Colby Magazine

Paradox or Paragon?

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 04:00:00 UTC

Boylan memoir about parenting is a new and powerful love story

The Birth of His Nation

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 04:00:00 UTC

Former refugee Charles Data returns home to take part in the rise of South Sudan

Adams Announces Plans to Retire; Search for Successor Begins

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 04:00:00 UTC

President William D. Adams will retire in June 2014. President William D. Adams announced in January that he will retire in June 2014. The news set in motion the process of selecting Colby’s 20th president. Adams, president since 2000, guided the College through many significant changes and milestones. He has overseen the growth of the academic program, most notably in the areas of environmental studies and the visual arts. Adams also oversaw the founding of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement and a new center for the arts and humanities. He led a $376-million capital campaign, the largest in Maine history, which included numerous building projects, the College’s expansion on the Colby Green, and the gift of the Lunder Collection of American Art. “I am honored to have had the opportunity to lead such a remarkable place,” Adams said. Adams, however, stressed that he has three more semesters in the job and much left to accomplish in support of Colby’s mission. “This is not the time for a valedictory note,” he said, in a message to alumni. Some of the unfinished business, he said, includes the College’s bicentennial celebration and completion of Colby’s 2013 strategic initiatives. “We’ve got a lot to do and a lot I want to accomplish in my remaining time here,” he told a staff gathering in February. “We’ve got a lot to do and a lot I want to accomplish in my remaining time here.” President William D. Adams Running parallel to Adams’s work in the coming 15 months will be the search for his successor. A presidential search committee, which first met in January, is headed by Trustee Emeritus Michael L. Gordon ’66. The 19-member committee includes nine trustees, five faculty members, an administrative representative, the head of the Alumni Council, two students, and Gordon. According to Sally Baker, vice president and secretary of the corporation, it is customary to have a new president in place six months before the preceding president steps down. Baker said the Colby community will be asked to participate in the process in open forums on campus and via electronic forums. Updates on the search committee’s progress will come periodically from Gordon, she said. “One of my tasks is to ensure that the committee gathers—and considers thoughtfully—the views of those who work and study at Colby and of those with other connections to the College,” Gordon said, in a statement on the presidential search page on the Colby website. The process, he said, “embraces every constituency in our community.” While Adams will remain president until the end of the 2013-2014 academic year, he plans to take a sabbatical this summer, he reported at the staff gathering in February. Adams, who holds a doctorate in political philosophy from the University of California at Santa Cruz, said he plans to spend the summer in France doing research for a book project. He described the book as “part memoir, part travel narrative, part intellectual history,” prompted by and organized around the French philosopher on whom he wrote his dissertation, Maurice Merleau-Ponty. One part of the project, Adams said, was prompted by his experience at Colby, specifically with the Colby Museum of Art. He has spent time thinking about painting, and Merleau-Ponty was interested in art, especially the work of Cézanne. Asked by Tony Marin, a plumber in the Physical Plant Department, to explain the premise of the book he is taking time off to write, Adams smiled and said he wasn’t sure he was taking time off, but rather, was exploring a long-held interest in Merleau-Ponty. “I want to revisit that interest,” he said, “but in a very friendly and not precisely academic way.\"

They Can Play

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 04:00:00 UTC

At Colby, gay athletes are coming out—and helping to change the campus culture. Some, like champion sprinter Dominique Kone ’13, say the decision to be honest about their sexuality has made them better athletes.

In Their Footsteps, 1864-1913

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 04:00:00 UTC

Waterville College. Colby University. Colby College. The 50-year period that began with the Civil War was marked by dramatic changes that went deeper than a name, including the war, debate of the place of women at the College, and a gift from philanthropist Gardner Colby, who left his name and allowed for the College's survival.

A Null Set: No Possible Solution

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 04:00:00 UTC

Evening dinners are the most important time of the day at the Clapp house. Bill ’87 and I work very hard to provide this together time despite my 18-year-old’s play rehearsals, my 15-year-old’s soccer practices, and my 12-year-old’s dance classes. Our dinners are lively, fun, and full of conversation. As a math teacher, Bill likes to use this forum in his lonely quest to help our family understand how math can have real-world applications. For instance, he has taught us that a null set means there is no possible solution to a mathematical problem. I came to understand that this term could apply to other unsolvable problems as well—such as how you tell your children that their mom has cancer. That was the most difficult dinner conversation we ever had. Telling our kids I had breast cancer was a heartbreaking act of parenting. As a social worker, I knew that this news, no matter how we couched it, would change the way the kids looked at the world, at me and, most importantly, at their own lives. But good teachers, like my husband, say that complex problems are easier to tackle when you break them down into smaller parts. Step 1: Develop a plan. Bill and I made decisions about my treatment plan before we told our children. Cancer can be mathematical. It can be all about risks, odds, and percentages. It took many doctor appointments and lots of tests for us to understand what kind of cancer I had and what treatment, we hoped, would eradicate it. Then we told the kids. This was mind-numbingly hard despite knowing the plan. Their eyes got wider and filled with tears each time we said the word. As we talked I realized that it was the word “cancer” that was scaring them. So I suggested we name the strawberry-sized lump in my breast. Step 2: Use humor. It may seem inappropriate to find humor in cancer, but some things were really funny, and drawing attention to the humor helped the kids feel less scared. This became true when we named my lump. They came up with some good suggestions, like Tic or Gremlin, and the exercise helped the kids laugh through the tears. Eventually we decided on “the Little F***er,” because we didn’t think the tumor was cute, didn’t like it, sure didn’t want to get attached to it, and, frankly, because I love to curse. And if not now, when? Cancer is insidious and mean. We wanted the name to reflect that. The use of humor also made it easier to emphasize that I was strong, cancer was not going to be all consuming, and I was a much more interesting person than my diagnosis. Step 3: Create open lines of communication. Naming the lump set the tone for how Bill and I helped the kids manage their sometimes-overwhelming fear. Humor, though, didn’t always work and wasn’t always appropriate. Instead of being able to celebrate their milestones, my preteen and teenagers had to take care of a sick mom. They heard of the possibility of me losing my life and my breast just as our girls were getting theirs. The kids needed to know they could talk to us about their fears and questions. Each time I began a new stage of treatment, we talked to them and asked how they felt. Sometimes we talked as a family, sometimes alone. The asking part was the key. Because we invited them to give voice to their emotions, they were able to process in meaningful ways even when they were afraid. Our middle daughter said, “I think your parent having cancer really depends on what you make of it and how you respond. Don’t make it an awkward silence.” Our son wrote, “As my knowledge and understanding of cancer grew, my fear and apprehension gradually subsided.” Our youngest turned to poetry. She wrote, “She’s back from the hospital, we put smiles on for her sake/she’s uneven/that large scar/painful to look at/like a tightening zipper.” Step 4: Create a support network. Family (especially my sisters), friends (including fabulous Colby classmates), and the amazing medical teams I had made it easier for us all not to worry. The outpouring of love in the form of cards, gifts, meals, flowers, prayers, and visits from dear Colby friends touched all of our hearts. My support network truly made me well. I am healthy and strong and have successfully rid my body of cancer because of this very support. My breast cancer diagnosis changed the way the kids look at the world, at me, and at their own lives. They learned people are incredibly kind and generous. They saw I was strong and would fight cancer for them, for their dad, and for myself. More importantly, they learned they are brave, wise beyond their years, and able to face adversity with grace and humor. Unexpected solutions arrived in unexpected ways despite what appeared to be a null set, an unsolvable problem. Solutions were found in ourselves, our family and, yes, our Colby roots. Callie Knowles Clapp ’89 is a social worker in Portland, Maine.

Dance Party

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:00:00 UTC

Members of the Colby African Society perform in Pulver Pavilion as part of the Bicentennial Day festivities Feb. 27. From left, Phile Shongwe ’15, Pamela Alakai ’14, and Annick Hirwa ’15

To the Colby Community, a Marine Says Thank You

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:00:00 UTC

Related Stories - The Road from Marja - Back On His Feet The whole of my Marine Corps career involves positions of mentorship if not outright instruction. Rewarding as the teaching aspect of leadership is, it can come with a side effect; you can find yourself seeking opportunities to impart knowledge, which may narrow your vision. Such was the case during my last meeting with Colby Managing Editor Gerry Boyle ’78. While interviewing me on camera at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio in December, Mr. Boyle asked, “Is there anything you would like to tell the Colby community?” Immediately my mind went to the current student body and my inner instructor came out. As the cameraman packed his gear, that sinking feeling of a forgotten commitment began to develop. I heard my father’s voice, “Perhaps you’d consider taking a moment to reflect and thank those who have selflessly supported you.” Shame on me; please allow me to adjust course. Mr. Joe Boulos ’68. Mr. Boulos was the first Colby alumnus to reach out to me, within days of my injury. Marines are always inspired by those who went before them, and I can only be humbled by his experiences as a Marine aviator in Vietnam. Early on he provided both an “Emblem Injection” (Marine-speak for a rush of pride despite the trials of Marine life; references the Marine Corps emblem) and a Mayflower Hill injection. He religiously checks in on and provides support to me and my wife, Liz Czernicki Quist ’98. Semper Fidelis, Mr. Boulos. Professor Jim Meehan was the first person I thought of to provide a non-military recommendation when I was applying to the Marine Corps Officer Candidate School. His standards were high and he was appropriately unforgiving to those who did not meet them. There was no Colby professor whose work ethic paralleled the Marine Corps ethos more, and I knew if he felt I was unprepared for the challenge, he would rightfully refuse to write the recommendation. He wrote that recommendation and was bedside in the military hospital at Bethesda, on multiple occasions, nine years later. Annie ’98 and Craig ’97 Lundsten. Annie and Craig were first on the scene at the hospital bearing magazines, food, and support for Liz in particular. They have always been close friends, and even in the midst of a household move to New England, they were there for us. Nancy Nasse was my recovery care coordinator at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda. She spent more than her fair share of time bedside offering guidance and humor. She is married to Dave Nasse ’99, a Marine logistician. It cannot be easy providing care, assistance, and levity to injured Marines while your own husband is serving in Afghanistan. Adam Davis ’99 and Heather Hilton ’99. Both were frequently seen bedside as my recovery progressed; all visits came complete with comfort food. Heather was preparing for a deployment to Iraq at the time. Adam was in the midst of a total home renovation. Thank you guys. Tony Pasquariello ’99. I read his letter in the fall 2012 issue of Colby. Thank you, Tony, for adding awareness of those classmates serving, and as you stated, thank you for your service, John Ginn ’97 and Ben Lester ’99. John Maddox ’99. I ran into John Maddox, a Naval lieutenant and surgeon, at Bethesda just days into my stay there. I remembered John’s involvement with the woodsmen’s team, but that was about it. It didn’t matter; he was in my hospital room multiple times to see how I was doing. Whit Bond ’63 and Marian Leerburger ’84 both heard of my injury through the grapevine. They reached out immediately, offering support and help at any point I needed it. Brent and Jill Stasz Harris, both ’86, met Liz at a lecture Professor Meehan gave in Washington, D.C. They have kept in touch with us, offering any needed support. President William “Bro” Adams took time to visit Liz and me early on after surgery. He offered multiple times to help in any way possible. Liz and I could not be more thankful. To the family of Elizabeth Hanson ’02, the CIA agent who died in Afghanistan. I knew of, but little about, your daughter while at Colby. I can only thank you for creating the hero we have come to know in Elizabeth. She, among others, remains an inspiration and driving force behind recovery and the desire to get back into the fight. God Bless. To my family. To not consider all of you part of the Colby community would be criminal. I do not know how you remained bedside and sane, and I will hold eternal guilt for putting you through all of it. I am truly lucky to have such a family; one that finds and forever holds the additional strength from such adversity. I know I have missed some of the Colby community, but to the whole, thank you. Marines love the camaraderie and “smallness” of the Corps. It builds lifelong relationships and a huge supporting community. I have experienced nothing like it—with the exception of that of the Colby students, staff, and alumni. I should have said thank you on camera. I hope this communicates my gratitude as well, if not better. Capt. Erik Quist ’99, U.S.M.C. Occoquan, Virginia

Letters

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:00:00 UTC

In Their Words Indeed Congratulations on your fall bicentennial issue. As the title indicated, you reported “In Their Footsteps, In Their Words.” You did not editorialize or add any “politically correct” comments. You let these pioneers of the Baptist faith speak for themselves about this new but remote place of higher learning in Maine, still part of the mother state of Massachusetts. History major that I was, I looked up the year 1813 in my Time Tables of History, published by Simon & Schuster. It indicated that the War of 1812 was still raging. Buffalo was burned by the British but Detroit was retaken. Byron and Shelley were in their heyday in England, and the waltz conquered the European ballrooms. But under the heading of religion, philosophy, and learning, I read “Colby College Maine founded.” Rev. Charles L. Smith Jr. ’50 Providence, R.I. Finding More Memories of the late Bill Holland I was very moved to read the wonderful article about my classmate Bill Holland by his daughter, Laurel (“Finding a Life on the Edge,” fall 2012 Colby). She is a beautiful writer and her story of growing up without her dad, coping with the accident that claimed his life, and not knowing the whereabouts of his body for 21 years was beyond moving. When she described the trip she and her mother took to the 40th reunion of our class to learn more about their father/husband, I began remembering Bill fondly. He and I had a natural connection through our four Colby years, which I just revisited in my memorabilia. As Holland and Holm we entered Colby side by side in Faces and Places, the booklet of classmates’ photos we received as incoming freshman. At graduation we were paired for the processional and sat through the ceremony together. In the years between, we were not close friends but were friendly. I knew him well enough to want Laurel to know what a kind, deeply thoughtful person I found him to be. And I also want to thank Laurel for writing about her remarkable father for all of his friends and classmates. Janet Holm Gerber ’72 Rockville, Md. I enjoyed, but not without both a smirk and a tinge of sadness, Laurel Holland’s moving story about her dad, who was my fraternity brother at KDR. If Colby had prepared a time capsule during our years on the Hill, one of the objects finding its way into that box would have been a fraternity paddle. Yes, Modern Readers, there was such a thing as a fraternity paddle. And yes, we were whacked on the backside with them during, miserabile dictu et auditu, Hell Week. In addition to these historical facts, add the concept of fraternity fathers and sons—older members acting as mentors for younger members. (Not much mentoring was ever done.) Bill was my fraternity son and presented me with a beautifully carved and hand-stenciled paddle, which in correspondence subsequent to her article, Laurel has agreed to accept as a memento of her father’s years at Colby. To close on a personal note, Bill Holland was a loyal friend and a gentleman, but also someone with a fierce and sometimes wild independent streak (think a motorcycle racing up the Hill by Lovejoy to Johnson Pond when there was a road there). Tony Maramarco ’71 Los Angeles, Calif. Some Praise, Not Criticism In today’s society it seems it’s easier to criticize than to praise, but I do think the fall issue of Colby was superb. I found the articles interesting and informative. I was particularly moved by Laurel Holland’s article about her father, Bill Holland ’72. He was diagnosed with severe manic depression. My family has been exposed to this type of behavior, so we are aware of the difficulties of this horrible illness and can sympathize with the struggles placed on Laurel’s father. Ron Rasmussen ’57 Ramona, Calif.

Simpson Speaker for Mitchell Lecture Series

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:00:00 UTC

Sen. Alan K. Simpson Former U.S. Senator Alan K. Simpson will deliver the keynote lecture for the 2013 George J. Mitchell Distinguished International Lecture Series April 10. The lecture series is sponsored by the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement at Colby. Former U.S. Senator George J. Mitchell will be the special guest for the evening and will provide the lecture’s introductory remarks. Simpson served as a U.S. Senator from Wyoming from 1979 to 1997. In 2010 he was appointed as co-chair of President Barack Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform with co-chair Erskine Bowles of North Carolina. The plan is intended as a way to stabilize growing national debt.

Recent Releases

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:00:00 UTC

The Laundry Monster Jeanne Morrison Cook ’87 Minor Storm Press (2011) Cook’s first children’s book (there are more coming in the “I Can Help!” series) was inspired as she waded through real-life laundry generated by four children, a husband, and a dog named Colby. Perhaps not the dog, but the rest of the family dirtied enough clothes to create a monster of a problem. The story unfolds on a day when the laundry really does take on a life of its own, threatening to envelop Mom forever in socks, sheets, and underwear. The kids come up with a way to save her. Not to reveal too much, but Cook’s book also includes a couple of pages of laundry tips, including “It’s Fun To Fold!” (She suggests making a contest out of matching socks.) More at minorstorm.com Nets Through Time: The Technique and Art of Knotted Netting Jacqueline Bendelius Davidson ’59 Maine Authors Publishing (2012) Davidson was introduced to the technique of knotted netting at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine. It was an auspicious meeting, as she went to write an award-winning book (honored by the New England Book Festival) about the history and craft of knotted netting. It’s a technique that produces everything from fishing nets to fine doilies to bed canopies to Native American adornments. And, as with many commonplace items, careful study and consideration reveals that there is more to knotted netting than meets the casual eye. Netting tools made of wood, bone, and ivory have been passed down through generations. Fishermen knotted nets in biblical times, and they are represented in art on the walls of the pyramids. Davidson traces the history and also offers simple instruction so readers, if they are so moved, may join the long and largely unsung lineage of netmakers. A Guide to Groups, Rings, and Fields Fernando Q. Gouvêa (mathematics) Mathematical Association of America (2012) Those looking for a way to review and refresh their basic algebra will benefit from reading this guide, and it will also serve as a ready reference for mathematicians who make use of algebra in their work. In addition to the standard material on groups, rings, modules, fields, and Galois theory, the book includes discussions of important topics often omitted in the standard graduate course, including linear groups, group representations, the structure of Artinian rings, projective, injective and flat modules, Dedekind domains, and central simple algebras. All of the important theorems are discussed, without proofs but often with a discussion of the intuitive ideas behind those proofs. The Roots of a Family: Life in Rural Maine Gail Anne Glidden Rowe ’72 TheBookPatch.com (2012) What better way to learn about life in rural in Maine than from the story of a family that weathered good times and bad, from the Great Depression to the Vietnam War. Rowe recounts experiences of her extended family, three generations of rural Mainers, including hard-working Irish immigrants, an ancestor who left his bed in a Civil War field hospital to take refuge in Canada, and a roster of hunters, fishermen, and farmers. It’s a family story replete with telling details, from the real workday of a dairy farmer to letters home to Maine from the front during World War II. Rowe, retired from the faculty of Southern Maine Community College, writes both a family story and a Maine story, and in the process a compelling and true story of our times.

Lincoln Puts Goodwin in Celebrity Spotlight

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:00:00 UTC

For Doris Kearns Goodwin ’64, this was a winter for posing with movie stars and moguls. At doriskearnsgoodwin.com there she is with Steven Spielberg, with Sally Field’s arm draped around her shoulders, with Daniel Day-Lewis, Tommy Lee Jones, and Tony Kushner mugging for the camera. Goodwin’s award-winning book Team of Rivals was the basis of Spielberg’s celebrated film Lincoln, starring Day-Lewis and Field. The New York Times reported that a chance conversation with Spielberg in 2000 led to the collaboration, and that Goodwin sent Spielberg a chapter at a time as she wrote. The book, published in 2005, was rereleased last year in anticipation of the movie, which opened to dazzling reviews and garnered 12 Academy Award nominations and two statues. Interest in the film had Goodwin all over the media talking about Abraham Lincoln—in between her commentary on modern politics, Barack Obama, and the inauguration, that is. A month before the movie’s release, Goodwin told some of her Lincoln stories on Mayflower Hill as keynote speaker at Colby’s bicentennial kickoff banquet before her latest media marathon began. Historian and author Doris Kearns Goodwin ’64 at Colby just prior to the release of the movie Lincoln. Even Comedy Central took note. In a special birthday greeting honoring Goodwin’s 70th on Jan. 4, the network’s “Indecision” site editorial producer Mary Phillips-Sandy (a Waterville native), collected Goodwin’s greatest hits on The Daily Show. “Watching Doris Kearns Goodwin tell stories about Abraham Lincoln is even better than watching Daniel Day-Lewis act stories about Abraham Lincoln,” Phillips-Sandy wrote.

Culinary Feat

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:00:00 UTC

Students photograph a Miller Library cake, complete with blue light, prepared by Colby Dining Services for Bicentennial Day. In short order, the library was eaten.

Lifesaving Lessons: Notes from an Accidental Mother

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:00:00 UTC

The tag line for Greenlaw’s latest? “Famed swordfish boat captain Linda Greenlaw faces her greatest battle with nature—a newly adopted teenage daughter.” Fans of the bestselling writer launched by the book and movie The Perfect Storm know Greenlaw as one tough customer. She can wrestle an 800-pound swordfish, manage a crew of obstreperous fishermen, and navigate the roughest reaches of the icy North Atlantic. But guardian of and companion to a troubled teenager? That’s a side of the Maine fishing captain that Greenlaw’s legions of readers have not yet seen. The memoir, years in the making, begins when 15-year-old Mariah arrives to live with her uncle on Isle au Haut, the rockbound Maine island that Greenlaw calls home. The uncle, new to the island, is thought to be a regular guy coming to the aid of his niece—until it’s revealed that he’s been abusing Mariah. Islanders come to the teenager’s aid, and the independent Greenlaw is nominated as the best person in the community to provide a safe home—and to serve as a mentor. Greenlaw, who has no children of her own, is thrust into a new and challenging role. This memoir recounts her journey with Mariah as the unlikely pair learn about each other and themselves. Advance blurbs describe the book as “remarkably candid and tenderly funny.” Judging by Greenlaw’s earlier works, it will also be unflinchingly honest.

The Spiritual Life of Colby College: Then, now, next

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:00:00 UTC

I was 25 years old when I took my first job in college chaplaincy. Tasked with bolstering the programmatic life of Dartmouth College’s Tucker Foundation, I operated under the fairly meaningless and entirely made-up title Multi-Faith Program Advisor. Weeks into the job, I was asked to lead a memorial service for an alumni class celebrating its 70th year. I was terrified. I spent my days talking and planning with 18- to 22- year olds of vague and varied religious expressions. What had I to say to alumni older than my grandparents? Had not the context changed so drastically that there wasn’t a bridge between? After a few deep breaths and some well-timed advice, however, I regained my stride. For all that had changed over the course of 70 years—demographics, buildings, job titles—was not the college experience still made meaningful by deep friendships, hopeful futures, and the pursuit of purpose? Not so many years later and now operating with the almost-as-made-up title Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life, I find myself facing similar questions. Especially as we at Colby enter our 200th year: What meaningful connections can be traced back to the Maine Theological and Literary Institution? How does the spiritual life of Colby College today connect with those who came before? What does our Baptist past mean to us as we look forward? The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has declared this the year of the “religiously unaffiliated.” For those of us working with college populations, this is not especially surprising. Demographically speaking, the landscape of religious and spiritual life has shifted. Based on an incoming survey of the Class of 2016, the stalwart denominations of Colby’s past—Baptists, Congregationalists, and Episcopalians—make up less than 10 percent of our incoming student body. The population of Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists is growing. The Catholic and Jewish populations remain substantive. Fully a third of Colby students come in identifying as atheist, agnostic, or no religious preference. We are officially a multifaith community. Mixed religious families are as normal as nonreligious families. Students’ parents are as likely to be atheist or evangelical as to belong to a mainline denomination. We have entered an era, according to sociologist Robert Putnam, LL.D. ’12, of “polarization and pluralism.” The staffing for the Colby chaplaincy has evolved from college president to director of religion to college chaplain to faculty chaplain to three part-time chaplains to dean of religious and spiritual life. Perhaps the only constant of religious and spiritual life at Colby is change. There are those who will grieve this shifting landscape. Any shared language of faith and religion has surely gone. Cultural Christianity is gone and, without drastic measures, is not going to return. There is, in a sense, no religious “normal” at a place such as Colby. But one wonders how concrete that shared language or normal ever was. Despite a clear purpose from the beginning to train Baptist clergy, the College never closed its doors on sectarian grounds. And more than half of early graduates went into professions other than the ministry. A 1938 article in the Colby Alumnus by Director of Religious Activities Herbert Newman spoke of a desire to “build closer fellowship between various religious groups” including, “Mohammadean, Jewish, Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant.” Ernest Marriner, Class of 1913, devotes the last chapter of his excellent History of Colby College to religion at Colby. The central goal? Clearly to assure his readership that the “sudden divorce” from the Baptist church was neither sudden nor a divorce. The staffing for the Colby chaplaincy has evolved from college president to director of religion to college chaplain to faculty chaplain to three part-time chaplains to dean of religious and spiritual life. Perhaps the only constant of religious and spiritual life at Colby is change. Call me an optimist, but such context leaves me hopeful. In the absence of an assumed religious normal, perhaps we can get to the good, hard, and important work of thinking and talking about faith. Recent surveys suggest that while this may be the least religious generation ever, the desired connection to something beyond ourselves is as strong—if not stronger—than ever. And despite the shifting landscape, colleges and universities are beginning to understand that holistic education demands some attention to spiritual pursuit. While meaning, hope, purpose, and community are by no means the exclusive property of religious faith, if we are to take them seriously, religion must be on the discursive landscape. Thus, change is underway. Much as it has been over the past two centuries. If you find yourself on Mayflower Hill on a given evening, you’ll find both familiar and unfamiliar forms: Catholic Mass and college chapel services of the ecumenical Christian variety happen each week. Shabbat candle lighting and dinners come with sunset on Friday evenings, led by a rejuvenated Hillel and Rabbi Rachel Isaacs. A small group gathers for Juma prayer each Friday at 1 p.m. beneath a list of Colby missionaries dating back to the early 19th century. Though it may not be the norm, interest in traditional religious observance and community is consistent among some students. And such groups will always have a place. Holiday observances—from Diwali to Carols and Lights—brighten the dark Maine evenings. And Colby is now home to not one but three meditation groups. Intervarsity and the Global Friends Christian fellowships gather often, and enthusiastically. And budding Quaker, Hindu, and ecumenical Christian student communities are in the process of forming. Some new forms have taken hold this year. A new student multifaith council graces the chapel lounge each Wednesday evening. Together we ponder the ways in which Christians, Jews, Muslims, seekers, atheists, and others are both irreducibly different and undeniably similar. Together, a wide swath of religious communities—and some others—are tackling the question of food and hunger in our local community as part of the White House’s Interfaith and Community Service Challenge. Such groups include members and leaders of the aforementioned religious communities as well as those outside of traditional forms who are yearning for conversation, exploration, and community. Much has changed—names, forms, demographics, buildings, job titles, and programs. While any semblance of shared language may be gone, we are now free to pursue these deep questions together. And as I sit with Colby students and hear about their hopes and plans and fears, I cannot help thinking those conversations would resonate across generations of Colby students. Students connect to spiritual life through community, in one-on-one conversations, in moments of struggle, and—even occasionally—through their studies and quest for a vocation. And we will continue to pursue ways to meet them where they are, in the midst of an always changing “normal.” To ponder life’s biggest questions. To build meaningful relationships. To encounter new ideas and be challenged by them. To find a sense of purpose in life. This is what a place like Colby is for. And this is, at its best, the role of religious and spiritual pursuit. In words penned by Marcia Chaplin as she sailed toward Waterville on the Sloop Hero, “To do good.” This is what we challenge ourselves to do. And I am ever-hopeful that religious and spiritual life will continue to be an important part of the ever-changing landscape. Kurt Nelson is the dean of religious and spiritual life.

Task Force to Consider Student Accountability

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:00:00 UTC

Basketball co-captain Jonathan Kalin ’14 knows his teammates don’t need rules to motivate them to work out in the off-season. That motivation stems from a culture where players feel accountable to each other and responsible for the team’s success. This fall Kalin joined the newly created Accountability Task Force to help explore how this sort of culture can be more intentionally integrated into the Colby experience. The task force comprises five Colby trustees, five faculty members, and five students. “We were very clear that it would be equal parts students, faculty, and trustees,” said Dean of Faculty and Vice President of Academic Affairs Lori Kletzer, head of the academic-integrity subcommittee. “The people who live here are the centerpiece, and a community commitment to [accountability] has to be owned by the students.” Many students chosen to be on the committee are visible leaders on campus who have already shown an interest in shaping a campus culture of greater accountability. Kalin helped start Mules Against Violence and Party with Consent, campus groups that raise awareness of sexual violence and challenges gender roles at Colby. Morgan Lingar ’13 worked with a group of students gauging student opinions of accountability and a possible honor code. Last fall this group received more than 500 completed surveys, an unusually strong response, Lingar said. Responses expressed different and often opposing viewpoints. “We have to recognize that the campus contains such a variety,” she said. Conversation is an important step toward greater accountability, Kletzer said. “We don’t talk enough about [academic] integrity,” Kletzer said. “There’s room to be clearer.” She said that often the conversation around academic integrity is negative and reactive to some incident of academic dishonesty. “We’re trying to imagine it as proactive and positive.” Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students Jim Terhune, whose office deals with social life on campus, also said he wants the process to be a positive one. “Making rules isn’t what changes behavior,” he said. “It’s not about disciplinary action.” Terhune hopes the effort will lead to a meaningful campus conversation surrounding these issues and helps students identify and implement the changes that need to take place. “There has been a real appetite for a kind of accountability that is positive and fits with our values,” said Julie Sands Causey ’85, a Colby trustee and the task force chair.

Contributors

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:00:00 UTC

Cal Mackenzie (“Vietnam, Then and Now”) the Goldfarb Family Distinguished Professor of Government, joined the Colby faculty in 1978. He is the author of 15 books and is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. In 1999-2000 he was the John Adams Fellow at the University of London, and he has twice been a Fulbright Scholar, in China in 2005 and Vietnam in 2012. Callie Knowles Clapp ’89 (“A Null Set”) is a licensed social worker at Catholic Charities Maine in Portland, where she oversees a team providing community integration to the mentally ill. She is also a survivor of breast cancer and is working on transforming into a book the blog she used to share her health journey. Kurt D. Nelson (\"The Spiritual Life of Colby College: Then, Now, and Next\") arrived at Colby in August as the firstever dean of religious and spiritual life. He is a graduate of St. Olaf College and Yale Divinity School and comes to Colby from Dartmouth College. His passions include multifaith community, being a Lutheran, radical hospitality, and green theology.

If I Were President...

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:00:00 UTC

Students, staff, and faculty packed Page Commons in Cotter Union for a Bicentennial Day student speech contest. The subject: If I Were Colby’s President. Above, Jon Kalin ’14 talks about his plans for the College.

After Denying Gay Student a Role, Christian Group Opts Out

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:00:00 UTC

A campus Christian group that refused a student a leadership role because she is a lesbian opted to decline College funding and status after being found to have violated Colby’s nondiscrimination policy. Colby Christian Fellowship was named in a complaint filed with the Office of Campus Life in September by a student CCF member who had sought the position of Bible study leader. After discussions with College officials, the group decided to opt out of Colby funding and recognition by the Student Government Association in order to continue to “gather around beliefs that are informed by their specific interpretation of scriptural authority,” said Jed Wartman, director of campus life. The group is a chapter of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, a national evangelical and interdenominational organization. The situation has cropped up at other colleges and universities with various outcomes. “This is one of those instances where an institution and probably a majority of the people at an institution, myself included, understand this as a really important category of identity that is deserving of protection,” Kurt Nelson, dean of spiritual life, said, “whereas [the CCF] would understand this specific instance as a question of Biblical interpretation.” The student in question is a sophomore who was an active member of the group as a first-year student. In an interview with an online student publication the student who was denied a role in the CCF described the experience as “heartbreaking.” She said she remained “a strong Christian.” “I want to make it very clear that I love all the CCF members and respect their beliefs and the freedom they have to hold them,” she said in the interview. “I just don’t support the idea that an organization can act on such beliefs by kicking anyone out of leadership because of their sexual orientation, especially not at Colby.” The student asked that her name not be disclosed in Colby.

Tharakan and Silverman Nominated as Alumni Trustees

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:00:00 UTC

Joerose Tharakan ’08 Two new alumni trustees have been nominated to join the Board of Trustees for three-year terms beginning in May. Joerose Tharakan ’08 works for Microsoft Corporation’s Academy of College Hires, based in Pittsburgh. Tharakan came to Colby from Cochin in southern India. She studied at the London School of Economics and earned an M.B.A. from the Yale School of Management. At Colby Tharakan was a member of the Emerging Leaders program, which prepares students for leadership positions. Moses Silverman ’69 is a partner in the litigation department at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. Moses Silverman ’69 The former campus activist joined the firm after graduating from law school in 1973. He has been a member of the board of directors of the Legal Aid Society and is a member of the London Court of International Arbitration. Silverman served as a Colby Overseer from 2002 to 2010 and was on visiting committees for education, religious studies, Spanish, and anthropology. He and his wife, Betty Robbins, also an attorney, live in Manhattan.

Winter Construction

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:00:00 UTC

The new science building is taking shape. Workers have not let cold, wind, or snow get in the way of erecting its steel frame and roof. The 36,400-square-foot building, which will house the computer science, mathematics and statistics, and psychology departments, is located across Mayflower Hill Drive from the Colby Museum of Art. It is scheduled to open in the fall of 2014.

Marking the Centuries

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:00:00 UTC

President William D. Adams gives the Bicentennial Address in Lorimer Chapel on Feb. 27, the 200th anniversary of the signing of Colby’s charter.

In the Moment, Consider Colby's Two Centuries: 1864-1913

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:00:00 UTC

Editor Gerry Boyle connects events he found searching Colby's history for the bicentennial with issues unfolding on campus today and reflected in the pages of Colby magazine.

Back On His Feet

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:00:00 UTC

Prosthetic device allows injured Marine Corps Capt. Erik Quist to walk, run, sprint—and maybe lead another day

Vietnam: Then and Now

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 05:00:00 UTC

Government Professor Cal Mackenzie returns on a Fulbright fellowship to Vietnam, which he last saw as a soldier in the Vietnam War. His journal and photographs record the life-changing experience.

Discovering Miss Runnals

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 05:00:00 UTC

Samantha Eddy ’13 learns that a special Colby woman paved the way.

Three Sports? For Standout Athlete Kate Pistel Play is Nonstop

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 05:00:00 UTC

Kate Pistel ’13 played three sports in high school, so playing varsity soccer, squash, and lacrosse throughout her time at Colby is no big deal to her. But not everyone sees it that way.

Silver Tsunami

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 05:00:00 UTC

Colby research project examines challenges facing China’s aging population

From This Reporter, No Debate About the Value of Government

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 05:00:00 UTC

Antonio Mendez ’06 with friends at the presidential debate at the University of Denver. The murmur of reporters died down in the Hamilton Gymnasium, a basketball and volleyball venue transformed into a media room for the first presidential debate at the University of Denver Oct. 3 in Denver, Colo. The room was furnished with more than 50 flat screen televisions, hundreds of phones, and power cords—basic supplies the media would need to report the from the event. Amassed in the filing room were print, web, radio, and television reporters from all over the world. And me. A second-year law student with no background in journalism, covering one of the marquee political events of the year. “Good evening from the Magness Arena at the University of Denver in Denver, Colorado. I\'m Jim Lehrer of the PBS NewsHour.” After months of anticipation, hype, and planning, the debate had begun. Chris Kyriazi, an undergraduate radio technician and my cohost, was fidgeting with our equipment. Transmitting the debate live via KXDU, the University of Denver’s campus radio station, we were having minor technical difficulties. Behind me, French and Japanese reporters were discussing the debate in their languages, and NPR reporters were whispering softly into their microphones. On the screen Lehrer was explaining the rules to viewers at home. “The audience here in the hall has promised to remain silent,” he said. “No cheers, applause, boos, hisses, among other noisy distracting things.” I had made no such promise. My road to the first presidential debate began the summer after my first year of law school. I was working in the White House as an intern for the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships, and amazing experiences were the norm that summer: walking through the White House; being in a crowd of Hispanic appointees applauding recently confirmed U.S. Ambassador Marie Carmen Aponte; high-fiving people in my office when news came that the Affordable Care Act had been upheld; and my favorite, actually hugging First Lady Michelle Obama. While other interns were using their spare time to secure positions at the upcoming Democratic National Convention, I was contacting the Commission on Presidential Debates. I’d already arranged with the KXDU station manager for media credentials and had received an e-mail late in the summer saying I’d been approved. So there I was. It’s hard to convey how much the debate had invaded our lives leading up to the event. My first day in Election Law included Washington Post reporter Robert Barnes shadowing our professor, Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler. Every week provided new debate-related events that gave students an extra entry into the lottery for a debate ticket. Debate banners were hung in downtown Denver. Because I live across the street from the debate site, I needed Secret Service-issued credentials to get back to my apartment. Back at the debate Governor Romney was on the offense. “The president has a view very similar to the view he had when he ran four years ago, that a bigger government, spending more, taxing more, regulating more—if you will, trickle-down government—would work.” I was impressed by the media’s ability to not react to what was being said on screen. I was having trouble. As an enthusiastic supporter of the President, I was disappointed. He appeared ill, or at very least distracted. Governor Romney, by contrast, was confident, motivated, and even joking. As the night progressed, I found it hard to retain journalistic neutrality. My Facebook account provided the space for some venting about Lehrer: “I think the NFL Replacement Refs just found a new job,” I posted. We all know that after what many called “The Dud in Denver,” President Obama came back stronger at the other two debates. He was back in the fight. And the rest is history. Many have criticized the combative and contentious tone of the debates and the election in general, but I see things differently. The issues matter. Government policies, or lack thereof, have a tangible effect on our lives as Americans. There should be passion about the direction our country is going. Americans need to care deeply about their government. My personal interest in politics stems from an understanding that government is one of the most effective means to any end. Growing up in Washington Heights, a low-income community in upper Manhattan, many of my friends benefited from government assistance programs like Head Start, Medicaid, WIC, etc. Despite their social class status, many of those friends made it from our community to Cornell, Yale, Columbia, and Colby, among other schools. But the effects of government in our lives go back to our parents’ generation, when free English language programs helped recent immigrants assimilate and low-cost education gave them a chance to succeed. After law school, I hope to work in the government in some capacity, ensuring that the next generation of immigrants receive the same kind of help my family received, and helping, I hope, create new American success stories. As the President said at Hofstra University, “We all understand what this country has become because talent from all around the world wants to come here. People are willing to take risks. People who want to build on their dreams and make sure their kids have an even bigger dream than they have.” I am living testament to the truth of that statement. Antonio Mendez ’06 is an International Law student at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. He was a member of the first Posse Scholar group at Colby, a Fulbright Scholar in Andorra, a Colorado Legislative Fellow, and, most recently, a White House Intern.

In Their Footsteps

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 05:00:00 UTC

The Maine Theological and Literary Institution, soon renamed Waterville College, was a very different place from the Colby College of today. Or was it?

Contributors

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 05:00:00 UTC

Mike Eckel ’93 (“A Hand Up”) has reported from the former Soviet Union and Southeast Asia for the Associated Press, Foreign Policy, the Wall Street Journal, AOL News, and other publications. He currently writes for the Christian Science Monitor, studies for his master’s degree at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts, and tweets at @mike_eckel. Laurel Holland (“Finding a Life on the Edge”) is a Brooklyn-based writer. After graduating from Harvard in 2006, she moved to New York to pursue acting. She is working on Spindrift, a memoir about her alpinist father, Bill Holland \'72, who was killed in a climbing accident when she was 5 years old. Dash Wasserman \'12 (“Reconstructing Violet Paget”) is an English major and former Echo editor from New Orleans. He was introduced to the mystery of archives during an independent study at the University of California, Irvine, where he examined the development of philosopher Jacques Derrida’s thought by rifling through hundreds of pages of the late critic’s dizzying French cursive.

Gardner Colby's Remarkable Mom

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 05:00:00 UTC

If 19th century philanthropist Gardner Colby is the namesake and savior of Colby College, what of Sarah Davison Colby, the woman who raised him along the Kennebec River and saw her son go from modest beginnings to become a successful Boston industrialist? That Gardner Colby gave the College $50,000 to rescue it from financial crisis in 1864 is remarkable. His mother’s story, fictionalized by her descendant Cynthia Lang, is in some ways more remarkable still, as the single-mother persevered through financial reversals and eventually flourished. Sarah Carlisle’s River and Other StoriesCynthia LangMill City Press (2012) Lang based her story on a 40-page letter Sarah Davison Colby wrote (under the name Sarah Carlisle) to a nephew in 1840, reassuring him during hard times. “Having known what such adversity is, I can appreciate the distress you are in.” And well she did. Lang’s carefully rendered account, including verbatim quotes from a transcription of the letter, takes us back to the Kennebec River towns of the dawn of the 19th century, when shipbuilding was a burgeoning industry. Davison Colby’s husband (in a marriage that her parents wouldn’t bless) and Gardner’s father, Josiah Colby, was an entrepreneur shipbuilder in Bowdoinham, below Augusta, who rode the wave of booming American trade. Colby built ships, opened a chandlery business, and ordered fine furniture from abroad. Life was good, and then came the Embargo Act of 1807, prohibiting trade with Britain, and the War of 1812, which disrupted shipping even more. The highly leveraged shipbuilding industry ran aground. Josiah Colby never recovered. “Crushed with disappointments, numb from the shock of his losses, blurred from drink, and unfit for work, my husband could not enjoy, let alone protect, what remained to him—his wife and children,” Sarah laments in Lang’s story. The young mother took over, going to work as a seamstress and later moving to Waterville. She scrimped and saved while her husband did odd work to keep himself in rum. “Over Christmas I attended an illumination at the college, where a bright candle shone in every window. I met the head, a Rev. Jeremiah Chaplin, and his wife, a very pleasant, open woman.” Chaplin offered counsel, and it was decided that Sarah would leave Waterville alone for Boston. She did, became a dressmaker, and was reunited with her children. Her son, Gardner, opened a store, and in his first year made $3,000 profit. The rest is history, and a lovely story that gives readers a sense of the people who lived and worked around then Waterville College and new respect and admiration for those who have gone before. More about Sarah Carlisle’s River at cynthialang.com

A History of Putting a Spin on Vigilante Justice

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 05:00:00 UTC

Vigilantes and Lynch Mobs: Narratives of a Community and a Nation Lisa Arellano (American studies and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies) Temple University Press (2012) Associate Professor Lisa Arellano’s research for what would become Vigilantes and Lynch Mobs took her to archives in Louisiana, Idaho, Montana, and California. And though the specific incidents in the accounts and commentary she studied included ostensibly unique events—measured vigilante justice of the Wild West and brutal racial lynch mobs of the Deep South—Arellano found herself reading the same narratives over and over. The stories, she writes, “all contained similar and recurring formulations such that they were virtually interchangeable.” How could that be? Her book, which is more historiography than history, shows that the propagation and ritualization of such violence relied upon a selective reality that emphasized barbaric (and always unprecedented) crime, inept officialdom, and a valorous and even heroic response. Arellano examined the stories attached to vigilante movements in the 19th-century West, and that alone is a fascinating snapshot into that period of our history. There was something distinctly American in this romanticized do-it-yourself brand of justice and commentators of the time. In fact, in one noted study of the time, Arellano shows, the author revised his accounts of “popular tribunals” before publication to ensure that only the most idealized version emerged. Omitted was the sometimes racially motivated selection of targets by vigilantes (in California Chinese laborers were a convenient “other”). While it was acknowledged that there were rogue elements, the principled vigilantes, wrote self-published historian Hubert Howe Bancroft, were the embodiment of democracy, “watching the welfare of the commonwealth, using force only when all other means fail, using its power with moderation, tempering justice with mercy, and gladly relinquishing its distasteful duties the moment it can do so with safety.” The reality was sometimes very different, as some vigilantes in the West included torture and even taking of human trophies in their dispensation of justice, Arellano writes. The skin of one “ferocious bandit” hung by vigilantes in 1891 was tanned and made into various items, including a medical bag and a pair of lady’s shoes (displayed at a local bank in Wyoming). This was justified by the alleged heinousness of the criminals, a rationalization that extended to the narratives that later accompanied southern lynchings, Arellano writes. The “uncontrolled criminal conditions” that made vigilantism necessary took the form of the alleged sexual assaults on white women by black men. Lawlessness was assigned a racial identity, and in the Jim Crow South it was the chivalric duty of white men to defend their women against such crimes (mostly unsubstantiated) in the most brutal ways possible. Arellano explores the work of Ida B. Wells, an anti-lynching activist whose pamphlets began to erode the southern lynching myth in the 1880s and 1890s. Wells not only described the horrific reality of southern lynching but also helped dismantle the narrative that made it defensible and disguised its role in helping one race control another. It’s strong and discomfiting stuff, and Arellano notes that when she teaches this subject her students find it hard to imagine how brutal vigilantism could be explained as heroic or part of an American ideal. But it was and still is, and many of the elements of early vigilante narratives survive today. “We need to be fully able to name and understand the construction of this past,” Arellano writes, “in order to engage with its ‘historically’ continuing presence.” Arellano’s goal in this book, she wrote, “is to muddy seemingly clear historical waters.” She’s done that and, in the process, it becomes apparent that this particular form of violence is tied to a carefully constructed and perpetuated narrative intended to obscure our view of our past and ourselves. Believe it at your own risk.

Scouting in the NFL

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 05:00:00 UTC

Mark Azevedo ’04 had finished his career as a tight end at Colby, but with his playing days behind him, he spent spring 2004 with an eye on his football future. “Coach [Ed Mestieri] gave me some work with coordinating possible recruits,” Azevedo said. “I got my feet wet a little bit.” That led to a football position at Springfield College, where he recruited in several states. After that season he joined the Baltimore Ravens, where he is area scout for the Southeast. Azevedo has evaluated free agents and scouted college teams in preparation for the NFL draft. “I enjoy the people I work with and the people I meet,” said Azevedo. “The biggest challenge is being away from home. It gets long at the end of three weeks of being on the road.”

Ravens Assistant GM DeCosta Prepares for Future Role

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 05:00:00 UTC

Eric DeCosta is ready. Prior to the 2012 season Eric DeCosta ’93 was in demand as a possible general manager for several National Football League teams, according to Sports Illustrated. He had spent 15 years with the Baltimore Ravens, but his path to the GM post with that team appeared blocked by long-time GM Ozzie Newsome. Before a possible departure, DeCosta was promoted to assistant general manager. So how will the promotion increase the skill set of DeCosta, 41, a former linebacker at Colby? “The biggest thing is I have the opportunity to learn some of the big-picture things,” he said during training camp in August. “It gives me a chance to see things from a different perspective. I am excited to stay, hopefully to be the GM at Baltimore at some point in the future.” “The Baltimore Ravens’ brand has grown to be one of the strongest brands in the NFL,” he added. “We have a tremendous stadium. We have fabulous training facilities. We have a great relationship with [sponsor] Under Armour and a strong roster of players. We have made the playoffs five of the last six years. I think the future is bright.” DeCosta joined the Ravens in 1996, the team’s first year. He guided the college scouting department for six years and was promoted to director of player personnel in 2009, overseeing college and pro scouting. “Being able to delegate is one [skill] I learned from Ozzie,” DeCosta said. “He steps back and lets people like myself do our jobs.” During his tenure as scouting director, the Ravens drafted future All-Pros Terrell Suggs, Le’Ron McClain, and Haloti Ngata and quarterback Joe Flacco, who led the Ravens to within a play of the Super Bowl in 2011 (losing to the Patriots in the AFC title contest). DeCosta said his promotion means he is more involved in salary cap issues and all facets of player personnel. He also said he needs to improve his knowledge of league-wide issues and some of the challenges facing the NFL, such as player safety and concussions. “Safety is paramount. The clubs understand that. Our players are the future of the game, and we want them to remain safe. ... Without the players the league does not exist,” he said. Another issue facing the NFL is the health and future of retired players, many of whom are left nearly crippled after playing the violent sport. “The health of retired players is something the league has to spend more time looking at,” he said. “We have to make sure our retired players lead a healthy life after football.” DeCosta said he is excited about his future with the Ravens but did not give a possible timeline for a GM move. “Baltimore has really become a home for my family. I can’t imagine leaving for another opportunity. It is the right fit,” he said.

A School for Leaders

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 05:00:00 UTC

Colby College is the first NCAA Division III school to conduct a leadership academy for athletes through the Janssen Sports Leadership Center. The Colby Leadership Academy develops and supports Colby student-athletes and coaches in their effort to become leaders in athletics, academics, and life, said Harold Alfond Director of Athletics Marcella Zalot. Said Zalot, “I know the program will provide the support and skills our students need to effectively lead themselves, their teams, and also be leaders on campus.” Janssen also helped develop academies at University of Arkansas, Colgate University, University of North Carolina, and Yale University, among others.

The Joys of Lives Well Lived

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 05:00:00 UTC

A little while ago I received a Facebook message from a former student who was returning to Maine to visit family (all the way from Finland), and she wanted to know if she could show me some poems over coffee. Last week another former student wrote to tell me that her father, whom I’d known and liked, had passed away. In the spring two students who thought they finally had completed book manuscripts asked if I’d critique their work. Another wanted a Guggenheim recommendation, still two more asked for book blurbs. All of their letters were sprinkled with news. Most wanted to share their successes and frustrations, to send news of their families or their jobs, to complain about politics or the Red Sox. A fair number expressed curiosity about me and life at Colby. I correspond, sporadically, with 40 or 50 former students, some who became writers and many who did not, but I’m nourished by all of their friendships. After all, we’d spent considerable time and energy with each other in class, on papers, in conference, and occasionally, late in their undergraduate life, over beers. Though those relationships are well-boundaried—no students should ever have to worry about their teachers—why should that reciprocally earned respect, curiosity, and affection disappear arbitrarily at graduation? Such sustained friendships are one of the pleasures of teaching, but teaching creative writing provides an occasion, almost by necessity, for knowing what students think and feel. Poems and stories are at least obliquely personal; good students will inevitably write about what matters to them. Most often behind their desire to write is a serious quest for meaning. I take that responsibility seriously. Never do I want to forget that it takes courage and trust to write, to risk being known and judged. A good writing workshop is not a support group: it’s a place to learn craft and discourse, to accept constructive criticism, to develop an individuated imagination, and to share, first and foremost, a faith in correspondence: the power of language to describe and decipher, to move and to change us. As a young writer and teacher I was so passionate about writing and so grateful for how my life had been changed by it, I preached that the artist’s life was the path to a fully conscious and meaningful life. Though I still find it hard to believe that one can endure the difficulties of life without an enlivening passion—indeed a passion that’s larger than the self—I blush at the predictable young man’s absolutes. I do still believe, though, that there’s something about the process of writing that encourages a capacity for human connection and intimacy. Whether writing or not, most of the students with whom I have maintained a connection have taken something of what they’ve learned from what writing demands of them (whether from me or others) and applied those skills to their lives. An artist does have to consider what matters; he or she must challenge convention and received thought to avoid cliché, must remain undefended, open to both suffering and pleasure. He or she must temper his or her own ego need for recognition with a higher ambition for better and more ambitious work (you don’t get love from writing: you need a real live person for that). To sustain a commitment over time, writers must be continually willing to risk failure and rejection (most Colby students, as I was, were programmed for worldly success and station, so that adjustment’s often an ongoing chore). The artist dwells in the senses, forges a truth that’s particular and experienced. Writing’s not simply a process of self-discovery: it demands attention to others, to what happens to those who live in the world, those who suffer injustices or who navigate with some consciousness their privilege and good fortune. Writers are always deciphering gestures and expressions, the history of deprivations and joys. That’s called breadth of vision. In other words, I thought—and still think—that writing offers the opportunity to develop trust, character, and compassion. Of course that emotional knowledge has to be applied and tempered by an acceptance of human frailty. Now, of course, having taught many years, having been a parent, I know you don’t have to be a writer to be attentive and compassionate; as Whitman urged in Song of Myself, no one can travel the road for anyone else. I carry many of these values into my literature classes and independent studies now. What a lifetime of being an artist has taught me is to be curious about the souls of others, to listen well, and, in an avuncular way, take joy as these former students grow into themselves. I’ve had such wonderful students, and they’re wonderful to come back to me. Sometimes when I travel to give poetry readings in different cities I see them in the audience: we go out for drinks. There’s very little nostalgia about it. I have an image in my mind now of two former Colby students who married and recently had a baby and drove up to see me: there we all were, sitting in my dining room, talking seriously and playfully while little Winnie was oohing and ah-ing, crying and sleeping. I don’t take or deserve any credit for my students’ developing talents, but because we seem to value authenticity in discussing our anxieties and joys, our complex relationship to the world, we become vitalized and known: we can take each other in. Ira Sadoff is the Arthur Jeremiah Roberts Professor of Literature.

Letters

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 05:00:00 UTC

Jessica Boyle’s Story Inspires and Impresses Thank you for sharing Jessica Boyle’s story (“Class Action,” Summer 2012 Colby) and highlighting the very real barriers that first-generation college students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds face in their pursuit of higher education. As a fellow first-generation college student from Maine, Jessica Boyle’s story resonated with me deeply; from the general feeling of being an outsider to the more concrete anxieties surrounding how to pay for books and where to go during breaks. I can’t help but feel that I let Ms. Boyle down by not tackling these issues years ago. Thank you to Ms. Boyle and the team of Colby faculty and staff who are lightening the load for future Colby students. Sandra Hughes Goff ’98Portland, Maine Thank you for your piece on Jessica Boyle ’12. I was impressed and inspired to read about her courage to stand up, not only for herself but other fellow students, through her determination to make Colby a place where individuals from all backgrounds can feel at home. And I was happy to read that she received a supportive response from the Colby administration. Similarly to the message in the article “The Power of Privilege” (about Professor Adam Howard’s research class, in the same issue), it is important to recognize that not all students come to higher education with the same cultural capital to support them in their transition to this new realm. I hope the Colby community continues in that direction. Sarah Bandow Pearce ’03Chicago, Ill. For some reason I started reading Colby. I usually recycle it after glancing at the class notes. I’ve read two articles and just had to send Jessica Boyle a note. Seems like perhaps you’re doing something right, getting a curmudgeon such as myself involved. You are helping to improve my idea of what Colby is like these days. Who knows? Maybe I’ll even make a miniscule contribution some day. Mention that to the college person who gives you money. Dick Walton ’60Montpelier, Vt. A Jog Through Time I’ve never been much of a runner, so finding myself in Colby’s first Feminist Fortnight run in 1978 came as quite a surprise. I was skimming through the summer 2012 issue of Colby when I caught a glimpse of a familiar face. Could that have been me? I had to examine the photo of runners in the article about Dean Janice Kassman (“Mighty Impressive”) three times to confirm that, indeed, it was—front and foremost! Thanks for the memory. Abigail Rome ’78Silver Spring, Md. Singing Machlin’s Praises Your Colby Summer 2012 issue created the perfect intersection of articles to prompt this note. (“Where have all the letters gone?” and Professor Machlin’s final concert.) Being 3,212 miles away in late April, I regrettably couldn’t join the altos in Lorimer Chapel, but I’m here to sing Paul’s praises in print. We were juniors when the nearly 20 of us music or music-and-another-subject majors watched this energetic, intense, challenging, lively-minded young professor make a place for himself in Bixler’s offices and classrooms, not with sharp elbows but with a kind of leaning forward that let you feel listened to and respected as a student—and, I imagine, as a colleague, too. This California import believed in excellence and asked for it, trusting we would meet him at that higher level of achievement. He also believed in giving us the room and the responsibility to grow, willingly turning a handful of us into TAs for the department in what was then Music 101. I will never forget Paul’s sharing what was rightfully his stage when finals review came around: “Feel free to field any questions you want as they’re asked.” No longer students, but colleagues. Paul was the alchemist for such a transmutation; he made it happen, and made us all larger for the experience. After Colby, I headed straight into teaching. I’m still in the classroom. To this day, my closest Colby friends sing in choirs or continue to play instruments—with the kind of delight and passion that Paul tapped into in us and fueled. Henry Adams said famously, “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” Stop? With Paul, as near as I can tell it doesn’t. Joy Sawyer Mulligan ’76Ojai, Calif. Saluting Colbians in Combat I was struck by two articles that appeared in recent editions of Colby. Winter 2012 featured an article on Erik Quist ’99, who was severely wounded while serving in Afghanistan in 2011 for the United States Marine Corps. Spring 2012 had a piece on Elizabeth Hanson ’02, who paid the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan in 2009 for the CIA. While we probably don’t consider Colby to be a traditional feeder for our national security and military endeavors, I think we should all be thankful for and humbled by their selflessness and sacrifice. Attendant to this, I am thankful for and humbled by the selflessness and sacrifice of three teammates on the Colby football team who also deployed in combat theaters: John Ginn ’97, Ben Lester ’99, and Dave Nasse ’99. Tony Pasquariello ’99New York, N.Y. Heritage or Meritage? In wrestling with our Colby heritage, how should we take account of the stars that have fallen from grace? Should we skip an issue of Colby in silent commemoration? Should we publish an issue with black borders of different widths and saturations, available on demand—depending upon how hard or easy you personally take the fall. Or should we just summarily issue these shades of black depending on how close or distant one’s major lay to, say, banking or theater? Or should this gloom be distributed chronologically—falling heavier on those subscribers who graduated just before … or, just after? Or we could simply change our typeface, in deference to those theorists and marketeers who claim the medium to be all the message. Perhaps, more aggressively, we should dig up dirt on the proverbial Caesar’s wife, thus casting much of Western civilization in the gloom, and ourselves, by contrast, shining as brightly as daisies or diamonds? Or we could just leave it up to our editors to look down on this sad arena and dip their Miltonic pens once or twice or not at all in these darkling tints of history. J. C. Foritano ’65Cambridge, Mass.

Old Glories

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 05:00:00 UTC

Catherine Courtenaye ’79, Modernism gallery, San Francisco (Sept. 13-Oct. 27, 2012) Courtenaye’s work is inspired by and incorporates handwritten artifacts of the 19th century. Her oil paintings recontextualize the handwriting in documents she has examined in museums, libraries, and in her own collection. I am especially interested in ferreting out instances of deviation from Victorian writing standards,” Courtenaye wrote in an introduction to the San Francisco show. “These tiny gestures express an improvisatory spirit at odds with strict rules of stylistic conformity. Here one can see the human impulse to let the mind stray, with pen in hand. … In my work, I want to remember that, despite the radical social transformations that technology has brought, those ancestors are not so different from us.” There is more about Courtenaye’s work at catherinecourtenaye.com

South African Reconciliation Advocate is Oak Fellow

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 05:00:00 UTC

Zandile Nhlengetwa, a South African activist who worked toward reconciliation in the midst of violence and retribution, is the 2012 Oak Human Rights Fellow. Nhlengetwa, a longtime educator in KwaZulu-Natal, is spending first semester at Colby discussing the history of the conflicts that claimed the lives of her husband, brother, and adopted son. She worked for many years to stop political and criminal violence in the region, often at great personal risk. Nhlengetwa, the principal of Ulusda School, has founded programs centering on gender inequity, sexual abuse, and violence. Her goal is for young people to choose education over violence, school over gangs and militia. Nhlengetwa founded the Harambe Women’s Forum, for women widowed by conflict in the region. She also assisted with the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Sierra Leone, working with former child soldiers there. “Youth are in the forefront of violence, so the approach for me was to start with the youth,” she said. Nhlengetwa discusses her work in a Q&A Oak Fellow Zandile Nhlengetwa of South Africa leads a classroom discussion.

Recent Releases

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 05:00:00 UTC

Alexander’s Veterans and the Early Wars of the Successors Joseph Roisman (classics)University of Texas Press (2012) Alexander the Great is known as one of the most formidable military commanders of all time. But what of the vaunted Greek soldiers who fought for him, conquering Persia, invading India, and creating a vast empire? Scholars have studied Alexander and his ilk, the heavy hitters of ancient Greece. In this groundbreaking book, Roisman looks at the experience of the Macedonian veterans who made Alexander great. How did they behave off the battlefield? What was their relationship with commanders? What effect did they have on the outcome as successors divided up Alexander’s spoils after his death in 323 B.C.? Roisman isn’t the first to consider this tumultuous and important period in history, but he is one of the first scholars to look at it through the lens of the rank-and-file warriors who made it all possible. In Good Time: The Piano Jazz of Marian McPartlandJames “Huey” Coleman ’70(2011) Since its release last year, this documentary about jazz legend Marian McPartland has continued to garner acclaim at both jazz and film festivals, and from both the music and general press. Longtime filmmaker Huey (Coleman’s professional nom du cinéma) has produced an intimate and comprehensive portrait of McPartland, whose illustrious jazz career begged for this sort of treatment. “A marvelous documentation of a true artist,” said NPR’s Susan Stamberg. (More at filmsbyhuey.com) World of Wonders: the Lyrics and Music of Bruce Cockburn James Heald ’74Amazon (2012) Heald has written an appreciation of the lyrics and music of iconic guitarist Bruce Cockburn, the first comprehensive look at the works of the Canadian singer-songwriter from the 1960s to the present. While Cockburn hasn’t achieved megastar status in the United States, he is revered in Canada, and for good reason, Heald writes. Cockburn is a visionary artist: an engaging and probing songwriter, a spiritual seeker, a truth teller, and an extraordinary guitarist. Heald, a guitarist and singer-songwriter himself, doesn’t want us to miss a beat.

D-I Vet MacDonald Takes Over Men's Hockey

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 05:00:00 UTC

An NCAA Division I veteran who has won national championships as a coach and player takes over the Colby’s men’s ice hockey program this year. Blaise MacDonald, former head coach at Niagara University and University of Massachusetts at Lowell, takes over the team from longtime head coach Jim Tortorella, who left to become assistant coach at the University of New Hampshire, and Stan Moore, who stepped in as interim coach for the 2011-12 season. MacDonald is the 18th head coach since men’s hockey was started at Colby in 1922-23. MacDonald returns to Division III hockey for the first time since the first two years at Niagara. “As long as you have standards of excellence, it doesn’t really matter what level of play you are at,” MacDonald said. “You can be a player who exceeds expectations or be a high performer for the team as long as you have standards of excellence.”

Poems that Explore "A World of Haunting Absences"

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 05:00:00 UTC

Given AwayJennifer Barber ’78Kore Press The lyric sequence comprising Jennifer Barber’s Given Away begins in August and ends in August, recording the speaker’s interactions—one almost wants to say “intercessions”—with a world of haunting absences where “quiet reigns” and “heat gathers in the crown / of an oak” so the speaker can ‘sow the light of reckoning.’” One might think of Given Away as a travelogue except that, even while traveling in the course of the year—to Ireland and to a variety of cities in Spain—the speaker turns real landscapes into a topography of the interior where she seems oddly content to wait “for the rain / to start and stop”… and “for emptiness to fill / the fireplace” in a cottage on Achill Island. The conflict underpinning this section of “Achill Island Fears” is the speaker’s “reckoning” with a companion who has been gone for three hours when the speaker just “wanted an hour alone.” But even this brief narrative retelling diminishes the poem’s grace—its almost saintly acquiescence and stillness—for Given Away is not interested in stories or in the characters who open their mouths to tell them. To borrow a phrase from Robert Hass on Whitman’s first truly imagistic poems, the poems of Given Away “simply present and by presenting [assert] the adequacy and completeness of our experience of the physical world.” Only here, in Jennifer Barber’s hands, the goal is not so much to represent the real physical world verbally as to use representative imagery to make a series of portraits of the more internal experience of being a “revved-up soul” … “in the garden / on the shred of a stalk.” That is, the startling images Barber conjures out of the landscape of a year are the real story of Given Away. Even the book’s wranglings with thoughts of death and mysterious romantic encounters far from America do not overcome the overarching drama of the speaker’s willingness to relinquish or give over—to give away—whatever the self or soul is in order to understand “the angels on the lid / of the cookie tin” more fully. The poems of Given Away are a series of platforms upon which Barber prayerfully retorts to everything—God, the universe—because it is the way of this poet to “study” things and therein to “steady” them. In this hyperactive, multiphonic age of bits and bits on top of bytes (in which the now archaic-seeming idea of an “information overload” can seem more and more like information sickness), such contemplative gestures feel essential.

Remembering Hugh Gourley

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 05:00:00 UTC

It was our summer to visit colleges, and as we walked around the beautiful Colby campus we arrived at the museum. Standing at the door was Hugh Gourley. He was wearing his characteristic impeccably pressed kakis and a colorful tailored shirt. A slight, very proper man, Hugh appeared large as he stood at the door of his museum. This was Hugh’s kingdom, a place he built with dedication, determination, and creativity. Slowly he guided us through the galleries. Hugh’s love of art was not communicated by lengthy monologues, but by a gentle silence interrupted by morsels of profound information. In his quiet way he told us the history of the museum and the aesthetic reasons why he had placed one work next to the other. Art here did not stand in isolation but in a dialogue that spanned the centuries and created a conversation between different aesthetic movements. By the end of the tour, Bree had decided that this was the place she wanted to go to college. Sidebar: An Enduring LegacyAs he did for so many students, Hugh provided Bree with a very special and profound education, not only in art, but in the ways museums function, exhibitions are formed, collections are created, and collaborations are developed with other museums. Students found sanctuary and stimulation at the museum and Hugh provided a place where they could go, usually unannounced but always welcomed. As he did with us on our first tour of the museum, Hugh offered students the opportunity to see and experience differently. The museum truly was a magical place. We both watched Hugh as he realized his dreams and turned the museum into the jewel of Colby College and one of the great American cultural institutions. When Hugh first became director of the Colby Museum it was just a small college museum without a particular direction or curatorial vision. He soon began growing the collection in a systematic and careful way. Hugh had ambitious plans, and he lived to see them realized. The list of Hugh’s accomplishments is long and impressive. When he had the opportunity to build the Lunder Wing, Hugh searched for the best architect for the project. He wanted to work with someone who could design a building that would blend into the campus, adapt the vernacular architecture of Maine, but most importantly be sensitive to the art it housed. Fred Fischer, Paula D.F.A. ’98 and Peter Lunder ’56, D.F.A. ’98, and Hugh produced that building. The same was absolutely true of the Paul J. Schupf Wing for the Works of Alex Katz. Hugh and Alex worked in collaboration with Max Gordon and created a space that not only responded to Alex’s work, but provided the perfect showcase. In addition to building an exciting and appropriate physical space for the museum, Hugh remained focused on the art it housed. He identified a need for contemporary art in the collection and, with a strong and supportive board, he aggressively searched for and added not only sole, extraordinary works of art, but entire archives such as the Terry Winters print archive, a magnificent tool for research. In an unusual move for a college museum, Hugh also identified the importance of acquiring public art. Hugh commissioned two bold and controversial pieces. The Richard Serra piece “4-5-6” is a perfect prelude to the museum. A site-specific piece that stands at the entrance, it alerts the visitor to the depth and range of the collection within the museum walls. In our opinion, one of Hugh’s boldest accomplishments during his tenure was the commissioning of Sol Lewitt’s Seven Walls. This was a brave move that created a heated but healthy debate about the role of public art. Now, Seven Walls stands as a symbol of a college that is open to dialogue, has an open mind, and encourages creative and forward thinking. Hugh’s entire professional career was the Colby museum. When he retired to New York City he spent his days visiting museums and galleries. His love for Colby and art was always informing his life. When visiting a show he would so often say, “This would be great piece for the collection.” The “collection” he was referring to was, of course, Colby’s. In New York Hugh became a veritable encyclopedia of ongoing exhibitions and art happenings. He experienced the art community in New York much as his adoring students had experienced the art at Colby—with passion and awe. His favorite place of discovery was the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He visited almost daily, taking in one wing at a time. He slowly, methodically, and with an eager eye studied the collection. His elegant figure was seen at openings and lectures. Hugh would often call and ask, “Have you seen the new Fred Wilson show (or whoever was recently up and opened)? Would you care to join me?” And off we would go on a wonderful afternoon adventure with Hugh. It was always a delight to experience a new show through Hugh’s unique, enthusiastic, and informed viewpoint. Hugh’s love of art truly knew no limits. When his health began to fail, he retired to what he knew best: the comfort of Maine, his museum, and his very many friends. He lived surrounded by his art books and visitors. We talked to Hugh often. He was always eager to hear of New York goings on, and we were always curious to hear what he was learning through books and friends and to share his thoughtfulness. The many of us who had the luck to be his friend also had the privilege to engage in his conversation and gain his gentle, thoughtful, and informed advice. We like to think of Hugh as a strong tree that grows in the Maine forest, like one would find in an Alex Katz landscape. Under his shade grew many friendships and mentorships and a very particular and vital museum. He shall be remembered as such.

Belgrade Lakes EPSCoR Research Has Impact

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 05:00:00 UTC

Colby faculty and student research in the Belgrade Lakes earned widespread attention in Maine this fall—and an extension of the National Science Foundation EPSCoR grant that funded much of the work. Miselis Professor of Chemistry Whitney King learned in September that the grant, received in partnership with the University of Maine and other institutions, is fully funded for a fourth and final year ending in August 2013. Interdisciplinary analysis of the environment and the economy of the Belgrade Lakes is helping researchers understand the dynamics among environmental, biogeochemical, and socioeconomic systems in a study held up as a model for other lake systems in Maine. In September MPBN television’s Emmy-nominated science series Sustainable Maine opened its second season with a show titled “Saving Our Lakes,” which featured seven Colby professors and numerous student researchers. Maine Public Radio also ran several feature stories on the project in 2012. Katherine Murray ’12 works in the shallows of one of the Belgrade Lakes. Colby has done extensive study of the lakes’ ecosystem in recent years.

Colby Volunteers Boost SAT Scores for Local Students

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 05:00:00 UTC

Lily Steig ’16 assists a Waterville-area high school student during SAT prep classes at Colby this fall. Maine high school students are boosting their SAT scores thanks to a free test preparation class offered by Colby students. MulePrep was founded by Matt White ’14, an education minor and English major who in high school saw his Massachusetts classmates availing themselves of expensive tutoring and SAT prep classes. At Colby he noted there were few affordable SAT preparatory courses in the Waterville area—and he resolved to give central Maine high school students equal access. White, a cross-country and track athlete, spent his sophomore-year Jan Plan writing curriculum for the SAT class with the help of Professor Mark Tappan (education). Last spring White enlisted fellow Colby students as instructors, and MulePrep was offered free of charge to students at Waterville High School and Messalonskee in Oakland. “Getting Colby students involved wasn’t a problem,” he said. The first class had 18 students, with sessions held Sunday afternoon in Lovejoy. This fall White opened MulePrep up to any high school student and found the word had spread. Seventy-five students signed up from 14 area high schools. White had student instructors (education minors Anna Caron ’13, Katie Curran ’14, Ben Carlin ’16, Lizzie Woodbury ’15, Lily Steig ’16, and Lindsay Peterson ’13) for the seven-week SAT prep session. A bonus included sessions on the college application process, led by Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Terry Cowdry; college interview tips from Career Center Director Roger Woolsey; and application essay-writing classes with tutors from Colby’s Farnham Writers’ Center. The response from high school students and guidance counselors has been “overwhelmingly positive,” White said. Anna Caron ’13 works with a student. The free course is taught by Colby volunteers. The Colby junior said he plans to bring on an assistant next year who, he hopes, will take over administration of the program after he graduates. He’s also mulling expanding the program by offering the curriculum to other colleges in Maine and beyond. Even as MulePrep grows, he said, the goal remains the same: to offer a quality SAT prep class at no cost. “If we have the resources,” White said, “we won’t turn anyone away.” For more information go to MulePrep’s website or contact Matt White at mhwhite@colby.edu.

An Enduring Legacy

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 05:00:00 UTC

Article: Remembering Hugh Gourley In the end a man’s life is often measured by the difference he made. About Hugh it is enough to say that Colby College, its museum and Maine cannot be imagined without his life’s work, nor could the lives of Hugh’s friends who benefited from his unique kindness, generosity, integrity, and intelligence. Early in 1985 a European couple who summered in Maine suggested to me that a large Alex Katz exhibition be held at both Colby and Bowdoin. They said their friend Hugh Gourley would be the best contact. We spoke often that summer before the show. I soon discovered that Hugh was remarkably easy to work with at every level. His understanding of art and mounting exhibitions was impeccable, and he was a master of museum management. This began 15 years of weekly and sometimes daily brief telephone conversations. Hugh rarely called, but he was almost always available. Starting with the first visit that summer we spent hundreds of hours in his quiet office talking about art, current and past. The director’s office was always my first and last stop when I visited Mayflower Hill. In those early years this was a very quiet place with almost no visitors. Hugh’s desk was immaculate, with a fine Calder, a phone that never rang, and a PC that was never turned on. The table near the couch was piled high with books and magazines, which Hugh thought would interest me. The only odd feature were hundreds of unread newspapers stacked along each wall. Finally, Board Chair Ridge Bullock [H. Ridgeley Bullock ’55] rushed through the office on the way to see an exhibition and blurted “OMG,” which finally convinced Hugh to throw away the papers. Hugh and I were able to talk uninterrupted for hours about art, artists, and future exhibitions. Hugh was not a traditional scholar. He was the classic 19th-century connoisseur with a perfect eye who understood art of all periods. Despite his conservative nature Hugh was totally open to the most radical new art propositions and trends. This is what separated him from almost anyone else in the art world. Like Bobby Rosenblum and Adam Weinberg, Hugh had an encyclopedic knowledge that permitted rapid assimilation of new and different art. Hugh rarely imposed his views. He preferred to react to those of others. One of my fondest memories was spending an afternoon in New York City with him visiting dozens of galleries. He asked me what would be best for the museum and I suggested a Sol LeWitt monotype, which he immediately acquired. Hugh was always perfectly dressed. I prefer hoodies and sneakers so I bought him an ace Colby sweatshirt, which he gamely wore once and never again. We did not always agree but we never argued. We often talked about a long-term vision for the Colby museum. Hugh never asked for anything. He offered generosity, friendship, integrity, and intelligence. His reticence made it difficult at times to get his point of view, but this is a minimal issue compared with his unique qualities. It has been said that the museum is the jewel in the Colby crown. This is the enduring legacy of Hugh Gourley’s life’s work.

Two Hundred Years Young

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 05:00:00 UTC

Students hit the dance floor by the hundreds at a ball marking the kickoff of Colby’s bicentennial year. Music was by Pearl, an alumni band dating to the late 1970s. Photo by Fred Field

Tobacco Banned on Most of Campus

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 05:00:00 UTC

An ashtray at one of three smoking areas on the Colby campus. The temporary smoking areas will be removed in September. Colby is moving toward becoming tobacco-free. On Sept. 1 use of tobacco was prohibited throughout the campus, with the exception of three designated smoking areas (located in Hillside and Coburn parking lots and near the biomass boiler). On Sept. 1, 2013, the temporary smoking areas will be removed and the entire campus will be designated tobacco-free, the administration announced. Colby joins some 500 other colleges and universities in the United States where tobacco—including cigarettes, cigars, and smokeless tobacco—are prohibited. The policy applies to anyone who is on the Colby campus, including faculty, staff, students, contractors, and visitors. The change was made to offer a safer and healthier environment on campus, according to the administration, with recognition that tobacco use is a serious health hazard and that nonsmokers are endangered by secondhand smoke. The ultimate goal of the policy, said President William D. Adams, is “providing a healthy, comfortable, and productive work and study environment for all faculty, staff, and students.”

Let the Celebration Begin

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 05:00:00 UTC

Historian and author Doris Kearns Goodwin ’64 gave the keynote address at the College’s bicentennial kickoff celebration on campus Oct. 19. Photo by Fred Field