This is Vassar...                     January 2008

Faculty Emeriti Reunite for the Holidays

On December 17, President Cappy Hill opened her home to welcome faculty emeriti to celebrate the holidays. As many as 50 former professors braved the chill and ice to reconnect with friends and coworkers. Some of those in attendance at this annual event were colleagues from the English department, including Eamon Grennan, Lynn Bartlett, Bill Gifford, Colton Johnson, and Barbara Page. Deep in conversation at another end of the room were Anne Constantinople (psychology) and Robin Trainor (education). And also joining in the holiday spirit were Professor of Religion Bob Fortna, Glen Johnson from the political science department, and Bob Pounder from classics. Midway through the festivities, guests enjoyed holiday carols sung by Vassar’s student choir.

Photo caption and credit: President Hill with Professor of Philosophy Michael McCarthy (right) and Lewis Lipschutz (left), widower of Professor of French Ilse Hempel Lipschutz; photo by Stockton Photo, Inc.

2008 Modfest Celebrates the Arts

This year marks the sixth Modfest celebration of the arts. Twelve events will take place in the last weekend of January and the first weekend in February, including concerts, readings, and lectures. The various student music groups will perform, including Mahagonny Ensemble on February 2. Organist Gail Archer will deliver the Olivier Messiaen Centennial Concert, and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Del Tredici will appear at various events on January 26-27. On January 26, there will be a music recital and poetry reading by students of the music and English departments, with an exhibit of student art works, and the Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre will perform to live music on February 1. William McManus of the art department will lecture on the works in the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center on February 2, including the Saul Steinberg visiting exhibit. Arts enthusiasts of all kinds will surely find an event or two to attend!

Photo caption and credit: The Mannes Trio, left to right: pianist Thomas Sauer (Vassar music faculty), cellist Wilhelmina Smith, and violinist Hiroko Yajima; photo by Allen Cohen

Ron Sharp to Step Down as Dean of the Faculty

Dean of the Faculty Ron Sharp will step down at the end of his five-year term this spring to join the Vassar English department.

“Like most deans, I have always felt some tension between the demands of administration on the one hand and the activities that first drew me to the life of the mind, on the other,” Sharp explained in a statement emailed this fall to the faculty and administration. “It has been a privilege to be your dean and to try to improve the policies and structures, the principles and procedures that shape our collective academic life. But after a decade of administration, I really want to return to my original passions: teaching and writing.”

Sharp said his most important job as dean of the faculty has been “hiring and retaining the best faculty.” In his first four years as dean, the college hired 41 tenure-track professors, 22 of whom are faculty of color. He considers his work on Vassar’s diversity initiative to be his proudest accomplishment. “Over half of those new assistant professors are faculty of color,” he said. Sharp also established an annual diversity retreat for the faculty and has sponsored a series of lectures and conversations about diversity in academia.

Dean of the faculty search committees, one comprising faculty members and the other student representatives, are reviewing prospective candidates. Sharp’s replacement is expected to begin his or her term on July 1, 2008.

Sharp intends to take a sabbatical next year and will begin teaching English in Fall 2009. “I would like to teach courses on English Romanticism, contemporary poetry, and the literature of friendship,” he said. A scholar of the 19th-century English poet John Keats and author of six books, Sharp has received various fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Humanities Center, and other foundations. Before coming to Vassar in July 2003, he spent 33 years at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio—28 years teaching English and five years in administration, as associate provost, provost, and acting president.

Photo credit: Larry Hamill

Former Juliet Theater to become Vassar’s bookstore

An expanded Vassar College bookstore is planned for 60 Raymond Avenue. Located at the corner of Raymond and Collegeview Avenues, across from the north end of campus, this address was home to the Juliet movie theater and currently houses the Juliet Pizza and Billiard establishment. The college expects the new bookstore to be open longer hours, sell a wider selection of general interest books, merchandise, and Vassar clothing and gifts, and include an entertainment space. The store also will continue to serve Vassar faculty members ordering textbooks and other class materials. “We’re very excited to be creating a new retail anchor and gathering place in our neighborhood,” said President Cappy Hill.

Photo credit: Special Collections, Vassar College Libraries

Molly Finkelstein ’08: Art 105 At Long Last

While my friends were spending their last days of the semester hidden away in their library basement cubbies, finishing up their theses, I was sitting in my living room making art history flash cards. Art 105–106, Introduction to the History of Art, is the Vassar class, and I couldn’t let myself graduate without having taken it. The course has a long history at Vassar, this year marking its 80th anniversary, and I wanted to be part of it—which is how I ended up one of a handful of seniors in this predominantly freshman lecture course.

Looking around at all the dorky freshmen in class, all the girls from California bundled up in sweaters to fight off the 60-degree weather, the kids who have “always known they wanted to be art majors,” the students who think no one knows they’re sleeping just because they’re wearing hoodies, I was a little hesitant about whether or not I really belonged there. After all, I was cooler (read: older); I was smarter (three class years above them), and more worldly (I’d spent a semester abroad). But then I realized that I was just jealous of them, jealous that they get to learn the history of art, one of the tenets of the liberal arts, at the start of their Vassar careers, allowing them to integrate this knowledge into their studies for the next three years. And, of course, they’ll be able to make intelligent-sounding comments at museums for their entire college careers. 

But then I realized that I am probably gaining more from this course than these new matriculates. By taking Art 105 now, after three years of liberal arts education, I benefit from having a greater context in which to place this art. In a question on the final about ancient Roman influence on art and architecture of other time periods, I was able to draw on my Ancient History correlate to expound on Roman culture and society and the Greek influence on Roman society probably a bit more than was necessary or required—or wanted.

Another perk of seniority in the course is the study abroad factor. Having spent last semester in London and traveling around Europe, I get the added bonus of being able to brag to my freshmen neighbors, turning to them and whispering “I totally saw that at the Louvre.”

Photo credit: Craig Burdett

Lecture Series Focuses on Diversity and Affirmative Action Issues

Over the years, several prominent scholars have visited the campus for the Common Ground lecture series. The series, which seeks to explore issues of gender and racial equality, reflects collaboration between the Offices of the Dean of the Faculty and the Dean of the College and faculty members.

“We felt it was important to bring to campus the most important thinkers about various issues relating to affirmative action, inclusion, and diversity,” said Dean of the Faculty Ron Sharp. “We are looking for people whose ideas are shaping the national discourse and who are known to be excellent speakers.”

Common Ground is one part of the college’s ongoing effort to foster inclusiveness in its campus community through discussions on affirmative action, civil rights, public education reform, racism, homophobia, gender equity, and inclusive pedagogy.

Law professor Frank H. Wu was the most recent speaker invited to campus for the series. On November 26, Wu, who is the dean of Wayne State University Law School, discussed the current challenges facing advocates for affirmative action in the wake of the most recent Supreme Court decisions and ballot measures.

Sharp said, “I think [the speakers] have genuinely raised the level of the campus discussion, as well as broadened it.” Two speakers that stand out in his mind are Claude Steel, a professor of psychology at Stanford whose scholarship includes “stereotype threat,” and Kimberlee Crenshaw, a professor of law at UCLA and NYU who has done work on critical race theory.

Speakers coming in the spring semester include Pedro Noguera, professor of urban sociology at the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University and a co-director of the Institute for The Study of Globalization and Education, on February 5; and Troy Duster, distinguished professor of sociology and New York University and author of Whitewashing Race: The Myth of a Colorblind Society on March 4 and 5. "These two speakers (Pedro and Duster) are sure to help raise the level of campus discussion even higher. We anticipate that, given his extensive and critical work on Black and Latino students in the education system, Noguera will help us to crystallize our thinking around strategies for increasing the presence and participation of male students of color in the life of the college. Duster will very certainly engage us in critical thinking around the sociology of diversity and the hierarchy of difference, as well as faculty roles in the success of our diversity efforts. In short, we are incredibly fortunate this year to have the wonderful opportunity to engage these scholars, said Dean of the College Judy "JJ" Jackson.

Vassar’s International Students Find a Home Away From Home

Every year, the International Student Host Program connects incoming freshmen and exchange students from foreign countries with a mentor in the Vassar community. “[The host] serves as an informal resource in the area,” said Director of International Services Andrew Meade. “They are familiar with the campus community as well as the greater Poughkeepsie area and can show the student around.”

For the program’s first event of the year, students and their hosts meet for dinner in the Villard Room at the end of new student orientation. The Office of International Services organizes a handful of events for students and hosts throughout the year, including apple picking in the fall, a potluck brunch during Freshmen Parents’ Weekend, and an international dessert cook-off for Kaleidoscope, a multicultural festival that takes place during International Education Week.

But as the year goes on, “it’s up to the families and students,” said Meade. “We encourage them to get together, whether it’s for coffee or watching TV at the host family’s house, hiking, visiting Rhinebeck or New Paltz.”

Seventy-five international and exchange students are participating in the program in 2007–08; this year, the program was extended to include language and research fellows.

Meade sees the program as being mutually beneficial. “Some of these students are coming here from a very different culture for the first time, and it’s helpful to have someone who can explain how everyday life works here,” he said. “For hosts, they get a glimpse into the life of a student, as well as another culture. It’s cross-cultural understanding for all parties.”