Features: the Eloquent Eye the Long Road Home Art for Whose Sake

Contents

Features: The Eloquent Eye The Long Road Home

Art for Whose Sake? Singing for Survival After Death

Departments: 1,000 Words In Class DoreWays The Arts & Culture VJournal S.P.O.V. The Campus A.P.O.V. Sports The Classes Vanderbilt Holdings Southern Journal Bright Ideas

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Let the Games Begin Vanderbilt women’s soccer players huddle up before their first scrimmage of the season, an Aug. 17 game against Furman that ended in a scoreless tie. After saying goodbye to a large class of graduating seniors last season, the Commodores welcomed the nation’s 23rd-ranked recruiting class to campus this fall. Photo by Neil Brake. VMagFall04_p6-9.revised 11/9/04 4:24 PM Page 7 DoreWays From the Editor From the Reader Shall We Gather ’Round the Table? Children’s Hospital I read with delight the story on Van- derbilt’s commitment to pediatric care through ommon wisdom saddles university administrators and the opening of your new Monroe Carell Jr. Chil- faculty with an uncommon love of meetings. I don’t know if this is dren’s Hospital [Summer 2004 issue, “Magical really true; I suspect meetings are a necessity of doing business, period. Place, Healing

A forum for exchanging ideas exchanging forumfor A Place,”p. 30]. My I do know that since I’ve been editing Vanderbilt Magazine, I’ve attend- son is a recent Van- ed more than my share. But then I’m known for being meeting adverse, derbilt graduate, for taking only those meetings I can’t get out of, and then only if I see and everything I value for the magazine. have experienced CThat’s why my editorial colleagues were so surprised when I mentioned plans to at Vanderbilt has form an editorial advisory board for this magazine.“Doesn’t that mean meeting with been first class. So, it was no surprise them?” one editor teased. “It might,”I replied. But in my heart, I knew I was com- to me to see such mitting to giving up lots of time spent doing what I love—shaping story ideas, a beautiful, well- working with writers on their drafts, bugging the photographers, bugging the art direc- planned hospital tor and designer—for what I hoped would be productive time with a group of people built by your uni- I didn’t know. versity. I quickly learned to expect only the best from Vanderbilt. Congratulations on your mag- Vanderbilt alumni have been a great resource to me as editor. I’ve found some of nificent new hospital, which indeed seems to be the best writers, photographers and artists I’ve ever worked with right here among our a “magical place.” alumni. So I aimed high and took the plunge last fall, approaching nine alums and one I was disappointed, however, to see remarks in parent of a Vanderbilt student—individuals who some warned might be unapproach- the article that misrepresented St. Jude Children’s able given their stature—and asked if they’d Research Hospital. You see, St. Jude is also close be willing to roll up their sleeves, come to to my heart. My son is not only a recent alumnus of Vanderbilt University; he is a St. Jude success Nashville twice a year, and work really hard story. He was cured of leukemia at St. Jude. on helping me realize my vision for Van- The article stated that St. Jude has 65 beds for derbilt Magazine. In return, I’d provide the treating cancer patients, compared to the 216 at coffee. VCH. Actually, St. Jude has only 58 beds. St. Jude Guess what? They all accepted. Though helped to pioneer the concept of outpatient treatment of cancer patients as a standard practice. someone did say he preferred tea. We had My son was one of more than 4,000 cancer patients our first meeting in March and, as I write followed by St. Jude at a given time. The benefits of this letter, are one week away from our a child being treated on an outpatient basis and liv- second meeting. Who are these alumni? They © CORBIS ing as normal a life as possible are immeasurable. are editors, writers, designers and communications professionals. They are former edi- My son, as well as all other St. Jude patients, are hos- tors of the Hustler, Pulitzer Prize winners, and nationally and internationally recognized pitalized when necessary. Thankfully, my son was only an inpatient for a small percentage of the two- for their work (one is even in a band). They are Roy, Caneel, Terry, Sam, Frye, Janice, and-a-half-year treatment protocol he underwent. Marc, Sonny, Ed and Ken. They are alums and a parent, who care enough about the Uni- I could only hope that St. Jude would never need versity to work with me on making your magazine even better. any more beds and could continue to treat thou- What makes having this board too good to be true? The meetings are a joy to attend. sands of patients at a time in this manner. Our board members are thoughtful, funny, insightful, irreverent—just the kind of peo- St. Jude has a unique mission. It is a research center seeking to find cures for childhood cancer ple you’d like to lock yourself in a room with twice a year and talk magazines. What I and other catastrophic diseases. Their goal is to didn’t say is that they take Vanderbilt Magazine—your magazine—seriously. We’ve already share what they learn with hospitals across the given life to some of their ideas in the magazine. And in the next few issues, I’m sure even country and around the world so that children more of their recommendations will find their way into our editorial and design mix. everywhere can benefit from their research. Ken Schexnayder When Danny Thomas opened St. Jude in 1962, fewer than 4 percent of children with leukemia

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survived. St. Jude has helped to bring those sur- mer 2004 issue,“From the Reader,”pp. 7–8]. Your vival rates to better than 80 percent today. In addi- leaning to the “left” is very obvious. You need to tion, St. Jude treats families whether they have be more objective and balanced. insurance or not; cost is not an issue. James DeMain, BA’54 I know firsthand what incredible institutions Mendham, N.J. are to be found both at Vanderbilt and St. Jude, and I wish the staff and patients there nothing but Another Perspective success. I simply felt compelled to point out that Letter writer Carl Conner [Summer 2004 there should be no comparison between the two— issue, “From the Reader,”p. 7] misses the point it’s not apples to apples. The two institutions com- when he criticizes Al Franken’s remark, included plement each other quite well. in a previous edition of Vanderbilt Magazine, that Contributors to the Fall 2004 issue Gay Romano President Bush “lied about why we’re sending Joan Brasher Kenner, La. young men and women into battle.”In writing Melanie Catania “[t]o act on the best intelligence available is not I was so interested in your article about Vivian Cooper-Capps lying, even if the intelligence is found to be incor- the new children’s hospital at Vanderbilt, as I was Mardy Fones rect,”Conner puts the cart before the horse. Set- VKara Furlong associated with Egleston Children’s Hospital at ting aside the veracity of the intelligence reports, Emory in Atlanta for 16 years as director of vol- Paul Govern the president lied when he said he was, in fact, act- unteer services. Egleston has now combined with Heather Hall ing on those reports. Before 9/11, Bush’s foreign- Scottish Rite Hospital in Atlanta and has become policy team stated publicly that Iraq’s weapons Terryl Hallquist known as Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. You capacity was well contained. All of a sudden, after Jessica Howard started your article by reporting that “200 volun- 9/11, Iraq was no longer well contained. What hap- Bridgette Kohnhorst teers” were positioned around the hospital [on pened? The traumatizing events of 9/11 forced the Joseph Mella opening day, to transfer patients to the new facil- president to take some action to save his political Jim Patterson ity], but then you never mentioned them again. skin. This was a war in search of supporting intel- You did a superior job of telling about the new hos- Jan Rosemergy ligence, not intelligence supporting a war. pital, the great medical services that it would pro- Cindy Steine Ben Bratman, JD’93 vide to the community, and its accommodation Pittsburgh for the parents. However, I felt you left out the impact that volunteers can have on the whole place. This started as a letter reacting to the You mentioned the Junior League and what they Advertisers interested in purchasing ads letters printed in the Summer 2004 issue noting had done in the past. I found that their continued in Vanderbilt Magazine should contact how the radical conservatives in this country have support of our hospital was of such tremendous Phillip B. Tucker, production and adver- been able to take control—by simply attacking value through the day and evening volunteers they any and everybody they dislike as a “liberal.”They tising manager, at phillip.b.tucker@van- always made available to us. You did not men- understand that those stupid liberals have a knee- derbilt.edu or 615/322-3989. tion Vanderbilt students who are volunteers. Where jerk reaction to complaints; they try to accom- were they? Egleston was near Emory University, modate other points of view, which gives the and we had so many young and eager students who conservatives just the opening they need and seals VANDERBILT MAGAZINE is published quarterly by were interested in health-care fields and also enjoyed the doom of any reasonable discourse. Vanderbilt University from editorial and business working with children. The Junior League, Emory But my thoughts roamed back to my days at offices at 110 21st Avenue South, Suite 1000, and [Georgia] Tech students, and other civic groups Vanderbilt—40 years ago—and how refreshing Nashville, TN 37203. Phone: 615/322-3988. provided us with so many volunteers (old and my instructors were as compared to most peo- Fax: 615/343-8547. E-mail: vanderbiltmagazine young) who loved to work with children and par- ple I knew growing up in Nashville. They were ents. What a difference they can make—working @vanderbilt.edu. Please send address corrections intellectually curious, willing to question the sta- in the school room to help patients keep up with to Gift Records Office, Vanderbilt University, tus quo, dogma, prejudice or beliefs, and tried their homework, reading and playing with patients VU Station B 357727, 2301 Vanderbilt Place, to incite intellectual curiosity in their students. in their rooms, organizing activities in the play Nashville, TN 37235-7703. Guest lecturers were likewise chosen to stimulate areas, and being with parents as real friends. thought and discussion. Opinions expressed in VANDERBILT MAGAZINE Your new hospital looks great, but I wish you Often it worked, but many times it failed. I had featured a picture of one of your volunteers, are those of the individual authors and do not remember fellow students bitterly denouncing necessarily reflect the views of the MAGAZINE or as they give such a special and unique touch to a continued on page 83 the University administration. children’s hospital. Hopefully, you will devote another article about the new Vanderbilt Chil- Vanderbilt University is committed to the prin- dren’s Hospital at some future time and feature Letters are always welcome in ciples of equal opportunity and affirmative action. the benefit of volunteers in this setting. response to contents of the magazine. Fran Ward Bondurant, BA’45 We reserve the right to edit for length, Copyright 2004 Vanderbilt University Atlanta style and clarity. Send signed letters to the Editor, Vanderbilt Magazine, Fair and Balanced VU Station B 357703, 2301 Vanderbilt [This is] a brief note to let you know Place, Nashville, TN 37235-7703, or that I’m in 100-percent agreement with the let- e-mail [email protected]. ters from Carl Conner and Jonathan Smith [Sum-

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Lesson Learned life campus on Perspectives

On the worst day of their lives, a patient’s family teaches a new nurse her first and best lesson. By KATHLEEN STEPHENS

ursing school did not the load shifted. He was buried under a pile teach me how to be a nurse; of lumber for 30 or 45 minutes before his it taught me nursing. There sons were able to dig him out. It looked bad, is a difference. In school I with CPR in progress on board the helicop- learned how to draw blood ter. He arrived, and the medical team sprang and start an IV. I learned into action. As a lesser member of the team, how to guide a nasogastric tube through a my responsibilities were clearly defined Nnostril and into the stomach, avoiding the and I was able to perform them all in a com- intersection into the lungs. petent and professional manner. Mr. Collins I learned about anatomy, body chemistry, looked like he was sleeping, with very few microbiology and pathophysiology. I learned marks on his body, but the internal damage lots of categories of pharmaceuticals, but I was tremendous. He was taken to the third didn’t learn to be a nurse. That came later, floor for surgery, which we all realized was and more slowly. I learned it from other nurs- not going to save him, but the optimism and

es, both good and bad (it is said that nurses arrogance of modern medicine said we had ©CORBIS are the only humans who eat their young). to try. But mainly I learned it from my patients. But he was gone from my department, and Detach! Detach!” But I looked at the confused My most important lesson in How to Be I went back to my work. I had nearly forgot- woman clutching the arms of her two brave a Nurse came very early in my career. I was ten Mr. Collins when his wife and two sons sons, and I could see hurt and devastation, green, not yet out of school, working in the arrived an hour later. I went with the charge fear and loss dawning in all of their eyes, as emergency department as a summer nursing nurse to a small conference room to give them the words sank in. I thought about how three extern, over my head and scared to death. I an update on his condition and directed them hours earlier they had all been home, the three was afraid of doing something wrong and to the surgical waiting room. The sons were men working outside together, the woman hurting someone, but mostly I was afraid young men in their 20s, still wearing work probably cooking dinner for her three hun- of looking as inexperienced as I felt. My new clothes similar to what I had cut off their gry boys, preparing to fuss at them for track- badge proudly proclaimed my name and my father’s broken body. They stood protective- ing dirt onto her kitchen floor. The sun was credentials, right where everyone could see ly on each side of their mother, as if their solid still shining outside on the beautiful cool Sun- it. I wore crisp scrubs, white running shoes, presence could ward off the harshness of the day afternoon, perfect for chopping wood. and a stethoscope around my neck. I looked words they were hearing. She was trembling But the Collins family of four now consisted professional and competent, even if I didn’t but dry-eyed, the three of them together still of one member fighting a losing battle for his feel it, and I was desperate to act profession- blessedly enveloped in the numbing cloak of life on an operating table, and three mem- al, too. shock and disbelief. bers huddled together in a bare conference That was before I met the Collins family. I, to my shame, was the only person in the room, hearing hard truths from a nurse with The call came over the radio that the Life- room crying. I tried desperately to stop the a sob in her voice and a runny nose. Their Flight helicopter was bringing in Michael tears. The furious voice inside my head was lives were forever changed, and they would Collins, a 54-year-old from an outlying coun- hissing.“You are a professional! Snap out of change mine. ty who had been unloading firewood when it! Stop it right now! Nurses don’t cry! Detach! continued on page 84

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TheCampus“A black cultural center has the opportunity not only to educate, but, if there

More Nurses, More Ways A national nursing short- U.S. will get some help thanks age is engendering creative to a new course created by Van- solutions at Vanderbilt. derbilt University School of Vanderbilt Children’s Hos- Nursing in partnership with pital, which employs 600 nurses, the Vanderbilt English Lan- will soon begin offering flexible guage Center. shifts as short as four hours in “The course will help nurses an effort to appeal both to who were educated in their young parents and to older own countries prepare to take nurses who find typical 12- the registered nurse licensing hour shifts too tiring. exams here, master English With the four-hour shifts, language skills, and learn to there is no minimum number bridge cultural gaps in the U.S. of hours nurses are required to health-care system and their work. Nurses who work at least home countries,” says Linda 30 hours per week can qualify Norman, senior associate dean

for benefits. of academics at VUSN. NEIL BRAKE Nurses from foreign coun- VUSN community health Dedrick Woodard, age 1, was the first child moved to the new Children’s tries who want to work in the instructor Carol Etherington, a Hospital from the Emergency Department. mentor to the refugee population in Nashville, helped spark Lipscomb University in Nashville the idea for the creation of the to offer Lipscomb students a new course. “Having a program bachelor of science in nursing {Details} like this and utilizing skills of (BSN) degree with courses Pillar of the people who have already provided by Vanderbilt. HCA Community migrated to the United States Inc., which operates 190 hospi- and plan to remain here is a far tals and has its headquarters in A stone pillar near more reasonable approach to Nashville, is giving Lipscomb what is now Vander- enhancing the nursing pool University $500,000 to start the bilt Law School dates than going to another country program. Lipscomb will provide back to 1875 and formed and recruiting them,” says the first five semesters of a pre- part of the original main Etherington. nursing liberal-arts program entrance to campus. Pairs Students interested in of study. Vanderbilt will then of the pillars supported enrolling in the program must provide the remaining three iron gates which allowed show proof of education in semesters of nursing courses and entrance through a programs that are similar to clinical work. Students will be whitewashed board fence U.S. registered-nurse programs awarded a bachelor of science but kept out cattle that from their home countries degree in nursing from once freely grazed the before beginning the course. Lipscomb. VUSN already has a surrounding area. The School of Nursing also similar agreement with Fisk

NEIL BRAKE has begun a partnership with University in Nashville.

10 Fall 2004

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Fall2004 are wounds that are still open, to help salve the wounds. —FRANK DOBSON JR.

School of Engineering neering, will coordinate the among U.S. industry and gov- providers, insurance companies to Lead Defense research efforts. In addition to ernment laboratories. and policymakers are all look- Nanotechnology Vanderbilt, the University of Initial goals include devel- ing for ways to eliminate costs Kentucky, North Carolina State oping diamond/carbon nano- while maintaining or improv- Program University, the University of structures for biological and ing quality and safety. The School of Engineering Florida, and the International chemical sensors, developing Vanderbilt physicians and clin- will lead a $2.4 million, multi- Technology Center will partici- a new energy-conversion ical experts have found a safe, institutional nanotechnology pate in the program. device, and developing electron simple and relatively painless program funded by the U.S. Although carbon is the most emission devices for advanced method for reducing excessive Army Research Laboratory to versatile of elements and is the electronics. use of high-volume laboratory, develop radically improved foundation of most fuels, syn- radiology and cardiology tests. electronics, sensors, energy- thetic materials and biological VUMC Reduces In the mid-1990s, Vanderbilt conversion devices, and other systems, little is known about High-Volume developed a computer pro- critical defense systems. its behavior at the nanoscale Diagnostic Tests gram called WizOrder to sup- The Advanced Carbon level. “Using carbon as a build- Fear of uncertainty, a port clinical decision-making Nanotechnology Research ing block in this promising litigious society and lack of in the hospital. Clinicians use Program will explore various new area of science is a poten- experience head a long list of it to order patient tests and nanostructures of carbon, tially boundless resource,” causes contributing to over-use treatments. The program including diamond, at the Davidson says. of inpatient diagnostic tests. applies clinical logic to issue molecular level to develop In addition to conducting Researchers have even identi- alerts against orders that materials that can be used in research, the new program will fied a test addiction disorder appear inappropriate, furnish- defense devices and systems. train graduate students to work among some physicians. es tips about best practice, and The Army Research Laboratory in the emerging field and will But with health-care costs provides links to in-depth funds will support the pro- establish close interactions rapidly on the rise, health-care information. Four years gram’s first year of operation. >> “Nanoscale” describes objects that measure approximately a millionth of a mil- limeter, or roughly 1/100,000th the diameter of a human hair. “The goal of this cutting- edge research is to gain control of structures and devices at atomic and molecular levels Virtual Vanderbilt and to learn to manufacture Coming to a Screen Near You and use these devices efficiently,” It’s high time you ditched those flying toasters. The Office of Trademark Licensing at says Jimmy L. Davidson, prin- Vanderbilt, in conjunction with the Office of University Web Communications, has cipal investigator of the new developed a free screensaver with 24 images by University photographers that represent program. Vanderbilt University. Versions are available for both PC and Mac users. Davidson, professor of elec- http://www.vanderbilt.edu/screensaver/ trical engineering and professor of materials science and engi-

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ago VUMC’s Resource later brought dramatic overnight {Inquiring Minds} Utilization Committee changed reductions. There was no nega- the way users order certain tive change in rates of repeated Thoughts Without Words high-volume tests. Each morn- hospital admissions, transfer to Babies as young as 5 months old make ing as they logged into the sys- intensive care units, mortality, distinctions about categories of events tem, users who had scheduled length of stay, or any other that their parents do not, revealing new information about how language devel- recurring tests over the next quality measures. Study authors ops in humans. The research by Sue three days got a pop-up mes- say reductions were achieved Hespos, assistant professor of psychology sage asking if they wanted to “without preventing clinicians at Vanderbilt, and Elizabeth Spelke, continue the testing, cancel the from ordering the tests they professor of psychology at Harvard University, was published testing or delay a decision. wanted.” in the July 22 issue of “It’s been shown in previous studies that adults actually cat- Weeks later, mild constraints “We’re facing an economic egorize things differently based on what language they speak,” were added: Users were pre- crisis in health care, and pay- Hespos says. vented from placing automati- ers—insurers, employers and “Language capitalizes on a pre-existing system of ‘I live in a 3-D world, and I know how objects behave and interact.’This pre-existing ability suggests that children do think before they speak.”

Model for Form of Paraplegia Suggests Treatments A new genetic model for a motor disorder that confines an esti- mated 10,000 people in the United States to walkers and wheelchairs indicates that instability in the microscopic scaf- folding within a key set of nerve cells is the cause of this dev- astating disability. The study, published in the July 13 issue of Current Biolo- gy, provides insight into the molecular basis of the disease called hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP).Vanderbilt graduate student Nick Trotta was the first author on the paper. HSP causes the ends of the nerves that control muscle activity to deteriorate, resulting in weakness, spasms, and loss of function in the muscles in the lower extremities. More than 40 percent of all cases have been traced to a single gene (SPG4) NEIL BRAKE that produces an enzyme called spastin. Researchers in the laboratories of Kendal Broadie at cally recurring orders for cer- government—are getting pretty Vanderbilt and Andrea Daga at the University of Padova, Italy, tain tests, and common blood fed up with levels of spending found treatment with drugs that correct microtubule-sta- bility defects caused the synaptic signal strength to rebound chemistry tests that previously at the bedside,” says Dr. Eric G. to normal levels. could be ordered as a group Neilson, chair of the Department now had to be ordered sepa- of Medicine and senior author Bugged by Prime Numbers rately. of the study. “Either we’ll do Those hordes of cicadas that emerged from The results of the initiative, more to manage spending our- the ground this summer may have meant published in the Aug. 2 edition selves, or someone will place incessant droning and devoured begonias to the rest of us. To of Annals of Internal Medicine, restrictions on our ability to Glenn Webb, professor of math- were dramatic and could pro- apply resources to solve patient ematics, they offer a mathematical mystery:Why do the little vide a recipe for a large per- problems.” buggers emerge only in intervals that are prime numbers? centage of inpatient diagnostic Webb, who is not the first mathematician to be intrigued testing. The authors say up to Christie Steps Down by the question, has devised a mathematical model of cicada behavior and published a tentative conclusion:The prime-num- 25 percent of high-volume as Owen School Dean ber life cycle evolved as an effort to avoid predators. testing could be eliminated William Christie, who Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould was among the first to nationally. had served as dean of the propose that the cicada’s life cycle is an evolutionary strate- The pop-up messages were Owen Graduate School of gy. Intrigued by Gould’s explanation, Glenn Webb created a associated with considerable Management since 2000, mathematical model of periodical cicadas and hypothetical reduction of some tests, but stepped down from his predators with two- and three-year life cycles. He found that Gould’s argument held up: By emerging only every 13 or 17 the ordering constraints and position June 1. Following a years in large numbers, cicadas better ensured their survival. graphical displays that came planned research leave, >>

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Music City M.D. Nashville, some people claim, has more singers/songwriters per capita than any other city in the country— and a surprising number of them are among Vanderbilt's 17,700 employees. Dr.Will Henghold, clinical fellow in dermatology, was one of those performing before a Children’s Hospital audience during a showcase of singers and songwriters that was part of Vanderbilt Employee Celebration Month in September. DANIEL DUBOIS VMagFall04 p12-17.d 11/4/04 4:32 PM Page 14

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of a kind of blitz,” she predicts.

“You’ll see African-American People ought to have their day in Studies programming, speakers court. But frivolous“ lawsuits are and series.” She also intends to “running up the cost of medicine be involved with a proposed and they’re running docs out of African-American museum in business. Nashville. The renovated and expand- —President George W. Bush during a ed Bishop Joseph Johnson May 27 tour of the new Monroe Carell Black Cultural Center opens Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt this fall, also with a new director: writer and poet Frank Dobson Jr. Dobson, who left a position as director of the Bolinga Black Cultural

DANIEL DUBOIS Resources Center at Wright State University in Dayton, Christie will return to the fac- and e-Lab, the country’s first to stress diversity at Vanderbilt. Ohio, says the key to a success- ulty as the Frances Hampton research center devoted to She earned a bachelor’s degree ful black cultural center is “cre- Currey Chair in Finance. Internet marketing. in French literature from the ation of community” for all Jim Bradford, associate dean Bradford, who graduated University of Rochester with a students, not just black stu- of corporate relations at Owen, from Vanderbilt Law School in minor in African economic dents. He envisions a center for is serving as acting dean fol- 1973, previously served as pres- history; a master’s in French student interaction and sup- lowing Christie’s departure. ident and CEO of AFG Indus- literature from Miami Uni- port and a source of cultural “Bill has provided excellent tries Inc., North America’s versity; and a doctorate in programming and community leadership to the Owen School largest vertically integrated glass French studies with a minor in outreach. during a turbulent economy manufacturing and fabrication African-American literary and “As a working-class kid that has affected business edu- company. He also served as cultural criticism from Brown from Buffalo who went into cation across the country,” says president and CEO of United University. academia, I’m sensitive to how Provost and Vice Chancellor Glass Corp. and practiced law “I absolutely love teaching foreign a college campus can for Academic Affairs Nicholas for 11 years. He returned to intro courses because that’s seem to people of certain back- Zeppos. “Vanderbilt has been Vanderbilt in 2002 as clinical where you get people interest- grounds,” he says. “The point is well served by his tenure, and professor of management and ed,” says Sharpley-Whiting, to get it across to them that we look forward to his contin- was named associate dean later noting that she hopes to they can belong here. They can ued teaching and scholarship.” that year. launch several new courses in aspire to this.” Christie joined the Owen the spring and have two new Dobson graduated from faculty in 1989 and served as African-American instructors in place by next State University of New York at associate dean for faculty Studies Program, fall. “You will see the beginning Buffalo and earned a doctorate development before his Black Cultural appointment as dean. In the Center Welcome past decade he has been recog- New Directors nized repeatedly by Business The African-American Week as one of the top profes- Studies program at Vanderbilt sors in business education. is poised for fast expansion Early in his time at Owen, he under new director T. Denean co-authored a study that led to Sharpley-Whiting, one of the fundamental change in the way brightest young scholars and NASDAQ stocks are traded. administrators in the field. During his tenure as dean, the The hiring of Sharpley- Owen School began several Whiting, who previously held a new initiatives, including a chair of Africana Studies at revised curriculum, enhanced Hamilton College in Clinton, executive education programs N.Y., is part of ongoing efforts T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting Frank Dobson Jr.

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in English from Bowling Green the Vanderbilt School of State University, working as a Engineering. “He was very {To p Picks} graduate assistant to writer determined to finish that piece James Baldwin. of unfinished work.” Traveling Fellowship Will Fund He says he will not shrink Galloway and his colleagues Research in Africa Kristin Fleschner,BS’03, has been away from touchy subjects. On determined Morrison was just awarded the 2004 traveling fel- his wish list is discussion about three credit hours short of lowship at Vanderbilt. The fel- genocide in the Sudan and why completing his degree. Morrison lowship will provide $10,000 for there is not more outrage in enrolled in a special topics a year of travel and study through- the United States about it. “A course and submitted a paper out Africa. Fleschner plans to use Fleschner the fellowship to travel and con- black cultural center at a major to fulfill requirements for a duct research in Botswana, Ugan- university in the South has the master’s degree in engineering. da, Zambia and South Africa, studying the issue of sexual potential to do things that “I spent all of 1950 working violence and the spread of AIDS. aren’t possible elsewhere on my master’s degree and got “War has created an environment across Africa in which because of the history of the all the curriculum done except violence is accepted,”says Fleschner,who plans to attend rape- South,” he says. “A black cul- for the thesis,” says Morrison. court sessions and observe how the justice system deals with, or fails to deal with, violence against women and children. tural center at Vanderbilt has “Maybe two or three things Following her year in Africa, Fleschner plans to pursue the opportunity not only to caused me not to finish the either a law degree with a focus on women’s issues or a doc- educate, but, if there are thesis—the main one being torate in gender relations. wounds that are still open, to that I was not happy with it. help salve the wounds.” And I was going to school on Student Volunteer Wins Top Award Najla Husseini, BA’04, has been named the Global Health the G.I. bill and ran out of Council’s Volunteer of the Year “in recognition of [Hussei- Student Completes money.” ni’s] unwavering commitment to improving the health and lives Degree 55 Years Morrison went to work for of citizens around the world and for her determination in estab- After Starting It Phillips at the Philtex Experiment lishing a leading university chapter dedicated to promoting Engineers are known for Station in Borger, Texas. He awareness of international health issues and policy.” making sure loose obtained three A sociology major, Husseini was a Global Health Action Network coordinator for the Vanderbilt campus, focusing on ends are tied up. patents for his women and children’s health, infectious diseases, HIV/AIDS For William work there on a and emerging threats. Under Husseini’s leadership,Vander- Morrison, the one liquid extraction bilt’s chapter hosted an annual “Global Health Week” and spon- loose end was an process used by sored several health advocacy events during the academic year. unfinished mas- the nuclear indus- In addition to her work with the Global Health Action Network, Husseini participated in Alternative Spring Break ter’s degree at try. In 1957 he and the Vanderbilt Prison Project. Vanderbilt. In transferred to May, at age 80, Phillips’ facility in Engineering Professor’s Research Cited Morrison received Idaho Falls, where Engineering professor Bridget R. Rogers Morrison has received the Presidential Early Career

his degree, reach- DONN JONES he worked in the ing a goal he had chemical process- Award for Scientists and Engineers. Rogers’ award cites her “contribu- begun working toward when ing plant with nuclear fuel ele- tions to fundamental studies of thin film he was just 25. ments until retiring in 1983. growth mechanisms, and for being the Morrison received his He continued to work with the first to prove experimentally that the Rogers undergraduate degree in engi- American Nuclear Society on composition of multi-component films neering from Vanderbilt in an international committee deposited into microelectronic device features varied with depth into the feature.” 1949 and immediately began that studied issues related to The assistant professor of chemical engineering will use work on his master’s degree. nuclear criticality and safety the research funding provided with the PECASE award to study He left in 1950 to take a job controls for fissionable materi- thin-film coatings for ceramic materials for use in hypersonic with Phillips Petroleum with- als outside of reactors. vehicles such as the NASA X-43A space plane that achieved out completing the degree Now he’s finished what he a record-breaking Mach 7—5,000 miles per hour—in March. requirements. started 55 years ago. “It was “Our ultimate goal is to develop an optimal thin-film coat- ing for hypersonic vehicles that adheres well to the ceramic “After he retired, it occurred something that was kind of surface, resists corrosion, and protects the vehicle from high to him there was something hanging over my head all these temperatures, low pressure, and high-speed plasma flows dur- that he had left unfinished,” years,” he says. ing flight,”she says. says Kenneth Galloway, dean of

Vanderbilt Magazine 15 VMagFall04_p16-17.P3 11/4/04 5:26 PM Page 16

Sportsathletics Vanderbilt at look A Christmas Gift

For Jay Cutler, the road to Vanderbilt went through Santa Claus. By NELSON BRYAN t was just after Christmas when and as Offensive Player of the Year by S&L [Bobby] Johnson came in here and Coach the jolly man with the round belly vis- Publishing Group. [Jimmy] Kiser as quarterbacks coach. They ited Jay Cutler at his home in Santa The rural Indiana town was a good place gave me an opportunity my redshirt year, and Claus, Ind. His costume was different, for Cutler to grow up with his parents and I haven’t looked back since.” though. He wasn’t wearing the cus- two younger sisters.“Everyone knows every- Cutler posted one of the finest seasons tomary red trimmed in white. Instead one,”he says.“I graduated [from high school] ever by a Commodore freshman quarterback. he was dressed in black and gold and with about 150 kids. Every year around Christ- He was named the Associated Press and Coach- had big, shiny gold rings on his thick mas time, they have a festival of lights. Every- es’ All-SEC first-team quarterback and third- fingers. In place of a silky white beard, he one puts up enormous amounts of Christmas team All-American quarterback by the Sporting sported a thick black mustache and, on his lights on the houses and decorations through- News. In his sophomore year he set Vander- Ihead, black hair combed from out the subdivisions. bilt sophomore passing records in comple- front to back. He came bear- People come in on tions (187), attempts (327), yards (2,347) and ing a gift. buses and in caravans touchdowns (18). “Woody recruited me,” to see it. It’s just a huge “Coach Johnson is a player’s coach,”says recalls Cutler, Vanderbilt’s jun- deal there.” Cutler.“He’s here to make our jobs easier, and ior quarterback.“We were on Cutler was such a is trying to get a winning attitude going at Christmas break. I was going good all-around ath- Vanderbilt. He’s won in the past, and he knows to stay up north. I had just lete — he was first-team what it takes.” about committed to Illinois, All-State in basketball Preseason pundits were bold enough to but it didn’t work out and we and honorable-men- predict a winning season and postseason bowl had started up the recruiting tion All-State in base- game for the Commodores. Cutler smiles process again. Coach Zingler, ball — that Vanderbilt at the thought. “We’re anxious. We’re ready another coach here at the time, coaches weren’t sure to get rolling this year. We have 20 to 25 guys called me. Coach Woody where to use him at first. who probably could play anywhere in the [Widenhofer] just walked in “When I got here, we SEC. The coaches have been working on get- the door. They put my tape “Coach Woody” knew he had a prize still had freshman ting some quality guys in here to fill some key in and called me about two package when he gifted Jay Cutler camp,”he says.“I was at positions. We’re definitely improving. with a scholarship. hours later and offered me a safety for most of that “We worked extremely hard this summer,” scholarship. It was a pretty quick deal.” camp.”After meeting with Widenhofer about adds the 6-4, 225-pounder.“We were here six It turned out to be a good deal for Van- the prospect of playing defensive back, Cutler days a week working on running, throwing derbilt. At Heritage Hills High School, Cut- decided to redshirt a year, get physically stronger, and the little things. It’s tough to win in the ler was a two-way starter in football and team and concentrate on the quarterback position. SEC. Each game is a battle, no matter where captain as a senior. He led his team to a 15–0 Then there was a coaching change. The man you play. It’s going to be a tough road, but we record and the first state title in the school’s with the thick black mustache was gone, replaced look forward to it.” history. He was named to the All-State team by the man with the snowy white hair.“Coach continued on page 84

16 Fall 2004 PHOTOS BY NEIL BRAKE VMagFall04_p16-17.P3 11/4/04 5:27 PM Page 17

Cutler PHOTOS BY NEIL BRAKE VMagFall04_p18-19.P3 11/5/04 9:07 AM Page 18

S PORTS

Freitag Named Coach of the Year Coach Martha Freitag has been selected Nation- al Coach of the Year by Golfweek magazine. In her fourth year as Vanderbilt women’s golf coach, she directed the team to its finest season in program history. The Commodores won {Where AreThey Now?} five tournaments, including the SEC championship and NCAA central region tournament, Thirty years ago, David Lee, BS’75, suited up and took the field as quarterback and finished fifth at the NCAA championship. and captain of the Vanderbilt football team. Earlier she had been selected SEC Coach of the A three-year letterman, Lee was named the Year for the second consecutive year. team’s most valuable player in 1974 after leading the Commodores to a 7–3–2 record, Postseason Play including a 24–10 upset over fifth-ranked Florida, Vanderbilt’s first win over the Gators Lifts Vandy in in 15 years. Lee went on to lead the SEC in All-Sports Ranking passing and guide his team to a 6–6 tie During his career six of his former quarter- All things considered, Vanderbilt proved to against Texas Tech in the Peach Bowl. Today backs have been drafted or signed as free have the 28th best sports program in the Lee still suits up for football, but the agents in the NFL following their collegiate suits—and the teams—have careers. For the last two years, Lee has nation last year. Say that again? Vanderbilt changed. He is now offensive served as quarterbacks coach at the what? Vanderbilt University completed the assistant with the Dallas University of Arkansas, helping lead the 2003–04 sports year in 28th place nation- Cowboys, overseeing the team’s Razorbacks to the 2002 Southeastern ally among 278 institutions. This top-10- quality control efforts. Included in Conference Western Division title. Lee and percent national finish resulted from a his 27 years of experience are five his wife, Lynne, BS’75, have four children: compilation of points scored by the Nation- as a head coach (1989–93 at Texas–El daughters Dana and Shannon and sons Brian Paso) and eight as an offensive coordinator. and Jordan. al Association of Collegiate Directors of Ath- letics (NACDA) Director’s Cup, the official all-sports measurement of success in NCAA Women’s Tennis The Commodores set the school record postseason play. The ranking is twice as high Ranked No. 2 for most victories in a season with 45. as the previous year’s 54th-place finish, the program’s former high. The Intercollegiate Tennis Association award- Head Coach Tim Corbin inked a new con- Points are earned as individual teams qual- ed the Vanderbilt women’s tennis team a No. tract that should keep him at the Vander- ify and advance in each varsity sport’s post- 2 national ranking in its postseason poll, bilt helm for the foreseeable future. season NCAA Tournament. Consider this: behind national champion Stanford. The Vanderbilt does not field teams in sports such doubles team of seniors Kelly Schmandt and as volleyball, swimming, softball and gym- Aleke Tsoubanos also was ranked second in nastics, for which other SEC institutions reg- the nation. “What these two women have ister major point totals. Yet, the Commodores done at Vanderbilt is just remarkable,”said amassed 585 points for the year on the basis Coach Geoff Macdonald at season’s end.“They of nine teams reaching postseason compe- have brought this program to a new level dur- tition. ing their four years. You probably will not No fall teams earned points, but Sweet 16 find a pair of student-athletes with more heart finishes by the men’s and women’s basketball than Kelly and Aleke, and I could not be proud- teams and success in women’s track and field er of them.” during the winter set the stage for a strong spring showing. Baseball Superlatives The Commodores scored significantly The 2004 edition of Vanderbilt baseball con- with women’s lacrosse (NCAA Final Four), cluded the season with the best record in Uni- men’s tennis (Elite Eight), women’s tennis versity history. The Commodores logged a (Final Four), women’s golf (fifth/NCAA), 45–19 overall record (16–14 SEC) on the way baseball (Super Regional–16th), and men’s to the program’s first-ever appearance in the golf (qualified for NCAA finals). NCAA Super Regional. Corbin DANIEL DUBOIS

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{Sports Roundup} Lacrosse: Top Four Finish Football: Preseason Honors Men’s Basketball: Vanderbilt advanced to the semifinal round of the Several Vanderbilt veterans received preseason Freije Goes to NBA NCAA tournament, completing the most success- All-SEC honors. Senior offensive tackle Justin Former Commodore Matt Freije was selected ful season in the Geisinger, junior wide receiver Erik Davis, by the Miami Heat in the second round (53rd program’s nine- and junior defensive end Jovan Haye were pick overall) of the 2004 National Basketball year history. The named to the 2004 Media Days All-SEC Association draft last June. He becomes the 11–3 Commodore team by beat writers and reporters cover- 31st Vanderbilt player to be selected in the loss capped a 12–6 ing the Southeastern Conference. Haye, draft. Freije ended his Vanderbilt career record and the junior quarterback Jay Cutler, and as the University’s all-time leading American Lacrosse tailback/return specialist scorer with 1,891 points, and Conference cham- Kwane Doster were named he ranked second in the SEC pionship. The to the coaches inaugural in scoring with an 18.4 Commodores had preseason All-SEC team. points-per-game average. upset No. 4 seed Athlon Sports’ 2004 He was a unanimous All- Loyola and James Madison, both on the road, to College Football Preseason SEC first-team selection reach the national semifinals in just their second edition named Geisinger and by the league’s coaches and NCAA tournament. “We had an amazing run, and Haye to the All-SEC first team was named an Honorable what we did in the tournament to get here was and to their All-America third Mention All-American by pretty incredible,” says Coach Cathy Swezey. team. the Associated Press. “We’re really proud of our players. They can hold their heads very high.”Three members of the Vanderbilt squad were named All-Americans by Inside Lacrosse magazine. Seniors Michelle Allen and Bridget Morris were recognized on the first team, and senior Jess Roguski was named to the second team. Track: Hahn in Olympic Trials Josie Hahn participated in the Olympic Trials in a quest to represent the United States in the 2004 Olympics. She finished 20th overall in the heptathlon competition. A senior from Clinton, Tenn., the trials completed an outstanding year. She established five new Vanderbilt team records, won the SEC heptathlon individual Jason Rapaport, title, and was named an a sophomore NCAA All-American in from Du Bois, Pa., both the indoor and outdoor works out with seasons. She was just the the Vanderbilt second Vanderbilt student to compete at fencing team. the U.S. Track and Field Hahn Olympic Trials, following on the heels of Ryan Tolbert-Jackson, whose specialty is the 400- meter hurdles. PHOTOS BY NEIL BRAKE

Vanderbilt Magazine 19 VMagSmr04Holdings6n 11/4/04 4:49 PM Page 24 Va n d e rb i l t Holdings Collections and collectibles Collections A Small Matter

The Heard Library’s Pascal Pia Collection includes miniature books with a mysterious past. By PAUL KINGSBURY, BA’80

n a massive, warehouse-like the Heard Library Annex, their keepers are books by and about him. Bandy’s extensive brick building in a quiet, old resi- the staff of Vanderbilt’s W.T. Bandy Center personal collection of books and materials dential neighborhood near campus, for Baudelaire and Modern French Studies. on Baudelaire formed the basis for the Cen- some of the oldest and most delicate To examine the miniature books, this is where ter; today the Bandy Center is one of the most items from the Jean and Alexander one comes. The Bandy Center can be found important sites for Baudelaire study in the Heard Library’s collections are care- on the top floor of the University’s Central world. fully stored. On the second floor of Library in a spacious, well-lit reading room Since the Bandy Center began in 1968 in the Library Annex stands row upon formerly occupied by the art book collection. Furman Hall, it has grown steadily, and now row of 7-foot-tall, collapsible compact shelv- The Center has been in this location since the encompasses not only works related to ing units, and deep inside one of these long spring of 2000, but its association with Van- Baudelaire but also other collections on Irows of book-laden shelving, a group of 51 modern French literature. These include the crisp and fresh-looking beige-colored boxes, Gilbert Sigaux Collection on modern French the size of hefty hardcover novels, rests on theatre, the Morris Wachs Collection with three shelves at eye level. its emphasis on 18th-century French litera- Each beige box opens to reveal a tiny book ture, and the Pascal Pia Collection, which— nestled in a shallow, cutaway compartment aside from its preoccupation with avant-garde inside. Most of these minia- art, literature and culture—proves diffi- ture books are smaller than cult to categorize at all. It is this collection the palm of a hand, some not that contains the miniature books. much bigger than a thumb. The Pia Collection, which numbers about Of these 51 miniature books, 20,000 titles, was a personal collection assem- 34 share a certain resemblance, bled by French journalist and lit- with delicate hand-tied string erary critic Pascal Pia between bindings, colorful fibrous paper 1945 and his death in 1979. A covers decorated with often- close friend of several leading playful typography, and pages figures in 20th-century French sporting arty ragged edges. Each literature, including Albert Camus book contains a brief bit of French derbilt goes back to 1968 when it was found- and André Malraux, Pia was also verse or prose, and is imprinted with the mys- ed by its namesake, the late William T. Bandy, a leading journalist of the French Resistance terious initials “pab.” who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees during World War II.When Pia died, late Van- Who was “pab,”and why does Vanderbilt at Vanderbilt and his Ph.D. at Peabody before derbilt French professor Claude Pichois— have these miniature books? Answering these spending most of his career as a professor of who knew Pia—arranged with Pia’s widow questions turns out to be rather like opening French at the University of Wisconsin. Bandy for Vanderbilt to purchase the collection, a series of Chinese boxes. was an expert on 19th-century French poet which arrived on campus in 1982. Though the miniature books are stored at Charles Baudelaire and an avid collector of Pia’s extremely diverse collection, which

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has never been added to since coming to Van- mid-1990s. The boxes are nearly as impres- ings and abstract shapes. Some are simply derbilt, contains volumes of poetry, criti- sive as the limited-edition artist books they maxims or proverbs. Take, for example, Un cism, religious writings, art and philosophy, house. Secret by poet Paul Claudel. The blue-and- 1 as well as numerous magazines and news- A few of the miniatures reflect Pia’s abid- gray, 2-by-2 ⁄2-inch book was printed in 1948 papers of his time and collections of French ing interests in the sacred and the profane. in an edition of 10 copies. Across its four pages songs and musical scores. (Several rare Pia They include, for example, a series of thumb- it says in effect, “There is a secret / that I am periodicals, which cover the French liter- sized paperbacks published in Geneva that going to give you to be happy. It is to interest ary and art scenes, will be displayed in a small quote the aphoristic wisdom of the Bible, yourself passionately / in the thing that you Bandy Center exhibition slated for spring the Koran and French philosophers. They do best and consider it / a holy, sacred thing.” 2005.) The collection also includes quite a also include a palm-sized paperback called It turns out that “pab” was Pierre-André bit of literary erotica, which was one of Pia’s La Liste Rose (The Pink List), which turns out Benoit (1922–1993), a contemporary of Pia’s many passions. to be a very comprehensive-looking direc- and quite possibly a friend. A writer and book “The Pia Collection isn’t as focused as printer, Benoit once described himself as “the Bandy’s collection, and it’s rather hard to least known author in France but the most define,”explains James S. Patty, professor illustrated by Picasso and Braque,”because of French, emeritus.“I suppose you would he often enlisted the top modern artists of his do so in terms of avant-gardism, the rev- day (his friends) to illustrate the delicate lit- olution, the left. He was interested in what- tle books he published, which often featured ever was revolutionary and brief verses and musings by not only avant-garde.” himself, but also poets Claudel, “We receive many research René Char, Paul Eluard, and requests for this collection,” other modern French says Mary Beth Raycraft, the writers. Center’s assistant director. “We don’t know a “The material is so rare, great deal about the including books miniatures,”admits inscribed by Bandy Center Direc- Camus and tor Patricia Ward.“I can Malraux. Some only surmise that Pia of it is truly one was interested in them of a kind.” because of his connections Of the 20,000 with book production. It’s the equiv- Pascal Pia titles, alent of someone in New York City almost three-quar- who is at the center of a ters of them are inte- whole interlocking circle grated into the Heard of artists and intellectuals. Library’s circulating library collections That’s typical of the role Pia because they are not deemed rare or frag- played in interacting with ile. Just over 5,000 Pia items, however, such this whole scene.” as the periodicals and the miniatures, do Although the Pia Collec- not circulate, and they are kept safe in the tion does not contain any Library Annex until requested by researchers. miniature books illustrated by The 51 miniature books were among the tory of massage parlors and houses of Picasso or Braque, each little items Pascal Pia collected. Each miniature prostitution across France and its North book certainly qualifies as an book from the Pia Collection now resides in African colonies. exquisite work of art in itself. And its own beautifully engineered 6-by-9-by-2- And now to our mystery books: The most all 51 miniatures are of a piece with the idio- inch box, covered in starched buckram linen, striking of all Pia’s miniature books are the syncratic, one-of-a-kind window on French a bookbinding material that makes each box 34 that were published and printed—con- culture that Pascal Pia assembled and—thanks feel scholarly and sturdy. The handsome structed may be a better word—by “pab” to the Bandy Center—preserved for genera- boxes—clamshells, as they’re known in the between 1948 and 1955 in very limited runs tions to come. library trade—were all custom-made, most of as little as 10, 20 or 100 copies. Most con- of them expertly crafted by Vanderbilt contain brief, sometimes surreal poetic verses, servation technician Charlotte Lew in the occasionally illustrated with simple line draw-

Vanderbilt Magazine 21 VMagWtr05_BrightIdeas 11/4/04 4:53 PM Page 22

Bright“ WhoIdeas would of ‘thunk’ that you could go to

Soft Shells, species, of three loops of these same cells produce Clipped Wings amino acids linked in a another protein, crustacean unique configuration. cardioactive peptide (CCAP),” The unassuming precisely “This is the first cystine knot he adds. Further research deter- fruit fly, Drosophila when specific pest protein with a function that has mined that the same cell was

Research and scholarship roundup and scholarship Research melanogaster, has insects are molting.” been found in insects,”Honeg- producing both. been a player in All insects shed their ger says. Honegger’s colleague at biological research outer skin periodically in “Based on previous research, Cornell, John Ewer, then made 1.for more than 100 years. order to grow. The new we knew certain nerve cells transgenic fruit flies by using a The same characteristics outer shell then hardens and produce bursicon and that “death gene” that targeted that make it maddening in your darkens. Both processes involve kitchen—small size, prolific activation of a series of five reproduction and rapid hormones. The structure, growth—make it perfect for genetic sequence and biochem- studying genetics and develop- ical properties of four of these ment. hormones have been known Yet, the genetic structure of since 1990; that of the fifth, a key hormone in fruit-fly bursicon, was not. development, bursicon, Using cockroaches, Honeg- remained unknown. Now biol- ger’s students collected and ogists have discovered the purified a sample of the hor- structure and genetic sequence mone and sent it to a Harvard of the hormone that allows University laboratory that insects to develop hard outer chemically sequenced it. shells and spread their wings. Dewey, a post-doctoral The research was published researcher in Honegger’s labo- July 13 in the journal Current ratory, compared the sequence Biology by Vanderbilt biologists to known genomes for other Hans-Willi Honegger and Elis- insects and found matches, abeth Dewey and researchers at leading the team to determine Cornell University and the that bursicon has the same University of Washington in genetic sequence across species. Seattle. Researchers used the Honegger, professor of bio- sequencing information to logical sciences, expects this determine the structure of the research and ongoing studies to bursicon molecule. They found open new doors for pest con- that bursicon’s structure makes trol. “Bursicon is absolutely it a member of a group of mol- necessary for insect survival. ecules known as the cystine When you know the receptor knot proteins. Cystine knot and you know the hormone, proteins are so called because you can produce an inhibitor,” of their molecular structure,

he explains. “You could time it repeated across mammalian NEIL BRAKE

22 Fall 2004

VMagWtr05_BrightIdeas 11/4/04 4:53 PM Page 23 “

a gym and expose yourself to a health hazard? —DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER

CCAP cells. The cells disap- Dopamine Levels what happens in our brains when the brain is releasing peared, prohibiting production Tied to Uncertainty when we are disappointed in dopamine. A decrease in bind- of bursicon and confirming of Rewards our quest for those rewards. ing to the receptors is associat- that the genetic sequence The research lays a foundation ed with an increase in researchers had for the hor- Dopamine levels for better understanding of dopamine release, while an mone was correct. in our brains vary what happens in the brain dur- increase in binding indicates In the final test, Susan Mc- most when we are ing unpredictable reward situa- reduced release of dopamine. Nabb from the University of unsure if we are tions such as gambling and This technique allows Washington looked at mutant going to be reward- offers promise for exploring researchers to study the fruit flies whose outer shells 2.ed, such as when we are gam- the chemical foundation of strength and location of showed defects or did not bling or playing the lottery. problems such as gambling dopamine release more precise- harden completely. She found That’s the conclusion of addiction. ly than has been possible previ- that all had mutations in the research published online April “We’re moving to a point ously. gene identified for bursicon. 28 in the Journal of Neuro- where we can measure what’s The team studied the sub- Researchers injected sam- science. happening to people’s neuro- jects under three different sce- ples of central nervous systems The chemical neurotrans- transmitter systems in a way we narios. Under the first, the from fruit-fly mutants into mitter dopamine has long been haven’t been able to do before,” subject selected one of four blow flies that had been treated known to play an important Zald says. cards and knew a monetary to prevent bursicon release. role in how we experience Zald and colleagues used reward of $1 was possible, but The blow-fly shells did not rewards from a variety of natu- positron emission topography did not know when it would harden nor darken as they ral sources, including food and (PET scanners) to view brain occur. During the second sce- would have if injected with sex, as well as from drugs such activity in human research sub- nario, subjects knew they samples from normal flies. as cocaine and heroin, but pin- jects who had been injected would receive a reward with These results were consistent ning down the precise condi- with a chemical that binds to every fourth card they selected. with the theory that a lack of tions that cause its release has dopamine receptors in the Under the third scenario, sub- bursicon in the fruit-fly been difficult. brain, but is less able to bind jects chose cards but did not mutants’ central nervous sys- “Using a combination of tems was responsible for their techniques, we were able to defects. measure release of the dopa- The mutants also revealed a mine neurotransmitter under surprise: Not only were their natural conditions using mon- shells not properly formed, but etary reward,”says David Zald, they could not expand their assistant professor of psycholo- wings. gy at Vanderbilt and an investi- “This means that bursicon gator in the Vanderbilt has a second function—not Kennedy Center for Research just for hardening of the on Human Development. exoskeleton, but also for wing Zald believes the primary expansion,”Honegger says. significance of the study is the possibilities it raises for future research on measuring what causes us to experience reward David Zald from a variety of sources and NEIL BRAKE >>

Vanderbilt Magazine 23 VMagWtr05_BrightIdeas 11/4/04 4:54 PM Page 24

receive or expect any rewards. Shedding New Light and, aside from a twisted ankle, photokeratitis. Among those, Dopamine transmission on Indoor Sunburn just by turning a switch expose 13 also had UVR burns on their increased more in one part of yourself to a severe health haz- faces, mostly on their foreheads the brain in the unpredictable Ever think you ard,”says co-author Dr. William or eyelids. And two people who first scenario, while showing could get a nasty Schaffner, professor of preven- wore UVR-protective eyeglass- decreases in neighboring sunburn—severe tive medicine at Vanderbilt and es had no eye symptoms but regions. In contrast, the receipt enough to peel—by chair of the department. had UVR burns on their faces. of a reward under the pre- attending an indoor The lights can be damaged, The shortest amount of dictable second scenario did 3.event? Not only can your skin Schaffner hypothesizes, when time a patient with symptoms not result in either significant be affected, but your eyes could an object like an errant basket- spent in one of the gyms was increases or decreases in also be injured if you spend an ball hits them, cracking the one hour; the average was three dopamine transmission. protective outer shield. hours. extended period of time in a “It’s probably not just the The collaborators contacted Patients experienced a vari- gymnasium that has one or receipt of money, but the con- 119 of the approximately 600 ety of symptoms including more damaged metal halide ditions under which it occurs people who attended the three- conjunctival infection, burning lamps. that makes a difference,”Zald hour fund-raiser. Every person or itching, photophobia, for- If the protective glass that explains. contacted responded to the eign-body sensation, tearing, The increase and suppres- covers the bulb in that type of questionnaire; 18 met the blurry vision, periorbital sion were localized to specific, lighting is broken, UV light can researchers’ case definition of edema and skin erythema separate regions of the brain, filter out. Even one damaged illustrating that variable reward bulb could cause injuries simi- scenarios, like gambling, have a lar to welders’ arc burns or complex effect on the brain. snow blindness and can also “The most interesting thing we lead to a peeling sunburn on found is that areas [of the the face and/or eyelids. brain] showed increased Three outbreaks of injuries dopamine release during the from damaged metal halide unpredictable condition, while lamps in Middle Tennessee other areas showed decreased were reported to the Tennessee dopamine release,”Zald says. Department of Health in the “So other than just dopamine past year. One outbreak at a as reward, there is a more com- fund-raising event in a youth- plicated action occurring.” center gym caused eight people The data was collected in to report photokeratitis (severe Montreal and analyzed in col- eye symptoms); another laboration with Gabriel Dichter occurred at a three-day at Vanderbilt; Isabelle Boileau wrestling tournament in a gym; and Alain Dagher at McGill and the third was among vol- University, Montreal; Wael El- leyball players at a municipal Dearedy at Liverpool John gym. Moores University, United Through a collaborative Kingdom; Roger Gunn at effort among Vanderbilt Uni- Glaxo SmithKline, Greenford, versity Medical Center, the Ten- United Kingdom; and Francis nessee Department of Health, McGlone, Unilever Research, and the Centers for Disease Wirral, United Kingdom. Control and Prevention, the The research was supported outbreaks were studied and by grants from Unilever reported in the April issue of Research and the National Sci- the journal Archives ence Foundation. of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. “Who would have ‘thunk’ it William Schaffner

… that you could go to a gym NEIL BRAKE

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(lesions). Some visited the Fifty-Year-Old Thomas Talbot with emergency room, while others Smallpox Vaccine vaccine trial subject sought treatment from their Effective Even doctors. Symptoms ceased 24 When Diluted to 48 hours after treatment. But how big a problem is In 2002, vaccine this? “Across the United States company Aventis it probably happens in sporadic Pasteur discovered a fashion,”says Schaffner. “Unless forgotten batch of a large group came for treatment smallpox vaccine, at the same medical center, it 4.frozen since the 1950s. Given would probably go unnoticed.” post-9/11 concerns about It’s widely known that one bioterrorism, interest in the should avoid getting a sunburn, vaccine was enormous. Would DANA JOHNSON but there is debate whether the a vaccine nearly 50 years old clinical research in the Depart- nificantly between the three eye injuries also could be asso- still protect against smallpox ment of Pediatrics, to determine groups. Nearly all study volun- ciated with subsequent cataract and if so, how much could it be if the Aventis Pasteur vaccine teers reported at least one post- development. diluted and still remain effective? was still good. Edwards is prin- vaccination symptom in the To prevent injuries from Smallpox is caused by the cipal investigator of two National two weeks following vaccina- occurring, Schaffner says, cages variola virus that emerged in Institutes of Health-sponsored tion, including vaccination-site should be put over the bulb, or human populations thousands smallpox vaccine clinical trials. itching, pain, fatigue, muscle bulbs that automatically switch of years ago. It kills about 30 Since then, studies have pain, headache and fever. One- off once the glass is cracked percent of its victims and scars been taking place at Vanderbilt fourth missed some activities should be used. But both solu- the remainder for life. Thanks and other medical centers. In because of reactions to the tions are costly, and the latter is to a worldwide vaccination the most recent findings, shot. Dilution of the vaccine not as readily available as the program, smallpox is now con- Thomas R. Talbot, a fellow in did not appear to reduce the standard lights. Once a light is sidered eradicated and the vari- infectious diseases at Vander- occurrence of adverse reactions. damaged, it may go unnoticed, ola virus has been eliminated bilt, Edwards, and colleagues “[T]he existing supply of since the bulbs are typically except for laboratory stockpiles. reported in the Sept. 8, 2004, approximately 85 million doses inspected or replaced only once The last case in the United issue of the Journal of the Amer- of APSV can be expanded, leav- or twice a year. States was in 1949. Worldwide, ican Medical Association that even ing an ample stockpile of The authors hope that by the last naturally occurring case diluted doses of the Aventis smallpox vaccine to protect the publishing the article, they will was in Somalia in 1977, and Pasteur smallpox virus (ASPV) entire U.S. population in the bring instances of outbreak to vaccination against smallpox provide a nearly 100- percent event widespread vaccination is physicians’ attention, so that among the general public was effective smallpox vaccine, imminently needed,”the when treating a patient with stopped. allowing for expansion of the authors conclude. these symptoms and under In 2002 the U.S. resumed available stockpile. The study was supported by similar conditions, doctors limited vaccination, and in Researchers injected 340 the National Institute of Allergy will notify their local health 2003 the military inoculated healthy young adults at Vander- and Infectious Diseases’ Divi- department. more than 500,000 people. A bilt, the University of Iowa, and sion of Microbiology and Infec- The lead author of the form of the vaccine introduced Cincinnati Children’s Hospital tious Diseases Vaccine Trial and report was Dr. David L. in the 1970s could be diluted with the ASPV in a double-blind, Evaluation Unit, and grants Kirschke, a former CDC trainee without significantly weaken- randomized controlled trial from the General Clinical at the Tennessee Department of ing its effects—but not enough conducted between October Research Center of Vanderbilt Health. Other study authors to meet the Department of 2002 and February 2003. Test University School of Medicine were Dr. Timothy F. Jones, Health and Human Services’ subjects were given one of three and University of Iowa. Co- assistant clinical professor of goal of having one dose for strengths of the vaccine: undi- authors Edwards and James preventive medicine and every U.S. citizen. luted, a one-to-five dilution, or Crowe received research fund- deputy state epidemiologist at The National Institutes of a one-to-10 dilution. ing from Aventis Pasteur and the Tennessee Department of Health left it to Vanderbilt’s Overall, 99 percent of subjects MedImmune, and Edwards also Health, and Nicole M. Smith Kathryn Edwards, professor of had a successful vaccination received funding from VaxGen. of the CDC. pediatrics and vice chair for and the rate did not differ sig-

Vanderbilt Magazine 25 VMagFall04_p26-27.P3 11/5/04 8:56 AM Page 26 InClass

Out of Thin Air

Doug LeVan is working to make manned missions to Mars a reality. A spotlight on faculty and their work andtheir faculty on spotlight A By PAUL KINGSBURY, BA’80

n January 2004, President Bush of the mission that will get them to Mars and cally trying to tie up the academic year’s loose announced a renewed American help sustain them once they touch down. ends, LeVan spends a calm and unhurried commitment to manned exploration “We’re looking at enabling technologies hour and a half talking about his work, despite of space. He spoke of mankind for human flight or unmanned sample return an impending proposal deadline at the end returning to the moon sometime missions,”he says. “What we’re doing now of the day and five hours of scheduled meet- between 2015 and 2020, with an eye might be useful in the 2020s or the 2030s. ings still ahead. We adjourn to a conference toward a manned mission to Mars Our work is related to taking the Martian room just outside his orderly office at Olin afterward.“We do not know where atmosphere and extracting oxygen Hall. Wearing a crisp dress shirt, color- this journey will end,”said the president in from it. ful tie and navy slacks, and speak- his Jan. 14 speech at NASA headquarters in “You don’t carry every- ing with low-key precision, IWashington.“Yet we know this: Human beings thing you need to Mars LeVan comes across as are headed into the cosmos.” [that would enable analytical, efficient and Traversing the 239,000 miles to the moon you] to return. You quietly self-assured takes three to four days. But a mission to are going to make without the slightest Mars—nearly 34 million miles away at its use of what you trace of intellectual closest point to earth—is a voyage of at least find there to pre- arrogance. six months. Once astronauts land there, they pare materials to A teacher to the will be expected to stay for months, if not years. get back. NASA core, LeVan walks The environment they encounter there calls this ‘ISRU’: over to the confer- will be harsh and inhospitable. As previous In Situ Resource ence-room blackboard unmanned missions have made plain, the Utilization. It means to explain his Mars landscape is a cold, rocky, red-dirt desert. The that you might carry research, sketching quick daytime high temperature usually doesn’t hydrogen—or something diagrams of boxes and arrows rise much above the freezing point, while the else you can burn—with the that trace a three-stage process. First, Martian night can plunge to minus 100 degrees expectation that you will get oxygen once you the thin Martian atmosphere of carbon diox- Fahrenheit. The atmosphere is unbreathable: get to Mars. NASA has talked about many ide, which has an atmospheric pressure less 95-percent carbon dioxide. Although Spirit different plans. Some of them involve land- than one-hundredth of Earth’s, is compressed and Opportunity—the twin Rovers that began ing small robotic factories on Mars to pro- to bring it to Earthlike pressure. Next a solid exploring Mars early in 2004—detected sig- duce oxygen before the astronauts get there.” electrolysis cell breaks down the carbon diox- nificant evidence that water once flowed on M. Douglas LeVan, 54, is the J. Lawrence ide into oxygen and a 60/40 mixture of car- Mars, no usable supply has yet been found. Wilson Professor of Engineering at Vander- bon dioxide and carbon monoxide. The oxygen Despite these huge environmental hur- bilt. He also has been chair of the chemical passes through a membrane in the electrol- dles, Doug LeVan believes that man will walk engineering department since he came to Van- ysis cell and is stored. Then the stream of car- on Mars in the foreseeable future. “I believe derbilt from the University of Virginia in 1997. bon dioxide and carbon monoxide is separated, we’ll get there,”he says. “It’s just a matter of On a spring Friday towards the end of the with the carbon dioxide recycled back to the time.”He himself is at work on crucial parts semester, as students and faculty are franti- continued on page 84 DANIEL DUBOIS

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Extraction of oxygen from the ultra-thin atmosphere of Mars is the focus of Professor Doug LeVan and his team of graduate- student researchers, whose work is funded in part by NASA. DANIEL DUBOIS VMagFall04_p28-37.P3 11/5/04 10:01 AM Page 28

THE ELOQUENT EYE

From 1983 until 1997, University photographer Gerald Holly recorded Vanderbilt through countless photographs. Wearing his trademark flat cap, Holly was often seen roaming the campus looking for unusual pictures. He was responsible for some of the most creative photographs ever made at Vanderbilt.

Holly brought an artist’s eye to his work, which also made the cover of Time magazine and the pages of National Geographic, Life, Newsweek and Forbes magazines. He was a staff photographer for the Tennessean for 30 years before coming to Vanderbilt and was also a 15-year stringer for the Black Star Agency in New York.

Earlier this year the 87-year-old Holly died at his Nashville home after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease, but his photos live on in many places around Vanderbilt and throughout Nashville.

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forART Whose Sake? Public art now proliferates on Vanderbilt’s campus, but is there rhyme or reason to what winds up here? By BONNIE ARANT ERTELT, BS’81

“Public art,”Jerry Allen once wrote, “is something of a contra- diction in terms.” Allen knows this firsthand as current director of the Office of Cultural Affairs for the city of San Jose, Calif., whose successful public art program has been recognized as a model for how to go about the process. In his 1985 essay on “How Art Becomes Public,” Allen explained that the phrase “public art” joins “two words whose meanings are in some ways antithetical. We recognize ‘art’ in the 20th century as the individual inquiry of a sculptor or painter, the epitome

of self-assertion. To that we join ‘public,’a reference to the col- lective, the social order, self-negation. Hence, we link the private and public in a single concept or object from which we expect both coherence and integrity.” To this equation, add the subset of the public found at Vanderbilt — an elite, private educational institution with a largely affluent and conservative student population combined with the largest staff of any private employer in Middle Tennessee. Then, mix in the thousands of patients and family members on campus at Vanderbilt Medical Center. Considering this level of diversity, how can “public art” be defined at Vanderbilt, and what roles does it play in the life of the University and Medical Center?

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Allen, who has spoken twice on campus Only in modern times has art derived its As a result, says Benneyworth, the audi- through the Public Art Forum, a lecture series meaning from the artist. As a result, modern ence for public art is largely uneducated and that ran four years and was co-sponsored by art requires work on the part of the viewer “doesn’t know what to do with it.”Benney- Vanderbilt’s Department of Art and Art His- in order to impart meaning. Without the worth placed sculpture on the Vanderbilt tory, the Metro Nashville Arts Commission, incentive to work for meaning and without campus in 1977, but it was maliciously Visual Arts Alliance of Nashville (VAAN) and a proper education in the modern vocabu- destroyed before his outdoor exhibit officially others, wrote in the above-named essay that lary, meaning for the viewer can be lost. The opened. Twenty-two years later, the same fate as an outgrowth of the first Percent for Art end result is the controversy that accompa- met work by artists Lain York, Jeff Hand and ordinance passed in Philadelphia in 1959, nies placement of many public works. Erika Wollam-Nichols, whose installation public art was still in the process of becom- “The world is much more three-dimen- “The Only Difference” was destroyed outside ing. Public art, he maintains, is more than an sional than ever before,”says Nashville sculp- Branscomb Quadrangle. object placed in a public place for an extraor- tor Steve Benneyworth, who has placed work dinarily wide audience. in numerous cities, including “Web” in Hills- t would seem a given that art on a uni- “Public art,”he wrote, “represents the boro Village near campus. “Ideas are much versity campus would gain some rele- volatile crossroads of the artist’s personal sen- more three-dimensional. Without the abil- Ivance through its ability to inform the sibilities with public notions informed by ity to visualize, to think three-dimensionally, transient population on campus about the sentimental and long-abandoned approaches you can’t have the breakthroughs you expect history of the institution. At Vanderbilt this to art.”Art created for public places in West- in literature, science, medicine and art. You is why there are sculptures representing Com- ern society before the modern period expressed have one-sided information. Art is an inter- modore Cornelius Vanderbilt and Harold beliefs and values through commonly held disciplinary process, but academically, it’s Stirling Vanderbilt. symbols that were part of the visual vocab- treated as an adjunct to learning. It becomes “‘The Commodore’ is a perfectly accept- ulary of the society as a whole. Meaning in a side business, and then they don’t bring it able academic work of art that says what it’s art was derived from the society, not the artist. back and show how those skills relate.” supposed to say,”says Annabeth Headrick, NEIL BRAKE

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assistant professor of art history. “He stands in a noble position, the placement with the [Kirkland Hall] tower behind him. That’s why we use it in photos all the time, because it says ‘university.’” “I’m sure it dates from the late 19th century, so historically it’s significant,”says Vivien “The Commodore,” a Fryd, professor of art history, “but in addi- statue of Cornelius Vanderbilt by Guiseppe tion to that, Vanderbilt founded the Univer- Moretti, was presented sity, the University is named after him, so it to the campus in 1897. makes sense to have this piece of public art For years the piece was and have it sited near Kirkland.” slowly deteriorating due One of the most important pieces of pub- to neglect and high levels of vehicle emissions lic art on campus is also one of the lesser on West End Avenue, known. A mosaic by Ben Shahn, just inside but it has received the front doors of the Hobbs Development extensive conservation Laboratory on the Peabody campus (see side- work in recent years. bar below), quietly overlooks the lawn in front of Peabody’s Hill Student Center. “As an art historian, it is incredibly exciting that we have two public murals [in Nashville] by two famous artists from the early part of the 20th century who were com-

“Peabody—1968” Mosaic mural Ben Shahn

Located in the Hobbs Laboratory of Human

Development on the Peabody College campus, NEIL BRAKE Ben Shahn’s (1898–1969) “Peabody—1968” represents the last major work by this influen- missioned to do what turned out to be the would never leave with the impression that tial American painter, printmaker, graphic last public monuments of their lives,”says this is by an American artist of note.” artist and photographer of Lithuanian birth. Fryd. “In the Country Music Hall of Fame “The Commodore” by Guiseppe Moretti Intended as a visual representation of the and Museum, we have the last mural Thomas and the Shahn mosaic represent the apex of interconnectedness of all life, and further Hart Benton did before he died. He and Shahn historically important art on campus. Most supported by an excerpt incorporated into the were contemporaries and American scene pieces are by contemporary artists of note, work from 17th-century physicist Robert Hooke’s (1635–1703) seminal book, Micro- painters, though Shahn is considered to be a regional artists or students. graphia, Shahn’s mosaic mural is a powerful social realist and Benton a regionalist. The “Anything that was placed on the campus work of art and social statement. Commis- iconography of the Ben Shahn mural appeals prior to 1915 has significant historical mean- sioned in 1967, the design was completed the to the meaning of the school [Peabody], so ing,”says Fryd, “but pieces placed on cam- following year in October. the location of the mural is appropriate. It’s pus in the last 20 years should have an Shahn held the Charles Eliot Norton Profes- a historical document, but it needs to be paid important message and should have excel- sor of Poetry chair at Harvard University, where attention to.” lence in style and composition. That doesn’t today a major archive of the artist’s paintings, “Most people don’t know about the Shahn mean they have to be aesthetically pleasing.” photographs, prints and posters resides in the mosaic,”says Joseph Mella, curator of the Fogg Art Museum’s collections. A series of Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery. ne aspect of public art on campus, public lectures given while at Harvard, which “I’d love to see the lighting reworked and a say faculty and staff in the art and art constituted his aesthetic treatise, were pub- bench put in so that one might be able to history department, is that pieces lished in 1957 by Harvard University Press O under the title The Shape of Content. spend some time with it. Also, the text that should serve as the best possible model —Joseph Mella accompanies the mosaic could be redone. from which students can learn about art and Unless one is familiar with art history, one ideas. Of the pieces on the University side, NEIL BRAKE

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16 bronzes donated by the its symbols, which were based in Western Newington Cropsey Foun- iconography. The works placed on campus dation in Hastings-on- are largely by graduate students studying at Hudson, N.Y., comprise the academy affiliated with the Founda- the bulk of public sculp- tion, though two pieces are by Greg Wyatt, ture on campus. director of the academy and resident sculp- According to Judson tor at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Newbern, associate vice Some faculty have difficulty with the nar- chancellor of campus plan- row definition of art espoused by the Foun- ning and construction, for- dation and by the fact that student work has mer Chancellor Joe B. been placed on campus. Headrick once spoke Wyatt heard about the about the pieces to the art and art history Foundation and its pro- department’s Graduate Student Association. grams from Fred Thomp- “If you do some research on Newington son, JD’67, former U.S. Cropsey, it’s an institution that believes there senator from Tennessee. is a right way to do art and a wrong way to do “The senator contacted art,”says Headrick. “It’s completely opposite the chancellor’s office, and of what Vanderbilt is trying to do as an insti- it fell to me to look into it. tution. We give students options and expose I thought the work cer- them to a variety of things, and we hope they tainly had merit, the ones come to their own conclusions or have some I had seen. I then met with understanding of difference and variety. the director of the pro- “What I found most telling is that I’ve had gram, who was the artist- students say to me, ‘I thought [the Newing- in-residence at St. John the ton Cropsey sculptures] were bad, but since Divine, and he came to visit they’re on campus, they have the University’s and was very taken with validation, so I question my ability to judge the campus and the the quality of it.’It’s OK to judge the quality! grounds. Then Chancel- It’s student art, and it’s not even by our stu- lor Wyatt and his wife went dents, which was another thing that the stu- up to look at the studios dents objected to. They said if we’re going to in Hastings-on-Hudson have bad student art on campus, at least let and were even more it be our bad student art.” intrigued with it.” Joseph Mella agrees. “I think it would be The Web site of the far more successful if [efforts to display art Newington Cropsey Foun- on campus] were an exercise to incorporate dation says that its educa- Vanderbilt students. There’s nothing wrong tional programs promote with being a young artist, but are we going values they say are intrin- to learn that much from them? I think the NEIL BRAKE sic to the 19th-century people who are learning are the student artists “Splishsplash” by Maurice Blik is the center- works of the Hudson River School painters. [from the academy]. It’s wonderful for them, piece of the Friends Garden at Children’s The Foundation publishes American Arts but I don’t think it’s all that wonderful for us Hospital. Originally from Amsterdam, Blik, who now resides in London, interweaves Quarterly which, through its articles, links because the result is art of varying quality.” symbols of hope, awakening and freedom in morality and spiritual transcendence with Newbern, however, defends the student his work. The piece originally was conceived American landscape painting of the 19th cen- work.“Each piece has been custom-designed, as a memorial to Alexander Martin, who died tury, and “good” art with a rejection of post- and is small enough to occupy a side area,”he of a heart attack at age 10. Before Blik modernism. One recent article characterized says.“Ten years or so ago, there was some con- finished the piece, Alexander’s mother, Mary multiculturalism as the basis for what is seen troversy about [Professor of Art and Art His- Farris Martin, died of a heart attack at age 42. The piece now honors both. as a lack of aesthetics in contemporary pub- tory, Emeritus] Don Evans’ nudity in a lic art, and many of the articles speak of a photograph. The art faculty came up with return to the common cultural ground of the bumper stickers that said ‘Fear no art.’But then 1850s, when American society understood these bronze pieces came in, which are cer-

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tainly due some respect, and the faculty took hen the Newington Cropsey pieces ure out how to balance that.” the high road intellectually. They wouldn’t initially arrived seven years ago, Glassford has figured out how to accom- touch it because it had already been catego- Wthere was no one person or com- plish this balancing act at the Medical Cen- rized as conservative. Several [of the student mittee that worked with placing art on cam- ter. A sculptor herself, she was on the Metro artists] have come into the United States [as pus. That has changed. Now there is an Nashville Arts Commission for five years and immigrants] and had a lot of issues, like female acquisitions committee for exploring public helped usher in the Percent for Public Art genital mutilation and religious oppression. art possibilities on campus as well as a com- program for the city. A lot [of sculptures] were very personal. I think mittee that works specifically with the New- “Public art is kind of new to the campus,” they are interesting statements. These kids are ington Cropsey bronzes, the last four of which says Glassford. “It’s a whole cauldron full of not just doing schlock stuff.” were placed last November. Newbern saw the different ingredients and if you hit it right, Mella suggests possibly creating an annual need on the University side of campus for a you’ve done well. I have a five-member com- competition in which one or two promising better defined process—a process that was mittee at the Medical Center that reviews pro- Vanderbilt students might work through a put in place about six years ago at Vanderbilt posals, and then, for example, I take it to the committee, making a presentation, doing a Medical Center after the arrival of Donna University committee. We’ve got good rep- site analysis, and receiving feedback for Glassford as director of cultural enrichment. resentation now on that committee from the installing a temporary piece on campus, much “We wanted to expand Donna’s success at entire campus, and we’re going to add another as an artist commissioned to do a work of the Medical Center and pull it into the cam- person from outside the University for a two- public art would do. pus as well,”says Newbern,“so Donna heads year term so we can bring new people on.” “The Newington Cropsey pieces should the acquisitions committee. It was clear that On the medical side of campus, Glassford rotate through and then be returned to the with Chancellor Gee coming on board a few is attuned to the healing aspects of art. Her Foundation,”he says.“Vanderbilt wants to be years ago, we needed more of a process. He office handles all the therapeutic arts pro- a world-class institution, but they’re selling has instructed me to put one-half percent of grams for the Medical Center, including themselves short by exhibiting works by young construction budgets into art. However, it’s those involving music and writing, rotating artists unless they’re on a temporary basis.” the departments’ money, so we have to fig- art exhibits in public spaces, and public art

“Indeterminate Line” Bent steel Bernar Venet

Bernar Venet is an internationally known sculptor, conceptual artist, musical composer, filmmaker, poet and performance artist. His sculptures are designed around the beauty and simplicity of arcs and lines and how these forms integrate within the general physics of space. The artist’s “Indeterminant Line” series was born from high-speed hand drawings—the idea transferred to massive steel shapes. Venet explains them as linear forms that depart from regularity according to no particular plan. —Donna Glassford NEIL BRAKE

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placement. Her office also is in charge of main- the piece honors young Alexander Martin installed in the children’s section of the down- tenance for all public art pieces on campus, and his mother. I understood the new build- town Nashville Public Library. For “Vessels both at the Medical Center and the Univer- ing, and I presented five sculptors to the fam- of Grace,”Outlaw conducted workshops sity. She has succeeded in bringing work by ily and they ultimately chose. Then I took it around town at places like Congregation internationally known contemporary artists to the committee. Micah, Gilda’s Club, and the Frist Center for such as Bernar Venet (see sidebar, page 35), “A lot of times I’ll have a space and I’ll bring the Visual Arts to create the 216 brass mesh Fletcher Benton and Guy Dill to the Medical an artist in and say, ‘I want you to look at boxes that comprise the 3-foot-by-18-foot Center, as well as creating opportunities for this spot and show me what you would do piece. At the same time Ben Roosevelt, a Van- regional and local artists to show work. For with it.’[From January through April] we had derbilt Divinity School student, collected Glassford, art in this context must be part of a public art piece by local artist Adrienne Out- “prayers of hope” for the boxes. Each bas- the healing process. law in the mezzanine gallery of Vanderbilt ket held about 40 slips of paper rolled into “There’s a huge difference between what Hospital called ‘Vessels of Grace.’ I’ve always scrolls. In an interview with the Tennessean’s you expect of public art at the Medical Center wanted to do something around the concept Alan Bostick, BA’82, in January, Outlaw as opposed to the University,”says Glassford. of a wishing wall, and this piece puts people’s explained her reasons for working with so “It has to be non-confrontational. Controversy wishes or dreams, written on slips of paper, in many people. is tough, because you want the environment these beautiful, golden vase-like containers.” “It struck me with almost a physical force at the Medical Center to be less stressful. I’m Outlaw has created collaborative and inter- how many people go into a healing process. not trying to educate anybody about art; I’m active public art pieces for other locations in … Because of that, I wanted to make a piece trying to enhance the environment.” Nashville, including “The Prince,”a mobile … that would involve the entire community With the new Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, which officially opened in February, the opportunity to enhance the environment was planned from the beginning right along with the architecture—the first building on campus to thoroughly fuse “Vessels of Grace” by Nashville plans for the two. artist Adrienne Outlaw adorned the mezzanine gallery of Vanderbilt “It usually comes about the other way Hospital from January through around,”says Glassford.“This time it didn’t, April of this year. “It’s like a gigan- and it’s a beautiful space. For Children’s Hos- tic prayer wall,” Outlaw explained pital, we had a separate line item for art. I felt in a published interview earlier it was important that we call on local and this year. “It’s something people can look at aesthetically, but also regional artists, and we received more than know that there are hundreds of 260 responses. We have other instances where thoughts and prayers inside.” we’re working with donors. Then, the process is a little different. In the case of Maurice Blik’s piece Splishsplash, which is the focus of the Friends Garden at the Children’s Hospital,

NEIL BRAKE

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as much as possible. I feel that the more people participate in a work of art, the more they will feel part of it. I hope that leads to a sense of empowerment.” “Call it ‘interactive public art,’”wrote Bostick, “and expect to see more of it in the art world. As artists everywhere invent new ways to relate to viewers in light of the increasingly complex vocabulary of a complex world, inviting others to get involved is one way to improve the dialogue.”

nother way to improve the dialogue is to put into place methods to edu- Acate the public about the art that inhab- its their space, as well as to invite feedback from the public. Vanderbilt’s co-sponsorship of the Public Art Forums was one way to familiarize the public with more contempo- NEIL BRAKE rary questions and concerns of public art. In 1981, “David” took up residence in the atrium of Vanderbilt’s Blair School of Music. Commis- When pieces are already in place, sometimes sioned by Anne Potter Wilson, this small piece was created by Alan LeQuire, BA’78, whose newest work is “Musica,” a 40-foot-tall bronze-figure grouping of nine dancing nudes now installed in the public makes its concerns known. Nashville’s Music Row roundabout. “We had a piece placed at the Medical Cen- ter that created quite a negative reaction,” says Glassford. “Because I’m trying to make Ann Arbor, with works by Maya Lin, creator “World-class art has to be commissioned,” the environment less stressful, and staff of the Vietnam Memorial. How to acquire says Mella, “or you have a committee that and patients viewed it so negatively, I removed work of that caliber is the question. seeks out pieces. You try to showcase and inte- it after eight months.” “One of Chancellor Wyatt’s goals [in bring- grate things that are the best of what we as On the University side, no controversial ing the Newington Cropsey pieces to cam- humans can produce, and that gives a good pieces have been removed. But if the qual- pus] was to get people talking about art,”says model. [If] you have a Calder or a Ben Shahn ity and meaning of work on campus fosters Newbern.“He said it bothered him that Van- or things that are done by world-class artists, discussion, one thing everyone agrees upon derbilt, with the sophistication of its grad- which is not unusual on university campuses, is that more works by world-class artists would uates, had never had people come forth with those are useful and important. They are put Vanderbilt in a league with institutions major public art. important not only in their aesthetic value, like Northwestern University, with its pieces “If someone wants to give us a Calder or but much more in their ability to create an by Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore, any other contemporary piece, we would cer- environment that shows the ideas behind the or Yale and the University of Michigan– tainly welcome that,”says Newbern. thing, that stretches people’s imaginations and their ideas about what art is.” V

Bonnie Arant Ertelt, BS’81, arts and culture editor of Vanderbilt Magazine, is a visual artist who has exhibited at the J.B. Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Ky., and Bell Museum of Natural History in Minneapolis, among others. Her work is in the corporate collections of Arco and Sun- Trust Bank and in many private collections.

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Illustrations by MICHAEL GIBBS

Every year a place dedicated to healing is also the terminus in the lives of more than a thousand patients. For Vanderbilt doctors and nurses, death is a common occurrence but never routine. After Death

By JOHN HOWSER At a cemetery near campus in May, the families of babies who were stillborn at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and babies who died shortly after birth during the year gathered for a memorial service. Nurses read poems, and Dr. Frank Boehm, professor of obstetrics and gyne- cology, offered his condolences and conveyed the feelings that physicians and nurses experience each time there is a loss. The annual memorial service, arranged by Vanderbilt bereavement liaison Jane Alger and the Rev. Raye Nell Dyer, honors the loss suffered by those families who chose to allow VUMC to handle the disposition of their babies’ remains. This year approximately 90 family members attended VUMC’s memorial service, and 85 names were read. A gravestone funded by the Vanderbilt Women’s Auxiliary marks the plot for these burials, which appropriately reads: “In Memory of Those Little Ones Who Have Gone Before, Our Hearts Are Filled with Your Light Forever More.”

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Death is an inevitable component at any the benefactors of organ donation. Hearts, The MCN morgue dates back to the build- hospital. In 2003 there were 1,122 deaths at lungs, livers, kidneys and the pancreas are all ing’s origins in the 1920s and was in active Vanderbilt University Medical Center—babies, harvested for transplantation whenever pos- use for all of Vanderbilt’s deceased until a new teens, middle-aged men and women, sen- sible. The deceased also can donate skin, morgue opened within the Vanderbilt Clinic ior citizens. Each month an average of 90 to corneas, bone, eyes and heart valves to ben- in 1988. Now the Medical Center North morgue 100 patients, or about three a day, die from efit the living. is strictly for use by Vanderbilt’s Anatomical a variety of causes. Alger or an on-call bereavement liaison is Donation Program. Only the deceased who Bereavement liaisons like Alger, employed contacted around the clock because of numer- donate their bodies to medical science wind by the admitting office, are responsible for ous legal and logistical issues associated with up here. managing the disposition of all of VUMC’s death. Coordinating a request for an autopsy The Vanderbilt Clinic’s morgue, located bodies. During her seven years at Vanderbilt, from a family, obtaining funeral home infor- in the basement, is now the Medical Center’s Alger has seen to the disposition of thousands mation, and screening deaths that may fall primary morgue. A set of nondescript dou- of deceased. ble doors along a back hallway conceals what “Dealing with death every day can be chal- lies within. lenging at times. You have to be strong and After death Just inside the doors is a small reception somewhat comfortable with death in order is pronounced, a area about 8 feet deep and 20 feet wide. The to do this job,”Alger says. “No one knows number of different area contains a small table with a morgue what to do when there is a death. Most of the book for recording who claims a body and time families have not dealt with the death dispositions can when, along with a larger white table stand- of a loved one before. They have every ques- occur for the body. ing waist high. At one end of the morgue’s tion you can imagine and need to know what The questions of outer room is a small, white, chest-type refrig- to do next. If you can give them some guid- erator designated with a red plaque marked ance, direction, and make it easier for them, autopsy and organ “Fetal Remains.” you are providing a tremendous service for or tissue donation At the rear and to one side of this outer families at a time when they are the most vul- room is a large metal refrigerator door typ- nerable. It is a privilege to help anyone in this are addressed, then ical of those in an industrial cold-storage time of need.” typically a body is facility. This opens into the cold-storage area In addition to working with grieving fam- quickly moved to one for bodies. Inside, the air, which is kept near ily members, Alger coordinates with multi- freezing, is humid and dank even though it’s ple agencies, organizations and funeral homes. of VUMC’s two being blown about by large refrigeration fans. Her job requires frequent interaction with patient morgues. The room itself is about 20 by 20 feet with Tennessee Donor Services, the Red Cross, the a low ceiling about 7 feet high. The walls are Davidson County Medical Examiner’s Office, made of a shiny, stark, white plastic material. various law-enforcement agencies, the U.S. under the jurisdiction of the medical exam- The floor is gray concrete with a large drain Army (in cases of death of military person- iner are just a few of the responsibilities of in the center. The heavily refrigerated room nel based at Fort Campbell, Ky.), and dozens the bereavement liaison. contains about 10 metal gurneys, but could of funeral homes throughout Middle Ten- If a deceased patient has any history of hold twice that many if necessary. Typically, nessee, Southern Kentucky and Northern being a victim of violence, falls, other types TVC’s morgue never houses more than four Alabama. of trauma, accidental injury, or of a drug over- or five bodies at one time. dose, the medical examiner’s office is con- The new Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital What Happens When Patients Die tacted about the death. is equipped with its own small morgue. Fol- hen a patient dies at VUMC, nursing After death is pronounced, a number of lowing the theme throughout the entire facil- W staff are required to make two phone different dispositions can occur for the body. ity, the VCH morgue is configured differently calls—one to Tennessee Donor Services, and The questions of autopsy and organ or tis- to be family oriented. A large open room con- the other to Alger or an on-call bereavement sue donation are addressed, then typically a tains two stainless-steel refrigeration units liaison. The call to Tennessee Donor Ser- body is quickly moved to one of VUMC’s two and one freezer. The refrigerators are equipped vices is required by law, for the purpose of patient morgues, both operated by the hos- with long, narrow doors that open horizon- soliciting badly needed organ and tissue dona- pital admitting office. tally to expose shelves inside that run the tions. A representative from Tennessee Donor There are actually three working morgues entire length of the refrigerator’s interior. Services makes the request to families of the within VUMC. One of them, the original Within the VCH morgue, which has a sep- dying or deceased for organs and tissue. morgue, now known to longtime employees arate climate-control system from the refrig- By now most everyone has heard of, or as “the old morgue,”is located within the eration units to make the room temperature known, living examples among us who are basement of Medical Center North. comfortable for families, are two well padded

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chairs and a comfortable couch for use in number of autopsies performed during the more diagnostic tests. This provides a clini- time of grief. The room’s family friendly fea- last three decades.“In 1961 the autopsy rate cal bias that everything is already known about tures belie an atmosphere of the loss of so in the U.S. was about 45 percent,”Simpson the patient,”she says. “Also, because the cli- much promise. says.“In the U.S. right now, the rate is about nician has a relationship with the deceased 5 percent. There was a time when the autopsy patient’s family, that can make it difficult to Learning from Death rate in teaching hospitals was 75 to 80 per- ask for autopsy consent at the time of death.” y now most Americans are somewhat cent, or perhaps even higher. That number Repeated studies have proven that a sta- B familiar with the art of medical autopsy, has steadily declined.” tistically significant number of autopsies leads or at least think they are, through popular TV Simpson says several factors have led to to the discovery of unsuspected findings upon programs like “CSI,”“Law & Order” and “Cross- the decline in the number of U.S. autopsies. a patient’s death. Sometimes an autopsy can ing Jordan.”These programs show forensic “Families have the idea sometimes that the discover a major misdiagnosis of disease. pathologists as glamorous detectives for More frequently, autopsy leads to the the dead, working all hours of the night discovery of minor misdiagnoses or and day to crack the big case. secondary diseases that also may have While some of VUMC’s patholo- contributed to a patient’s death. gists may themselves be glamorous, the “There are problems with patholo- job at times may not be. In addition to gists themselves,”says Simpson.“Out- autopsies, pathologists at VUMC have side of teaching hospitals there isn’t other responsibilities leading to long much interest in doing autopsies. There work hours. They try to conduct most is no compensation for doing an autopsy. autopsies during semi-normal work Not only are you not generating income hours, but exceptions are possible. when you’re doing an autopsy, but it Autopsies for deceased individuals who could be taking you away from another expire from a disease where findings activity that could be generating income.” are time-sensitive, such as metabolic Another reason for the decline in diseases, or when a family’s religion U.S. autopsy rates includes the fact that requires a quick disposition so the body many medical schools have de-empha- can be buried appropriately to their sized the need for the procedure. Also, faith, can require the pathologist to in 1971 the Joint Commission for Accred- work late into the night. itation of Healthcare Organizations The word “autopsy” literally means (JCAHO) eliminated autopsy require- “seeing with one’s own eyes.”Autopsies ments for continued hospital accredi- are done to determine a cause of death; tation. confirm and/or clarify a clinical diag- Forty-one percent of the patients nosis; evaluate new tests, procedures and The word “autopsy” literally means who die at VUMC have autopsies per- therapies; and to monitor environmental formed on them; however, only 11 per- influence on disease. “seeing with one’s own eyes.” cent of those patients are autopsied on An autopsy includes an external exam- site. The reason so many bodies are ination of the body, the examination and dis- patient has suffered enough, and that the autopsied elsewhere is that a high percentage section of internal organs, and microscopic autopsy would bring additional trauma,”she of VUMC’s deceased qualify as cases for David- examination of cross-sections of organs and says.“Although, most family members, if they son County’s medical examiner. Being Mid- tissue. An autopsy also can include special are approached appropriately and have an dle Tennessee’s only Level 1 Trauma Center studies such as microbiological or cytoge- understanding of what an autopsy can do for leads many critically injured accident victims netic procedures, analysis at the molecular them, will consent.” and victims of violence to VUMC to die or level, and possibly even toxicology tests. Autopsy can provide certain benefits to to be pronounced dead on arrival. According to Dr. Jean Simpson, professor family members, such as providing certainty Simpson says any patient of VUMC who of pathology and director of the Division of the cause of death, alleviating feelings of fits the acceptance criteria can receive an autopsy of Anatomic Pathology, autopsies provide guilt that something else could have been free of charge. The acceptance criteria require such benefits to medicine as monitoring the done, possibly uncovering a contagious that the deceased individuals expired at Van- quality of care, enhancing the accuracy of disease, or perhaps even leading to the dis- derbilt University Hospital or Children’s Hos- vital statistics, and contributing to medical covery of a hereditary disorder. pital, were outpatients who have been followed education and research. “There is a decline in autopsy from the regularly in VUMC’s clinics, or were patients National trends have seen a decline in the clinician’s perspective because of more and recently hospitalized at VUMC for whom

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there is a good clinical history. ical Donation Program is one of the most teerism,”he says. “We are totally dependent Those who may not be autopsied at VUMC successful of its kind in the nation. Each year on people wanting to come to us.” include victims of homicide or suspected the program receives between 125 and 150 In fact, all the bodies accepted by VUMC homicide, patients who are dead on arrival bodies. are self-donated. This means that after a per- who don’t meet the acceptance criteria, patients Who would do this? According to Art Dal- son’s death, a spouse or other relative cannot who die in the Emergency Department before ley, professor of cell and developmental biol- make this decision on behalf of the deceased. receiving a workup (series of diagnostic tests) ogy and director of the Anatomical Donation In order for VUMC to accept a body for edu- or therapy, victims of sudden infant death syn- Program, people who donate their bodies to cational or research purposes, the decision drome (SIDS), and other cases that fall under medical science cross all income and educa- must be made by the individual, and not while the medical examiner’s jurisdiction until released tion levels. under duress. The donor also must live within by the medical examiner. In a given year, as Dalley says people from all walks of life the state of Tennessee. Enrollment for dona- many as one-third of VUMC’s deceased tion is open only from January through meet the criteria to be autopsied by the March each year. medical examiner’s office. “Some people believe this means they While Simpson says she’s not famil- have to die during that time period,” iar with the numerous popular TV pro- says Wanda Pope, the longtime program grams that prominently feature her coordinator for Vanderbilt’s Anatomi- profession, she is aware of their exis- cal Donation Program. “We explain to tence and is sure they shape the public’s them that we only enroll a certain num- perception of her job, and of autopsy in ber of people each year so that, statisti- general. cally, the program meets its needs but “I’m sure television puts autopsy doesn’t go over. We make a commitment in a gory light with not much respect to return the remains to the family within for, or perhaps callousness toward, the two years. If we took in too many bod- deceased’s body,”she says.“I think that ies each year, it would necessitate extend- turns people off to autopsy. Autopsy has ing this time period, and we try not to such important value to the families and do that.” to medical science. We have uncovered “As a rule of thumb, if a body is fairly significant undiagnosed disease donated during a given academic year, in patients, which I think can have sig- then it won’t be used until the follow- nificant impact on the health of other ing academic year,”says Dalley. Hence family members.” the need for a two-year commitment Autopsy findings also can offer excel- for the body. lent feedback for clinicians on new drugs, January through March is the only the performance of new devices, and Individuals who wish to make time an individual considering anatom- new surgical techniques. Autopsy is vital the ultimate gift to medical science ical donation can meet with Pope for the to national health statistics and to find- screening process and to be enrolled. ings impacting funding allocations for can donate their bodies for Exclusion criteria for anatomical donors national health-care dollars to treat education and research. include those who must undergo autopsy, chronic diseases. accident victims if the body is damaged, “From an educational point of view, if we’re donate their bodies to VUMC.“We have peo- and certain disease states such as HIV, hepa- going to continue to have pathologists, we’re ple from all ranges: music industry CEOs, titis, or certain suspected neurological diseases going to have to train them,”Simpson says. medical school and University faculty, peo- that can be contagious even after embalming, “One of the only ways to learn pathology is to ple from top levels of government, Vander- such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. do autopsies.” bilt Board of Trust members, even surgeons Dalley and Pope both marvel at the deep who have taught here,”he says.“We also have love and commitment donors feel toward The Ultimate Gift to Science just regular folks from Nashville and the sur- Vanderbilt. “These people love Vanderbilt. I ndividuals who wish to make the ultimate rounding communities. We even have donors mean, what more could you do?” Pope asks. I gift to medical science can donate their from different generations in the same fam- “They are very, very loyal.” bodies for education and research. The bod- ily, as well as husbands and wives. Dalley says some donors have remarked ies are used for necessary anatomical train- “One thing that distinguishes our pro- that donating their bodies fulfills a wish they ing of physicians and other medical personnel. gram from some of the others around the had to attend medical school. The Vanderbilt School of Medicine Anatom- country is that ours relies strictly on volun- continued on page 85

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The dying woman had four wishes. She was at the end stage of a terminal disease and was brought to Vanderbilt University Hospital for what everyone knew would be the last time. Julie Foss, the unit manager for the hospital’s Medical Intensive Care Unit, remembers her well. “She told the staff and physicians she had four wishes,” Foss says. “One wish was not to be treated aggressively.” The attending physician concurred with the patient’s wish, so he added “Do not resuscitate” to her orders. “Her second wish was to be kept comfortable, so appropriate pain med- ications were ordered and given,” Foss says. “Her third wish was that she didn’t want to be left alone,” Foss says. The MICU’s charge nurse and house staff made arrangements to reallocate their schedules so someone could be in the room with the patient at all times to honor this wish. “The patient’s fourth wish was to hear gospel music,” Foss says. “This was in the middle of the night. We had no CDs or tapes of gospel music around. Of DEATH and DYING We had a medical receptionist with an exceptional voice, so she and several had tapped the lung, and had done it right. Out came this cloudy fluid. My res- of the staff sang gospel music to the patient. She died shortly afterward.” ident looked at me and said, ‘This is going to be trouble.’ Not knowing that The MICU staff was able to honor all the patient’s wishes and help her much then about pleural effusions, I nodded to my resident, then read about to a peaceful death, even though she was dying without her family around. it afterward. Compared to the overall number of patients treated at VUMC in a given “No matter what we did for her, she got worse. We gave her the right antibi- month or year, the number of deaths comprise an extremely small percent- otics. She got worse. She went into the intensive care unit. She got worse. age. In emotional terms, however, the impact is significant—on caregivers as We had to intubate her. She got worse. And I kept thinking, This is a young, well as on loved ones. healthy woman. I didn’t understand. Any tests we did hoping to find out why Doctors and nurses face death every day. Beneath VUMC’s stated mis- she was getting worse never gave us any helpful information. She had a sion of education, research and patient care is the unstated goal of the entire bacterial infection and never really responded. I remember she was on the multibillion-dollar enterprise: to alleviate suffering and defeat death. ventilator, and I was getting help from multiple specialists. She got worse, Advances in medical science continue to lead to staggering improvements and then she died. Although she died slowly, it was still a surprise to me. in survival rates from injuries and disease. However, even leading-edge “I remember we went down to her autopsy, and as I walked into the medicine like that practiced at VUMC can’t always win. With some patients room she was lying there. Her chest was already open. As I looked at her, she it’s not about fighting the heroic fight with new drugs, the latest surgical was just staring at me from across the room. Her eyes were wide open. I can procedure or technology, but knowing when the battle is over and making remember her face vividly. She obviously couldn’t talk. But she was talking the end as peaceful and comfortable as possible. to me as clearly as one could through her eyes and her facial expression. All Patients in Foss’ unit, the MICU, are routinely some of the sickest patients she was saying to me was, ‘Why?’ within the entire institution. Foss and her nursing staff know when the strug- “And just as I couldn’t answer her when she was alive, I couldn’t answer gle is over and the end of life is near. With this knowledge, they can be of great her then. Almost 30 years later I still don’t know why she died, but I can still comfort to patients and their families. “Sometimes it’s knowing the right and picture her like it was yesterday.” reasonable thing to do,” she says. “Honoring a patient’s final wishes can offer Indeed, health-care workers bear the emotional scars of dealing with death the staff a chance to do something positive even in the face of death.” on a frequent basis. Doctors and nurses must develop coping mechanisms to Coping with death leaves its mark on health-care workers in many ways. accept the loss of patients and to offer comfort to family and friends left behind. “I can remember vividly the death of one of the very first patients I cared for Health-care workers begin dealing head on with death while still in during residency at Grady Hospital in Atlanta,” says Dr. Corey Slovis, profes- school. Dr. Aaron Milstone, medical director of Vanderbilt’s Lung Transplant sor and chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine. “Her name was Program, had his first experience with a patient’s death while in medical school Carrie, and she was in her mid-20s. She was angry when she came in because at Wayne State. her family had forced her to come to the hospital. She was coughing, had a As a medical student Milstone had to go into a patient room for the first fever and, as it turned out, had a pleural effusion (fluid around the lung). time and, in the presence of the patient’s spouse and a large group of fam- “This was the first time as a physician I had done a pleurocentesis (punc- ily members, confirm the death of a woman who had died rather suddenly. turing the chest cavity to collect fluid for examination). I was so happy that I continued on page 86

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PERRY WALLACE THE LONG ROAD HOME VMagFall04_p38-51.P3 11/5/04 1:26 PM Page 45

From the distance of 34 years, hurt and confusion and ambivalence give way to a rare reconciliation.

By FRYE GAILLARD, BA’68

e stood at the center of the hardwood floor and did his best to take it all in. There had been other times, other moments when the cheering had swept Hthrough the building, but he had never imagined it could feel like this. On a February day in 2004, playing once again to an overflow crowd, Perry Wallace had come back home to the Vanderbilt gym, the place where he’d made his own piece of history. Starting in the summer of 1966, this young man from the north side of Nashville entered the student body at Vanderbilt. He was a basketball star at Pearl High School, the valedictorian of his all-black class, and there were a hundred colleges scattered across the country who wanted him to come play basketball for them. But he had chosen instead to stay close to home, becoming the first black player in the Southeastern Conference, and there were people who said from the very beginning that he carried himself like a young Jackie Robinson. There was a dignity about him, an air of self-possession and restraint, and a gentle courage that you could see in his eyes. But out on the court, he also showed a certain ferocity—his game played mostly above the rim, blocking shots, snatching rebounds with a snap of his hands. And even in the dingy little gyms of Mississippi, where the crowds would threaten and greet him with a slur, there were the occasional gasps of astonishment and awe at the things they had never seen anybody do.

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In many ways it was an experience as rich t began in the final days of segregation. dressed as if they were on their way to church. as he could have imagined. But there was a Perry Wallace was the youngest of six The demonstrators carried themselves with bitterness about it that was slow to recede, Ichildren, coming of age in an all-black resolve, silent in the face of the insults and and it wasn’t just the ugly racism of the road — world. His father, Perry Sr., had moved the violence, as they took their seats in the seg- the choreographed hatred in Deep South are- family to Nashville in the 1930s, joining the regated restaurants. nas where the cheerleaders jeered and epithets massive urban migration in search of greater At the age of 12, Wallace was fascinated by flew from every corner of the room. Back at economic opportunity. They had all been the drama. Sometimes on a dare, he and his Vanderbilt also, there were nights when he farmers until that time, and Perry Sr. applied friends would venture downtown, lured by would lie by himself in the dorm and won- the hardheaded ethic he had learned in the the danger, but drawn also by a new and intox- der at the icy silence of his classmates. Not all fields to the task of earning a living for his icating kind of hope. of them, of course. There were people who family. In the early years he got a job laying “People were talking,”he remembers, were kind, and people he admired for their brick, and after a while he was doing well “about the possibility of change. We were honest confrontation with the issue of race. enough to start his own company. scared, but curious, especially as kids. We And yet too often, there were students who Sometime late in the 1950s, the family wanted to help, wanted to get involved, but looked right past him in the halls, as if some- moved again to a sturdy new home, nestled there was also a lot of conflict and hostility — how he were not even there. near the boundary of a white neighborhood. white guys throwing rocks, calling you names, He found it a lonely way to spend his years, For Perry Jr., the effect was like living in a no- pointing guns at you. You would think to and when graduation came in 1970 he told man’s land, especially in the winter of 1960, yourself,‘This doesn’t make any sense.’” one reporter who was working in Nashville: when the sit-ins began in the heart of down- Many times he thought about getting away. “I have been there by myself. There were many town. White toughs roamed the streets every He knew already that he might have special people who knew my name, but they were day, inflamed by the students from the black gifts as an athlete, and while he suffered peri- not interested in knowing me. It was not so universities — young men and women who odically from attacks of asthma, he also knew much that I was treated badly. It was just that I wasn’t treated at all.” The official relationship cooled after that. Vanderbilt head coach Roy People began to talk about “Perry’s blast,”his Skinner, center, huddles public critique of the subtle racism he encoun- with Wallace and co-captain tered at his school.Vanderbilt’s vice chancel- Bob Warren during the lor Rob Roy Purdy spoke for many others annual Gold-Black game at Memorial Gym. when he told the same reporter: “Perry has become quite bitter, you know. He seems to remember the trauma and not the good side of it. He has made a lot of people unhappy.” For a time at least, the hurt ran deep, as Vanderbilt and Wallace went their own separate ways, neither one talking very much about the other. But now here he was in 2004, standing once again at center court. He was a gray-haired man of 56, a husband and father, a law professor at American University, and he thought the emotions might sweep him away as he glanced at his jersey, now hanging from the rafters: No. 25 in black and gold, just the third time in University history that an athlete’s jersey had been retired. Wallace was honored, he told one reporter, and he also was happy for Vanderbilt — proud of the decision the University had made to lay claim to its own little corner of history. There was a symmetry now. A story once overflowing

with pain had finally come full circle —ful- THE TENNESSEAN filling, more than 30 years later, the delicate

promise it had held from the start. JIMMY ELLIS,

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from the example of his parents that obsta- who understood clearly that the world didn’t basketball coach at Vanderbilt, a plain-spo- cles existed in the world that could be over- surrender its rewards without a fight. But Wal- ken man born and raised in the South who come. He thought about how it might be to lace’s mother also exerted a major influence was having great success in the 1960s. His go north. It was what you did, after all, if you on his life. She, too, was a worker, a gentle teams most often were nationally ranked, were ambitious and black and wanted to go woman with an eighth-grade education who and his players in general were a credit to the to college. You could go to an all-black school had a job cleaning office buildings downtown. school — student-athletes who knew they in the South, or you could go to an integrated She often brought home old magazines, dis- were expected to show up for class. school in the North. carded from the waiting rooms where she Skinner thought Wallace might fit in well, He was drawn especially to the latter pos- worked — Time, Life, it didn’t really mat- and told him so at a meeting at his home. sibility, and with that in mind he worked hard ter. It expressed her love for learning, and Wallace, by then, was a senior and a star, del- at his game, and even harder at his studies, she worked hard to impart the same values uged already with scholarship offers, and looking to his future at one of those inte- to her son. Skinner knew he had some catching up to grated schools where the faculty was strong “I remember taking those magazines as a do. But he had an advantage the other coaches and the standards were demanding. By his boy, and looking at all those people on the didn’t have. He was a smallish man with a senior year, Wallace had emerged as valedic- pages,”says Wallace.“These were people liv- manner that was quiet, unassuming and direct, torian and a high school all-American on a ing better, and I wanted a part of what they and to the Wallace family, he seemed to be championship team that had gone unde- had. Because of that dream, I said to myself Southern all the way to the bone. Curiously feated. He knew his parents were proud of at a very early age that I was going to be a stu- enough, that put them at ease. They might what he’d done, and not just because of the dent-athlete, probably at a big university well have assumed before the conversation accolades or acclaim or the scholarship offers up north.” started that a Southern white man in the 1960s that poured in by the dozens. They seemed That was always the expectation and the was more likely than not to be a segregationist. to be proudest of all about his effort — his hope, almost a given in his high-school years, But Skinner gave off none of that aura. Instead, energy and drive and dedication to a goal. encouraged by his family and the teachers at he seemed to be “just folks,”a phrase that Perry Wallace Sr. was that kind of man. He his school. But then he met the person who both of Wallace’s parents would use, and theirs was always a stoic, work-toughened father turned things around. Roy Skinner was the was not a superficial assessment. “My parents knew people, and they knew life,”remembers Wallace years later.“And they had a feeling about Coach Skinner. When he came over that day and sat down in our house, he had a certain manner about him, a certain honesty and decency, a rhythm and a style Wallace was deluged with scholarship that seemed easygoing. My parents, of course, were looking at him hard. They were asking offers, but Skinner had an advantage. themselves, ‘Who is this man who wants to take our son into dangerous territory?’ And He had a manner that was quiet, they liked what they saw.” Wallace, meanwhile, during that same con- unassuming and direct, and he versation, was struck by something quite simple and direct. The coach called his parents seemed Southern all the way to the “Mr. and Mrs. Wallace,”and it was not a com- bone. The coach called his parents mon practice at the time for a white man to use courtesy titles in such a situation. For “Mr. and Mrs. Wallace,” and it was Skinner, however, they seemed to come easily, and for Perry and his family, the whole not a common practice at the time experience tapped in subtly — and then with great force — to the hopes and dreams of the for a white man to use courtesy titles civil rights era. It had been a preoccupation for years, this in such a situation. powerful movement in pursuit of simple justice that was pulling more and more at the heart of the country. They had watched it on television in the ’50s—the riots in Little Rock and the startling heroism of nine black chil-

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dren at Central High School — and they had seen it firsthand in the Nashville sit-ins. Now in the mind of young Perry Wallace, the hopes The season before, Kentucky had and opportunities created by the movement suddenly seemed to be more personal and real. lost the national championship to “I had a sense of possibility,”he says. “I had a sense that I could play some role.” Texas Western, an unlikely collection So he decided to cast his lot with Vander- bilt, and to take his place as a racial pioneer. of thunder-dunking black players. It gave him at least some measure of comfort to know from the start that he was not alone. Now here was Wallace, threatening Coach Skinner, as it happened, had also recruited another black player that year, an to bring the same style of play to the outspoken young man by the name of God- frey Dillard. SEC. Kentucky’s coach persuaded Wallace was happy about that piece of the National Collegiate Athletic news. He figured he would need all the company he could find. Association to ban the dunk—a e enrolled in the summer of 1966, tak- move that robbed Perry Wallace of ing some introductory courses, and Hthe problems came at him almost from his offense. Wallace took it in stride. the start. He began attending services at a church near the campus, the only African- He simply worked a little harder on American to do so, and after a while a couple of the elders called him aside. They seemed a his jump shot. little uncomfortable about it, and they worked hard to be pleasant as they delivered the news. But the bottom line, they said, was that some of the older members of the church were threatening to write it out of their wills if the racial purity of the congregation were breached. dunk had triggered a case of deja vu. The sea- tiny with concrete floors, the bleachers like The elders said it probably would be best if son before, Kentucky had lost the national something from a high-school gym. They Wallace found another place to worship. championship game to Texas Western, an were filled this night with a howling group “I didn’t hang my head,”he remembers. unlikely collection of thunder-dunking black of fans, shouting curses and slurs, and Wal- “I wasn’t really hurt. The old instincts of seg- players led by a guard named David Lattin. lace thought it seemed like a preview of hell. regation kicked in. I simply understood that Rupp was appalled, and now here was Wal- He remembers years later how his hands, this was one of those places in the South where lace, threatening to bring the same style of improbably, were as cold as ice, despite the sti- colored people weren’t welcome.” play to a conference as traditional as the SEC. fling heat in the place, and he remembers also The larger melodramas took shape on the In defense of the “purity” of the game as that when both teams left the floor for the half, road, when the freshman basketball season he had known it, Rupp set out to change the he and Godfrey Dillard sat together on a bench, began. Those were the days when first-year rules. He persuaded the National Collegiate clasping tightly to each other’s hands. recruits were not yet eligible to play for the Athletic Association to ban the dunk for “We were trying to be in denial,”he says. varsity. Ole Miss canceled the freshman game the next several years — a move that robbed “We didn’t want it to be this bad. But it was that year rather than host black players on its Perry Wallace of his offense. such an outrageous display of racism, like the campus, and the story at Kentucky was even Wallace, however, took it in stride. He sim- blaring of trombones. The crowd was start- stranger. As Wallace remembers it, early in ply worked a little harder on his jump shot. ing to shatter our denial.” the game or maybe even during warm-ups, But other events during that freshman sea- They made it through the game, playing he decided to dunk — a stylish habit he had son were not as easy to put out of his mind. well enough in the second half, and Perry developed in high school. As soon as he did The most disturbing of these was the game took some comfort from the fact that they it, he happened to glance at the Kentucky they played at Mississippi State. The arena won. But back at Vanderbilt, a fundamental sideline and saw the scowl on the face of Coach itself was a sweltering place with the look and question started playing with his mind. Like Adolph Rupp. Later he learned that his little feel of an airplane hangar, the dressing rooms many of the other black students at the school,

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cries of “nigger on the hall,”and for Wallace himself, another experience stayed with him even more. He was invited one evening to have dinner with some friends, and they decided to go to the women’s quadrangle. About halfway through the cafeteria line, he suddenly was aware that the coeds were staring — dozens of them with a look that was equal parts fear and disdain. At least that was the way it felt, and his mind flashed back to the story of Emmett Till, the black teenager lynched and mutilated in Mississippi in 1955 for the simple crime of speaking to a white woman. Wallace’s parents had warned him about such things, and his mother especially had told him many times,“Stay away from white girls.”Now at the women’s cafeteria at Van- derbilt, he felt a powerful urge to get away. “It occurred to me,”he said years later, “maybe I could just get up and run.” Instead, he rode it out, and it was not the final time as the months went by that he encountered residues of old blindness or, at the very least, a feeling of being walled away from his peers. All of it was intensified over time by the feelings of hatred he encoun- At 6-foot-5 and 213 tered on the road. During his sophomore pounds, Perry Wallace year in 1968, there was a trip to Ole Miss that was heavily courted by Vanderbilt as well as seemed to say it all. Godfrey Dillard, his black

Tennessee and Kentucky THE TENNESSEAN teammate, was gone by then. He had injured from the SEC. his knee and left the team, and though many of the white players tried to be supportive, JIMMY ELLIS, in many ways Wallace was out there alone. Against Ole Miss he injured his eye. He he began to ask more skeptically what he Symposium, a student-run group bringing was fighting for a rebound when one of his could really expect from America. He had in speakers such as Martin Luther King Jr. opponents hit him in the face, something that been raised with the expectation and the and Black Power advocate Stokely Carmichael. even today Wallace wonders might have been hope — the quite remarkable leap of faith, Most impressive to Wallace, the students deliberate. But his eye was bloodied, and the given the realities of racial segregation — that who were running the program were white, fans in the bleachers responded with delight. a person of talent and commitment and drive and nearly all of them came from the South. They taunted and jeered as he walked off the could somehow manage to make his own way. They seemed to understand that the region court, daring him to return, and as the train- The country in the end would yield its rewards. had to change, that segregation was an anchor ers worked on his eye at halftime, he had to Now, however, he and the others were start- pulling them down, and that Vanderbilt was fight through a feeling of dread. ing to doubt it. Less than a year into this noble not immune to the problem. But even these By the time the medical personnel had fin- experiment, he was starting to wonder if students were somehow remote, somehow ished, his teammates were already back on his assumption of fairness was nothing but out of touch with that undertow of loneli- the court. Perry knew what was waiting on a cruel, self-inflicted illusion. Not that there ness that was pulling at the black students. the other side of the wall, and he paused for weren’t a few reasons for hope. Among other In the end, of course, the white students a minute at the locker-room door, gathering things, Wallace and his friends were impressed were different, no matter how decent they his resolve. It was then that he noticed a by the serious discussion of race quietly tak- intended to be. And others were still tied to remarkable thing. There was a small group ing shape in certain quarters of the cam- the bigotry of the past. More than once walk- of fans, all of them white, who had made the pus. It was driven in part by the Impact ing into their dorms, black students heard trip from Vanderbilt to Ole Miss. They stood

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and cheered as he stepped through the door, Southerner who lured him to the school, who and though their voices were quickly over- told one reporter: “I think Perry was trying whelmed by the boos, Wallace was never- to help us.” theless grateful they were there. Vereen Bell certainly thought that was Even so, there was a distance somehow true. On many evenings he would listen with that couldn’t be bridged. He may have had a mounting sense of heartbreak as Wallace his supporters in the crowd — people, in fact, and some of the other black students would who were there at some risk. But in the final talk about the bewildering reality of the analysis, the strength he needed had to come times. They had met among themselves in from within. the spring of 1967, a casual conversation in “There were some good and decent peo- one of the dorms, and their disillusionment ple,”Wallace says,“but I also realized at that began pouring out. All of them were tenta- moment how much I had to carry this thing tive about it at first, not wanting to seem like by myself.” whiners. They understood well enough that they had not been marooned in a nest of y nearly any measure, he carried it naked bigots. There were many white stu- well. That night at Ole Miss, he played dents, probably even a majority, who wanted Bthe second half like a man possessed, very much to be decent and fair. But the foot- CADE MARTIN snatching a dozen or more rebounds, and by ing sometimes was difficult to find, for many his senior year he led the team in scoring, of the old habits of racial segregation were averaging more than 17 points a game. In still institutionalized at the school. addition to that, as he approached his grad- All-white fraternities, for example, still uation in 1970, he was deeply admired on dominated the campus social life, and even the Vanderbilt campus — chosen, in fact, in the idea of integration was new. The first black sifting through the memories of his Vander- an annual vote among students as the most undergraduates had arrived on campus in bilt experience — the wounds and scars from respected leader at the school. He graduated 1964, and as the 1960s drew to a close, their the Deep South arenas, and the quieter racism with a degree in engineering, a demanding numbers were small. But they shared in the he encountered on campus. He remembered regimen by anyone’s standards, and however mounting impatience nationwide that was the time in his junior year when a group of difficult the whole thing may have been, many sweeping through the African-American com- white men paid a visit to his room. They people were impressed by his triumph. munity — the intermingling of expectation invited him to come and worship at their “Whenever we would talk,”remembers and anger that followed inevitably from the church, which, as it happened, was of the Vereen Bell, a professor of English who knew Civil Rights Movement. They were tired of same denomination of the church that had Wallace well,“I would think about how I was the procrastinations of America and at Van- asked him not to come back during his fresh- when I was in college, and then I would look derbilt, the intimate microcosm where they man year. Wallace felt tired just listening to at Perry. He was so much wiser, so much more lived, and they were a bit hurt beneath all the their pitch, and told them bluntly it was too reflective. It was the difference between a rage to find people still resistant to the notion much to ask. teenager and a grown man.” of equality. “I said,‘Thanks, but no thanks,’”he remem- Given the widespread nature of that per- “Looking back on it now,”says Bell,“it was bers, “‘because I am tired and weary of this ception, when Wallace spoke out near the such a no-brainer. It’s hard today to imagine race thing. I am tired of the pioneering. I don’t time of graduation, giving the University a period of history when anybody could have want to take on any more.’” mixed reviews, even a few of his hard-earned been so blind — when anybody could have And for a while at least, that was how it admirers reacted with a mixture of aston- ostracized or looked down on Perry and these was. Then in 1971, during his job interview ishment and shock. What was he talking other young people. It was not that the with the Urban League, he met a man by about anyway? Didn’t he hear the cheering ostracism was universal. But, unfortunately, the name of Ron Brown — the same Ron in the stands? Didn’t he appreciate the acco- it happened. It was something all of them had Brown who would later serve in President lades and awards? Didn’t he value his Van- to deal with.” Clinton’s cabinet before being killed in a Euro- derbilt degree? For Wallace, it took a decade to work it all pean plane crash. There was something strong For many years, in different corners of the out, to sort through the contradictions and and reassuring about him, and in that initial Vanderbilt community, there were whispered the pain. He left Vanderbilt and made a brief interview, Wallace let go with a torrent of accusations of ingratitude — and some peo- run at pro basketball (playing on a minor- emotion, a jumbled recollection of his Van- ple, in fact, didn’t bother to whisper. But a league team) before taking a job with the derbilt days, filled with confusion, ambiva- few sprang to Wallace’s defense, including Urban League, and then entering law school lence and hurt. his coach, Roy Skinner, the plain-spoken at Columbia University. All the while, he was When the interview was over, Wallace

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Pride, had come to Vanderbilt about the time For Wallace, it took a decade to Wallace was emerging as a star, and he encouraged the students to dive into the story. work it all out, to sort through the “The diversity issue had been percolating on campus,”says Pride, “and the students contradictions and the pain. could see that back in the ’60s, Vanderbilt had done something extraordinary.” … All the while, he was sifting through When the film was completed, Pride gave it an A, but encouraged the students not to the memories of his Vanderbilt leave it at that. Zach Thomas, a leader in experience the wounds and scars the Student Government Association, pro- — posed a resolution calling for the retirement from the Deep South arenas, and of Perry Wallace’s jersey, and Vanderbilt Chancellor Gordon Gee was receptive. the quieter racism he encountered And so it was that on Feb. 21, 2004, Wal- lace stood once again at center court, and on campus. cheering filled the room as it had so often in the days when he played. But there was no ambivalence about it this time — as far as anyone knew, no racist whispers out there in the crowd — and Wallace himself was deeply moved by the moment. Already, he had spoken to the student body and then to the mem- thought he had blown it. “I wouldn’t have who exuded great dignity and strength, as bers of the basketball team. hired me,”he said years later, “a person that he led the University down the path to inte- He says the current coach, Kevin Stallings, un-together.”But Brown saw something more gration. When Wallace thought about all had urged him simply to speak from his heart. than the temporary anguish. Perhaps what those things together, a richness about his “He wanted me to talk about race as well as he saw was a reflection of himself, of his own Vanderbilt days emerged and left him inevitably basketball,”says Wallace.“He wanted it to be experience from a few years earlier when he with a feeling of pride. a learning experience for his team.” was a pioneering black student at a small By the time he had started a family of He spoke for 50 minutes, and though there school in the North. In any case, the two of his own and had taken his place on the fac- was no recording of what he said, a few weeks them talked many times after that and, slowly ulty of American University, he was proud of later Wallace offered this account: but surely, Wallace felt something change. what he had accomplished in college, and “I told them that I was older than they First during the conversations with Brown, proud of Vanderbilt for giving him the chance. were, and I have gray hair, but we are part of and later during hours of reflection on his “I just needed time to heal,”he says. “I just a family with a magnificent heritage. We own, his exhaustion gradually began to recede, needed the time to be myself.” are students and athletes with one feeding and the memories somehow began to fall But whatever peace he discovered on the other. You can get all perfectionist about into place. He thought often about the other his own, the final moment of reconciliation it if you want to, but perfection can become black students — what a brave and intelli- did not come until 2004, when the Univer- the enemy of understanding. The simple gent group they were — and there were also sity decided to retire his jersey. It was not an truth is, Vanderbilt took a chance and let all white students he had to admire, for they idea handed down from the top. Indeed, some the horses run, and when you look at that seemed to be embarked on the same kind of on the Vanderbilt faculty thought the old history against the current backdrop of ath- journey. They were living on the crest of a grievances might still be alive, at least on the letic problems— the way some coaches and monumental change, and they seemed to Vanderbilt side of the divide. Vereen Bell players are acting — this university can say believe in it as deeply as he did. remembers proposing several times that the with great pride,‘We got that right more than There were also the pillars of the institu- University name its recreation center after 30 years ago.’” tion itself. His coach, Roy Skinner, had lived Wallace. He says the suggestion was met with Kevin Stallings called the speech “inspi- up to his billing — a demanding presence rebuff, often with a grimace or a rolling of rational,”and it seemed clear enough that his on the basketball court, but patient and the eyes. players agreed. On television that afternoon, steady — and there were professors like his But then three students — Zach Thomas, they beat LSU 74–54. Perry Wallace watched friend Dr. Bell who went out of their way to Justin Wood and Sara Ruby — decided for it all with a smile.V make him feel at home. He was also impressed a political science project to do a documen- with Chancellor Alexander Heard, a man tary about Wallace. Their professor, Richard

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SINGING for SURVIVAL VMagFall04_p52-61.P3 11/5/04 2:51 PM Page 53

Photography by JONATHAN RODGERS, BMUS’02 L THE MUSIC of AIDS in UGANDA

“We are traveling in a leaking canoe,” sings Ugandan composer, orphanage director, and AIDS activist Vincent Wandera. “When the world waves and viruses came, ignorantly we perished … today children must parent one another.” The virus Wandera sings about is AIDS. According to a report by the United Nations, 38 million people worldwide are infected with HIV, and 67 percent of those, or 25.3 million adults and children, reside in sub-Saharan Africa. Even in the best scenarios among those nations, the infection rate is sta- bilizing, while in countries like Botswana and South Africa, AIDS continues to spread with alarming momentum. By LISA A. DUBOIS Then there is Uganda. Bordering Africa’s Lake Victoria, Uganda stands out as the lone sub- Saharan country whose HIV infection rate has been rapidly declining over the last decade, spar- ing millions of lives.

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Why Uganda? Experts have been hotly focused among women. The unique role of realized at that moment that for the past 10 debating that very question of late. Although women in solving Uganda’s AIDS problem weeks I had fallen into every anthropological it’s clear that many factors are playing a part is something Barz discovered quite by acci- trap I could fall into. All throughout the lake in this unprecedented decline, Gregory Barz, dent. Six years ago, new to the Vanderbilt fac- I realized I’d only talked to men and only been a professor of ethnomusicology at Vander- ulty, he embarked on a 10-week research led to hear the music of men. And when I’d bilt’s Blair School of Music, has discovered project to create a cultural map of the drum- asked about women, I was constantly told one crucial component that for years has been ming styles of the populations around Lake that women don’t make music. I had never hiding in plain sight — music. Women, men Victoria. His idea was to demonstrate the followed up on it.” and children, witch doctors and caregivers, migratory patterns of the “interlacustrine,” The woman introduced herself as Vil- urban residents and denizens of isolated bush or “lake culture,”people who have settled imina Nakiranda and asked the American villages are all singing about AIDS. Supported there for centuries. To help him, he enlisted professor if he would record her songs. When by indigenous music, dance and drama, they native interlacustrine men to serve as trans- Barz agreed, she began to play three songs on are spreading the word about the dangers of lators and guides. On the very last day of his her likembe, singing them in her local dialect. the disease, how to get it, ways to treat it, how sojourn, Barz was recording drummers in a Uganda is a country with 52 separate lan- to prevent it. Using the art of traditional per- tiny village in eastern Uganda, hours away guages, so it is nearly impossible to under- formance, or ngoma, they are educating one from electricity and modern accoutrements, stand all of them. Just before heading to the another and slowly turning a skeptical eye to when he noticed a woman walking across the airport to fly home, Barz hired a translator long-held mores. Ultimately, many Ugandans banana fields, approaching his recording ses- to listen to the woman’s songs and tell him are making the kinds of lifestyle changes that sion. She was carrying a likembe, or “thumb the gist of what they were about. are helping to stem the tide of this formi- piano,”slung across her shoulder. Although In the first song, Vilimina educated women dable, deadly virus. she sat silently while the village men played, about the proper use of condoms to avoid In the rural villages where Barz conducts Barz found her presence unsettling, a chronic spreading AIDS. The second song told women much of his research, the phenomenon is distraction. where they could go in the region to have largely a grassroots movement created by and “I had this crushing feeling,”he recalls.“I their blood tested for HIV. The third song

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proclaimed that knowledge is power and that woman. Of the total population, 1.1 million mented,“Fortunately for Uganda, there weren’t girls should learn about their lovers’ HIV sta- Ugandans are living with AIDS and each year a lot of foreign experts telling them how to tus before entering into a sexual relationship. more than 110,000 die from the disease, which do things in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Floored by the lyrical content of these melodies, is primarily transmitted So they did things their Barz returned to Nashville and met with the through heterosexual inter- own way. That’s when dean of the Blair School, Mark Wait. course. Compare those Museveni went around “I have a hunch that I’m on to something, numbers to the United with his bullhorn telling and I need to go back to Uganda and start States, with a population people about ‘zero graz- from scratch,”Barz told the dean. of 294 million, where ing’ and, in the circles in Wait replied,“The only answer I can give 890,000 people are living which I travel (the so-called you after hearing your stories is that not only with AIDS, and the primary AIDS experts), everybody is this something that should be done, it is means of transmission has something that has to be done.” been homosexual contact Uganda has shown a 70- percent decline in HIV While completing a book about his research and drug injection. prevalence since the early on interlacustrine drumming and musical After seizing power in 1990s, linked to a 60- cultures, Barz returned to Uganda and began 1986, Museveni sent his percent reduction in investigating the culture of AIDS. Uganda is soldiers to military train- casual sex. a landlocked, fertile, water-rich nation of 25 ing camps in Cuba, where million people, governed by President Yow- they underwent basic physical exams. One- thought he was a clown, a buffoon. Every- eri Museveni. One-third of the total popula- third of his troops tested positive for HIV. body made fun of him. Well, it turns out he tion, including more than half of the female Aware that he had a major problem on his was exactly right and we were all wrong.” population, is illiterate. Ninety-six percent hands, the president, with no formal train- After studying the Ugandan system for of the people live on less than $2 a day, and ing or medical expertise and with no fund- AIDS prevention, Dr. Rand Stoneburner wrote the average fertility rate is seven children per ing support from the West, launched a vigorous in the journal Science (April 30, 2004) that, campaign to clear his country of the scourge more than access to condoms, the progress of AIDS, which is colloquially known as “sil- made in that country was largely due to effi- imu” or “slim” because of its wasting effects cient communication using traditional social I can hear wailing and people crying on patients. He began a program known as networks.“Despite limited resources, Uganda for help “ABC”: practice Abstinence; Be faithful (region- has shown a 70-percent decline in HIV preva- We’re all in danger, Ugandans ally referred to as “zero grazing,”meaning a lence since the early 1990s, linked to a 60- Let’s pull up our socks—those who man shouldn’t have multiple sex partners); percent reduction in casual sex … distinctly are still alive and use Condoms. Soon government agen- associated with communication about AIDS To fight the disease that wants to cies posted billboards depicting coffins and through social networks,”he writes. “The destroy us skulls and crossbones. They broadcasted AIDS Ugandan success is equivalent to a vaccine of Many diseases have come to torture warnings over radio and television, and Musev- 80-percent effectiveness.” and mercilessly kill both the old eni mentioned his ABC plan in every pub- Taking that data one step further, Prince- and young lic speech he gave, regardless of the intended ton University’s Helen Epstein proposes that Now is the time for those of us who subject matter. This all-out assault on the dis- the main catalyst lies in step B—a reduction can see into the future to stand ease worked. The infection rate in Uganda in sexual partners among Ugandan men. Writ- and fight our hunters has decreased from a high of 30 percent to ing in the June 13, 2004, issue of the New York Woe to us, woe to parents who bury its current level of 5 percent. Times Magazine, she states, “Newspapers, their offspring The concept behind ABC is particularly singing groups, and ordinary people spread Our heads drip with pain difficult to grasp among many sub-Saharan the same message. … Uganda’s women’s move- Who will bury us? Africans who grow up in a cultural system ment, one of the oldest and most dynamic in Who will help us when we are old, that encourages, rather than frowns upon, Africa, galvanized around issues of domes- in the future when our bones are such ancient practices as girls engaging in tic abuse, rape and HIV. The anger of the brittle? sexual activity at an early age and men hav- activists, and the eloquent sorrow of women Ah, wasteland, those villages that ing multiple sex partners outside of marriage. throughout the country who nursed the sick used to be inhabited Still, Museveni has been relentless. and helped neighbors cope, was a harsh

—Song performed at the Meeting Point, In a 2004 conference on AIDS, Norman reproach to promiscuous men. So was their Kampala, Uganda Hearst, a professor of epidemiology at the gossip, a highly efficient method of spread- University of California, San Francisco, coming any public health message.”

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According to the latest report from the We ladies, we used to sit behind the houses United Nations, AIDS is increasingly a woman’s The real truth is that we used to cry from behind there issue in the developing world, with 13 infected We used to put on only half a gomesi (traditional Ugandan women’s dress) women in sub-Saharan Africa for every 10 We used to drink water in gourds that were already drunk from infected men. Barz illustrates the problem this But these days we eat using forks because we are now civilized way: In many of the remote villages, women We now drink water in cups and also sit on chairs very well are in a powerless position even if they prac- We even cross one leg and we are happy tice safe sex because fishermen will come up I have come to advise you to stop complaining from Lake Victoria and either buy young girls Marriage issues are not easy things to discuss openly or rape them. Therefore, the virus is constantly The first thing you fight about is washing the trousers reinserted into the local population. Well, stop fighting because things are different nowadays “I work in village after village where every There are those youths and others who keep fooling around with their bodies single woman will tell me she is HIV-posi- They don’t listen to their friends tive,”says Barz.“If an entire village is infected, You, children, you better change your behavior I ask them why bother singing? Why bother What I am telling you is very important and may help your family dancing? Their response always is, ‘Well, What makes me sad is that the youth do not listen to advice this is all we have to give our daughters. We When you tell them not to get married to older women they don’t listen have to encourage the men to stop the cycle. When you tell them that AIDS is killing everybody We can’t give up or otherwise the cycle is never Even I, ladies, am going to die with you broken.’” I am just advising you because AIDS came to kill everybody In areas of abject poverty, where dense I want you to abstain from sex and keep yourself safe vegetation makes the roads impassable, where AIDS came to kill us there is no electricity, where no one has ever I am advising the youth to keep themselves safe and stop shaming us heard a broadcast by Museveni, where many These young boys are so difficult to understand people have never seen a medical doctor or We don’t want you to shame us nurse, and where most of the villagers can’t We women learned endongo (bowl lyre) some time ago, and now we even play read or write, local women must be resource- engalabe (long drum) ful for their stories to be heard. So, ironically, We put on the leg rattles they engage in titillating, sexual songs and dances to get men’s attention and warn them —“Omukazi Omoteguu,” as sung by Vilimina Nakiranda about AIDS. Barz says, “If they’re going to get men to listen to them, they’ve communicated to me warnings fueled misinformation about the cautions one traditional song, after it lists all that one of the most successful ways is to couch, disease and led to its spread. That has now the people in the community whom AIDS has to place these messages within a cultural con- turned around. Localized graphic descrip- claimed, young and old, beautiful and ugly. text that men will find attractive. Men will tions and slang terms for Since there is only one come and hear the drumming. They will come AIDS still abound in doctor for every 20,000 and watch the dancing. If the message can get regional music, but those Ugandan citizens, tradi- through that way, then these women are not terms are now clarifying tional healers — often only clever; they’re saving lives.” the message. In Uganda referred to as witch doc- Draped in bright, off-the-shoulder dresses, it’s known as “banana wee- tors in Uganda — have the women dance barefooted, swaying their vil,”since a banana wee- begun to play a more hips and shimmying their shoulders, calling vil eats its fruit from the prominent role in the and responding, joining in complex harmonies, inside out; “broom” or education of the public. working up to a frenzy of steamy, deliberate “sweeper,”meaning the A group effort known as sucker punches about the killer virus. virus can sweep through THETA— Traditional For decades the HIV menace has been mis- and decimate an entire Healers Together Against understood as it strengthened and uncoiled village; and “jackfruit,”a AIDS — has been con- across the continent, destroying entire pop- metaphor for the noxious- vening witch doctors and ulations. In the past a combination of base- smelling, sticky fruit of Western medical doctors less rumors, draconian healing practices, and the tropics. “This virus, it to discuss the roots of the cries by popular musicians to ignore HIV has a hunting mechanism,” disease, treatments, and

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issues relating to palliative care and second- As the session began, the voices of several age students led by their teachers, coming ary infections. Because villagers are so des- girls united in fluid, intricate harmonies as across the schoolyard. When he stopped perate for information and knowledge, Barz they sang a catchy, popular tune,“Angelina.” recording to let them pass through, the teach- always brings a Ugandan physician with him The lyrics warn Angelina to be careful how ers asked what he was doing. Upon hearing to answer their questions as he conducts she holds her neck. his answer, the nursery schoolers burst into his research. Barz says,“It is a cautionary tale, but it is song, trilling happy tunes, because they wanted No amount of information will lead to also perceptive — educating young girls how to be recorded, too. true social change, however, unless Uganda’s not to be perceived as overtly sexual. Women “The songs bowled me over,” Barz says, children grow up prepared to combat the dis- tilt their heads in ways that can be miscon- “because I’d never heard kids this young ease. Part of Barz’s mission has been to record strued as provocative in many East African singing songs about condoms, singing songs the songs of schoolchildren in Uganda’s cap- cultures. Angelina is warned not to hold her about blood testing. When I was able to ital city, Kampala, as well as in the country- head in such a way as to be misunderstood — translate their songs, they were intensely sci- side. On a recent trip to Kampala, a group of and, yes, raped.” entific in their treatment of the HIV virus. I primary-school children put on a musical A few years ago he traveled to the town of remember looking at these young kids — 2, performance for the American visitors. Bare- Ishaka in the Bushenyi region in order to doc- 3, 4 years old — and thinking that they were footed, but dressed in their school uniforms, ument how far into Uganda’s interior the the same age as my child, who doesn’t know dozens of young boys and girls tuned their emphasis on AIDS in the curriculum had what a condom is, doesn’t know what the instruments — panpipes, akogo thumb pianos, reached. While recording a group of primary- sex act is. But many of the teachers told me engalabe long drums, baakisimba drums, school children, ranging in age from 6 to 16, afterwards that in order for this information madinda xylophones, and adungu hand harps. Barz was interrupted by a group of preschool- to stick, it has to be ingrained at a very early

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age, and what better way than to learn by For over a year, Ugandans have believed to their delivery, storage and follow-up is stag- rote through music?” that the safety net was finally arriving when, gering given the lack of clinics, doctors and African children come to know AIDS under in early 2003, President Bush announced that tests needed, as well as associated costs. Yet, the most painful of circumstances. In June the United States would deliver $15 billion Ugandans argue, since they have figured out 2004, Barz and Blair School Music Librarian in medicine and aid to combat HIV in Africa. how to beat the odds in reducing the infec- Dennis Clark went to the Golomolo fishing He held up Uganda as a shining example of tion rate, they will overcome the barriers to village to visit a children’s orphanage. Clad one country’s aggressive effort against the drug delivery as well. in a Vanderbilt University sweatshirt, direc- disease. In June 2004 the people of Uganda Trained as an anthropologist and musi- tor Vincent Wandera greeted them, along were still waiting for the promised anti- cologist, Barz suddenly finds himself on with 80 children who live there, all of whom retroviral drugs to materialize and were grow- unfamiliar ground — in the thick of a highly are HIV-positive. Wandera established the ing increasingly bitter. charged, political, life-and-death interna- facility in order to remove HIV-infected Frustrated, Wandera asked Barz point tional debate. When he was in graduate school, orphans from unsafe urban environments. blank where he could find these drugs for the a famed professor told him that an ethno- The orphanage is a compound of thatched- children under his care, a question the Amer- musicologist should carry out his research as roofed mud huts and small, open-air, brick ican professor could not answer. “America’s a “harmless drudge,”objectively observing his buildings with tin roofs, dirt floors, and scant promise to Africa is clearly understood,”Barz subjects, leaving no footprints, doing no harm, sanitation. Says Clark,“The children eat one explains. “I fear that our promise will not refraining from meddling. However, despite meal a day of posho soup, which is a local reach enough people in time. Even though original intentions, Barz is now immersed in cornmeal porridge. In the villages it’s com- the cost of these drugs has gone down, any the movement. Invited to a national musical mon for this kind of poverty to be rampant. cost is beyond many people.” event while he was in Kampala, Barz sat in the It’s very much a hand-to-mouth existence Even if cargo loads of antiretrovirals were audience as the director of the Ugandan AIDS without any real safety net.” to arrive suddenly in Uganda, the obstacles Commission personally thanked the Ameri-

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can professor “for teaching us that music, “I can’t just go in, take a yearlong pilot project, dance and drama are the most effective tools information, and say,‘Good- under the direction of for fighting AIDS in our country.” bye and good luck!’ and run Ugandan traditional musi- Thunderstruck by such a tribute, Barz back to Nashville,”Barz says. cian Centurio Balikoowa, insists, “I’ve never come out and said, ‘This “I feel the moral impera- in which equipment pur- is what you should be doing!’ I’ve always just tive to create a dialogue with chased by Vanderbilt has been in there asking questions, trying to iden- the communities within been left in Uganda for tify what is working for them.” which I’m privileged to local musicians to use. However, while others have abandoned work. This would be one These performers will then their noble research endeavors, Barz has thing if I were asking them send their recordings back returned to Uganda year after year, journey- to change the national to the University for the ing into the far reaches of the country to hear anthem or manipulating Blair School’s new Music their stories and record their songs. Simply, people to change political Greg Barz Archive of Africa and the his act of probing into their pain, asking ques- parties. But we’re talking DANIEL DUBOIS Americas. Realizing that tions and seeking explanations has been a life- about people’s lives here. Maybe I can’t do Barz considers their music valuable enough line to those he meets. He has discovered that this type of work without affecting change, to invest in and their ties to Vanderbilt impor- people suffering from HIV are more in need without inadvertently getting people to think tant enough to strengthen, Ugandans consider of an outsider’s compassion and acceptance about issues that I’m also thinking about. him a friend and an advocate for their needs. than erudite instructions tossed at them from Maybe the best thing I can do is to advocate. International AIDS experts are now ask- a Westerner’s perspective. He has shown them Maybe the best thing Vanderbilt can do is to ing if the initiative that has been so success- through his academic pursuits that he’s not allow me to get messy and try things out.” ful in Uganda will work in other African going away. Most recently, for example, he has begun nations. Barz suggests rethinking the domi- nant geo-medical paradigm.“There’s no such thing as African AIDS,”he says. Each country on the continent has its own cultural iden- It all started as a rumor tity—a unique amalgam of history, politics, The disease continued spreading education, productivity and climate. Experts The rumors continued spreading have learned that it’s impossible to swat the It all started as a rumor virus with well meaning, overly calculated The virus continued spreading as well solutions. Every community has an indige- AIDS has become a serious problem! nous response to its own HIV crisis. Let us tell you the story of a person who refused to listen In other words, the ngoma music about Those who could spread the messages did so about AIDS AIDS that is now pervasive in Uganda did It is transmitted by unsafe blood transfusions, unsterilized instruments, not originate as part of a program. It was and unprotected sexual intercourse never designed or planned or brainstormed One person, however, refused to hear into existence. Instead, the music rose from He went to a shop, bought a dress for his girlfriend the soil where so many victims are buried, it Bought the most recent lotions—“Mufti” and “Revlon” grew in the hearts of the HIV-positive women He bought these things at extravagantly high prices as they cared for their deceased sisters’ HIV- When all he was buying was AIDS! positive children, and it sprang from the dis- The man became infected with HIV tant rhythms that reverberated through the He lost all his charisma and strong will, rain, beckoning the villagers to carry on.V He started selling his property looking for a cure! AIDS cannot be cured in villages, neither can medical doctors cure it! Lisa A. DuBois has been a freelance writer since The only cure is death and the hoe 1985, and over the course of her career has penned Young boys and girls, we hope you’ve heard our message stories for newspapers, magazines, radio and Men and women, you can make the right choices or not video. She has worked as a regular contributor Adulterous and promiscuous people, you have nowhere to go to the now-defunct Nashville Banner daily news- AIDS is finishing you paper, the weekly Nashville Scene and, most Ask God to forgive you recently, the daily Tennessean, among other pub- —“Bakabitandika Nk’onigambo” (“It All Started as a Rumor”), lications. A native of Greenville, S.C., Lisa resides as sung by children at the Kashenyi Nursery School in Nashville with her husband, Ray, who is on the faculty at Vanderbilt Medical Center.

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Strokes of Love and Kindness

uring his sophomore year, John Dick approached Blair School of Music vides shelter to local street children. Many of these youth have come from other Professor Gregory Barz about majoring in ethnomusicology, becoming areas of the country to look for work or to escape servitude, or because they’ve Dthe first student at Vanderbilt University to do so. Barz agreed to serve been orphaned by AIDS or abandoned by their parents. The directors soon under- as his adviser under the condition that Dick complete a field research project stood that shelter was only a small part of these children’s needs. These young- and write a senior thesis on his findings. At the time, little did either of them sters were just as desperate for food, education, vocational training, medical know that this academic requirement would take Dick into the slums of Kam- attention, and relocation services to help them reunite with family members. pala, the capital city of Uganda, where the young man would spend two months The directors initially reached out to them through sports—particularly soccer. studying the music, dance and drama of street children there. Nor did Dick fore- More recently, they’ve helped the children form a music, dance and drama troupe. see that some of the children he befriended would affect him so deeply that he Dick estimates that about 36 children live on the premises, although the organ- would shed tears when it came time to leave. ization actually serves around 115 kids at any given time. The blond-haired, blue-eyed senior from Chicago returned to Nashville in One of the goals of KAYDA is to give these children skills for independent August, still feeling like he’d been airdropped from a distant planet. “How has survival. Initially very short of funds, everyone slept on pallets on the floor until this experience changed me?” he asks, reflectively. “I’m still trying to find the they learned carpentry and built themselves beds. Once starving, the children words to explain it.” are now taught to raise chickens. On Dick’s first day in Kampala, he, Barz, Dick, who is double-majoring in geology, wanted the chance to work with and Blair School Librarian Dennis Clark were visiting KAYDA and inspecting youths while completing his independent studies project. Barz has focused the chicken coop when a 6-year-old girl ran over to them and grabbed Dick’s his own research primarily on rural Ugandan women, and he realized Dick could hand. Her name was Jowe, and she and her sister Aidah live with their mother contribute to the canon of information about African music by analyzing and next door to KAYDA. recording the popular culture of indigent inner-city boys and girls, who are most “From that day on, Jowe was my little sidekick,” Dick says, explaining that susceptible to lifestyles that lead to the spread of AIDS. Barz arranged for Jowe speaks no English, so their communication was largely nonverbal. “When- Dick to work with three non-government social-service organizations that ever I was at KAYDA, she was always by my side and always asking to draw in my sponsor HIV-awareness and prevention performances. notebook. My field notebook is covered with all these little doodles from Jowe.” Of these organizations, Dick spent most of his time with KAYDA, an acronym Fourteen-year-old Aidah also formed a close bond with the Vanderbilt student. for Katwe Youth Development Association. Katwe is an overcrowded, impover- A KAYDA participant, she helped him translate lyrics and conversations from ished section of Kampala surrounded by dirt footpaths and a maze of buildings Luganda into English and taught him some words in her native tongue. One after- haphazardly crammed together. Founded in 1995 by two men, “Uncle Abdu” noon Dick happened to be the only adult in the building, which made him, unof- and “Uncle Faisal” (both of whom are still under 30 years old), KAYDA pro- ficially, in charge. Several of the teenagers were outside on the stoop, playing the

Oh AIDS, you killer You killed my Daddy So is my Mommy Oh AIDS, I hate you I’ll never forget you till I die I’ll never forget you till I die.

—Song as sung by children at the GOSSACE Orphan School, Golomolo Village

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Actually, Dick was privileged to attend the real, as well as the enacted, imbalu ceremony. As a welcomed outsider, the American student was selected by the local elders to stand next to the young honoree celebrating his passage into manhood. Dick says, “I saw the circumcision ceremony up close. It was a very graphic encounter with someone else’s culture.” Part of Dick’s studies required that he assist with setting up the recording equipment left by Barz and Clark to document traditional musical culture. Dick traveled with Centurio Balikoowa, a respected traditional musician and composer who is directing the Ugandan end of the Vanderbilt initiative, to a remote Eastern Uganda village several hours from Kampala. They first took a long taxi ride, caught a second taxi, and finally were transported along dirt paths with their heavy recording equipment by boda boda, a bicycle with a jump-seat for passengers. John Dick, a senior from Chicago majoring in ethnomusicology, spent two months this Once at the village they recorded men performing music summer in the slums of Kampala, the capital city of Uganda, studying the music, dance and drama of street children there. on the embaire xylophone, a large percussive instrument played over a pit in the ground. At the end of the session, a radio and listening to the equivalent of the “Top 40” songs of East Africa. “Do man emerged from the group and presented Dick with a goat. “It is very rare that you know how to dance?” they asked him. someone from the United States would visit Kampala, much less that you would “No, you’ll have to teach me,” the American responded. make the effort to travel from Kampala all the way out here,” the man announced. The girls pulled him outside and began teaching him their modern dance “So we’d like to offer you this goat.” moves, known as “strokes,” which quickly attracted the attention of passers- The student stood dumbstruck until Balikoowa elbowed him and hissed, “You by. Dick says, “Sixty or 70 people stopped dead in their tracks because they saw have to say something!” this muzungu (white guy) dancing in the middle of Katwe. Then Aidah taught me Collecting his wits, Dick replied, “Thank you for this gift. I’ll accept it, and I’ll how to do one or two traditional dance moves, and that attracted a lot more— take a picture of it—but the goat should stay here.” Everyone seemed pleased at least 100 people came out to watch me dancing on the stoop.” with his graciousness. Dance, music and drama, in fact, are integral to Ugandan life. One day Dick After eight weeks it was time for Dick to return to Nashville and begin his sen- ventured to a primary school on the outskirts of Kampala to see a KAYDA pro- ior year. He worried about those he was leaving behind. In order to attend school, duction that addressed the problem of stigmatization and discrimination against Ugandan children must pay for books, uniforms, eating utensils and school fees— AIDS victims. Around 250 schoolchildren packed into a small rectangular build- which adds up to about $180 American dollars a year, a price far beyond the ing while the KAYDA children performed a play about a street urchin who reveals financial capacity of many families. Before he left, Dick arranged to sponsor both that she came to Katwe because she’d been taken by a man to become his Jowe and Aidah, guaranteeing that they can attend school and have all their sup- domestic servant. The man raped her and infected her with HIV. The play was fol- plies for a full school year. The children found out about his sponsorship only after lowed by a puppet show with a similar theme about discrimination and stigma. he had departed Katwe. “At first I thought the purpose of the puppet show was to make it more appeal- “I felt that [sponsoring them] was the least I could do,” Dick shrugs. “I ing to younger kids, but it actually helps to de-personalize the [information],” Dick think Jowe will be very excited about that. And it gives me a way to stay in says. “The stories they use for the themes of the puppet shows and plays are touch with them.” often based on what the children have personally experienced.” Although Dick journeyed to Uganda to find adventure, to follow a research Traditional dances are ingrained in Ugandans from childhood, and each vil- interest, and to pursue his academic career, ultimately, he says, those were lage or region performs “strokes” unique to that area. In parts of Eastern Uganda, not the most meaningful aspects of his experience. “I remember crying on the many teenaged boys undergo a rite-of-passage ceremony, known as imbalu, involv- plane as I was leaving,” he says. “I thought, ‘When will I ever see these peo- ing a public circumcision. Because the ceremony is well known, performance ple again? How old will Jowe be when I get a chance to return to Katwe?’ It was groups have modernized the dance moves to inform the people about AIDS. Dick the personal, the humanitarian part that meant the most. These people were saw one troupe modeling imbalu by picking up sticks, symbolizing knives, and so open to my being there, and open to sharing with me what they do and who dance-acting the circumcision rite for one boy. Against tradition, however, the they are. It was very touching to be a part of their community for that period of troupe used a new set of sticks on the next boy, which served as a warning about time—and to know that it meant something similar to them.” the danger of spreading the HIV virus by sharing unclean, unsterilized knives dur- If you are interested in finding out more, you can visit KAYDA’s Web site at ing imbalu. www.kayda.4t.com. —LISA A. DUBOIS

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The“ArtsI like to draw the viewer in with a believable situation, portrait of one of the most Artwork by students partici- “Centaur Pursued” by Max Klinger influential artists of the 20th pating in the Explorers century and a compelling Unlimited III summer aca- behind- demic camp was displayed the-scenes from July 30 through Sept. 30 look at the at the Vanderbilt Kennedy New York City Center for Research on art world at a Human Development. time when pop Explorers Unlimited is a art was becom- four-week experience for ado- VISUAL ARTS: ing the latest lescents and young adults with incarnation of Down syndrome. One of the Vanderbilt Fine Arts scenes involving centaurs as the avant-garde. Gallery concluded its yearlong well as four etchings devoted Unpublished until exploration of the graphic arts to the German baroque novel now, the photo- this summer with “Max Klinger: Simplicius Simplicissimus.A graphs also are the The Intermezzi Print Cycle,” separate etching by Klinger focus of a new book which ran through Aug. 14. from the Fine Arts Gallery’s with the same title. Klinger, a German painter, permanent collection known as The exhibit, sculptor and graphic artist, was “The Artist in the Attic,” a kind which opened celebrated at the turn of the of self-portrait of the artist at Sept. 2, was on century for his print cycles, work, also was exhibited. view through which exhibited both technical Oct. 14. virtuosity and fantastic imagery. The fall exhibition season The 12 plates of “Intermezzi” kicked off with “A Year in the (1881), drawn from the collec- Life of Andy Warhol: Photo- tions of the Roland Gibson graphs by David McCabe.” In Gallery at the State University 1964, David McCabe, a young of New York–Potsdam, com- fashion photographer, was prise one of Klinger’s 14 major commissioned by Andy Warhol series. “Intermezzi” included to document his life for one etchings depicting mythological year. The result was a unique

ACCOLADES “American Backroads,” photographs by Rod Daniel, BA’65, were featured in August at Leiper’s Creek Gallery in Leiper’s Fork, Tenn., near Nashville. A former Hollywood director of film and TV shows for more than two decades, Daniel, who recently moved back to Middle Tennessee, showed black-and-white images of American backroads taken while riding his Harley Davidson throughout the country.

“Andy, Edie Sedgwick, and the Empire State Building” 62 Fall 2004 by David McCabe

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andCulture then put a little surprise in there. —MARILYN MURPHY

first summer academic camps and the University School of inductees—Foglesong and for students with Down syn- Nashville. This summer’s arts- singer/songwriter/actor Kris drome to be offered in the education programming cen- Kristofferson—both of whom United States, it provides an tered around the Red Grooms officially will be inducted Nov. academic enrichment program exhibit on display at the Frist 9 during the 38th Annual CMA that builds on individual Center. Awards on CBS television. strengths in reading, math and Foglesong’s career stretches social awareness. The camp is The Sarratt Gallery summer back to the 1950s, when he the product of a community exhibit showcased work by worked as a recording-studio collaboration involving the North Carolina-based quilter singer backing acts including “A Need to Nurture #3” Vanderbilt Kennedy Pattiy Torno in “A Change of Dion & the Belmonts and Neil by Jonathan Fenske Center, the Down Heart.” Torno’s tradition of Sedaka. In the 1970s and 1980s, Syndrome Association quilting is a color-driven inter- Work by Atlanta artist he was president of the Nashville of Middle Tennessee, play of mass-produced fabric Jonathan Fenske opened the divisions of Dot, ABC, MCA Peabody College’s patterning. Both beautiful and fall exhibit schedule for Sarratt. and Capitol records. He has Department of Special functional, her quilts are a The artist, who surrounds worked with Garth Brooks, the Education, the vehicle for the simple joy of himself with toys—from Oak Ridge Boys, Reba McEntire, Frist Center for playing with fabric and explor- prized Fisher-Price collector George Strait, Tanya Tucker, and the Visual Arts, ing the possibilities in color. pieces to brand-new molded many other notable country plastic dinosaurs and ducks— music artists. has a craving for things bright and playful. Quite deliberately, This fall the Blair School of his acrylic paintings explore Music co-sponsored Interplay: this happy world and the mes- the Nashville Symphony sages that might lurk under- Dvorak Festival,two concerts neath. Fenske, an avid hymn focusing on Dvorak’s American composer, born in Florida and influences. September’s concert, raised in Greenville, S.C., is “Dvorak and Plantation Song,” something of a renaissance was a collaborative effort fea- “God and the Devil Are in the Details” man whose writing received turing the symphony with the by Pattiy Torno the 2000 South Carolina Fisk Jubilee Singers and Blair NEIL BRAKE Fiction Award. faculty members (Amy Jarman, Drawing from a wide range of soprano; Jonathan Retzlaff, cotton fabrics from Japan, Swit- MUSIC: baritone; Karen Krieger, piano; zerland and England, Torno’s Jim Foglesong, adjunct pro- and Melissa Rose, piano), quilts depict color sense, work- fessor of music business at along with the Vanderbilt manship and perfection. For Vanderbilt’s Blair School of Opera Theatre with Director more than 35 years, she has Music, will be inducted into Gayle Shay, and commentary integrated fabrics, old clothes, the Country Music Hall of by Dale Cockrell, professor of dresses, aprons, and even cut- Fame this fall. The Country musicology and professor of up ties to use like paint on a Music Association recently American and Southern studies. 12-by-12-foot design wall. released its new hall of fame The program also included

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T HE A RTS &CULTURE

Leipzig, Germany; in Prague, Children’s Chorus program Children’s Cello Choir of Nashville Czech Republic; and at what offered a camp for area chil- was formerly the Terezin dren to sing, explore the voice Concentration Camp. and learn about movement at the Blair Children’s Chorus Songwriters Gary Burr, Hugh Camp. They celebrated their Prestwood and Mike Reid music-making in concert Aug. performed at “A Stellar 5 in the Blair School’s Ingram Songwriters Evening: Performance Hall. Crystal Music on the Mountain,” Plohman, artist teacher of fid- presented by the Bluebird Cafe dle, coordinated the third and the Vanderbilt Dyer annual International Fiddle

DANIEL DUBOIS Observatory in June. Burr, School, which offered inten- commentary by Joe Horowitz derbilt Wind Ensemble.The Prestwood and Reid are regu- sive class instruction for small (New Jersey Symphony) and undergraduate musicians were lars at the Thomas Riis (University of invited to perform at the July Bluebird Cafe, Colorado). In October 2004 Conference of the Nashville’s pre- “Dvorak’s American Accent” International Society for Music mier venue for was presented, featuring the Education in Tenerife, Canary songwriters. Hit Nashville Symphony Orchestra Islands. The group’s itinerary songs by the trio with the Blair String Quartet, also included a tour of Spain include “Stranger Melissa Rose, Linnaea Brophy, with performances in both the in My House” by commentary by Dale Cockrell, Madrid and Valencia areas. A Ronnie Milsap Joe Horowitz and Cecelia group of 12 musicians ranging and “I Can’t Make Tichi, the William R. Kenan Jr. in age from 11 to 15 form the You Love Me” by Kindermusik Professor of English. The con- Children’s Cello Choir of Bonnie Raitt DANIEL DUBOIS certs were presented at the Nashville at the Blair School (Reid), “Hard Martha Rivers Ingram Center of Music. They toured Germany Times for Lovers” by Judy groups in bluegrass, Celtic, for the Performing Arts at the in June, playing four concerts Collins and “The Song western swing, old-time, jazz Blair School. in the cities of Magdeburg Remembers When” by Trisha and rock, and world music for (Nashville’s sister city), Yearwood (Prestwood), and “I players of all ages and levels. Vanderbilt’s Blair School of Eisenach and Leipzig. Also in Would Be Stronger Than That” Music had a number of student June the Blair Children’s by Faith Hill and “Nobody In celebration of the Blair ensembles touring Europe this Chorus gave concerts in Wants to Be Lonely” by Ricky School’s 40th anniversary, summer, including the Van- Magdeburg, Wernigerode and Martin and Christina Aguilera distinguished alumnus and (Burr). award-winning composer Daniel Bernard Roumain, At Vanderbilt, summer camps BMus’93, returned as Blair ACCOLADES in music were offered for stu- opened its 2004 anniversary “Flight Dreams,” the new album by Joe Rea Phillips, dents ranging in age from birth concert season Oct. 13 with a senior artist teacher of guitar, and his duo partner Stan to adulthood. Blair School of rare joint concert appearance Lassiter, was an editor’s pick-of- Music offered the nationally featuring the composer and a the-month in the July issue of acclaimed Kindermusik pro- number of the School’s ensem- Guitar Player Magazine. On Oct. 1 gram for newborn children bles. Described as a combination the Phillips–Lassiter Guitar Duo through age 6 to discover the of Mozart, Andrew Lloyd played in recital at the Steve and joy of music, movement, dance, Webber and Prince, the Blair Judy Turner Recital Hall at the drama and craft-making in alumnus and New York-based Blair School of Music. Kindermusik Village. For three composer/performer is one of days in August, the Blair the few African-American

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composers to have worked with French, German, art history artists such as choreographer and other disciplines. Will Bill T. Jones, composer Philip Akers, senior lecturer in com- Glass, and conceptual artist, munications studies, teaches writer and musician DJ most of Vanderbilt’s courses in Spooky. Roumain’s classical/ film production, an area that hip-hop style has been embraced may be expanded as the film by orchestras and chamber studies program grows. Young ensembles throughout the is planning a film festival and United States, and he has several visiting speakers for quickly developed new, diverse 2004–05, including scholars audiences for his music. and film-industry leaders. Thanks to the efforts of Peter THEATRE Lorge, senior lecturer in history, AND FILM: the Chinese Film Showcase is “In Loco Amicis,” a short scheduled to visit the Vanderbilt film directed by Sam Girgus, campus in November. professor of English, was screened as part of the Nashville Agamemnon, leader of the Film Festival in late April. The Greek forces at Troy, sent his film featured Vanderbilt students daughter, Iphigenia, to be and Chancellor Gordon Gee as sacrificed in order to appease “Iphigenia” DAVID CRENSHAW it described the movement Artemis, the virgin goddess of stinging indictment of war and “Sounddance” and “Fluid toward diversity, renewal and the hunt, after Agamemnon the powerful men who wage it Canvas.” A master class with change at Vanderbilt. The offended her. Vanderbilt at the cost of innocence betrayed the company took place the phrase “in loco amicis,” coined University Theatre’s staging of in this new adaptation by day before the performance. by Chancellor Gee, advocates a this prelude to the Trojan War acclaimed Irish storyteller philosophy of friendship and opened the 2004–05 theatre Edna O’Brien. BOOKS & trust that generates debate, season on campus in October. WRITERS: new ideas and growth. The “Iphigenia” is Euripides’ DANCE: Frye Gaillard, BA’68, puts a annual weeklong film festival Vanderbilt’s Great Perform- human face on the story of the took place at the Regal Green ances Series kicked off its 30th black American struggle for Hills 16 Cinemas in Nashville. anniversary year on Sept. 14 in equality in Alabama during the the Ingram Center for the 1960s in Cradle of Freedom: The launch of a film studies Performing Arts by cele- Alabama and the Movement major this fall at Vanderbilt brating American dance That Changed America marks the beginning of a “film icon Merce Cunningham (University of Alabama Press). culture” designed to enrich life and his extraordinary The book details the Civil throughout campus, says Paul achievements during more Rights Movement through the Young, an assistant professor than half a century of stories of ordinary people and of English who is directing the creation and perform- civil-rights icons as it follows program, which was shepherded ance. Acclaimed since the chronology of pivotal into existence by Sam Girgus. his first collaboration events that occurred in The program grew out of with composer John Alabama—the Montgomery courses already being taught by Cage in 1944, the choreog- bus boycott, the Freedom Young, Girgus, and a wide rapher’s company pre- Rides, the letter from the range of Vanderbilt professors sented the repertoire’s Birmingham jail, the bombing drawing from theatre, commu- cornerstone work, “Suite of the 16th Street Baptist nications, philosophy, history, for Five,” along with Church, Bloody Sunday, and Merce Cunningham Dance Company Vanderbilt Magazine 65 VMagFall04 p60-65 11/4/04 4:15 PM Page 66

T HE A RTS &CULTURE

the Black Power movement in seemingly wrong for a poem to “Beyond the wonderful music the Black Belt. How ordinary be “religious,”Vanderbilt of his lines, the formal poise, people rose to the challenge of Professor of English Mark the mix of narrative and lyric an unfair system with will and Jarman’s eighth collection, To modes, what makes To the determination makes for a the Green Man (Sarabande Green Man such an important story that unfolds with the Books), continues his indiffer- and memorable book is its flow of a novel, though based ence to this contemporary enactment of a spiritual struggle on meticulous research. taboo, exploring the dangerous to be at once at home in the intersections where poetry and world and astonished by it.” In a time when it is all right for religion meet. In reviewing the poetry to be “spiritual,” and book, poet Alan Shapiro wrote, My Life with Corpses (Harcourt), a new novel by Wylene Dunbar, MA’72, Bill Ivey and Martha Rivers Ingram PhD’73, features a Kansas farm DANIEL DUBOIS UPCOMING girl named Oz and her strange created unforgettably in the family life: She is raised by a epic fantasies The Lord of the VISUAL ART family of corpses. After surviv- Rings and Dune. In this all- In “Morality Tales,” at ing this ordeal, she returns as embracing universe, a world Vanderbilt Fine Arts an adult to her hometown scarred by an apocalyptic past, Gallery Oct. 21 when the man who had res- thousands gather for a crusade. through Dec. 12, five cued her as a child dies and his Among them are two men and of the most important body mysteriously disappears. two women who are ensnared sets of engravings by While waiting to uncover the by a mysterious traveler who is William Hogarth,one message that she feels her res- part warrior, part philosopher, of the leading figures cuer is trying to tell her, even part sorcerer and charismatic in British art during in death, she reflects on her presence—from a land long the first half of the childhood and her hard-won thought dead. The Darkness experience in learning to live That Comes Before is a history 18th century, will be “Beer Street,” State 3 presented. life truly alive, rather than of this crusade as written by its falling victim to limitations survivors. MUSIC that are taught. Once again the incompa- In Pushkin and the Queen of rable voice of soprano Spades, the latest novel by Dawn Upshaw will grace Nashville author Alice Randall, Ingram Hall on Jan. 26, the narrator is Windsor 2005, at 8 p.m. as the Blair Armstrong, a black professor Concert Series presents of Russian literature—at “The Intimate Dawn Vanderbilt. Her football-play- Dawn Upshaw Upshaw.” ing son, Pushkin X, is about to marry a white Russian. The THEATRE novel has been described as “a Vanderbilt University Theatre will explore the bene- testy, multi-faceted meditation fits and burdens of love and marriage in its production The Darkness That Comes on interracial interaction.” of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s Tony Award- Before (Overlook Press), the winning musical “Company” Nov. 4–7 and 11–13. first book in Vanderbilt gradu- HUMANITIES: ate student R. Scott Bakker’s Members of the media were Prince of Nothing series, creates invited to witness a a world from whole cloth, “Conversation on the Arts” much as Tolkien and Herbert between Martha Rivers

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of students to the renowned festival to explore world cine- Exhibit Showcases ma and the art of filmmaking. Faculty Artist’s Through Carlisle’s film con- Career Work nections, the group was able to “Suspended Animation: gain access to this industry- Works by Marilyn Murphy,” only event, which includes not which spans the Vanderbilt only the world’s most art professor’s 25-year famous—and glamorous— career, is on view at the film festival, but the Cannes Frist Center for the Visual Market, where hundreds of Arts in Nashville. films are bought and sold each spring. Students were required to attend 7:45 a.m. breakfast Murphy tells the story with relish. She was speaking about Ingram and Bill Ivey on June meetings, see at least two films her painting “Home Cooking” at a gallery in St. Louis, and 25 at Ingram Hall. The pro- a day, conduct in-depth inter- someone in the audience didn’t like the message. “To me, the woman in the paint- gram was closed to the public views with industry profes- ing is cooking up a house,” says except for invited guests. sionals, research and write a Murphy, who was inspired to create Ingram, chairman of the paper on a foreign film market the painting by her desire to move Vanderbilt Board of Trust, and a non-American director, out of her apartment and into a chairman of Ingram Industries and keep a daily journal of home of her own. “But this woman Inc., and a longtime leader in their experiences. in the audience didn’t see it that the Nashville arts community, way. She said, ‘Oh no, she’s not! wrote Apollo’s Struggle: A John Seigenthaler, eminent She’s sick of doing housework for Performing Arts Odyssey in the journalist, author, civil rights the family and picking up after her

Athens of the South, Nashville, leader, and founder of the kids. She’s putting that house in the DANIEL DUBOIS Tennessee with D.B. Kellogg. First Amendment Center at oven, and she’s going to slam the The book traces the perform- Vanderbilt, has announced that door and turn it on and burn it up.’” “Home Cooking” is one of 40 paintings, drawings and prints ing arts in the city back to the he will donate his papers to by Murphy that is sparking conversation through Nov. 28 at early 1800s. Ivey is director of Vanderbilt’s Heard Library. the Frist Center. A show of her new work in October at the Curb Center for Art, The prized papers contain Nashville’s Cumberland Gallery joined the Frist career survey, Enterprise and Public Policy at correspondence, book manu- which is curated by Mark Scala. Vanderbilt and was chairman scripts and photographic “It’s huge to me,” Murphy says of the show. “It’s pretty rare for of the National Endowment material spanning Seigenthaler’s an artist to be invited to have this kind of show during their life- for the Arts from 1998 to 2001. life, including correspondence time. It’s a celebration of work done. It will be very interesting from his 43 years at the to go in [to the gallery] on a quiet day to really look at the work, Fifteen Vanderbilt students Tennessean newspaper, his and think about where I’ve been and what I’m doing now.” attended the 57th Cannes tenure at USA Today, and his Murphy’s work can be surreal, mysterious, funny and slightly Film Festival, where they service as a special aide to sinister—many times all in the same piece. “I love the old embarked on a most unusual Robert Kennedy during the black-and-white films, especially film noir, the way they use light and shadow,” she says. “I like to draw the viewer in with a field trip that was the culmina- Civil Rights Movement. In believable situation, and then put a little surprise in there.” tion of Vanderbilt’s Maymester addition, there are research Murphy began teaching in the Department of Art and Art class “Contemporary World materials, and drafts and History at Vanderbilt in 1980, and chaired the department from Cinema.” For the third year, proofs from his latest book, 1997 to 1999. She says teaching has enriched her own work. “I Professor of Art and Art James K. Polk. Seigenthaler also love teaching. To give assignments that really let students find their History David B. Hinton,who will donate materials from his own voice is so exciting, and it’s also valuable to me to articu- teaches the class, and his wife, recent work as chair of the late my own process to them, which makes me more aware.” documentary filmmaker Dolly panel that investigated former —Jim Patterson Carlisle, accompanied a group USA Today reporter Jack Kelley.

Vanderbilt Magazine 67 VMagFall04_p68-71.P3 11/5/04 2:04 PM Page 68 S.P. O.V.*

The Search for Something More Student of Point View * Eighty days, two neophyte hikers, and 1,700 miles of peaks and valleys. By KEVIN M. ELIAS

n May 8, 2004, I stood the previous weekend, and Josh arrived look- We came to Nashville CARES with a pro- in the 125-degree desert ing for a way to get involved with HIV issues. posal: a super-sized AIDS Walk sure to attract along the U.S.–Mexico What he found surprised us both. HIV had attention for the cause. We called it Hike for border, all my worldly fallen off the radar of Middle Tennessee. HIV,a strenuous hike across the vertical length needs strapped to my Even as local infection rates continued to rise, of eastern California, from Mexico to Ore- back, with one persistent no one seemed to notice the walk. No stories gon — 1,700 miles along the Pacific Crest thought pestering my appeared in the major newspapers. No tel- Trail. The hike would promote discussion mind: “What am I doing out here?” Only evision reporters devoted coverage to the about HIV/AIDS, raise funds for Nashville O48 hours earlier, I had been taking my phys- event. The HIV/AIDS community, an alarm- CARES, and encourage others to join the iology final, and now I found myself in the ingly expanding circle with Nashville CARES Nashville AIDS Walk the following year. Most middle of nowhere, alone with a classmate at its center, had been left to fend for itself. important, it would establish a new part- on an empty dirt road. Facing 1,700 miles of Josh and I knew increasing education and nership between Vanderbilt Medical School unknown challenges, I pondered public discussion and the HIV/AIDS community — a step how we got there. about HIV present- toward mobilizing youth to address HIV. Like most of my Vanderbilt ed a way for us to do We had eight months to get ready. While Medical School classmates, I something mean- laboring our way through the first year of chose a medical career to make ingful. Unlike most medical school, Josh and I worked fever- something more of my life. Deep diseases, AIDS takes ishly with Nashville CARES to make the hike in my psyche I felt a void that I primary aim at our a reality. We created a business proposal, hoped a life of service could fill. peer group, youth, wrote promotional materials, and solicited But with the start of medical and its shot is get- donations for Nashville CARES. Fittingly, the school, anatomical dissections, ting better: 50 per- Vanderbilt Medical Center became our first biochemical pathways and pro- cent of new HIV official sponsor, followed by Lightning 100.1 fessionalism discussions failed infections occur in FM, Cumberland Transit and Planned Par- to deliver the fulfillment I sought. patients under the enthood. At 6 each morning, we trained at I felt a restless, churning ambi- age of 25. Moreover, the Rec Center. As often as possible, we gave tion for something … more. the South is the only radio, newspaper and television interviews. Then I found a compatriot. JOSHUA BRESS region of the coun- We recruited a team of graduate, professional My classmate Joshua Bress had the same try where infection rates continue to rise. We and undergraduate students to help us. Soon, sensation— the feeling of having learned so wondered what two freshman medical stu- Hike for HIV grew beyond the hike itself to much, but done so little. Josh had just spo- dents, not even finished with anatomy cours- include an interactive Web site, documen- ken with Nashville CARES, Middle Ten- es, could do to change this trend. How could tary film, panel discussion, community serv- nessee’s leading provider of outreach services we take the message of the Nashville AIDS ice, and a trade fair — all about HIV in Middle to persons living with AIDS and HIV. The Walk (i.e., community-wide involvement for Tennessee. As the spring semester came to organization’s annual AIDS Walk had been HIV/AIDS) to a new level? a close, the conversation about HIV and AIDS

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I hiked to gain the opportunity to help someone my age protect himself or herself from HIV, to know that I was helping someone back at Nashville CARES. JON KRAUSE

seemed to be advancing. Now our feet need- Rather than face defeat, we began to adapt. a backseat to the wonder of nature. Lizards ed to live up to our words. Our pace increased from 18 to 20 to 23 miles scurried underfoot among the blossoming Talking hurt less than walking. Desert a day. As we crossed arid expanses, climbed cacti and desert wildflowers. Dawn erupted dominated our first 700 miles. Drought con- several thousand feet up into the mountains, into the canyons in a color wheel of crimson ditions forced us to carry two to three gallons and then climbed down into the desert once and ochre. Joshua trees guided us through of water each for distances up to 30 miles. again, we ticked off one mountain range after the Mojave, and jackrabbits hid among us Entire weeks went by without any shade. The another: the Lagunas, the San Jacintos, the from the hawks overhead. unforgiving chaparral tore into our legs, and San Bernadinos, the San Gabriels and the In a month we reached Kennedy Mead- the hot sands blistered our feet. We saw no Tehachapis. We studied the habits of other ows, the gateway to the hike’s highlight, the one for five days. Our second week, a bear hikers, shed gear (including all of our cook- Sierra Nevada. Whereas the southern moun- raided our camp and ate a week’s worth of ing implements), and started hiking before tain ranges, alternating with low deserts, aver- food. This marked my first hiking trip longer dawn. aged 6,000 to 8,000 feet, the Sierras maintained than a weekend, and life was tough. Eventually, the hardships of trail life took continued on page 86

Vanderbilt Magazine 69 VMagFall04_p68-71.P3 11/5/04 2:10 PM Page 70 A.P. O.V.*

Distress Signal Alumni of Point View * A momentary driving lapse throws a maligned era into sharp relief. By RAY WADDLE, MA’81

ecently, I became one of Skynyrd, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, a stash of Hilton was a ritzy building, not a glitzy blonde. those people—a driver who leaves bands I hadn’t visited since gasoline was 79.9 The only terrorists were a half-dozen hairy, his turn signal blinking for miles cents a gallon. left-wing Europeans. CEO salaries and food and miles on the interstate with- The truth is, I neglected the blinker because portions were human scale. Muhammad Ali out knowing it. I was distracted by an alarming new feel- was still stylishly rope-a-doping to victory. I’d been uncharitable about ing: I was nostalgic for the ’70s. President Carter’s press-conference mastery such motorists for years. I hated the ’70s when they were happen- of technical details was a pleasure to watch. They were a public menace, a ing. They were unambitious, tacky, under- No one was buying “the complete idiot’s guide” Rplague of the clueless, a symbol of things gone achieving. Everybody knew that, even at to anything yet. wrong in the new millennium. the time. It was odd to realize in 1973 that I recall no random, pointless blinking turn And now I’ve become one of them. On your decade already could be summed up signals on the American turnpikes of the Thursday I drove 18 miles and dismissed as a garish 1970s. We wore indestructible perma-press before realizing my left mistake, a 10-year max- shirts and knew the sedated lyrics of Leo Sayer, blinker was still going. It imum-insecurity prison but we had our wits about us: We maintained didn’t cause a car wreck term with no parole. It dashboard control. Road rage and murder- or a hazmat spill, but still seemed the ’70s were a ous SUVs would become proud symbols of I added to the national post-’60s hangover with the enlightened future, not the ’70s. Public deficit — the deficit of no Excedrin in the cup- life, even after Watergate, was still a place attention and alertness to board. approximating etiquette and purpose — no the bigger world beyond Now, on a crowded swearing on the airwaves, no S&L swindles, my bleating little dash- highway in 2004, my mil- no culture wars, no TV roundtable left-right board. lennial mind was merg- smackdowns, no Super Bowl half-time When I finally noticed ing onto unfamiliar wardrobe malfunctions, or other exotic fruits it, I did the adult thing: I ground: forgiveness. Yes, of deregulated capitalism. blamed others. Blamed the ’70s were burdened People in the ’70s actually talked about the manufacturer for mak- with disco, stagflation, solar energy, oil conservation and clean air. ing turn signals you can DANIEL DUBOIS Haldeman-Erlichman, We had to. The decade’s two big energy scares barely hear anymore. Blamed 21st-century Chuck Barris, Pintos, Vegas, Bobby Riggs, kept reality well within view. Our depend- life for releasing toxic levels of stress into my and entirely too much Chablis. But the decade ence on imported oil was 33 percent in 1975. day and causing such unseemly road-weary also was innocently free of corporate spon- That seemed like a lot. It triggered new think- self-absorption. I was ready to sue. sorship, spam, Hummers, chads, postmod- ing about windmill technology and mass Maybe I should admit I had a hand in this ernism, junk mail, Lewinsky, global warming, transit. Now it’s 60 percent. automotive autism. I had the CD player turned reality TV, baseball free agency, O.J. in the This is what I was thinking about when up too loud to hear the turn signal. The music Bronco, and anthrax in the mail. There were I neglected my blinking left-turn signal was from 30 years ago — Frank Zappa, Lynyrd no cell-phone numbers to memorize. Paris for 18 miles along the city’s interstate route

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I hated the ’70s when they were happening. They were unambitious, tacky, underachiev- ing. Everybody knew that. Now my millennial mind was wandering onto unfamiliar ground: forgiveness. JON KRAUSE

on an ordinary weekday, listening to the gui- accounts and regular churchgoing. The ’70s “Prairie Home Companion,”and the mute tar intricacies of Zappa and recalling with will surely one day be canonized by some button on the remote. Did I mention the fondness the stumbling decencies of Presi- sanctified world court of calendars, cited as Internet? dent Gerald Ford. the last moment of measurable calm before Worse, nostalgia dulls the brain to the I see now I was sending out an SOS with the dawning noisy era of faxes, junk bonds, urgencies of what needs tending now — things my errant blinker, warning other motorists MTV, hostile takeovers, McLaughlin Group like Mideast justice, literacy, affordable health of my helpless fog of cultural dissonance, ask- and tall desserts — that is, the ’80s. insurance and, yes, fuel efficiency. Ignore these ing for a little time to myself, at 55 mph, until Alas, it’s not so simple. Nostalgia won’t matters, and 30 years from now the burning the moment could pass and I could rejoin do. It never works. It’s a scam. For one thing, mess will make us pine in stunned nostal- our furious shock-and-awe century, where nostalgia is committed to negating the splen- gia even for the unpromising lost decade of we are more dependent on hostile foreign oil dors of the present moment — the Inter- the 2000s. than ever before and no one asks why. net, Saturday college football on 20 cable So I acknowledge my extreme makeover The ’70s now seem wise and sane, even channels, coffeehouses, DVDs, pay-at-the- of the ’70s shouldn’t fool anyone for long. saintly, a gadgetless era of regular savings pump gas, telecommuting, zinc lozenges, continued on page 87

Vanderbilt Magazine 71 TheClasses “ “ Edward A. “Monk” Malloy, PhD’75, is stepping down as president of the University of Notre Dame after 17 years.

Please note: Class Notes only appear in the printed version of this publication.

Marilyn Justman Kaman, BA’70

ROB LEVINE Crime and Punishment

A combination of endurance and flexibility sustained Judge Marilyn Justman Kaman while she served as a member of a five-judge international panel on war crimes in Kosovo. On the bench in Hennepin County District Court in Minneapolis since 2000, Kaman says her six months in the Balkans in 2003–04 under the auspices of the United Nations gave her a new perspective. “The intersection of law and culture was intriguing and played itself out in court in ways I didn’t expect,” says Kaman in describing the absence of juries, proceedings in which the judges decide verdicts, and the role of traditions that predetermine acceptable behavior, punishment, and rela- tionships among different Balkan ethnic groups. “Part of the learning experience was how cultural values and norms play an important part in determination of guilt or innocence.” When not in the courtroom, Kaman was under guard for her own safety. She found the isolation ultimately valuable. “It gave me the opportunity to hone my values. I feel different, grateful for my family and friends who support me and for our justice system,” says Kaman. “For me, this experience has created an appreciation for diversity, of personal and ethnic differences.”

72 Fall 2004 Vanderbilt Magazine 73 T HE C LASSES “ “ Jay Perry, BE’85, is a NASA aerospace engineer specializing in environmental control for the International Space Station. Robert Perry, PhD’86

NEIL BRAKE

Man with a Mission Petro Kacur, BA’90 The past is always present for Robert Perry. A missionary in Africa for 30 years, Perry established a museum for the Church of the Nazarene in Johannesburg, South Africa. Olympic Luminary The museum contains letters, pictures, official mission records and other materials. These include books in African The lighting of the Olympic flame at the 2004 Summer languages, diaries of early missionaries, and an extensive Olympics in Greece was the culmination of a yearlong pictorial display of the church’s century-long work in the endeavor and personal journey for Petro Kacur, director of fields of medicine, education and church activities. It is only public relations for the Coca-Cola Co.’s sponsorship of the the second missions museum in Africa; the other features the Olympic Torch Relay. work of pioneer explorer and missionary David Livingstone. “It’s been the opportunity of a lifetime to be involved Perry’s personal link to the denomination’s work is in something so close to my heritage,” says Kacur, the son teaching. He returns to Africa to teach every two years. of Greek immigrants who is fluent in Greek. The museum speaks to his early years as a history teacher Kacur and his team escorted the flame, lit in a March and to his admiration for his missionary forebears. “I feel ceremony at Olympia, Greece, and safeguarded in a a real connection to them,” he says. “We have cars, comput- miner’s lantern, through 34 cities and 27 countries. At ers and so many things. Our early pioneers were limited in each stop he assisted with celebrations that included a resources, but not in their passion for their work.” relay of local people carrying torches lit by the flame Perry grew up in the cotton-mill town of Alabama City, Kacur and his team shepherded. Worldwide, there were Ala., and came to Nashville to study at Trevecca Nazarene 11,000 torchbearers representing the unity and inspiration University. He later earned a master’s from the University of the Olympics. of Alabama and a doctorate in history from Vanderbilt. To his surprise, the torchbearer selection committee in Nowadays, he and his wife, Peggy, live most of their Greece tapped Kacur to carry the torch in one leg of the time in Florida among some 200 retired missionaries at relay in his father’s home village of Argos. “It was very Bradenton Missionary Village, and Perry also does literary moving to be a Greek-American and have the opportunity work among the Spanish-speaking residents of Bradenton. to do this on Greek soil,” he says. “Thinking of how this honored my family brought tears to my eyes.”

74 Fall 2004 Vanderbilt Magazine 75 T HE C LASSES “ “ M.J. Garrett, BS’97, is a cast member on the current season of MTV’s ‘The Real World,’ taped last spring in Philadelphia. Alumni Association News Alumni Association News Do We Have Your Current E-mail Address? Alumni Events continued Make sure you’re receiving the most up-to-date information The Chattanooga Alumni Club and friends took charge of about your alma mater and enjoying access to online fea- their health—mind, body and soul—during a program featur- tures. Dore2Dore,Vanderbilt’s online community, is continu- ing Clif Cleaveland, HO’64, FE’70; Larry Churchill, the Ann ally adding new and enhanced goodies for alumni. Keep in Geddes Stahlman Chair in Medical Ethics at Vanderbilt Med- touch with your classmates, find out about Vanderbilt events ical Center; Ira Long, BA’45, MD’48; Alec Taylor, JD’78; and in your area, and more.You’ll help Vanderbilt reduce the Tom White, MBA’82.The panel discussed the importance of costs of communicating by snail mail. It only takes a minute having a living will and durable power of attorney. to update your address. Go to www.dore2dore.net. The Los Angeles Alumni Club gathered for the “Hey Jude: the Ninth Symphony & Sonnet VIII”presentation by Blair Honoring the Real Heroes Professor Michael Alec Rose, who also made presentations to the San Francisco Vanderbilt Club preceding a San Fran- Send in your nomination by March 1, 2005, for the Alumni cisco Symphony concert and to the Chicago Vanderbilt Club Association of Vanderbilt University Distinguished Alumnus preceding a Chicago Symphony concert. Award. It’s a great way not only to honor the life’s work of some incredible thinkers and doers, but also to inspire stu- The Washington, D.C.,Alumni Club enjoyed a lecture by dents and alumni.You’ll find a mail-in form in this issue, Professor John Lachs, Centennial Professor of Philosophy, on along with more information about the award and this year’s “The Enemies of Life,”focusing on a positive outlook and amazing recipient, medical pioneer Dr.Mildred Stahlman, appreciating the right things. on page 1.

Alumni Events from All Over During the past year the Alumni Association has sponsored hundreds of events worldwide—admitted-student recep- tions and summer “send-off parties” for the Class of 2008, alumni education events, community service projects, happy hours, athletic-related events, and visits from Chancellor Gee and other administrators. Here are a few highlights: Alumni gathered all over the country to cheer on our basketball teams to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen tournaments.There were pre-game alumni parties in Atlanta for the SEC tournament, and NCAA men’s basketball tournament events in Orlando (Fla.) and Phoenix. After the women’s team won the SEC tournament in The Nashville Vanderbilt Club and the Alumni Association Nashville, alumni Board of Directors enjoyed an evening at the Frist Center for clubs in Chat- the Visual Arts. Robert Mode, associate professor and chair tanooga (Tenn.) of the Department of Art and Art History, gave a presenta- and Oklahoma City tion about the exhibit “From El Greco to Picasso: European hosted events for Masterworks from the Phillips Collection” before an exhibit the women’s NCAA tour. Mode also spoke to the Memphis Vanderbilt Club tournament. about the “Masters of Florence: Glory & Genius at the Court of Medici” exhibit, followed by a tour of the exhibit at the Pyramid.

NEIL BRAKE

76 Fall 2004 Vanderbilt Magazine 77 T HE C LASSES “ “ Heidi Lauren Duke, BMus’01, is pursuing a master of fine arts degree in opera stage directing on a full scholarship. Alumni Association News Alumni Events continued The Atlanta Alumni Club enjoyed a discussion with Bruce Lynskey, clinical professor of management in entrepreneurship at the Owen Graduate School of Management. Lynskey discussed the challenges and rewards of coming from the business world and teaching entrepreneurship.

The Dallas Vanderbilt Club enjoyed an evening at the Nasher Sculpture Center in May. Michael Aurbach, professor of art, gave a presentation about the collection and two special exhibitions,“Picasso: The Cubist Portraits of Fer- nande Olivier” and “Medardo Rosso: Second Impressions,” before a tour.

The Metro New York Vanderbilt Club and alumni from surrounding areas enjoyed a day in Hyde Park, N.Y., at the Culi- nary Institute of America. John Poindexter, BA’46, MA’48, shared his knowledge about Vanderbilt history and the Vanderbilt family as the group toured the Vander- bilt Mansion in

Hyde Park. NEIL BRAKE

This election year the Alumni Relations Office showcased history and political science professors, many of whom turned up frequently in local and national media interviews. Professors Tom Schwartz, Bruce Oppenheimer, John Geer, Roy Neel and Mark Dahlhouse traveled and spoke to alumni clubs in Los Angeles,Washington (D.C.), Chicago, Raleigh- Durham (N.C.),Tampa (Fla.), New York and Charlotte (N.C.). Among the lectures were “Attacking Democracy: A Defense of Negative Advertising in Presidential Elections” and “Down to the Wire: Calling the 2004 Election.”

The Alumni Association hosted its inaugural Almost Alumni Affair for the newest alumni—the Class of 2004. More than 500 seniors enjoyed great food, drinks, a hip DJ, and the chance to mix and mingle with alumni while obtaining information about Vanderbilt alumni programs and services.The Class of 2005 is already looking forward to next year’s event to usher them into the alumni ranks.

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From the Reader continued from page 8 imagined, I considered myself an outsider at Van- are super! As a former newspaper publisher (the one professor’s lectures where he questioned the derbilt as an undergraduate as, due to financial Brussels Times) and reporter, I stand in awe of the nature of religion. I remember the furor when status, I was a day student living at home. I was quality of the publication. You have much to be Allen Ginsberg used the word “vagina” in a poet- unable to participate in social activities due to lack proud of within its 88 pages; national magazines ry recitation. I remember classmates denouncing of funds and having to work to help finance my with far greater budgets must reek with envy! the civil rights leader by calling him “Martin Luther education. Had I been created equal, someone else D. Bruce Shine, JD’64 Nigger.”But I also remember many discussions would have had to “foot the bill,”and I could have Kingsport, Tenn. regarding issues like these with fellow students functioned as a member of the “more enlightened that often ended in an “agreement to disagree” group.”I certainly believe in the right of everyone I just wanted to tell you guys that I thought and promises to continue the discussion. to have opinions different from my own, but I the summer issue was quite good, with several I fear that the university professor and the very greatly resent being told what I have to believe and interesting articles. I try really hard to toss as much nature of higher education are under siege today, solicited for funds to finance that action. of my mail as I can as quickly as I can, but the mag- especially at places like Vanderbilt. I defend read- The Old South is “Gone with the Wind,”but azine kept hooking me in. First it was the Chil- ers’ rights to write and the magazine’s right to print it is history and my heritage of which I am proud. dren’s Hospital article, then the students spending ravings about gun control or denouncement of Al The University that provided my education is part spring break with the homeless, and then the Franken for expressing his opinion, but I also feel of the Old South, and I resent “enlightenment” endowed chair profiles. (Could I feel any less accom- a university must defend its rights as an institu- being force-fed in order to make Vanderbilt into plished?) tion of learning, where minds should be opened, a politically correct institution of worldwide You have really produced a worthwhile maga- not closed, and everyone who has an opinion is status. I resent the changing of names of build- zine. Good job! welcome to express it for open discussion. Instruc- ings with removal of any reference to heritage. Carrie K. Gordon, MSN’99 tors, especially, should be allowed—no, encour- Socialism and Communism by any other name Belmont, Calif. aged—to incite the thought process of their students. are still the same. I have enough faith in the intellectual integri- Clovis H. Pierce, BA’55, MD’58 Correction Kinards, S.C. ty of Vanderbilt to believe there is not a problem. I greatly appreciate Ray Waddle’s story I hope my faith is justified. Kind Words about the Zimmerman Judaica Collection in the James E. Hayes, BA’67 Heard Library [Summer 2004 issue, Vanderbilt Fallbrook, Calif. Paul Kingsbury’s recent profile of Mar- Holdings, “An Unlikely Home,”p. 24]. There is a shall Chapman was masterful [Summer 2004 mistake, however, in the identification of one of Upon receiving the most recent issue of issue,“The Girl Can’t Help It,”p. 50]. He captured the photographs on p. 25. The round portrait, the magazine, I felt compelled to express some of her spirit, energy and profile about as well as it identified as Franz Rosenzweig’s father, is actual- my feelings previously left unsaid. could be done. He rates a Music City “standing ly a photograph of Martin Buber, Rosenzweig’s When I read the article “Pride and Prejudice” ovation” for his stellar performance. Thank you. friend and collaborator on their German transla- [Winter 2003 issue, p. 30], I was disappointed with Tandy C. Rice, MLAS’97 tion of the Hebrew Bible (a venture that Buber the direction our University has turned. I take par- Nashville finished in 1961, many years after Rosenzweig’s ticular issue with these statements in the maga- premature death in 1929). zine:“Opinions expressed in Vanderbilt Magazine I just couldn’t let the summer issue, Karl A. Plank, MDiv’77, MA’80, PhD’83 are those of the individual authors and do not nec- which arrived today, pass without saying that Davidson, N.C. essarily reflect the views of the Magazine or the Vanderbilt Magazine looks great! The graphics University administration” and “Vanderbilt Uni- versity is committed to the principles of equal opportunity and affirmative action.” I am distressed that every effort is being made to be “politically correct” rather than to show life as it actually exists. I am appalled at efforts to destroy the heritage of the South. Much as “intellectuals” would like to portray us as ignorant, bigoted red- necks, we consider ourselves to be decent citizens with just as much right to our heritage as the “more enlightened generation.”I consider it an insult for the University to solicit funds on a regular basis to promote programs that I do not endorse. The statement “all men are created equal” is a gross misrepresentation of the truth. All men should have the opportunity to obtain an education as a means to further their personal status, but the remainder should be self-responsibility. I consider myself to be a fairly well educated individual as well as a worthwhile citizen, having practiced medicine for many years. I came from a poverty-stricken background. Whether real or

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VJournal continued from page 9 I finished my 12-hour shift ashamed and and my heart. What could they want with me? forted during that time by knowing that he disgusted with myself for letting my profes- Mrs. Collins took both my hands and held was being cared for by real people, people sional mask slip. Never again, I promised. them. She wanted me to know how much she who cared, people who cried. I was deeply What must they have thought of me? A poor appreciated seeing the tears in my eyes when touched that she went so far out of her way excuse for a nurse, I berated myself. As I was I had talked about her husband. He never on this horrible day, to come back and look finishing up my charting and getting ready to made it out of the OR, of course. She said her me up, to thank me for caring for her hus- go home, I was surprised to see the Collins sons had waited for a couple of hours before band. “For not being a robot,”she said. family come back into the ER. Mrs. Collins’ the doctors had admitted defeat, and then Mrs. Collins taught me my first and best eyes sparked with recognition when she saw there were phone calls and arrangements to lesson on How to Be a Nurse. She taught me me, and the family walked purposefully across be made, so six or eight hours had passed that nurses do cry. the room toward me. Dread iced my mind since she’d seen me. But she had been com-

Sports continued from page 16 Off the field, Cutler is majoring in human In his first intercollegiate game, the job of gotten better since that day.” and organizational development through starting quarterback was a unique experi- As one of the team’s captains, Cutler leaves Peabody College. “It’s been a positive expe- ence. Vanderbilt had to rely on a number of the locker room early during a game for the rience,”he says.“It leaves so many doors open freshmen and sophomores to carry the game. coin toss.“We give our parting words as we’re because you can do just about anything with “It was crazy,”he recalls of his first start at leaving,”he says. “They start getting amped it.”He can graduate in May if he chooses, Georgia Tech.“There was so much stuff going up and a little rowdy in there.”After the coin or stay around for his final year of eligibili- on. You’re so anxious, and before you know toss, it’s all business.“It’s time to go. We throw ty. “A lot depends on how this year goes. it the game is on. A lot of young guys were some balls and get warm again. The butter- I’m not sure what I want to do with my career playing in that game, and it was a mess. We flies start hitting me about then. You get yet. Right now I’m just worried about this got pounded pretty good (3–45). But it was the kickoff, the first play, and we’re off.” football season, and I’ll take it step by step.” something we could learn from. We’ve only

In Class continued from page 26 solid electrolysis cell for more breakdown, to adsorb CO, allowing CO to pass through. LeVan’s research on adsorption process- and the carbon monoxide is removed and “We’ve been looking at a few different zeo- es began in graduate school at the Universi- stored. The oxygen can be used for fuel or lites,”he says.“They all work pretty well. But ty of California at Berkeley. Early in his career breathing, while the carbon monoxide can what we want is one that adsorbs CO strong- he focused on removing petroleum-based be used for fuel or in the production of hydro- ly and doesn’t adsorb CO.” dry-cleaning solvents from the air with acti- carbons and plastics. The Martian atmosphere work is only part vated carbon. His work with NASA began in This process to transform Martian atmos- of LeVan’s ongoing research. For NASA he’s 1993 when he was still with the University of phere into oxygen for breathing and car- also working on improving trace-contami- Virginia. “NASA found me,”says LeVan.“I bon monoxide for fuel has been the result of nant control systems and carbon dioxide think they recognized that I knew a lot about a research collaboration involving LeVan and removal.“This is what keeps spacecraft-cabin what they were interested in, which was remov- his Ph.D. graduate student Krista Walton, air clean,” he says. “If you saw the movie ing trace contaminants with carbon and the University of Arizona, and NASA’s Ames ‘Apollo 13,’that was the problem those astro- humidity effects on those materials.” Research Center in California. Vanderbilt’s nauts were having: CO levels were getting Hired as chair of the chemical engineer- part of the work is the third stage, where car- too high in the Apollo capsule.” ing department, LeVan came to Vanderbilt bon dioxide and carbon monoxide are sep- Currently, NASA funds about half of with the idea of building on the department’s arated using a process called “adsorption.”In LeVan’s research to the tune of about $150,000 strengths to create a department of truly adsorption, the molecules of a gas or liquid annually. In addition, he is doing basic research national stature. It appears he has made sub- are made to stick to the surface of a solid but funded by the U.S. Department of Defense stantial progress. Research funding for the porous material, causing a filtering effect. on adsorption of toxic industrial chemicals department is now 14 times what it was before Using a crystalline aluminosilicate known as and trace-contaminant control for military LeVan took over as chair. New faculty and zeolite, LeVan and Walton have been able and nonmilitary uses. increased numbers of graduate students have

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come on board. In the latest U.S. News & courses are, but they never say anything bad or cooling what’s inside to unearthly extremes. World Report survey of graduate programs, about him—just how he’s challenged them.” Inside is a metal canister the size and shape Vanderbilt’s chemical engineering depart- After our interview LeVan leads me down of a flashlight, which contains the zeolite that ment broke into the Top 50 for the first time. the hall to one of his lab rooms on the first adsorbs CO and allows CO to pass through. “Without question, he’s a national and floor of Olin Hall. On the day we stop in, five Various curlicues of metal tubing run into international figure in adsorption research,” of his six graduate students are at work at their and out of it. This is the equipment that grad- says School of Engineering Dean Kenneth desks spread around the edges of the spacious, uate student Krista Walton is using for LeVan’s Galloway. “And Doug has simply been an clean, brightly lit room, most of them peer- Mars atmosphere research. exemplary leader. He has recruited excep- ing into computer screens. Here and there on “It’s a test apparatus to show that the con- tional young people into the department. tables are various torpedo-shaped cylinders cept works,”says LeVan.“And the concept He’s breathed new life into that department. of gas feeding into narrow pipes and various works. We’re getting beautiful results.” In many ways he leads by example.” pieces of boxy apparatus, some containing lit- LeVan takes me around the room and patient- “He’s clearly a world-renowned leader in tle tan-colored pellets that LeVan identifies ly explains the functions of various other pieces his research area,”adds Kane Jennings, assis- as zeolite. After doing introductions LeVan of intricate-looking experimental equipment tant professor of chemical engineering.“Also points around the room at the various grad- in the lab, such as a pressure-clean adsorber in line with that, he trains his graduate stu- uate students, indicating the source of their and a gravimetric adsorption equilibrium appa- dents exceptionally well. I’ve had the pleas- research funding: “Army, NASA, Vanderbilt ratus. It’s clear that these complicated scien- ure of sitting on a lot of his students’ University Discovery Grant, Army, NASA, and tific devices are so central to his research that dissertation committees, and when they sign then one more new NASA student who we he’s eager to have visitors understand them as up to work with Doug, they become experts don’t have a desk for in here yet.” fully as possible. And like all the best teachers, on adsorption as well during their time here We walk downstairs to another lab space he apparently believes that if he’s doing his job, at Vanderbilt. He’s all about the total grad- on the basement floor, which is identical in eventually you will get it. uate experience for his graduate students. I size to the one above, though this one is filled Some pupils, however, are not so apt. LeVan think he’s one of the best teachers in the School with larger pieces of equipment and the room concludes our brief tour saying, “So that’s of Engineering. He teaches both undergrad- thrums with sounds of machinery. One piece basically what we do. It’s pretty simple stuff.” uate- and graduate-level courses, and all of apparatus looks something like an over- Seeing my look of uncomprehending disbe- his students say very nice things about him. sized microwave oven. It’s an environmental lief, he adds a friendly, understated,“Well, it’s More often they talk about how hard his chamber, explains LeVan, capable of heating simple to me.”

After Death continued from page 42 Pope has overseen the day-to-day opera- morgue, otherwise known as “the old morgue,” at the University of California–Los Angeles tions of VUMC’s Anatomical Donation Pro- in 1988, thus offering the program enhanced School of Medicine was caught selling body gram for more than 18 years. Over time she confidentiality and security. All bodies donat- parts to commercial brokers supplying drug and Dalley have learned to anticipate the ed to VUMC for medical education and companies and medical-device manufactur- number of donor deaths during a given year research are housed here and go through ers against the school’s policy. and enroll only enough donors to meet the an elaborate preparation process by an anatom- “I cringed when these stories came out,” projected educational and research needs for ical donations specialist. says Pope. “Certainly, we don’t do anything the following year. Jason Ridley, the current anatomical dona- like that at Vanderbilt.” Unlike Vanderbilt’s program, some med- tions specialist, has a master’s degree from the Vanderbilt’s Anatomical Donation Pro- ical schools around the country still rely on University of Tennessee in forensic anthro- gram never sells any bodies or body parts. It unclaimed bodies provided by medical exam- pology. Ridley’s expertise is necessary for prop- is a whole-body donor program that neither iners’ offices and deceased wards of the state er preparation of the bodies. He also works accepts nor provides body parts. All remains through a state’s hospital or prison system, with first-year medical students, providing of each individual are identified and kept and they may reimburse the expenses of expertise concerning osteology (the study together, separate from the remains of oth- approved procurement agencies for bodies of bones) during their anatomy lab work. ers, up to and including the time of burial. to be used for medical education. Earlier this year Dalley and Pope were Only in instances where there is a surplus of The Anatomical Donation Program took shocked by allegations, which proved to be necessary bodies for VUMC’s needs, and the sole possession of the Medical Center North true, that the anatomical donations director donor has expressly given written permission

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After Death continued from page 85 This year the cremated remains of 45 S.P.O.V. continued from page 69 to do so, are any bodies shared with region- donors were interred in the Medical Center’s an elevation of 9,000 to 11,000 feet, regular- al medical schools (and never with any insti- plot after a respectful ceremony celebrating ly topping 12,000. As our lungs adjusted to tution other than these). These institutions the donors’ generosity. Statements of grati- life two miles above sea level, the elevation must sign a contract with VUMC stating the tude, songs and prayers were offered by some brought other challenges. Instead of drought shared bodies will be used only for medical of the medical and physical therapy students we faced raging rivers, mosquito-infested education and that all remains will be returned privileged to benefit from the donors during bogs and miles of snowfields. Thunderstorms to VUMC for disposition. In such cases, Van- the past year, and by Medical Center pastoral brought hail and rain, and sent us fleeing derbilt is reimbursed only for the cost of staff. The remains of all 45 donors were con- down mountainsides to get below the tim- embalming and transportation. tained in individual biodegradable boxes with ber line. We slept wearing our clothes to sur- “We’re so fortunate here. We feel that being each donor’s name labeled on top. A yellow vive freezing nights. At times the trail became able to support the region’s other medical carnation was placed on top of each box. so obscure that our path morphed into sheer schools, when possible, is the right thing to The service was attended by approximately walls of snow and ice. do,”Pope says. 100 family members, and the name of each While exhausting, the Sierras pierced me Each spring, on the same day the hospital donor was read aloud. Students from all three with their beauty. From the mountain peaks, admitting office holds its memorial service schools thanked family members through pristine lakes dotted the frozen landscape for the babies who died there, Vanderbilt’s word and song for their loved ones’ gifts to like water droplets on a bed of cotton. Galax- Anatomical Donation Program holds a sim- further medical science. ies of Milky Way performers played on the ilar service for those who have donated their Perhaps the gravestone says it best: “In nighttime stage. Deer and marmots frolicked bodies to medical science. Donors whose bod- Memory of Those Who Gave the Ultimate Gift among us as we followed the trail several ies were used by Meharry Medical College of Their Bodies for Medical Science.” thousand feet up at a time, from one moun- and the Belmont University School of Phys- tain pass to the next, only to come back down ical Therapy are interred at the same time. again and repeat the process. Coming out of the highest Sierras, our pace increased to 25 miles a day, and often Of Death and Dying continued from page 43 30. In Yosemite National Park we took a “day “I remember the shock of realizing that here death is typically not an event that involves off,”hiking only 22 miles in a highlight tour I am, the student, having to go into the room suffering for the patient,”he says. “It’s not of the park, including the mountains Half- and pronounce the patient. All the eyes in the always the case, but certainly is in most Dome and Clouds Rest. On July 4 we reached room were boring their way into my back as instances. I also tell the family that death is a Lake Tahoe. By this point our bodies had I stood there at the bedside,”says Milstone. peaceful process. That life is like a book, that molded into hiking machines. We hiked 90 “I had two difficulties: One was pronounc- one chapter has now closed and a new chap- miles in less than three days. ing a patient for the first time, and the sec- ter has opened.” Whereas other hikers would take layover ond, which was much harder, was to say Milstone says it takes the better part of a days in town, we pushed ahead, bound by a something to the family that would ease their medical career to develop the ability to be tight schedule. Over the entire summer, we grief and shock.” comfortable enough to discuss death with took only three days off. When we began in Typically, a physician goes through a phys- patients and their families. He considers it the desert, we were two weeks behind the ical exam to declare death—listening for sounds an integral part of the care he provides.“Even main pack of long-distance hikers. Now climb- from the heart, trying to detect breath sounds, after 14 years in medicine, I continue to work ing the volcanic ranges along the Northern and listening for a carotid artery pulse. on these skills,”he says. “It should never be California–Nevada border, we had passed 90 “Over time I’ve modified how I go about rehearsed, and it should never be perfect. If percent of the hikers left on the trail. declaring death. This was my first attempt. All it is, then you’ve gone too far.” Many attributed our resolve to the work the people in the patient’s room were looking A coping plan for death for those who face habits of medical school. While that certainly at me. I felt very awkward, very much under it every day is as important for health-care played a part, what really moved me was our a microscope as I did this,”Milstone says. “I providers as it is for the grieving families. cause. I hiked for something bigger than my took the stethoscope and placed it at the patient’s “The emotional burden of loss for the provider immediate condition. I hiked to gain the mouth to listen for breath sounds. I’ll always is not as great as it is for the family, but it’s opportunity to help someone my age pro- remember the patient’s husband leaning over certainly significant,”says Milstone. “It’s tect himself or herself from HIV, to know and saying, ‘Dr. Milstone, you’re not going important to develop a way to discuss death that I was helping someone back at Nashville to hear anything. She’s dead.’And that’s when with patients and families, but also impor- CARES. my attention turned to the family.” tant to develop a care plan for yourself.” After 78 days on the trail, our journey Over time Milstone has learned how to —John Howser ended in the Trinity Alps near Etna, Calif., comfort families. “I always tell a family that within sight of Oregon. Standing once again

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at a remote, empty road, I faced south, beyond Southern Journal continued from page 88 be counted.”“Stand up, stand up for Jesus.” the horizon, where the desert winds had sure- I joined the Student YMCA/YWCA and “Stand and deliver.”“What is your standing ly swept away our first timorous steps. Reflect- found myself challenged by a faithful com- in this case?”“To stand somewhere, for some- ing on all we had accomplished—1,700 miles munity to participate in the stand-ins and thing.”“Standing on promises.” of trail and more than $10,000 in donations— picket lines that in time changed these iron- To know where we stand in the present I knew the real task still lay ahead. On Oct. clad customs. In those years I learned two requires clarity about our past and imagina- 9, Josh and I will lead the 2005 Nashville AIDS important lessons: (1) faith without action tion about our future. Walter Lippman writes Walk downtown at the Bicentennial Capitol is feckless, and (2) you can be right, or pret- that we must be at peace with the sources Mall State Park. We showed how far we would ty sure you’re right, and people can still hate of our lives: “If we are ashamed of them, if go for HIV. Can we now get others to step you. Until then I thought that if you tried we are at war with them, they will haunt us forward, too? very hard to be good, people would like you. forever. They will rob us of our basis of assur- To see photos and to learn more about Hike ance, they will leave us interlopers in the for HIV, please visit www.hikeforhiv.com. Madeleine L’Engle tells of how her world.”Because all institutions are human, children’s novel A Wrinkle in Time routine- they, like all human beings, are flawed. Will ly makes it onto the list of the 10 most fre- Campbell and James Holloway in Up to Our A.P.O.V. continued from page 71 quently censored books in school and public Steeples in Politics (1970) are prophetic in That still leaves us pondering the contagion libraries. She decided one year to read all reminding us how sinful even the churchly of motorists with their cry-wolf turn signals. 10 books. She found in common among them institutions are. Once we recognize our own What to do? Pass around them? But they one thing: imagination. sins, we become less absolute in judging oth- might indeed be preparing to switch lanes, Imagination is the human gift that enables ers as damned or saved. for once. Send them a message? I’ve consid- us to perceive something not yet existing, to The ambiguities of faith also require cau- ered painting a sign to flash out the window. work toward ends we may never see. I am for- tion about politics and patriotism. The ancient But what would it say? “Please turn off your tunate to live in the state that became the 36th Greeks believed that gods take sides in war. In turn signal” strikes a polite tone, but it’s needed to ratify the Women’s Suffrage Amend- Homer’s Iliad, for example, the goddess Athena too wordy at interstate speeds.“Check blink- ment into the U.S. Constitution in 1920. In takes the side of the Greeks, the goddess er!” is too abrupt and presumptuous.“Wake hard times I think of the 100 women and men Aphrodite of the Trojans. The God of Chris- up! Now!” carries cryptic, unintended meta- at the Seneca Falls conference in 1848 who tians does not take sides. God’s promise instead physical undertones. Maybe we should just began the long campaign for women’s vote. is to stand close by all who suffer. A careful go back to the hand signals of yesteryear (circa They knew that every single vote at every look at Irving Berlin’s beloved “God Bless 1971) to indicate left or right turns, back stage of this struggle would have to be cast America” can help us here: “Stand beside her when people kept the windows down because by a man. Only one woman at Seneca Falls and guide her, through the night with a light air conditioning was too exotic, expensive lived long enough to cast a vote in a presi- from above.”God is implored to stand by, and didn’t work anyway. dential election. advise, and guide our actions, not to lead the Well, enough already. Instead of highway Imagination is also the gift that enables us charge in the service of American interests. high anxiety, it’s better to recall one of the to see more than one side of a question. The Our human stands, whether we take them last big songs from the 1970s and counsel very faith of Christians rests on an ambigu- in church or in politics or in solemn acts of peace, love and understanding. I will from ity: Was Jesus human or divine? The stained- civil disobedience, are always penultimate. now on be gentler with my boneheaded broth- glass windows of Christ Church Cathedral in They rest on next-to-last authority. If we con- er-and-sister random-blinker cohort. Maybe Nashville recently were taken out to be restored. sider them ultimate, then we are playing God they too are sending distress signals into the One of the oldest,“The Ascension Window,” and Allen Tate is right: We are converting jittery new world, wondering how we got on had become so begrimed over the decades human ideas into abstract absolutes that are this road we’re on. that the bottom portion was unrecognizable: the death of religion and of everything else. V All one could see was Jesus ascending to heav- This article has been adapted from a column en from an opaque blur. When the window “Standing on the Promises” was adapted with originally written for the Tennessean news- came back gleamingly restored, parishioners permission from Susan Ford Wiltshire’s essay paper. Ray Waddle, MA’81, is an author and were astonished to see two footprints left in Where We Stand: Voices of Southern Dis- columnist who teaches a writing seminar at behind on the green grass by the human Jesus sent, published by NewSouth Books (Mont- Vanderbilt Divinity School. His latest book is as the divine Jesus ascended into heaven. gomery, Ala.). Wiltshire is professor of classics called A Turbulent Peace: The Psalms for Our “Standing” has many connotations:“Here and chair of the Department of Classical Stud- Time (Upper Room Books). I stand.”“Stand by your man.”“Stand up and ies at Vanderbilt.

Vanderbilt Magazine 87 VMagFall04_p88.P3 11/5/04 2:00 PM Page 88 SouthernJournal ReflectionsSouth the on Standing on the Promises

Absolutes and imagination in Southern religion. By SUSAN FORD WILTSHIRE

oet and critic Allen Tate, explained to the other:“Susan became a lib- the only one of the Vanderbilt eral because she went to New York.” Agrarians I was in time to have I smiled meekly and nodded. (Old habits met, wrote in his essay on reli- are hard to break.) gion, I’ll Take My Stand (1930): No, I thought to myself. I became a liber- “Abstraction is the death of reli- al because I went to church. gion as well as of everything else.” The influence was indirect. In those years PTate identified the peril of absolutist reli- I never heard a prophetic word uttered from © CORBIS gious beliefs. Absolutes are abstract. They the pulpit about race or McCarthyism or the That these words took root in my con- have to be. Life actually lived is far too messy death penalty or nuclear war or anything else sciousness was a result also of the home in to be subject to human absolutes of any kind, of the sort. For me its disciplines included which I was raised. When I was in the sixth particularly in matters of religion. Absolute reading the Bible through; memorizing Bible grade, my mother invited the principal of premises exclude those who fail to “measure verses; attending Sunday School and church my nearby elementary school together with up” to predefined requirements. youth groups; and earnest projects of per- Mae Simmons, the principal of the segre- This leaves two possibilities about the nature sonal piety. On weekdays I attended Morn- gated African-American elementary school of God: a God who is exclusive or a God who ing Watch, a Protestant worship service with across town, to come to our house for tea. is inclusive. For absolutists, God excludes from hymns and prayers held in the public school My mother had met Ms. Simmons in one of grace those who are defined as outside the auditorium each day before classes. her volunteer activities and thought the two kingdom. In the more ambiguous and hos- Church in all these forms instilled in me principals would have much in common and pitable notion of a loving, inclusive God, there a sense of fairness, a passion for justice, and would enjoy meeting each other. The year is room in the kingdom for everybody: We the faith and words to fuel them both. What was 1952. This may have been the first inte- are all sinners, and God loves us anyway. I would not know until much later was that grated social occasion in my town. As we Thomas Merton puts it this way: “A holy in the same time and place, representatives drank our tea around the fireplace, three of zeal for the cause of humanity in the abstract of my own denomination were propagat- us were having a very good time. The white may sometimes be mere lovelessness and indif- ing a very different kind of religion. principal sat mute and agitated. ference for concrete and living human beings. In that moment I realized something was When we appeal to the highest and most noble Long before my generation knew very wrong in our society. ideas, we are more easily tempted to hate and what a “movement” was or even that there By the time I went to the state university condemn those who, so we believe, are stand- was a need for one, we learned our first move- in Austin, many people knew something was ing in the way of their realization.” ment song in Vacation Bible School: wrong. In 1959 the few African-American These two strands have long co-existed in “Jesus loves the little children, students at the University of Texas could not Southern religion. Both were shaped during All the children of the world. participate in intercollegiate sports. They the same years in the same part of my world: Red and yellow, black and white, could not belong to the band or work in West Texas in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. They are precious in his sight. the library. They could not see a movie or At a Lubbock, Texas, high school reunion, Jesus loves the little children of the world.” buy a sandwich or get a haircut anywhere I found myself visiting with two friends from The subversive truth was already there. It near the campus. those long-ago days. After a while one man all seemed so simple. continued on page 87

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