Dickinson Magazine: Spring 2015

spring 2015 VOLUME 9 2

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DICKINSON MAGAZINE

SPRING 2015

VOLUME 92

NUMBER 4

[ contents ] Dickinson Published by the Division of Enrollment, Marketing & Communications Executive Director of Marketing & Communications Connie McNamara Editor Michelle Simmons Associate Editor Lauren Davidson College Photographer Carl Socolow ’77 Design Landesberg Design Printer Intelligencer Contributing Writers Matt Getty MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson Tony Moore Grace Fisher ’15 Sasha Shapiro ’15 Magazine Advisory Group Gail Birch Huganir ’80 Donna Hughes Jim Gerencser ’93 David Talton ’07 Marsha M. Ray David Richeson Adrienne Su Website www.dickinson.edu/magazine Email Address dsonmag@dickinson.edu Telephone 717-245-1289 Facebook www.facebook.com/DickinsonMagazine © Dickinson College 2015. 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.

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Printed with soy-based inks.

Please recycle after reading.

16 Ten Inspirations: Everyone has a story about a teacher or professor who inspired them.

But what happens when that inspiration is turned around? Dickinson faculty — veteran and new — share their stories about the collaborative spirit nurtured in the classroom and beyond, leading to new ideas, new research, new world views. 24 The Long Run: Meet national track and field star Champion Goldy ’43 ’43, who’s collecting accolades well into his 10th decade. 28 Crowd Power: Day of Giving puts crowdfunding to work for the Dickinson Fund. 30 Exquisite Corpse: Whether in times of stress or as informal riffs on a theme, these students make art a communal act.

See Web exclusives at www.dickinson.edu/magazine.

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UP FRONT

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Dickinson matters

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your view

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college & west high

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fine print

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kudos

12

in the game

IN BACK

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beyond the limestone walls

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our Dickinson

54 obituaries 56

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ON THE COVER

Illustration by Jason Polan

closing thoughts

[ Dickinson matters ] Partners in learning NANCY A. ROSEMAN, PRESIDENT

O

n any given day across campus, you will find students and faculty engaged in conversation. Whether discussing class material over coffee in The Quarry, wrestling with the complexity of organic chemistry or the cell cycle in front of a whiteboard in Rector or sharing experiences and advice during impromptu advising sessions in Adirondack chairs on the academic quad, these interactions are both ordinary and extraordinary — they are fundamental to the Dickinson experience. We are so proud of our studentfaculty ratio of 9:1 and of a faculty who devote themselves to generation after generation of Dickinsonians.

Our distinguished faculty are scholars, researchers, authors and teachers, but more important, they are mentors, colleagues and partners in what is ultimately a reciprocal experience. During the past five years, more than 350 students have worked directly with faculty on a multitude of research projects. It is a testament to the quality of the research proposals of our faculty that a number of these opportunities

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receive funding from prominent organizations like the National Science Foundation, NASA and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in such a competitive funding environment.

Many more are endowed opportunities funded by generous alumni and friends.

We are proud that innovations within our curriculum encourage collaboration and deep learning between faculty and students. It should come as no surprise that this highly engaged pedagogical approach is as rewarding and inspirational to a faculty member as it is to a student. Nor are opportunities for collaboration any longer confined to the traditional classroom or lab, as many students have found meaningful intellectual and artistic enterprises in some of the farthest corners of the world.

The Global Mosaics program is an illustration of the collaborative and immersive teaching and learning experiences taking place at Dickinson. Based in countries such as Brazil, South Africa and Peru, the programs are unique in their intensity, interdisciplinary reach and engagement in their communities. Faculty members make invaluable connections for students, linking them to subject matter and local experts and showing them how to apply lessons from the field to their everyday lives.

Take Carley Zarzeka ’15, who enrolled in the Norwaybased Global Mosaics program to study sustainable practices in public art. She and six others worked alongside local Norwegian artists, learning how the environment affected art within the community and exploring and making art. From Norway, Carley traveled to Toulouse, France, where, for several weeks, she and 13 fellow students worked, lived, ate and studied alongside their professors.

Most meaningful for Carley were the intentional ways in which the traditional boundaries between student and faculty broke down. While the students were painting or sketching, faculty worked alongside them, pausing to review, reflect and make recommendations on their work. This level of hands-on involvement and mentoring deeply affected Carley, allowing her to be more expressive, confident and mindful of the creative process.

[ your view ]

Will Kochtitzky ’16’s first foray into field research came during his first year, when he traveled to Bolivia to collect soil samples and conduct interviews with farmers for a faculty-led archaeological expedition. Subsequent trips to British Columbia, Greenland and Iceland enabled him to study pillow-lava formations, paleoproterozoic metaphoric rocks and glacial erosion — objects and phenomena that may offer empirical evidence to enhance our knowledge of changes in the Earth’s climate over hundreds of thousands of years.

Last fall, Will enrolled in the Global Climate Change Mosaic and attended the 20th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Peru. While there, he and a fellow classmate initiated a partnership with the Volcano Observatory of Peru in Arequipa for his earth-sciences capstone thesis. Experiential and field-based opportunities with Dickinson faculty also gave him opportunities to work with state-of-the-art equipment in labs on campus, and he believes that he has thrived at Dickinson because of his intellectual partnership and ongoing mentorship with faculty members.

Carley’s and Will’s experiences illustrate the transformative power of what is at the core of our educational model: Dickinson faculty and Dickinson students working closely together, resulting in our students seeing the world, and themselves, in new ways. I’m sure that many of you reading this are reflecting on your own relationships with faculty that have continued to have a positive impact on you.

Ensuring that future generations of Dickinsonians have access to similar opportunities will require the continued support and generosity of the entire Dickinson community.

I hope you are as inspired as I am to make a difference in the lives of our incredible students.

Dissenting Voices I wanted to join Robert Kaplan ’58 in his letter of dissent (winter 2015) to Michael Della Vecchia ’68’s letter (fall 2014) about Chief Justice Roger Taney, class of 1795, and President James Buchanan, class of 1809.

I had just googled Roger Taney and was dismayed to learn this Dickinson graduate had issued the notorious Dred Scott decision.

I also share the belief that Buchanan was at least one of the worst presidents we’ve ever had. At the same time, I was proud and impressed when I read that Judge John E. Jones III ’77, P’11 had graduated from Dickinson. I am sure there are many others with whom I can be proud to share a Dickinson degree, but I do not wish to be tainted with Taney’s and Buchanan’s brush.

ANNE E. PINKERTON ’63

PHOENIXVILLE, PA.

Troubling Ratios The fall 2014 issue extolls the progress Dickinson is making in diversifying its student body.

We find this theme in President Nancy Roseman’s and Dean Joyce Bylander’s articles, as well as in the piece outlining the composition of the class of 2018 comparing it with the class of 2008 (“Finding Future Scholars”). Indeed, there is much to celebrate with the increasing percentages of domestic students of color and international students.

Surprisingly, nowhere in any of these articles is a comment made about the fact that the male / female makeup of the class has swung from a 46/56 ratio in 2008 to what I find to be an astonishing 39/61 ratio in the 2018 class. The magazine does point out the increasing percentage of female high-school seniors applying to college. However, I would think that a fundamental diversity goal of the college would be to have as close to a 50/50 male / female ratio as possible. It would seem the college is going in the opposite direction, and I wonder what the implications of such a skewed population will have on the student experience and on the fabric of the college community as a whole.

Does Dickinson share this concern? If so, I would welcome understanding how the college is developing and implementing strategies to reverse this disturbing trend.

STAN SPRINGEL ’68

DANVILLE, CALIF.

Response by Catherine McDonald Davenport ’87, dean of admissions: Mr. Springel: Thank you for raising this issue, as it is a national trend we are working hard to reverse here at Dickinson. We have implemented numerous strategies to increase male applications, such as increasing our engagement with all-male schools, promoting campus visits that coincide with specific events, reaching out through targeted email messages and highlighting stories about students and alumni that help male students see themselves as part of our community. In our regular focus groups with high-school and first-year students, we discuss what most appeals to males and incorporate these elements into our recruitment materials and new strategies.

The good news is, our efforts are working: This year we saw a 16-percent increase in inquiries and a 10-percent increase in male applicants.

As the mother of three sons and the dean of admissions, I assure you that we are focused on this issue. I also ask for your help. Your Dickinson experience, as well as your subsequent success, provides a powerful marketing tool. I invite you to share your story with young people you know, as well as with their parents. We can all help to ensure that all potential Dickinsonians — male and female — understand the value of our useful liberal-arts education.

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.

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A. Pierce Bounds ’71

Learn more at blogs.dickinson.edu/bluegrass.

[ college & west high ]

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YEARS OF BLUEGRASS ON THE GRASS

n a hot, sticky day in July 2008, having just arrived in Carlisle to start his new job as assistant professor of political science, Andrew Wolff was unpacking with his apartment windows ajar. Thin strands of fiddle and banjo riffs floated in along with the hot summer air.

“There’s bluegrass playing!” Wolff exclaimed. Abandoning the task at hand, he followed the melody until it brought him to Dickinson’s academic quad, where more than 3,000 people were sprawled across the lawn listening to live bluegrass. Children ran through the sea of blankets and tents, dogs retrieved Frisbees and music-lovers nodded to the ballads while nibbling on pizza and hot dogs.

Seven years later, Wolff, as the festival’s assistant director, is helping Bluegrass on the Grass celebrate its 20th anniversary on July 11. Families and enthusiasts from all points north and south make the trek every summer to reunite with friends, relax in the shade and enjoy the festival. “With bluegrass, you really meet friends,” says Wolff. “It’s a really pure music. The themes are something you can relate to, kids can listen to it too, [as well as] grandparents, so there’s a whole range of appeal. It’s a real community event in that way.”

Ryan Sarno ’09, a former WDCV-FM DJ and festival volunteer, agrees. “It is rewarding to dive into bluegrass,” he says. “With deep, familiar traditions, uncomplicated forms, freight-train energy and virtuosic — but contained — improvisation, the music is both accessible and very rich.”

The festival is welcoming back several bands that have been playing since its infancy, such as the Dismembered Tennesseans, who over the years have become known as the “house” band.

“We want some old-timey bands that play the greats like Lester Flatt and Bill Monroe, but we always like to have young up-andcoming bands that stretch the boundary [as well as other bands] that are doing their own albums,” says Wolff.

1996: Davis Tracy’s Country Bob and the Barbeque Boys play on the Weiss Center lawn, and Bluegrass on the Grass is born.

For 20 years, the unofficial house band has been the Dismembered Tennesseans Since 1998 Martin Guitars has donated 15 guitars to the festival.

Along with the festival’s growth, its cuisine has evolved to include authentic Thai food and wood-fired pizza.

The festival’s planning committee is composed of avid bluegrass fans from among Dickinson’s faculty and alumni, as well as bluegrass enthusiasts from within the Carlisle community.

Founder and director Davis Tracy has always believed in creating a way in to the bluegrass genre by honoring past musical traditions and recognizing present talents. The former director of the Counseling Center was known for his popular Friday-afternoon bluegrass show on WDCV-FM. His eclectic line-up included old-time bands that he claims precede traditional bluegrass, as well as bands with electric guitars and drums that push the genre’s boundaries.

And it was through this radio show that Wolff became acquainted with Tracy. “On Friday afternoons I would turn on [the radio] and do my work while listening to bluegrass, so I loved his show,” says Wolff. Tracy also was known around town for music parties that he hosted in a restored barn on his farm outside of Carlisle. Many agree that it was Tracy who turned them onto bluegrass.

“Thanks in large part to Tracy, the Carlisle area is a bit of a bluegrass oasis,” Sarno says. “He brings such energy to the festival and its music.”

Tracy points to ongoing support from the Carlisle and Dickinson communities as a major factor in the festival’s success.

Dickinson originally provided the seed money through its Chautauqua summer music series, as well as facility maintenance and equipment support. Local food vendors, including the College Farm, set up tents along the edge of the quad. Artists showcase their work and enthusiastically share their products with the festival-goers.

“Bluegrass is a folk music, so a gathered community of people is its heart,” Sarno says. “The music is a way for us to participate in the communities that preceded us, a way to receive community and pass it down to the next generation.”— Sasha Shapiro ’15

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[ college & west high ]

[ scene ] campus

making

connections

In January, the Career Center sponsored two networking trips for students — one to New York City and the other to Washington, D.C. (left).

From visiting the NYC offices of The New York Times, Sotheby’s, JP Morgan, NBC Universal and ESPN to meeting Dickinsonians working in the House of Representatives, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of State and the National Gallery of Art, students soaked up the vibrant, professional atmosphere and returned to campus with new connections and solid advice for life beyond the limestone walls.

worthy

Arts Feng Weina kicked off her 2015 Sylvia J. Smith Visiting Artist Residency in the Goodyear ceramics studio, sharing the vision and techniques that distinguish her as a trailblazer in contemporary Chinese art.

Drama A devilish delight warmed up Mathers Theatre in February when faculty, students and alumni teamed up to present a one-nightonly performance of Igor Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale.

Fundraising Dickinson Hillel members joined forces with local Mennonite bakers to raise funds for Challah for Hunger, a national social-justice organization.

Music The Faculty Brass Quintet’s Jan. 27 performance featured staples of brass-quintet literature, including Victor Ewald’s seminal Brass Quintet No. 1.

Congrats to history professor Crystal Moten, one of NerdScholar’s “40 Under 40: Professors Who Inspire.” http://dson.co/moteninspirational

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[ college & west high ] Alumni Global Adventures Ancient Greece: behind the scenes June 17-27

L Events music lecture art dance

APRIL 24

Big Bands and Big Ideas

Rubendall Recital Hall APRIL 24-26

Freshworks: An Evening of Student Choreography

Mathers Theatre APRIL 24-MAY 16

Senior Studio-Art Majors Exhibition

The Trout Gallery

Calendar of Arts: dickinson.edu/coa The Clarke Forum: clarke.dickinson.edu (includes event podcasts)

APRIL 25

Red & White Day APRIL 28

Dickinson College Chamber Music Concert

Rubendall Recital Hall MAY 17

Commencement MAY 22

Ceramic Vessels from Ancient Greece

The Trout Gallery JUNE 12-14

Alumni Weekend JULY 11

Bluegrass on the Grass

worthy An impressive 6,028 applications were received for the class of 2019, making this the secondhighest number of applications received in the college’s history. Admitted students reflect 41 U.S. states and 78 countries. http://dson.co/congrats2019

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egendary home of demi-god Perseus and Homer’s Agamemnon, the great citadel of Mycenae is considered to be one of the world’s most important archaeological sites.

And Dickinson has unique access to it, thanks to an extraordinary partnership with the Athens Archaeological Society and the Institute for Aegean Prehistory.

Join us in June for an 11-day alumni adventure with Ancient Greece experts Christofilis Maggidis and Maria Anastassiathe, where you’ll explore spectacular UNESCO World Heritage sites, go behind the scenes at Mycenae, visit with Dickinson students excavating the site and attend a special reception hosted by President Nancy Roseman. Maggidis is the Christopher Roberts Chair in Archaeology and head of the Dickinson Excavation Project and Archaeological Survey at Mycenae; Anastassiathe teaches Greek language and literature.

Learn more at dickinson.edu/alumnitravel.

Exploring

GRE

EEK

culture

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fine print Lara’s Shadow

By Alan Fleishman ’61 B. Bennett Press This compelling piece of historical fiction tells the love story of a Jewish-American Army officer and a German woman caught in post-Holocaust hate. Like the main character in Lara’s Shadow, author Alan Fleishman ’61 is a Jewish American who served in a tank battalion in Germany at the height of the Cold War. The military tensions with the Soviet Union, and the tensions between the American soldiers and their German hosts, provided grist for an intriguing novel.

Although his new novel is not autobiographical, he drew heavily on his own experiences. And he credits Carla Seybrecht Skladany ’61 and Allan Sidle ’61 for inspiring him to write this, his third novel.

The Brentwood Anthology by Pittsburgh Poetry Exchange Co-edited by Michael Wurster ’62 and Judith Robinson Lummox Press Pittsburgh Poetry Exchange (PPE) was founded in 1974 by Michael Wurster ’62 and four others as a voluntary association of local poets. Its purpose was to provide services to local poets, especially those outside the “university loop,” including workshops, readings, events and a network for information. The Brentwood Anthology is this first collection of works from members of the PPE, including 22 nationally and regionally known poets. It was named “Best Poetry Anthology for November” by the Washington Independent Review of Books.

The Happiest People in the World

By Brock Clarke ’90 Algonquin Books Take the format of a spy thriller, shape it around real-life incidents involving international terrorism, leaven it with dark, dry humor, toss in a love rectangle, give everybody a gun, and let everything play out in the outer reaches of upstate New

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York — there you have an idea of Brock Clarke ’90’s new novel, The Happiest People in the World. The book has received high praise from The New York Times Book Review, Publisher’s Weekly, The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal and more, and was an Amazon Best Book of the Month in November 2014.

The Fragmentary History of Priscus: Attila, the Huns and the Romans, AD 430-476

By John Given ’94 Arx Publishing Translated by classics scholar John Given ’94, associate professor and program director of classical studies and vice chair of the faculty of East Carolina University, this new translation of The Fragmentary History of Priscus arranges the fragments in chronological order, complete with intervening historical commentary to preserve the narrative flow.

It represents the first translation of this important historical source that is easily approachable for both students and general readers.

Kudos

[ college & west high ] Grants Julie Vastine ’03, director of the Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring (ALLARM),

received $353,100 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ALLARM is partnering with the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay (ACB) on their project “Integration of Citizen-based Monitoring and Nontraditional Monitoring Partners into the Chesapeake Bay Program Partnership.”

ALLARM’s role is to help develop monitoring protocols, create quality-assurance project plans, develop monitoring training tools from chemical monitoring to data interpretation workshops and identify and coordinate volunteer monitors and watershed associations in Pennsylvania and the southern tier of New York. ALLARM also received $20,000 from the Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds for its project “Shale-Gas Monitoring Data Portal.” This grant will enable ALLARM to work with CitSci.org to support the development of a shale-gas monitoring data portal that will help volunteer monitors who are collecting and analyzing water-quality data in small streams throughout Pennsylvania’s shale-gas basins. The goal of the data portal is to motivate volunteers to continue monitoring and to make it possible for volunteers to easily manage, visualize, communicate and share data.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Sarah St. Angelo received $1,000 from the American Chemical Society, Division of Chemical Education, Dorothy and Moses Passer Education Grant, to support travel to an IONiC VIPEr workshop on inorganic catalysis to be held at the University of Washington during the summer. This weeklong workshop combines teaching and research activities related to the field of inorganic catalysis.

The Donald B. and Dorothy L. Stabler Foundation awarded Dickinson $520,000 to supplement the college’s existing Donald B. and Dorothy L. Stabler Endowed Scholarship Fund. The fund provides additional tuition assistance to worthy students in support of their pursuit of a Dickinson education.

Publications

Saudi Arabia is often portrayed as a country where religious rules dictate every detail of daily life. Yet everyday life in the kingdom does not entirely conform to dogma. In Islam in Saudi Arabia (Cornell University Press), David Commins, professor of history, challenges the stereotype of Saudi Arabia as a country immune to change, places the Wahhabi movement in the wider context of Islamic history and considers Arabia’s heritage of diversity (where Shi’ite and Sufi tendencies predating the Saudi era survive in the face of discrimination) and the effects of its exposure to Western mores.

Professor of Music Blake Wilson notes several recent publications: “Sound Patrons: the Fifteenth-Century Medici as Patrons of Music,” in The Medici: Citizens and Masters, ed. Robert Black and John Law (2015); “Canterino and Improvvisatore: Oral Poetry and Performance,” chapter in The Cambridge History of Fifteenth-Century Music (2015); “Jannes, Jean Japart, and Florence,” in Firenze e la music: Fonti, protagonisti, commitenza, scritti in ricordo di Maria Adelaide Bartoli Bacherini (2014); “Dominion of the Ear: Singing the Vernacular in Piazza San Martino,” I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance 16 (2013); “Dante’s Forge: Poetic Modeling and Musical Borrowing in late Trecento Florence,” Beyond 50 Years of Ars Nova Studies at Certaldo, 1959-2009, proceedings of the Convegno internazionale di Studi, Certaldo, Palazzo Pretorio, 12-14 June 2009 (2013).

David Jackson, associate professor of physics and astronomy, along with Professor Emerita Priscilla Laws, Kathleen Koenig and Robert Teese, published “Using Research-Based Interactive Video Vignettes to Enhance Outof-Class Learning in Introductory Physics” in The Physics Teacher 53, 114 (2015).

In Living Quarters: Poems (Manic D Press)

by Adrienne Su, associate professor of English and poet-in-residence, Su uses both the structure of a domestic space and the rhythms of the seasons to seek, but not reliably find, order and consolation in life’s seeming disorder. Relationships dissolve;

deaths come too soon; the past vanishes; the earth that gives beautiful and nourishing foods swallows up the creatures for whom it provides. These poems struggle with that mix of affirmation and destruction, celebrating nature’s generosity while trying to make peace with its cruelty.

In the News

Dickinson has partnered with the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) to offer a dual-degree program in international studies, becoming the only liberal-arts college among SAIS undergraduate partner institutions to do so. The new program presents an opportunity for qualifying students to receive a bachelor’s degree from Dickinson and a master’s degree from JHU’s SAIS in five years. Learn more at dson.co/SAISpartner.

Professor of History Karl Qualls discussed claims on Crimea, Putin politics and more with Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty and St. Petersburg News.

Providing analysis on the Paris attacks for a national television viewing audience were Dominique Laurent, associate professor of French, who appeared as a live guest on Fox News, and Jeff McCausland, visiting professor of international studies, who appeared live on CBS News. Kimberly Dozier, the 2014-15 Gen. Omar Bradley Chair in Strategic Leadership, discussed the attacks’ aftermath live on CNN. Associate Professor of Earth Sciences Ben Edwards’ research on lava-flow

interactions in far eastern Russian was published in Nature Communications and written about in New Scientist, Volcano News Today and Yahoo! News.

Ted Merwin, director of the Asbell Center

for Jewish Life and associate professor of religion, discussed the blending of Hanukkah-themed products and Christmas traditions with the Associated Press.

The story ran in The Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle as well as many other newspapers and television websites.

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[ in the game ] The inaugural season of the men’s and women’s varsity squash program brought new excitement to the Kline Center, amid an already strong winter for the basketball, swimming and track and field programs.

Women’s squash

Men’s squash The men’s team started with a bang as well, winning its first intercollegiate match, topping Siena College at the Navy Round Robin. The Red Devils finished 3-14 overall, closing out the season with a win at the CSA Team Championships.

James Rasp

Women’s basketball The women’s basketball team turned in a strong effort in every game under first-year head coach Katherine Bixby. The Red Devils posted a 7-17 record overall and finished 4-14 in the Centennial Conference (CC). Helen Roberts ’17 set a school record for 3-point shooting percentage with a conference best of 47.4 percent.

Men’s basketball Under head coach Alan Seretti, men’s basketball posted a third-straight 20-win season and two CC championships in three years — topping a pair of nationally ranked opponents and earning a third-straight appearance in the NCAA tournament, advancing to the third round. Gerry Wixted ’15 was named the CC Player of the Year, becoming the school’s all-time leading scorer

Christian Payne

The women’s program enjoyed much success, winning a division title at the College Squash Association (CSA) Team Championships. The Red Devils posted a respectable 6-8 record in their first season, winning all three matches of their bracket to claim the E-Division and rank 38th nationally. for both men and women. In addition to being named d3hoops.com’s Player of the Year, he was named All-CC for the fourth time, joining Brandon Angradi ’16 and Ted Hinnenkamp ’16 on the All-CC squad.

Women’s swimming The women’s team had a strong start to the season, opening 5-1 on the way to an 8-5 mark overall, and placed fourth in the team standings at the CC championships. Lindsay Morton ’17 broke the school record in the 100 butterfly while Jacqulyn Teller ’17 took sole possession of the record in the 200 breaststroke, eclipsing the previous mark in both the prelims and the finals. Elizabeth Smith ’18 capped a great rookie season with a school record in the 200 backstroke.

Men’s swimming The men’s swim team had a strong showing at the conference championships as the Red Devils swam to fourth in the team standings.

Mitch Reynolds ’18 broke school records in the 1000 and 1650 freestyle and joined Alex Bennett ’17, Chris Miles ’15 and Alan Karickhoff ’16 in setting a new school mark in the 800 free relay.

Women’s track and field The women’s team captured third at the CC championships. Aphnie Germain ’17 twice broke the school record in the 60 meter dash (8.14), earning a bronze medal while classmate Amanda Jimcosky replaced her own school mark, clearing 1.65m (5’-5”) to win the high jump. Rebecca Race ’16 turned in a great performance to win the 800 meters.

Men’s track and field The men’s team claimed fourth at the conference championships. Mark Manganaro ’16 scored well for the Red Devils, earning silver in the 200 meters, and fourth in the 60 meter dash and the 4x200 relay. Gavin Harter ’17 captured silver to earn All-Conference honors in the shot put. The Red Devils ran well in the distance events, while Russell Rollow ’16 placed fourth in the heptathlon.

— Charlie McGuire, sports information director

Need more Red Devil sports? Check out all the stats, scores, schedules and highlights at www.dickinsonathletics.com.

Information about live streaming and radio broadcasts is available on a game-by-game basis, so check the website regularly or follow @DsonRedDevils on Twitter for the latest updates.

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Analyst in the Infield

Carl Socolow ’77

There’s been influence from baseball, which has taught me a lot about time management and dealing with adversity.

Imagine digging your cleats into the soft infield dirt while contemplating a cost-benefit analysis of diving to snag a line drive. Or settling into the batter’s box while calculating the pitcher’s likelihood of delivering a strike. These are the kinds of things international business & management major and economics minor Steven Haynes ’15 tries not to do.

Haynes readily admits to being prone to overanalyzing. “It does help me in school and with attention to detail,” he says. “It even helps in preparing for baseball — I’ll study the play book and know not only where I have to be on the bunt defenses but where everyone has to be. But when you’re in the game, you don’t want to be thinking too much, because sometimes it’s just reacting, just playing. I definitely get in the way of myself in that sense.”

Yet it’s that self-awareness and ability to think more broadly that made him an ideal candidate for team captain this year. From his infield post, whether at shortstop or second base, this four-year starter can visualize the squad as a whole and calibrate solutions designed for team success.

“The way I see it, it’s doing everything fundamentally sound, not getting swept by any teams in the Centennial Conference,” Haynes explains. “Our preparation has been better this year.

We’re a year older and a year tougher. We returned pretty much everybody from last year minus a few who graduated, but we have guys who are going to fill their shoes.”

Even with his focus on the team, Haynes holds his own on Dickinson’s career rankings list, including two top-10 spots (10th in slugging percentage with .460 and tied for 10th in triples with 5) and 10th (tied) for single-season doubles.

He also is involved with the Student Investment Group (SIG), of which he is co-president this year.

Members work in teams to invest virtual money with mock portfolios and dissect and analyze companies and trends within various financial sectors. SIG members also present their findings to the group, and last year, Haynes designed a new fact-sheet tool that helped to make those presentations more stimulating and useful. Members share their personal expertise, like when Haynes offered insight into the inner workings of hedge-fund management after interning at a hedge-fund firm last summer.

“College has transformed me as a person,” he says of his liberal-arts experience. “There’s been influence from baseball, which has taught me a lot about time management and dealing with adversity.

On the social side, college has helped me branch out and come into myself. Then on the academic side, Dickinson taught me thought processes and different ways to think about things.”

Or not to think, depending on the situation.

— Lauren Davidson

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The men’s basketball team celebrated another magical season, advancing to the Sweet 16 for the second year in a row (See Page 12).

Photo by Ryan Connolly

Ryan Connolly

[ cover ]

inspirations veryone has a story about a teacher or professor who inspired them— whether it was to take an intellectual risk, consider an alternate career trajectory or simply live life more fully. (There’s even an entire genre built around the concept: Think Dead Poets Society Society.) .)

But what we often don’t hear are the stories of students who inspired their teachers— teachers — that the best relationships are reciprocal. Consider, for example, the student-researchers in Associate Professor of Archaeology Christofilis Maggidis’ class, who turned their research upside down when they discovered that pottery that kept falling over was actually designed to hang from the ceiling. In the following vignettes, Dickinson faculty faculty— — both veteran and new new— — share their stories about the collaborative spirit nurtured in the classroom and beyond, leading to those moments of clarity that shine through and illuminate new paths, for them and their students alike. Edited by Michelle Simmons and Lauren Davidson • Illustrations by Jason Polan

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Ashton Nichols

Professor of English and environmental studies; Walter E. Beach ’56 Distinguished Chair in Sustainability Studies

M

y latest student-faculty summer research student, Emily Arndt ’13, brought about a fairly significant change in my own research and writing when she worked with me on my website, Romantic Natural History. Arndt was the second student to work with me on the website; Jennifer Lindbeck ’98 had done so over a decade earlier. It was not until Arndt began her work with me in the summer of 2012 that I realized the full extent of women’s roles in the natural history of this era and their place in my research. Her work led me to appreciate that there were at least four other female literary figures — and natural historians — who deserved a place in our research: Charlotte Smith, Ann Radcliffe, Felicia Hemans and Letitia Landon. Arndt developed four additional Web pages and links, and thus opened up a whole new element of the research I continue to do.

“Learning about the roles female writers played in this literary era and having the opportunity to write about these women for an academic audience was particularly meaningful. I hadn’t known about these women prior to the research project, and they are rarely — if ever — mentioned in literature courses, even though their contributions were tremendous.” Emily Arndt ’13

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Lars English

I

Associate professor of physics

’ve had the good fortune of working with Ritwik Niyogi ’09, a physics and neuroscience double major, and Liam Timms ’13, who ended up majoring in physics and minoring in neuroscience.

Both were instrumental in helping me construct models that represented Hebbian learning in a biologically reasonable, yet mathematically tractable, way. Two co-authored papers (while they were still undergraduate students) resulted from these research experiences, both published in Physical Review E, a premier research journal for nonlinear and statistical physics. Niyogi recently earned his Ph.D. in theoretical neuroscience and machine learning from University College London and is in a postdoctoral program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, while Timms is pursuing his Ph.D. in physics at Northeastern University.

“Lars English was instrumental in me amalgamating my diverse interests. When I was merely 19, he encouraged me: ‘The future is interdisciplinary,’ sagacious words that henceforth became my motto and a successful prediction. It came to define my career, perspectives and aspirations. I also learned to think analytically, precisely and deeply through problems, both scientific and in general.” Ritwik Niyogi ’09

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Melinda Schlitt

Professor of art history; William W. Edel Professor of Humanities

I

n my seminar Michelangelo: Man & Myth, a 200-level course that I’ve been teaching for years now, I’ve had students with no prerequisite and no art history take it. Michelangelo is probably the most studied and published-about artist in the history of art; the bibliography fills two or three volumes now.

One of those publications — part of a series titled Masterpieces of Western Painting by Cambridge University Press — included an essay I had written on The Last Judgment. My work with the students, the questions and conversations that came out of the readings in the seminar led, in large part, to that essay. Those discussions about Michelangelo’s self-portrait in The Last Judgment and how the scholarship had treated it pushed me to think in different ways about it. This is an area I’ve worked in for decades and I’ve published two pretty lengthy essays on Michelangelo, but the students ask questions and often bring a different critical view to the material that I haven’t thought of.

That’s why I love teaching this class — not only because the material is inexhaustible and fascinating, but also because I get a fresh group of minds every time.

Jorge Sagastume

Associate professor of Spanish

R

esearch cannot exist without teaching: My senior seminar Reading Theatre: The Contemporary Spanish American Drama resulted in my book Responsabilidad ética en la lectura del texto teatral; two articles, “La traducción como espacio público en El Quijote: Cervantes, Borges, Menard, y los otros traductores” and “ ‘El inmortal’ de Jorge Luis Borges: el yo, infinitos, absolutos y vocabularios finales,” came from a senior seminar titled Borges and Translation; two other essays “El secreto de los flamencos: Jorge Luis Borges, Federico Andahazi, y el cuestionamiento de los sistemas epistémicos” and “El secreto de los flamencos: Andahazi, Borges y las matemáticas” emerged from two courses: a First-Year Seminar, Borges and Mathematics, and a topics course cross-listed with Judaic studies titled Understanding the Aleph: Borges and the Hypothesis of the Continuum. The latter also motivated student Ruth Dicker ’10 to write an honors thesis on Borges, which in turn allowed her to gain acceptance into the master’s program at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

In each course I teach I come to the classroom with a specific idea in mind; however, by the end of the semester these ideas are reshaped and end up as publications that would be significantly different if my students were not to respond critically to my thoughts.

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Neil Leary

I

Director of the Center for Sustainability Education

n 2013-14 I supervised Elizabeth de la Reguera ’14’s senior research. She was calculating Dickinson’s nitrogen footprint, an outgrowth of her semester at the Marine Biology Lab (MBL) with James Galloway of the University of Virginia (U.Va.). Galloway had co-developed a methodology and spreadsheet tool for calculating institutions’ nitrogen footprints, and de la Reguera initiated the project for Dickinson when she returned from the MBL. Following de la Reguera’s honors thesis defense in environmental studies, Galloway invited Dickinson to join U.Va. in a multiinstitutional project on nitrogen footprints. We’re in the first year of a three-year collaboration with U.Va., as well as participating institutions Brown, Colorado State and Eastern Mennonite universities, the University of New Hampshore and the MBL. De la Reguera now works for MBL as a research assistant.

“To be able to say I was a senior in college, with advising from three mentors, and to be able to produce an entire footprint for the college, working by myself, is amazing.” Elizabeth de la Reguera ’14

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Amy Wlodarski

Associate professor of music

I Marcus Key

Joseph Priestley Professor of Natural Philosophy

S

teven Lev ’92 was working with me on a project trying to quantify the rate of growth in trepostome bryozoans, fossil marine colonial animals that grow like coral. We used a technique applied to trees of counting and measuring tree ring widths. Lev was working in my lab, on my research project, like a lot of my other students have, when he came up with his own idea to test a related but different hypothesis. He applied a concept he had learned in one of my classes to correlate growth rates: For example, do all the trees in the Cumberland Valley show the same response to a severe drought? His theory was that we could ask the same question of fossil bryozoan colonies that co-existed in one place. The result of his research was his first publication, which we co-authored, in Journal of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science. Lev went on to earn his master’s at the University of Cincinnati and his Ph.D. at SUNY-Stony Brook. He is on the research staff at the Science and Technology Policy Institute.

was teaching Different Trains, the Holocaust-inspired work for string quartet and tape by composer Steve Reich, in my introductory music class. The piece features sampled voices of Holocaust survivors, and after class one day, a group of students asked if they could learn more about the survivors. As I researched and dug deeper into the survivors’ stories, I discovered that Reich had misheard two key portions of their testimonies that ultimately changed both their stories and the tone of the musical work. I eventually authored an article for the Journal for the American Musicological Society that details the lives of the survivors and explores the ethical and aesthetic consequences of Reich’s mistakes.

The article garnered a national scholarship award and prompted Carnegie Hall to reconsider which libretto they should use for a performance of Different Trains.

I never would have delved into the survivor testimonies if my students hadn’t asked the question, one that I (and other musicologists) had never considered. Their question reminded me of the human lives at the center of the work and the dangers of aesthetic representations of the Holocaust, especially those that appropriate the voices of others in the name of art. I am grateful to have taught them … and in my very first year as a professor at Dickinson.

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Carol Ann Johnston

Professor of English; Martha Porter Sellers Chair of Rhetoric and the English Language

E

arly in my career here I was writing a book on the Mississippi writer Eudora Welty. My Dana intern, Emily Wylie ’94, helped me on the project in immeasurable ways. I talked through ideas on Welty’s short stories with Wylie for the better part of two years.

In addition to being my intern, she wrote her honors thesis in English on Welty. The specific difference she made in the work, however, is that she very earnestly wanted to go to Jackson to visit Ms. Welty. I was far more shy about doing this but was reluctant to “let down” Emily. So we did, in fact, go to Jackson, Miss., and we did spend an amazing afternoon with Welty. Without Wylie’s desire and perseverance, that would not have happened. The trip was her first time in the Deep South, and seeing the culture through her eyes opened my eyes to several things: the nature of my own experience as a southerner at Harvard University, how Welty must have felt going to Harvard to give a series of lectures (which I had the amazing pleasure of hearing), and how different Southern culture really is from that of the Northeast.

My 2003 essay, “‘The treasure most dearly regarded by me’: Eudora Welty’s Massey Lectures in the History of American Civilization,” couldn’t have been written without having gone to Jackson with Wylie.

“Working with Johnston on her Welty project was the defining experience of my academic life. The work uncovered and exercised abilities I didn’t know I had, filled in and reformed deficits, grew me up all over.” Emily Wylie ’94

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Nicola Tynan

Associate professor of economics

W

Amy Farrell

Professor of American studies and women’s & gender studies; John J. Curley ’60 and Ann Conser Curley ’63 Faculty Chair in the Liberal Arts

A

s I was finishing my first book, Yours in Sisterhood: Ms. Magazine and the Politics of Popular Feminism, I was casting about for a new research project. I regularly taught Joan Brumberg’s history of anorexia, Fasting Girls, in my Introduction to Women’s Studies course. My students loved it, and we talked deeply and in complex ways about eating disorders, dieting and the imperative to be thin. Those discussions — as well as Brumberg’s statement that there wasn’t a thorough history of dieting in the U.S.— made me start thinking about dieting for a second project.

The project changed shape — it turns out there was a good history of dieting — and I also decided that I was more interested in the history of fat than in the history of thin.

Throughout all the permutations of my research until the final product, Fat Shame: Stigma and the Fat Body in American Culture, it was student inquiry and enthusiasm that kept me focused on what turned out to be a 10-year research project.

hen GIS Specialist Jim Ciarrocca put me in touch with archaeology and anthropology double-major Tessa Cicak ’13, I was just looking for a student to help me create maps to better illustrate my economic history research. Every time I presented to an audience, usually economists who aren’t familiar with London, they struggled to envision overlapping water-supply networks. They would say, “If only we had a map!” At the time, I did not have coordinate information, just names of sub-districts. You can look at numbers in a spreadsheet, but it’s very hard to get a sense of what that really means just looking at the data. The map allows you to see that connection between the data and the geographic location. As Cicak worked, we developed a larger mapping project, which traces John Snow’s epidemiological study of the 1854 cholera epidemic in London. The London Metropolitan Archives liked one map so much that they asked if they could give it out to researchers coming to the library, and our resulting article, “Mapping London’s Water Companies and Cholera Deaths,” which was accepted without revisions (a rare occurrence) by The London Journal, was published in March. Cicak is now pursuing a Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Minnesota.

Hear more from alumni about these inspirational experiences and how they influenced their career path at dickinson.edu/magazine.

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[ profile ]

Whether he stands in the ethereal light of a church pulpit or is poised at the top of the discus circle at a track meet, Rev. Champion Goldy ’43’s joie de vivre glows. Talk to him once and he remembers your name, uses it while you chat and when you say goodbye. He is always thoughtfully dressed, and he combs his hair in style to complement a snowy, fashionable goatee.

Sometimes he wears a suit jacket and a large silver cross, and other times, he sports gold medals and Lycra.

At age 98, Goldy shows no sign of slowing down. In July 2014, he made national headlines when he competed in the USA Track and Field Masters Outdoor Championships in Winston-Salem, N.C. He and four other men from across the U.S.— all of them over 90 — set world records in the 4x100-meter (2 minutes 22.37 seconds), the 4x400 (12:41.69) and the 4x800 (28:17.10) that day. Goldy, the oldest in the group, brought home six medals.

According to the 2014 USA Track and Field Masters Rankings, Goldy is ranked first in the world for the 3-kg shot put and the 12-pound weight throw. He holds the second spot in the world for the discus, the javelin and the 60-meter dash. In several events, he holds first place in the U.S., having outscored the two other athletes in his age group: a centenarian and a 99-year-old.

Answering a call

Born in Bunker Hill, N.J., Goldy grew up on a farm with his mother and father, two sisters, four horses, 10 acres of apple orchards and 90 acres of other crops.

Goldy worked on the farm throughout his high-school years, including delivering milk to his neighbors at 4 a.m. every day. After high school, he continued to help with the farm. “I drove a produce truck to North and

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South Carolina with my cousin,” he recalls. “We also delivered asparagus, tomatoes, potatoes and corn to Campbell’s Soup in 1937.”

Goldy recalls two specific events that brought him to Dickinson, the first from a United Methodist Church (UMC) summer-camp experience at the Pennington Institute in Pennington, N.J., when he was 15. On the last night of camp, everyone was told to pray “to see how the Lord could use you to do His work,” while the last log burned on the fire. His early conversations with God about the ministry began in front of that fire.

His second revelation happened in August 1938. At 20 years old, he had decided to become a diesel mechanic and was already enrolled at Drexel University. The family farm was struggling financially. He tells a story that his daughter, Susan Goldy ’75, remembers clearly: “He went into the woods on his farm to chop firewood, and he felt that God spoke to him and called him to the ministry,” she says. “I was always impressed with just how quickly all the pieces fell into place for him after that moment.”

A day later, Goldy met with his pastor and enrolled at Pennington to complete college preparatory credits, with plans to attend Dickinson in the fall of 1939 and apply to seminary. He would be 22 years old.

Odd jobs and long drives

His Dickinson story from that point on is a virtual tour of the influential people for whom several of today’s buildings are named. At the time, the college was still affiliated with the UMC: Rev. Fred Pierce Corson, class of 1917, was the college president, and Boyd Lee Spahr was the chair of the Board of Trustees. Goldy’s academic advisor was Ben James ’34. Nearly 30 years later, Susan, a psychology major, also would have James as her advisor.

During Goldy’s time in Carlisle, he played the trombone in the marching band and the orchestra. He played baseball for one season but

David Howarth Photography

Champion Goldy ’43’s Dickinson experience puts him on the right track.

By Julie Dengler ’93

Julie Dengler ’93

At the time, the freshman dorms had an 8 p.m. curfew. None of the guys could go out after that, and they would be hungry, so I would make 30 to 40 sandwiches a night and sell them with candy and crackers.

says, “I had to work to be able to stay, so I couldn’t continue with baseball. I mowed lawns, did odd jobs.” Corson gave Goldy opportunities to raise tuition money. “At the time, the freshman dorms had an 8 p.m. curfew. None of the guys could go out after that, and they would be hungry, so I would make 30 to 40 sandwiches a night and sell them with candy and crackers,” he recalls with a chuckle.

“There were times when I was down to my last postage stamp, and someone would mail me a dollar to keep going. I would hand-copy music for Professor [Ralph] Schlecter in the music department for 35 cents an hour.”

Not long after graduation, Goldy married his hometown sweetheart, Audrey Holler, and was assigned to two New Jersey churches as an acting pastor. Weekends were spent away from Carlisle, preaching up to five sermons each Sunday in four different churches and driving hours in each direction to do so.

A second act

By the time Goldy retired at age 70, he had served as a district superintendent of the UMC’s Central District in New Jersey and pastor to thousands over his 43 years of service, and he continues to guest-preach when the opportunity arises. His first wife, Audrey, passed away in 1997. He remarried in 2000 and lives in Haddonfield today with his wife, Evelyn Toler. He has two adult children, Champion Jr. and Susan.

But it wasn’t until his retirement that his interest in competitive track and field began. Aside from his long-standing goal “to run the 100-meter dash at 100,” much of Goldy’s motivation to train and stay healthy is rooted in his faith and a commitment to be ready for whatever opportunity might come along — including stints as a model and actor in films, television and on stage, landing appearances in the films A Beautiful Mind and Emmetts Mark and in a television episode of Forensic Files.

“I was always physically active in all of the churches I was assigned,” he says. “Keeping physically fit is important. How am I going to do things I want to do if I don’t?”

Julie Dengler ’93 majored in English and religion at Dickinson, and played field hockey, taught Slimnastics and served as a resident advisor and a senior resident advisor. After graduation, she worked for the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies in Personal Lines and Operations for 10 years.

She is married with two children and a boxer named Elvis. Dengler now lives in Haddon Township, N.J., and is freelance writer and photographer. She met Goldy during his tenure as pastor of visitation at Haddonfield United Methodist Church in 1997 and continues to sit within five pews of him most Sundays.

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[ alumni ]

( There’s no place like home. )

E

very June, Dickinson welcomes you to Carlisle for a special weekend. A weekend of stimulating conversation and entertaining events. A weekend of reconnecting with classmates, teammates and roommates. A weekend to make new friends. It’s a weekend to celebrate everything we share as Dickinsonians. We look forward to welcoming you back to Carlisle on June 12-14, 2015.

Learn more at dickinson.edu/alumniweekend.

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Dickinson Fund gifts can work together to make a big impact

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$100

$75

$50

Gifts of $100 from just 85 alumni could upgrade a standard classroom to a smart one equipped with the latest teaching technology and interactive multimedia tools.

Gifts of $75 from 420 alumni could pay for the average firstyear financial-aid package that bridges the gap between a student’s being able to afford Dickinson and the college being financially out of reach.

Gifts of $50 from 500 alumni could fund the Research & Development Office’s annual studentresearch budget, supporting studentfaculty research projects exploring

< $50 the impact of ocean acidification, developing digital tools for ancient Greek texts and investigating stressinducing molecules that could one day lead to cures for cancer.

Gifts under $50 from roughly 1,000 alumni could fund nearly half of the First-Year Mentor program.

Jud Guitteau

Day of Giving puts crowdfunding to work for Dickinson.

By Matt Getty

Last summer more than 1 million people poured ice water over their heads, recorded it and posted the videos online. Such was the power of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, a fundraising campaign that — in addition to flooding your Facebook feed with dozens of soaking-wet, shivering friends — generated more than $22 million in donations for the ALS Association and put the concept of crowdfunding securely into the mainstream.

Though this phenomenon of tapping large numbers of people for support may have only recently made headlines through the Ice Bucket Challenge and popular websites like Kickstarter, it’s nothing new at Dickinson.

“Crowdfunding is what the Dickinson Fund has been doing for years,” says Marsha Ray, vice president for college advancement. “Our cause is Dickinson’s mission of preparing students to

Beyond its overall goals, the Day of Giving will feature challenges throughout the day.

On campus, the new Devils’ Advocates Student Philanthropy Council will be encouraging current Dickinsonians to contribute toward the day’s 650-donor goal through a live WDCV-FM broadcast, by asking students to fill out “Things I love about Dickinson …” door hangers, and by giving student donors the opportunity contribute their handprints to a banner that will hang on Britton Plaza.

“Supporting the Dickinson Fund is also a way for alumni to stay connected with the college in a meaningful way,” says Minardi. “Their gift keeps them connected to the faculty and the organizations that defined their Dickinson experience.”

One key difference between the Dickinson Fund and most crowdfunding initiatives, however,

become leaders, and the Dickinson Fund supports that through the collective energy of our crowd — the Dickinson community.”

Through the Dickinson Fund, gifts ranging from $50 to $5,000 from nearly 10,000 alumni, parents and friends of the college account for roughly $5 million of the college’s budget each year. And on April 21, Dickinson will hold its first Day of Giving, an event that focuses this crowd power on a single day. With a goal of rallying 650 Dickinson Fund donors in just 24 hours, the Day of Giving takes the concept of crowdfunding to the extreme — without asking you to douse yourself with ice-water, that is.

“The Day of Giving is about highlighting how gifts of any size can make a big impact,” says Coco Minardi, associate vice president for alumni engagement & the Dickinson Fund. “Bringing Dickinsonians together to support the college on a single day underscores the power we have when this community comes together.”

is that unlike the latest design for a 3-D printing pen on Kickstarter, Dickinson’s mission is never complete. Accordingly, even though the Day of Giving focuses on a 24-hour period, the goal of the Dickinson Fund is to build connections between the college and its donors that last 365 days of the year and beyond.

“At its core, the Dickinson Fund is about relationship building, and this is how it’s different from most crowdfunding campaigns,” says Ray. “Crowdfunded projects set a goal, supporters donate money, and when the projects reach their goal, the process ends. At Dickinson, our mission never ends. It continues and moves forward with every new class we admit. So when our supporters make a gift through the Dickinson Fund, that’s just the first step in building a relationship that we hope lasts long into the future.”

To learn more about the Day of Giving and the Dickinson Fund, visit dickinson.edu/dayofgiving.

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corpse

exquisite

Whether in times of stress or as informal riffs on a theme, these students make art a communal act. By Ben West â&#x20AC;&#x2122;14. Photography by Carl Socolow â&#x20AC;&#x2122;77

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31

>

> Fabian Hernandez ’15:

Sasha Shapiro ’15:

I’ve always tried to keep to myself and try to create something that’s raw and that’s from me.

You start off with an idea, and it’s starting to look like the idea you have in your head, but then you completely mess it up. That’s a very interesting time in the drawing process.

Sasha Shapiro ’15

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Y

ou’ve seen them, and you know who they are.

They just seem to exude cool. You’ll find them gathering in improvised and off-the-grid creative spaces, whether it be in their own apartments or in classrooms after dark. And if you’ve ever wondered how they manage to carry an impressive, rigorous course load, yet still find time to make art on the side, for fun, you could do worse than ask Americanstudies major Fabian Hernandez ’15.

Or Sasha Shapiro ’15, a philosophy and Russian-studies double major who met Hernandez, a fellow Californian, when they were first-year students and began drawing together in their residence hall. Or any of this informal constellation of artists — to a great degree, orbiting Hernandez — including Cassie Lier ’15, Brittany Barker ’15, Martin Alvarez ’15, Edwin Padilla ’16 and Alejandro Heredia ’16.

“I’ve always been keen to my experiences, and I’ve always felt the need to tell a story or just tell people about it,” says Hernandez. “Honestly, all of this art stuff is about me — it’s for me.”

And while Hernandez’s work is itself part of a much larger oeuvre (he has been creating since he was 14) the pieces have roommates and acquaintances all over campus, produced by friends —themselves often poets, illustrators, musicians and writers.

Their collaboration is symptomatic of a burgeoning collective spirit on campus — an activity of creation and self-exploration and a shadow curriculum that provides an education built from an eclectic combination of classes, personal challenges and new experiences. In February, Dickinson Magazine had the good fortune to illustrate their process in the following photo essay — sketching, playing, riffing, creating in Goodyear’s life studio.

Of the group, Lier is the only studio-art major. She originally came to Dickinson to pursue a business-oriented degree, much as she had in France, where she grew up. “I took a sculpture class my sophomore year, and I loved being in that environment where you’re doing things with your hands,” she says. Leaving behind margins and numbers, Lier immersed herself in a world of colors and lines, cramming art classes into her schedule.

“It was just a wave of art,” she recalls.

For Padilla, a music and computer-science double major, one particular collaboration with Hernandez and Barker last spring stays in his mind. The premise was simple, but the execution challenging: While Padilla played his sax, Barker and Hernandez would midwife sibling works in their own media. None of them had ever worked in this way before.

“It was very new for me,” recalls Barker, an English major and founder of Exiled, Dickinson’s spoken-word poetry group. “I had never written to music. I was being influenced by whatever note he was hitting on the saxophone, and I was looking at his face and thinking, ‘What does this mean?’ ” Padilla and his saxophone appear at dozens of gigs per semester, either playing solo or as a member of four bands. He prefers the avantgarde and has been known to rile otherwise mellow audiences at open mics with his jarring solos, the kind critics in the 1960s labeled as “anti-jazz.”

“I fight every day for jazz,” he says. “Most of the time musicians play for that one-out-of-10 times when you feel like you’re not on earth. And it happens for about 20 seconds, so you can’t really enjoy it for long, but you’ll enjoy it enough.”

Barker, who came to Dickinson already a nationally recognized spoken-word poet — taking second place at the 2012 Nicks Poetry Slam in New York City — carries a personal notebook everywhere she goes, sometimes stopping mid-conversation to jot down a thought.

“I started writing for myself, but I noticed that the more personal I get, the more universal it is for the people who hear my work,” she says.

“It’s something that I know I won’t ever stop doing unless I lose my hands, and then I might try to find a recorder or something.”

Hernandez is now deep into his senior project, guided by the work of scholars such as Gloria Anzaldua, whose semi-autobiographical accounts of race, gender and nationality Hernandez seeks to replicate, and Anthony Cervino, associate professor of art & art history and Hernandez’s advisor. Cervino comments on the density of lectures, exhibitions, studio spaces and artist visits in what should be a comparatively small arts community, all the while noting that most of his students, like Hernandez, are not majoring in studio art.

Nevertheless, Hernandez’s project is ambitious: a several-thousand mile trip to northern Mexico, where is he documenting and cataloguing the spectra of race and color. It’s an attitude that fits him well — whether it’s a scholarly or creative act, and often a combination of both.

“I don’t make mistakes,” he says. “I adapt that ‘mistake’ into what it’s supposed to be, into the finished product. Say that a droplet of ink falls where I don’t want it to. Then I’m like, ‘maybe that’s where it goes. Maybe that was part of the process.’ ” > Sasha Shapiro ’15 contributed to this story.

Watch the artists at work and hear more about their process at dickinson.edu/magazine.

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< Cassie Lier ’15:

I love being around that environment where you’re doing things with your hands.

> Alejandro Heredia ’16:

>

Collaborating is as I think art should be: communal, inspiring, freeing. When I write in a room with other artists, or when I share my work with others, I feel a sense of purpose. Yes, this art is for my own liberation, but how does my presence, or the presence of my art, affect another’s experience? I think about that a lot.

I want to leave my fingerprints behind, and I feel like I just write for me and everything around me, and everyone around me.

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>

Brittany Barker ’15:

Martin Alvarez ’15

Because of my definition and the meaning that art holds for me, collaboration with other artists becomes a means of challenging not only your style but your whole relationship with art. It’s in these spaces that I think we can really grow and develop new means of understanding art.

< Edwin Padilla ’16

There are a lot of different aspects of jazz. It’s not all upbeat swing music. That’s like saying popular music is just Lady Gaga.

Everybody knows it’s not. So why doesn’t everybody know that jazz is not just an upbeat tempo?

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[ beyond the limestone walls ]

Renewing our pride TY SAINI ’93, ALUMNI COUNCIL PRESIDENT

Rereading emails and minutes from committee meetings reminded me that we — as the Alumni Council — are making progress, but we are not where we and the college need us to be. There is no finish line, and we should take pride in what each of us has given back to the Dickinson community. With this in mind and as I look forward to the council’s next leadership team, here are my hopes for the Dickinson alumni community:

Carl Socolow ’77

1. That we continue to feel and demonstrate our pride in our alma mater. Is it wrong to brag (in a sophisticated way)?

Can you find a creative way to put Dickinson in front of others around you? I know you will be surprised by the positive impact it can have. Once you find that way, share it with other alums so we can learn from you.

A

s I conclude my tenure with the Alumni Council, I’ve begun to clean up and organize my paperwork and email, which has easily accumulated over the eight years I have served. Aside from being surprised by the volume, I decided to look through what I had saved — because there had to be a good reason to do so.

Among several things, I found some ideas and suggestions that the council has not pursued to completion.

Many of these contributions are still relevant today and likely will be tomorrow as well. What does this mean? Unfinished business? Loose ends that need resolution? An opportunity to be more of who we say we are? As someone who enjoys volunteering for several organizations, I know how important it is to recognize, honor and respect all of the work and time others have put in to identify and solve issues and challenges that need our attention.

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2. That we commit our time to learn more about Dickinson today. Great things are happening on campus and around the world, and we need to keep up with them. Consider participating in a live-stream or regional event such as One College One Community or watching one of our teams play in a conference championship.

I have been very fortunate to meet and work with alumni that I never would have been given the chance to, had it not been for the Alumni Council and the college’s willingness to support the organization.

3. That we support current students who need and deserve our attention. You will have fun doing this and easily will become energized as a result. Volunteer to mentor a FIG (First-Year Interest Group). Even if you are many miles away, you can have a positive and powerful impact on a first-year student.

4. That we stay in touch with our collegeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s administration.

Effective communication is essential to any relationship, and our college needs to know about the great work and success our alumni have achieved.

5. That we continue to provide financial support. Consider getting together with fellow classmates, sorority sisters, fraternity brothers or members of an organization you participated in as a student, and help underwrite or sponsor an aspect of Dickinson that resonates with you.

Find a way to sustain one facet of the Dickinson experience for others.

I have been very fortunate to meet and work with alumni that I never would have been given the chance to, had it not been for the Alumni Council and the collegeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s willingness to support the organization. My fellow council members have overwhelmed me with their intellect, abilities, accomplishments, willingness to serve and genuine friendship. I have many great memories of the hard work and fun times but, most of all, I will take away a renewed and strengthened pride in having graduated from Dickinson. I hope you will too.

Red, white

& you!

Show your Dickinson pride at the second annual Red & White Day, Saturday, April 25!

Find out more at dickinson.edu/redandwhite.

37

[ closing thoughts ]

Je suis …

I

’m in Paris on average once a week. I have a bicycle there, an old rusty 10-speed locked up on the street. So I get around, and I’ve come to know the city well — its streets, its parks, its people. Like most Americans, on Jan. 7, I woke up to the news of the massacre at the Charlie Hebdo office. “Breaking News,” “Developing Story,” “Paris Under Siege.” U.S. news agencies in overdrive. I spent way too much time watching the images of this murderous attack and brazen getaway. The on-air mention of Boulevard Richard Lenoir, Porte de Vincennes and Montrouge: It all touched a nerve.

By the next day the killers were killed, having left 20 Parisians dead and 11 badly wounded. I emailed several different people I’ve befriended in Paris, expressing my empathy.

To a person, they responded with heartfelt gratitude.

This ordeal has been big in Paris. The residents are shaken; they’re moved.

My first trip to Paris after the attacks was a Sundaymorning arrival on Jan. 11 — the day of the Unity Rally. Despite warnings from my employer and wife to stay away from large gatherings and demonstrations, I was going. We arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport, where the normally cheery agents and mechanics were quiet and sober.

On the way to the hotel, passing the Porte de Vincennes, our Senegalese driver made an announcement of sorts in his broken English, saying that we were “passing within a few blocks of the Hyper Cacher market, where four hostages were killed. Rest in peace.” Upon arrival at the hotel, I thanked him, in my broken French, for pointing it out to us.

After a nap, I turned on the TV to see François Hollande, Angela Merkel, Benjamin Netanyahu, Mahmoud Abbas and others assembling

to lead the walk. Once they started, I bicycled the 20 minutes over to Boulevard Voltaire and was able to lock my bike within a couple blocks of the march.

Wherever I went, sidewalks were full of people; kids, teens, parents, grandparents, many clutching pens or pencils as a form of protest, and many holding placards. So many sad and resolute faces. There were as many people standing along the sidewalks as there were walking in protest. I did both — I somehow felt that I should walk too, partly to get the vibe but also to show my support.

The rally was incredible. Enormous but calm, peaceful and quite serious. Some counts say as many as 2 million people participated.

The outrage has several components: the free-speech element, the fundamentalist vs. mainstream Islam element and, of course, the Muslim/ Jewish element. The biggest story seems to be the free speech one — Je suis Charlie. But I also saw quite a few people (many of them Muslim) who had placards reading Je suis juif. Others proclaimed Je suis Ahmed — the Muslim policeman shot and killed trying to defend the office of Charlie Hebdo. It’s a complex message, but each and every one was a cry for more tolerance.

Later, in the media, it was heartening to hear imams speaking out against the killings and disassociating Islam from extremism.

That evening I went to a couple familiar watering holes with my copilot, where everyone was pretty somber but still eager to talk, with even a hint of optimism. After such a massive outpouring, there was a real sense that this could be a turning point — that perhaps the world will come together to realize the futility of violence. Perhaps.

Roger Harris ’77 studied contemporary Latin American literature, mostly with Professor Arturo Fox, and earned a B.A. in Spanish with a certificate in Latin American studies. After Dickinson he learned to f ly airplanes and is now in his 30th year at American Airlines.

d i ck i n s o n ma gazi ne Spring 2015

56

Illustration: typostrate.com

BY ROGER HARRIS ’77

World View

A Celebration of Global Studies

Join us Oct. 16 & 17 in Washington, D.C., as we celebrate 50 years of global education at Dickinson!

Learn more at dickinson.edu/globalstudiesreunion.

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

]

I promised myself that I would absolutely not work for something that I did not believe in.

I want to wake up every day loving what I do.

ADAM SPIEGEL ’06

in “An Old World Approach to New World Whiskey,” The San Francisco Examiner. Read more at dson.co/spiegel06.

When you’re walking in and becoming a Dickinsonian, you’re embracing a certain type of community, passion and engagement that you’re not going to find on many college campuses.

M IC H A E L M E Y E R S ’ 1 4 , “Spaces We Love: Limestone Gates.” Watch at dickinson.edu/spaces-we-love.

Talking about literature with Carol Ann Johnston was exhilarating to me in a kind of water-skiing / famous-painting-seeing / meetingyour-idol kind of way.

E M I LY W Y L I E ’ 9 4 .

Learn more in “10 Inspirations” (Page 16).

AS A KID, I WANTED TO BE AN ENGINEER. I STILL WANT TO SOLVE PROBLEMS — NOW I JUST KNOW THAT I WANT TO SOLVE SOCIAL

PROBLEMS, AND ON A GLOBAL SCALE. KEZIAH GROTH-TUFT ’17.

Read more at dson.co/keziah17.

Freedom of the press and freedom of expression is something we sometimes take for granted in the United States. For the French, their democracy is much more fragile, and the press is one of the defenders of that democracy.

Associate Professor of French D OM I N IQU E

L AU R E N T

on the French press in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks.Watch at dson.co/laurentfrenchpress.