On Campus
Vassar College

Jon Chenette, Vassar’s new dean of the faculty, is a keen observer of place. A major theme of his work as a composer has been the place where he lived for the past 25 years. Among the many pieces he composed during his tenure at Grinnell College are a song cycle about small town life (Oh Millersville!), an opera about a Norwegian immigrant fiddler on the 19th-century prairie (Eric Hermannson’s Soul), and a symphony based on interviews with Iowa farm families (Rural Symphony). So what were his first impressions of this new place - Poughkeepsie, NY?

"It’s fascinating," says Chenette. "When I came here for the interview, I toured this lovely campus and saw many students who looked like they could just as easily be Grinnell students. And then we headed downtown for dinner, and I encountered a very different world - Mexican restaurants on every corner, a Jamaican jerk chicken shop, crowds on the street, and then this fancy restaurant that we went to, the Artist’s Palate. On the way to the restaurant, we encountered a Vogue magazine photo shoot taking place on Main Street that blocked traffic for five or 10 minutes. So this is very, very different from any city in Iowa, and certainly from a small rural town. Making my way in these new surroundings will be an exciting adventure!"

Joining him on this adventure is his wife, Jeannie Kern Chenette, who is a harpist and a teacher of both harp and musicianship. At Grinnell, Ms. Chenette taught not just classical harp but also Gothic, Celtic, and Paraguayan harps. She introduced students as well to other non-Western harp traditions, such as the kora of West Africa. In addition, she worked with a program at Grinnell operated in partnership with the Posse Foundation, which brings groups of students from urban areas to liberal arts colleges in rural areas and helps them to successfully navigate that environment. "Jeannie hasn’t decided whether she will open a private studio or perhaps explore some new options," says Chenette. "She was also very involved in college-community relations at Grinnell, and that’s an area that seems ripe for further development here."

The Poughkeepsie-Vassar relationship was one of the things that intrigued Chenette about the job. "People at Vassar are putting a lot of thought into how this campus relates to the immediate environment, and I like the fact that there’s tension around that. I think there should be tension around any big institution potentially having an impact on a neighborhood. We need to be very cautious about the impact we have, but we also need to care about where we live. Being able to reason through those ethical quandaries is part and parcel of what it means to have a liberal education and to be an engaged citizen. That’s one of my passions - to try to link together what we do on the college campus with what we do as citizens in the communities where we live, and ultimately in the world."

Their second week at Vassar, the Chenettes attended the final dinner for the community fellows, 20 Vassar students who spent the summer working with non- profit agencies in Poughkeepsie under the auspices of the Field Work Office. "The students who were involved in the program were very impressive, articulate, dedicated people. They were saying things like, ‘We want to bring some of what we’ve learned back to campus and tell people, get off this campus! Don’t stay in this bubble all the time. There’s a rich community here and so many interesting people to learn from and needs that you can help to meet.’ That was very heartening."

The Chenettes have three adult children - Timothy, a doctoral candidate in music theory at Indiana University; Nathan, a doctoral candidate in algorithms, combinatorics, and optimization at Georgia Tech; and Claire, a fourth-year double degree student in oboe performance and Middle East studies at Oberlin College. "It was a little difficult for them that the home they had lived in for so long was not going to be where they would be going for breaks anymore," says Chenette. "We made a very strong effort to get them all here our second weekend in town, and we did some fun things together. We went hiking in the Catskills...had dinner at the Culinary Institute...walked around Poughkeepsie...went to a Powerhouse Theater production. By the time my oldest son left, he was saying, ‘Boy, this is a really interesting place.’ So even though they’ll probably always think of themselves as Iowans, I think they’ll be willing to come home."

Other first impressions? "How busy the library was! The library is beautiful, and to walk in and see how many students were there, and to watch them come up to these two faculty members who were showing me around, and say, ‘I need an extension on such-and-such’ - just very, very friendly interactions between the faculty and the students, and a really lively sense of students deeply engaged in their work. Those things stand out very vividly in my mind. And then just the friendliness of the people here. If one were inclined to have stereotypes of East Coast standoffishness, they’ve been dispelled by the number of people who’ve invited us over or just dropped by to welcome us to campus or arranged for Jeannie to meet people. The Vassar community has been very welcoming."

By   Fri, Aug 22, 2008

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (German 1880-1938)
Woman, Tying Shoe, 1912
Woodcut on wove paper
12 1/8 x 10 inches
Syracuse University Art Collection

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (German 1884-1976)
Head of a Woman, 1916
Woodcut on wove paper
10 1/8 x 7 1/8 inches

All of the artists represented in Impassioned Images: German Expressionist Prints were persecuted by the Nazis. Their works were confiscated from German museums, held up to public ridicule, and either sold to buyers outside of Germany to fill the coffers of the Third Reich or destroyed. Not just a few works - Emil Nolde had 1,000 works confiscated, Erich Heckel 700, Otto Mueller 357. The purge wasn’t restricted to German artists - modernists of all stripes were denounced - but it was aimed principally at the German Expressionists who were characterized as mentally ill or retarded or depraved.

German Expressionism began in the early years of the 20th century as a reaction against the traditional academic style of painting and a push toward an art form that the Expressionists believed would capture the intensity and immediacy of their experiences. They were young idealists and bohemians who, in Kirchner’s words, wanted "freedom in our work and in our lives, independence from older, established forces." When World War One began, many of them saw it as a good thing, a sweeping away of the old order. Some actually enlisted to fight, believing that this would be the war to end all wars and that a new, better age was imminent. But the horrors of the war and the suffering in its wake left them traumatized and disillusioned. Destitute workers crowding into industrialized cities, the decadence of Weimar society, political turmoil, aggression, tragedy, grief - these were the realities they depicted with intensity and immediacy in the years leading up to Hitler’s rise.

The Expressionists used all the art forms, but they had a particularly profound effect on printmaking, using this centuries-old medium in bold, new ways to convey the rawness of their emotions. "They were aware of the lauded traditions in German Renaissance printmaking, particularly the virtuosic woodcuts and engravings of Albrecht Dí¼rer early in the 16th, century," said Patricia Phagan, the Philip and Lynn Straus Curator of Prints and Drawings. "However, Expressionists modernized the print into an immediate, driven, and often harsh statement of the inner life. They truly revolutionized printmaking."

Organized by the Syracuse University Art Collection, Impassioned Images is now showing at Vassar through the generous support of the Friends of the Frances Lehman Loeb Exhibition Fund.

By   Fri, Aug 22, 2008

Elizabeth Kolbert, this year’s William Starr Distinguished Lecturer, has a challenging assignment for the class of 2012. Her book Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change exposes the reality of global warming and urges people to start paying attention to how small changes in energy use can have a large impact.

"The real challenge is how to make global warm- ing vivid to people, how to make it real," said Kolbert in an interview with the Natural Resources Defense Council. To Kolbert, the effects of climate change are very real. In the same interview, she recalled winters of skating on a salt-pond while growing up in nearby Larchmont. Recently, there have been winters when the pond didn’t freeze and the ski resorts near her home in western Massachusetts struggled to make snow. When she began researching global warming, she discovered that these cases are magnified in the Arctic, where whole villages must be relocated because floating ice is eroding the coastline. Houses in Alaska are falling into holes from melting permafrost. During a research trip to the north, Kolbert’s own tent filled with water produced from a melting ice cap.

In an effort to get to the heart of the debate over global warming, Kolbert talked to people affected by global warming. She also interviewed top scientists, following their research. She investigated the politics behind the issue and drew parallels between our society and those of ancient lost civilizations. And she examined the green efforts of cities like Burlington, VT, and the state of California, who are already enacting earth-friendly policies and making significant energy reductions.

Field Notes from a Catastrophe grew out of a series of articles written for the New Yorker, where Kolbert is a staff writer. Her three-part series "The Climate of Man" won the 2005 National Magazine Award in the Public Interest category. In 2006, Field Notes from a Catastrophe was chosen as one of the 100 Notable Books of the Year by the New York Times Book Review. Her stories have also appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Mother Jones, Vogue, and two anthologies including The Best American Science and Nature Writing. A former political reporter for the New York Times, Kolbert published a collection of her work, The Prophet of Love: And Other Tales of Power and Deceit, in 2004.

On Thursday, September 25, Kolbert will deliver the William Starr Freshman Course Lecture at 5:30pm on the second floor of the Students’ Building. A Q&A session will be held beforehand at 3:00pm. Part of the Vassar First Year Program, the annual Starr lecture brings a distinguished author to campus to speak to first-year students about the writing life. The lecture is open to the Vassar community and the general public.

By   Fri, Aug 22, 2008

After more than a year of construction and major renovations, the new sports facilities at Prentiss Field will be dedicated on Saturday, September 20, 2008. New additions include an eight-lane, quarter-mile track, complete with a turf field with lights, stadium seating, and a long jump pit. There are also new fields for field hockey, soccer, and lacrosse as well as new scoreboards and press boxes. A new baseball diamond features dugouts and a practice baseball field. "Prentiss Field is now the finest all-around facility in the Liberty League," says Sharon Beverly, director of athletics and physical education. "Our student-athletes now have facilities that may in fact be the best on the East Coast." The dedication is part of Vassar Inspiration and Education Weekend (VIEW) for alumnae/i, and will take place at 11:00am at Prentiss Field.

By   Fri, Aug 22, 2008

How did galaxies evolve? What makes amphibians susceptible to disease? And how do our complex emotions contribute to stress and health? For 10 weeks this summer, 68 students have been analyzing questions like these and performing intensive research with the help of their faculty mentors (35 participated this summer). Now, for the final step, the Undergraduate Research Summer Institute (URSI) fellows will share the results of their research.

At the upcoming URSI Symposium on September 24,2008 several students will present their projects and discuss their research at the general session (4:00pm, Villard Room). This is followed by the URSI keynote address and Common Ground lecture from Freeman Hrabowski, the president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (5:00pm, Villard Room), whose research and publications focus on science and math education. Afterwards, all the URSI fellows will present their research at the Poster Session (6:15pm, College Center, second floor) and will discuss their work.

By   Fri, Aug 22, 2008

After a record-breaking 7,361 applications (up 15% from last year) and the most selective year in the college’s history (25% were admitted), Vassar welcomes its newest members: the class of 2012. A diverse group, members hail from 46 states, including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and 30 foreign countries. Among them, 85 students are bilingual or speak English as a second language. Their languages range from Arabic and Estonian to Gujarati and Tagalog. The class also includes 64 students who were editors-in-chief of a major high school publication, 31 valedictorians, and 42 first- generation college students. A long list of accomplishments also includes National Merit Finalists, black belt holders in Tae Kwon Do or Karate, Junior Olympians, published authors and poets, accomplished musicians, and several actors who have appeared both on and off Broadway, in independent films, and on television. Among their ranks are also the following:

• a master-level scuba diver
• a professional magician
• a students who plays the didgeridoo
• a first place finisher in the national championships for Irish dancing
• two licensed pilots
• a professional fashion model
• a belly dancer
• a member of a stilt-walking performance troupe

Fri, Aug 22, 2008

John Solum, adjunct artist in the Department of Music, was selected for the 2008 Distinguished Advocates Award by the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism in part for his work as cofounder of the Connecticut Early Music Festival.

Meg Stewart and Virginia Jones, academic computing consultants, presented a talk at the North East Regional Computing Program Conference on "Assessing student learning outcomes when using a tablet PC for data collection in field-based classes in archaeology and ecology," which was cowritten with Keri Van Camp, Vassar Farm and Ecological Preserve manager, Lucy Johnson, professor of anthropology, and Robert Fritz, professor of biology.

Professor of anthropology Martha Kaplan received a post-PhD grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research for her project "Local Politics and a Global Commodity: Fijian Water in Fiji and in New York."

Charles Steinhorn, professor of mathematics, has been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation for a three-year project "Finite and Infinite Model Theory and Applications."

Professor of English Mark Amodio delivered the plenary address titled "Embodying the Oral Tradition: Performance and Oral Poetics in Anglo-Saxon England and Beyond" at the Oral, the Written, and Other Verbal Media Conference held at the University of Saskatchewan.

Professor of earth science and geography Yu Zhou was selected by the National Committee on United States-China Relations as one of the 20 public intellectual fellows for 2008-2010. In addition, her article "Synchronizing export orientation with import substitution: creating competitive indigenous high-tech companies in China" will be published both in print and online.

Light Carruyo, assistant professor of sociology, published Producing Knowledge, Protecting Forests: Rural Encounters with Gender, Ecotourism, and International Aid in the Dominican Republic (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2008).

Tim Longman, associate professor of political science and Africana studies, completed a democracy and government assessment for USAID in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He was the lead author of a report describing political conditions and has conducted briefings in Washington to advise the United States government on how to better promote democratic consolidation.

Academic computing consultant Meg Stewart received a grant from the HP Technology for Teaching program to work with Vassar students to produce a video describing the results of an earlier grant to use tablet PCs in field work and earth science courses.

Nancy Pokrywka, associate professor of biology and a multidisciplinary team of science faculty members received an award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for science education at Vassar. The $1.5 million award will support and expand research opportunities, as well as provide new equipment, faculty development, and outreach activities.

Eve D’Ambra, professor of art, codirected an NEH summer seminar at the American Academy in Rome, where she is serving as a Villa Visiting Scholar at the Getty Research Institute this year.