institutional advancement campaign director — kicked off trivia night in 2007. Having served as the regular host for five years, he has passed the torch to philosophy professor David McCabe, who organizes a rotating crew of hosts that occasionally includes Chiarello.

Here, Chiarello offers 13 head scratchers to Scene readers. Although there’s no Toll House Pie reward, like there is at the inn, there is the sweet satisfaction of knowledge. Check your answers on pg. 47.

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What is the 13th word of Colgate’s alma mater?

According to the most recent U.S. Census data, what city has the second largest population in New York state?

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What words appear on Colgate’s seal as its motto (which collectively consist of 13 letters)?

Name the three gentlemen who authored the Articles of the Federalist Papers.

List the seven of Colgate’s 17 presidents whose last name starts with B or C.

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Illustration by Oliver Weiss

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What famous children’s toy was invented in 1917 by the second son of architect Frank Lloyd Wright?

Colgate’s men’s basketball team has only played in the NCAA tournament twice (1995 and 1996). Name the two teams we faced.

Name the four U.S. states that border only two other states.

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What are the four men’s names in the lyrics of Billy Joel’s “Piano Man”?

Name the five children who won golden tickets to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.

What is the famous movie quote that precedes the line “We have a Main Bus B Undervolt?”

The Jabberwock (men’s) and the Vibe (women’s) are the team names for what Colgate club sport?

What renowned space at Colgate was named to honor the ancestral home of the Colgate family in England?

Above: Kate Bussey '19 was one of the creative-writing students who gave readings of original fiction, essays, and poetry during the first Writers Out Loud event at the Flour and Salt Bakery in Hamilton.

Photo by Andrew Daddio Back cover: “Frisbros” (men’s ultimate Frisbee team members) practicing their throws.

Photo by Mark DiOrio

News and views for the Colgate community

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