Fall 2002

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Exchange: To and from the editors

LETTERS IN PRINT, FALL 2002

BOOKS: KEEP ’EM COMING Thank you so much for the articles by Julius Lester and Karen Kurt Teal. We keep hearing that books and libraries will be supplanted by the Internet. That will never happen, but we must keep on spreading the gospel or good news of books! It was wonderful to read Mr. Lester’s articulation of what books have always done for me, and meant to me. Judith Moore Adams ’60 Groton Professor Lester’s essay, "Carved Runes in a Clearing," (Spring 2002) certainly attracted my attention. Here’s why: I live in Down East Maine. Get out your map of New England. From the Amherst campus sneak down to the Mass Pike and head east. At Rt. 495 head north to Rt. 95 and drone along there for a few hours to Bangor. At Bangor take the "Airline" Rt. 9 east, dodging the big yellow SUNBURY tractor trailers. After a couple of hours you will come to Calais (pronounced ‘callus’), and here is my region. Actually, I live in Pembroke (Pop. 879), about 20 miles away, on the shores of Cobscook Bay. We moved here about 14 years ago. But what does this have to do with Professor Lester’s essay? Well, the town that we live in is one of the poorer towns in one of the poorer counties in America. I have often wondered why. Maybe some of the answer is in Professor Lester’s essay, where he proposes, "The failure of modern living is the failure of imagination." I like that idea. Some people in our region say that we are poor because the fish stocks are depleted; some say the lumber and wood industries are depressed; some say that clamming is poor because of invasive alien species like the green crab. Almost no one says we are poor because we lack imagination. Our achievements are measured in the lengths of tire marks on the roads; our role models for our youth are the yahoos that make them. Not much imagination here. There must be a better way. About two years ago I bought an old building and last year we formed a nonprofit organization (Pembroke Library Association), got some grant money and are in the process of renovating the building. We intend to have the first public library in the town’s 170-year history. Not everyone in town shares our vision. Most folk have a little curiosity about the goings on, but very few participate. I’m pretty sure that they would rather have a demolition derby track. There was no mention of a public library in the Pembroke Comprehensive plan published in 1995. This does raise some questions: Am I foisting my ideas of a library on a population that neither wants a library nor will participate? Another question is me. Did UMass (BSEE ’59) prepare me for this? I was at best a mediocre student, and books were something I was obliged to read. I would have much rather been slaying dragons, bringing ne’er-do-wells to justice or any other heroic deeds. Have I at last grown up to recognize the importance of books and reading? Also, why am I writing this? Julius Lester shares some of the blame. Do I need help? I sure do. Any encouragement in words, deeds or financial aid would be appreciated. And why do I ask UMass? Well, UMass bears some responsibility for my actions. And maybe we Massachusetts natives owe a debt to our former colony. Finally, are the ancient spirits looking favorably on our efforts? I think so. Our beech trees, Fagus grandifolia, are under attack by the beech bark disease. This malevolence not only eventually kills the tree but also roughens the bark so that it is unfit for initials or messages. This saddens me, but I take this as a sign that the old ways are past and vulnerable, and the new way is books. Carved runes in a clearing, at least in Pembroke, Maine, are going to be replaced by a library. Whatever the cards or tea leaves hold, it’s an interesting project. It just takes a little imagination, and I must thank Professor Lester for the refreshing tonic of his essay for my renewed vigor. Frederick Gralenski ’59 Pembroke, Maine Each time I receive our alumni magazine UMass, I feel I am once again in Amherst with all the pleasant memories of my stay there. On my return to Nigeria, I served in the state schools system of Imo State in the south eastern part of Nigeria, as a high school principal. In 1998, I went private and set up a secondary school as an institution where the youth, apart from attaining academic and moral excellence, can appreciate and uphold democratic values. The school is already making an impact among the rural populations around. It is a joy to put into practice the skill I acquired in educational management at UMass. Like a school in its teething period, there are obvious problems, including need for library books, science equipment, computers and other teaching aids. Alumni wishing to assist African children through this project should contact: Dr. Ralpheal Njoku ’81G P.O. Box 2648, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria MORE ABOUT DWIGHT ALLEN The Spring 2002 letters about the School of Ed under Dwight Allen captured the polarization of that era. As an undergraduate School of Ed major, I saw a lot of peers bewildered by the choices and seeming chaos. For me, the lessons I learned from Dwight Allen and the School of Ed have stood me in good stead through subsequent careers in journalism, government and health care. The School of Ed was all about diversity, competition of ideas (why not have 22 competing teacher-training programs?), change management, and academic exploration. I spent my senior year auditing all sorts of classes, keeping a journal, and using modular credit. I interned in an inner-city school in Kentucky, helped run a tutoring program at a county jail, spent a summer working in an adult education program in Bedford Stuyvesant. I took a course from Susan of "Sesame Street," learned to challenge popular defeatist assumptions about dyslexia and tore down my intellectual defenses about doing things the "right" way. "A little change hurts a lot. A lot of change doesn’t hurt that much more," said Dwight. (No one ever called him "Dean Allen.") Schools across the nation still reek of mediocrity. We’ve blown too many opportunities by failing to spawn more Dwight-style teacher-training schools. Don Glickstein ’73 Seattle, Washington HONORING SUSAN DUFFY I just read the latest issue of UMass Magazine, and with great sadness learned of the passing of Psychology Professor Susan Duffy. As a May 1999 graduate of the psychology department, I remember Professor Duffy as one of the most interesting and helpful professors I had. Throughout my psychology major, I kept putting off what I thought were going to be my two hardest core courses, cognitive and physiological psychology. Finally my senior year I knew I had to take them, but I was so nervous, I was positive I wouldn’t do well. Well, I am happy to remember that I did well in both and actually got an A in cognitive psychology. It was with a lot of hard work on my part, but I also remember that Susan made the course! Her lectures were interesting and I remember feeling that she had a sincere interest in helping students learn and do well. While now pursuing my master’s in public health at Boston University, I often think back on my UMass days, realizing how much I owe to my experiences there. Without professors like Susan Duffy, I might not have realized that my abilities go far beyond my fears. My heart goes out to Professor Duffy’s family and the UMass community, who have lost a wonderful teacher and friend. Amy Chesal ’99 South Boston HOUSING – LOOKING BACK, MOVING ON While it is nice to recall our college life, it is also important to consider how students are going to live in the year 2002. Old buildings might be preserved because of historic value, but students need the modern services and utilities required by our times. How about phone lines in every room, computer networks, enough power to supply all those new appliances? I lived in Gorman from 1963 to 1967. It was new then and would probably be viewed as a prison by current students. We had no room phones, few laundry facilities, poor ventilation, a steam iron could blow a circuit to any room. I had great times there and got a good education but I am not sad to see it torn down. Chris Read ’67 Webster, Texas ALUMS: GIVE LIFE TO BUDGET I’m a packrat and found myself flipping through Collegian newspaper clippings from my senior year at UMass with headlines like "Consequences of this Budget Severe," and "Long List of Woes in UMass Finances," the stories of which contained the ever-so-popular catch phrases "less than level funding" and " disturbing line-item reductions." A few years passed from my graduation and the financial clamor at UMass became quiet, perhaps too quiet, while many departments recovered operating funds from the financial success of the Commonwealth in the late 1990’s. Well, wouldn’t you know it, the budget gremlin has attacked UMass again, and this attack could be even more painful and of longer economic duration. Now my UMass pride tells me the campus, to the credit of its administration and faculty, will fight its way through this crisis as it has in the past and survive it, but at what cost? In my opinion, while the academic departments might recover operating cash flow in the growth years, the core campus becomes weaker between budget disturbances. Capital spending at Amherst in the last 20 years has been nil ( the Isenberg and Mullins buildings are great but it is not enough in comparison to other state schools of our size). Understand this: the lack of capital spending at UMass will impair the long-run academic concerns of the university. Deferred maintenance is growing like a weed. Library funding is erratic. A comprehensive landscape redesign of the campus has been on hold for at least 10 years. Athletics have not been allowed to grow to support a university of our size and caliber. The success of Campaign UMass and the associated increase in alumni giving have been great accomplishments, but the UMass endowments need to grow exponentially. The university must find ways to supplement funding from the Commonwealth in the form of reliable recurring revenues derived from the campus. I know in my heart UMass has the brainpower to formulate and execute solutions to these problems, particularly for a school that was creative enough to mobilize a gigantic volunteer workforce to refurbish the Tower Library. The budget axe will always impact UMass; it is the nature of the beast. To my fellow alumni, find something you cared about at UMass – we all had something – and give generously to it. Tim Meldrum ’89 Dublin, Ohio It really disturbs me to hear that the new chancellor is going to be paid 250k while at the same time I’m hearing that because of budget cuts, UMass is going to lose professors and perhaps even some programs. I’ve received three phone calls from the Telefund this week. What is the point of sending in money when Mr. Lombardi is receiving a salary that, were it halved, could pay the salaries of two assistant professors? I just don’t get it. Marcy Tanter, ’86, ’96G Stephenville, Texas UP-TO-THE-MINUTEMAN? The Up-to-the-Minuteman photo in the Spring issue of UMass has me confused. Just what is that object that the Minuteman has slung over his shoulder? I’ll assume it is a firearm of some sort but I’ve never seen one with a barrel shaped like that. If American patriots had been armed with guns like that, we’d never have won our independence. Roy E. Landstrom ’60, ’65G Cumberland, Ohio It is gratifying to see that John Townsend’s "Minuteman" will finally be cast and placed near the Campus Pond. Not only does the statue commemorate the same spirit that Daniel Chester French conveys in his Concord piece, but it also continues French’s link to Massachusetts and the university. French’s father served as president of Mass Aggie in the 19th century, and young Daniel Chester French had his first studio behind Stockbridge Hall before his hometown of Concord commissioned his "Minute Man" that was cast from bronze from old cannons in a foundry in Chicopee. Townsend’s contemporary version will serve to remind us of our ongoing American history. Honoré S. David ’94G Amherst FORMER EDITOR LAUDED I was very sorry to read that Patricia Wright had resigned as editor of UMass Magazine. When Patricia assumed this position, it was a defining moment for this publication. Previous university budgets had crippled the magazine’s predecessor and, at least as harmful, had been a loss of focus and sense of mission among the people staffing UMass. Patricia made it all very simple. She reported those wonderful things about UMass: UMass people who made us all proud and who added value to our shared experience and to our degrees. There is much that is magnificent about UMass and I am most grateful that we had a Patricia Wright to communicate and record that greatness. Patricia, good luck and Godspeed. Michael W. Morris ’63 Andover THE TEST THAT FAILED After reading the article on "Only A Test" in the Winter edition, you can see the problem with providing an error-free "test." In the "Test Yourself" box on page three, Question 3 starts, "Two identical test tubes are inverted in a beaker of water." At the end of the answer section it states: "There will be some evaporation of the water in both beakers." The question is, where did the second beaker come from? Again the test designer is looking for an incorrect answer. Love the "UMass" magazine! Clifford C. Fifield Jr. ’58 Seneca Falls, New York I think your "Test Yourself: Samples from a ‘High-stakes’ Standardized Test" article (Winter 2002, p. 26) provides a perfect example of the controversy surrounding these tests. In Question 1, it states that "the minimum wage increased from $5.25 an hour to $5.75 per hour." Part C of Question 1 asks: "Allan, who also works for the same employer, was promised a raise. If he had been making $7.40 per hour, what new hourly wage would reflect an increase comparable to that received by minimum wage earners?" In your example, the answer given was $8.10. The reasoning behind the answer is that a 9.5% raise for Allan would be comparable to the 9.5% raise in the minimum wage. When I first read the question, I gave what I would consider the real world answer: $7.90. In the real world, when a minimum wage earner is given a 50 cent increase per hour, then his coworker is often offered a "comparable" increase of 50 cents per hour. My question is this: Would I have been given full credit for my 50 cent answer, or would I have been kept back to making only minimum wage? Todd Lever ’89, ’95 West Springfield The answer to the first letter was given in the Spring issue: On the test form the question includes a drawing of two beakers. Letter number two refers us to the real world. Remember, this is a test, not the real world.

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ALL THE LETTERS ALL THE TIME

LETTERS IN PRINT, FALL 2002