Winter 2003

Departments

Exchange

Around the Pond

Extended Family

Great Sport

North 40

Arts

Books

Freeze-frame

Features

All my best friends are here

One giant molecule

I learnt to dream of Sicily

The Landscape Beautiful

Exchange: To and from the editors

LETTERS IN PRINT, WINTER 2003

SARAH HAMILTON REMEMBERED 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 (NSP), one of the best experiences I had while attending the university. Her dedication and hard work were an inspiration. 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 asked why she should hire a sophomore when there were many other students who had much more campus knowledge. I asked her to take a chance on me. Sarah replied, “I don’t like surprises!” At UMass and after graduation, Sarah was a second mother to me. Her door was always open for me to 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. 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, and I got a lesson from the Sarah Hamilton Golf School. I came back to campus and the rest of the NSP staff was shocked that I had spent the morning with Sarah. The university is known for its high quality of education, and Sarah was the best educator I 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 who passed through the New Students Program should be grateful for the services she provided to them. Sarah, thanks for all your love and support. The university and I will miss you. David Follick ’98, ’01G Westbury, New York THOUGHTFUL LETTER SPURS LIBRARY DONATION 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, and 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 the last 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 I.T. MINOR NOT THE FIRST This is a short note regarding a short piece that 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 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 cannot 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, associate director, Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies NOT ENOUGH ON AFGHANISTAN 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 also tackles more contemporary politics while highlighting one of the school’s more illustrious 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 omission 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 US, fails to provide desperately needed irrigation and food and construction help to a country it liberated, that it’s guilty of colossal neglect? With the ongoing sabre-rattling – and worse – continuing against Iraq, it is critical someone take the side of the common folk. R. Jay Allain ’73 Hyannis CHECK THOSE NAMES! I recently read through the Spring 2002 issue and was disappointed by the inaccuracies in Steven Beeber’s article on Prof. Nick Bromell. Beeber includes the lyric “but maybe yes” in his (uncredited) citation of “Strawberry Fields Forever,” but there is no such lyric in this Beatles song. He also quotes Bromell as saying that Elvis sings a version of “Crawdaddy” in the film “King Creole,” but the song is actually entitled “Crawfish.” These may seem minor errors, but clearly one implication of the article is the importance of taking the messages of popular music seriously, and a reader certainly deserves accuracy for the article – and your magazine as a whole – to succeed. Please show greater respect to your readers in the future by doing a better job of editing. Gordon MacLachlan, ’91G, ’97G Southfield, MI MORE TAYLOR, PLEASE 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 asked for copies of the magazine. Lynne Maimon ’86 Needham RAWLINS BELONGS OFF PEDESTAL I think your article on Kyle Rawlins (Fall 2002) 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. Jennifer Carlson ’06 Amherst Our profile of Kyle Rawlins was the last in our Branches of Learning series. Over three years we have featured 10 exemplary students, in each case brought to our attention by the deans of their respective schools and colleges. Most of our subjects have been exactly the type of students Ms. Carlson commends: high achievers with near-perfect GPA’s. But we found Rawlins’ story equally commendable and perhaps even more inspiring than those traditional “success stories.” After an embarrassingly rocky start, Rawlins, with the support of his department, completely redeemed his academic career. University life can, even should, be a challenge, and many students find that they, too, have “a hard time my first year.” Note that in the same issue we featured on our cover another case in point, phenom Jeff Taylor, who said of his freshman performance, “I was the screwball.” Nice to know that failure is not final. – EP STAUB HAS LASTING IMPACT Congratulations to Professor Ervin Staub on his recent appointment as 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 20 years ago. His class and shared experiences left a lasting impact on me that actually helped me to cope following the tragedy of September 11. 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 LET’S GIVE AID, NOT STATUES 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 Amherst THE LEGACY OF JAMES K. KINDAHL Today I am filled with sorrow upon learning that Professor James K. Kindahl of the economics department has died. Professor Kindahl not only inspired me to pursue the study of economics, but also served as an example to me in how he led his daily life. He was humble, wise, gentle and good. I recall one of his more humorous insights: “People don’t get any nicer as they age – they just become more of whatever they were in the first place.” I am now an assistant professor of economics at UMass-Boston, and my greatest wish is to give to my students some piece of the encouragement and inspiration that Professor Kindahl gave to me. He was a great man, and I know that I speak for many by saying that he will be deeply missed, but never forgotten. Tammy Barlow McDonald ’94 Canton

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ALL THE LETTERS ALL THE TIME

LETTERS IN PRINT, WINTER 2003