The Magazine of Marlboro College . Summer–Fall 2007

Transcription

Potash Hill
The Magazine of Marlboro College
. Summer–Fall 2007
6 0 T H A N N I V E R S A RY I S S U E
G U E S T E D I T O R : Brian Mooney ’90
A RT E D I T O R : Dianna Noyes ’80
S TA F F W R I T E R S : Amialya Bellerose Elder ’06, Elyse Lattanzio ’07, Mary Coventry ’10
S TA F F P H O T O G R A P H E R S : Sarah Lavigne ’98, Marcus DeSieno ’10
Potash Hill welcomes letters to the editor. Mail them to: Editor, Potash Hill,
Marlboro College, P.O. Box A, Marlboro, VT 05344, or send e-mail to: [email protected].
The editor reserves the right to edit for length letters that appear in Potash Hill.
Potash Hill is available online at
Marlboro College’s Web site, www.marlboro.edu.
W O O D WA R D D E S I G N
Front cover:
Back cover: Roland Boyden, circa 1950s.
This page: The Breakfast Bell.
Photo by Adam Keller ’10
Marlboro College Archives
P h o t o b y : R o b e r t K e l l y, L i f e M a g a z i n e
Marlboro College Mission Statement
The goal of Marlboro College is to teach students to think clearly and to learn independently
through engagement in a structured program of liberal studies. Students are expected to develop a
command of concise and correct English and to strive for academic excellence informed by intellectual
and artistic creativity; they are encouraged to acquire a passion for learning, discerning judgment and
a global perspective. The college promotes independence by requiring students to participate in the
planning of their own programs of study and to act responsibly within a self-governing community.
Potash Hill
T h e M a g a z i n e o f M a r l b o ro C o l l e g e
60 T H A N N I V E R S A RY I S S U E
Welcome
President’s Welcome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Editor’s Welcome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
History
“Under Which Lyre” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1940s Town Meeting College . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
The Marlboro Fiction Writers Conference
and the Brattleboro Literary Festival . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1950s The Origins of Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Early Voices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1960s A Brief History of the Writing Requirement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Potash Hill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1970s Art in the Dome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Why Is the Brown Science Building White? . . . 21
1980s Typewriters and Technology . . . . . . . . 22
Gifts Given by Seniors to the President at Graduation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
1990s The Community in Community Photo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Marlboro College and the Marlboro Music School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2000s Sacred Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
ON & OFF
THE
HILL
The generous philosopher: Neal Weiner retires, Nancy Pike
retires, A perfect day for the Wendell Cup, Graduate Center
marks 10th anniversary, Marlboro math students attend
conference, News from the Serkin Center, More and more students use the
Writer’s Block, Worthy of note, Commencement 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
In Memoriam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
FOR
A SMALL COLLEGE,
still young and innovative, Marlboro College
has developed a number of traditions we hold dear. We have convocation to greet new students,
Work Days, Apple Days, Hendricks Days and the Wendell Cup ski race. We gather for Town
Meeting monthly during the academic year; we celebrate at commencement in May. One of my
favorite traditions occurs at graduation, when seniors bestow a token on the president, who
stands at the podium reading their names and Plans of Concentration as each graduate walks
across the stage of Persons Auditorium. At my first commencement, five weeks after I arrived
in 2004, seniors each handed me a small rock. I didn’t know what it meant, and I didn’t know
what to do with the rocks while I kept reciting the students names! Finally one senior whispered
to me: this is a piece of Potash Hill. I instantly—and emotionally—realized that they were
giving me a piece of my new home, literally grounding me in this granite-ribbed land.
This year, students placed in my left hand a puzzle piece. On each piece I recognized the face
of a Marlboro student from the community photo we take before Work Day. Senior by senior,
image by image, the picture grew until I had all the pieces and the whole: our community. It’s
another good metaphor for this place, where individuals create the community, and where
community forms individuals.
Every commencement reminds us that this principle is alive at Marlboro. We will soon
mark the 60th anniversary of Marlboro’s first commencement in 1948, when we graduated one
student, Hugh Mulligan, who had arrived at the beginning of the college with enough credits to
be a junior and spent one year here. This anniversary of the arrival of the first students and faculty to create the college that Walter Hendricks and his new trustees imagined is full of marker
events and commemorations of many kinds, including this special issue of Potash Hill.
As more than one alum and faculty member has observed, Marlboro College is one of the
most conservative experimental colleges there is. We are conservative in the best sense of conserving our values, our intensive teaching methods and our belief that the broad knowledge and
freeing self-knowledge of the liberal arts prepares inquiring, courageous and self-reliant citizens.
This is the legacy we gained from the World War II veterans, idealistic scholars and pioneer
students who created Marlboro College. It is the legacy we continue today. I recently reread the
first prospectus of the college, published in 1946. The announcement begins with a statement
from the new trustees: “Marlboro College is being founded at a time when the survival power
and value of democracy are challenged. Its first aim, therefore, is to develop citizens who will
be effective in the task of making American democracy succeed.”
The announcement also describes a place grounded in its landscape and infused with the
Vermont “tradition and practice of freedom, self-reliance, and individual responsibility.” Other
aims of the new college are spelled out in phrases such as: “Teachers and Students Working
2
Potash Hill . S U M M E R – F A L L 2 0 0 7
Return to Table of Contents
W E L C O M E
W
President’s
elcome
Together”; “Learning to Live Wisely”; and “Understanding Other Nations and
Peoples.” “Ministering to Spiritual Needs” gets a heading as the college declares
itself nonsectarian while “encouraging its students to deeper devotion to those
ideals in which they believe.” This idealistic piece ends with the vision of
“Making a Living College,” a vision that will “hold fast to a tradition, not
because it is hallowed, but because it has significance for us today. It will be
experimental and flexible…. It will be a place where lifelong friendships are
formed and such a place that the recollection of it will be a constant inspiration to the student to live nobly and act his part well.”
You can see that from these principles of 60 years ago has emerged the mission statement that guides us today: we at Marlboro strive to acquire a passion
for learning, discerning judgment and a global perspective; we work to promote
independence by requiring students to participate in the planning of their own
programs of study and to act responsibly within a self-governing community.
What are our ideals today, 60 years after the founding of the college? How
are they the same or different? Surely, we too seek, as the founders of Marlboro
College once wrote, “the new efforts which [society] must make to survive in a
world of violent change and deep conflict.” What does it mean to be a citizen
of Marlboro, of this democracy and of the world in 2007 and beyond?
Marlboro College is good at many things, especially at asking great questions. We can mark
this anniversary by assuring that we renew, define and strive toward our ideals for participatory
Photo by Aaron
Morganstein ’05
education and participatory government for another 60 years. Consider again the commencement gift of the jigsaw puzzle pieces—the individual faces in the commencement puzzle fit
together to reveal a whole community, working together. That is the metaphor for how we will
ask questions of the future and respond to them as a group and as individuals.
I celebrate Marlboro College at 60 and with equal happiness look forward to making a living
college, a college we will continually create together. —Ellen McCulloch-Lovell
SUMMER–FALL 2007
. Potash Hill
3
W
Editor’s
elcome
I
R E M E M B E R T H AT W H E N
I came back to Marlboro
a few years ago to teach writing, I was walking by the fire
pond just after convocation and it occurred to me that I was
18 when I first arrived here as a student—which, I realized
that evening beside the pond, was exactly half my life ago.
It is strange for me to think that my association with
Marlboro now spans more than 20 years, or more than a
third of the college’s life. Eventually—sooner than I want
to imagine, really—this association will be 30 years, then
35, and I will cross another halfway point: the college will
be 75 years old, and our association will have begun nearly
38 years before, or more than half the college’s life.
The author takes a leap
Many of us can do such calculations, of course, and
into the unknown, 1989.
anniversaries and birthdays give us opportunities to do just that kind of math. For many of us,
the age of Marlboro College is a reminder of our own age, and of our own place in the college’s
history. I’m fortunate to have been asked by Kevin Kennedy to guest-edit this issue of Potash
Hill, because what he was really asking me to do was to become many different ages, and to
belong to many different parts of history. I thank him for this opportunity, because I don’t
know how else I could have been present during Walter Hendricks’ conversations with Robert
Frost, how else I could have gotten a ticket to Rudolf Serkin’s initial fundraising concert, how
else I could have taken a class with Roland Boyden or downed homebrew with Buck Turner,
how else I could have hung out in the coffee shop back when it was a geodesic dome, or how
else I could have shaken hands with the many members of Marlboro’s financial bucket brigade,
from Anonymous to Zee.
I have spent the last few months getting to know Marlboro better than I did before—and
I thought I knew it pretty well. I hope with this issue you get to know Marlboro a little better
than you thought you did, too. —Brian Mooney
4
H I S T O RY
Ares at last has quit the field,
The bloodstains on the bushes yield
To seeping showers,
And in their convalescent state
The fractured towns associate
With summer flowers.
Encamped upon the college plain
Raw veterans already train
As freshman forces;
Instructors with sarcastic tongue
Shepherd the battle-weary young
Through basic courses.
Among bewildering appliances
For mastering the arts and sciences
They stroll or run,
And nerves that steeled themselves to slaughter
Are shot to pieces by the shorter
Poems of Donne.
— excerpted from “Under Which Lyre,”
by W. H. Auden, 1946
Town Meeting
College
W
—TIME Magazine, Sept. 8, 1947
WA LT E R H E N D R I C K S had a good, secure job, teaching English and the
humanities at Illinois Tech; he had been there for 25 years. But he had
The road coming
in here was not like
what it is now. It was
a dirt road, and in the
mud season it was mud.
I had a Model A Ford
that was pretty good
about getting through
mud and everything
else—I’ll tell you, from
here to Brattleboro it’s
all downhill. You can
coast—get out onto the
blacktop and you can
coast all the way to
Brattleboro.
—Wilmot Whitney ’51,
from the Early
Voices Project
always had another kind of college in his mind’s eye: a small one, about
town-meeting size. Hendricks thought he knew just the place for it.
For 15 summers, he had spent his vacations on a farm high on Potash
Hill, in the nearly deserted Vermont hamlet of Marlboro. Marlboro had
once been a flourishing center, but its industry and population had gradually
dwindled until three years ago even the post office shut down. Now a few
houses, clustered around a little church and long-closed inn, were all that remained. Hendricks
bought the 150-year-old farm next door to his own and set to work.
Pie & Pigs. In Vermont’s hills, he found friends to back him. Over apple pie & cheese, Hendricks
unfolded the scheme to poet Robert Frost. “I’m going to start a college, Bob,” he said. Replied
Frost: “I’ll be durned. I always wanted to, myself.”
As Hendricks left the Frost cottage, with the poet’s promise to lecture at the new college,
the aurora borealis was flashing across the skies; Hendricks took it as a good omen. At midnight
he reached the home of another summertime neighbor and friend, Dorothy Thompson. She
liked the idea, too, and agreed to help. So did author Dorothy Canfield Fisher, explorer
Vilhjalmur Stefansson, pianist Rudolf Serkin.
Things have been humming ever since. Last winter, Serkin and his father-in-law, violinist
Adolf Busch, gave a benefit concert in nearby Brattleboro, and raised $3,800 to start the moneyraising ball rolling. All summer, carpenters and masons have pounded nails and poured concrete
to convert the colonial farmhouses for college use. For weeks an advance party of prospective
Walter Hendricks is
appointed head of the
English department
at Biarritz American
University in France;
this is to be the direct
model of education
for Marlboro.
’45
Robert Frost becomes
Marlboro’s first trustee.
He later takes the
mantle of “visiting
associate in teaching.”
The Marlboro College
charter is granted by
the State of Vermont.
The first board of
trustees is elected:
Arthur E. Whittemore,
chairman; Walter
Hendricks, president;
Henry Z. Persons,
treasurer.
’46
Luke Dalrymple,
Noah Daniels, Walter
Radcliffe and Lester
Whitney begin logging
for lumber to renovate
the old farm buildings.
’47
Fifty students arrive—
35 are WWII veterans.
Students bunk in the
blacksmith shop and in
tents borrowed from
the Brattleboro
National Guard.
1 9 4 0 s
Marlboro students has been working too. That is part of the Hendricks idea: at Marlboro, city-bred
students will learn to use their hands: raise pigs, tap maple trees, make their own skis.
This week Marlboro College is ready to open its doors, officially on schedule, but there is still
plenty of work to be done. The dirt road from Molly Stark Highway to Potash Hill needs a macadam
surface. The college “laboratories”—war-surplus huts from an army air base—have not arrived.
Call Me Mister. For the first year, at least, Marlboro plans to admit only 100 students, 60% of
them ex-G.I.s, with New England solidly represented. Faculty members will have no ranks or
titles; just plain “Mister” will do. (Hendricks picked up that idea at the American University
in Biarritz, where he taught English to G.I.s in World War II.) The college will have no rules
except those voted at a “town meeting” of faculty and students.
There will be no departmentalization. “We are interested,” says Hendricks, “in broad general
education, cutting across the narrow lines of specialized interest. . . . We want to integrate the
learning of all branches of education. When we teach literature or language, we want our students
to learn at the same time the history of the period which they are studying. We want faculty
members who, in a political science course, can teach a little literature. . . .
“In our first-year course, ‘Introduction to America,’ we want to examine what made this nation,
what it stands for and examine its possibilities for the future. We will make a study of the philosophical, social, political, economic, industrial and artistic parts of the nation’s life in an attempt
to understand and appreciate the ideals and beliefs of the people who have made America.”
Last week the Marlboro Inn was getting ready for business again, the Government had
decided to re-establish a post office at Marlboro, and a general store was to open soon. To
Marlboro College’s Vermont neighbors, Walter Hendricks himself looked like a reasonable
facsimile of the kind of “people who have made America.”
(“Winkie”) Barr had chosen Stockbridge, Mass. as the site for a new “Great Books” college (TIME,
Aug. 19, 1946). It was to be almost exactly like the one he was leaving—St. John’s College in
Annapolis, Md.—and an old St. John’s pupil, Paul Mellon, had anted up $4,500,000. But in the
face of rising costs, even that tidy sum did not look like enough, and last week Barr called it quits.
Marlboro is featured
in Life magazine for
having the country’s
smallest commencement: Hugh Mulligan is
in a class all by himself.
First college Town
Meeting takes place.
Year two opens with
five fulltime faculty
and 90 students.
’48
Fathers and Sons:
Biologist Dr. John W.
MacArthur joins his
physicist son John on
the faculty.
—Frank E. Howe, publisher
and senior editor of the
Bennington Banner, in
Elsewhere in New England, a projected college gave up the ghost last week. Stringfellow
The Marlboro Citizen
debuts with John
Kohler ’49 as editor.
The Banner’s senior
editor takes this opportunity to correct
President Hendrick’s
pronunciation of the
name of the town of
Marlboro. According
to the precedent of
the Down East Yankee
language, Marlboro is
pronounced “Mawl-bro”
and not “Marl-borough.”
Six students graduate.
Mary Rowden is the
first female graduate.
Curriculum expands:
the music program is
established when the
Moyse Trio joins
the faculty.
’49
The college hosts the
first Marlboro Fiction
Writers Conference
in August.
Marlboro College News
Notes, Dec. 6, 1949
It’s easy to forget that there was ever such a thing as the Marlboro
College Fiction Writers Conference (FWC). The conference lasted only a couple of years, beginning in 1949 and ending shortly after the founding of
the Marlboro Music Festival in 1950. But during its brief run, the conference
hosted such notables as Shirley Jackson (“The Lottery”), Norman Mailer and
renowned book publishers John Farrar and Roger Straus. In its very first
The Marlboro
Fiction Writers
Conference and
the Brattleboro
Literary Festival
year, the FWC attracted forty-five conference members hailing from more
than a dozen states and Canada.
When Walter Hendricks founded the FWC, his intention was to provide a
place for authors and publishers to come together in order to discuss each
other’s work and writing in general. Although the conference is long gone,
its spirit of providing “seminars on the novel and the short story… supplemented by afternoon round-tables and evening lectures by nationally known writers and critics” certainly is not—that spirit is alive
and well in the Brattleboro Literary Festival, an annual event that is
sponsored in part by Marlboro College.
For one weekend in the fall, the streets of Brattleboro are flooded
with writers and the readers who love them. Since its founding in
2002, the Brattleboro Literary Festival has hosted such luminaries as
Saul Bellow, Andre Dubus III, Dennis Lehane, Sharon Olds, Gregory
Maguire and John Irving. In several venues up and down Main
Street, writers from around the country—and even as far away as
Iraq—read from their work and participate in Q&As and panel discussions about the creative process and the life of working writers.
“For the last several years,” notes Scott Browning, one of the festival directors, “we have worked with Marlboro to identify an author who would be
of interest to both the festival and the college.” The college then helps
bring that writer to the area to make an appearance at the festival as well
as on campus. In the fall of 2006, for example, Marlboro alumna Deborah
Eisenberg ’68 and former Marlboro professor Peter Lefcourt talked with
Marlboro students and faculty about the realities of being a writer—from
the necessity of self-discipline to how to deal with critics. In 2005, Marlboro
hosted Peabody Award–winning radio journalist Dave Isay. In 2004 and
2003, respectively, William Gass and Azar Nafisi met with students to talk
about their writing.
During the festival, not only do writers meet fellow writers, but readers
meet fellow readers, writers meet readers, and readers meet writers. And,
in the true spirit of the Fiction Writers Conference, writers continue to convene up on Potash Hill.
—Natalie Cohen ’08
8
1 9 5 0 s
The Origins
of Plan
A
An excerpt from Thomas B. Ragle’s 1958 Statement to the Trustees,
in which he begins to lay the foundation for the Plan of Concentration.
A
COLLEGE EXISTS
to train the mind. An undergraduate
liberal arts college exists to train the whole mind, not specifically
in order that a graduate may be professionally trained in one field,
but in order that his mind may have the breadth, the maneuverability to act wisely in the whole context of human life. In a sense,
any liberal education has philosophical implications, for it examines the question of what man is, of what life is in all its many
manifestations. With a background of such a general understanding, a man is able to act wisely in
his chosen field, for he is able to see his particular problem in the context of the general problem.
Marlboro is such an undergraduate liberal arts college. It exists, therefore, to train the whole
mind. Its instrument is the curriculum, its field of operation the undergraduate life of the college. Although man is more than mind, the college exists for the special purpose of training the
mind. Therefore studies must come first at Marlboro. The social life, such as the town meetings
and dances, is important, but it is subsidiary to the academic program. Thus as president my first
responsibility is to develop with Roland [Boyden] and the faculty the best possible academic
policy. Everything else is secondary to this, [and] must be judged in terms of how much it contributes to our main purpose. Fortunately the academic program as developed by Roland and the
On the field off to
the left they had the
Moskito, which was
the Marlboro Ski Tow,
but if you say it fast
enough you get “mosquito” out of it, and it
was a small engine, a
car engine, that provided
the lift. They’d ski down
the hill and get the lift
back up.
—Gussie Bartlett, wife of
Robert “Bob” Bartlett ’52,
from the Early Voices Project
The college library
(the Culbertson room
in Dalrymple) contains
12,000 volumes.
Thirteen students
graduate and Robert
Frost receives an honorary doctor of letters
from Marlboro (his
22nd honorary degree).
The Marlboro Music
School comes
to campus.
’50
Walter Hendricks
leaves the college.
David Lovejoy is
acting president.
Town Meeting amendment to the parietal
rules: “All girls must
be escorted while visiting the boys dorm by
the boy she is visiting.”
The work program
becomes voluntary.
’51
The Marlboro Citizen
is revived for the
first time.
’52
$40,000 is raised from
Brattleboro-area residents. President Zens
tells the Brattleboro
Reformer, “That is
enough to have supported the college for
two years . . . .”
Paul Zens is
acting president.
Curriculum expands:
forestry is added.
’53
Awaiting a second
revival of the Citizen,
folks turn to the
Marlboro Reporter
for campus news.
’54
faculty is already fundamentally sound. Our task, then, is not to invent something new, but to
develop and refine something which already exists. After talking with Roland, who is immediately
concerned with such things, I believe that in the near future the faculty, Roland, and I will be
progressing along these lines:
1. Tightening the present general education program. The program itself is fundamentally sound,
but it is uneven. We must work to strengthen certain fields so that inequalities are eliminated.
Roland has already moved in this direction in hiring teachers of philosophy and literature for
this next year. We still need a classicist, a teacher of modern European literatures, and others.
2. Developing a program of concentration for the good students, particularly those who plan to
go on to graduate school. General education does not necessarily mean that a student should
not concentrate. Indeed, the best general education beyond a certain point may be that which
results from going so far in one field that the relationship between this field and others becomes
clear. Although this degree of concentration is beyond the scope of undergraduate colleges, perhaps it should begin for the good students while they are still undergraduates. Furthermore, any
If there were only 27
students and 12 faculty
or whatever it was, that
was one big family. I still
remember Thanksgiving
dinner. We just had
everybody together—
the entire faculty, the
entire student body. We
all just sat down in the
dining hall to one great
big dinner.
advanced training in thinking should involve training in depth as well as breadth, for the mind
is not really disciplined which is not trained to concentrate on fine points….
—From Marlboro College:
A Memoir, by Thomas B. Ragle
—John MacArthur, from the
Early Voices Project
Roland Boyden becomes
acting president.
The first nursery school
is started. Preschoolers
play in the basement
of Dalrymple.
Marlboro is awarded
a George Washington
Honor Medal by the
Freedoms Foundation
for its Town Meeting
style of government.
Six students graduate.
’55
Marlboro and maple
syrup: 1,750 trees
are tapped for
the sugarhouse.
A drop in numbers: 29
students are enrolled.
Thousands of
Christmas trees are
planted in the field
east of Mather House.
’56
Tom Ragle
becomes president.
Fifteen faculty members split $15,000
for annual salaries.
(Do the math.…)
’57
’58
Howland House
dorm opens.
Five students graduate,
including the first
legacy student: Bridget
Gorton, daughter of
Audrey Gorton ’55.
’59
Like so many Marlboro students, during my time on Potash Hill I
knew very little about the history of the college, and I had minimal contact
with Marlboro alumni. I never understood that the names of the campus
buildings had actual connections to real people, people whose philanthropy
or labor made the college not only conceivable but tangible. All of this
changed once I began working in the college’s marketing and development
departments after I graduated. My boss at the time, Kevin Kennedy, asked me
whether I had any interest in working on the Early Voices Project, a documentary film project initiated to record the stories of various alumni, faculty
and friends of the college.
Early Voices
Naturally, as a history student, I was immediately interested in
the project despite having no experience operating a camera.
But Kevin taught me the basics, took me to a few interviews
and then let me begin setting up interviews of my own.
However, it occurred to me that until I knew more about the
history of the college, I wasn’t going to be able to ask our
participants very compelling questions, so I consulted former
President Thomas Ragle’s book, Marlboro College: A Memoir,
as well as articles written for Potash Hill by Dan Toomey ’79.
This research did more than merely inform me. I became fascinated by the sheer audacity of the college’s pioneers, the
humble beginnings of the little college that was, as more than
one pioneer has put it, “situated on a bluff and operated on
the same principle.”
I was present at almost half of the interviews for Early Voices, and I got to
travel all around New England. I spoke about Marlboro with pioneers and
their families, with faculty and with music festival participants, all of whom
had nursed the college, so to speak, during its infancy.
Two things struck me while doing these interviews. The first was how different their Marlboro was from my Marlboro, and the second, which would
seem to contradict the first but does not, was how much I had in common
with those people who made up that first brave little community. I had
anticipated that our Marlboro would probably be different. But I had not
Amialya Bellerose Elder
graduated in 2006 after
completing a Plan in historical
musicology. After graduating,
she helped work on the Early
Voices Project, from which
many of the quotes in this
issue are derived. We asked
her for her thoughts on what
it was like for a recent graduate to work so closely with
the history of the college.
anticipated that I would end up having so much in common with people
who were, for the most part, retired GIs from World War II. I began to feel
like we were all veterans of a sort, and I began to better appreciate the
four formative years I spent at this courageous little institution.
—Amialya Bellerose Elder
SUMMER–FALL 2007
. Potash Hill
11
A Brief History
of the
Writing Requirement
O
by Timothy F. Little ’65
ON
THE
60 T H
A N N I V E R S A RY
of Marlboro College, we are inclined to reflect on the
history of the school’s founders and first students, on its builders and financers, on the history
of the Plan and the history of broomball. So why not take a moment to consider the history of
the Clear Writing Requirement? Clear Writing is something pretty much all of us have in common, so let’s not overlook this part of Marlboro as we think about the 60th anniversary.
Although the “clear writing” process of today reflects various efforts to teach writing dating
from the opening of the college, the elements of the current policy were all present in the
[With the Plan,] I had
in mind something of
a combination of my
experiences at Harvard
and at Oxford: the
Harvard combination
of academic fields in
my own concentration (ancient Greek
history and literature,
including art and philosophy) and the Oxford
utter concentration
on one discipline, however broad (in my case,
English language and
literature), without distribution requirements.
1960s. The first teachers of prose nonfiction at Marlboro were teachers of literature. It is likely
that Walter and Flora Hendricks were the first Marlboro teachers to incorporate the teaching
of writing alongside the teaching of literature, but there is no doubt that from 1950 and on
Richard M. Judd (faculty 1950–1989) was responsible for teaching writing to all entering students in his introductory courses. In 1953, Audrey Gorton ’55 (faculty 1953–1986) joined the
faculty and, through her introductory literature course, shared the teaching of writing with
Dick. In 1961, the college hired Huddee Herrick (faculty 1961–1973) to the first faculty position dedicated primarily to the teaching of expository writing. Huddee taught fiction writing
and some literature as well, but virtually all first-year students were obliged to undertake at
least one semester of work in her expository writing classes. Dick and Audrey continued to
teach entering transfer students.
—Tom Ragle, from the
Early Voices Project
Enrollment is on the
upswing: 66 students.
Tom Ragle introduces
the Plan of Concentration to the Marlboro
curriculum.
Tsuyoshi Amemiya
is Marlboro's
100th graduate.
’60
Marlboro makes
another appearance
in TIME, this time in
a feature about 50
good colleges frequently overlooked
by the public.
In addition to the Plan
of Concentration and
Comprehensive Exam,
the faculty adds a
joint math/language
requirement: either
math through calculus
or a foreign language
through the second
year of college.
’61
Bob “Crutch” Larrivee
’62 undertakes the
first Plan. He works
with John MacArthur
in advanced mathematics, quantum
mechanics, theoretical
physics and atomic and
nuclear physics. He
spends his second year
working in the relatively
new field of nuclear
magnetic resonance.
’62
The first outside evaluators are brought in
to examine students'
Plan work.
1 9 6 0 s
The origin of the English Committee can be found in the irregular meetings of Huddee,
Audrey and Dick. There were no standing faculty committees in 1961, but the expectation of
the faculty that students in intermediate and advanced classes would be able writers necessitated
a joint effort. T. Hunter Wilson (faculty 1968–69, 1971–present) first joined the faculty as
Huddee’s sabbatical replacement, teaching literature, creative writing and expository writing.
It is T. who originated the term “clear writing” to describe the goal toward which all entering
students were—and are—expected to progress. In 1973, Huddee resigned from the faculty for
health reasons, at which point Geraldine Pittman de Batlle (faculty 1969–present) added writing
to her regular class load of philosophy and literature. Geri then joined with Dick, Audrey and T.
[Nicholas Barber] was a
huge success. He was a
rugby player, but he
could play soccer with
the best of us. He could
drink anybody under
the table—I never saw
him drunk, but he could
out-talk anybody in the
Town Meeting and he
was brilliant at teaching.
Built thus far this
decade: Zimmerman
Field, two wings to
Howland House,
Happy Valley,
Borden Observatory,
Persons Auditorium,
Schrader House and
Halfway House.
The community court,
which has always
existed in some form,
is formalized to include
a three-member court
and a jury chosen from
the full membership of
the community.
’63
The Monday Evening
Lecture Series commences, funded with
a $6,000 grant from
the Old Dominion
Foundation.
The upswing continues: 29 teachers
and 128 students.
The Citizen rides again,
this time with Bunky
Zimmerman ’64 as
editor-in-chief.
Nicholas Barber (above
right) is Marlboro’s first
classics fellow from
Oxford University.
—Tom Ragle, on the first
Oxford classics fellow
’64
The board of trustees
adopts a faculty tenure
policy for the first time.
to form the pool of faculty members teaching writing. However, despite the commitment of four
seasoned teachers, there was still no formal committee structure, and there was no formal “writing program” or “English Committee” as we think of them today.
Even headier are the
big dreams at Vermont's
tiny Marlboro College,
founded in 1946 on
three old farms in the
Green Mountains. "We
don't fit any stereotype," says President
Thomas Ragle, 32, who
came to teach and
became president
instead. Ragle is looking
for "the creative intellectual, who may or may
not score high on college boards." Not even
accredited yet, Marlboro
makes every student
take a two-day, 16-hour
comprehensive exam
covering all fields.
Flunkers may try again,
but must pass to graduate. Also required: a
rigorous research project
so independently pursued that a student
might even go off to
Europe for a year to finish it. In such matters
Ragle is an experimenter
off on his own, but he
speaks for all 50 colleges when he says:
"We feel the only excuse
we have for existing is
quality, and we're
shooting for the sky."
So how did we get from four teachers with a desire to teach “clear writing” in conjunction
with their regular classes to where we are today, with writing seminars, “midnight breakfasts”
and portfolios that are read behind the closed door of D38 by most of the faculty? To answer
that question, we need to look at quite a different element of the curriculum in the 1960s.
From the early 1950s to 1970, all students wishing to proceed to advanced work (including
Senior Plans from 1960) had to pass a general examination. The Comprehensive, as it was
called, shifted its shape a little but always involved a series of examinations in three or four areas
of the curriculum, sometimes including a mathematics or foreign language option. The examination was originally administered for sixteen hours over two days—this was later modified to
fourteen hours in one day. Each member of the faculty composed questions for the examination
in his or her area of competence and became the first grader for students who chose to answer a
question in that area. Each answer was read by at least two faculty members, and so the faculty
—TIME Magazine, 1960
The Howard and Amy
Rice Library opens, and
Marlboro is accredited
on its first try by the
New England Association of Schools and
Colleges.
’65
Work commences
on the Brown
Science Building.
More dorms: All-theWay and Random
North are completed.
David Bolles ’65 wins
the first Wendell Cup
Cross-Country Ski Race.
Don Eaton ’68 initiates
a continuous reading of
The Iliad in the cellar
of Mather. It lasts 18
hours and 35 minutes.
’66
A million bucks is
offered to the college
if it changes its name
to the donor’s name.
The offer is refused.
With the help of
federal aid, workstudy scholarships in
Admissions are established, and the school
opens with an all-time
high of 167 students.
’67
agreed in their evaluation, their judgment was final. If they disagreed, the answer was referred to
a third reader whose decision would determine the outcome. This pattern of group readings was
adopted more or less fully by the English Committee, which formed in the 1970s.
The English Committee was formed from those members of the faculty who taught what
most academic institutions in the 1970s called “college English” but which Marlboro College
continued to refer to in simple, succinct language as “clear writing.” The committee was formed
to work with adjunct faculty members hired to teach “clear writing” to entering students and to
administer “the writing program.” Although the decade between the mid-1970s and the mid1980s was a sometimes contentious period during which the faculty wrestled with credits, the
status of writing teachers and the amount of writing to be expected of other members of the faculty not designated as writing teachers, by the 1980s the writing program had developed a formal
structure, including forms, deadlines and standard practices.
Things have, of course, changed since then. Papers are composed on computer screens, for
example, and students have access to tutors—but the college’s expectations have never deviated:
all Marlboro students are expected to write clearly. In this, the 60th anniversary of the college,
we reflect on the foundations on which Marlboro has been built—and, more than almost anything else, the Clear Writing Requirement that is the bedrock of Marlboro College.
Town Meeting passes
the Spore Amendment.
Proposed by Stuart
Spore ’69, it says,
in part, that Town
Meeting shall not legislate a collective external
political opinion.
’68
Geoff Brown establishes the Marlboro
Players and begins
putting on plays in the
barn behind Marlboro
House (now the
Colonel Williams Inn).
’69
Blanche Moyse, former
music professor and
co-founder of the
Marlboro Music
Festival, conducts
J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew
Passion at the first
New England Bach
Festival.
Shortly after a politically
charged production of
The Persecution and
Assassination of
Jean-Paul Marat as
Performed by the
Inmates of the Asylum
of Charenton Under
the Direction of the
Marquis de Sade, the
infamous “Anonymous
20” make several “nonnegotiable demands”
about how Marlboro
should be run.
The first issue of
Potash Hill is
published.
1 9 6 0 s
met together over the period of the examination to grade the entire exam. If the first two readers
Many college publications have come and gone over the years, but Potash
Hill has unflaggingly brought Marlboro news to points beyond for almost
40 years. Perhaps its longevity is due to the early influence of editor Hilly
van Loon ’62, who established that Potash Hill was dedicated to being a
good citizen of the community, and to being a well-written magazine.
One need only look to Hilly’s own writing to see these two goals in
humble, graceful practice.
1974–75
Take the dining hall, for instance, the bosom of the community. The other
day I was having lunch to the thundering of Dave Brubeck over the hi-fi
(remembering when Andy Freeman ’60, live and in person, used to play
boogie-woogie on the old upright piano as we filed into lunch; or when
Milt Sample ’62 used to play country music on his guitar), to the knifebanging on the backs of metal chairs for announcements (remembering
when they use to bang on the metal milk pitchers) and to the crashing of
over-piled dirty dishes (which has never changed). A newer member of the
community was in a state of near apoplexy over Marlboro’s dining facilities;
the literally unspeakable noise, the loathsome dirty dish pile and the
ungracious atmosphere. Of course, he’s right. Let’s face it, the dining hall is
a converted barn. It was never designed for human speech. Bovine, maybe.
Gracious, quiet conversation is impossible and shouting is often inadequate,
as anyone who has ever tried to run a Town Meeting or make an
announcement will tell you.… I don’t know anyone who loves the dining
hall, but it has always been the place where you go when you arrive on
campus after a long time away…. Everybody who has ever lived here has
some memories of the dining hall. It has served the campus faithfully.
16
1975–76
Potash Hill can be indecently idyllic. I was going through my somewhat
crude office log and found the following two entries: “October, overcast,
9 horses eating apples down by the music building.” I remember that day,
the air redolent with the cidery fragrance of ripening apples. I had rushed
out after work and picked a couple of cartons of beautiful, flawless apples
from under the trees clustered below Dalrymple….They were red with
flushes of pink. Firm, tart and perfect for eating, they made the most divine
applesauce I’ve ever had.…
And the second entry: “March, fog, chilly, can’t wait to get home and make
a fire in the stove. Met Bill Whiting (teaches flute) smiling to himself as he
bounced over to the administration building, while everyone else trudged.
‘I love days like this…sort of mystical,’ he announced in passing.” Marlboro
isn’t just the place, it’s the people.
1976–77
Geoffrey Hendricks, son of founder Walter, properly identified the apple
trees below Dalrymple—yellow transparent, Wolff River, MacIntosh—and
one above Dalrymple, a Baldwin, for which I am grateful. (There’s going
to be another great crop this year.)
I occupy an almost invisible slot at Marlboro, though it becomes less so
every year. It is the nature of alumni work to be working, for the most part,
with Marlboro people after they leave. My closest contact with people at
Marlboro remains the dining hall, alas. I bought all the books for Audrey’s
European Novel course this year in hopes of auditing, but attended only
one class…there isn’t time for me to do my job and go to class too, though
I’m plugging away at the books anyway.
Nevertheless I will, as editor of Potash Hill, try to
be a good spectator and let the magazine…convey
the sense of what goes on here. Every year my file
for it gets fatter and fatter so that I’m beginning
to lobby for two issues a year.
SUMMER–FALL 2007
. Potash Hill
17
Art in
the Dome
A
by Dean Nicyper ’76
AS
A
MARLBORO
G R A D U AT E A N D T R U S T E E ,
I enjoy seeing the campus grow and
improve with the addition of impressive buildings like the Aron Library Wing and the Serkin
Center. One former, less impressive building, however, has had a lasting effect on me: the art dome.
When I started at Marlboro in September 1971, my principal interests were fine arts and
music. Most drawing and painting classes at that time were held in a 50-foot geodesic dome
that stood near where the photography studio now stands. In the sixties,
the geodesic dome was an innovative design, and, as I recall, plans could
be obtained through the Whole Earth Catalog. I had heard that Marlboro
students built the dome.
Its exterior was white, with white walls and a battleship-gray-painted
plywood floor inside. Several windows on two sides of the dome allowed
plenty of natural light to enter the room. There were no furnishings, only
single-person benches that each had a tall board at one end. Each student
straddled a bench and leaned his or her canvas or drawing pad against its end
board. On the floor against one wall was an old record player, and next to it
All the woods a stage:
Geoff Brown stages his
memorable outdoor
production of A
Midsummer Night’s
Dream in the forest
and fields.
The Dawning of the
Age of Vegetarious:
Danny Fuller ’73 and
the “Grazers” take
over the geodesic
coffee shop.
Town Meeting bans
cars on campus, and
the Associated Press
arrives. The ban lasts
about a week.
’70
Geoff Brown founds
the latest incarnation
of the campus newspaper, the Thursday
Review.
Playwright David
Mamet teaches as
a sabbatical replacement. While at
Marlboro, he writes
Sexual Perversity in
Chicago.
Fictional student Lynn
Goldfarb arrives. She
is named to various
Town Meeting offices,
and her poetry
is published.
’71
Zee Persons and Whit
Brown become first
honorary trustees.
Seniors opt out
of wearing caps
and gowns at
commencement.
The Plan of Concentration is overhauled;
all Plans become
two-year endeavors.
Robert H. MacArthur
’51 receives a posthumous honorary doctor
of letters.
’72
1 9 7 0 s
was a small collection of physically abused records that Frank Stout, our drawing and painting
instructor, played during studio classes. The dome’s open space and spare furnishings caused the jazz
(and scratches) on Frank’s Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Duke Ellington records to ricochet around
the room like a pinball, which uniquely inspired our drawings and paintings of the live models.
In contrast to the jazz we heard in the art dome, the music for Marlboro dances was often
1950s rock-and-roll performed by Marlboro’s own Roger and the Counts. Dances were in the dining
hall—which produced echoes much like the art dome. Under the stage lights of the otherwise
dark dining hall, the Counts’ four female singers wore full-length dresses and bouffant hairdos.
The four male singers wore black tails, and the instrumentalists sported white dinner jackets
over black pants. What the band lacked in virtuosity it made up for in enthusiasm, which always
inspired all-night dancing.
In the spring semester of my first year, the Counts needed a saxophone player and chose me
by default—I was the only person on campus who owned a saxophone. Despite my undeveloped
skills, I joined the band and acquired a secondhand white sport coat and black pants. We practiced (occasionally) in the art dome. With amplifiers, a full drum set and a P.A. system, the
band’s songs reverberated around the dome. We were much louder than Frank’s record player—
but without the hissing and crackling of the old records.
Roger and the Counts reconfigured into another Marlboro-grown band, Widespread
Depression, which also had its first outing in the dining hall. Although disco became popular
during the late ’70s, Widespread’s members followed their own passion and slid back in time
from ’50s rock-and-roll to swing and bebop jazz, like the music on the Duke Ellington and Miles
Davis records in the art dome. For years, that jazz, as played by Widespread, regularly echoed
from the dining hall.
I would appreciate
it if whoever took my
David Levine drawing
of Nixon displaying
Indochina as a scar on
his belly from the wall
in Dalrymple 23 would
return it. Thanks.
—T. Wilson in the
Thursday Review
Peter Zorn ’75, Buzz
Nothnagle ’73, Tom
Davies ’75 and faculty
members Edmund
Brelsford and Alan
Kantrow establish
what will become the
Outdoor Program.
Maxed out: 225
students means that
even the storage facilities have become
dorm rooms.
The sap is running
again: after a 16-year
pause, the college produces maple syrup.
Thirty-five alumni
gather for the first
Alumni Weekend.
First Parents’
Weekend is held.
Winterim begins: a
four-week winter term
in which faculty and
students devote themselves to studying a
single theme.
RLP—the team-taught
religion, literature and
philosophy class that
has molded so many
Marlboro students—
begins.
’73
’74
Several buildings are
closed at night to
conserve energy.
After only three weeks
of practice, Marlboro
trounces Boston
College 26-0 in rugby.
Murphy’s Law (Steve
Murphy ’76), which
would have amended
the college constitution to give Town
Meeting veto power
over Faculty Meeting,
is shot down…
by the faculty.
The first of many
science trips led by
Bob Engel and John
Hayes sets off to
northeastern Mexico
during Winterim. One
of the three private
cars involved breaks
down at the Marlboro
post office.
’75
Widespread and the Counts, both of which disbanded long ago, reunited on my 40th birthday, and Roger and the Counts regrouped for Marlboro’s 50th anniversary, playing a nightlong
anniversary celebration in the dining hall. These events reconnected me with Marlboro, and
within a few years I joined Marlboro’s board of trustees. The art dome no longer exists, and
Marlboro has grown its facilities and grown in stature, but I still see the same independent and
entrepreneurial spirit at the college that was pervasive in the early 1970s. Students still have the
Nominations sought for
committee positions:
English Comm.—spell big
words, help formulate
English Requirement.
Community Court—
the supreme tribunal.
Attracts strict constructionalists or bleeding
hearts.
Athletic comm.—help
M’boroites relive high
school fantasies on the
athletic field.
—Town Meeting
courage to be different and pursue with a passion whatever unusual interests inspire them. That
spirit has been the cornerstone of my life, and I am reassured to see that Marlboro continues to
grow confident, independent and creative thinkers. As a board member, I strive to further those
qualities, as they contribute so significantly to Marlboro's importance in higher education.
Although I do not know whether one renewed interest prompted the other, at about the
time I joined Marlboro’s board I started painting again, and eventually built a painting studio in
my home. I now realize that in building my studio I unconsciously re-created much of the old
art dome, replicating its white walls, battleship-gray-painted plywood floor and natural light
entering through large windows. Even the sound is similar. As I listen in my studio to my CDs
of Duke Ellington, Miles Davis and Widespread Depression, I find myself enveloped by the
echoes that gave the art dome so much of its character.
minutes, 1976
Milestones: the college
celebrates its 30th
anniversary, Lindsay
Beane becomes the
500th graduate and
the college graduates
its largest senior class.
The faculty votes to
reduce salaries by 5
percent in order to
almost completely
defray a modest
though necessary
increase in fees.
’76
Morris Ale dancers are
spotted on campus for
the first time.
The Marlboro Guild
Theater Company performs in the brand
new Whittemore
Theater.
Smoking is banned in
classrooms.
Rudolf Serkin receives
an honorary doctor
of arts degree.
Hendricks days are
established.
’77
Peter Cooper, assistant
to the president, sends
apologetic letters to
apoplectic parents
who received the
“Hard Times” issue
of the Thursday
Review with the
pornographic cover.
As the decade closes,
Happy Valley hosts
punk rock parties.
Marlboro has 200 students and 35 faculty,
and costs $6,635.
’79
SUMMER–FALL 2007
. Potash Hill
21
Answers: 1E, Walter Hendricks; 2D, Weston Howland; 3B, Captain Dan Mather; 4C, Luke
Dalrymple; 5A, Zee Persons. The Brown Science Building is named after H. Whittemore
Brown—no relation to Arthur Whittemore, after whom the theater is named.
E
5
4
D
3
C
2
bottom of the page.
Answers are at the
with its namesake.
Match the building
B
White?
Building
Brown Science
Why Is the
1
A
Typewriters
and Technology
A
by Mark Roessler ’90
ALL
THROUGH MY FRESHMAN YEAR
at Marlboro, the only thing digital in my life was
the Atari I’d left at home.
I typed my papers (and those of my friends and my roommate) in my Random South dorm
room, banging away at my green portable electric typewriter. The keys had a good response, and
the smack of the letters against the ribbon was satisfying. My typewriter didn’t have one of the
newfangled correcting ribbons, but I’d been using
it all through high school and I’d gotten pretty
good with the White-Out. I used a light touch
The fire department is
running fairly smooth
this year, even though
most of the people who
knew how to run the
pump left last year. The
proof lies wherein no
buildings have burned
down so far.
— Thursday Review
“I might as well think as
long as I’m up.”
when applying the stuff to the page, and I
always had a scrap of paper handy for blotting.
Back home, I’d messed around with my
friends’ personal computers (Commodores,
TRS-80s, PETs, etc.), but mostly I’d written the
whole computer thing off as far as my interests
were concerned. Computers were for scientists,
mathematicians and business people—I, however,
wanted to be a writer, and I loved the process
of preparing fresh drafts on my typewriter. I felt
—Thursday Review
pretty certain that by removing all the effort,
word processors would diminish the quality
of my prose.
Town Meeting
bans smoking in
the dining hall.
’80
Barney Brooks ’52
donates the first
computer to the college.
’81
The new post-andbeam campus center is
raised in a two-day
community-wide effort.
John Chan is Marlboro’s
750th graduate.
’82
New Englanders head
to the sun belt, and
the population of college-aged kids declines
nationwide. Marlboro
slides into its second
depopulation crisis,
this time joined by
hundreds of other
small colleges.
1 9 8 0 s
But a dorm mate studying forestry had an early Macintosh Plus, and she let me mess around
with it when we were hanging out in her room, downing bottles of Tuborg. Even though I wasn’t
any kind of musician, I composed several awful symphonies in a musical annotation program,
and I had great fun twisting and manipulating fonts in a primitive graphics program she had.
Computer printers were still dot-matrix, though, and the text I produced on her Mac simply didn’t
seem as professional as my typewriter.
Sadly, by my sophomore year, Laura Stevenson was less impressed with my devotion to my
typewriter than she was concerned with my inability to spell. My prose needed spell check. So
up to the science building I trudged, to spend hours in the basement, quietly clicking away at
the plastic keyboards in the computer labs with my peers.
The two computer rooms were brightly lit with fluorescent lights, and everything was
painted white, but there was no real hiding that the rooms had recently been used for storage.
The computers—mostly Macs—sat on plywood tables, and their cables snaked underfoot. No
one really composed their papers up in the lab; we all came with our hand-written notebooks
and tried to crank out the drafts as fast as we could (a friend once told me that he hated when
I showed up because my fast typing depressed him). We worked to the loud grind and wheeze
of the dot-matrix printer, and once you finished typing, you hoped there would be a printer free
with a fresh ribbon to churn out your paper. Laser prints were available, but they cost a few cents
per page. By my senior year, however, professors had revolted against their late nights spent
squinting at pages and pages of micro-fine dots. Once they forced us to spend the pennies, we all
delighted in the crisp, published look of our final drafts.
I can’t remember the
exact figures, but [most
students] were on financial aid, on Marlboro
financial aid. And we
did every darn thing we
could. I remember one
student showed up and
she hadn’t interviewed
or anything, but she
was accepted with her
portfolio, her record,
and all of a sudden
[Financial Aid Director]
Mary Greene came over
to see me alone. She
said, “I don’t know
what to do with this
one.” And I said,
“What?” And she said,
“She has no money.”
And I said, “You mean,
she needs loans?” And
she said, “No. She has
NO money.” Even
money for a hamburger
that night, and so on.
And somehow, somehow, she graduated
from Marlboro College.
—Rod Gander, from
the Early Voices Project
New president Rod
Gander starts planning
Marlboro’s first capital
campaign.
The Citizen appears
again, this time with
Kim Dow ’87 as editorin-chief.
’83
The recently
abandoned art
dome collapses under
a heavy snowfall.
Twenty-nine
students graduate.
Thirty Minutes from
Marlboro, a cable TV
show starring Rod
Gander and a gallery
of guests, airs in
Brattleboro. It’s a hit
in Brattleboro but not
in Marlboro—because
Marlboro doesn’t
have cable.
’84
The game of footbag
is more popular at
Marlboro than anyplace else on earth.
First AppleFest is held.
The computers didn’t have hard drives, so files were saved to single-sided floppy disks. We
all carried little plastic boxes around, especially designed to hold and protect our floppies, and
we all decorated them like they were our high school lockers. I had a Batman logo on mine.
Despite these hardships of the early, pre-Internet days of computing, I usually enjoyed spending time in the computer lab. No one was a whiz back then, and the level playing field had us all
Most graduates leave
here with plans for
careers, jobs or graduate
school. For the last year
you have been telling us
that all you want to do
is grow a beard and
charge around the countryside on a motorcycle.
Tom, anyone who has
spent 23 years grappling
with such things as
parietal rules, dogs on
campus, no money in
the bank, non-negotiable demands, church
steeples, co-habitation
of the sauna, cars in the
dining hall, faculty in
the dumps, staff meetings, trustees (and
prospective students) on
campus during Spring
Rites and no water in
the wells deserves to be
a bum if he wants. . . .
Since you have been
nurturing this wish for
so long, the least we can
do is get you started.
asking questions and learning the new way of things at the same time. I got comfortable with the
digital world in the basement of the science building, and I began seeing computers as
creative tools and not just as number-crunching machines.
After college, I pursued my interest in the typeset page and found work as a desktop publisher
at small copy shops, always begging my bosses for access to the latest and greatest design software. This led me to graphic design, which led to multimedia, which led to the Web. For ten
years I made a healthy living as a freelance Web designer. I began designing exclusively for the
computer screen, abandoning print altogether.
Not too long ago, though, I finally found a way to combine my digital design interests
with my passion for the printed page. I started work at the Valley Advocate as the Web Guy,
producing sites for that publication and its three sister publications in Connecticut. Sitting in
the newsroom of the Valley Advocate and working with the papers’ editors to produce relatedbut-different publications (print and Web), I’m often reminded of my pre-computer days. I now
get my publishing fix on a weekly basis, but I sometimes feel like I’m still in Random South, still
banging away at my typewriter, still working page by page to create that final printed tome that
I can hold in my hands.
—From the college’s farewell to
departing president Tom Ragle,
read by Piet van Loon ’63, composed by Hilly van Loon ’62.
Marlboro and
the School for
International Training
(SIT) collaborate to
form the World
Studies Program (WSP)
and the World Issues
Program (WIP).
The Tri-Mu “fraternity”
is established.
’85
Broomball!
The basic annual cost
to students is $12,362.
More than 60 percent
of the student body
receives financial aid.
’86
Richard Caplin is head
cook and stuns the
community with an
endless procession
of fine meals.
’87
Heidi Elizabeth Smith
’88 receives the first
World Studies degree
(photo right) and Jerry
Clifford ’59 receives
the first Alumni
Service Award.
’88
Town Meeting bans
cars from campus.
Again.
’89
Gifts Given by Seniors
to the President
at Graduation
balloons
bits of quartz
bumper stickers
clothespins
eggs
haiku
jigsaw puzzle pieces
leis
marbles
roses
Slinkies
Superballs
SUMMER–FALL 2007
. Potash Hill
25
The Community in
Community Photo
I
by Jodi Clark ’95
I
H AV E A WA L L O F I M A G E S
from my time at Marlboro: on the upper left is a community
photo from my junior year (1994) and down and to the right of that is a community photo from
my first year as a student life advisor (SLA) (2001). Up and to the right of that one is the last
community photo I have, which is from my second-to-last year as a SLA (2005).
I always enjoy seeing the similarities and differences in those photos from year to year. First,
there is my hair. I’m not going to use the word style in this context, so let’s just say I made some
pretty unfortunate choices in my hair formations. Second, there is the community.
I bought the 1994 photo because 1994 was a good year that followed what felt like a not-sogood year, and in the photo I see not just the Marlboro community, but my community. There are
my gaming friends, with whom I LARPed and trekked into the woods at midnight to see the moon
out at the cliffs behind the science building, and there are my history nerds, with whom I watched
Black Adder and played brutal rounds of hearts. And there I am, sitting right down front, next to
Gina DeAngelis and her daughter Audrey, Justin Bullard, Ben Geertz, Randy Welch, Paul Elbourne,
Rhonda Anstead, Heidi Doyle, Maggie Schreibstein… and there is Sunny Tappan, always close by.
I’m in my element.
That element shifted a bit when I became a student life advisor. By then the community
had grown in number, and in the 2005 photo I am with a small group of staff members in
the midst of a sea of students. There is no way this entire community could ever fit into the
main section of the library, as we did in 1992 for that Yankee magazine photo. Yet even though
Students plant an
extensive vegetable
garden behind
Howland.
Christian Brown ’92
helps usher in the era
of LARP. His stagings of
Live Active Role Playing
games become so popular that the Outdoor
Program creates a workstudy job for him so he
can orchestrate games
on a regular basis.
’90
Fencing is fast
becoming the sport
of choice at Marlboro.
Folks get campus news
from The Dead Tree or
The Problem.
.
’91
’92
The Citizen redux:
editors Cynthia
Shelton ’99 and Randy
Welch ’94 bring back
“Marly,” the snowshoe-footed mascot
created by David
Herzbrun ’49.
Marlboro gets wired.
A $1.7 million dollar
federal Title III grant
helps fund a language
lab, video lab, Marlboro’s first Web site,
Internet access, computers, laser printers
and the tech staff to
help people use it all.
The legendary “Men
of Marlboro” calendar
helps raise $3,000
for the Brattleboro
AIDS Project.
Held in Dalrymple,
the Dante’s Inferno
Halloween Party sets the
standard for all future
Halloween parties.
’93
’94
1 9 9 0 s
the community had grown from that day in the library, I am still surrounded by my communities
within my larger community: there are the staff members, the people from fencing, from theater, from
Marlboro Pride.
Looking at this photo, I’m reminded of how I never felt more a part of the greater Marlboro
spirit than when I was getting all of the details ready with the other members of Marlboro Pride
for one of our semester celebrations of all that is transgressive, satirical, loving and truly community oriented. I’ve known Marlboro as a student and a staff member for almost fifteen years, and
I know a lot of stories and traditions—it’s fair to say that I know the place pretty well. But I
think that those times when I was putting up strings of rainbow balloons in the dining hall and
dancing to Marlboro anthems like The Proclaimers’ “500 Miles” or Madonna’s “Like A Prayer”
were the times that I knew Marlboro best.
I mention stories and traditions because Marlboroites seem to love knowing about the
Marlboro that was. Looking at these photos reminds me of the many times that I felt like the
keeper of certain traditions, of certain Marlboro lore, of certain senior pranks. And to whom did
I tell those tales? To the folks who surround me in these photos: the history nerds, the gamers,
the fencers, the science geeks, the Pride folks, the hippies, the farmers, the keepers of open-mike
night, the political players of Town Meeting, the bloggers of nook, the continually harried Plan
students, the four-square addicts, the acolytes of OP, the folks who have had the experience of
living in Howland, the current residents of Mather, of Dalrymple, of the Library....
Even now, as I venture to campus to teach fencing once a week, though I may not recognize
as many of the faces, I can still recognize which social packs they run with. These are my people.
As soon as we turned
the thing on, it was
clear there was no
turning back.
—Mark Francillon,
on connecting Marlboro
to the World Wide Web
In the tattered issues
which have survived is
evidence of the original
Marlboro spirit and
ideals fighting for a
foothold.... [the first
Marlboro students]
were proud to start
from scratch and have a
say in the organization
of their community....
they also struggled with
the responsibility of
self-government, just
as we are struggling
40-odd years later.
—Cynthia Shelton ’99, in the
Jet Thomas arranges
for his good friend
Emmylou Harris to play
a concert in Persons
Auditorium to celebrate the college's
50th anniversary.
As a part of her Plan
project, Jodi Clark ’95
puts on Marlboro’s first
renaissance faire on
Zimmerman field.
Backed by a $57,000
NEH grant, the
Marlboro Asia Project
brings outside educators to campus in
order to incorporate
Asian studies material
into the curriculum.
Dan Doolittle and
Pippa Arend arrive at
commencement via
parachute.
Final faculty meeting is
disrupted—really disrupted—by a stripper.
’95
Marlboro founds the
Marlboro College
Graduate Center in
downtown Brattleboro.
reborn Marlboro Citizen
Marlboro forges an
alliance with Huron
University in London.
The Woodard Art
Building now
boasts a $70,000
darkroom space.
Marlboro receives the
largest single contribution ever made to a
college in Vermont
when an anonymous
donor gives $2 million
for a new library wing
and $10 million for
the endowment.
Rod Gander retires.
Paul LeBlanc arrives on
Potash Hill as Marlboro’s new president.
Kermit Woods ’00
builds his aviary.
’96
opening editorial of the
Countering a national
trend in higher education, President LeBlanc
reduces tuition by
$1,500 and freezes
tuition rates.
’97
’98
’99
Three score and one year ago, Walter Hendricks happily brought forth
upon this earth Marlboro College as an independent and original liberal
arts college with the student body primarily consisting of GIs returning
from World War II. Four years later he invited six distinguished musician
neighbors who had fled the war in Europe—Adolf and Herman Busch;
Rudolf Serkin; and Marcel, Louis and Blanche Moyse—to use the Marlboro
campus for a summer music program. The result was the founding in 1951
of a separate organization—the Marlboro Music School and Festival.
Marlboro College
and the Marlboro
Music School
Hendricks, along with his colleagues and successors, believed in developing
a close-knit community where students get one-on-one instruction, learn to
take initiative in learning and in creating a plan of concentration, and are
encouraged to participate in community government. Adolf
Busch's dream was to create a large musical family away from
normal professional responsibilities, where, for the summer
months, musicians of different generations could share their
experiences with younger colleagues to help them develop
their own musical insights and personalities.
After Adolf Busch’s death in 1952, Rudolf Serkin, joined by his
fellow founders and other distinguished artists, expanded upon
Busch’s initial concept to create a unique musical community,
recognized the world over. Similar to the medieval apprentice
system, exceptional young instrumentalists and singers rehearse
in ensembles with master artists, exploring chamber music
works that they themselves have suggested. The opportunity to
work on a piece with unlimited rehearsal time and without the
pressure of having to perform is an important part of what
makes Marlboro Music different from other programs—only
about 25 percent of the 250 works explored each summer are
publicly performed. Just as the essence of Marlboro College has always
been the interaction that takes place in the classroom, the essence of
Marlboro Music is found in the musical and life lessons gained in the
rehearsal room.
Marlboro College and Marlboro Music have, since the very beginning,
shared a campus and equally innovative approaches to education. Our
families often overlap, and for many years we have shared the twin
treasures of Luis and Geri Batlle. More recently, we have each shared in the
enthusiastic participation of Ellen and Chris Lovell in our communities. Our
Directors, Richard Goode and Mitsuko Uchida, and everyone at the Music
School send heartfelt congratulations to our friends at Marlboro College
for 60 remarkable years, and we all look forward to many more years
together on Potash Hill.
—Frank Salomon, co-administrator of Marlboro Music
28
T
THERE
ARE NO
2 0 0 0 s
Sacred Space
by Mary Coventry ’10
three-point or foul lines, but it’s the finest court I’ve
played on since my own driveway. In the sun, in the rain, in the hail,
in the surprise April snowstorm, that basketball hoop is always there.
I can spend hours agonizing over ten-page double-spaced academic
papers, followed by hours devoted to shooting hoops. I can slide easily
from stressed to contented. The rhythm of rubber on asphalt is the
sweetest music this world has to offer, and when I hear it I no longer
worry about sentences that just will not work or a paper that refuses
to go ahead and write itself.
This is where I played H-O-R-S-E with my roommate and my father on Family Day. This
is where I wheeze through endless games of Knockout in the pouring rain. I fill up the time
between classes, before dinner, after dinner, after midnight, with basketball, with anybody willing to play or by myself. If I’m not working, eating, compulsively checking my mail or playing
Super Mario All-Star, I am probably outside playing some form of basketball.
I share this sacred space with the four-square fanatics just behind me and the steady stream
We teach in the ways in
which we were taught.
And so I owe a great
debt to Marlboro
because of that.
of traffic coming in and out of Mather or the dining hall or the admissions building, but I don’t
—Sarah Mitchell ’60, from
the Early Voices Project
mind the intrusions. I exchange pleasantries with everyone who passes, laughing at the occasional joke—“Wait, there are athletes at Marlboro?”—and chatting with people I wouldn’t really
talk to otherwise.
Marlboro’s love affair
with the Princeton
Review commences
when Marlboro is
ranked the third-best
school in the nation
in the category
“Professors Bring
Material to Life.”
Spring break,
Marlboro-style: Carrie
Weikel leads the first
Habitat for Humanity
trip to Mt. Pleasant,
South Carolina.
The Dragon in the Dining Hall: Asian Studies
professor Seth Harter
and wife Kate Jellema
shepherd the dragon all
the way from a “dragon master” in Vietnam.
’00
Marlboro students and
professors travel to
Cuba to see an international art exhibit.
The trip is initiated
by students.
Marlboro acquires the
Holstein Association
building in Brattleboro
and renames it the
Marlboro College
Technology Center.
President LeBlanc
testifies before the
U.S. Senate Judiciary
Committee on distance learning and
copyright laws, per the
invitation of Vermont
senator Patrick Leahy.
The Graduate Center
holds its first schoolbreak technology camp.
’01
Six percent of incoming
freshmen are from the
Portland, Oregon, area.
Returning students
prank new students
with a campus-wide
invitation to the college
“tradition” of Five Fires.
They take the bait, and
the party is so successful that it becomes an
actual tradition.
’02
At Town Meeting,
a group of students
presents a plan to create a farm on campus.
The community roundly
supports the plan and
earmarks $1,000 for
seeds and tools.
I like that my personal sanctuary is located in the heart of campus. I get the opportunity to
watch the world of Marlboro in motion. I witness friendly greetings, casual conversations, students
and professors walking together, engaged in heated discussions. I observe the small ways we
acknowledge each other, the small ways we know each other. I take a shot, and Ellen McCullochWhat do human beings
desire? I think more
than pleasure, more
than power, more than
any other gratification
I submit to you, what
we desire is difficulty…
In a way, what this
place is dedicated to is
the pursuit of finding a
worthy difficulty.
—Former poet-laureate
Robert Pinsky in his commencement address, 2005
Lovell greets me as she makes her way into Mather. I take another shot, and Sunny Tappan greets
me as she makes her way out.
The world of Marlboro is always in motion, always growing and changing. Sixty years ago,
Marlboro was founded by returning World War II veterans. Mather was Marlboro’s first dormitory.
Twenty-five years ago, the four-square court was residence to footbag players, equally fervent in
their love for their game of choice. Different students roamed the campus, living in a different
world than we do today, and looking for different things in their education. And this basketball
hoop that I cherish so much was located on the other side of the dining hall, and players had
to scramble after stray balls that bounced over to Hendricks House. Then, you either made the
basket or you got ready to run. I need to remember to thank whomever moved the hoop to the
more practical position it rests in today, between Mather and the admissions building. That is
one change that needed to be made.
Sixty years from now, there will be new four-square players—or maybe they’ll be playing
a different game. Some of the conversations and political debates will inevitably be the same.
I hope they’ll keep up some traditions, like the party barge and the majesty that is broomball,
but I’m sure they’ll create their own Marlboro lore, have their own fun, and write their own
history for the generations to come. There might even be a basketball addict in there somewhere, blowing off steam by shooting hoops at every possible opportunity. I am happy to share
my sacred space with the past and the future generations. Maybe some lucky souls will find their
home where I have found mine, in front of this basketball hoop, and in Marlboro.
The college is awarded
$425,635 by the Freeman Foundation to
develop curriculum
and support student
and faculty research
in Asian studies. In
March, a group of students and faculty head
to China.
Marlboro unveils
its new DNA lab.
’02
As part of the In-sight
Photography Project,
photography professor
John Willis takes teens
from Brattleboro and
the Bronx to the Pine
Ridge reservation in
South Dakota for three
weeks of cross-cultural
photography with
Lakota youth. Five
Marlboro students
assist with the trip,
and all the vehicles
make it past the
Marlboro post office
without a problem.
Mather gets an addition: stone retaining
walls are built by Jerry
Lundsted, grandson
of Luke Dalrymple.
$31.4 million is raised in
the largest capital campaign of the school’s
57-year-history—$5
million more than the
initial target set in 1999.
The new Aron wing
of the college’s
library opens.
’03
Ellen McCulloch-Lovell
becomes the college’s
eighth president.
After an initial delay
due to the SARS crisis,
students and faculty
head to Vietnam.
2 0 0 0 s
M
MARLBORO COLLEGE
HAEC STUBIA
ADOLESCENTIAM ALUNT
S E N E C T U T E M O B L E C TA N T
SECUNDAS RES ORNANT
ADVERSIS PERFUGIUM AC
SOLACIUM PRÆBENT
These studies
Nourish youth
Delight old age
Decorate the things which follow
Provide a refuge and a comfort against adversity
Translation of the plaque in the Staples Room
courtesy of former classics fellow Tom Mayo
The National Survey of
Student Engagement
(NSSE) ranks Marlboro
in the 95th percentile
or better among
undergraduate liberal
arts institutions for
academic challenge,
student-faculty interaction, supportive campus environment and
first-year students’
experience of active and
collaborative learning.
’05
The Rudolf and Irene
Serkin Center for the
Performing Arts opens
its doors. On its walls
hangs an impressive
photographic collection donated by
trustee Lillian Farber.
Students lead “ghost
tours,” which keep the
legend of Emily Mather
alive for a fresh generation of students.
The Graduate Center
completes planning
for its new MBA
in Managing for
Sustainability to create
business leaders who
understand the value
of people and planet
as well as profits.
The Advocate Guide
for LGBT Students
names Marlboro one
of the 100 best gayfriendly campuses
in the country.
Photo: Jerome Leibling
Forget about
footbag… students
now play four-square
and Quidditch—
but not everyone: the
Fighting Dead Trees,
Marlboro’s soccer
team, ends a losing
streak by posting a 5-0
season record.
’06
Thirty Marlboro
students head to
a Hurricane Katrina–
ravaged south to pitch
in with the relief effort.
Students return during
winter, spring and
summer breaks.
Looking to the future:
ground is broken for
the new Total Health
Center (THC), a 4,270square-foot addition to
the Campus Center. The
building will feature
a fitness room, two
exam rooms and three
counseling offices.
’07
O N
&
O F F
T H E
H I L L
O N
The generous philosopher:
&
O F F
Neal Weiner retires
T H E
H I L L
“There are two things I carry with me constantly as I’m working in philosophy,” says doctoral
student David Ralph ’00. “I strive to be plain and to call it how it is for me. There’s a little
Neal on my shoulder that reminds me of those things—clarity and intellectual honesty.”
Neal Weiner, professor of philosophy at Marlboro since 1970, left his classroom in
Dalrymple Hall for good this spring, and he’s leaving behind a strong legacy. Generations of
Marlboro students have acquired some version of that Neal-on-the-shoulder through Neal’s
Socratic class discussions, his incisive eye for clear and less-than-clear ideas in his students’
writing, and his own body of writing, poetry, lectures and films.
Almost always focused on a finite, manageable and challenging
section of text, Neal’s classes were known for being consistent, predictable—and profound. One student, assigned in advance, would
read a one-page paper to start the class discussion for the day. Neal
wanted to hear these words: “The principal point of today’s reading
is”—followed by a sentence summing up the reading. The bulk of
the paper, an explanation of the philosopher’s argument, would follow
next with the words, “The way so-and-so makes this point is….”
The final paragraph would begin, “I think we should discuss….”
The content of the last point was crucial, in that the student
was not expected to bring up his or her own tangential (and most
likely half-baked) late-night revelation for discussion. Rather, Neal
expected the conversation to begin, continue and most likely end
with points of clarification or problems with the argument being
made by the philosopher in question.
“The paper assignment almost sounds insulting at first in its simplicity,” David recalls. “[But] Neal wants to sit down and understand
what the text is saying and only then go somewhere.”
In class, Neal expected everyone sitting around the table to contribute to an active discussion,
and the clarity of that expectation elicited results. In every class he struck a balance between
guiding that discussion and allowing it to develop its own direction, an approach that gave students room to develop confidence in their interpretation skills, with reassurance that they were
on solid footing.
David remembers a class on Locke that began as usual with a student reading his paper, and
then the student “started ripping Locke’s theory, and the class followed along. Neal put up with
Opposite: Dean of Faculty Felicity Ratté and senior speaker Sonia Lowe.
Photo by Marcus DeSieno
SUMMER–FALL 2007
. Potash Hill
33
this for half an hour. Finally, he asked everybody to stop. He went to the board and very convincingly showed us how we’re completely committed to Locke’s theory in our contemporary
way of thinking.”
In a class discussion like the one on Locke, Neal would assume that what someone else
is saying has a relationship with truth, and as a listener his attention would be guided by what
is known in philosophy as the principle of charity—a topic on which Neal has written a manuscript, “Generosity and Truth.” It is up to him to interpret the speaker’s words in a charitable or
generous way, so that they make the most sense. Apparent disagreement may simply require
clarification of terms.
“I’ve always found Neal interesting to talk to and argue with, and I’ve argued with him often,”
says T. Hunter Wilson, literature professor at Marlboro. “Neal pretty much plays fair in an argument, and a lot of people don’t. He listens to you and he answers your questions, and he’s always
able to come up with a way of thinking about something that challenges your own preconceptions.”
Neal’s way of favoring agreement over disagreement, balanced with his strong attraction
to truth over rhetoric, can be transforming to those around him. One student who was new to
Neal’s classes used almost any discussion as a venue for tirades in support of subjective relativism—
a fashionable stance that assumes that each person has his or her own truth that is relative to their
own history and perception. Throughout the semester, Neal, who disdains that idea, treated the
student with patience and respect and also reasoned with her bit by bit. The next semester, it
was another new student’s turn to begin expounding on subjective relativism.
Without warning—but not with great surprise to those who were present the
previous semester—the first student delivered a passionate rebuttal.
Neal attended St. John’s College as an undergraduate, soaking up its “great
books” program, which influenced him to help start Marlboro’s seminar on religion, literature and philosophy—or, as legions of students have come to know it,
RLP. After St. John’s, he became a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at the University
of Chicago and then a Danforth Fellow at the University of Texas, where he
earned his Ph.D. He taught at an experimental college in the State University
of New York system before coming to Marlboro.
Despite his extensive philosophy background, Neal says that he “had
originally chosen to be a writer and not an academic,” and he frequently steps
outside his profession.
“Neal is always trying new stuff,” says T. “He’s always sort of exploring, and
that takes a certain amount of guts.”
Neal has published one academic book, The Harmony of the Soul, but it
is much more wide-ranging than typical academic fare, taking in Plato, Freud
and E.O. Wilson, and it’s more accessible than many academic texts. His
unpublished textbook for his entry-level Articulation of Thought class similarly
crosses academic boundaries, presenting logic to humanities students. His most
popular work has been The Interstate Gourmet series, which reviews great little
restaurants in small towns close to major highways. That series, published
through the 1980s, brought Neal and his co-authors national media attention,
although eventually Neal stopped the project because, he says, it was “a lot of
driving and a lot of eating.”
34
Less known is Neal’s poetry, to which he brings his passion for big ideas, clearly spoken.
One poem discusses both Skippy, Neal’s beloved dog, and the mind-body problem, a difficult
O N
issue in modern philosophy dealing with the separation between the physical world and
the intellect. The poem essentially shows that for Skippy, the mind-body problem is false.
&
As Skippy prances around enjoying himself, he’s just not worrying about it.
O F F
Following the completion of his most ambitious poem, “Genesis,” Neal says, “I became
enraptured with the idea of making a movie.” The poem became Neal’s first movie when he
T H E
read it over a series of still images. Neal also produced two short films, Snow and Love’s Labor,
in 2004; the latter, which showed a number of local people telling their stories about love,
earned an honorable mention at the Vermont International Film Festival.
H I L L
Neal’s most recent film, Red State Voices, illustrates his penchant for patient listening and
tactful questioning in the service of reason and truth. “People up here were jumping off bridges,”
Neal says about the aftermath of the 2004 national election. “I thought that was all too simple,
so I got the idea of going to some ‘red states’”—as opposed to a “blue state” like Vermont—“to
find bright people from the other side, to ask them questions and hear what they said.” The fulllength film won an award from the National Association of Film and Digital Media Artists. Neal
has had a reputation at Marlboro as a conservative on a liberal campus, and portraying religious
conservatives sympathetically on film may seem to buttress that reputation, but Neal’s work in
that film belies a more complex truth. In it, he is heard, off-camera, posing many difficult questions
to his conservative subjects, ultimately revealing that his deepest sympathy is for challenging,
rational dialogue.
After his retirement from Marlboro, Neal plans to continue his interdisciplinary work.
“There’s no biography of Plato,” says Neal about his favorite philosopher, “the reason being that
nobody knows anything about his life. I want to write kind of a mock biography—something
that reads exactly like a biography, but is all made up.”
Tristan Roberts,
a former student of
Neal’s, is senior editor
for Environmental
Building News.
Plato has been a tremendous influence on Neal—even though as a high school kid in
Baltimore he once threw The Republic into a pond out of frustration—and Neal himself has been
Photos by
Dianna Noyes
a tremendous influence on his students and colleagues at Marlboro.
David Tucker ’75, a graduate-level professor of political science in California, attests that
Neal has been his principal model as a teacher. He recalls being asked recently, in front of a
group, which book had influenced him most in life. “I told them it was reading Plato’s dialogues
with Neal,” says David, “because it convinced me that humans can talk to each other and can
communicate, and that we can learn things about ourselves and the world by that talking.”
“He makes students go through the act of being philosophers themselves, if they can follow
him and do it,” says Geraldine Pittman de Batlle, literature professor at Marlboro. Says history
professor Timothy Little ’65, “Neal’s students and people who have worked with Neal over the
years would note that his commitment to them was unwavering.”
Vaune Trachtman ’89, who studied with Neal in conjunction with her Plan on photography,
agrees with that assessment. “I don’t know how I could have finished my Plan without Neal’s
help. He was always patient with me while I figured things out, and he was always completely
supportive of my work. I’ve always appreciated him for that. He was one of the best teachers
I had at Marlboro.” —Tristan Roberts ’00
SUMMER–FALL 2007
. Potash Hill
35
Nancy Pike retires
“I love watching students come in excited, scared and kind of cocky,” says
dean of students Nancy Pike—who, after ten years, is leaving the college to
pursue her next adventure. “And then witnessing that growth—it’s like watching a plant grow. Marlboro is a garden where students plant themselves.”
Nancy didn’t begin working at Marlboro until 1997, but the college had
been on her radar since the 1980s, when one of her students did an internship
at Marlboro’s counseling center. A few years later, Nancy served as an outside
examiner for a Plan student. Finally, in June of 1997, she took a job at Marlboro as the director
of counseling services, during which time she also served two interim semesters as the dean of
students. Then, in June 2004, when Ellen McCulloch-Lovell was chosen as president, Nancy
took the job for good. “I was impressed with Ellen’s leadership and ideas, and I wanted to be
a part of that administration,” she says.
Suffice to say, Nancy’s influence on the college over
Photos by
Aaron Morganstein
(above), Marcus
DeSieno (right)
the course of the past decade has been tremendous. One
of her favorite memories, for example, has since grown
into one of Marlboro’s fondest traditions—Midnight
Breakfast, in which Nancy and her staff prepare a very,
and Dianna Noyes
(far right)
very early breakfast on the eve before portfolios are due
for the Writing Requirement.
Midnight Breakfast was instituted during Nancy’s
first term on the dean’s staff. “We had a blast—it was
phenomenal,” says Nancy of the tradition’s inaugural run.
The dean’s staff had a great time, but none of them gave
much thought to a second installment—until students
began expectantly talking about it in the spring. “We
realized that we had created a tradition,” says Nancy.
As much as she has watched Marlboro grow over the past decade, Nancy has also grown
herself. “I have learned that I’m old. That sounds silly—but there was this wonderful moment
where events made me realize that the world the students here have grown up in isn’t the same
one I grew up in. It sounds like a no-brainer, but part of aging is that you lose track of that. It’s
really important that they teach me what the world’s like now.”
Nancy has certainly seen a lot change in her decade here—and been changed herself—
but she claims that much has stayed the same. “It’s like understanding that Romeo and Juliet
and West Side Story are actually the same—you just change the costumes. The students that
come here are still planting their roots in soil that says ‘you will be self-directed.’ The outside
trappings change, and the faculty and staff are committed to the idea that Marlboro exists within
a larger community—but the two co-create each other. When that changes, that’s when
Marlboro isn’t Marlboro anymore.” —Elyse Lattanzio
36
A perfect day for the Wendell Cup
The 41st annual Wendell Cup
O N
Cross-Country Ski Race was held on February 17, and a better beginning to the college’s 60th
anniversary celebrations would be hard to find: more than 50 students, alumni, faculty, staff,
&
trustees and family and friends of the college enjoyed near-perfect trail conditions, with 18
O F F
inches of fresh packed powder and temperatures in the mid-twenties.
Wilson Gaul, a freshman and Outdoor Program staff member, won both the men’s and overall
T H E
categories with a time of 36:50:00. Landen Elliott-Knaggs finished first in the youth bracket and
second overall at 39:12:00. Friend of the college Marcia Steckler topped the women’s bracket
and was twelfth overall with a time of 57:46:00. Race namesake and current Marlboro trustee
H I L L
Ted Wendell won the veteran’s category in 96:32:00. President Ellen McCulloch-Lovell guaranteed
the race times, and the winners in each category received a ribbon.
Cup veteran Edmund Brelsford, unable to race due to injury, presented the veteran’s award
to Ted Wendell. Following the race, both skiers and spectators enjoyed soup, chili, cider, cheese,
donuts, beer and wine, compliments of the Marlboro kitchen staff.
All participants in the race received special Wendell Cup pins. The pins, available to anyone
who has ever competed in the Wendell Cup, can be received by contacting the Outdoor
Program office.
The eight-kilometer cross-country ski race was created in 1965 by former American studies
professor and dean of students Dick Judd in order to generate greater interest in Marlboro’s trail
system. The Wendell Cup is currently organized and run by Randy
Elliot-Knaggs, director of the Outdoor Program, which offers crosscountry ski lessons to students. “The trails are a fabulous resource.
Anybody who wants to can learn to cross-country ski,” says Randy.
Previous Wendell Cup participants include Bill Koch, the only
American to win the Nordic World Cup and the first to win an
Olympic medal in a Nordic event. According to local legend, Koch,
a Brattleboro native, set a world record racing across Marlboro’s
South Pond. —Mary Coventry
Graduate Center marks 10th anniversary
Marlboro’s Graduate
Center has entered its second decade with a new “green MBA” program designed to promote
a socially and environmentally responsible approach to business management.
“The Marlboro MBA will teach sound business practices that every organization can use,
while instilling a commitment to sustainability that our planet desperately needs,” explains
program director Ralph Meima. “We want our graduates to run organizations in ways that value
employees, respect local cultures and preserve the environment.”
The Graduate Center was founded by Marlboro College in 1997 in order to provide graduate
degree programs in the fields of management, technology and pedagogy. During the two-year
program, students attend classes, both in person and online, conduct independent research and
participate in internships. In addition to the MBA in Managing for Sustainability, the Graduate
Center offers master’s degrees in Internet Technologies, Management, Internet Engineering, and
Teaching with Internet Technologies. —Mary Coventry
SUMMER–FALL 2007
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37
Marlboro math students attend conference
In April, senior
math students Ambrose Sterr and Jesse Welch presented their Plan work at the Hudson River
Undergraduate Math Conference, hosted by Siena College in New York. The annual conference
attracts several hundred participants from the New England area, allowing students and professors
to present their work to their peers in the field of mathematics. Marlboro sent twelve delegates:
three faculty members, eight students and one alumna.
Ambrose presented new mathematics focusing on mathematical structures that allow scientists to design experiments in which one treatment might affect subsequent treatments. He used
the example of a wine tasting to present his original work to the math community: if a panel
of judges is to consider the relative merits of several wines, they must taste them in some order.
If each judge uses the same order and the first wine is especially distasteful, the rating of the
second wine may be boosted unfairly because of the judges’ relief at not having a long list of
unpleasant wines to work through. The construction of schemes for balancing such effects for
all of the wines and at various durations of “carry-over effect” for an arbitrary number of wines is
an unsolved problem. Ambrose used a combination of novel theory and computer searching to
add to the parameter sets for which balanced schemes are known to exist.
Jesse’s presentation was on chaos and dynamical systems, including methods to measure
whether a system is chaotic or not. Using a damped driven pendulum, he explored periodic and
chaotic behavior under different initial conditions, showing that in some ranges it is impossible
to accurately predict the future motion of the pendulum regardless of the accuracy of measurement of the initial conditions.
“The set-up is very much like a professional conference,” says math professor Matt Ollis.
Top: Ambrose Sterr.
“Talking to other people who are interested in similar things to you and building those connections and finding people is important. It’s a great opportunity to get a feel for the life of a research
Above: Jesse Welch.
mathematician and to compare the experience of being a math student at Marlboro to that of
math students elsewhere.” —Mary Coventry
Photos by
Dianna Noyes and
Sarah Lavigne
News from the Serkin Center
This year’s Mozart (& more) Concert Series
started with two friends and an idea: wouldn’t it be fun to play all the complete Mozart piano
sonatas in one series? After suggesting to professors Luis Batlle and Stan Charkey that Marlboro
College sponsor the endeavor, pianist Robert Merfeld and violinist Bayla Keyes put their plan into
action in the Rudolf and Irene Serkin Center for the Performing Arts from September to February.
“This was a wonderful series,” said Stan. “They are two phenomenal artists. They play both
in the spirit of discovery and also just for the joy of playing together.”
Joining Merfeld and Keyes were young guest violinists Meredith Hiller, Metok Hughes-Levine,
Seth Ainsworth and Eva Fabian, who performed Mozart’s early violin sonatas, composed when
he was still a child.
38
Mozart was not the only music heard in Ragle Hall, however. In April, Franz Schubert’s
Octet in F Major was played by William Amsel (clarinet), Peter Solomon (French horn),
O N
Rebecca Gitter (viola), Charles Clemens (double bass) and Lucy Chapman and Julianne Lee
(violin). Judith Serkin, daughter of Rudolf Serkin, played the cello while her daughter Natalya
&
Rose Vrbsky played the bassoon.
O F F
In addition to being the place to be for music, the Serkin Center was also the place to be
for lectures. During the past academic year, Monday nights at Marlboro were devoted to a rather
T H E
slippery topic: religion and its relationship to war, politics, law, art and personal belief. The
theme of this year’s lecture series was “Secular & Sacred,” and it included a five-time Tony
H I L L
Award nominee and three-time Obie Award winner, a former Marlboro professor, two historians,
a film scholar, a Buddhist environmentalist and others.
“I really enjoyed the lectures,” said Maggie Cassidy ’07. “I think it’s good for us, as a campus,
to have discussions about spiritual issues.”
The lecture series was made possible by the sponsorship of the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation,
the Thomas Thompson Trust, the Vermont Humanities Council, the National Endowment for the
Humanities and an anonymous donor. —Amialya Bellerose Elder
More and more students use the Writer’s Block
In the past two
semesters, more students than ever have been using the Writer’s Block, Marlboro’s student-staffed
writing center. While the number of students coming in for tutoring has risen over the past four
years, it jumped dramatically between 2005 and 2006, with 185 students visiting the Block in the
spring and fall semesters of 2006. This isn’t just due to increased enrollment—more students have
begun to realize how helpful the Writer’s Block can be. What does the Writer’s Block do that’s so
valuable? It offers peer tutoring from Marlboro students for papers at any stage, on any subject.
“It’s like therapy for writing,” says Sarah Fielding ’09. “When you come to the Writer’s
Block, you know that the tutors you’re talking to are in the same boat you are. They help you
figure out what you want to say without telling you how things have to be done.”
The tutors who work in the Block range from sophomores to seniors, and all have taken
John Sheehy’s Writing and the Teaching of Writing and Laura Stevenson’s Elements of Style.
Tutors meet weekly with Jeremy Holch, the Writer’s Block supervisor and head of Academic
Support Services, and with members of the writing faculty to discuss how to best help their fellow students with what can be one of the biggest challenges at Marlboro: learning not just to
write well, but to write with honesty and passion. —Rebecca Kamholz ’08
SUMMER–FALL 2007
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39
Worthy of note
Beverly Behrmann is the new
associate director for world
studies. She holds a master
of arts from the School for
International Training in intercultural and international
management; her academic
appointments have included
work at Landmark College,
Tulane University and the
School for International
Training. Fluent in Japanese,
she has taught English at
Inlingua in Zurich, Switzerland,
and at the Nissho Gakuen Foun-
A replacement for the irre-
dation in Miyazaki City, Japan.
placeable Dana Holby: Kristin
Horrigan (above) has accepted
the tenure-track position in
Dr. Lam Thi My Dzung, associate professor of history and
archeology at the Vietnam
National University of Social
Sciences and Humanities in
Hanoi, spent the spring semester at Marlboro studying cultural
anthropology and history while
also teaching students about
gender studies in Vietnam and
about the metal cultures in
early Vietnamese history. Dr.
Dzung, director of the Museum
of Anthropology in Hanoi and
an expert in the fields of gender studies and curriculum
development, came to Marlboro
through the two-year pilot
exchange program of the
Center for Educational
Exchange, in partnership with
Val Voorheis has returned to
dance. Kristin has a master of fine
Marlboro as Jim Tober’s sabbati-
arts from Ohio State University
cal replacement in economics.
and has taught widely, including
Val received a master of arts in
the past year at Marlboro. Her
economics from the University
interests encompass dance as
of Massachusetts-Amherst.
social action, improvisational
She has taught at her alma
theory, and dance and technology.
mater as well as at the School
Another tenure-track position
for International Training and
was filled when Brenda Foley
Marlboro. Her interests include
(below) joined the theater
labor in the American economy
department. Brenda earned her
and environmental economics.
doctorate in theater and per-
Also returning is Anne Monahan,
formance studies at Brown
who will again be the visiting
University and has a lifelong
professor of art history for the
interest in the study of gender
2007–2008 academic year. Anne
issues through the lens of the
is a doctoral candidate at the
interconnectedness of enter-
University of Delaware; her dis-
tainment forms and ideologies.
sertation is tentatively titled
“‘The Discontents of Modernity’:
Politics and Figuration in
American Art of the 1960s.”
the Vietnam/American Council
of Learned Societies and
AsiaNetwork. The exchange
Emma Park has joined Marlboro
program, funded by the Henry
as the college’s 29th classics
Luce Foundation, sends mid-
fellow. Emma holds a bachelor
career Vietnamese academic
of arts and a master of studies
professionals to colleges and
from Saint John’s College,
universities in the United States
Oxford. Her research interests
to further their own research
include philosophy, literary criti-
by exploring the methods and
cism, Greek and Latin and the
practices of American academic
evolution of ancient culture from
institutions while at the same
the sixth to the first century B.C.
time bringing their expertise
to a foreign setting.
Guest theater faculty John
Fiscella recently served as a dramaturg at ReOrient, a festival
of new plays from and about
the Middle East at Thick House
theater in San Francisco.
40
students Jayml Mistry ’09
Press, 2006) received the 2006
the first-ever AFI: Project 20/20,
and Anushka Peres ’08 took
Donald Murphy Prize for
an international exchange in
a research trip to south India
Distinguished First Book and the
which eight U.S. films and eleven
last summer with funding from
Robert Rhodes Prize for Books
international films travel to sites
the Freeman Grant for Asian
on Literature, awarded by the
in Asia, Africa, the Middle East,
Studies. And in other Asia news,
American Conference for Irish
Eastern Europe and Latin
Andy Zuckerman ’08 traveled to
Studies. She also received a
America. The AFI project is jointly
Laos to learn about competing
2006–2007 fellowship from the
sponsored by the National
interests in the development of
National Endowment for the
Endowment for the Arts, the
the Nam Theun 2 dam.
Humanities to support her work
National Endowment for the
on a forthcoming book, The
Humanities, the President’s
Grief of Influence: Sylvia Plath
Commission for the Arts and
Senior Joshua Lande ’08 landed
and Ted Hughes, which is slated
Humanities, the Institute for
a Department of Energy sum-
for publication in late 2008 or
Museum and Library Services,
mer internship at the Stanford
early 2009.
the U.S. State Department and
Linear Accelerator Center
the Kennedy Center for the
(SLAC) in Menlo Park,
Performing Arts. Ten Marlboro
California. SLAC is a particle
Meg Mott’s paper on using the
students and seven alumni
accelerator complex run by the
personal essay in the political
worked on Disappearances in
DOE and Stanford University.
theory classroom will be pub-
positions including script super-
While at Stanford, Joshua won,
lished in PS: Political Science &
visor, assistant director, second
in his words, “some silly
Politics, the national teaching
unit director of photography
award”: the Ernest Coleman
journal of the American Political
and executive producer.
Award for Scholarship and
H I L L
American Film Institute (AFI) for
T H E
and Carol Hendrickson and
1962–1972 (Oxford University
O F F
Faculty members Felicity Ratté
was recently selected by the
&
Jay Craven’s film Disappearances
Renaissance: Poetry in Belfast
O N
Heather Clark’s The Ulster
Citizenship. According to SLAC
Science Association.
scientist Sam Webb, Joshua
Kate Ratcliff recently delivered
“accomplished twice as much as
Travis Norsen’s paper “Against
two lectures—”The Cold War
we expected” during his eight
‘Realism,’” a critique of modern
at Home and Abroad” and
weeks at SLAC, and his work
quantum theory terminology,
“Consensus and Conflict in ’50s
on x-ray diffraction software is
was recently published in
Culture”—at the Osher Lifelong
ready to be used by scientists
Foundations of Physics. His next
Learning Institute in Brattleboro
at the Stanford Synchrotron
project involves planning a
as part of its series on Culture
Radiation Laboratory.
birthday party for his young
and Change in the 1950s.
son, Finn Avery Norsen.
Other students who took part in
Tim Segar exhibited a collection
summer internships include Fuk
In the world of fiction, Jaysinh
of new sculptures called
Yeung, who spent the summer
Birjepatil’s new short story
“Almost Machines” at the
researching complex networks
“My Friends the Fritzies”
Oxbow Gallery in Northampton,
in information theory at the Los
appears in an anthology entitled
Massachusetts. He also con-
Alamos National Laboratory and
The Way We Were: Anglo-
ducted research, with the help
learning some physics in his
Indian Chronicles (CTR Inc.
of a faculty research grant, on
spare time; Joelle Montagnino,
Publishing). And the guest editor
the formulation of artist’s waxes
who interned with a Japanese-
of this issue of Potash Hill,
at the Kindt-Collins plant of
American community in Chicago
Brian Mooney, has a story in the
Cleveland, Ohio.
to study issues of culture and
Cincinnati Review, an essay in
mental health; and Jim Zhou,
Columbia University’s Journal
who headed off to China for an
of Literature and Art and poetry
internship at an import-export
in the Indiana Review.
operation.
SUMMER–FALL 2007
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41
Commencement 2007
Six decades ago, in a sparse outdoor ceremony led by President Walter Hendricks
and held in the field across the road from Mather House, Hugh Mulligan became
Marlboro College’s first graduate—the sole member of the Class of ’48. Seven
presidents later, on a sun-filled, blue-skied May morning, 77 Marlboro grads
walked across the stage in Persons Auditorium in front of several hundred family
members and friends. Honorary degrees were conferred upon Dr. Nils Daulaire,
the head of the Global Health Council, and Marlboro resident Dick Lewontin,
evolutionary geneticist and founder of Science for the People.
From President Ellen McCulloch-Lovell’s address:
What I want you to
remember and to take with you is the creative power of isolation. To value how you struggled, how
you pushed yourself beyond what you thought you were capable of doing. You did that! With
other people, yes, teachers and seekers who expected it of you. Yet you did the work. In this
beautiful, isolated place. You learned to be alone: your own parent, your own home. So now you
are capable of seeking solitude, savoring it as the well from which you will continually draw your
being. You don’t ever have to be afraid of being alone. Remember that. Remember Marlboro. We
will remember you.
Top: Platform party (left
to right) C.J. Churchill
From Sonia Lowe’s address:
In a world that is increasingly dependent on connections
’91, Bart Goodwin,
and interactions that transcend geographical space, we wonder how we can understand our place
Felicity Ratté, Ellen
in the world from this small mountain. How can we be alone when what is required of us is inter-
McCulloch-Lovell, Nils
connectedness and shifting boundaries? We come here to heal so that we might join the world
Daulaire, Sonia Lowe,
again and we come here praying that this will be the place, that Marlboro will be the place that
and Dick Lewontin.
Above: Ellen
McCulloch-Lovell.
Right: Nils Daulaire
receives his hood.
makes that reintroduction into the world possible and positive. May we introduce ourselves to
you, now, as the Class of 2007.
From the honorary doctor of humane
letters citation for Dr. Nils Daulaire:
You left
the government in 1998 to lead the Global Health Council.
As head of the world’s largest alliance dedicated to improvPhotos in
this section by
Marcus DeSieno,
Sarah Lavigne and
Dianna Noyes
ing health around the globe, you bring together thousands
of health experts from 103 countries to identify international
health problems, bring them to the attention of critical
decision makers and garner the collective will to solve them.
From grassroots efforts to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS to
collaborating with the World Health Organization to fight
river blindness, you strive to make the health of a jungle
village as important as the health of an American suburb.
42
From Dr. Nils Daulaire’s address:
Thurgood Marshall,
O N
the former Supreme Court justice—the first African-American justice of the Supreme Court and the lawyer who argued Brown v.
&
Board of Education, phrased it best, I think. He said, “I did what
O F F
I could with what I had.” Don’t set out to fix things, but instead,
set out to find out what obstacles are in the way of the people who
are experiencing them so that they can fix them themselves. It takes
T H E
you out of the realm of being a savior, and into the realm of being
a good handyman. And that’s where we should be.
H I L L
From the honorary doctor of humane
letters citation for Dick Lewontin:
You have been called “brilliant”
and “pernicious,” you have been compared to Marx and St. Augustine, you have
made many friends and a few enemies. You have moved science forward in ways that
will be valued for generations to come. And you have pricked our conscience, a gadfly
reminding us that we must forever question science, question the motives of others,
question ourselves. And through all this you have been the good neighbor down
the road. You serve on Marlboro’s Volunteer Fire Department and in the Marlboro
Historical Society, and are a trustee of the Marlboro Music School and Festival.
You have been a valued friend of Marlboro College, teaching here gratis, serving
as an outside examiner and welcoming Marlboro students to your Harvard lab.
From Dick Lewontin’s address:
Top: Nils Daulaire.
I came here in the early sixties, at Tom Ragle’s invi-
tation, to give a talk—and after the talk, by the way, I should tell you, Tom and I went around
the various buildings in the evening and turned off the lights, which was one of the jobs of the
Above: Dick Lewontin.
Below: C.J. Churchill.
president at that time.… In my association with Marlboro over the years I’ve discovered that I’m
not a very good teacher, because I cannot do what the wonderful teachers at Marlboro can do.
Which is not to stand up in front of a lot of people and give them the right line, but to sit down
with six or eight students and together work out, in an interaction, what the truth of the matter
is, both by drawing the students out and by putting a little input in. The real interaction—that’s
what teaching is, as opposed to lecturing, and you are extremely fortunate in having been at an
institution where you’ve had real teaching and not just lecturing.
From C.J. Churchill’s valediction:
This is prelude; it is also the beginning that will
be in your end. You will remember this place, these people and the things you were made to contemplate and confront here for the balance of your life and work in the world. The winters can
be hard; but the spring is always ahead with its lush promise of replenishment and celebration. It
seems ironic that we must leave a place we love so much in a season of hope, but that is perhaps
because it is with hope that we are meant to forge ahead, remembering this place always and
returning to it often as it reemerges, like a seedling, in our lives, however far away we travel.
Alma mater translates as nourishing mother. This parent must now let you go, but only to do
more of the good work you did here in the lives, loves and creative acts which await.
SUMMER–FALL 2007
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43
The Audrey Alley Gorton Award, given
in memory of Audrey Gorton, Marlboro
alumna and member of the faculty for 33
years, to the student who best reflects the
Gorton qualities of a passion for reading,
independence of critical judgment, fastidious
attention to matters of style and a gift for
intelligent conversation. Esther Hall-Reinhard.
Daniel Garcia-Galili, Laura Baetscher,
Jennifer Lee and Evan Mehler.
The Sally and Valerio Montanari Theatre
Prize, awarded annually to a graduating
senior who has made the greatest overall
contribution to the pursuit of excellence in
theater production. Evan Mehler.
Roland W. Boyden Prize, given by the
humanities faculty to a student who has
Esther Hall-Reinhard.
demonstrated excellence in the humanities.
The Helen W. Clark Prize, awarded by
Roland Boyden was a founding faculty member
the visual arts faculty for the best Plan of
of the college, acting president, dean and
Concentration in the studio arts. Ryan Kish
trustee. Tiffany Phelan.
and Sarah Wise.
The Freshman/Sophomore Essay Prize,
The Dr. Loren C. Bronsen Memorial
given annually for the best essay written for a
Award for Excellence in Classics, estab-
Marlboro course. It is awarded by the English
lished by the family of Loren Bronsen ’73,
Committee. Personal: Sarah Horowitz for
to encourage undergraduate work in classics.
“Accepting the Reality of My Dreams.”
Natalie Cohen and Philip Holderith.
Analytical: Carrie Strimbeck for “An Analysis
of Paradise Lost.” Honorable Mention
(Personal): Mary Coventry for “The Truth.”
Honorable Mention (Analytical): Claire
Jacubiszyn for “Reparations and Marginalization: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo
and the Policies of Argentina.”
44
Academic Prizes
O N
The William Davisson Prize, created by
&
the Town Meeting Selectboard and named
O F F
in honor of Will Davisson, who served as a
faculty member for 18 years and as a trustee
T H E
for 22 years, awarded to one or more students
for extraordinary contributions to the
H I L L
Marlboro community. Elizabeth Thompson.
The Ryan Larsen Memorial Prize, estabLisa Miskelly.
lished in 2006 in memory of Ryan Jeffrey
Larsen, who felt transformed by the opportu-
The Hilly van Loon Prize, established by
nities to learn and grow within the embrace
the Class of 2000 in honor of Hilly van Loon,
of the Marlboro College community, awarded
Marlboro Class of 1962 and staff member for
to a junior or senior who best reflects Ryan’s
23 years, given to the senior who best reflects
qualities of philosophical curiosity, creativity,
Hilly’s wisdom, compassion, community
compassion and spiritual inquiry. Joe Mirsky.
involvement, quiet dedication to the spirit
of Marlboro College, joy in writing and celebration of life. Lisa Miskelly.
The Buck Turner Prize, awarded to a student
who demonstrates excellence in the natural
sciences, who uses interdisciplinary approaches
and who places his or her work in the context
of larger questions. Susannah Sosman.
The Religion, Literature and Philosophy
Prize, presented to a student whose intellec-
Sarah Wise, Sarah Dobbins
and Amanda Martin.
tual excellence and breadth of learning best
embodies the great traditions of classical
humanism. Sonia Lowe.
SUMMER–FALL 2007
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45
2007 Graduates and their Plans of Concentration
Laura Rachel Baetscher
Bachelor of Arts
ANTHROPOLOGY & HISTORY
& LANGUAGES/Spanish
PLAN: An analysis of the Arabization of the
Iberian Peninsula and the legacy of Moorish
Spain, using the Spanish language.
PROJECT: A paper on the Arabization of the
Iberian Peninsula (A.D. 756–ca. A.D. 1100).
Sponsors: Gloria Biamonte, Carol Hendrickson, Timothy F. Little, Resha Cardone
Outside Evaluator: Maryanne Leone,
Assumption College
Valerie Barrett
Bachelor of Arts
ECONOMICS
PLAN: A study of political economy with an
emphasis on poverty and labor markets in the
United States.
PROJECT: A paper on the living wage movement as a way of addressing income inequality
and economic opportunity.
Sponsors: James A. Tober,
Geraldine Pittman de Batlle
Outside Evaluator: Jeanette Wicks-Lim,
University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Colin Mark Bonnington
Bachelor of Arts
THEATER
PLAN: Studies in theater with particular
attention paid to the craft of the actor.
PROJECT: Preparation and performance of
The Zoo Story, by Edward Albee.
Sponsor: Paul D. Nelsen
Outside Evaluator: Edward Isser,
College of the Holy Cross
Lydia Borowicz
Bachelor of Arts
THEATER
PLAN: A study of theater focusing on an
exploration of directing, with supporting studies
in dramatic literature, theater history and criticism, with a focus on the plays of Edward Albee.
PROJECT: The selection, study, rehearsal and
performance of Edward Albee’s play The Goat,
or Who is Sylvia?
Cameron Campbell
Bachelor of Arts in International Studies
POLITICAL SCIENCE & DEVELOPMENT STUDIES & RELIGION
PLAN: An investigation of religious and
political development paradigms.
PROJECT: A case study of the development
rhetoric in the case of the Dayak of West
Kalimantan, Indonesia.
Internship: East and West Kalimantan,
Indonesia
Sponsors: Meg Mott, Amer Latif
Outside Evaluator: Lini Wollenberg,
University of Vermont
Neal Weiner and Jerry Levy.
John Berry
Bachelor of Arts
ECONOMICS & AMERICAN STUDIES
PLAN: An exploration of economics and
American studies focusing on environmental
public policy of the mid- to late 20th century.
PROJECT: An interdisciplinary paper on
American de-industrialization and the rise
of urban brownfields.
Sponsors: James A. Tober, Kathryn E. Ratcliff
Outside Evaluator: William Shutkin,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
46
Ryan Campbell
Bachelor of Arts
RELIGION
PLAN: An examination of the relationship
between God and man (creator and creature)
in Christian and Islamic traditions, supported
by analysis of works by Ibn al-’Arabi, Herman
Melville and the Book of Job.
PROJECT: A set of papers comparing the
monotheistic understanding of creation in
the Bible and Qur’an, and the relationships
made possible by such a worldview, through
the Book of Job and the works of Ibn al-’Arabi.
Sponsors: Amer Latif, John Sheehy Outside
Evaluator: Michael Pittman, Albany College
of Pharmacy
Liz Crain ’05, Nate Chates
and KP Peterson.
Margaret O’Brien Cassidy
Bachelor of Arts
AMERICAN STUDIES/Photography
PLAN: A study of urban planning and the built
environment in Chicago from 1890 to the present, with supporting work in photography.
PROJECT: A paper exploring reforms of urban
spaces in Chicago from 1871 to 1909.
Sponsors: Kathryn E. Ratcliff, John Willis
Outside Evaluator: Francis Couvares,
Amherst College
Amanda Charland
Bachelor of Science
BIOLOGY/Alpine Ecology & RELIGION
PLAN: An examination of environmental biology including ecological field work in a Rocky
Mountain ecosystem, and an investigation of
environmental ethics from religious perspectives.
PROJECT: A paper presenting and analyzing
data on soil carbon in avalanche zones at different stages of recovery from a field study in the
Colorado Rocky Mountains.
Sponsors: Robert E. Engel,
Jennifer Ramstetter, Amer Latif
Outside Evaluator: Joy Ackerman,
Antioch University New England
PLAN: An effort to apply biological
principles to the graphic and biological
design of dragons.
PROJECT: A paper examining the physiology
and behavioral ecology of dragons.
Sponsors: Robert E. Engel, Timothy J. Segar
Outside Evaluator: Hector Galbraith,
Environmental Consultant
Franklin Crump
POLITICAL SCIENCE & THEATER
PLAN: The development of Theater of the
Oppressed, its theoretical background and its
efficacy as a tool for change.
PROJECT: An investigation of Augusto Boal’s
theories and techniques, through the teaching
of an introductory class on Theater of the
Oppressed.
Internship: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Sponsors: Paul D. Nelsen, Gerald E. Levy
Outside Evaluator: Mara B. Sabinson,
Dartmouth College
Sonia Darrow
Bachelor of Arts
SOCIOLOGY
PLAN: A focus on the topic of intentional
communities as manifestations of dissatisfaction
with mainstream society and as attempts to
improve on existing society. An examination
of the motivations behind, and the successes
and failures among, such communities.
PROJECT: Two ethnographic case studies: one
about a successful community and the other
about a problematic one.
Sponsor: Gerald E. Levy
Outside Evaluator: Willem Brooke-deBock,
Kaplan University
Micaela French
Bachelor of Arts
ECONOMICS/Development Studies
PLAN: A study of development economics
with an emphasis on urbanization, social
entrepreneurship and the role of nongovernmental organizations.
PROJECT: A paper exploring trends in
urbanization as they affect the dairy industry
in Bangladesh, with a case study of BRAC
Dairy based on field research.
Sponsors: James A. Tober, Lynette Rummel
Outside Evaluator: James Levinson,
Tufts University
Sarah Dobbins
Bachelor of Arts
BIOLOGY & PHOTOGRAPHY
Wylin Daigle and Sonya Darrow.
Hannah Curtin
Bachelor of Arts
LITERATURE & HISTORY
PLAN: An exploration of how 20th-century
Irish writers negotiate an “Irish” identity when
reflecting on their national and cultural history.
PROJECT: A comparison and analysis of the
Irish identities constructed and put forward by
James Joyce and William Butler Yeats.
Sponsors: Laura D’Angelo, T. Hunter
Wilson, Timothy F. Little
Outside Evaluator: Paul Cullity,
Keene State College
PLAN: A study on public health in Peru using
immunology and photography.
PROJECT: A research project on the epidemiology of parasitosis and anemia in children from
rural Peru.
Sponsors: Todd Smith, John Willis,
Robert E. Engel
Outside Evaluator: Sharon McDonnell,
Dartmouth College
Justin Friedman
Bachelor of Arts
RELIGION/Political Science
PLAN: A study of the intersection between
religion and politics, with a focus on Messianism
in the Hebrew Bible and Synoptic Gospels.
PROJECT: Textual analysis of the development
and understanding of Messianism in the Hebrew
Bible and Synoptic Gospels.
Sponsors: Meg Mott, Amer Latif
Outside Evaluator: Jed Donelan,
Franklin Pierce College
Christina Knoepfel.
SUMMER–FALL 2007
. Potash Hill
47
H I L L
PLAN: An exploration of the literary devices in
Dante’s Inferno using a fourfold interpretation,
a dance performance exploring images from The
Divine Comedy and a collection of original short
fiction based on the importance of place.
PROJECT: A paper exploring how Dante weaves
allusions from the biblical world, the classical
world and his own time into his depiction of
place in the Inferno and how this layering creates a literary palimpsest.
Sponsors: Geraldine Pittman de Batlle,
T. Hunter Wilson, Dana Holby,
Laura C. Stevenson
Outside Evaluator: Franklin Reeve,
Wesleyan University, emeritus
T H E
PLAN: A broad study across the field of biology
with an understanding of the ecology of Vermont.
PROJECT: A study of winter adaptations in
Vermont birds with a focus on feeding dynamics
in black-capped chickadees.
Sponsors: Jennifer Ramstetter, Robert E. Engel
Outside Evaluator: Rosalind Yanishevsky,
Ecological Consultant
O F F
Alyssa Follansbee
Bachelor of Science
BIOLOGY
&
Wylin Daigle
Bachelor of Arts
LITERATURE & WRITING & DANCE
O N
Nathan Chates
Bachelor of Arts
BIOLOGY/Ecology
Christopher John Gabriel
Bachelor of Arts
THEATER
PLAN: An exploration of ritual practice and
its relationship to performance.
PROJECT: The adaptation of the Tibetan Book
of the Dead into a staged performance.
Silver Gerety
POLITICAL SCIENCE/Political Theory
& French
Jessica Hanna
Bachelor of Arts
AMERICAN STUDIES &
FILM/VIDEO STUDIES
PLAN: A series of essays in political theory
addressing the theme of personal judgment
in the face of the incomprehensible.
PROJECT: An essay on the problem of individual complicity in systemic crimes.
Internship: Kigali, Rwanda
Sponsors: Lynette Rummel, Meg Mott,
Laura D’Angelo
Outside Evaluator: Penny Gill,
Mount Holyoke College
PLAN: A study focusing on narratives of
national identity in 20th-century U.S. culture,
drawing on historical scholarship, history textbooks and media representations aimed at a
popular audience.
PROJECT: A paper exploring shifting portrayals
of the American Revolution in the context of
broader social, political and educational changes
across the 20th century.
Sponsors: Kathryn E. Ratcliff, Jay Craven
Outside Evaluator: Daniel Horowitz,
Smith College
Kirsten Gravdahl
Bachelor of Arts
VISUAL ARTS
PLAN: A study in visual arts focusing on architecture through design, research, photography
and sculpture.
PROJECT: An exhibit of architectural design,
model making, photography and sculpture.
Sponsors: John Willis, Timothy J. Segar
Outside Evaluator: Karolina Kawiaka,
Dartmouth College
Emma Gardner and Dakota.
Daniel Garcia-Galili
Bachelor of Science
PHYSICS/Astronomy &
Computational Methods
PLAN: A study of astrophysics and applicable
computational techniques, as well as methods
in science outreach.
PROJECT: Research on star formation, focused on
energetic protostellar outflows in molecular clouds.
Sponsor: Travis Norsen
Outside Evaluator: Jason Zimba,
Bennington College
Emma Louise Gardner
Bachelor of Arts
AMERICAN STUDIES/Literature
PLAN: An exploration of changing attitudes
toward and interactions with the environment
in post–World War II American society, with
an emphasis on patterns of domination and
cultural resistance.
PROJECT: A paper analyzing the aboveground
nuclear weapons testing program during
the Cold War.
Sponsors: Kathryn E. Ratcliff,
Gloria Biamonte
Outside Evaluator: Randall Knoper,
48
Camille Grec
Bachelor of Arts
VISUAL ARTS
Jordan Hendrickson
Bachelor of Arts
BIOCHEMISTRY & DANCE
& BIOLOGY
PLAN: A study of natural science and dance in an
effort to understand signaling and mate selection.
PROJECT: A study of mate selection and
gender recognition, with an emphasis on
human pheromones.
Sponsors: Todd Smith, Dana Holby,
Robert E. Engel
Outside Evaluator: Catherine Parker,
University of Pennsylvania
PLAN: Through visual arts, a study and documentation of movement, mapping physical
intersections with personal experience.
PROJECT: Exhibition of two-dimensional and
three-dimensional artwork that maps and abstracts
everyday movement and travel experiences.
Sponsors: Cathy Osman, Carol Hendrickson
Outside Evaluator: Olivia Bernard,
Independent Artist
Esther Hall-Reinhard
Bachelor of Arts
MUSIC/Performance
PLAN: To gain an understanding of Baroque
violin performance practice.
PROJECT: Two recitals: the first serves as an
introduction to the experience of historically
informed performance; the second reflects the
paper topic of the evolution of the repertoire
by presenting works that span the entire period
and exhibit differences in national styles of
composition.
Sponsor: Stanley Charkey
Outside Evaluator: Myron Lutzke,
Mannes College of Music
President Ellen McCulloch-Lovell and parent
trustee Ann Helwege greet graduates.
Andrew Hood
Bachelor of Arts
FILM/VIDEO STUDIES
PLAN: An exploration of war and U.S. visual
media from the end of the Vietnam War to the
present, with an emphasis on television.
PROJECT: A television screenplay and pilot
episode examining the Iraq War through
comedy and narrative.
Sponsors: Jay Craven, Kathryn E. Ratcliff
Outside Evaluator: Kenneth Peck,
Burlington College
Ian Reid Jones
Bachelor of Arts
CERAMICS & ANTHROPOLOGY
PLAN: A firm grounding in ceramics and
anthropology, with a focus on Japanese tableware and food culture and an emphasis on
wheel-thrown forms and traditional foods
as they relate to Japanese identities.
PROJECT: A ceramics exhibit displaying
utilitarian works created with inspiration from
Japanese ceramic traditions.
Sponsors: Carol Hendrickson, Michael Boylen
Outside Evaluator: Angela Fina,
Independent Artist
Christina Deserae Knoepfel
Bachelor of Arts
DANCE & LITERATURE
PLAN: A study of dance art forms and of literature. The specific focus of literature will be on
man’s separation from land and community in
Native American literature.
PROJECT: A dance performance focused on
the spiritual and communal qualities of dance
storytelling.
Sponsors: Dana Holby,
Outside Evaluator: Andrea Olsen,
Middlebury College
Margaret Jones
Bachelor of Arts
POLITICAL SCIENCE/Political Theory
PLAN: An investigation of the politics of apathy and desire, with attention to consumerism,
’60s nostalgia and the de-politicization of
modern youth in the United States.
PROJECT: A series of graphic-novel vignettes
exploring issues of representation, sexuality
and personal and political freedom.
Sponsor: Meg Mott
Outside Evaluator: Barbara Cruikshank,
Katie Soule.
Melissa Kaiser
Bachelor of Arts
HISTORY/Languages
PLAN: A study of the biblical figure Mary Magdalene from early Christian sources to medieval
hagiography and legend, and how her role
changed with the development of Christianity.
PROJECT: A series of papers that examine the
history of Mary Magdalene as a historical figure
and legendary person through literature and art.
Sponsors: Thomas Mayo, Timothy F. Little,
Anne Heath, Laura D’Angelo
Keene State College
Adam J. Katrick
Bachelor of Arts
BIOLOGY/Writing
PLAN: A study of the wolf through biology,
literature and writing.
PROJECT: A study of theories of animal
cognition with a focus on Canis lupus.
Sponsors: Robert E. Engel, Laura C. Stevenson
Outside Evaluator: Robert Siegel, University
of Wisconsin
H I L L
PLAN: A body of work in sculpture and
painting (informed by the relationship of
the body to architecture) and an encounter
with the work of the 20th-century painter
Philip Guston.
PROJECT: An exhibition of paintings and
sculptures that deal with the subject of the
physicality of space and the relationship
between two- and three-dimensional
representation.
Sponsors: Cathy Osman, Timothy J.
Segar, Carol Hendrickson
Outside Evaluator: Dennis Congdon,
Rhode Island School of Design
T H E
PLAN: A study of biochemistry and molecular
biology, with an emphasis on the enzyme
telomerase.
PROJECT: An experimental study on the
expression of telomerase in the regenerating
tail of the axolotl salamander.
Sponsor: Todd Smith
Outside Evaluator: Hong Zhang, University
of Massachusetts Medical School
O F F
Ryan Kish
Bachelor of Arts
VISUAL ARTS/Painting & Sculpture
&
PLAN: An examination of identity and nationality in 20th-century China through text,
photography and speech.
PROJECT: A history of ethnic identity and
nationalism in modern China.
Internship: Kunming, China
Sponsors: Seth Harter, John Willis
Outside Evaluator: Pamela Crossley,
Dartmouth College
Robin Kageyama
Bachelor of Science
BIOCHEMISTRY/Molecular Biology
O N
Katherine Marie James
ASIAN STUDIES/Mandarin Chinese
& PHOTOGRAPHY
Cathy Osman, Sonia Lowe,
Nancy Pike and Jim Tober.
Kara Kriss
Bachelor of Arts
BIOLOGY/Physiology
PLAN: The study of how knowledge of physiology and anatomy can help both music teachers
and performers excel in their fields.
PROJECT: A science experiment comparing
hyperflexibility and fine motor skills between
musicians and nonmusicians.
Sponsor: Todd Smith
Outside Evaluator: Alison Mott,
Independent Artist
SUMMER–FALL 2007
. Potash Hill
49
Elyse Lattanzio
Bachelor of Arts
AMERICAN STUDIES & SOCIOLOGY
Aja Warner Lippincott
Bachelor of Arts
ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES &
ANTHROPOLOGY
PLAN: An exploration of subcultural artistic
expression in the contemporary United States
with a focus on graffiti.
PROJECT: A paper analyzing emerging forms of
graffiti in relationship to an evolving subculture.
Sponsors: Gerald E. Levy, Kathryn E.
Ratcliff, Carol Hendrickson
Outside Evaluator: Joe Austin,
University of Wisconsin
Rebecca Lawrence
HISTORY/Vietnamese Education
PLAN: A study of education in Vietnam
through history, policy and student views.
PROJECT: An analysis of the work of the U.N.
with youth and the education system in Vietnam:
contemporary practice and future possibility.
Internship: Hanoi, Vietnam
Sponsor: Seth Harter
Outside Evaluator: Dung Ti My Lam,
Vietnam National University
PLAN: A broad understanding of environmental studies and anthropology, with an emphasis
on sustainability, deep ecology and community.
PROJECT: An exploration of the concept of
deep ecology, including its history and contemporary influence.
Sponsors: Jennifer Ramstetter,
Carol Hendrickson
Outside Evaluator: Tom Wessels,
Antioch University New England
Gabriel Lein
Bachelor of Arts
COMPUTER SCIENCE/Security
& MATHEMATICS/Cryptography
PLAN: A broad study within computer science
and mathematics with an emphasis on Internet
security and cryptography.
PROJECT: The development of a course on
computer networking and Internet security.
Sponsors: Matthew Ollis, Jim Mahoney
Outside Evaluator: Matthew Dailey,
Dartmouth College
Matthew Levasseur
Bachelor of Arts
PSYCHOLOGY & ANTHROPOLOGY
Amanda Charland, Holly Thompson
and Lillian Schrank.
Jennifer Irene Lee
ANTHROPOLOGY
PLAN: A study of the Maya, past and present,
drawing on archaeology and social/cultural
anthropology.
PROJECT: The history of Copan with a focus
on 18-Rabbit and the Great Plaza, including an
in-depth analysis of the hieroglyphic text and
images on Stela A.
Internship: Tecpán, Guatemala
Sponsor: Carol Hendrickson
Outside Evaluator: Christopher Jones,
University of Pennsylvania
50
PLAN: An exploration of certain theoretical
formulations in the fields of psychology,
anthropology and post-structuralism, in the
context of field research in Santo Domingo,
Dominican Republic.
PROJECT: An evaluation of fieldwork within
the framework of Anti-Oedipus by Deleuze
and Guattari.
Sponsors: Carol Hendrickson,
Thomas L. Toleno
Outside Evaluator: Jennifer Burrell,
University at Albany
Jeremy Loeb
Bachelor of Arts
ASIAN STUDIES &
RELIGION/Sustainable Development
PLAN: A study of sustainable development
issues in contemporary Vietnam from the perspectives of rural development theory, religious
ethics and ecologically sustainable agriculture.
PROJECT: A paper on the political, economic
and distributive aspects of sustainable development and natural resource equity in rural
Vietnam, based on library research and a
summer of fieldwork in an agrarian commune
near Hanoi.
Sponsors: Seth Harter, Amer Latif
Outside Evaluator: James Levenson,
Tufts University
Melanie Eileen Lewis
Bachelor of Science
BIOLOGY/Conservation Biology
PLAN: A study of biology and conservation
biology, with a focus on the tiger (Panthera tigris)
and the history of human-predator interactions.
PROJECT: A paper detailing issues of predator
conservation, particularly as applied to tigers
and other apex predators.
Sponsor: Robert E. Engel
Outside Evaluator: Rosalind Yanishevsky,
Ecological Consultant
Ryan Campbell.
PLAN: A study of theater, focusing on
American drama and the work of Arthur Miller.
PROJECT: Production and direction of Arthur
Miller’s Incident at Vichy at the Whittemore
Theater.
Outside Evaluator: June Schlueter,
Lafayette College
PLAN: An exploration through practice
and analysis of the oneiric and imaginary
dimensions of cinema.
PROJECT: The production of two original
short films exploring oneiric and nonlinear
themes in storytelling.
Sponsors: Jay Craven, Laura D’Angelo
Outside Evaluator: Lynn Higgins,
Dartmouth College
PLAN: A study of the role of power in the
formation of identities, using the experiences
of subjugated populations.
PROJECT: A study of how land use prohibits or
promotes political identities, using a case study
of Uttaranchal, India.
Sponsors: Meg Mott, Jennifer Ramstetter
Outside Evaluator: Barbara Cruikshank,
Michelle Rose Montalbano
Bachelor of Arts
RELIGION & LITERATURE
Emily Hood ’03 with
brother Andrew Hood.
Timothy Michael Martin
Bachelor of Arts
PSYCHOLOGY/History and Theory
PLAN: A study of the history and theory
of psychology.
PROJECT: Two papers discussing history and
theory of phenomenology, psychoanalysis,
phenomenological psychology, cognition
and perception.
Sponsor: Thomas L. Toleno
Outside Evaluator: Larry Davidson,
Yale University
PLAN: A study of the use of mythology and
narrative forms in the construction of identity,
paying special attention to classical Hindu texts
and postcolonial Indian literature.
PROJECT: A set of papers exploring the religious significance, structure and function of
myths, culminating in an examination of the
Bhagavad Gita.
Sponsors: Amer Latif, John Sheehy
Outside Evaluator: Michael Pittman,
Albany College of Pharmacy
PLAN: An investigation of the aesthetics of
food in visual art, paying particular attention
to Japanese representation of food, Pop Art
and the Western still-life tradition.
PROJECT: A sculptural installation of handmade forms interpreting food as object, supported
by analysis of Japanese plastic food.
Sponsors: Timothy J. Segar, Anne Heath
Outside Evaluator: Mary Lum,
Bennington College
Moses Sandrof
Bachelor of Arts
BIOCHEMISTRY/ Toxicology
PLAN: A look at toxic compounds and
their interactions with biological systems.
PROJECT: A description of the toxicology of
selected toxic metals, including their chemical
behavior, biochemical interaction in the organism and physiological effects.
Sponsor: Todd Smith
Outside Evaluator: Anthony Bishop,
Amherst College
Lillian H. Schrank
Bachelor of Arts
VISUAL ARTS
Christian McCrory
Bachelor of Arts
PHILOSOPHY & POLITICAL
SCIENCE/Environmental Ethics
PLAN: A philosophical examination of the
ethical consequences of specific cosmological
conceptions of the natural world, with a focus
on how such conceptions might inform an ecologically responsible political theory.
PROJECT: An examination of Schopenhauer’s
metaphysics and its ethical implications.
Sponsors: Neal O. Weiner, Meg Mott
Outside Evaluator: Thomas Wartenberg,
Eva Ann Salomon
Bachelor of Arts
VISUAL ARTS/Sculpture & Art History
Jim Tober and Plan students.
PLAN: A study in visual arts using photography
and printmaking to explore both the observed
world and constructed realities. The Plan also
incorporates sculpture and drawing and is
supported by work in art history.
PROJECT: A portfolio of photographic representations of constructed spaces and a solo
exhibition of an original body of drawn worlds
presented through printmaking.
Sponsors: John Willis, Cathy Osman,
Anne Heath
Outside Evaluator: Amy Montali,
The School of the Museum of Fine Arts
SUMMER–FALL 2007
. Potash Hill
51
H I L L
Lisa Ann Miskelly
Bachelor of Arts
POLITICAL SCIENCE/Political Ecology
T H E
PLAN: An exploration of 19th- and 20th-century
print culture with a focus on the dissident press.
PROJECT: A historical case study of a feminist
and free-thought labor journal from the 1820s.
Sponsor: Kathryn E. Ratcliff
Outside Evaluator: Randall Knoper,
O F F
Willow Martin O’Feral
Bachelor of Arts
FILM/VIDEO STUDIES/French
&
Evan Mehler
Bachelor of Arts
THEATER
O N
Sonia Lowe
Bachelor of Arts
AMERICAN STUDIES
Hayley Jeanne Shriner
Bachelor of Arts
RELIGION/Arabic Language
Katie Soule
Bachelor of Arts
LITERATURE/Music
Holly Thompson
Bachelor of Arts
HISTORY
PLAN: A study of Arabic literature, pre-Islamic
to classical, with a focus on the works of Ibn
al’Arabi, a medieval Sufi theologian.
PROJECT: Translations from and a paper on the
metaphysical and literary themes of the collection of mystical poetry The Tarjuman al-Ashwaq,
by Ibn al’Arabi.
Sponsor: Amer Latif
Outside Evaluator: James Morris,
Boston College
PLAN: A study of the acquisition of knowledge
in Western literature and music.
PROJECT: An analysis of the acquisition of
knowledge in George Eliot’s Middlemarch and
Graham Swift’s Waterland.
Sponsors: Geraldine Pittman de Batlle,
Luis C. Batlle
Outside Evaluator: Joanne Hayes,
Greenfield Community College
PLAN: A broad study of Irish history, culture
and identity focusing on early Christian and
present-day Ireland.
PROJECT: A paper examining the development
of the Irish and British churches during the
early Christian era.
Sponsors: Carol Hendrickson, Timothy F.
Little, Joseph Callahan
Keene State College
Margaret A. Singleton
Bachelor of Arts
THEATER/Costume Design
PLAN: A study of theater with a focus on
costume. Studies explore how to read scripts,
interpret character and envision how dress
works as a critical element of performance.
PROJECT: Costume design and wardrobe management of two student-directed productions.
Outside Evaluator: Joan Peters,
Independent Designer
Kaylie Smedley
Bachelor of Arts
BIOCHEMISTRY/Neuroscience
PLAN: A study of the biochemistry of nociception with a focus on the endocannabinoid
system as an emerging therapeutic target.
PROJECT: Paper on the anandamide system in
the PAG and analysis of its therapeutic potential in treatment of neuropathic pain.
Sponsor: Todd Smith
Outside Evaluator: Adam Hall, Smith College
Evan Smith
Bachelor of Arts
AMERICAN STUDIES/Literature
PLAN: A historical and literary exploration of
the great migration of African-Americans from
the South into the urban North, 1900–1930.
PROJECT: An essay focusing on migration to
Chicago, with an emphasis on housing issues.
Sponsors: Gloria Biamonte, Kathryn E. Ratcliff
Suzannah Haley Sosman
DEVELOPMENT STUDIES
& ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
Ambrose Sterr
Bachelor of Arts
MATHEMATICS &
COMPUTER SCIENCE
PLAN: A broad study of mathematics and
computer science focusing on both the
mathematical theory of computation and
a computational approach to mathematics.
PROJECT: The design and implementation
of efficient computer algorithms to look for
combinatorial designs.
Sponsors: Matthew Ollis, Jim Mahoney
Outside Evaluator: Jeff Dinitz,
University of Vermont
Eric Strom
Bachelor of Arts
BIOCHEMISTRY/Neuroscience
PLAN: A study of neuroscience with emphasis
on lipid biochemistry.
PROJECT: A research project measuring the
rate of omega-3 fatty acid incorporation into
erythrocytes of hybrid tilapia.
Sponsor: Todd Smith
Outside Evaluator: Yeonhwa Park,
Elizabeth Young Thompson
Bachelor of Arts
LITERATURE/Writing
PLAN: An exploration of how art is a
survival technique against nihilism and
disenfranchisement.
PROJECT: A short film, Loved, Love, and Loving,
a story dealing with surviving a relationship.
Sponsors: Gloria Biamonte, Jay Craven,
Meg Mott
Outside Evaluator: Lise Shapiro,
Hampshire College
Nathanael Edward Totushek
Bachelor of Arts
PSYCHOLOGY/Perceptual Learning
& BIOLOGY/Endocrinology
PLAN: Building a foundation in biology and
psychology to connect the following topics:
behavioral endocrinology, cognitive neuroscience and perceptual learning.
PROJECT: Research in endocrinology and
background writing in fields of endocrinology
and psychophysiology.
Sponsors: Thomas L. Toleno, Robert E. Engel
Outside Evaluator: Margaret Anderson,
Smith College
PLAN: An exploration of the themes of
family and race in American culture.
PROJECT: A memoir exploring themes of
family and race, supported by several papers
exploring the same themes in American literature and culture.
Sponsors: Gloria Biamonte, John Sheehy,
PLAN: A study of social change in Brazil with
an emphasis on the Amazon region.
PROJECT: A paper addressing land, people
and power in Brazil.
Internship: Santarem, Brazil
Sponsors: Jennifer Ramstetter, Lynette Rummel
Outside Evaluator: Amity Doolittle,
Yale University
52
Michelle Threadgould
Bachelor of Arts
POLITICAL SCIENCE/Political theory
& FILM/VIDEO STUDIES
Micaela French.
Tessa Walker
Bachelor of Arts
HISTORY & ASIAN STUDIES/
Urban Studies
PLAN: A study of urban planning, exploring
planning theory and unregulated urban change,
with a focus on the urban morphology of postsocialist cities.
PROJECT: Case studies of Hanoi, Vietnam,
and Budapest, Hungary, examining urban
developments as the cities transitioned to
market economies.
Sponsors: Seth Harter, Timothy F. Little
Outside Evaluator: Piper Gaubatz,
Amanda Rose Wilder
Bachelor of Arts
FILM/VIDEO STUDIES & LITERATURE
PLAN: A study of “poetic documentary” and
“documentary poetry,” comprising an exploration of documentary film and video considered as an art form and a critical consideration
of selected poets whose poetry and critical writing engage questions of the relationship
between reality and art.
PROJECT: A reflexive poetic documentary film
about Fair Winds Farm, the family that runs it
and threads that connect it to personal experiences with farms and family.
Sponsors: T. Hunter Wilson, Jay Craven
Outside Evaluator: P. Adams Sitney,
Princeton University
Katherine Williams
Bachelor of Arts
THEATER/Political Science
PLAN: A study in theater with a focus on light
and lighting, particularly in terms of the representation of power and spectacle.
PROJECT: A lighting design, in applied and conceptual versions, for A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Outside Evaluator: Gerald Stockman,
PLAN: A study, through studio practice and
exploration of contemporary painting, of the
formal and conceptual elements integral to
the development of symbolic imagery, where
sensitivity to process informs content.
PROJECT: An exhibition of works on paper that
play with characterization and situation in order
to conceptually depict the various ways individuals relate to their environments. A paper on
the concepts, sources and working methods
employed by the abstract painter Julie Mehretu.
Sponsors: Cathy Osman, Carol Hendrickson
Outside Evaluator: Rie Hachiyanagi,
Jonna Wissert
Bachelor of Arts
DANCE & PSYCHOLOGY
PLAN: A study of female teenage behavior in
group settings, including the environment, group
dynamics and culture in which these programs
take place, and a look at curricula that facilitate
successful dance programs.
PROJECT: An evening-length performance
inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland,
incorporating jazz, modern and hip-hop
technique and adolescent development.
Sponsors: Dana Holby, Thomas L. Toleno
Outside Evaluator: Rebecca Nordstrom,
Hampshire College
Hannah L. Zola
Bachelor of Arts
LITERATURE/History
Jesse Welch
Bachelor of Science
PHYSICS & MATHEMATICS
PLAN: A broad study of physics and mathematics with an emphasis on complex systems.
PROJECT: A study of the chaotic pendulum,
including calculations of the characteristic
exponents and an exploration of parameter space.
Sponsors: Travis Norsen, Matthew Ollis
Outside Evaluator: Jason Zimba,
Bennington College
Sarah E. Wise
Bachelor of Arts
PAINTING
Willow O’Feral and Wylin Daigle.
PLAN: A study of Victorian literature and
how it is influenced by the historical atmosphere of 19th-century Britain, with a focus
on the works of Jane Austen, the Brontes
and Anthony Trollope.
PROJECT: A paper examining Sense and
Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice by Jane
Austen, looking at how they represent the
Victorian standards of love and marriage and
the duality between appearances and reality.
Sponsors: T. Hunter Wilson, Geraldine
Pittman de Batlle, Timothy F. Little
SUMMER–FALL 2007
. Potash Hill
53
H I L L
and Gail Osherenko.
PLAN: A comparative study of major theories of symbolism, including contemplation
of the questions this research raises.
PROJECT: Studying major theories of
symbolism in psychology and religion.
Sponsors: Thomas L. Toleno, Amer Latif
Outside Evaluator: Thomas Hersh,
Psychologist
T H E
Phil Steckler, Ann Helwege
PLAN: Studying the writing of fantasy novels and
examining classical, medieval and renaissance
literary influences on the modern fantasy genre.
PROJECT: An original fantasy novel entitled
The Guardians and the Gems.
Sponsors: Laura C. Stevenson,
Outside Evaluator: Franklin Reeve,
Wesleyan University, emeritus
O F F
Trustees Peter Mallary ’76, Lindy Linder,
Matthew Winner
Bachelor of Arts
PSYCHOLOGY/Religion
&
PLAN: A broad study of psychology with an
emphasis on gender and sexuality.
PROJECT: Two papers utilizing the disciplines
of psychology and history. The first explores the
maternity home system in America, focusing on
the post-war period. The second paper explores
young and unwed motherhood in contemporary
U.S. society through the vantage points of psychology, social work and public policy.
Sponsors: Kathryn E. Ratcliff,
Thomas L. Toleno
Outside Evaluator: Linda Whiton,
Trevor D. Wentworth
Bachelor of Arts
WRITING & LITERATURE
O N
Amalia Jorah Var
Bachelor of Arts
PSYCHOLOGY & AMERICAN
STUDIES/Gender and Sexuality
I N M EMO RIAM
Rod Gander, president
Rod Gander, president of Marlboro
College for 15 years, former chief of
correspondents for Newsweek magazine,
and most recently state senator from
Windham County until his retirement in
2006, died peacefully in September at his
home in Brattleboro after a four-year fight
against lung cancer. He was 76.
Rod’s entire life was animated by his
passion for social justice, his instinctive
impulse to mentor and support those he
worked with and his deep love for his wife
Isabelle and their family. He was born in
Bronxville, New York; his father was an
investment banker who wanted to see him
on Wall Street, his mother a practicing
Quaker. After attending Phillips Academy
and Hamilton College, he lasted barely
one year as a fledgling banker before going
into journalism, starting on the clip desk
at Newsweek for $27.50 a week.
Rod was a central figure at Newsweek
during the news-heavy years of Camelot
and the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam
and Watergate. As news editor and then
chief of correspondents, he recruited,
prodded and protected 68 reporters in
Newsweek’s domestic and international
bureaus, staving off editorial interference
when he had to, while serving as the
magazine’s chief labor negotiator and
all around troubleshooter on the side.
Rod and his family had long been regular
visitors to Green River, Vermont, where a
converted jelly mill served as a summer
retreat. When he heard that Marlboro
College was looking for a president, he was
intrigued, because he had always enjoyed
working with young people. As he went
54
through the search process, Rod became
increasingly drawn to Marlboro’s curriculum and teaching model, and even more
intrigued as he learned of the college’s
financial struggles. Shortly after his
appointment in 1981, Rod found that the
college needed more than half a million
dollars just to open the next fall.
“There is a ‘Not on my watch’ tale to
be told” about how Rod handled that
fiscal crisis, recalls longtime trustee Ted
Wendell, who served as chairman and
treasurer during Rod’s tenure. At an executive committee meeting in New York, the
college’s future was very much in the balance. “Some senior members of the board
were clearly of the opinion that the time
had come to take the step no one wanted
to take but they felt responsible to take.”
However, Rod “made a strong statement
and a personal commitment; by the end
of the meeting there was a groundswell of
financial support that meant a new day for
the college and optimism for its future.”
That belief that Marlboro must continue
was fueled in large part by Rod’s commitment to the students. “He loved the
students here,” recalled Dianna Noyes ’80,
Marlboro’s publications coordinator. “Rod
would hang out talking with students on
the dining hall steps, and at every cabaret
he would be up on stage crooning ‘Frankie
& Johnny’ to the absolute delight of everyone in the audience. It seemed that one
student or another was always in and out
of his office, for a tutorial on journalism,
for good advice and a joke or to borrow a
few bucks. The students loved him as
much as he loved them.”
In his years at Marlboro’s helm, Rod
expanded the board of trustees and attracted
new, generous friends to the college.
Under his leadership, the college completed
its first successful major campaign, raising
$8 million by 1992. By the time he retired
in 1996, the endowment had grown to
more than $1 million, enrollment was up
and Marlboro had a national reputation as
a small college that makes a big difference
in the lives of its graduates.
Rod was especially proud of his role in
launching the World Studies Program in
1984, an international studies program featuring a working internship overseas. Rod
saw WSP as a way to turn youthful idealism
into a commitment to international development; in tribute to his legacy, in the fall
of 2007, the trustees and faculty voted to
rename Marlboro’s international studies
center the Roderick M. Gander Center for
World Studies. Hearing this, shortly before
his death, he said, “I’m grateful, honored,
delighted. My program has a real home!”
He was also very pleased to hear that any
contributions made in his honor would
help establish an endowment for the
Gander Fund, which provides grants to
all World Studies students to help with
internship expenses.
After leaving Marlboro in 1996,
Rod ran for Vermont State Senate as
a Democrat, and he spent two terms in
Montpelier as representative for Windham
County. Peter Welch, then the senate’s
majority leader and now the U.S.
representative for Vermont, said that Rod
“was probably the best speaker in the State
Senate. He defended constitutional protections and he was a fierce opponent of
extending Vermont Yankee, the nuclear
plant in Vernon. In a way, he was the last
of the New Dealers. He wasn’t for Big
Government; he was always pushing for
the best break for average Americans. He
was extremely principled, but he didn’t
condemn. He had an almost grandfatherly
acceptance of the human condition.
Whenever I had to make a hard decision,
whenever I wondered if I was going too
far—or not going far enough—I’d take a
walk with Rod.”
In 2003, shortly after his first senate
term ended, Rod agreed to act as
Marlboro’s interim president. In a memo
to the Marlboro community, he wrote,
“Who says you can’t go home again? If
home is where the heart is, the truth is
I never left.” Marlboro’s current president,
Ellen McCulloch-Lovell, said that Rod was
Retired American history professor Dick
Judd died in May 2007. Writing professor
T. Hunter Wilson offers the following reminiscence, which originally appeared in the
Brattleboro Reformer.
Dick Judd was an extraordinary combination of a deeply thoughtful scholar and
teacher and an actively engaged citizen of
his community and country. His death at
home on Monday, May 7, brought an end
to a life distinguished by service; by the
inspiration of generations of students at
Marlboro College, which he helped to
build; and by the abiding loves and friendships that were his greatest satisfaction.
Born in 1923 in Holyoke, Massachusetts,
Dick was from an early age interested in
skiing, to traveling across the country
and to Europe, visiting old friends and
colleagues and former students.
M E M O R I A M
Dick Judd, faculty
the intellectual history of New England.
In his undergraduate work at Williams
College (’45), he began a lifelong dedication to the interdisciplinary approach that
characterized his philosophy of teaching
and his life. His service with the U.S.
Army Air Force, as a weather observer in
Iceland, interrupted his studies, as well as
the first year of his marriage to Suvia
Whittemore, his wife of now 62 years. In
1950, he began teaching American studies
as one of the earliest teachers at Marlboro
College, founded only four years earlier,
even as he began work toward his Ph.D at
Harvard (’60, Phi Beta Kappa). His work
at Harvard in the history of American
civilization included study in five different
fields, which he always described as “wellsuited to the development of a one-man
American studies program.” His thesis
led eventually to his book, The New Deal
in Vermont: Its Impact and Aftermath,
published in 1979.
At Marlboro, Dick taught courses ranging from History of American Thought, to
History of the Frontier, to American Art
and Architecture, to American Fiction. He
loved the work of Emerson and Thoreau,
but he was also one of the first teachers
in the country to include the work of
William Faulkner. Students often found
his probing questions and his fiercely
expressive eyebrows immediately intimidating, until his twinkling eyes betrayed
the humor and good will that inspired
them to serious work of their own.
He served the college in a range
of administrative roles, from director
of admissions for four years, to dean
of students for five years, to acting dean of
the college for one year, all while continuing
to teach. He was in addition a member of
the Marlboro school board for 25 years,
most of that time as chairman, and he
served as the Marlboro town moderator
from 1981 to 2000, a position he exercised
with exemplary fairness and courtesy.
Dick and Sue built their own house on
a hillside within sight of the college. It was
designed by their friend William Kessler,
and they were assisted in the construction
by the poet William Mundell. It became
the home where they raised their two
daughters, Suvia Thayer Judd, now of
Moscow, Idaho, and Katherine Richard
Judd ’82, of Brattleboro. It was also the
center of their many activities, from gardening, to wood-splitting, to cross-country
I N
“funny, authentic, honest and smart—
a really lively mind that connected a lot
of different things. He was just a wonderful
guy. I’m going to miss him.”
Rod is survived by his wife of 52 years,
Isabelle; son MacLean Gander and his wife
Lynne Shea; son James Gander and his
wife Justyne Ogdahl; daughter Elizabeth
Pearce and her husband Dean Pearce; and
five grandchildren. Contributions in his
memory may be made to the Gander Fund
at Marlboro College or to the In-Sight
Photography Project, 45 Flat Street,
Brattleboro, VT 05301. Memories of
Rod and/or expressions of sympathy
for the family can be sent in care of
Marlboro’s Development Office online at
[email protected] with “Rod Gander”
in the subject line, or by traditional mail.
Lillian Farber, trustee
Trustee and dear friend of Marlboro
College Lillian Farber died in Brattleboro
in July at the age of 86. Farber, who joined
the board at then-President Rod Gander’s
invitation in 1982, headed the development committee during a time of financial
uncertainty for the college, and served as
its first, and only, female chair from 1994
to 1997. During her tenure as trustee, Lil
also chaired the 50th-anniversary fundraising campaign, which exceeded its goal by
$5 million, and helped recruit both Paul
LeBlanc and Ellen McCulloch-Lovell as
presidents of the college. “Lil was one of
our most influential friends and trustees,
with an unshakable belief in Marlboro
College,” said President McCullochLovell, who first met Farber in the mid-’70s
when McCulloch-Lovell was director of
the Vermont Council for the Arts and Lil
was a board member with the organization.
“She was one of the reasons I had such a
great vision of Marlboro before I even
arrived.” Lisa Christensen, the college’s
chief advancement officer, said “Lil’s
advice and leadership over the past 25
years has been absolutely critical to
Marlboro’s story. She was also a real mentor
to me when I started fundraising here 19
years ago—she’d tell me, ‘Speak up; don’t
be a mouse! Tell them what you feel!’”
SUMMER–FALL 2007
. Potash Hill
55
Lil was involved in many causes during
her lifetime, from working successfully to
integrate the public school system in
Westchester County in the 1960s to serving as a justice of the peace in Newfane,
Vermont, in later years. She also gave her
time, energy and support to organizations
such as Planned Parenthood, local political
campaigns, the ACLU and the Brattleboro
Music Center, among others. Farber completed her undergraduate studies at New
York University and received a master’s
degree in sociology from Sarah Lawrence,
where she directed their Upward Bound
program and later served as dean of students. In the mid-’70s, Lil moved to
Newfane, where she was vice-president of
Zone VI Studio, a photographic equipment
company. Interested in photography and
a great photographer herself, she amassed
a large and impressive collection of photographs by artists including Edward Weston,
Ansel Adams, Paul Caponigro, her friend
Fred Picker and many others. Lil exhibited
this collection in her barn in Newfane to
invited guests, including many Marlboro
College students, and donated the collection to the college in 2005.
Lil is survived by her children Peggy
Farber, Felicia Gervais and Lindy Linder,
also a trustee of the college, and four
grandchildren; her companion, Bern
Friedelson, passed away in October, 2007.
She was predeceased by her son, Robert
Farber. Gifts in her memory may be made
to Marlboro College for the endowed
Lillian Farber Chair in Technology and the
Liberal Arts or to the ACLU.
Louis Moyse,
former faculty
Louis Moyse, a co-founder with Blanche
Honegger Moyse of the Marlboro College
music program in 1950, died in Montpelier
in July at the age of 94. Louis, who was
born in the Netherlands and grew up in
France, was also a co-founder of the
Marlboro Music Festival, the Brattleboro
Music Center and the New England Bach
Festival. A member of the Moyse Trio
56
along with his father, Marcel, and his
former wife, Blanche, Louis was a worldrenowned flutist. He also composed over
100 works for flute, including “The Ballad
of Vermont,” and was a conductor—his
most recent appearance was in Montpelier
a week before his death, when he conducted
15 flutes, bassoon, cello and piano in his
own arrangement of Rossini’s opera The
Barber of Seville, according to a report by
Jim Lowe ’73 in Vermont’s Times Argus
newspaper. After teaching at Marlboro for
25 years, Louis taught at the University
of Toronto and Boston University before
retiring and returning to Vermont. He is
survived by his wife, Janet White Moyse,
and his children, Michel ’63, Claude ’63,
Isabella and Dominique.
Suzanne Pelletier
Eldridge ’52
Suzanne Eldridge died in July at the age
of 76 after a long illness. Suzanne studied
music at Marlboro, and noted on her
Alumni Memory Project submission for
the 60th anniversary that the music she
listened to in college was “Blanche and
Louis and Rudy.” She sang with the
Marlboro Music Festival chorus during its
earliest years and later with the Capitol
Hill Choral Society in Albany, New York.
Raised in Albany, Suzanne attended
Russell Sage College before arriving at
Marlboro. She and Dick Eldridge ’52 were
married in 1951, and eventually settled in
Averill Park, New York, where Suzanne
worked as an executive assistant to the
chairman of the board of the National
Commercial Bank. A member of the U.S.
Tennis Association, Suzanne taught tennis
at the Averill Park Adult Education
Program and in local schools. In addition
to her husband, Dick, Suzanne leaves her
two children, Richard and Amy, their families and a sister. Suzanne and Dick attended
the 60th Anniversary Reunion at Marlboro
in May.
Rebecca Dawn
Willow ’95
Rebecca Willow died in Brattleboro at the
age of 34 in July. Born in New Mexico,
Rebecca was raised in Liberty, Maine,
where she was homeschooled; the gardens
and woods were her classroom. At
Marlboro, she studied ethnobotany and
American studies, completing a Plan of
Concentration in medicinal plants and
their uses in women’s reproductive health.
Following graduation from Marlboro,
Rebecca received a bachelor of science
in clinical herbalism from the North
American College of Botanical Medicine
and apprenticed with Deb Soule of Avena
Botanicals in Rockport, Maine. In 2002,
she founded Willow Therapeutics, a practice
in clinical herbalism, and Willow
Botanicals, an herbal product line for
the bath and body, based in Brattleboro.
Rebecca and Darrel Williams ’92, who met
while students at the college, were married
in New Hampshire in 1999.
Rebecca’s passion for the natural world
extended to gardening, exploring the outdoors and cooking. She embraced the issue
of sustainability by supporting small-scale
local agricultural production in her businesses as well as in daily life. Her other
interests included yoga, travel and the
arts—especially literature, film, classical
music and museums. Over time she
returned to the Jewish traditions of her
forbearers, renewing her connection to
Judaism and attending services of the
Brattleboro Area Jewish Community. In
addition to her husband, Darrel, Rebecca
is survived by her parents, Bruce and
Beatrice Willow; her brother, Gabriel
Willow; her brother-in-law, Scott Williams
’93; and her family and numerous friends
across the country. Gifts in Rebecca’s
memory may be made to the Rebecca
Willow Prize in American Studies at
Marlboro College.
Due to the length of the anniversary issue, we
will not include alumni notes here but will
instead publish a separate alumni notes issue.
Parting Words
Land Poem
b y S . C . Ta p p a n ’ 7 7
If the land were all flat, or at least smooth;
if glaciers had plowed up no humps of soil
as they gouged and ground against the bedrock;
if the sandstone itself hadn’t been buried
miles deep where it heated and transformed
under that pressure which later thrust it back
up and up to air; if it hadn’t been shoved
into jammed undulations we now climb up
and ski down; or if I were some hundreds
of thousands years later, when all this land
might be softer, my lawn, my yard would be
an easier thing to shape and control.
But because of this upheaval and debris,
I spend hours and seasons digging
around ledge, picking rock, moving soil
from humps to hollows, reshaping the land
to be smoother, exposing ledge with its ropes
of taffy rock and veins of quartz sweated
through cracks, working within the bounds
of bedrock—within what can be done
with wheel-barrow, shovel, and will, gaining
something greater, more interesting
than I could’ve imagined on my own—
this bedrock that defines and forms my work.
MARLBORO COLLEGE
NONPROFIT ORG.
U.S. POSTAGE
Marlboro, Vermont 05344
PAID
PUTNEY, VT
C HANGE S ERVICE R EQUESTED
PERMIT NO. 1

The Magazine of Marlboro College . Summer–Fall 2007

Transcription

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