Dickinson Magazine Fall 2017

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D I C K I N S O N M AG A Z I N E FA L L 2 0 1 7 VO L U M E 9 5 N U M B E R 2

President Margee Ensign Executive Director of Marketing & Communications Connie McNamara Editor Lauren Davidson Designer Amanda DeLorenzo College Photographer Carl Socolow ’77 Contributing Writers MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson Alexander Bossakov ’20 Matt Getty Tony Moore Magazine Advisory Board Jim Gerencser ’93 Donna Hughes Patricia van Leeuwaarde Moonsammy Gregory Lockard ’03 Stefanie D. Niles David O’Connell Adrienne Su Kirk Swenson Alisa Valudes Whyte ’93 © Dickinson College 2017. Dickinson Magazine (USPS Permit No. 19568, ISSN 2719134) is published four times a year, in January, April, July and October, by Dickinson College, P.O. Box 1773, Carlisle, Cumberland County, PA 17013-1773.

Periodicals postage paid at Carlisle, PA, and additional mailing office.

Address changes may be sent to Dickinson Magazine, Dickinson College, P.O. Box 1773, Carlisle, PA 17013-2896. www.dickinson.edu/magazine dsonmag@dickinson.edu 717-245-1289 Printed by Intelligencer (a division of Intellicor Communications) in Lancaster, Pa. SUSTAINABLY PRODUCED

Printed using wind energy and soy-based inks on Finch paper. All Finch papers are produced in Glens Falls, N.Y., using 66% on-site sustainable energy sources: emission-free hydroelectricity from the Hudson River and biomass co-generation from wood waste. Finch sustains natural American forests, supports independently certified fiber sourcing and reduces fossil fuel emissions.

[ contents ] 20 A Visible Spark As Dickinson’s 29th president, Margee Ensign has set a course that will propel the college into a bright future. Learn more about her first months in office and see her responses to questions submitted by members of the Dickinson community. 26 Signs of the Times How much has changed during the last 50, 100 years? We dug deep to mine a few touchstones for the classes of 1917, 1967 and 2017. 30 Thinking With Benjamin Rush Associate Professor of History Christopher Bilodeau explores the complexities of Founding Father, and founder of Dickinson, Benjamin Rush. 34 Direct Effect For Ted and Kay Gleim Poitras ’53, giving back is a gift that keeps on giving. Discover the impetus for and the impact of their generosity.

FOLLOW US:

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ON THE COVER

www.facebook.com/DickinsonMagazine

Dickinson’s 29th President Margee Ensign receives a standing ovation during her Oct. 7 inauguration ceremony. More on Page 4. Photo by Sean Simmers.

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Sean Simmers

30 UP FRONT

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useful for the common good

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our view

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college & west high

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your view

8 kudos 14 Carlisle connections 18 in the game IN BACK

36 beyond the limestone walls 38 our Dickinson 54 obituaries 56 closing thoughts

Carl Socolow ’77

[ useful for the common good ]

Vision and Values MARGEE ENSIGN, PRESIDENT

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View Ensign’s full Convocation speech at dson.co/ welcomedson2021.

n August, I had the great privilege of welcoming the 606 newest members of the Dickinson community during my first Convocation ceremony as president of Dickinson College. On that occasion, I shared with these eager and talented young people my vision for the college, and what I see as the core values of this historic institution. I’d like to share some of those remarks with you.

“Dickinson College was born at the dawn of American democracy, founded by Benjamin Rush, an important figure in the American colonies and a signer of our Declaration of Independence.

The college was established here on what was then the western frontier of a new nation.

Chartered as the first college in the new America, Dickinson, from its outset, has sought to prepare broadly educated leaders for our new democracy. That was Rush’s intent. We honor it still. He founded his college to help build a different sort of nation, and now we are called upon to ensure that our students are prepared for the challenges of a very different America, a very different century and world.

It is a world being daily transformed by astonishing discoveries and innovations, the spread of unprecedented global prosperity, improved health and longevity. We often forget that we have seen more progress in human development in the past 60 years than in the previous 600. For such progress to continue, we need to nurture creativity and research of all kinds. The scholars who constitute the Dickinson faculty are doing precisely that. I have been

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here long enough to be enormously impressed by the women and men who are giving their lives and their talents to the advancement of knowledge and to the education of our students.

Although we have seen great progress, we also face enormous challenges: climate change and environmental degradation, growing inequality, bigotry and hatred, terrorism and transnational diseases. Responding to these needs, Dickinson has been at the forefront of both sustainability and global studies; we will continue to build on this distinguished and important work and become a leader in intercultural competency and civic engagement.

We are proud at Dickinson to declare that we are a liberal-arts college. The liberal—the liberating—arts and sciences have come under assault by those who don’t understand how this kind of education opens minds and encourages us to see things in new ways. Clearly, our futures depend on such new visions. Such an education, we know, leads us to make new connections and create, adapt, identify and solve new problems. In a world where many sorts of knowledge are outdated in just a few years, we all must continue learning and trying new things—for the rest of our lives.

A liberal-arts education teaches us how to do that.

Providing a liberating education, a useful education, and working for the newly conceived common good was the aim of our founders. It continues to be our aim today. Achieving the common good requires that, working together, we forge common understandings and goals. It requires, it seems to me, a level of tolerance and civility now widely under attack by many different sorts of people—but incivility is incivility, intolerance is intolerance.

Neither has a place in a college that truly values the liberating arts, where disagreement is expected, honored, celebrated. Today the common good, at Dickinson and in our society and world, must be forged by people with very different backgrounds and views.

Today we are welcoming the most diverse class in our history.

Again, we are pioneering. Again, we are at the forefront of our precious America. As Dickinson welcomes a class that looks like all of America and all of the world, we do not shirk from the very hard work of trying to understand one another, to listen to one another, to learn from one another—and never to silence one another.

We are all in this together, and it is going to take all of the talent, goodwill, intelligence and drive this species can muster to transcend the challenges that today’s student generation will have to face. Our future will require liberally educated young people—educated in freedom with a breadth of vision, a ferocious curiosity, a courageous depth of knowledge and a commitment to the common good. Such an education is our mission here. It has been our mission since the birth of this nation.”

I look forward to welcoming a great many more remarkable students and scholars into this community, and to ensuring that Dickinson maintains its position as a leader of higher education in the United States.

[ our view ] Spread the Word About a Pioneering Education STEFANIE D. NILES, VICE PRESIDENT FOR ENROLLMENT MANAGEMENT

that Dickinson’s admission standards are rigorous, so admission is not guaranteed for any individual. But your recommendation could help us to identify a student who might be particularly well suited to this environment.

When you are ready to make a recommendation (or several) to us, please visit dickinson.edu/refer. You will need to provide some specific information so that we can start an electronic record, including the student’s name, address and high school graduation year. It is also extremely helpful for us to receive the name of the student’s high school and email address— having those pieces of information allows us to reach students right away with tailored messages and connect them with their regional admissions counselor.

The name of a potential future Dickinsonian is truly a gift to the college.

I hope you’ll consider giving this gift to Dickinson. Your contribution will help us continue to foster Dickinson’s legacy and secure a bright future for the college.

“ I encourage you to consider the people in your life who would benefit from a Dickinson education.”

Refer a future Dickinson student at dickinson.edu/refer.

Carl Socolow ’77

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ave you ever found yourself thinking, “My nephew would be a great fit for Dickinson” or “Our babysitter would really thrive in the Dickinson community”? It is likely that you know someone who is thinking about going to college, or someone who has influence on a student who is starting the college search. Do your colleagues have children in high school?

Do your friends have grandchildren who are contemplating their next steps after senior year? Perhaps you are volunteering in your community and have met some young people with great potential. I encourage you to consider the people in your life who would benefit from a Dickinson education.

Once you have future Dickinsonians in mind, tell them about your Dickinson experience. Students in the college search process benefit greatly from the insights offered by those who know the college best. Hearing about your time at Dickinson— the experiences, activities, connections and relationships that helped mold you into the person you are today—can enable young people to understand how a Dickinson education might also provide them with a terrific foundation as they explore their future. If you’re a parent, sharing your own child’s story of growth and discovery is incredibly valuable as well. The admissions staff often hears from applicants that a Dickinson alum or parent had an influence on their college search and selection process. Whether that Dickinson grad was a parent, grandparent, teacher, relative, family friend or other connection, their stories and insights help prospective students take the first step toward exploring what the college has to offer and often may be one of the final selling points as they consider which college they would like to call home for four years.

But while sharing information with prospective students is fantastic, I’m asking you to go a step further. As you consider students whom you would like to see attend Dickinson, please share those names with us! You can recommend students at any point during their college search. How and what we communicate evolves as students get closer to selecting a college, and we are happy to start that conversation at any point in their consideration process! It’s worth noting, though, that the earlier we can begin communicating with students, the more we are able to find opportunities to engage them, gain a sense of their academic and co-curricular interests and share information they might find helpful in their deliberation of Dickinson as a potential college of choice. I would be remiss if I did not mention

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[ college & west high ]

Photos by Carl Socolow ’77 unless otherwise noted.

On the New Frontier

“ There are those who say a liberal-arts education should not be useful, that a liberal-arts college is not a trade school.

It seems to me that that takes a very narrow view of the word ‘useful.’ For surely, creating new forms of wealth and employment, constantly developing a more just political system, curing disease, learning better stewardship of the earth, creating new forms of art and music, educating a new generation, learning more about the peoples of the world, discovering new scientific principles, advancing technology—surely these things are all useful.”

—President Margee Ensign during her inauguration address

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On Saturday, Oct. 7, Dickinsonians, local community members and delegates from more than 60 colleges and universities celebrated the inauguration of Margee Ensign as the 29th president of Dickinson College. The excitement and hope were palpable among the participants and attendees, enhanced by the blue skies and bright sun above and a clear message from the podium: Dickinson is committed to a useful education for the common good.

And while Dickinsonians have been doing great work near and far for decades, they are poised to do so much more.

“Built on what was then the frontier of America, Dickinson has prided itself on being at the frontier of knowledge and learning ever since. I am honored and delighted to have joined you as we continue to pioneer—to break new ground—together,” Ensign said.

Board of Trustees Chair John Jones ’77, P’11 presided over the ceremony, which included a keynote address from Vice President Emeritus of the Republic of Uganda Gilbert Bukenya; prayers from Stephen Mamza, bishop of the Yola Diocese in Northeast Nigeria, and Hajjia Turai A.A. Kadir, American University of Nigeria’s community projects organizer; performances by Frederick Schlick ’14 and Chelsea Mia Pierre ’18; as well as brief messages from Carlisle, alumni, student, staff and faculty representatives.

Read more and view additional photos and video at dson.co/inauguration29.

The ARTS FOR THE COMMON GOOD SYMPOSIUM featured performances and presentations from faculty and students that embody Dickinson’s useful liberalarts mission.

Se an

Si m m er s

The CIVIC ENGAGEMENT CELEBRATION and DAY OF CARING showcased Dickinson’s commitment to community engagement and service learning, and FIRST FRIDAY featured student performances throughout downtown Carlisle.

In her remarks, Ensign featured five DICKINSON ALUMNI who exemplify “useful education for the common good.” From left: Brian Kamoie ’93, Valeria Carranza ’09, Artrese Morrison ’92, Tsewang Namgyal ’97 and Wynne Stuart Amick ’62, P’93.

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Survey Says …

THANK YOU to the 1,433 readers who participated in the Dickinson Magazine reader survey circulated in August. We have been digging into your responses and will be considering your valuable feedback as we continue to find ways to improve your magazine. Here’s a sampling of what you had to say: How You Read

Why You Like Dickinson Magazine

• 77% read every issue or two/three issues per year.

• Seeing how my classmates have been involved, grown in or further shaped the community. I’m filled with pride when I read about the efforts Dickinson makes to better the experience for its students.

• 71% of responders prefer the print edition of the magazine.

What You Read • When asked about the various first-person columns that regularly appear in the magazine, including those authored by college administrators, 51% of readers cited the president’s column as the one in which they are most interested.

• Readers are most interested in news from around campus (44%), followed by updates on academics/research (25%).

• Class notes (Our Dickinson) remains firmly at the top of everyone’s reading list, with 56% of respondents placing it first among faculty/alumni/institutional accolades or updates.

Why It Matters • Dickinson Magazine remains a primary source of information, with 30% of responders listing it first, followed by alumni emails (14%) and Dickinson social media (12%).

• The magazine takes me back to campus.

I love reading profiles, in-depth stories and features on what is going on around campus, new and current students or alumni. I don’t live near Carlisle, so it’s a connection for me to that world.

• The design is outstanding, as well as the written content. I love skimming through and seeing the students, campus and professors.

• I enjoy having it on the coffee table.

Sometimes when I miss my son, I’ll take another look through the magazine and be reminded that he is in a good place.

• Very solid. My wife and I … receive six different college/university magazines and both think Dickinson’s is the strongest.

• I love reading the class connections! It’s great to see the accomplishments of Dickinsonians of all ages and how they still get together. I also love reading about different campus initiatives or traditions and updates happening on campus!

• I wondered for some time why the college maintained a print magazine, what with concerns about paper use, postage costs, sustainability, etc. Now I see the value of a beautiful print magazine (using sustainably sourced paper, of course!).

The photographs, in particular, are so well conveyed in this medium.

A Few of Your Least Favorite Things About Dickinson Magazine • When there are no class notes from my year.

• It has too much propaganda, but I suppose that’s the point.

• It sounds trivial, but it would be nice if the magazine were of more typical dimensions. I imagine it’s easier to fit the photos and articles I enjoy on such large pages, but the feel and portability of a normal magazine dimension is unmatched.

• More profiles on alumni in various fields— seems like the magazine focuses on authors, people in politics, government, education, not taking into account a myriad of other fields to highlight. Life is busy and I don’t always have time to read the longer pieces/stories. It would be great to also email links to the online version of the magazine.

• Tone, patting ourselves on the back all the time rather than writing about issues where the influence of the liberal arts education is revealed in the thoughtfulness of the subject and subtlety of the writing.

• My least favorite part is that it makes me miss Dickinson!

Congratulations to the five survey participants who were randomly selected as winners of Dickinson College Bookstore prize packs: Margaret Dean Pontzer ’91, Sarah Dantzer DeHart ’85, John W. Thomas ’66, Alexa C. Bell ’16 and Evan C. Frey ’59.

77% of responders “agree” or “strongly agree” with the

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statement “Reading Dickinson Magazine strengthens my connection to Dickinson.”

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[ your view ] Too Much of a Good Thing First, congratulations on moving up and having an opportunity to improve the magazine.

You’ve said you welcome suggestions, and I have one.

I don’t know that you should entirely stop doing anything that you’ve been doing, but the magazine has been suffering from a surfeit of wonderfulness.

The emphasis seems always to be on overachievers and programs and institutions that aspire to the heavens, are unique and evoke awe. While there’s room for celebrating, there’s also more to be said about Dickinson than that.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION You can reach the editor and other members of the team directly at dsonmag@dickinson.edu for a variety of things: • We welcome your story ideas anytime.

• There are several ways to submit a class note— through your correspondent, via the online form at Dickinson.edu/classnotes or directly to us.

• We would love to print more letters to the editor … you just need to submit them!

• You are welcome to unsubscribe from the print version (though we and the survey responders agree that it’s the best way to view the magazine!)—every issue is available at Dickinson.edu/magazine and Issuu.com/ Dickinson_publications.

Without the rest, in fact, the magazine tends to come across as a glossy, upbeat fundraising tool, milking sentimentality and trying to wow us with specialness. I think we feel that we’re taken seriously only if we’re shown the whole picture, not just the glory and the awards.

Why not tell us about what isn’t wonderful? I think readers would appreciate it. And our input with regard to particular situations might even be worth considering if we knew more. Why print articles that contain only praise and not complaints? And why not give us a look at some ordinary students and their lives and their concerns, which most of us can relate to readily? Why not show us more of the everyday Dickinson experience in the past two centuries and some of the colorful professors? I’d enjoy that. I suspect many of us would.

I refer you to the Dickinson Magazine of May 1983. There’s a letter in it from Horace B. Hand, Ph.D., class of 1921. He writes about the Army Alpha Intelligence Test being given to the entire student body in his sophomore year. Hand was one of the students who graded the tests, so he knew the results. The highest scorer among the women was a black student. The highest scorer among the men was a black student.

The scores were never released. Hand says, “...I have thought of it many times. Frankly, I think it should be a part of the College history.” Indeed it should. And you could publish something like that safely because Dickinson is very different from how it was then.

In short, I hope you’ll balance the wonderful with the representative and even the dismaying, because all of it is the truth and to be entrusted with only some of it is dissatisfying.

We want to hear from you! Send letters via email to dsonmag@ dickinson.edu or mail to: Dickinson Magazine, P.O. Box 1773, Carlisle, PA 17013-1773. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

JOHN W. GIBSON ’63

STATE COLLEGE, PA

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Kudos

[ college & west high ] Publications

Associate Professor of Economics Ebru Kongar is coeditor of Gender and Time Use in a Global Context, published by Palgrave Macmillan (July 2017).

Assistant Professor of Sociology Erik Love’s op-ed, “Americans Must Not Be Led Down Trump’s Islamophobic Path,” was published in the Charleston Gazette-Mail. Love also was quoted extensively in a CNN story about Charlottesville.

Additionally, Love discussed his new book, Islamophobia and Racism in America, during an hourlong interview on NPR member station KERA’s “Think.”

David O’Connell, assistant professor of political science, published an op-ed, “Stop Talking About Impeachment (at Least for Now),” in The Washington Times and another, “Trump’s First Six Months Look Awful, Until You Remember Clinton’s,” in The Hill.

Steve Riccio, lecturer in international business & management, published “Habits of Highly Effective Higher Ed Professionals” in Academic Impressions.

Associate Professor of Philosophy Crispin Sartwell had six op-eds published in The Wall Street Journal on topics such as the nature of truth post-Trump, Henry David Thoreau and styles of masculinity in the White House.

Awards and Grants Brontè Burleigh-Jones, vice

president for finance & administration, received the 2017 Professional Development Award from the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO). She was honored for her extensive volunteer service to the association’s professional development activities and publications programs.

The U.S. Geological Survey awarded $36,995 to Scott Boback, professor of biology, for

Physics & astronomy professor Robert Boyle was cited in the article “Total Solar Eclipse 2017: 6 Bizarre Things That Will Happen.” his ongoing project, “Analysis and Reporting of Existing Data on LowDensity Detection of Brown Treesnakes on Guam.”

Carl Socolow ’77

Joyce Bylander, vice

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president and dean of student life, received the Peacemaker in Our Midst Award from the World Affairs Council of Harrisburg.

In a July op-ed in the Chronicle of Higher Education, “Let’s Train ‘Extension Agents’ for the 21st Century,” President Margee Ensign discussed the critical responsibilities of American colleges and universities today and calls colleagues to action. She also was the subject of an article in Carlisle’s The Sentinel newspaper, “New Dickinson College President Seeks to Build Community,” in August and was featured in several news affiliates for her presence and speech at the Carlisle Unity Rally on Aug. 16. In September, she accepted an invitation to join the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition’s Pennsylvania Advisory Committee.

Associate Professor of Economics Ebru Kongar earned the Jean Shackelford Award for Outstanding Service to the International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE).

The award celebrates the work of an individual whose initiative, imagination or persistent efforts and dedication promote lasting contributions in advancing IAFFE’s goals.

Stefanie Niles, vice president for enrollment management, was elected the new president of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) during the organization’s annual conference in September.

In the News

Biology professors Scott Boback and Chuck Zwemer, whose published research on constrictors has gained international attention, conducted an experiment on python constriction for the one-hour special Man-Eating Python, which aired on the Discovery Channel.

Robert Boyle, professor of

physics & astronomy, was quoted in a CNET article, “Total Solar Eclipse 2017: 6 Bizarre Things That Will Happen.”

Professor of Earth Sciences Ben Edwards was featured in the September issue of Discover magazine. The article, “The Lava

Catcher,” outlines his research exploring volcanoes in British Columbia, Iceland, South America and Russia and investigating what happens when flowing lava meets ice and snow.

Amy Farrell, professor of American studies and women’s, gender & sexuality studies and author of Fat Shame: Stigma and the Fat Body in American Culture, discussed misconceptions and judgments regarding weight in a July article in Shape magazine, “What We REALLY Mean When We Call People Fat.”

College Archivist Jim Gerencser ’93 and Charles A. Dana Professor of Sociology Susan Rose ’77 were featured for their involvement in projects and research related to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Stories were published in The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Post and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and featured on CBS21, PennLive and WITF’s Smart Talk. Learn more at carlisleindian.dickinson.edu.

Ted Merwin, associate professor of

religion and director of the Milton B. Asbell Center for Jewish Life, was featured in a Washington Post article, “An Expert on NYC Delicatessens Is Showing D.C. What It’s Missing.”

He also gave a talk at the Smithsonian Associates program

BRAGGING RIGHTS titled “Where Harry Met Sally: The Cuisine and Culture of the New York Jewish Deli.”

The Hechinger Report and The Atlantic published “The New Minority on Campus? Men,” which featured comments from Vice President for Enrollment Management Stefanie Niles, along with other enrollment leaders.

Professor of English Susan Perabo’s novel The Fall of Lisa Bellow was named a best summer book of 2017 by Southern Living magazine.

Matthew Pinsker, associate professor of history and Pohanka Chair in American Civil War History, was quoted in an Illinois Times article, “Lincoln Papers a Mess.”

Professor of Mathematics Dave Richeson was the featured guest on the Scientific American podcast “My Favorite Theorem.”

Professor of Art History Melinda Schlitt was featured in a BBC Travel story, “Italy’s Mysterious Medieval Garden of Monsters.”

New Faculty

Dickinson welcomed 35 new faculty members this fall: Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics Ishraq Ahmed; Assistant Professor of Political Science Santiago Anria; Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Studies Nina Barzachka; Visiting Instructor in French Mrin Bhattacharya; Assistant Professor of History Say Burgin; Visiting Assistant Professor of Spanish Karin Davidovich; Assistant Professor of Environmental Science Maggie Douglas; Visiting International Scholar in Italian Riccardo Dragani; Visiting Assistant Professor of American Studies Nikki Dragone; Visiting Assistant Professor of

Economics Sohani Fatehin; Assistant Professor of Psychology Christine Guardino; Visiting Assistant Professor of English James Harris; Visiting International Scholar in International Studies and Political Science Jacob Udo-Udo Jacob; Assistant Professor of Military Science Eric Johnson; Visiting International Scholar in Philosophy Jean-Pierre Karegeye; Visiting International Scholar in German Andrey Kukhtenkov; Visiting Assistant of Professor of Biology Heather Lehman; Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics Douglas MacKenzie; Visiting Assistant Professor of Film & Media Studies Steven Malcic; Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology Joshua Marshack; Assistant Professor of Music James Martin; Visiting Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Trent Masiki; Lecturer in Mathematics and Computer Science Tracy McKay; Assistant Professor of Philosophy Amy McKiernan; Visiting Assistant Professor of American Studies Stacey Moultry; Assistant Professor of Religion Peter Schadler; Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science Eleanor Schiff; Assistant Professor of Spanish & Portuguese Amaury Sosa; Visiting Assistant Professor of Italian and Film Studies Giacomo Tagliani; Visiting Assistant Professor of Spanish & Portuguese Giseli Tordin; Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Nikolaos (Nik) Tsotakos; Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science Eddie Tu; Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology Catalina Villamil; Visiting International Scholar in Russian Alla Zaytseva; and Visiting International Scholar in East Asian Studies Yanfeng Zhao.

Read more about them at dson.co/newfaculty2017.

Sierra magazine again named Dickinson one of its “Coolest Schools” for environmental sustainability.

8,645

alumni, parents and friends of the college gave

$5.2 million

to the Dickinson Fund during fiscal year 2016-17, exceeding the annual goal by roughly $400,000.

Total gifts and commitments to the college for the year exceeded $11 million.

Top Contributor to Teach for America (2017) Dickinson is one of only 24 colleges nationwide to make the

Princeton Review’s 2018 Green Honor Roll.

Also from Princeton Review…

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f or Best Science Lab Facilities

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f or Most Popular Study Abroad Program

5 Top 50 Green Colleges

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2017

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13-10

Red Devil football victory over McDaniel College.

Men’s soccer won 3-2 and women’s soccer won 3-1, both over Washington College.

Delta Nu presented a yellow rose bush to President Ensign in celebration of her inauguration.

Photos by Carl Socolow ’77 unless otherwise noted.

Scenes from Homecoming & Family Weekend

Sean Simmers

Performance of The Grapes of Wrath at the College Farm.

academic and administrative departments at the Campus Expo.

Sean Simmers

annual Run for Steph, which raised more than $10,000 for the McAndrews Fund for Athletics.

Sean Simmers

Four

13th

Sean Simmers

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R ed Devils and one team inducted into Dickinson Athletics Hall of Fame: Ryan Stearrett ’07, football; Allyson Teatom Fullmer ’07, women’s basketball; Andrew Ackley ’07, football and track and field (holding daughter Genevieve); Heather Ganley-Smith ’97, women’s soccer; and the 2004-05 women’s basketball team.

It was a weekend of performances and ceremonies, presentations and celebrations. We inaugurated our new president and inducted a new class of Hall of Famers. We won and lost on the field but cheered on Red Devil athletics all weekend long. We served the community and were served fantastic fare. We gathered with our affinity groups to reminisce and plan for the future. We came together as Dickinsonians, wearing our red with perennial pride.

Read more and view additional photos and video at dson.co/homecomingfw17.

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WELCOMING

#dson2021

Joe O’Neill

In August, 606 new Dickinsonians arrived on campus. They include student body presidents, published authors, award recipients, patent holders, nationally ranked athletes, community leaders and more.

They are the most diverse class in Dickinson’s history: • • • •

4% domestic students of color 2 16% international students 13% first-generation students Representing 30 U.S. states and territories, plus Washington, D.C. • Citizens of 24 foreign countries.

1 2 3

Dickinson alumni and parents hosted 13 summer send-off events around the country.

“ You, Dickinson students, new ones and returning, must be prepared to apply your knowledge to solve problems of a complexity and at a pace that few of us can imagine. You must be educated to learn from and deal cooperatively with people quite unlike yourselves, here at home and around the world. At Dickinson, our centuriesold tradition has been to strive for a useful education for the common good.

In this, as in 1783, Dickinson is still on the frontier.” —President Margee Ensign

Their arrival sparked excitement and nostalgia on social media: Students participated in an Orientation-week community service effort at 37 locations around the Cumberland Valley.

6 alumni assisted with Sunday’s Pre-Orientation Move-In Day. (Interested in helping out next year?

Email orientation@dickinson.edu.)

d ic k in s on ma g a z i n e Fall 2017

• Phyllis Schmalhofer I’m so proud of my granddaughter Maddie Littlepage who is getting this big welcome from Dickinson.

How exciting!!

• Mary Anderson Trvalik Good luck Sammie Trvalik! Thanks for the warm welcome Dickinson College i Q

• Chris Mudd ’73 Sweet memories from years ago...

• @Sydney_Cross ’17 Best wishes for a transformative four years, #dson2021 ...from a nostalgic alumna • Joel Boff ’90 Been 31 years since this day for me. The excitement is palpable.

Check out full coverage, including video, at dson.co/welcomedson2021.

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the music place that provided the quality of hey hail from 31 states, plus Washington, D.C., and 27 foreign countries: ? Ultimately looking for a liberal-arts me in. I was Why Dickinson of very strong a —is what drew and a wide range the professorsa name farm and it was linary study the 731 members of the class of 2019 already are ofmaking for interdiscip for . Add to that the campus opportunities at Dickinson I found all that themselves as the largest class in the college’s history.subjects; We caught up with nt. perfect fit!

Crime and Punishme several of them during their first days on campus, and it was easy Man, to The seeOdyssey, and don’t watch very many movies.

The Illustrated Reading: Ralph most television Fairfield Four, much. I avoid Not (The : /gospel what all the hype is about. They are articulate, worldly, driven —Watching and we can’tfrom wait and some other traditional bluegrass Stravinsky) Everything Bach, Scarlatti, Listening to: old greats (J.S. the of to see how they will shape our community. some Stanley) to Son Lux. ne and, Tom Waits and not have a smartpho fun stuff like media. I do certain Remember these names. You’ll be seeing them again as Dickinson Magazine tracks I avoid social one. I do enjoy the most part never to get al life, hope Following: For History. one for profession I needadventures their progress over the next four years. And while they look to their new Carlin’s Hardcore unless lived childhood I favorite is Dan much of my For podcasts — my : every day in to Dickinson a wood stove; as Dickinsonians, they already have counted tragedy among them,Mostwhen first-year of item you brought entirely with meaningful a broken shard heated our house heat. I have sorts, and we no matter kindling for on a farm of a reminder that logs and gather Jigme Nidup died in an accidental drowning just weeks after matriculating as a had to split (see I keep on my desk as get, my character the winter I that soft my hands splitting-maul and labor. no matter how metal from the Page 55). academia I go, shaped by discipline how deep into and should be, creative. a person is, eclectic, busy, They know the next four years will be marked by their share ofcreative ups and and downs; next four years: good people describe the to and wise people Three adjectives way, but world needs and when they are ready to leave these limestone walls to enter the alumni community, look at it: the clueless, ineffectiveuseful This is how I this not in a good and Aspirations: a people. I say be to smart I want a tossup as it needs it deserves: as much we will catch up with them again so you can see how they’ve grown, what they’ve (right now it’s l seriousness in mind yet than how with all the wonderfua specific job or career more important have What is much person. I don’t accomplished and where they’re heading. — Lauren Davidson stone mason).

I aspire to have. composer and of character

Socolow Carl Carl Socolow ’77 ’77

type between money is what I aspire to make

Quadrese Glass

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philadelphia, pa.

Why Dickinson? I’m passionate and intrigued about traveling abroad and Dickinson offers ample opportunities for me to have this experience. Additionally I am interested in the Peace Corps, and Dickinson is one of the colleges that has a high number of Peace Corps volunteers annually.

Reading: The New Jim Crow, Kill Them Before They Grow and Convicted In the Womb. ’77

Watching: A Different World.

Listening to: Fetty Wap (“Trap Queen” and “My Way”), J Cole’s album Forest Hill Drive and a myriad of gospel and R&B music.

Carl Socolow

2

? I was so impressed to be a part of a communit Why Dickinson I wanted and activism. engagement also to do. to learn, but the Civil is not only here Generation Before the the Day: The Burden: Why Now Against White Man’s Hold Still; The Reading: Speak So Little Good; t in the South; Much Ill and Rights Movemen Have Done So a bit heavy, to Aid the Rest all of that gets West’s Efforts Men; and when Praise Famous Let Us Now on PBS, Avalon.

Masterpiece The Mists of Last Week Tonight, Daily Show and and Sherlock.

Upon a Time Watching: The Once music the Virgin, and in general Seinfeld, Jane classic rock Companion, Talks, fiddle A Prairie Home love listening to good TED and I Listening to: Republic ’30s and ’40s. along with One from the 1920s Taylor Swift admit, a little music and, I’ll sites Sons.

Girls and several Mumford & Poehler’s Smart magazine, Amy Following: Time that and culture. about history : I have a blanket brought to Dickinson the weaving program. ul item you school through Most meaningf spring at high school’s farm.

I made my senior sheep on the wool from the unknown, It is made with next four years: describe the to Three adjectives play: open. what role I will challenging, I don’t know to be help people.

I would like to but like I would or a teacher, daily Aspirations: or an activist that make the be a lawyer our country join the perhaps I will problems in hoping to possibly the systemic For now, I am I believe in, able to change unjustly hard. doing something lives of hundreds college. As long as I am after Peace Corps my all.

I will give it

’77

ague glouce lie” Mont passion for Mary “Mol by the students’ y that

The adventure begins.

Following: I’ve been tuning in to two podcasts: Things You Missed in History and Joel Osteen. These two completely different topics cover things that are importa to me: history, spirituality and optimism.

Most meaningful item you brought to Dickinson: I have two posters so far that resonate with who I am currently. One is of Malcolm X with one of his famous quotes, “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare today.” The other one emits much more power because it is a photo of Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. shaking hands and smiling. They were polar opposites in the methods they used to fight the injustice of the ’60s, but bo were fighting the same fight. When you recognize that someone is fighting the same fight as you, just with a different approach, a level of respect should arise.

Three adjectives to describe the next four years: groundbreaking, enlightening, fu Aspirations: I aspire to be at peace with myself, my family and my environment.

I aspire to live my life, not to merely exist. Lastly, I aspire to find happiness.

d ick in s on m a g a z in e Fall 2015

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3

Carl Socolow ’77

Checking in on #dson2019

Thank you to (from left) Emma Jane Beckert ’17, Bri Giffin ’02, Matt Fahnestock ’02, Liam Fuller ’17, Sue Rebuck Otway ’75 and Ryan Boop ’01 for helping to welcome #dson2021!

Two years ago, we introduced you to several members of #dson2019. We connected with them during their first days on campus and shared their interests and their expectations. They now have two years under their proverbial belts, and we thought you might like to know how it’s going!

Head to dson.co/checkingin2019 to find out.

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Local Revolution ou might remember a time when you’d go out for a night and ask the bartender, “What kind of beer do you have on tap?” and she’d say, “Oh, pretty much everything: Bud, Bud Light, Miller, Miller Lite, Coors, Coors Light …” If you cringed reading that—either with a flood of bad-beer memories or a genuine lack of understanding as to how those beers at one point constituted “pretty much everything”— you must know about the craft beer revolution.

We’re No. 1!

Across the United States, more than 900 breweries have opened over the last 10 years, according to the Brewers Association. And in Pennsylvania the number of breweries in operation jumped from 88 to 205 from 2011 to 2016, helping make Dickinson’s home state the No. 1 producer of craft beer in the country (by volume: 3.9 million gallons/year).

But it’s more than splashing onto lists noting things like most gallons produced per adult (12.9, making PA No. 2 nationally) that makes craft beer a good thing. The Pennsylvania craft industry also has a huge impact on cash flow, adding nearly $4.5 billion dollars to the state’s economy per year, more than any state but California.

With all that in mind, any Pennsylvania town worth its weight in hops would be remiss without a respectable local brewing scene. So it’s a good thing Carlisle has one.

Wake up and dream Mike Moll started brewing back in the early 1990s, and like most homebrewers, he dreamed of opening a brewery. And then one day back in 2013, he says he stopped dreaming: “I woke up and, without exaggeration, said to myself, ‘I’m opening a brewery.’ ” Thirteen months later, he was the owner of local beer mecca Molly Pitcher Brewing, which stands in the shadow of the grave of none other than Molly Pitcher, the Revolutionary War icon.

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[ college & west high ] While Molly Pitcher Brewing might be the newest craft beer darling in Carlisle, Market Cross Pub could be thought of as the godfather of the Carlisle craft scene. And its brewmaster, Kevin Spicer, has made the Hanover Street institution a destination for beer snobs far and wide since 1994.

“It has that archetypal pub ambiance, and it reminds me of pubs I’ve visited in the U.K. over the years,” says Carl Socolow ’77, Dickinson’s photographer. Socolow has been going to Market Cross since his 20th Dickinson reunion, and he’s always found it to be a getaway of sorts.

“With its cultivated atmosphere, you feel like you’re somewhere else.”

Next up Nipping at the heels of Molly Pitcher and Market Cross is a slew of newcomers, the oldest of which, founded in just 2016, is Desperate Times Brewing. Although the brewery, run with his wife, Susan, is still in its infancy, owner and brewer Matt Dunn says, “We’ve exceed all of our expectations, anything we had in the business plan.” And with two stations at the Carlisle Fairgrounds during car shows and other events, Desperate Times has a strong foothold to get even more traction.

One thing all the local brewers mention is that the traction one gets doesn’t come at the expense of the others.

“The goal is to help make Carlisle a destination,” says Jeremy Rhone, owner and brewer at Rhone Brewing, who currently runs a home-brew shop while his adjacent 3,400 square-foot taproom and brewery undergoes the final stages of construction. “We want to bring everyone

up, not just ourselves. You’ll find a real sense of community throughout the craft beer scene.”

Moll, who is currently overseeing the construction of a new High Street location for Molly Pitcher— which will feature a beer garden and a rooftop patio next year—is quick to agree.

“It’s a very fraternal industry,” he says. “I welcome other breweries and want other good places to come to town. There are other parts of the country where once the ball gets rolling it really takes off.”

Helping to keep that ball rolling is Dave Hamilton, whose Burd’s Nest Brewing opens in November just off the square on Hanover Street.

“It’s a really exciting time to be in Carlisle and be a part of an industry that is so passionate about making great products and revitalizing the community,” Hamilton says. “I’ve lived in Carlisle my entire life, and I’ve always heard Carlisle was an ‘up and coming’ town. The local craft scene is what will propel Carlisle past that.” —Tony Moore

You know craft beer when you taste it,

but what defines a craft brewery?

• Annual production of 6 million barrels of beer or less.

• Less than 25 percent owned or controlled by an alcohol industry member that is not itself a craft brewer.

• A brewer that has a majority of its total beverage alcohol volume in beers whose flavor derives from traditional or innovative brewing ingredients and their fermentation. (Brewers Association)

A business doesn’t have to be a brewery to be the home of great craft beer.

Carlisle is full of places to grab some great craft brews, and the following spots will all have more than a few choices any time you swing in: • • • • • •

Café Bruges (all Belgian, all the time) North Hanover Grille (killer craft, killer pub food) Gingerbread Man (local legend and perennial favorite) Alibis Eatery and Spirits (taps and burgers) Midway Bowl’s Sparetime Lounge (yup, it’s true) Seve-n-Dots Pizza (which recently started brewing its own)

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[ scene ] CAMPUS

Oct. 27 – Feb. 17

The Trout Gallery William Kentridge: Universal Archive and Journey to the Moon

Events lectures art forums Calendar of Arts: dickinson.edu/coa

The Clarke Forum: clarke.dickinson.edu (includes event podcasts)

Nov. 28

The Clarke Forum “Using Your Genome and Big Data to Manage Your Health”

Michael Snyder, Stanford University

Carlisle Happenings: lovecarlisle.com

NOV. 3 – FEB. 3

The Trout Gallery Rachel Eng: Irreversible Results NOV. 8 – DEC. 8

Goodyear Gallery Senior Studio Art Seminar: Works in Progress NOV. 9

The Clarke Forum The Shadow of “Fake News”

Jonathan Albright, Columbia University NOV. 13

Flaherty Lecture in East Asian Studies Madness Restrained and Unrestricted: Police, Families, and the Beijing Municipal Asylum NOV. 17-19

Theatre & Dance iEcho: Bodies and Technology NOV. 30

The Clarke Forum

Dec. 1-3 Carlisle’s Wonderland Weekend

An Evening With Solmaz Sharif, Iranian-American Poet DEC. 8

Last Day of Classes for Fall Semester

Join President Margee Ensign for events around the country as part of the Useful Education for the Common Good Tour.

Details at dickinson.edu/presidenttour.

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INTERNS IN ACTION

Developing New Skills & Serving the Greater Good Hundreds of Dickinson students took on summer internships at sites including NBC Universal, the American Museum of Natural History, the United States Congress, the National Forest Service, Amazon, TripAdvisor, Sprint, Uber, L.L.Bean, the Children’s Defense Fund, Apple Computer, Marie Claire, the American Federation of Teachers, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), Wells Fargo and the National Aquarium and the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office.

Each used what they’ve been learning in class—and, in many cases, during previous internships—to help lay the groundwork for successful and satisfying future careers that will enable them to make a meaningful impact on the wider world.

Students like international business & management majors Nicholas Struzenski ’18 and Khoi Nguyen ’19 saw direct translations from classroom lessons on risk management to their internship experiences—while Struzenski conducted investigations at Ernst & Young, Nguyen analyzed trips to and from a major airport to uncover patterns and detect fraud for Uber in Hanoi. Others, like Molly Gorelick ’19, learned to apply traditional skills in fresh ways. As a social media intern at the Franklin Institute, Gorelick took her English-major writing skills to another level to create strategic posts that advanced the nonprofit’s goals.

These experiences can open up unforeseen paths to students at the start of career decision-making and can fine-tune career plans. Mitchell Andres ’18 says his sales and marketing internship at Discovery Communications afforded “a 360-degree view of the world of media” and a clearer picture of the work he enjoys. Erica Wells ’19 will use her experiences as a programming intern with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum to craft a career that combines education and sports.

Internships also provide opportunities for students to engage meaningfully in issues they care about and work with organizations committed to serving the greater good. Ashley Morefield ’18, an

international studies major, prepared for a career in conflict prevention and resolution while serving a communications and policy internship at STAND (Students Taking Action Now: Darfur) in Washington, D.C. Carol Fadalla ’18, a psychology major planning a career in health care, completed lesson plans, conducted surveys and led educational sessions in India through the Comprehensive Rural Health Project, an NGO that works to build healthier communities around the world.

Lisi Mueller ’18 had a chance to view an issue from two different professional perspectives. An aspiring fifth-grade teacher, Mueller describes her latest internship with the Earth Day Education Network as “a big change of pace” from her work the previous summer with the National Republican Convention. Both were valuable experiences, and she plans to apply what she’s learned this year about sustainability education in her future lesson plans.

It all adds up to much more than resumé bullets, says Mueller, who broadened her professional contacts, as well as her worldview, over lunch breaks with coworkers and fellow interns. And it’s all made more widely accessible through an internship grant program, supported by the college and by alumni, which helps cover housing and related costs for students pursuing an unpaid or low-pay internship. Fadalla and Gorelick are among the students who received alumni-supported awards.

Both are grateful for the opportunity and the new possibilities ahead. “I will be able to move in a more focused direction when searching for a job after graduation,” Gorelick says.

That’s why Struzenski advises fellow students to contact the Career Center early and to keep an open mind about the opportunities that arise.

“Sometimes the experiences that are slightly outside of our interests are the ones we can learn from the most,” he says. “It’s one of the great things about a liberal-arts education—it allows you to be flexible, adapt to dynamic environments and easily learn new skills.”

—MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson

INTERNSHIPS PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES FOR STUDENTS TO ENGAGE MEANINGFULLY IN ISSUES THEY CARE ABOUT AND WORK WITH ORGANIZATIONS COMMITTED TO SERVING THE GREATER GOOD.

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The Kline Center addition received a 2017 Facilities of Merit designation from Athletic Business.

[ in the game ]

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After weeks of early-morning workouts and late-night practices, running drills and perfecting plays, Red Devil student-athletes kicked off the fall 2017 sports season with a bang. On opening weekend, seven Red Devil teams chalked up wins, including three shutouts (two for women’s soccer and one for field hockey). The weekend marked the starts for two new head coaches, Ted Zingman (women’s soccer) and Brad Fordyce (football). Women’s soccer goalkeeper Mary Katherine Brosnan ’19 started the season as Centennial Conference Player of the Week, and the women’s volleyball team launched its winning start in Puerto Rico.

Carl Socolow ’77

A Visible

SPARK In her first few weeks as Dickinson’s 29th president, Margee Ensign has set a course that will propel the college into a bright future.

Edited by Lauren Davidson.

Photos by Carl Socolow ’77.

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[ feature ]

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Margee Ensign knows how to work a room.

Her energy is infectious, and her laugh is a full-body experience. Her presence is an inextricable mix of warmth and savvy; of curiosity and immense knowledge; of leadership and collegiality. Since stepping into the role of Dickinson’s 29th president—made official on July 1, though she was hard at work well before then—that presence has been felt on campus as she welcomed generations of Dickinsonians during Alumni Weekend and a new generation during Orientation. It has been felt in Carlisle as she spoke during a peace rally and opened her home to engage with community leaders.

It has been felt on the road as she met with trustees, donors and friends of the college, sharing her vision and her ideas to propel Dickinson forward.

Like Dickinson’s founder Benjamin Rush, Ensign is an idealist, and her arrival and emphasis on meaningful action, on a useful education for the common good, have sparked great buzz throughout the community. We know there is much more to come— the following pages offer just a glimpse into her first four months in office and her responses to questions submitted by members of the Dickinson community.

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I’M SO HONORED TO BE IN THIS COMMUNITY, to be home— to be home to a country that believes in peace, justice and equality, and that’s what we stand for. I pledge our support, our coordination and our partnership. This is an amazing community. ... I think we can be a powerful national model.

—speaking during the Carlisle Call for Unity gathering in August

On Dickinson

Launched a task force at Dickinson to examine ways to enhance intercultural competency across campus.

Secured Dickinson a place as the first liberal-arts college in the Engagement Scholarship Consortium.

What’s your favorite spot on campus?

—Maggie McConney ’21 The red chairs on the grass outside Old West. I can see from my office how they are so often rearranged for classes, for students to connect with one another and for solitary study, which is a perfect metaphor for our flexibility as an institution. And they so beautifully dot that picturesque space with our Dickinson red!

How will you make yourself accessible to students, both in groups and one-on-one?

—Anh Pham ’21 I have already met with many students and student groups, attended athletic events and taught in several classes. I will continue to do this as well as start weekly office hours for students in October.

How do you plan to create a more welcoming environment for people of color this year?

—Andres Salazar ’21 Dickinson has just welcomed its most diverse class in its history. This is something we should all celebrate. As you may know we have recently launched a new initiative to make sure we all have the knowledge and skills to deal with diversity and varied cultural context.

I quote from a Huffington Post blog that I wrote on this topic: “Our university campuses are already enormously diverse places. But simply drawing many sorts of people to one institution (and sending them off to study in the rest of the world, too) is only the very beginning of the cross-cultural educational process.

Proximity isn’t enough, obviously. We all begin to self-sort, to find people like ourselves, to avoid others—all aided and abetted, of course, by the ubiquitous internet. Who among us is immune to this?

We must self-consciously and consistently teach and adopt those proven techniques which foster greater cross-cultural understanding and empathy. We must find the time and resources—not just the odd diversity workshop—to teach intercultural skills. It is a process, for everyone, of the most profound and often painful self-exploration. It is the fundamental responsibility of every college and university.”

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EXPLORING NEW IDEAS AND LISTENING TO OTHERS WHO CHALLENGE OUR BELIEFS AND VALUES is at the heart of academic life. This helps us to learn, to find answers to pressing problems and to become effective citizens of the world. There is no place in a college for closed-mindedness. The world is not a safe space, and any true engagement with the real world makes that immediately clear.

—from July 2017 op-ed in The Chronicle of Higher Education

Life at the American University of Nigeria involved Chibok girls escaping Boko Haram terrorism, their need just to survive and a hope for education. How challenging might it be to relate to Dickinson students with such a different life?

—Eileen Fair Durgin ’52 While we were fortunate to be able to educate 24 of the Chibok students who escaped from Boko Haram, the university had a full undergraduate college as well as a law school and graduate programs. Students came from all over the continent and some came from the United States. Like American students, the predominantly African students want a worldclass education preparing them for their futures. While there are differences of geography and culture, they all share a passion for American education.

Ensign speaks out on issues that matter: • Critical responsibilities of American institutions of higher education • Charlottesville attack • T ermination of America’s DACA “Dreamers” program (pictured at right joining with students

during a demonstration on Britton Plaza in September)

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Accepted an invitation to join the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition’s (USGLC) Pennsylvania Advisory Committee.

On Higher Education

On a Personal Note

It is generally recognized that costs in the higher education system are out of control and that student debt is a bubble about to burst.

How do you see higher education changing to reduce the debt load on graduates relative to their earning potential, and what do you plan to do at Dickinson to make a liberal-arts education accessible without significantly affecting the finances of students and/or families?

—Steve Introcaso ’84 Increasing costs are a concern to everyone in higher education, and Dickinson has a task force focused exactly on these issues. We expect to have a report from that task force next spring, which will guide us in our decisions on cost and access. Dickinson has, however, always been very generous with financial aid and cautious with increases in tuition and fees, and our students graduate with an average loan debt that is consistently below the national norm.

What is your favorite travel spot? What about your “bucket list” travel spot?

—Kirsten Nixa Sabia ’92 I have many favorite spots—most are in East Africa and many are on my bucket list, including Thailand, Nepal, Brazil and India.

Having spent my career in college admissions, having five granddaughters who have gone through the enrollment process and being someone who is always interested in enrollment trends, I have noticed that many colleges and universities have more women than men in their student bodies. Is there concern about how smaller male enrollment affects co-curricular activities, namely athletics? What steps will you take to influence this trend?

—Joe Carver ’59 It is true that since the late 1970s, fewer men are going to colleges and universities (in the U.S.). I am not sure we have all of the answers as to why this is happening, but our responsibility is to make sure that our academic programs will prepare graduates for life in the 21st century and that there is a range of activities—clubs, sports, service opportunities—so that all Dickinson students have the opportunity to participate in something they enjoy.

Who has been your most inspiring or influential teacher or mentor, and why?

—Angela Wallis ’02 I am fortunate to have had many inspiring mentors in my life—my parents, who allowed me to be independent and follow my dreams; a professor at New College, where I did my undergraduate work, who helped me learn to write and think critically and introduced me to international relations and African history; and the former president of Tulane University, who coached and mentored me through my period as a dean and president at AUN. They challenged me, were honest with my shortcomings, but always provided support.

Ensign will share additional responses to submitted questions in the winter issue, and you can pose questions in person at one of several events throughout the coming months (details at dickinson.edu/presidenttour).

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[ feature ] How much has changed during the past 50 years?

100 years?

If

you’ve walked the old stone steps of Old West or belted out “Noble Dickinsonia,” you know about Dickinson’s timeless traditions. You also know that campus life changes over time. So how do our newest grads compare with their elders, in big and small ways? We scoured headlines, yearbooks, magazines, Pew Research studies and other sources to mine a few touchstones for the classes of 1917, 1967 and 2017.

Signs of the Times

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By MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson

ACCLAIMED MOVIES

POPULAR SONGS

FASHIONABLE FOOD

1913-17: The Tramp, In the Land of the Head Hunters,

1913-17: “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny,” “It’s a Long,

1913-17: Supermarkets introduced. Families ate

Les Vampires, Intolerance, The Birth of a Nation (highest-grossing movie to date in 1915)

Long Way to Tipperary”

home-cooked food. Food marketed as “sanitary,” “pure” and “untouched by human hands.” Lard was a staple. Hamburger bun invented. Coca-Cola introduced its iconic bottle.

1963-67: My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, A Man for All Seasons, In the Heat of the Night

2013-17: Argo, 12 Years a Slave, Birdman, Spotlight

1963-67: “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “My Girl,” “San Francisco” 2013-17: “Stay With Me,” “Lemonade,” “Harlem Shake” (first viral song to hit Billboard No. 1)

(star Mark Ruffalo visited campus twice)

1963-67: Julia Child brought French flair to American TVs and stovetops. Packaged/frozen food and fast foods boomed. “Health foods” emerged. Party food included onion-soup dip and grape-jelly meatballs.

Themed dinners were in. The California wine industry picked up pace.

2013-17: Hand-crafted/small-batch/artisan and local/ sustainable, organic fare. Food Network. Online ordering. Avo toast, cronuts, acai, bacon and cold brews were popular. Burger King aspired to new markets with “Satisfries.” Photos of idealized meals posted on social media.

BUZZED-ABOUT BOOKS

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

1913-17: The Metamorphosis, O Pioneers, Sons

1913-17: Model Ts shared the road with trollies and

and Lovers, Psychology of the Unconscious, Foundations of the General Theory of Relativity

horses (many Americans walked). Washing machines made housework easier. Silent movies used new blue-screen technology. Penicillin, flu shot and other life-saving vaccines not yet available.

Electrocardiograph invented.

1963-67: The Autobiography of Malcolm X, In Cold Blood, The Feminine Mystique, Human Sexual Response, The Psychedelic Experience, The Virtue of Selfishness, The Warren Report, Why We Can’t Wait 2013-17: The Goldfinch, Go Set a Watchman, On Immunity, The Sixth Extinction, The Hunger Games series, The Gene: An Intimate History

1963-67: Students called home long-distance, wrote letters. Computers were room-sized. Mumps vaccine, soft contacts invented; first human heart transplant.

Color TVs in most homes. Portable LP players, transistors, car eight-tracks took music on the go.

Typewriters were essential.

2013-17: Students grew up with computers, widespread internet access, Google, 24/7 shopping, microwaves and cellphones. They think “shopping” when they hear “Amazon.” Most would rather text/ type than call/hand-write. Many can’t read or write cursive. Inventions: VR 360, Facebook Live, hoverboards, smart tech, wearables, genome editing, health apps and more sophisticated robotics.

CONNECTIONS Named generations: All born within a few years of a generational switch.

1917: Antebellum/Lost Generation.

1967: Silent/Boomers.

2017: Millennials/Generation Z. Bridging physical distances: 1917 grads minimized distance with the new automobile, airplane and crosscountry phone line. 1967 grads drove on highways and saw Americans travel to the moon. 2017 grads live in a world of internet-based conversation and telecommuting.

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HISTORY AND CULTURE Class of 1917: In childhood, many heard family Civil War stories; the FBI, NAACP and World Series were formed; Jim Thorpe won Olympic golds; Arizona became a state and child labor was legal. Children lived at home until marriage. Formative events: Industrial Revolution, women’s suffrage, psychoanalysis, Titanic disaster. As adults, they saw women vote, watched hemlines rise and listened to “War of the Worlds.” Some lived to see two world wars. In 1913-17: • U.S. cities adopted speeding laws and installed traffic lights, thanks to “lead foots.”

• Mother’s Day became an American tradition.

• Einstein published his most famous theory.

• Panama Canal finished.

• Puerto Rican residents became U.S. citizens.

Sixteenth Amendment ratified. Federal Reserve Act signed. Asiatic Barred Zone Act restricted immigration.

• Jack Johnson became the first black heavyweight champion.

• WWI began. Russian Revolution began. U.S. entered WWI, sending some 1917 grads to the battlefield and changing worldviews, global order.

• Federal segregation put in effect for workplaces, lunchrooms and restrooms.

• Alexander Graham Bell placed the first transcontinental call.

• Marcel Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase” caused a stir.

• Above-ankle skirts and “duster” jackets allowed more ease getting in and out of the car.

• 1915 price of gas: 15 cents/gallon.

Postage stamp: two cents.

1963-67: Born in the wake of Hiroshima, they had “duck and cover” drills in school. They were infants when Dr. Spock popularized “common sense” parenting.

The TV market grew; kids watched Howdy Doody. In high school, “the pill” became available and the first black student enrolled at Ole Miss. When they began college, Kennedy was in office and the first lady set the fashion; by graduation, the president had been assassinated, America was at war and the counterculture movement was afoot. They graduated into the “Summer of Love.” One year later, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated; two years out, a man walked on the moon. In 1963-67:

Class of 2017: Many used computers in grade school and iPhones as teens. The 9/11 attacks occurred when most were age 6; this may have contributed to a protective parenting style. Some had metal detectors in school. They’ve never known a world without terrorism, frappuccinos or a Disney movie starring an interracial couple. They’re more educated and less religious than their predecessors, less likely to drive, more likely to identify as politically independent and gender-fluid.

They get along with their parents. Formative events: the Great Recession, advent of social media, cyberbullying laws, election of Barack Obama as first U.S. president of color. In 2013-17:

• Freedom Summer, Selma to Montgomery march, Voting Rights Act of 1965.

• Scientists at Cornell University grew a living ear using a 3-D printer and cell cultures.

• The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show.

• Bathrooms became politicized; Title IX protections applied to transgender students.

• Muhammad Ali became world heavyweight champ.

• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered “I Have a Dream” speech.

• The first Super Bowl. The Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10, and more than 51 million TV viewers tuned in.

• Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” was an anthem of racial pride, women’s rights.

• A Time magazine cover story asked, “Is God dead?”

• Gay marriage ruled legal nationwide.

• Black Lives Matter movement.

• American Pharoah became the first horse in 37 years to win the Triple Crown.

• First female U.S. presidential candidate nominated by a major political party.

• Andy Warhol created art at his original Factory location.

• American Idol, the No. 1 TV show for eight straight seasons, ended its 15-year run.

• American combat troops entered Vietnam.

• Photography, video, internet on the go. Online ordering, drone delivery. Pokémon Go.

• NASA’s Mariner 4 approached Mars, became the first spacecraft to take images of a planet from deep space.

• Rolling Stone published its first issue.

Postage stamp: five cents.

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• Zika and Ebola outbreaks. Flint water crisis.

• Malcolm X assassinated.

• 1967 price of gas: 33 cents/gallon.

d ic k in s on ma g a z i n e Fall 2017

• Chicago Cubs captured the World Series for the first time since 1908.

• Donald Trump elected president. “Fake news” in national conversation.

• 2016 avg. price of regular gas: $2.14/gallon.

Postage stamp: 47 cents.

cop out fam downer

SLANG 1917: Stuffed shirt, spiffy, cushy/cinch/snap, in the flap (worried), simp (fool), dope (gossip or something enjoyable), on the make/giving the eye, crabbing (complaining), scabbing (studying late), pipe (easy class), peach/dish (attractive woman), brick (attractive man).

1967: Flake, flip/freak/cop out, hippie, downer/ bummer, blown away, with it, groovy, heavy, bag. Far out, freaky, out of sight! Let it all hang out. Don’t be so negative. Peace.

2017: Unicorn, triggered, bae, probs, trill, FOMO, sweet, woke, can’t even, extra done, FR, low-key, high-key, selfie, fam, creeper, dad jokes/jeans, RT.

2013-17

DICKINSON MOMENTS AND MILESTONES 1913-17 • James Henry Morgan, class of 1878, inaugurated as president.

• First African-American woman student, Esther Popel Shaw, enrolled.

• Celebrations included Nisbet Day, May Day Festival, Week of Prayer.

• Some Dickinson professors gave occasional lectures at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.

• Yearbook nicknames included “Lardy” and “Shorty.”

• 1914-15 basketball team was undefeated.

1963-67 • Bologna, Italy, study abroad program launched.

• Approximately 1,000 students treated during 1967 outbreak of viral respiratory infection.

• New buildings: HUB, Dana Hall and 12 residence halls opened.

• Students marched from High Street to Old West to protest residence-hall designs.

• Students ate in Dining Hall (previously in dorms).

Dinner dress code enforced.

• Eight students entered NBC’s General Electric College Bowl and won, earning a silver bowl, $10,500 in scholarships.

• Students requested and received a drillmaster on campus to help them prepare for war.

What else stands out for you?

What do you think the class of 2067 will experience? Email dsonmag@dickinson.edu with your thoughts!

• Food studies and social entrepreneurship certificate programs and the Innovation Competition launched.

• Nancy Roseman inaugurated as Dickinson’s first female president and served three years; Provost and Dean Neil Weissman filled in as interim president (2016-17); Margee Ensign inaugurated as 29th president.

• Coffee sold in the library, Dining Hall, Quarry and Union Station and via The Peddler.

• College purchased 3-D printer.

• Dickinsonians volunteered tens of thousands of hours annually.

• 2013-14 men’s basketball team advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight.

• College awarded four prizes for environmental activism.

• Five buildings earned LEED gold certification; ground broken on a new residence hall.

• Sixteenth Dickinson-run study abroad program launched in South America.

29

[ feature ]

Thinking With Benjamin Rush

By Christopher J. Bilodeau, Associate Professor of History

d ic k in s on ma g a z i n e Fall 2017

30

Carl Socolow ’77

L

ike many Americans across the country,

I was dismayed when I heard of the racial tension and violence that took place in Charlottesville, Va., this past summer. I was disheartened at seeing white supremacists with torches march to the Thomas Jefferson statue on the University of Virginia campus as they tried to claim him as one of their own. But I was encouraged at seeing a group of counterprotesters surround the statue first, defending it from what they believed was an unjust appropriation. Jefferson was, obviously, not a blameless man. He derived his wealth and lifestyle from the hundreds of African-American slaves he owned. He recognized that fact as a problem yet did nothing about it. In his writings, he implied that blacks lacked the moral and intellectual potential for republican citizenship in the new United States. How should those facts inform our thinking about Jefferson today? As Americans and human beings of the 21st century, what do we think Jefferson owes us? What do we owe Jefferson? Or, put more broadly: What do we think the Founding Fathers of the United States should do for us today?

I thought about that question for quite some time while standing recently in front of the statue of another founder, Benjamin Rush, in front of Old West on the Dickinson campus. He has been someone I like to think about—and with—since I arrived at Dickinson in 2006, but this year his statue has taken on new meanings for me, as it has for other Dickinsonians, particularly when I consider his views on racial difference, on slavery and on freedom.

31

Image courtesy of the Winterthur Museum.

African-Americans in a Republic

Rush was a complicated thinker during a complicated time. His deep-seated faith in the power of rationality to dispel injustice and undeserved privilege led him to question and criticize simplistic or “common sense” notions that others might use to support tradition, hierarchy or inequality. For Rush, human beings were naturally disposed toward liberty, and liberty would naturally endow citizens with virtue. In this way, Rush was typical of those who believed in “republicanism,” the driving ideology of many revolutionary thinkers in the 1770s and 1780s. But republicanism is a broad ideology, and each republican could have different views about the same subject.

Rush’s republicanism was personal and idiosyncratic, just like Jefferson’s. But unlike Jefferson, Rush believed that Africans or those of African descent were just as capable of shouldering the responsibilities of republican freedom as any white person.

“I need say hardly anything in favor of the Intellects of the Negroes, or of their capacities for virtue and happiness, although they have been supposed by some to be inferior to those of the inhabitants of Europe,” he wrote. “The accounts which travelers give

d ic k in s on ma g a z i n e Fall 2017

32

of their ingenuity, humanity and strong attachments to their parents, relations, friends and country, show us that they are equal to the Europeans.” For Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, all men were created equal, including those who were enslaved.

It was slavery, for Rush, that was the problem. It alone perpetuated the false claims about racial inferiority of blacks.

“All the vices which are charged upon the Negroes … are the genuine offspring of slavery, and serve as an argument to prove, that they were not intended, by Providence, for it,” he wrote. This was no small claim for Rush. Slavery was not simply an institution that at its root was unjust; slavery was a transgression against natural law and a blight against God—a serious charge for the devout Presbyterian Christian. He believed that the new nation, the first of its kind ordered around the universal truths of natural law, could not continue to maintain the scourge of slavery without some terrible reckoning. “Remember that national crimes require national punishments, and without declaring what punishment awaits this evil, you may venture to assure them that it cannot pass with impunity, unless God shall cease to be just or merciful,” he wrote.

A transgression of such magnitude against the natural order of things—a natural order ordained by God—would eventually elicit a punishing response.

Abolitionism and “Black Leprosy”

As such, Rush became a committed and prominent abolitionist in Philadelphia in 1787. He began that commitment in a typically idiosyncratic way, becoming an abolitionist after a dream about the recently deceased abolitionist Quaker Anthony Benezet.

He immediately joined the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society, becoming not only a powerful advocate but also an author of its new constitution and a president of the society. He supported “gradualism,” the major abolitionist position within Pennsylvania generally. On March 1, 1780, the Pennsylvania legislature passed one of

the first attempts by a government in the Americas to put an end to slavery. Titled An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery, the law attempted three things: It prohibited the importation of slaves into the state; it required citizens of Pennsylvania to register their slaves each year, or else the masters would be fined and the slaves freed; and it claimed that any child born in the state was free, regardless of the status of his or her parents. Rush was firmly within this tradition of gradualism, which became a model of abolitionism in northeastern states such as New York, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Jersey.

(Massachusetts passed a law in 1783 that “instantly” abolished slavery, providing the other model for states.)

But as I said, Rush was a complicated thinker, and this fairly straightforward narrative of his views on African-Americans, slavery and abolitionism is complicated by other evidence. Rush was a gradualist abolitionist, true, but what about William Grubber, a child slave whom Rush bought and owned until 1794? Purchasing slave children with the purpose of emancipating them was a common practice among gradualists. But Rush didn’t manumit him immediately; in fact, he manumitted him only after receiving, in his words, “a just compensation for my having paid for him the full price of a slave for life.” Scholars have speculated that Rush must have purchased him in the early- to mid-1770s, or roughly about the time he wrote his critique of slavery, Address to the Inhabitants of British Settlements in America, upon Slavekeeping (1773). Did he feel conflicted about voicing his strident views against slavery while owning another human being? Rush himself offers little comment in any of his writings.

And the questions don’t end there.

Rush’s views on race—a term undergoing radical shifts in definition at precisely this revolutionary moment—indicate a man who liked to blend his interests in physical science, political science and theology in a particularly dizzying, late-18th-century mix.

Rush was eager to prove that all human beings “descended from one pair,” Adam

Rush certainly was a part of his 18th-century world, but his emphasis on education showed he strove to transcend it. and Eve. But if that was the case, why did Africans and African-Americans look so different from Europeans? He concluded that a variant of leprosy caused blackness in skin color. A cure for leprosy, therefore, would change Africans’ skin color “back” to white, the skin color of Adam and Eve. Such an argument would allow Rush to support his Christian creationism, undermine those who argued that blacks were “naturally” disposed to enslavement, and provide for the possibility that African-Americans could assimilate fully as virtuous republican citizens into the new nation. And he justified this claim in part on the work of another scientist who applied muriatic acid, a harsh and corrosive relative of hydrochloric acid, to the skin and hair of an African-American man. Yet he made no mention of the glaring moral problems with that practice.

Regardless, his claims of “black leprosy” were deemed controversial during the early republic. They are patently preposterous to us today. But they were controversial within a particular historical environment.

Rush believed that universal laws governed not only nature, but also people and their interactions. Laws of politics, laws of society: they were all laws of nature, and they were all immutable. But how did they fit together?

Rush, more than most republican thinkers during the late 18th century, attempted to connect numerous fields of thought and knowledge to uncover universal laws that he believed made the new United States a radical experiment in freedom and liberty.

Obviously, that desire led him down some pretty questionable paths.

Rush and American Indians

Rush’s ideas about the original inhabitants of North America, American Indians,

are just as discordant to our 21st-century ears. In An Account of the Vices Peculiar to the Indians of North America, he broadly criticized Indians for the lives they led and their lack of contributions to society. He claimed that Indians were characterized by uncleanliness, drunkenness, gluttony, treachery and a host of other vices. He believed them cruel, especially in the ways they degraded their women, which Rush counted as their worst vice. He conceded that they loved liberty, but their liberty was deficient because of their ignorance of the influence of property. For republicans like Rush, property was the cornerstone of the new nation; it made people independent, and independence led to virtue; it was the necessary bulwark against tyranny. Without it, no one could be free.

Rush seems to imply in these writings that Indians could not survive in a republic.

As slavery was doomed by the natural human inclination toward freedom, so too were Indians doomed by the natural human inclination toward property, and therefore only whites and blacks would thrive within this new, modern, republican world.

A “Useful,” Republican Education

But as I contemplated these sobering thoughts about Rush, thinking about him in his world and ours, I concluded that these were not the last words, nor even apt words, to end any discussion of him. For as I looked up and considered his statue, I did so on the grounds of a college he founded. That’s important. Rush was an 18th-century idealist, but one firmly grounded in the twin pillars of scientific method and Christian religion. In our age, we tend to think of these two things as separate, even incongruous; in fact, they were already becoming separated in his age

too. But Rush’s faith in both a Christian God and in the power of Enlightenment thought compelled him to invest in republican education, especially in the founding of Dickinson College.

It was an education in part committed to those who had been previously denied it.

If someone could prove themselves worthy of its rigors and insights, then that person was welcomed. The role of education was to mold men and women to take on roles of republican responsibility and leadership, to lead a young nation beyond where it was in 1783, when the college was chartered, to futures unknown. Rush certainly was a part of his 18th-century world, but his emphasis on education showed he strove to transcend it. He worked to put in place an institution that allowed others—including those of us who teach and learn at the college now—to transcend their worlds as well. I think that if the statue of Rush stands for anything, it stands for that: a legacy of intellectual growth, of critique and self-critique, of the pursuit of knowledge and meaning within an institution that understands that pursuit as restless and never-ending.

It is an aspirational vision, one that purports that the days to come can be better than the ones that came before, but only if individuals engage in rigorous debate, to upend traditions and common-sense notions that no longer have purchase in a society that strives to be free and dynamic.

Or, as it is written in Dickinson’s charter, “to promote and encourage…every attempt to disseminate and promote the growth of useful knowledge.” In this way, Rush laid out the challenge, and it remains for us to maintain it, even as we maintain it in ways that Rush wouldn’t have approved of or even recognized. To my mind, that is what Benjamin Rush does for us today.

33

DIRECT

Effect For Ted and Kay Gleim Poitras ’53, giving back is a gift that keeps on giving.

By Tony Moore

I can see that our gift can change lives at Dickinson.

Photo courtesy of Dickinson Archives & Special Collections. d ic k in s on ma g a z i n e Fall 2017

34

[ profile ] The Poitras-Gleim Lectureship seeks to challenge the imagination of Dickinson students and faculty in discovering interesting individuals who cross traditional professional and disciplinary boundaries. ... The mission of a liberal arts college is, after all, the education of a whole person.

D

ickinson’s array of academic and co-curricular programs spans the world, each enriching our students in unique ways, each helping them discover and develop meaningful connections with the wider world. Dickinson also hosts countless speakers, artists and award recipients on campus in an effort to make those same connections, inviting the world to our doorstep.

Bringing one such program to life, Ted and Kay (Gleim) Poitras ’53 began funding the Poitras-Gleim Lecture in 1990, and thanks to their generosity the lectureship has celebrated and enhanced Dickinson’s distinctive, multifaceted educational approach ever since.

“The Poitras-Gleim lecture is an embodiment of all that the liberal arts represents,” says Josh Eisenberg, assistant dean of student leadership and new student programs. “We want our students not only to find their academic passion but to explore the myriad co- and extracurricular opportunities Dickinson provides, and the Poitrases’ continued generosity guarantees that this lecture will influence students for years to come.”

While at Dickinson, Kay was an English major, at a time when her late father, David Gleim, was a chemistry professor at the college (1943-65). She went on to earn a master’s in teaching from Rollins College, serving as an educator for many years.

She’s now retired from both teaching and serving as a parish coordinator for St. Alban’s church, near the couple’s central-Florida home.

The couple met after Kay’s Dickinson days, when each was asked to serve as a substitute player in a local bridge club. Ted says he knew nothing of Kay at the time except that she had waist-length hair, which he spotted across the bridge table. And Kay admits that at first she wasn’t quite “head over teacup” about Ted. But their relationship took hold quickly, and the couple got married in 1973. Ted says it looks like it’ll stick: “I think we might stay married,” he says with a laugh.

A retired real estate developer, Ted directs a number of trusts and charitable funds, giving broadly to philanthropic causes in education and human services, while he and Kay head Encourage

Inc., a private foundation that contributes to religious organizations and causes. In the 1990 letter the Poitrases sent to Dickinson along with the initial lectureship gift, the couple laid out the mission of the endeavor that has served Dickinson so well for nearly three decades: The Poitras-Gleim Lectureship seeks to challenge the imagination of Dickinson students and faculty in discovering interesting individuals who cross traditional professional and disciplinary boundaries. ... The mission of a liberal arts college is, after all, the education of a whole person.

For Ted, the mission harkens back to his own days of academia at Brown University, where he earned a B.A. in English. “In the Renaissance, an educated man was considered one who had a broader interest that he could nourish or become a ‘passionate amateur’ in, a committed amateur,” he says, noting that the Poitras-Gleim lecture seeks those “well known for their professional work but who people would be astounded to find out have another field of expertise.”

Showcasing the creative diversity of “passionate amateurs” the lectureship brings to campus, the Poitrases cite Jack Palance (1993), George Takei (1996), John Walsh (2000) and David Oyelowo (2016) as their favorite speakers over the years. It’s a group that’s entertained and enlightened the Dickinson community while bolstering the institution itself.

“The Poitrases have been loyal and imaginative supporters of Dickinson,” says Neil Weissman, provost and dean of the college. “Their lectureship has been both intriguing for attendees and visibilitygenerating for Dickinson.”

And while Ted is not a Dickinson alumnus, he sees the college’s mission as one worthy of his and Kay’s charitable dollars.

“You want to give where you can have a direct effect,” says Ted, whose giving to Dickinson with Kay is approaching the $1 million mark. “And I can see that our gift can change lives at Dickinson. That same amount is in a much bigger pot at an Ivy League school, so we choose to give where we can see results.

And we enjoy doing it.”

35

[ beyond the limestone walls ]

Reflecting Back and Looking Ahead DAV I D C A R L S ON ’ 9 9, A LU M N I C OU NC I L PR E S I DE N T

Carl Socolow ’77

A

s I sit down to pen my first council note for Dickinson Magazine as Alumni Council president, I am called to reflect on the impact this institution has had on my life. Many of my oldest friends are alumni. My first job came from on-site interviews, which led to a career, two businesses and meeting my wife, who is an alumna.

Over the past several years I have been amazed at the transformation the college has made in enriching the alumni experience. From the availability of livestreamed discussions to the One College One Community programs, from alumni travel opportunities to items available in iTunesU, there are so many opportunities to stay connected. Please visit Dickinson.edu/alumni to explore the vast resources available to all of us in this wonderful community.

In future issues, I will focus on bringing you a sense of the activities and ambitions of the Alumni Council. The council is a group of extremely talented alumni that invests significant time and treasure to strengthen the connections between all alumni and between alumni and current students in order to create a strong sense of community.

In that spirit, please reach out to me at davidcarlson2026@gmail.com to share your feedback, concerns or ambitions! Have a wonderful fall, and if possible, stop by campus or attend an alumni event in your area. I look forward to meeting many of you over the coming year.

A New Era of Leadership Two longtime Dickinson volunteers moved into new leadership positions at the college this past summer. John Jones ’77, P’11 was named chair of the Board of Trustees and Jim Chambers ’78 was named vice chair, effective July 1. Both Jones and Chambers “are eager to work with President Ensign and all Dickinsonians as we propel Dickinson forward, raise the visibility of this great college and continue to be an international leader in liberal-arts education,” wrote outgoing board chair Jennifer Ward Reynolds ’77, in a June email to the Dickinson community.

Jones was a political science major at Dickinson and member of the Raven’s Claw honorary society who went on to earn a J.D. from the Dickinson School of Law. After being appointed to the U.S. District Court by President George W. Bush, Jones has presided over several high-profile national cases. Jones also was appointed by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania to the Pennsylvania Commission on Judicial Independence and by Chief Justice John Roberts to serve as a member of the Committee on Judicial Security. The judge’s many honors include honorary doctorates from Dickinson and Muhlenberg College, the John Marshall Judicial Independence Award and the Geological Society of America’s inaugural president’s medal. He also was featured in the Peabody Award-winning Nova special Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial, and appeared in Time magazine and on The Today Show, PBS NewsHour, C-SPAN, CNN and Al Jazeera America.

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Chambers studied history and political science at Dickinson. After earning an MBA in finance from Southern Methodist University and a master’s in international management from Thunderbird’s American Graduate School of International Management, he launched a distinguished career in international business, serving policy-level executive positions, nationally and internationally, in diverse industries, including Conoco Inc., Quest Diagnostics and Corning Incorporated. He is also a consultant, investor and a founding partner of Conundrum Capital Partners LLC, as well as partner and owner of Vision Ace Hardware Stores. He serves on several not-for-profit and privately held company boards.

Read more at dson.co/trustees17.

Photos by Ben Edwards unless otherwise noted.

Alumni Explore the Science Behind the Spectacle

The “land of ice and fire” is a marvel for tourists on the hunt for rugged scenery, and also for earth scientists, who find rich data sets in its craggy and icy depths. In June, 19 Dickinsonians on the Alumni Global Adventure trip enjoyed both aspects of Iceland when they traveled there with Professor of Earth Sciences Ben Edwards, a global volcanology expert who researches the interactions between volcanic lava and ice. While a local guide took the travelers to cultural and historic sites, Edwards explained the science behind the spectacle.

“It was a great combination, because our fantastic guide knows a lot about Icelandic history, and I was able to focus on the geology,” said Edwards, who had previously traveled to Iceland with small groups of students and alumni. “We had a great group of people with diverse life experiences and minds eager to learn.”

The learning began on American soil, as alumni dipped into a suggested reading list to shore up on the basics. Once in Iceland, the Dickinsonians, whose class years ranged from the ’50s to the ’00s, traveled by bus to three Icelandic regions over the span of two weeks.

For Dickinsonians, it truly is a small world. While traveling with fellow Dickinson alumni in Iceland, Ginny Frost Pusey ’62 was delighted to run into Bonnie Brown Koeln ’62, who was touring Iceland with a New Zealand group.

Rob Beckelheimer

Tapping Edwards’ deep expertise, the group learned about the latest research as they visited the Eldfell volcano, which erupted in 1973, and the 216-square-mile Eldhraun, the world’s largest flow from a single eruption. They also visited the nation’s capital, Reykjavík, took in historic sites and museums, spotted puffins at a bird sanctuary, explored black-sand beaches and fishing villages, marveled at lush waterfalls, geysers and glaciers, took a dip in the famous Blue Lagoon geothermal pool and saw Iceland’s south shore, the area most affected by the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano.

“I had virtually no background in geology, and for me, the best part was discovering the way Iceland gives a picture and a perspective on [the history and climate of] planet Earth, and even gives clues to what we might find on other planets,” said Jan Monks Herrold ’68, P’03, who traveled with husband John P’03. “There was something new every day, and our two guides loved the topics and loved helping us see and learn it all.” —MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson Read more about the trip at dson.co/icelandalumni17, and register for the next Alumni Global Adventure, Málaga, Province of Beauty and Taste: A Feast for the Eyes and the Palate, April 22-28, 2018.

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[ closing thoughts ]

From Carlisle to Rome: A Journey Along the Road Less Traveled B Y J O R D A N MCC O R D ’ 1 0

I

remember the peculiar look my parents gave me when, as a junior in high school, I mentioned this little college that I wanted to visit in the middle of South Central Pennsylvania. Luckily I managed to convince them to at least go check it out. A large part of their dismay came from the prescribed path to Carlisle from my house in Ohio—a six-hour drive across the Pennsylvania Turnpike, full of treacherous curves and trucks zooming by in the left lane. Why did I want to inconvenience myself like this when I could go to the beloved Ohio State like the majority of my family and high school classmates?

I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life then, but I knew that I wanted to write, learn a foreign language and be intellectually challenged.

I knew that I wanted to go to a liberal-arts school, and I wanted to go somewhere where there was strong support for study abroad. I didn’t want to sit in a large lecture hall, passively taking notes. My interests in writing and language were begging to be cultivated and directed toward something, and I sensed that a place like Dickinson could help.

My parents came around as we toured the campus. I was sold, even on that rainy day, and I was particularly intrigued by the signpost with all the different arrows that pointed to places like Cameroon, Spain, England, Israel, Russia—all the places one could study abroad. It indicated that Italy was about 4,000 miles away, and that is where I eventually chose to study abroad and where I now live. My instincts were

right—that this little community in Carlisle would be the place to help me build the skill set and grow the courage to live and work halfway across the world.

Thanks to a broad base of knowledge and the opportunity to develop my communication skills, I worked as an English teacher for adults and children for more than a year when I first got to Italy. I’ve had lots of fun using my creativity to come up with workshops, games or other unusual methods to help Italians grasp the English language.

In addition to doing that, I’ve mixed my love for language and literature by translating literary texts from Italian into English, a passion project which I plan to continue. I have also had the opportunity to write for Italian publications like Romeing and Puntarella Rossa, producing articles about the expat life here in Rome.

After getting comfortable with the language, I found a job at a startup called Soprano Villas that rents villas throughout Italy. I manage the company blog and create content to engage travelers who want to discover the best secrets of Italy. I also work as a liaison between English-speaking tourists and locals at the Rome-based office.

My experience here has been a lot like my time at Dickinson—where one class built upon another, now one experience complements and feeds another, or something I’ve learned in one situation becomes unexpectedly handy in another. They say that all roads lead to Rome, but several years ago, when I first visited Dickinson, I wouldn’t have thought that I’d make my way to this timeless place. I give the signpost on campus credit for pointing me in the right direction.

Jordan McCord ’10 earned a degree in English and moved to Italy to pursue her passions for language, literature and writing.

She currently works as a content editor for a startup company and is also working on a collection of short stories set in foreign places.

She lives in the medieval neighborhood of Trastevere where she works, writes fiction and eats lots of pasta.

d ic k in s on ma g a z i n e Fall 2017

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Carl Socolow ’77

L.L.Bean CEO Steve Smith ’92 + College Bookstore + Outing Club = A MATCH MADE AT DICKINSON

B.

C.

A.

D.

NEW THIS FALL!

Custom Dickinson/L.L.Bean merchandise is available for sale exclusively at the Dickinson College Bookstore!

A. Trail Model Fleece Vest B. Trail Model Fleece Jacket C. Sweater Fleece Pullover

The clothing items include a red Dickinson wordmark and are available in men’s or women’s sizing. Not pictured but also available: Wicked Plush Throw (50"x60", beige with red wordmark)

D. Boat Tote with wordmark (available in black or red)

Outing Club members (from left) Brigette Stickney ’20, Jared Markovsky ’18, Greg Hoffer ’20 (seated), Pema Tashi ’20 and Caroline Clapp ’19 sport their own L.L.Bean gear as well as the new bookstore pieces before heading out for a canoeing trip on the nearby Conodoguinet Creek.

Dickinson.edu/store

P. O . B O X 1 7 7 3 C A R L I S L E , P A 1 7 0 1 3 - 2 8 9 6 PERIODICAL

W W W. D I C K I N S O N . E D U / M A G A Z I N E

P O S TA G E P A I D AT C A R L I S L E , P A AND ADDITIONAL MAILING OFFICE

[

well-stated

]

It falls to us.

The times demand nothing less.

P R E S I DE N T M A R G E E E N S IG N , in a call to educators to provided increased engagement opportunities for students to tackle changing times. Read more at dson.co/ensigncall.

The ship of civility … has not sailed—if you take hold and steward the ship.

PBS host A L E X A N DE R H E F F N E R during Dickinson’s annual Constitution Day Address. Read more at dson.co/heffneraddress.

Joining a protest is only half of the work—using our privilege to benefit those who lack it is just as crucial.

JA C QU E L I N E A M E Z C UA ’ 19 , one of the student organizers of campus events in support of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). Read more at dson.co/dsondaca.

Honestly, without the help of Dickinson faculty, there was no way I’d have ever dreamed of winning this [National Science Foundation] fellowship.

WILL KOCHTITZKY ’16.

Watch a video at dson.co/kochtitzky16.

I think that if the statue of Rush stands for anything, it stands for that: a legacy of intellectual growth, of critique and self-critique, of the pursuit of knowledge and meaning within an institution that understands that pursuit as restless and never-ending.

Being able to see the beauty in each culture and understand how that culture/community works is what makes international studies the epitome of inquiry and global appreciation.

C H R I S T OP H E R J. B I L ODE AU ,

I S I A H G OD OY ’ 2 0 ,

on Page 30.

associate professor of history. Read more

at dson.co/godoy20.

international studies major and ROTC cadet. Read more