Summer 2003

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Extended Family

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North 40

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Dear Master

The Vast Area of Small

Tiny couch potatoes

Pumped-up Roosters

The pervasive presence of microbes

At-risk Native Talk

Our giant in hedge funds

Exchange: To and from the editors

ALL THE LETTERS ALL THE TIME From our readers, most recently:

EMILY - COULDA, WOULDA, SHOULDA Historian Ruth Owen Jones believes that the first president of Massachusetts Agricultural College may be the mystery man in Emily Dickinson’s Master letters. Based on the flimsiest of evidence she’s willing to argue that she’s right. She asks “That’s what scholarship is all about isn’t it?” Well, at many universities, scholarship is not taking a wild ass guess about something, presenting scant evidence that it’s true, and posing as an authority on it! A case could be made that the mystery man was a master herdsman from the farm up the road who did Emily a kindness one day when he delivered a container of milk, extra rich in butterfat, with a nosegay attached to it. It makes as much sense as her theory! Jones is probably better suited to writing for a sitcom like Seinfeld “The show about nothing.” She could call it “Emily, Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda”. Arthur J. Stevens Sr. ’62 Stratham, NH LOST IN SPACE Josh Simpson's "Inhabited Planet" is mesmerizing. I have not yet finished reading the magazine (summer 2003), but I had to write. It is something in which I could lose myself. Also loved Scott Prior's "Blimp, Buildings and Bovines," so utterly (no pun intended) different, yet so UMass. Barbara Peirce '72 San Pedro, CA RECYCLED RUBBER - HOT! I am writing about the controversial rubberized asphalt repaving (“One Giant Molecule,” winter 2003) of the freeways in the Phoenix area, which is ongoing; to reduce noise. The rubberized asphalt has a major negative result. It remains hotter at night than the concrete surface does. July 2003 was the hottest month ever recorded in Phoenix, AZ. The intense urban “heat island” registered 10 nights in July of a low temp of 90 degrees plus! Andy Conway Phoenix, AZ COINCIDENCE IS IN THE AIR Artist-alumni Scott Prior’s oil painting (inside front cover, summer 2003 issue) may contain a coincidence both he and UMass Magazine are unaware of! Prior noted that his picture of the UMass campus was “imaginary…there’s no such spot”. Yet, if the pictured glow is an Amherst sunset beyond the tall buildings, the location could well be the present Sunset Avenue of Amherst Town. The spot where the two cows gaze at the viewer could be the old Smith Farm (there before there was a Sunset Avenue) where author and historian Ray Stannard Baker built a house on ten acres and created a small farm there in 1910. This writer, who would later win a Pulitzer Prize for his biography of Woodrow Wilson, undoubtedly was first attracted to Amherst by his brother, Mass Agricultural College President Hugh Potter Baker. (I lived in Baker Dorm as a freshman in 1952-53.) The coincidence is in artist Prior’s placing of a “blimp” airship in the sunset sky – as he noted on your cover, for reasons of humor. Yet Ray S. Baker, writing under his usual rural pen name of David Grayson describes an actual “airship” flying on a November afternoon over Mt. Toby and Deerfield, southward over Mt. Warner and disappearing “a fading speck in the sky” over Mt. Tom and Springfield. (“November” in The Countryman’s Year, Doubleday Doran & Co., Inc. 1936). While a “blimp” is not a Zeppelin-type airship, it is close enough to show how accurate Prior’s perceptions are! Thanks to Prior, and the Barletta Co., for commissioning his artwork. His painting re-enforces in me the hope that UMass Amherst, no matter how many tall skyscrapers are built, will retain at least some of its rural roots in the most beautiful Connecticut River Valley. Brendan Whittaker ’57 Guildhall, Vermont GET THE FACTS RIGHT In the Books article of the summer 2003 issue, Charles Creekmore refers to “some strange and wonderful factoids.” A factoid is “an invented fact believed to be true because of its appearance in print” (Webster’s), i.e., a lie. So, whom is Mr. Creekmore calling a liar – the children’s book author or the scientists who discovered the megamouth shark? In his freelance articles for the New York Times, did Mr. Creekmore ever misuse the term “factoids” for “facts” and was it passed over by the same editors who published Jayson Blair’s factoids as facts? Priscilla Biondi ’59 Brighton EXPRESS YOURSELF WITH SENSITIVITY I commend you for the level of professionalism of the alumni magazine of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, but I found the cartoon for the "Express yourself" postcard offensive. It was taken from the picture on page 9, with a reference to sports, but to use it out of context, on a request for alumni to express themselves, imbues it with more meaning. A Minuteman/Alumni holding a club, standing on a dead wolf is a rather unattractive portrayal. Clubbing animals to death is funny? Standing on dead animals fulfills the ego? Minutemen are brutal? It's a small point in a violent world, but one hopes for more sensitivity in the educated. Anne Rylestone '88G Ware FRANK WAUGH - GOOD TIMING Your article on Frank Waugh was very well timed as it was then that my husband, Everett Roberts '39, was hospitalized before his death. When Ev was in college for his fifth year in order to attain his degree in landscape architecture, he benefited greatly from being in Professor Waugh's classes. The day I visited Ev in the hospital and read him your article about Prof. Waugh and showed him the interesting photos, his spirits took a "high note" which didn't happen very often. Sally Roberts '37 Elkhart, IN CALLING THE CLASS OF 1954 A devoted core group from the class of 1954 began working soon after our 45th reunion to make our 50th reunion a wonderful Homecoming for as many class members as possible. There have been physical changes to the pastoral landscape we fondly remember, the central core to us is still the college pond and Old Chapel, handsomely restored by earlier class gift contributions. In addition to the natural beauty and good education, it is friendships shared there that we hope will bring our classmates back to Amherst again. We have a new Chancellor Lombardi who realizes people – graduates and facutly – are the core for maintaining a top rated university. He has been helpful in supporting our Class Gift project, and looks forward to meeting and welcoming each of you next June. 1954 classmates, we hope you will make your plans now and we can count on each one of you to join us June 4-6, 2004, for our 50th reunion celebration. Ed and Franny (Jones) Craig '54 Eastham SPORTS POINTS I would like to make some points in response to Douglas Smith’s letter about the University sports program in the summer 2003 issue. First, his suggestion that we transfer to the Atlantic Coast Conference is now a moot point since Miami and Virginia Tech have left the Big East Conference for the ACC. Besides, the ACC is made up primarily of institutions along the southeastern seaboard. So, from a geographical standpoint, it wouldn’t be practical for Umass to join the conference. Second, in looking strictly at the football program, Umass recruits nationally whether they be transfers from other four-year institutions (current quarterback Jeff Krohn from Arizona State is a prime example and the person I’m sure Mr. Smith was referring to regarding what he called “disgruntled western division I-A players); junior college transfers such as the school’s all-time leading passer, Todd Bankhead, who led the program to the 1998 I_AA National Championship; or high school recruits such as all-time rushing leader Marcel Shipp from Paterson, NJ and wide receiver Adrian Zullo, who was the Florida sprint champion in his senior year of high school. Third, I’d like to tell Mr. Smith that while the Atlantic Ten Conference is indeed spread out from new England to Virginia, it is arguably the most competitive conference in all of Division I-AA. The A-10 routinely has been sending three schools to the I-AA playoffs each year with a fourth team frequently feeling it should have been invited, too. Lastly, I’m sure Mr. Smith is aware that the University is now taking a hard look at moving up to Division I-A. If that were to happen, the logical conference to join would be the Big East, certainly from a geographical standpoint. That theoretically would bring in bigger crowds and more money. As it is, the program has recently been playing one Division I-A school on the road each season (Marshall in 2001, NC State in 2002, and Kansas State in 2003). This gives the players exposure to that type of competition and it provides a bigger payday with the larger crowds at those venues. On a different subject, I read with great interest Terry Allen’s story on Emily Dickinson and her apparent “love interest” in Umass founder William Smith Clark. I was especially interested in the portraits of Mr. Clark in the class Notes section. Do you have a portrait of him in his Civil War uniform? If so, I would like to see it. George Geer ’76 Derby, CT COMPLIMENTS TO UMASS MAGAZINE We are always glad to receive your magazine (our son Hans graduated from your university), and we read it with great pleasure. It is an excellent publication, at least as good, if not better, than the Harvard Magazine and the Johns Hopkins Magazine which we also receive regularly. In the last issue (summer 2003) there was an article of special interest to my wife and our children, because it concerns William Smith Clark, a direct ancestor. We have read it with great interest and find the theory of Ruth Own Jones very convincing. Do you think you could send us 12 extra copies of this issue? Harriet and Georg Luck Baltimore, Maryland CREDIT FOR NAMING UMASS In the summer 2003 issue I read that Michael J. Donahue ’47 had died. I am surprised that there was not an article about him. Unless my memory has gone down the drain, I believe he was the person who convinced the legislature to change the name of Mass State College to the University of Massachusetts. Bill Lieberwirth ’50 South Dennis Note from the classes editor: In our spring 1997 issue of UMass we profiled Michael Donahue, along with other classmates, on their part in renaming the Univeristy. The article can be viewed on our web site. INCOMPREHENSIBLE VIEW Matthew Despres’ description of 418 North Pleasant Street (Gordon Hall) is a word-perfect example of the blinkered out (in) look of a campus-centered undergraduate. North Pleasant Street is the main northward artery of the town of Amherst. How on earth anyone could say 4188 is “tucked away” is beyond comprehension. Nonny Burack ’91G Amherst LIKE, GET IT RIGHT Thank you for including a profile of me in your summer 2003 issue (p. 51). It was lively and amusing but contained some errors I would like to correct. First, I am an English Professor at Temple University, not a linguistics professor. Our Temple English department, happily, includes scholars who approach English in many different ways. Second, my article on "like" ("Like: the Discourse Particle and Semantics," Journal of Semantics 19.1, 2002, pp. 35-71) was published in the February, 2002, issue of Journal of Semantics, not in November. Also,"like" is a discourse particle, not a "participle," as your reporter wrote. Finally, and most importantly, the article is not a catalogue of the many "odd jobs" that "like" does. Rather, it is a formal account of how "like," a word tied more to conversation than to sentence grammar, can contribute to the basic meanings of sentences. The study does not emphasize that "like" is a "jack-of-all-trades," but instead points out the implications that its surprising effects as a discourse particle have for linguistic theory. Muffy E. A. Siegel, '76G Department of English Temple University EMILY - MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS Ruth Owens Jones’ speculation about Emily Dickinson and William Clark raises some interesting questions and it’s certainly yet another titilating notion about the poet and the obssession some people have about discovering who her “secret love” was. The fly in the ointment here, for me anyway, is that Ms. Jones ignores all the Dickinson letters that actually mention Mr. Clark! In her article in the Emily Dickinson Journal (available on the web at: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/emily_dickinson_journal/v011/11.2jones.html), Jones doesn’t mention a single letter in which Dickinson refers to Clark nor does she mention the one letter from Dickinson in 1853 in which she says “have written to Clark today” (letter 145). We might speculate that this is William Clark, but it’s not completely clear. Jones does say: “When Clark went off to war, Emily Dickinson tried to have Sam Bowles forward her letters (L256). She could not send them in her own handwriting from the small town post office as Postmaster Lucius Boltwood, her parents, and neighbors would then know to whom she was writing.” (60) This is very misleading because Jones seems to be suggesting that Dickinson wanted Bowles to forward letters to Clark—no such suggestion is made in the letter to Bowles nor to anyone else and the only mention of Clark that Dickinson makes during the War is in letter 255, when she tells her cousins about the death of family friend and son of the President of Amherst College, Frazer Stearns: “He fell by the side of Professor Clark, his superior officer…They tell that Colonel Clark cried like a little child when he missed his pet, and could hardly resume his post.” This is also the last time Clark’s name appears in any of the Dickinson letters that are currently known to scholars. Jones claims that Dickinson refers to Frazer as Austin, but in letter 255, as it is printed in the current definitive text, this is not correct. She does mention Austin in this letter, saying “Austin is stunned completely,” which he would have been as a friend and contemporary of Stearn’s who did not go to the War. Jones also says, “there is evidence that Dickinson was again writing to Clark when he went to Japan in 1876-1877” (65), but she doesn’t present it. One wonders what that evidence is, especially since a search of the excellent concordance to the letters edited by Cindy Mackenzie lists no mention of anyone named Clark after letter 255. Dickinson scholarship is a tricky road to travel because so little hard evidence exists for so many aspects of the poet’s life. For this reason, it is essential that anyone writing about Emily Dickinson makes it very clear that what she/he is saying is based on speculation. In publishing her article in the EDJ, Ms. Jones may have simply assumed that readers of the journal already know that what she presents must needs be speculation, but readers of UMassMag do not know that. Dickinson’s poems may or may not be autobiographical but it is dangerous ground to present them as hard evidence when her letters are virtually ignored. Whoever Master may be, despite the many love poems she wrote, Dickinson’s letters do not support Ms. Jones’s claim that William Clark was anything more to the poet than a family friend. Does this mean he wasn’t her secret love? No it doesn’t, but it does mean that much harder evidence is needed than what has been presented already. Marcy Tanter '86, '96G Stephenville, TX GOOD, VERY GOOD I have just finished reading the story of the accomplishments of Deborah Good. What a wonderful story about this young lady who achieved what she wanted from the time she was a child. How well I remember, because I am her 91 year old grandmother, and am so very proud of her and love her so much. My best to Deborah in her continued field of research. Alice M. Good NANOTECHNOLOGY - DETAILS NO SMALL MATTER I have just read the article on Nanotechnology in the current online issue of UMass Magazine. Your highlighting of our University's research accomplishments in Nanotechnology is indeed welcome. Nevertheless I find it regrettable that our $1M NSF Nanotechnology grant on the growth of nanoscale porous materials was not featured specifically until the very end of the article - almost as a postscript. Moreover, the layout of your article could leave the impression with your readers that our project is led by Professors Tuominen and Russell. Finally, my own involvement as the Principal Investigator on the project was not mentioned at all. I would like to request that you the correct the record by editing your online version and publishing a correction in the next issue that you mail to our Alumni. Professor Peter A. Monson Department of Chemical Engineering THANKS TO DWIGHT I just clicked on UMASSMAG online and discovered that a reunion was held honoring Dwight Allen. To my surprise I was please to see some of my old class mates from the 70's. Dwight was indeed a unique individual who had a great impact on my life wihich I will never ever be able to repay. He made it possible for me to go back to school and complete an EdD. It provided me with the option to become what I call a "professional migrant", i.e., hold a variety of positions in higher education. From a professor of education at SUNY Albany and NYU to eventually an administrator at Portland State, California State University San Bernardino, San Jose State and San Diego State Universities. I have just retired [6/30/03] as a Vice Chancellor in a multi-campus community college district with a brief stop in Iowa. All of the above is due to Dwight who made it all happen by providing us with the opportunity. Additionally, he asked that I identify others like myself who could be change agents and I did. They have gone on to become professors, innovators of social programs and several are now deans of schools of education and other disciplines. Dwight, thank you. P.S.: my daughter received her degree in engineering from UMass and my son did his lower division work at UMass and transferred to the University of Southern California from where he graduated and is now a COO for a firm in Beverly Hills managing the financial affairs of some of the entertainment fields biggest stars. Both have very successful careers which is a by-product of my having graduated from UMass. Gilbert Sanchez ‘72 Ben Lomond, CA SADDENED BY POLITELLA PASSING I was deeply saddened by the death of journalism professor Dario Politella, which was reported in the Summer 2003 issue. Dario was a caring teacher, a mentor, and a good friend who will be missed. I met Dario in 1985, when I was a first-year student. That year, I decided to join the Index, the university's yearbook. I was interested in journalism, but the Collegian seemed a bit too intimidating to my freshman self. The Index, on the other hand, felt cozy and comfortable. The staff was small and the people were extremely welcoming. I figured it would be a great way to do some writing and reporting and also make some good friends. One of the first people I met was Dario, who had been advising the yearbook's student staff for as long as anyone could remember. He, with his shock of white hair, dark-rimmed glasses, and voluble manner, was gregarious and funny, and I immediately took to his slightly eccentric way of doing things. I ended up staying with the yearbook for four years, eventually becoming editor in 1988. Through those years, Dario was always there, offering his support and keeping us motivated. A PR man through and through, he could come up with a seemingly endless list of story ideas, fundraising strategies, or marketing initiatives at the drop of a hat. His energy and commitment to the Index was something that still inspires me. Some of my fondest memories are of the times Dario and I spent chatting in his office in Bartlett Hall. If I were struggling with a paper, he'd guide me through it. If I needed a laugh, he'd tell a joke. And during my senior year, when the pressure to find a job seemed almost unbearable, he made a habit of sending me copies of ads for reporting positions. He'd circle them in red ink and include a few encouraging words with each: „Go for it!" or "This one seems perfect for you". It was comforting to know that I had someone looking out for me. After graduation, we kept in touch for several years. He'd send short notes, typed up on an old typewriter; I'd call him every now and then to catch up. And at Christmas he'd send out a longer letter, updating everyone with news about his family, his painting, and his charitable work. He'd close all of his letters with three simple words: "Keep the faith!" It was a hopeful mantra from a professor who inspired others to always do their best. John MacMillan ‘89 Florence, MA NEW LOGO - NOT IMPRESSED Who decided on this terrible logo? I don't remember being asked what I thought--don't we count? I think the logo is hideous, it's cartoonish and more reminiscent of Gaston from Beauty and the Beast (Disney version) than anything to do with us or our school. And to make matters worse, they used a New York company to design it! Are we the University of MASSACHUSETTS or not?! As much as I would prefer a different mascot than the Minuteman/woman, I prefer the old logo to this one. Yuck! Marcy Tanter '86, '96G Stephenville, TX WHO WERE THE MINUTEMEN AND WOMEN? This spring a proposal to replace the Minuteman with some other symbol for our athletic teams triggered a firestorm in the national news media. The proponents of change saw in the Minuteman issues of gender, race and guns. “There were no Minutewomen,” said some. “Minutemen were not people of color,” said others. Some did not like firearms. Once again the Minuteman won, as it did in a similar debate in 1983. But the dialog among the participants revealed a substantial lack of knowledge about the role of armed women, and people of color, who were members of the original Minutemen. In Massachusetts alone, 840 minorities served in the Revolutionary War, 740 were recorded as black or mulatto and 100 recorded as Indians. Armed men and women, white and colored, repelled the British at Concord, Lexington and elsewhere. They fought at Bunker Hill. They were members of George Washington’s Continental Army. One Minutewoman, two months before the Battle of Concord and Lexington, came close to making Salem the location of “the shot heard round the world.” On Sunday February 26, 1775, Sarah Tarrant called out to a British troop trying to find Colonial arms in Salem “Go home and tell your master he has sent you on a fool’s errand and broken the peace of our Sabbath. What, do you think we were born in the woods, to be frightened by owls?” When a British redcoat leveled his musket at her she challenged him, saying, “Fire if you have the courage, but I doubt it.” No shots were fired. The British retreated; playing the same tune that General Cornwallis’ British army band would later play at his surrender at Yorktown, “The World’s Turned Upside Down.” On that “famous day and year,” April 19, 1775, at least 11 black Minutemen from Lexington, Framingham, Braintree, Brookline, Concord, Groton, Cambridge, and Stoneham responded to Paul Revere’s midnight alarm. On Lexington Green, in the first firefight of the Revolution, black Minuteman and slave, Prince Estabrook, was among the wounded. His role is recalled each year in Lexington’s re-enactment of the battle. Also present at Lexington, in the British line, was Marine Major John Pitcairn. Facing him in the Patriot line was black Minuteman Peter Salem. The two were to meet again at the Battle of Bunker Hill. There, Salem was among the group of Minutemen credited with killing Major Pitcairn in the third and final British charge. Peter Salem was later presented to General George Washington in recognition of his service. John Trumbell’s famous 1798 painting, “The Battle of Bunker’s Hill,” hanging now in the Library of Congress, prominently portrays black Minutemen in the Patriot line of battle. Shortly after the Battle of Concord and Lexington, a Minutewoman, Prudence Cumming Wright, commanded a Patriot band, that also included Minutewoman, Sarah Hartwell Shattuck. Armed with muskets and pitchforks, their task was to repel British troops making more sorties to capture Colonial arms. They took positions at Jewett’s Bridge over the Nashua River between Groton and Pepperell. There they intercepted and captured Tory Captain Leonard Whiting who was acting as a British courier. American Indians also served as Minutemen, including a company from Stockbridge that responded following the Concord and Lexington battle. Indian Minutemen engaged the British at Noddle’s Island in Boston and at Cambridge. Seventy Indian women of Mashpee became widows of Minutemen and by the end of the Revolutionary War half of the Stockbridge Indian Minutemen had given their lives. As for the Minuteman’s musket, how else were men and women to lift the military yoke of the world’s most mighty empire? And Minutewomen helped arm them. Meliscent Barrett Swain ran the Concord musket cartridge factory, a target of the fateful British expedition. Elizabeth Hager Price, while nursing Minutemen wounded at Concord, discovered six spiked cannons left behind by the British. She recognized that they could be repaired, had them hauled to a blacksmith’s shop and helped put them back in service for the Patriots. The official heroine of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is Deborah Sampson Gannett. Disguised as a man, she enlisted in the 4th Massachusetts Regiment under the name of Robert Shurtleff. The first female to enlist as an American soldier, Deborah was wounded at the Battle of Tarrytown. Upon recommendation of Minuteman Paul Revere she was later awarded the first military pension granted to a woman. Her pension was approved by John Hancock. No discussion of the Minuteman as a symbol of UMass Amherst would be complete without mention of the special tie between our campus and the sculptor of the original Minuteman statue. The first President of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, Henry Flagg French, had a son who worked on the campus farm before the first student class arrived in Amherst. President French later referred to his son as “the first graduate of Massachusetts Agricultural College.” The French home was the Stockbridge House, still standing on our campus, now housing the University Club. The French boy drew imaginative pictures on his bedroom wall and went on to make the Minuteman statue at Concord his first public work of art. His name was Daniel Chester French, also sculptor of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C. No symbol for students and alumni, men and women of all hues, could be more appropriate than the Minuteman. We shall be forever in their debt, those original Minutemen and Minutewomen. They laid the foundations of our government. From this government arose the freedoms of speech, free association and open enquiry so necessary to the functioning of a great university. Joseph S. Larson ’56, G’58 Natural Resources Conservation Retired Faculty Emeritus FINDING BEAUTY IN DAILY LIFE As a graduate of the UMass Landscape Architecture Masters program in 1977, I wanted to thank UMass on two accounts. First, the article in your recent Winter 2003 UMass magazine by Jan Whitaker highlighting the vision and realization of Frank Waugh was a pleasure to read. It was well written and made me realize how lucky I was to be part of a University with such a history. Second, Umass provided an educational doorway not only for me but, also for my mother. I'll explain more about that later. Since graduation my experiences as a landscape architect searching for the beauty in daily life, I am often reminded of the passionate teaching of Julius Fabos, Nick Dines, Carl Carlozzi, Paul Procopio, Hugh Davis and Bill Stewart, my inspirational professors. Their dedication to natural beauty and the practical role of the landscape architect and planner to champion its survival in daily life is part of my education that I treasure. I presently have my own landscape architecture company, but have recently branched into a new application of vision. I have written and illustrated a soon to be released book of poetry intertwined in a story. The story is set in a garden (that figures for a Landscape Architect) and is decorated with poems of self discovery. I thought in light of the LARP Centennial Symposium and celebrations this fall, you might be interested in the book. I am enclosing a brief synopsis of the book and a copy of it's cover. If you are interested, will be coming to Amherst June 6-8th for the 65th reunion of my mother's graduating class of 1938 and would love to meet with you. I promised I would tell you more about my mother. Her name is Ruth Wood Pflager and graduated from "Mass Aggie" with a degree in Floriculture. Ironically, she actually started her education in Landscape Architecture. The goals of UMass to teach the vision of beauty was not lost on her. A great inspiration for her has been her ongoing pride in UMass and she has stayed very active in the alumni activities. If you would like a copy of the book, please do not hesitate to contact me. My email is Jessie JPAAssoc @ aol.com. Jessie (Pflager) Avery ’77G Lafayette, Colorado KINDAHL REMEMBERED I too was very sorry to read that Prof James Kindahl of the Economics Department had died. I came to UMass in 1980 to study as a Fulbright Scholar for two years for my Master's degree. During my Bachelor's degree in Economics I had studiously done everything I could to avoid coming into contact with applied economics, finding the world of theory much more appealing, but there was no escaping core econometrics in the Master's program. Jim Kindahl was one of those professors whose skill, enthusiasm and humour had a lasting impact: he undermined my prejudice and sparked an interest in econometrics which is still with me after 20 or so years. Now I make my living out of it, and try to inspire others in a similar way. He had a particular gift for jokes and sayings that captured a point beautifully, while at the same time managing to provoke laughter (in an econometrics class!). He was a great teacher. Richard Lewney ’82G Managing Director Cambridge Econometrics Cambridge England BETTER LATE THAN NEVER In the Winter 2000 edition of UMASSMAG, Ali Crolius labeled Pir Vilayat Khan as "the global head of the mystical, ecstatic branch of Islam known as Sufism." I hope this was merely naive. It is much like calling President George Bush, "leader of the free world." It begs about a million question. Pir Vilayat led a non-muslim organization established by his father which is loosely based on Sufism but is really more of a universalist approach. They do not observe the tenets and requirements of Islam. As such, one could hardly call him the "global leader" without being very misleading. Duncan Ross ’82 Oakland, California ENGINEERS ARE ARTISTS,TOO! I enjoyed reading the article entitled “On and off the road with Journalism 391R”, by Karen Skolfield in your winter issue of 2003. The photographs taken by those students attending the trip were quite impressive. I recently visited Sicily and loved the island, its beauty and its people, as did the visiting students. I have a warm relationship to the island, more so because my father was born there. However, I feel I must comment on one part of Skolfield’s phrasing. She mentions that amongst the mix of students from various colleges that participated in the course there was even one lone engineering student that attended the program. Is it so surprising that even one lone engineering student would attend an artistic program? Not really, because those not in a technical field usually think of engineers and scientists as having lacked a liberal arts education. One reason this attitude seems to prevail is because the undergraduate curriculum for these majors requires their almost full-time attention to attain a Bachelor of Science degree. To successfully acquire such a degree the usual candidates must be devoted to their studies and have little time for anything else, including liberal arts. Fortunately, once working in the field many of these professionals seem to have more time to attain accomplishments other than technical. As typical examples, I have paraphrased from “The Civilized Engineer” by Samuel Florman, the non-technical accomplishments of several well-known scientists and engineers in the following: Benjamin Latrobe, one of the premier engineers in the early nineteenth-century America, was an accomplished watercolorist. The Roeblings, father and son team, designed and directed the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, they were accomplished musicians and well versed in the arts. Edward Teller, the renowned physicist, wrote poems and was known for his love of literature, as well as philosophical speculation. Regarding the present day “techies”: Steven Jobs, fabled cofounder of Apple Computer, Inc., in college discovered Shakespeare, Dylan Thomas, and took creative writing courses. Tom West, head of a team of computer-building engineers, has been described as a philosophically minded guitar player who took up engineering after studying liberal arts at Amherst College. Alan Kay as an undergraduate earned a Bachelor of Arts degree and then did graduate work in computers. He later led a computer design team at Xerox, became a chief scientist at Atari, and then took a top research post at Apple. There are others that do have broad cultural interests that could be named if time and space allowed. It is hoped that the above may help those who have been educated in the humanities to keep an open mind when judging engineers and scientists about not having a well-rounded education. Now that I have written all that, I want to get back to completing a pastel sketch I am doing of the wonderful photo on page 35 of the Sicilian doorway scene by Toni DeBlaise ’02! Francis Baratta ’50 Arlington MYTHICAL WAUGH Your article about Frank Waugh turned a mythical name from my past into a real human being. My father, Linus A. Gavin '27, must have made reference to "Prof Waugh" a thousand times over the years. The Depression and a growing number of mouths to feed (including, of course, mine) forced Dad out of landscape architecture and into another line of work, but throughout his life he was never happier than when he was rearranging the shrubbery around his house on Cape Cod or rebuilding a crumbling stone wall at his home in Chesterfield. As a student of Frank Waugh my father developed a deep appreciation for the textures in nature. And, a full century after he started teaching at Mass Aggie, I have no doubt that Prof Waugh is guiding my hands as I lay a terraced flagstone patio outside my home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. James K. Gavin '67 Santa Fe, New Mexico DON'T KILL HOOPLA I can't believe the decision to kill Haigis Hoopla and replace it with this soccer idea. For the past six years, my fellow alumns would get together from around the country to participate with a campus activity one more time. Haigis Hoopla was my last connection to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and an activity that many of us looked forward to each year. I am not sure you can comprehend how that event kept all of us together over the years. The elite schools in America have found a way to keep their alumns connected to the schools and the effort they have put in has made their schools all the better. By now, you must realize that the decision to replace Hoops with soccer is unpopular. Please reconsider the decision to end the tradition that so many of us have enjoyed. Dan Powers '98 Arlington WAUGH'S TEACHING REMEMBERED I was pleased to read about Professor Frank Waugh in the article celebrating 100 years of Landscape Architecture at UMass. I was a botany major myself, but I took his course in art appreciation. The picture of Professor Waugh with his flute was appropriate since he use to bring his flute to class and play us a tune! He taught us to observe and to write about what we saw – our favorite campus building (the Old Chapel for most of us, of course, and a sunset from the roof of Clark Hall)! I do have one of his books The American Apple Orchard, 1912. During my 50th reunion in 1987, I met his daughter, Dorothy, at the dedication of a wildflower garden in his honor. I was disappointed and , I’m sure, she and other relatives must have been also since it was very small and poorly located. I wonder if it is even there now. I was not pleased at all at an item in the March Reader’s Digest under “That’s Outrageous” about English professor Burt and his course on male sexuality. UMass was rightly held up to ridicule! I wonder what the English professor’s of the 30s, Frank Rand, Barney Troy and my Professor Goldberg would have thought of that? I saw Professor Goldberg briefly in 1987 but none of them would be alive now. I know that I was disgusted at what passes for education in the 21st century!! Webster Chandler ’37 Griffin, Georgia HAPPY MEMORIES OF WAUGH The winter issue's article on Frank "Pinky" Waugh in the UMass brought back happy memories. I took his art appreciation course and later, as the first "art editor" of The Collegian, interviewed him about his etchings. I aslo own one of his etchings " Slopes of Mt. Warner", which he gave me as a wedding present. I was a biology major, and went on to Harvard for advanced work. Dr. Tippo -– later president of UMass, was a grad student then at Harvard, one of 4 grad student assistants in a famoud rhyme starting "Hall, Haskin, Tippo and Todd, down the biological path they trod" – well, I won't bore you with the rest of the of the rhyme. Anyway, it was fun to have my memory jogged. Bettina (Hall) Harrison ’39 Winchester TRUTH IN REPORTING The title of R. Jay Allain's letter "Not Enough On Afghanistan" intrigued me. Unfortunately, the letter wasn't really about the article on Charles Sennott; it was merely an excuse to attack the US. Allain claims that "compelling journalism takes sides." I believe that compelling journalism tells truth, in context. Allain also claims the US is guilty of "colossal neglect" in Afghanistan. He should tell that to the millions of Afghani girls attending schools that were closed before last year. Tell that to the millions of Afghani women receiving health care there – care they were forbidden to get under the former regime. Tell that to the millions of Afghani families who have returned to their country since the coalition – yes, a coalition, not the US alone – liberated their country from the fanatical Taliban and thuggish non-Afghan Al Qaeda. And especially tell that to the parents of the coalition soldiers who have been killed or maimed removing mines: at least 10 American, British, Norwegian and Polish soldiers were killed or maimed while removing mines just during the five months I was there. If Allain or anyone else really wants to correct the "neglect," they should leave their cozy Cape Cod cottages and travel to Afghanistan. There are plenty of jobs available, especially in demining. Bryan Hilferty, '87 Fort Drum, New York SUPPORTING ATHLETICS As an alumnus, a 31-year employee of the university, and a pretty devoted fan of UMass athletics since the 1970s, I read with much interest the article “Involved in just about everything.” I am enthusiastic about Ian McCaw and feel he can bring some much needed enthusiasm to the athletic program at the university. It is certainly important to try to increase both fan and financial support for the various sport programs. And while I admire Mr. McCaw’s devotion to matching athletics with academic success, trying to sell high graduation rates and innovative strategies for fulfillment of the student/athlete experience will not alone fill the Mullins Center or get TV coverage for UMass football games. Let’s not fool around, the big money/TV draws are men’s and women’s basketball and football. Finding funds and support for these programs will continue to be a problem as long as the school remains mired in the silly, geographically confused Atlantic Ten Conference. The University of Massachusetts at Amherst is the largest single college campus in the northeastern part of the United States yet must compete with the likes of Fordham and St. Bonaventure, essentially one sport (basketball) urban colleges, for talent in basketball or covet disgruntled western Division 1A players to shore up the football program. It seems obvious to me that Mr. McCaw’s first priority should be to convince the administration that a change in conference is necessary. The best choice: The ACC. Why? Because, despite its enormous talent and recognition, it’s currently too small to get a high number of post-season bids and could use a northeast member in otherwise Big East country to draw talent and exposure. If our school is to be free to be, as the current administration seems to want, then it should begin acting like the University of Massachusetts and divorce itself from a “mid-major” or “other colleges” status and become a truly major university, both academically and athletically. Put Duke rather than administration offices in the Mullins and Florida State rather than parking spaces in McGuirck and fans, TV , and yes money, lots of it, will follow. Douglas G. Smith ’77, ’82G Sunderland MULLINS CENTER EXEC RESPONDS TO COMMENTS It was very disappointing to see comments made by members of the UMass Women’s Ice Hockey team concerning Mullins Center Management in the article titled “good Sport” in the Winter 2003 UMass Magazine. While I congratulate the women’s Ice Hockey team for their success on the ice [this] year, I was disappointed by the fact that Mindy Corr, ice Rink mgr. and I, met with Ms. Craven to discuss ice time scheduling and the ice rental rate increase prior to Ms. Trudel’s comments. We explained to Kelly that her organization had received very favorable treatment in regards to the rental rate that team members have paid in the past. When their organization began, team members were paying $50 per person per season to rent ice from the times of 6-8am. Based on the hours booked, this translates to $15.50 per hour for ice time. Since that time, the team has requested and received the 9-10:30 time slot for practice, which is considered prime rental ice time normally priced at $120 - $160 per hour. Per University policy, UMass users of the ice rink pay $120 per hour, this includes the Men’s Hockey program and Intramurals. Non-university users are required to pay $160 per hour for those same time slots. During my meeting with Ms. Craven, I explained that staffing expenses and the cost to maintain the ice was higher than the rate that she and her team members were reimbursing the building for. During these difficult economic times and budget cuts on campus, we are required to cover operational expenses and adhere to a rate policy that is in effect for all users of the facility. Again, it is disappointing to all of the staff at the Ice Rink and myself to see those comments. We have given the UMass Women’s Ice Hockey team favorable treatment in the area of booking and ice time. With regards to the changing areas, UMass is in the process of constructing four additional locker rooms in the facility that will be available for use by November 2003, and the team’s accommodations will improve dramatically. Mindy Corr understands what the team has received because she was a member of the Women’s Hockey team from ’97 to ’00, and she did not have the luxury of skating at 9pm, she had to skate at 6am. Ms. Craven should understand the difficulties faced in managing the Ice Rink due to the fact she is an employee, as well as a user of the facility. Nancy Beauchamp Executive Director Mullins Center Mindy Corr Ice Rink Manager Mullins Center PLEASED WITH LARP ARTICLE It was a delight to read your account of the long and significant history of landscape architecture at UMass. I should point out, however, that I referred to Conrad L. Wirth (MAC, '23), who directed the National Park Service from 1951 to 1964, as the most influential landscape architect ever trained at UMass, not (as stated in your article) the most influential landscape architect "in the history of the profession." That would be an inaccurate overstatement, and I did not make it, although Wirth certainly was an important figure and a credit to Frank Waugh's landscape program. Ethan Carr Assistant Professor Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning SARAH HAMILTON REMEMBERED I was so sorry to read about the passing of Sarah Hamilton. I was an NSP counselor the summer of 1988 (one of the hottest summers on record!), and it truly was one of the best experiences of my life. Sarah was an amazing role model and supervisor with a knack for putting together a diverse yet cooperative group. I am another one who went on to a career in higher education (fundraising and alumni relations), and whenever I am at an event, I still keep in mind Sarah's "No Clumping Rule": Don't be shy and mingle with those you don't know! No "clumping" in groups of more than two! PS I do have to mention, however, that Sarah's "Don't put a bean up your nose" advice was taken out of context. She was actually referring to the fact that when you tell someone not to do something, it plants the seed to make them want to do it. Instead, she told us to emphasize all we do want the new students to do and learn, not what they shouldn't. Kristen Zagarella White ’90 Quincy "ONE GIANT MOLECULE," MANY USES I received the latest UMass Magazine today, and immediately turned to the "One Giant Molecule," being a 1960 (U Mass Amherst) Chemistry graduate myself. I have dabbled in a number of different applications for “crumb” rubber and various reprocessed grades of rubber from old tires for many years. One of the most intriguing uses of old tire carcass rubber is for mixing with various polymers and/or asphalt for repaving streets and roads, athletic running tracks and so forth. The final product can be made grainy with open pores or densely compacted to resemble cast rubber articles. For those who live in areas that suffer the New England style winters, you are familiar with the pot holes and washboard streets that spring brings. Mixing the asphalt with fine crumb rubber, plus a polymeric binder, produces a tough, abrasion resistant surface that resists pot holing. One component 100 % solids reactive polyurethanes, or two-component polyurethanes make attractive binders. There are a wide variety of types of rubber, fineness of grind, mix ratios with binders and/or asphalt, compression and cure modes that serve a wide range of applications. I’m sure that the people in the cited article are familiar with the extremely wide range of innovative products that can be made from recycled tire rubber. Today, fast crystallizing, reactive hot melt urethane adhesives are available that can be readily handled by available equipment and at application temperatures from quite low melt temperatures, certainly below 80 C, that would permit an asphalt- polyurethane (MDI-polyester) adhesive and recycled tire rubber composite to be continuously applied and that would achieve an initial cure in seconds. Similar composite applications can be used as protective barriers under or around solvent and gasoline storage tanks, hazardous chemical storage tanks and the like. With the right urethane polymer properties, pipe lining can be made that resist the extremely abrasive ores and grain transfers, and the like. These abrasion resistant linings have been used to good advantage in the diamond slurry transport in S. Africa, for example. Please continue to offer such interesting and educational articles such as “One Giant Molecule”. Sincerely, Harold Garey'60 Senior Scientist, Sovereign SC Seabrook, New Hampshire IMPRESSED WITH MAGAZINE I work in the Office of Public Affairs at a Los Angeles university, and a colleague recently suggested I take a look at the UMASSMAG web site to see how your university is rallying its alums to take action in the face of severe budget cuts. I was not only impressed with the article about this topic, but also with the humorous, well written article about your school mascot, and the general quality of your on-line publication. I'll definitely look to your mag for future inspiration. Keep it up! Laura Ferreiro Los Angeles, CA TRUTH ABOUT PCB’S I am a UMass graduate and leader of the citizens group (The Housatonic River Initiative) that brought the PCB issue to light in Pittsfield. I must take exception to this false article. I am disgusted with the sloppy reporting and mistruth’s presented in your article about Bobbi Orsi and the Nurses. While Bobbi became involved in 1997, we were the first citizen group to ask the question PCBs: Can we live with them. This was back in 1992. WE worked for many years to expose the PCB pollution. We attended every government meeting. We held several forums on PCBs and public health attended by many Pittsfield residents. Miss Orsi was not to be seen until later. We have uncovered barrel fields, huge pollution in the Housatonic River, polluted ponds , and we were responsible for bringing the contaminated fill property issue to the public in 1996. This resulted in the discovery of Bobbi Orsi's house being one of the contaminated properties. As I scan the early neighborhood meeting lists that my group organized with Vinnie Curro of Ravin Autobody, Miss Orsi's name does not surface. She became involved when the property across the street from her was found to be contaminated by work that our group did. She had no interest until then. We are the Housatonic River Initiative. Its amazing that she refers to us as rebellious when all we were trying to do is make GE clean up!!!!!!!!!!! Miss Rennie states that "They're so concentrated on getting their yards cleaned up, so worried about their property values and the economic future of the city," says Eileen Rennie '00, a school nurse. "Their concern is, ‘Can we fish in the rivers?’ not ‘Is my pregnant daughter at risk? or ‘Is there a chance my kid’s hyperactivity was caused by PCBs?'" This statement is so far off the track it is laughable. Miss Rennie obviously never attended any of the HRI forums with the worlds leading experts on PCB and health. We focused on these issues and many more. Our first was in 1994. I suspect that her interest in PCBs came about when she had to do her project for her nursing degree (1999). I do remember Miss Orsi attending our 1997 health forum getting educated. The forum they site was a recreation of numerous forums HRI held previously with many of the same people!!! Yes they presented it to the medical community. But the medical community has been totally absent in helping the community answer the health concerns that have long plagued the neighborhood and GE workers. HRI is just now completing an EPA funded neighborhood health survey. WE organized blood sampling in 1996-1997. Miss Orsi must forget that she was one of the participants. It has taken five years of my life to do a study that our Department of Public Health and the medical community should be doing. But you see in a company town a lot of money trickles down everywhere. Even to the hospital. The HRI community health survey has so far shown both skin rashes and thyroid problems above the national average. Both of these ailments are connected to PCBs in the scientific literature. Before the emergence of our citizen group (HRI) many other individuals had long asked this question. We do not take credit for being the first. The GE workers who did PCB blood studies in the 1980's. Mayor Remo Del Gallo who helped organize the blood studies and was a pioneer in uncovering PCB pollution in the mid - eighties. Ed Bates, a GE engineer who forced the questionable GE worker Wegman study back in 1983. The GE workers who filed lawsuits in 1995. Gige Darey Chairman of the Board of Fisheries and Wildlife and State Representative Chris Hodgkins who were ahead of their times in focusing on this PCB tragedy. Chris is also a UMass graduate.. There is a very long history of people asking this question that the nurses now imagine is their own. We had done much work in the neighborhood organizing the contaminated property owners since 1994. We brought in an Amherst lawyer to help. He is a hero. Three major lawsuits resulted from his work with our group. Miss Orsi refers to the "rebellious" groups. This is an outrage! Her home would never had been cleaned up if it were not for this "rebellious" group. HRI's work in the neighborhood had resulted in the formation of "Citizens for PCB Removal". This was the first group started at my suggestion. I felt the neighborhood needed a voice. Almost two years later Jan Schlichtmann ’71 came into town and divided the folks who were suing GE right in half. He promise them he could get GE to negotiate ! This was two years into the legal work that was already taking place. WE urged him to work with the already existing litigation. Bobbi Orsi and a few other residents urged people to sign on with Jan as he would be their savior. Jan Schlichtmann called up our group and used his foul language to try to intimidate us into working with him and abandoning Mr. Bonifaz. We told him GE would never negotiate and he was fooling the citizens. The folks that followed him were now not covered by the class action already in place. He never got GE to negotiate but was successful in splitting the neighborhood group in two. GE was laughing all the way to the bank. Now five years later the people who followed Mr. Jan Schlichtmann are abandoned with nothing to show for it. Mr. Bonifaz has successfully represented his clients. So much for Mr. Jan Schlichtmann . Bobbi Orsi's group Get Real refused to publicly participate in the fight to clean up Allendale Elementary school and the Hill 78 dump. She now sits on a Dept. of Public Health Panel in Pittsfield with myself. She has been successful in getting one doctor on the panel. The long time General Electric doctor! At our recent meeting the DPH informed us that it would be almost impossible for a worker study to be performed as GE had destroyed or "lost" most of the records. The GE doctor left early!!! I was nominated by the Alumni Association for my environmental work but lost out in the vote. It never surprised us at HRI as Mr. JackWelch was being featured in your magazine. Here in Pittsfield we can't say he "Bring Good Things to Life". This coming Saturday a documentary will be shown in Berkshire County on the work of HRI. Sadly to say your article attempts to rewrite history with false information. If you want to learn the real story check out our Website at http://housatonic-river.com Tim Gray ’77, Housatonic Riverkeeper Director-Housatonic River Initiative Lee The article Mr. Gray is referring to in his letter can be found at: http://www.umassmag.com/Fall_2001/BERKSHIRE_NIGHTINGALES_78.html SARAH HAMILTON - SADNESS AND PRAISE I was saddened to read about the passing of Sarah Hamilton last week. I enjoyed my three summers working for Sarah and the New Students Program. Working for her was one of the best experiences I had while attending the university. Her dedication and hard work was an inspiration to me. I still remember my first interview in 1996 for the NSP counselor position. The first thing Sarah said to me was “I don’t shake hands" and then she asked why should I hire a sophomore when there are many other students who have much more campus knowledge than me. I told her to take a chance on me. Sarah then replied, “I don’t like surprises!” While at UMass and after graduation, Sarah was a second mother to me. Her door was always open for me to talk. She always listened to me talk about school or my personal life. I remember we had a rare day-off during the summer and Sarah asked if I wanted to play a round of golf with her. At that time I had just picked up the game which Sarah had been perfecting for years. We woke up early and played 18 holes at Cherry Hill, along with getting lesson from the Sarah Hamilton Golf School. I came back to campus and the rest of NSP staff was shocked I spent the morning with Sarah. Sarah had such pride for the university. She expected all of her staff to be hard working. If it were not for working for Sarah and NSP, I would never have found that I enjoyed working in student affairs. The university is known for their high quality of education, in my mind Sarah was the best educator I ever met while at UMass. The lessons I learned from Sarah Hamilton will last a lifetime. The university will miss Sarah and her dedication, but the roughly 120,000 students that passed through the New Students Program should be grateful for the services she provided to them. Sarah had such passion for the university. Sarah thanks for all your love and support, The university and I will miss you. David Follick ’98, ’01G Westbury, New York NOTEWORTHY ARTICLE BUT WANTS MORE Writer Patricia Wright's article "Love & War" (Fall 2002) is noteworthy on several accounts. She's not only a talented scribe who clearly did extensive research before compiling her story, but she tackles contemporary politics while highlighting one of the school's more illutsrious graduates, journalist Charles Sennott '84, now European bureau chief of the Boston Globe. Alas though, I must admit feeling sorely disappointed that the story failed to delve further into current conditions in Afghanistan, particularly after the evocative photos of Sennott on the ground there. Unfortunately this stark ommission tends to relegate that country's suffering masses as invisible - or worse, the mere means for Sennott's professional advancement. Maybe Ms. Wright (or the Thought Police, viz., publishers) flinched from a fuller Afghan story because of the Bush Administration's avoidance of real nation-building in that despoiled land. But isn't the most compelling journalism willing to take sides - to say when a powerful nation, the U.S., fails to provide desperately needed irrigation and food and construction help to a country it liberated, then it's guilty of colossal neglect? With ongoing sabre-rattling - and worse, continuing against Iraq, it is critical someone take the side of the common folk. R. Jay Allain '73 Hyannis GOOD VS. EVIL Congratulations to Professor Ervin Staub on his recent appointment to Director of the Psychology of Peace and Violence Prevention program.I was a student in Professor Staub's Psychology of Good vs. Evil course almost twenty years ago. His class and shared experiences left a lasting impact on me that actually helped me to cope following the tragedy of Sept 11th. The inception of this new program could not have come at a better time with all of the horrors taking place in the world today. I wish him and the University much success with this endeavor! Andrea Millstein Sohnen ’84 Marlboro, New Jersey STUDENT RECOGNITION I think your article on Kyle Rawlins is disgraceful. It is an egregious error on your part to trumpet the accomplishments of a near-failure when there are plenty of students who accomplish so much more than he did. What about all of the students who complete double majors in the standard four years? What about students who complete triple majors in four years? What about students who graduate early? What about all the other highly decorated students here who were never on academic probation and have near-perfect GPA's? I think it is inappropriate for you to hold Mr. Rawlins up as an example of what one should aspire to. I for one hope that I would never follow in his path. How can you laud someone for getting his act together and doing what all the other students in college do – their work! Following in that vein, why don't you applaud all students who were on academic probation and now aren't. Next time you should think twice before publishing such an absurd article that puts such an unadmirable person on such a high pedestal. <I>Jennifer Carlson ’06 Amherst THE POWER OF A PUBLIC LIBRARY We were impressed with the letter from Frederick Gralenski '59 in the Fall 2002 issue — so much so that our check is on its way for his Pembroke Library Association. We understand the need to support large organizations such as the University (and the University we work for, and our undergraduate colleges, and the many charities from our neighborhood to the world that we think are worthwhile). But it feels especially good to share our modest resources with something very concrete and specific, and we understand the need to offer the mind-opening potential of a library to people in small, poor towns. (One of us is where she is today, professionally, because of the power of a public library in a small, poor town.) In the world's rush to put every child in front of a computer screen all the time, we must not lose sight of the different but essential power of words and pictures you can hold in your hand, take wherever you like for contemplation, go back to again and again over the years when you need another drink of inspiration. Andrew Carnegie's imaginative gift of public libraries changed America in profound ways early in this century. We guess that small donations could make a surprisingly large difference in Pembroke, Maine. So we challenge readers of the magazine to join us in helping with a worthy project especially suitable to the heritage we share as alumni of the endangered public educational system. Patricia ’72G, ’77G and Robert Tracy Blacksburg, Virginia Frederick Gralenski's letter, referred to above, follows. JULIUS LESTER IMAGINES SUCCESS Professor Lester’s essay, "Carved Runes in a Clearing", (UMass, 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 speeding their commerce to and from New Brunswick, Canada. 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. Pembroke was once noted as the home of Dr. Charles Best, the co-discoverer of insulin. Prior to that, in the 1800’s, Pembroke had a sizable Iron Works, and Pembroke iron was well known and respected throughout eastern United States. We are not far (about 7 miles, as the crow flies) from Campobello Island, the summer home of Franklin D. Roosevelt. His ‘cottage’ is a major tourist attraction. Franklin usually got to Eastport by train and took a boat to his ‘Beloved Island’. We moved here about 14 years ago. We were probably attracted to the region for similar reasons as FDR. But what does this have to do with Professor Lester’s essay? Well, the town that we live in is economically 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. I felt that when we evolved the ability to imagine is when we became human. 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 claming 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 non-profit 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? It’s a hard judgment call to gauge how much this is true, but at least it illustrates that the project consists of not only ‘bricks and mortar’ but, probably more difficult, a major selling job. 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 Maine itself had been a territory (problem child?) of Massachusetts for almost as long as Maine has been a state, so 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 passed 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 cars 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 INTERDISCIPLINARY MINOR This is a short note regarding a short piece which appeared on page 12 (Around the Pond) of the last edition of the magazine regarding the new information technology minor. In the piece you state that this program is the first campuswide, interdisciplinary minor. As the associate director of the Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies, I wanted to let you know that a campuswide interdisciplinary minor in Latin American Studies has been in effect here since the end of the 80s. I can not assure you that we were the first of that kind, but, given what you say in your piece, we very well may have been. In addition, we were the first to institute a campuswide interdisciplinary graduate Certificate in Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies in the mid 90s. Gloria I. Bernabe-Ramos ’81G Associate Director Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies Amherst LOVED JEFF TAYLOR Thanks for a terrific article on Jeff Taylor. We had the pleasure of hearing him speak last night in Needham (he was awesome!). I was fortunate enough to have received my magazine the day before and brought it with me to share. A number of my colleagues would love a copy of the magazine. Would it be possible to send me about 15 copies? Please let me know. It would be greatly appreciated. Lynne Maimon `86 Needham MINUTEMAN STATUE Concerning the Class of '50 Minuteman statue gift, it's an extraordinarily myopic - if not self-aggrandizing way of supporting the University given the need for financial support - especially financial aid. With the effort expended to raise the $100,000, think of how many more could directly benefit were this gift more thoughtfully directed. What possible purpose will be served! Rob Brooks, retired UMass staff member Amherst TEACHING DWIGHT ALLEN STYLE 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

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ALL THE LETTERS ALL THE TIME

LETTERS IN PRINT, SUMMER 2003

FROM THE CHANCELLOR