ALL ABOUT

MENTORINGA PUBLICATION OF SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE Issue 41 • Summer 2012 ALL ABOUT MENTORING

Issue 41 • Summer 2012 Summer • 41 Issue

1 Union Ave. Saratoga Springs, NY 12866-4391 518-587-2100 www.esc.edu

Printed by SUNY Empire State College Print Shop ALL ABOUT MENTORING issue 41 summer 2012

Alan Mandell College Professor of Adult Learning and Mentoring Editor

Karen LaBarge Faculty Development Projects Coordinator Associate Editor

Gael Fischer Designer

Debra Park Phyllis M. Cunningham: 1927 - 2012 Copy Editor

p h o t o g r a p h y “Education is not simply about attaining knowledge, Photos courtesy of Stock Studios, education is about the politics of knowledge. and faculty and staff of SUNY Empire State College, Education is not about the preservation of status unless otherwise noted. and elitism; education is about democratization of Cover photo by Suzanne Orrell, “Palindrome” (detail). power relationships.” p r o d u c t i o n Kirk Starczewski Phyllis M. Cunningham, Director of Publications “Let’s Get Real: A Critical Look at the Ron Kosiba Print Shop Supervisor Practice of Adult Education,” Janet Jones Journal of Adult Education, 22(1), Keyboard Specialist College Print Shop fall 1993, pp. 3 - 15 Send comments, articles or news to: All About Mentoring c/o Alan Mandell SUNY Empire State College 325 Hudson St., 5th Floor New York, NY 10013-1005 646-230-1255 [email protected] 1

Table of Contents

Editorial – Against Teaching ...... 2 The Obama Administration as History: First Waves of Interpretation Alan Mandell A Sabbatical Report ...... 77 Wayne Willis, Genesee Valley Center Rewards and Challenges of Community Engagement Through Service Learning ...... 4 New Mentor Reflections, Part II ...... 81 Reed Coughlan, Central New York Center Jennifer A. Blue, Rebecca Bonanno, Sue Epstein, Michele Forte, Thalia MacMillan, Audeliz Matias and Sarah Hertz, Center for New Mentor Reflections, Part I ...... 10 Distance Learning Shantih E. Clemans, Metropolitan Center; Kjrsten Keane, Center for Distance Learning and Angela Titi Amayah, Transformative Research in China: Genesee Valley Center; Amanda Sisselman, Metropolitan Center Insights Into a Recent Research Journey ...... 85 Kathleen P. King, University of South Florida The Professor Goes to Yoga Boot Camp ...... 14 Judith Beth Cohen, Lesley University My Mentoring Creed ...... 90 Eric Zencey, Center for International Programs The Trip to Grandfather ...... 18 Robert Congemi, Northeast Center On Narrative Contract Evaluations ...... 92 Mentors from Across the College Confessions of a Fulbright Scholar ...... 24 From Thessaloniki, Greece to Brooklyn, New York and A Mission to the Dominican Republic: What is a Batey? . . . 98 Empire State College: September - November 2011 Julia Penn Shaw, Center for Distance Learning Betty Kaklamanidou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Found Things ...... 107 The New York City Laboratory: Manageability and Viability of Mentor Role (1976) Science Discovery in an Urban Environment ...... 27 With Freire … In Brooklyn ...... 109 Kevin L. Woo, Metropolitan Center A Review of: Three Poems ...... 32 Adult Literacy in a New Era: Reflections from the Open Book Susan Jefts, Center for Distance Learning By Dianne Ramdeholl Robert Carey, Metropolitan Center Changing with Change: Some Words with Dianne Ramdeholl (Alan Mandell) . . . . . 111 A Conversation with Fernand Brunschwig ...... 33 Alan Mandell, Metropolitan Center Faculty-Librarian Collaborations ...... 113 A Review of: Sophisticates, Stereotypes and the Wilderness of Mirrors: Teaching Information Literacy Online International Teaching and Learning ...... 37 Edited by Thomas Mackey and Trudi Jacobson David Starr-Glass, Center for International Programs Dana Longley, Office of Educational Technologies Reports from the NEH Summer Institutes ...... 44 Race … RACE … RACE ...... 116 MaryNell Morgan and Wayne Ouderkirk, Northeast Center A Review of: Using Feminist Pedagogy in The Handbook of Race and Adult Education Mentoring Independent Studies in History ...... 48 Edited by Vanessa Sheared, Juanita Johnson-Bailey, Scipio A . J . Christiane Warren, Central New York Center Colin III, Elizabeth Peterson, Stephen D . Brookfield and Associates Nancy Kymn Rutigliano, School for Graduate Studies Don’t Bet Like a Girl, and Other Lessons I Learned on the Way to Being a Contestant on Jeopardy! ...... 52 Managing and Mentoring in Lean Times ...... 119 Cindy Conaway, Center for Distance Learning A Review of: The Fall of the Faculty: The Rise of the All-Administrative Approaches and Disclosures II: University and Why It Matters Three Photographers Revisit Themselves ...... 59 By Benjamin Ginsberg Alan Stankiewicz, Suzanne Orrell and Good Strategy, Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters Lee Herman, Central New York Center By Richard P . Rumelt Policy Work(s): An Interview with Joyce Elliott, Part I . . . . . 63 Christopher A. Whann, Metropolitan Center Ed Warzala, School for Graduate Studies Remembering Moses Musoke ...... 123 Half of No ...... 73 Colleagues from Empire State College Karyn Pilgrim, Metropolitan Center Core Values of Empire State College ...... 128

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The second success is what might be In their own particular ways, PLA, the understood as the democratization of independent study, and distance learning the independent study. Of course, many share a basic premise: the radical claim universities offered students the opportunity that “learning” can be disconnected from to enroll for a “299,” many an academic “teaching.” PLA celebrates those myriad department’s place-holder for the special activities in which many people have student to propose a special course with a sometimes spent thousands of hours diving faculty member who, usually without any into an area of particular interest to them extra compensation, would agree to sign or being trained quite apart from any Against off on a project not identified in the official university. PLA is not at all about teaching; catalog. But in the academic world we now rather, institutions are recognizing what Teaching take for granted, the independent study is someone has already learned. (Indeed, defined not as the province of the elite but in some countries, our PLA is RLP, the as rather customary. Why shouldn’t every recognition of prior learning.) “It’s like you got yesterday, today student engage in studies freed from the The independent study, too, rests on a claim and tomorrow, all in the same room. constraints of being anywhere at any time that students can be out there on their There’s no tellin’ what can happen.” and the tyranny of the college catalog? No own – researching, galloping about, and special permission need be granted; anyone – Todd Haynes, I’m Not There, 2007 swallowing up what they need to know, can take it on. often without much teacherly help at all. And then there is a third indication of And the triumph of distance learning (today, ithout doubt, over the last 40 success: the explosion of distance learning most evident in the preoccupation with and years, there have been enormous opportunities, the establishment of mega- exhilaration over the freedom of access to W changes in higher education, institutions entirely devoted to online open educational resources) only rarely including, of course, the stark reality that learning – the webinization of higher ed. attends to learners who need careful and the so-called “nontraditional” learner (still, The so-called “correspondence course” was methodical help, who cannot do it on their today, a slightly pejorative term) is now the a mid-19th century creation, so it is not new. own, and for whom even the most stunning norm, not the oddball exception. But there’s What is new is the ubiquity of the virtual “resource” can be impenetrable without an underside to all of our successes and it’s university and the growing consensus that a teacher. deeply worrisome. asynchronous study is a significant freeing Of course, PLA programs are always asking from artificial institutional constraints. Try First, three indications of our success: about the role of the “teacher” in helping as we might to establish rules of engagement a student shape an essay on that student’s The first is PLA, prior learning assessment. (for example, to reproduce a classroom, experiential learning (not inconsequentially, In championing PLA, we have made a online), in a world of distance education the debate about this often concerns faculty very basic assumption: that a person could and open learning resources, who is where, offering too much support). So, too, many have learned, could have gained skills and when, for how long, and glued to what are regularly asking about the tensions insights, and could be knowledgeable in an materials, is far from transparent. area after having spent not one millisecond between “independent study” and “guided” in one seat on one college campus. Prior Together, these three changes (manifesting independent study (we genuinely worry learning assessment overturned a most themselves in different ways, to different about our lack of contact with our students sacred notion of the university as holder of degrees, in different institutional contexts) and are truly dismayed when we recognize all the knowledge worth having. Whether will continue to transform higher education. how little mentor contact a student has in business, the arts, human services, the This is exciting; it’s important. It’s about the actually received). And some distance technologies – just name the area – with experience of freedom within the academy learning educators (see, for example, PLA policies in place, students have been that students richly deserve. Randy Bass’s important essay, “Disrupting Ourselves” in the March/April 2012 issue of given the opportunity to show that they But I want to get to the underside because it EDUCAUSE Review) are concerned that the have come to the university with legitimate affects every single thing we do, every move college-level learning already in hand. It only we make. has to be recognized.

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 3

resource, the curriculum and/or the course resource-savvy-learner who can take on many institutional barriers, and all of us have taken over as the core of our discourse pretty much anything (and what there is to have gained significant academic freedom on learning. take on is, indeed, quite infinite) and only as a result. But to wax triumphant about needs teachers-as-evaluators? PLA and about distance learning and about But even with these caveats, even with open learning by jettisoning any serious talk these little hesitations, isn’t it striking that No teacher, no mentor, feels the spirit about teaching, about meaningful academic our conversations about education these of his or her vocation as a producer mentoring, is a huge error that undercuts days have so often pushed us away from of disembodied resources and as an the very values that so deeply animated attention to the learner, from attention to interchangeable part preoccupied with our movement for change almost a half the learning process: away from attention to assessing. And no student is a completely century ago. the power of mentoring in working with a self-directed learner who needs only student? Isn’t it striking that with our new access to stuff and no instruction, no help freedoms, with all of these changes, we have to find his or her way, no need for deep turned against teaching and constructed dialogue. Empire State College and other some image of a free-floating-independent­ experimenting colleges of its time broke Alan Mandell

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Rewards and Challenges of Community Engagement Through Service Learning

Reed Coughlan, Central New York Center

Following a brief discussion of the notion interactions between academic and Learning can be much deeper, more relevant of service learning, this essay will focus on community partners engaged in reimagining and meaningful when it is anchored in a project in which one of my students – and reinventing Utica and its region’s actual experience of the world rather than David, we’ll call him – collaborated with sustainable future. The Rust to Green academic or theoretical musings. The the Utica Municipal Housing Authority to College Consortium is committed to helping literature on human learning tells us that: plan and implement a set of community students to engage in service learning and The method people naturally employ gardens for 40 Somali Bantu families in the community service. It also encourages to acquire knowledge is largely city of Utica, N.Y. in the spring and summer public scholarship and dialog on current unsupported by traditional classroom of 2011. The UMHA is a publicly funded issues of relevance to the local community. practice. The human mind is better agency that provides subsidized housing for It attempts to promote social responsibility equipped to gather information about low income families and individuals where and social justice through the enhancement the world by operating within it than many Somali Bantu live. of university-community reciprocity. The by reading about it, hearing lectures consortium is committed to the common o complement this service learning on it, or studying abstract models of it. good through interdisciplinary approaches project, David and I developed a (Morowitz & Singer, 1995) to problems and issues of concern to set of interdisciplinary learning T the region. In a recent faculty workshop on service contracts that included a study of the learning at the University at Albany (SUNY), politics of food and one on the dynamics The Scholarship of Engagement Dr. Edward Zlotkowski articulated a set of of community organization. This project principles that should be reflected in our illustrates the range and scope of socially The approach to service learning embraced approach to the design of service learning relevant and socially engaged activities that by the consortium reflects the beliefs projects for our students. He said that can be incorporated in student projects that articulated by the late chancellor of SUNY, service learning courses should be designed harness university resources in service to Ernest Boyer who said, to meet assessable learning objectives, the community. I am convinced that … the academy and they should involve experience with With the assistance of a small grant from must become a more vigorous partner community-based organizations or groups Empire State College, as well as funding in the search for answers to our most suitable for promoting civic learning. from the Municipal Housing Authority, pressing social, civic, economic, and Courses should ensure that students engage 40 garden beds 4 feet wide by 40 feet moral problems, and must reaffirm in structured reflection or analysis and that long were tilled and planted with starter its historic commitment to what I call their projects reinforce principles of campus- plants donated by local farmers. These the scholarship of engagement. (Boyer, community partnerships and reciprocity Somali Bantu had spent 10 years in refugee 1996, p. 11) (Zlotkowski, 2011). camps in Kenya, but prior to that they had In anticipation of the theme of this Furthermore, Eyler and Giles (1999) been subsistence farmers in their native conference, Chancellor Boyer went on to maintain that service learning should land. While they brought some farming imagine a vision in which: address complex problems and community knowledge with them to the U.S., growing challenges that encourage students to engage conditions and crop differences necessitated Campuses would be viewed … not in critical thinking that involves being able an ancillary education program during the as isolated islands, but as staging to sort through the most salient issues within summer months. grounds for action. The scholarship real world situations. of engagement also means creating a While this service learning project was special climate in which the academic David’s community garden project and the largely implemented before my involvement and civic cultures communicate more two tutorials we developed together reflect with the Rust to Green College Consortium, continuously and creatively with each the spirit of the ideas introduced above. The this joint venture involving a dozen colleges other. (Boyer, 1996) service learning project helped David learn in the Utica region has come to embody about the history and culture of the Somali the notion of “University-Community Bantu, while he took a course on the politics Engagement,” the title of the conference of community organizing in order to reflect for which this paper was formulated. on his approach to marshaling resources The consortium facilitates actions and in support of the community gardens. At

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 Immigration: Shaping and Reshaping America 5

The third and largest source of new Americans was Between 1820 and 1840, more than 750,000 German, the same time, he studied the politics of following chart that show two major spikes for example, about 4,470 Somali Bantu immigration. In 1789, after the former British coloniesfood in orderBritish, and Irish immigrants arrived; another 4.3 to learn more about the logic in immigration, mil­one in the period from 1901 were resettled in cities and towns in 10 had become the United States, the word “immigrant”behind thelion came from those countries during the next 20 years locavore food movement and the to 1910 and the recent surge in the decade different states across the continental U.S. emerged to mean a person who moves voluntarily fromcountervailing(see Figure 3). About 40 percent of these second­wave forces of globalization. He 1991 to 2001. Utica has a refugee center, the Mohawk one established country to another. Immigrants and was interestedimmigrants were from Ireland, escaping poverty and in the connections between The foreign born and their children (first Valley Resource Center for Refugees their descendents, plus colonials, slaves, and Native industrialfamine. Roman Catholics predominated in the second food production and public and second generation immigrants) number funded by the Lutheran Immigration and Americans and their descendents, are the American health, inwave, and by 1850 the Roman Catholic Church was particular, the proliferation of more than 60 million and represent about Resettlement Service, one of 10 Volags childhood obesity and Type 2 diabetes, people of today. the largest denomination in the United States, though23 percent of the entire population of the (voluntary agencies) that contract with and the competing explanatory paradigms, The flow of immigrants has fluctuated with eco­ Protestants of various denominationsUnited outnumbered States (Portes and Rumbaut, 2005). the State Department to assist with the namely personal responsibility28 versus the nomic conditions in the United States and abroad as Catholics. But immigrants and “foreign born” include resettlement of refugees. As a result of production methods and marketing of food well as in response to changes in U.S. immigration The third wave of immigrants started in 1880, wellthose who arrived in the U.S. as refugees, the efforts of MVRCR, Utica has become under corporate and consumer capitalism. policies. A line charting the number of immigrants after the Civil War, when almost 460,000 arrived, andof whom about 70,000 to 100,000 have known as the “Town that Loves Refugees,” As a capstone project designed to help illustrates the four major waves of immigration, as ended with the outbreak of war in Europe in 1914, thearrived yearly since the 1990s. The United the title of a special issue of the magazine David synthesize insights from all three States has resettled more than two million published by the United Nations High shown in Figure 3. courses, same year that 1.2he wrote a proposal, million immigrants entered. Duringand once refugees since the passage of the Refugee Commission for Refugees. According to The first wave of immigrants, mostly English, it had beenthe third wave, more than 20 million southern and east­ accepted, gave a presentation Act of 1980. Immigrants typically leave their MVRCR, in the last 30 years, 11,000 arrived before entries began to be recorded in 1820. at the Unspokenern European immigrants arrived. Most moved to cities conference sponsored in homes willingly in search of opportunities refugees have settled in Utica, making up A mixture of religious, political, and economic factorsthe fall ofin the eastern and midwestern states; more than one­ 2011 by the Mohawk Valley and a better life in America. Refugees have about 18 percent of the total population motivated the migration of the English, Scots and Irish,Resourcehalf of the workers in New York, Chicago, and Detroit Center for Refugees (more about been forced from their homes by violence of approximately 62,000. These refugees Germans, and other Europeans. German sectarians MVRCRwere immigrants in 1910. to follow).1 29 Several hundred thousand and coercion and find themselves resettled came from Vietnam, Russia, Bosnia, Sudan, sought religious freedom in Pennsylvania; Spaniards Chinese, Japanese, and other Asian laborers settled inin a strange land through no choice of their Somalia, Liberia, Burma and more than 30 The Immigration Context looked for Christian converts in Florida and the south­ the western states, most beginning their American jour­own. Also, whereas immigrants are generally other countries. west; and Puritans in Massachusetts sought to establishIn order neys as farmto understand workers. the influx of the attracted to cities where there are jobs, that About 12 years ago, I undertook interviews a community restricted to members of their faith. Reli­Somali BantuThe shift in national origins can be seen by compar­ to the Utica area, David read is, the traditional “gateway cities” such with 100 Bosnian families and subsequently gious freedom was made possible by political and eco­about theing the homelands of the immigrants who entered larger issues associated with as Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, wrote a book about their lives before the nomic freedom: There were no overlords and there wasthe historyduring two peak immigration years: 1882 and 1907. of immigration in U.S. history. refugees are intentionally distributed across war, their experiences during the conflict He studied the patterns illustrated in the the U.S. (Singer and Wilson, 2006). In 2004 a chance to prosper in a new land. and in resettlement (Coughlan & Owens- These early immigrants took big risks to cross the Manley, 2006). While I heard many different Atlantic. Starvation, disease, and shipwrecks probably Figure 3 life stories, in general, Bosnians succeeded in killed more than 10 percent of those who set sail for Legal Immigration to the United States, 1820–2005 re-establishing stable family lives by buying America. Historians estimate that more immigrants affordable homes, learning English, finding jobs and educating their children. They than slaves died en route to the New World, perhaps Immigration Frontier Industrialization Immigration pause Post­1965 reflecting the fact that the death of a slave was a busi­ phase: expansion immigration have acculturated into American society ness loss for the slave owners.27 Major sending Northern Southern and Western Europe Asia and and achieved a measure of socioeconomic regions: and Eastern Europe Latin The cost of one­way travel was equivalent to four Western America stability, and in many cases upward to six years of a laborer’s wages in England. Many 1,800 Europe mobility. About four years later, I completed immigrants could not pay for their passage, so they a set of interviews with 50 of these families 1,600 and our findings confirmed what we had indentured themselves, which means they were legally 1,400 earlier observed in the larger group. bound to work for as long as five years for the employer IRCA who met the ship and paid the captain for their passage. 1,200 legalization At about that time, the U.S. State Department identified Somali Bantu residing A third of immigrants arriving in 1776 had become 1,000 indentured to secure passage. in the refugee camps in Northern Kenya as The second wave of immigrants, who arrived 800 an especially vulnerable group worthy of Number of asylum in the United States, and agreed to between 1820 and 1860, fit well with American eager­ 600 immigrants resettle them here. Using the same formula ness for people to help push back the frontier. Peasants (thousands) 400 for government funding as that employed displaced from agriculture and artisans made jobless by to resettle Bosnians, voluntary agencies 200 the industrial revolution were desperate to escape from contracted with the State Department to Europe. New arrivals sent what came to be called 0 resettle Somali Bantu in cities and towns “American letters” back to Europe, encouraging friends 1820 1840 1860 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2005 across America. Over the next few years, I and relatives to join them in the land of opportunity. Note: IRCA adjustments refer to the amnesty provisions of the Immigration Reform and Control completed a set of interviews with 76 Somali Steamship and railroad companies sent agents around Act of 1986, under which 2.7 million undocumented foreign U.S. residents obtained legal immi­ Bantu families in 10 cities in New York, Europe recruiting customers to fill their ships and trains. grant status. Ohio, Arizona, Maine and Vermont.2 Source: DHS, Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2005 (www.dhs.gov, accessed Oct. 12, 2006): table 1.

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 Population Bulletin Vol. 61, No. 4 2006 www.prb.org 9 6

These families and their experiences differ from the Bosnians in several obvious and important respects: They had been subsistence farmers in Somalia before the war, they had been marginalized in their own society and had been denied access to education with the result that most adults coming to this country were illiterate in their own language. After the war, they had spent a decade or more in refugee camps after escaping the violence. So, unlike the Bosnians, they had no experience in industrial or post-industrial society and they were ill-equipped to learn English. Also, at least for the 27 families who settled in Utica, the local conditions they encountered on arrival were changed. The affordable Site of proposed gardens housing stock had been bought up by the earlier wave of Bosnians, and entry- level factory jobs had largely evaporated. Employment opportunities for unskilled non-English speakers in the other six cities where I interviewed Somali Bantu were no better, and sometimes worse, than in Utica.

Also, while both Bosnian and Somali Bantu are Muslim, (Bosnians are more secular) and family values are strong in both communities, Somali Bantu subscribe to polygamy and attach great value to fertility and large families. As a result, many Somali Bantu men were required by the U.S. immigration service to divorce all but one spouse and to leave behind the children of their ex-wives. Still, they often have eight or more children and their wives eschew employment in favor of staying home to Marking and cutting beds care for their children. When I asked these women if they wanted to get a job or to stay at home, they all said they’d prefer to stay at home and have more children, God willing. The costs of day care, after all, would make going to work entirely irrational. Many Somali Bantu men were unemployed and those who reported that they were working typically had part-time or seasonal jobs with no chance for self-sufficiency, let alone advancement.

During both the Bosnian and Somali Bantu research projects, I would typically invite the students enrolled in my Research Methods and Refugee Resettlement study group to accompany me on interviews. I recall one interview in Syracuse. When I offered the usual token honorarium of $15 to my Somali Bantu subject, he said through The gardens

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 7 my interpreter, “Well thank you, I know beds. He also had managed the farmers a fence around the garden, and a local what I will do with that.” I asked what market for the city of Utica for several community college donated two tool he meant and he explained that he had 10 years and as a result had cultivated solid sheds that had been built by students in a children but no food in the house. When business connections with many of the construction trades program. In turn, the the interview was finished, my three adult local farmer vendors. UMHA allowed us to use a five-acre plot students and I pooled our cash and went of lawn for the gardens themselves. The Also at about that time, because I had with him to buy groceries in the store. Oneida County Waste Authority made its become known in the Somali Bantu own compost and we prevailed upon them Unfortunately, he went directly to the community through my research, I was to donate 20 truckloads of black gold to our potato chips and fast food section, but we summoned to a meeting of the elders who garden project. explained that we would rather provide wanted to know if there was some way him with staples, such as rice, milk, cheese that I could help them to secure grant The UMHA began to purchase garden and vegetables. This was only one of money for their community association. tools, but this proved costly. When they many incidents that demonstrated that the We were unable to formulate a specific complained of budget constraints, we told Somali Bantu are impoverished and more proposal at that meeting but it got me them to return the tools, and my wife and I importantly, they do not know how to make thinking about David’s experience with spent two weekends visiting garage sales in good use of the few resources they do have community gardens. I talked with him about the region soliciting donations and paying in their new environment. a possible community garden project for modest sums out of pocket when we had the Somali Bantu and we agreed that we to. We soon had more than 100 used but In the fall of 2010 and the spring of 2011, should approach the Municipal Housing serviceable shovels, hoes, forks and related I received funding to assist with the costs Authority to explore their interest in helping tools to begin the gardens. of conducting a second round of interviews to sponsor it. After a series of meetings, we with these Somali Bantu families. I quickly came to an agreement based on a proposal Tribal Membership discovered that conditions had not improved I had put together. But before we went for them. The recession hit the poor in Although I had become aware of the ahead with our plan, we were careful to American society particularly hard and for existence of two linguistically differentiated meet with the Somali Bantu elders to be sure those at the margins of subsistence, like tribes among the Somali Bantu, it was not that we had their agreement that this project the Somali Bantu, things got a good deal until we began to plan the garden layout would help their community. Once we had worse. Unemployment had increased, public that I fully recognized the importance their assurances we went ahead assistance was scarce and food insecurity attached to tribal membership and the with concrete plans. had become commonplace. As a result of the depth of the antipathy between them. The recession, the percentage of the American I decided to use the money I had been two groups are defined by the Kizigua and population at or below the poverty level had awarded to conduct interviews (to pay the May May languages. Members of the increased dramatically. Historical poverty for an interpreter and for honoraria, etc.) Kizigua tribe frequently speak both Kizigua tables taken from the U.S. census indicate, to hire David to plan and implement the and May May, whereas May May speakers for example, that between 2006 and 2010, community gardens and to pay for part of do not speak or understand Kizigua. As a the percentage of the U.S. population at the the tilling and some of the starter plants and result, when the local refugee center made poverty level increased from 12.3 percent to seeds. I made this decision because I thought what seemed like a logical hiring decision 15.15 percent (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). that I had learned what I needed to know and employed several Kizigua interpreters, about the social and economic stagnation of the May May were incensed and were David’s Work and the the Somali Bantu community since the first thoroughly convinced that they had been Community Garden interviews based on the set of 20 follow-up victimized by the discriminatory and interviews I had completed in the fall, and preferential policies of a partisan executive In the spring of 2011, as the plight of the because I saw an opportunity to capitalize director of the agency. So, when we decided Somali Bantu was becoming clear, I was on their prior agricultural experience and that the 40 garden beds, measuring 4 feet working with David, helping him to design help them to partially address the patterns wide and 40 feet long would be equally his degree program. He explained that he of food insecurity that had been exacerbated divided between the Kizigua and May had been involved with community gardens by the recession. This project seemed to May tribes, I was approached by one of in the Utica region for a number of years. be a perfect candidate for a successful the young interpreters and was asked on He had worked on the Utica Municipal service learning project. As we will see, I behalf of the May May elders to be sure Housing Authority community garden did learn about divisions within the Somali that a fence was erected between the two project, which had largely been taken over Bantu community in ways I might not have tribal gardens. I explained that I was unable by the Russian refugees who live there. through interviews alone. to accommodate such a request, and that He jokingly explained that one of those further, I hoped that the gardens would be a gardeners would have to move away or die Through his contacts, David solicited place for reconciliation of differences not the before a municipal housing resident would donations from local farmers, the Utica reinforcement of them. get access to one of these coveted garden Municipal Housing Authority provided

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The project almost faltered a week later David was constantly challenged by real life faculty development monies are specifically when the May May inadvertently tilled 22 situations that required critical thinking, earmarked to support faculty research or garden beds rather than the 20 they had reflection and analysis. His readings to attend academic conferences and not been allocated. I was summoned by the May in community organizing repeatedly for service learning projects. Perhaps I May elders who threatened to withdraw encouraged him to question the efficacy of should have classified this project and my from the project because they said that conflict over consensus building, and his collaborative experience as action research. they believed that I had tricked them into readings about the politics of food led him As it turned out, I was able to locate some tilling two beds that had been allocated to to consider a variety of micro and macro scholarship monies that allowed David to the Kizigua. Much negotiation and many issues even as he daily confronted a plethora see the service learning project through, apologies later smoothed the situation over of cultural considerations about food choice but this hiccup in the funding stream did and things went forward. Although the and preference. lead me to reflect on the academic reward garden sheds and tools, hoes, shovels and structures that seem to discourage faculty rakes had been equally distributed between From Work Study to from involvements in service learning the two groups, a few days later another Service Learning activities. When I attend conferences tribal dispute erupted over who owned So, I had paid David as a sort of work study and workshops on service learning, I which garden tools. The police had to student in the spring to plan, organize and often remark on the preponderance of intervene to prevent intertribal violence. implement the gardens. He arranged for and administrators and the dearth of faculty in Other forms of conflict seemed to erupt helped to cut the sod to line the beds; he attendance. Administrative leaders want every weekend in the spring and summer.3 met with UMHA authorities periodically to to promote service learning and university Conflict emerged between tribal elders keep the project moving; he met with and engagement with the communities in which and their young interpreters who were solicited starter plants from local farmers, they are embedded, but they need to help to being pressured to take a stronger stance took delivery of the plants and stored change the incentive structures on university with David and me in representing the them until it was time to put them in the and college campuses, because when I interests of their particular tribe. Tensions ground. He instructed and supervised the talk with faculty colleagues about service simmered between David, who was the Somali Bantu in planting, and he did all learning, they tell me they believe that tenure garden manager, and the Somali Bantu of the myriad things necessary to get 40 and promotion committees do not value gardeners who were placing the plants Somali Bantu families to plant their gardens. these types of involvements. Students and much too close together and who were Then in mid to late May, he transitioned faculty alike benefit from this type of deeply overwatering, especially at high noon in full from a work-study project to an academic experiential learning, and community groups sun. Disagreements between the executive service learning project that required him can learn to appreciate and benefit from the director of UMHA and his staff were to continue all of the coordinative minutia use of university resources applied toward common-place, as were conflicts between while engaging in a set of readings that the common good. the executive director of UMHA and David would ensure that he had an opportunity and me, usually over who had agreed to pay to analyze and reflect on his involvements for what. and interactions. Notes

Another misunderstanding surfaced as it But by the middle of July, his academic 1 The conference was described as became clear that men were not involved term came to an end and I needed to think follows: “This year’s Unspoken with the gardens after the first few weeks. I about how I could justify David’s continuing conference theme, ‘Many Cultures, asked several of the interpreters about it and involvement in managing the gardens. One Community,’ will explore the they said that the men of the community Somali Bantu were unfamiliar with many of place of the arts and culture in the wanted farms, not gardens. They wanted to the crops we had planted and they needed experience of people and peoples who be able to work large tracks of land and to ongoing instruction in how to care for their have been forced from their homelands be able to take the produce to market for plots, how to weed and deal with insects to build new lives and communities cash. As it turned out, this type of gardening and pests, and how to harvest and prepare through resettlement.” was considered women’s work. the vegetables as they ripened in the gardens. 2 This was part of a larger project In my naïveté, I thought that I should be All the forms of conflict you can imagine involving 100 African families. In able to get some further faculty development – cultural, fiscal, horticultural and addition to Somali Bantus, I interviewed money to manage the gardens and finish administrative – took place throughout the 13 Liberians and 11 Sudanese in Utica, the project for the two remaining months of spring and summer. As often as we could, New York. Of the Somali Bantu, summer. After all, once I showed what we David and I would try to debrief a conflict 26 were interviewed in Utica, and had been able to accomplish with a mere situation and ask ourselves, “What just 10 each were living in Rochester, $1,000 of development funds in the spring, happened and what can we learn from it?” Columbus, Burlington, Lewiston surely the funding committee would see the If we think back to our earlier discussion and Phoenix-Tucson. value of bringing this project to fruition. of the characteristics of service learning, Unfortunately, the committee concluded that

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3 One issue that was especially vexing Coughlan, R., & Owens-Manley, J. (2006) Singer, A., & Wilson, J. H. (2006, to the housing authority surfaced Bosnian refugees in America: New September). From ‘there’ to repeatedly over the summer months, communities, new cultures. New York, ‘here’: Refugee resettlement in namely the inclination of the Somali NY: Springer. metropolitan America. The Brookings Bantu to slaughter their livestock, Institution Living Cities Census Eyler, J., & Giles, D. (1999). Where’s usually chickens or goats in the kitchens Series. Retrieved from http://www. the learning in service learning? or bathrooms of the UMHA apartments brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/ San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. because of their cultural preference reports/2006/09demographics_ for Halal meat; that is, meat from Morowitz, H. J, & Singer, J. L. (Eds.). singer/20060925_singer.pdf animals that are humanely slaughtered (1995). The mind, the brain and U.S. Census Bureau. (n.d.). Table 5. Percent according to Islamic tradition. complex adaptive systems (Santa of people by ratio of income to poverty Fe Institute Series). Boulder, CO: level 1970-2010. Retrieved from http:// References Westview Press. www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/ Boyer, E. (1996). The scholarship of Portes, A., & Rumbaut, R. (2006) data/historical/people.html engagement. The Journal of Public Immigrant America: A portrait (3rd Zlotkowski, E. (2011, October). Service Service and Outreach, 1(1), 10-21. ed.). Berkeley, CA: University of learning in higher education. Workshop Retrieved from http://www.compact. California Press. in Service Learning, SUNY Albany, org/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/ Albany, NY. boyer-1996.pdf

“If democracy has a moral and ideal meaning, it is that a social return be demanded from all and that opportunity for development of distinctive capacities be afforded all.”

– John Dewey, Democracy and Education, New York: Macmillan, 1916, 1966, p. 122

Thanks to Katherine Jelly, Center for Mentoring and Learning, for suggesting this quote.

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New Mentor Reflections, Part I

Shantih E. Clemans, Metropolitan Center; Kjrsten Keane, Center for Distance Learning and Angela Titi Amayah, Genesee Valley Center; Amanda Sisselman, Metropolitan Center

At the beginning of the fall 2011 term, we Then came reading period. Right on the By October, I really knew that I had landed invited new mentors to keep track of their heels of my July 1, 2011 start date. on an unfamiliar, yet amazing planet. I first months at the college. In the following answered questions from curious outsiders: “What are you supposed to be reading?” pages, as well as in a second section in a friend asked when I offered a confusing “So, how’s the job going?” this issue (pages 81 - 84), we are pleased explanation about my start date and my to include the reflections that we received. “Great. I am not exactly sure what I am subsequent time off. “But it’s not a vacation; Thanks to the contributors for taking the doing, but I love it.” I am working, kind of.” It’s unusual to begin time to do this. a position, only to be off three weeks later. “So, what classes are you teaching?” Not that I am complaining. What Is This Place? A New Mentor “Well, we don’t actually teach, we facilitate Reflects on Life at Empire State Next came the acronyms, the strange native the learning process. And we don’t have College language spoken by my new colleagues: LC, classes, we have studies.” AOS, LOI, CE, AC, ERF, TIS, PLA, BME, Shantih E. Clemans Silence. CHS, FLIC and more. I feared I would never o one in my life was especially be fluent. “So how many students do you have in surprised when I accepted a your, uh, studies?” At center meetings, I listened for familiar faculty position in Community N academic words; my language: teach, class, “Well, it depends, somewhere between one and Human Services at SUNY Empire State syllabi, semester. I soon discovered that and 20.” College, known for its innovative approach my listening was in vain; these words were to education and its emphasis on teaching. “Did you have to create new syllabi?” on Empire State College’s endangered Teaching has always been my thing: doing species list. “Well, we don’t have syllabi. We have it well, writing about it, talking about it, learning contracts and yes, I wrote all trying to improve it. My family celebrated Then there were those independent studies. new ones.” when I finally found a school with a mission I am a die-hard group person. I teach about that matched what I loved to do. The fit group work. I delight in groups of students By late November, my mentee load immediately felt right. My job seemed clear. to teach. Group studies made perfect had grown rapidly, although it was still Then came the questions. The first thing I sense to me. But working one-on-one with smaller than that of many mentors. Every had to explain was my title. students? That felt a little strange. What month, students came for orientation, left would I do without student interactions? introductory calls on my voice mail; their “What do you mean you are a mentor? And what if no one ever showed up? official files brimmed with transcripts that Aren’t you a professor?” looked like hieroglyphics to me. Registration Trying to feel grounded, I had conversations “Yes. But I am a mentor, too. I think it’s like for March began while I was still learning with myself: an advisor.” January names. How do I keep everyone “No syllabi.” and everything organized in my mind and on my desk? Panicked, I decided on color “What?” coding: green for mentees, orange for group “No departments.” studies, yellow for guided independent studies. What color for TIS? “Why?” Not surprisingly, my students asked the “Almost everyone admitted.” hardest questions: “Hmmm.” “So you are my mentor? Are you going to “Five overlapping terms.” be like my coach?” “Whoa!” “Um, sort of. Mentoring is a bit mysterious.” “Credit for prior learning.” “Can’t you just tell me what to take? I don’t “Wow!” Shantih Clemans have time for all of this creative stuff.”

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“I wish it was that easy, but that’s not The role of the mentor at Empire State my mentoring information is referenced what we do at Empire State College. Your College is deep and diverse. Mentors and online. The support approach taken by learning is up to you.” students work side-by-side on a path to each center seems similar, but CDL spreads course success, degree plan approval and out topics over time and space and GVC By February, my culture shock felt more graduation. The strengths, weaknesses and compacts them. like a creative shift. I am happily at home in personalities of the team involved in all of my classroom for group studies and getting Angela and her new mentee, “Jesse,” were these processes vary greatly; therefore, the comfortable in my office for one-on-ones. able to trade emails and set up a face-to­ path is not a predictable one. Angela and I I navigate the LOI with ease and curse face meeting. My new mentee, “Mike,” were curious though: How different might DocPak like everyone else. Now, if I could and I traded emails in order to set up a the interaction between a new student and only figure out PLAs. phone meeting. Angela mentioned that a mentor be? In an effort to better understand profile had not been established for Jesse our institution and the nature of our Mentoring a BME Student: in degree program planner through GVC positions, we thought it would be interesting Similarities and Differences and that together they would set one up. to embark on a comparison exercise. at Two Centers At this time, CDL is creating a profile for We agreed to document our initial new students upon acceptance, entering in interactions with a January 2012 term Kjrsten Keane and Angela Titi Amayah all eligible transfer credits that have been student in order to compare and contrast received by the college. Mike’s prior credits The following piece, written by Kjrsten the differences that personalities and centers were easily accessible to me in that format. Keane, is based on discussions between bring to the BME mentoring process. After reviewing Jesse’s intended academic colleagues Keane and Angela Titi Amayah. Angela and I each took detailed notes on path, Angela consulted with another our communications and sent them to each first met Angela Titi Amayah at the New established GVC mentor to confirm her other to analyze and consider. Mentor Orientation that kicked off in ideas on a logical path for her new mentee. IJuly 2011. While I had been serving All Empire State College students are This is a helpful idea, one that can really as an adjunct mentor for the previous provided with their mentor’s preferred support a developing mentor-methodology. four years, Angela was just beginning her contact information and often initiate first A similar process occurs in CDL’s Planning affiliation with Empire State College. We communication. Angela typically has access and Finalizing the Degree course. I team both call the Business, Management and to her mentees’ folders quickly though, teach the course with several other mentors, Economics area of study home; however, we whereas mine need to be mailed through and our mentees participate in discussions serve two different centers. Angela works the postal service to Virginia. Sometimes, a with each other and offer advice and input with students at the Genesee Valley Center student will initiate contact with me before on their evolving degree plans. Mentors and I work with students at the Center for I have received notification that they are comment on the programs and patterns Distance Learning. The centers have unique my mentee. If that is the case, I have some for all students. In Angela’s center, the personalities and different approaches to standard questions that I use to begin the collaboration with students of other mentors serving students. While Angela often meets relationship. For this exercise, though, I serves to make connections that may lead with students face-to-face in her Rochester initiated contact with my mentee. to future learning contracts; I have not yet office, I consult with my mentees entirely via heard of this happening with students who Angela credited a three-part workshop phone or computer-based communication. have participated in the group version of the offered at GVC with providing her the The distance between our workspaces is course Planning and Finalizing the Degree. greater than the distance from Rochester to foundational skills to work with students Saratoga Springs, as well: I collaborate with from early advising through finalizing the Through our exchange, Angela discovered my BME students from my home office in degree. At CDL, such information has that there appears to be notable differences Virginia. been imparted in monthly mentor meetings in the way educational planning is handled (offered in both face-to-face in general between GVC and CDL. While and phone–in formats), as there are exceptions, most educational well as through a buddy- planning coursework at CDL is offered in mentor matching process. sections worth 2 credits each. There is more Angela works closely with variability at GVC. Depending on how other mentors in her center, self-directed a student is, how clear his or but her official buddy is her goals are, what previous experience the not located at GVC. She student has in higher education and other also referenced a number factors, a mentor at GVC may choose to of documents available to do one 4-credit educational planning study. her in print format as she Some educational planning studies are prepared to meet with her completely individualized, while others are mentee; more is available done in groups, and yet others can be done to her online. Most of in a group format for the first half of the Kjrsten Keane Angela Titi Amayah

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 12 term and individually for the second half. we share the same area of study had little I remember having many questions when Some students need the added structure that impact on our contacts with Jesse and Mike. I first walked into the room at the New a group study provides, particularly when The more information we exchanged, the Mentor Orientation in July, among them, it is their first term at Empire State College more we came to understand that mentoring how would the mentor and faculty roles and they are not familiar with the model. I is done in many different ways across the mesh into one job? It quickly became clear speculated that perhaps CDL students enter college. However, the major differences to me that this was part of the creative the online learning forum expecting to be between Angela’s experience and my own process, and that I would be able to more self-reliant and independent. were due to center strategy, particularly create this role for myself. As I began to the structure of educational planning conceptualize what this meant and what As we delved further into the specifics of courses. The similarities between Angela’s it would mean to be a faculty mentor, I the educational planning process, Angela experience and my own were based on the realized that I would have the opportunity and I noted another similarity. Although overall strength of Empire State College’s to bring students into many aspects of the the Empire State College literature given individualized approach to student learning work that I do, and that learning would not to students at all centers is clear about the and our growing skill sets as mentors. only take place in the traditional classroom. degree planning process, it seems that a majority of new mentees expect to pick This was finally the place that would allow Reference courses from a predesigned curriculum me to mesh my teaching, clinical, research when they first contact the mentor for Smith, B. (2010, Spring). Two or three and community interests into one role. I educational planning. thoughts on concentrations. All About began to conceptualize what this would or Mentoring, 37. Retrieved from https:// could look like and was quite excited about As our contact with Jesse and Mike evolved empire2.esc.edu/personal/amandell/aam. the possibility of bringing undergraduate over the weeks leading up to January nsf/43d1e18546cacf77852568d600544 Empire State College students into the term registration, our experiences grew 013/5e9dffda24619a768525777d00486 community with me, to the community- increasingly similar. While Angela met Jesse d84?OpenDocument based grass roots organization with which face-to-face at the initial meeting and can I work closely. I was encouraged to dive in offer that support possibility in the future, Learning to be a Faculty Mentor and try something new, so I did! I dove in she has found that, in general, her mentees head first. I set up a small group study and prefer to meet over the phone rather than Amanda Sisselman had five students sign up and show up ready coming in to the center. In this way, the have always been one to think and work to learn. They agreed to spend 12 to 15 communication methods between mentor outside of the proverbial box. As a social hours in the East Village at the organization, and mentee at GVC begin to mirror those Iwork faculty member at more traditional and expressed a mixture of excitement and of CDL. We suspect other centers see a institutions, this always required a lot of anxiety. I, too, was excited and anxious similar evolution. maneuvering and of course, creativity. Social about this new endeavor. I put together a A previous issue of All About Mentoring work programs are typically quite structured learning contract to the best of my ability, (2010) included an essay by Bernard Smith to meet guidelines of the academic including some written assignments, and that addressed concentrations at Empire accreditation body; however, I found that introduced the students to the organization State College. A focus of this discussion this structure and linear form of thought and the staff. We met several times as was the idea that concentrations develop did not always jive with my students. I a group to discuss the reading and the through the initiative of the student and have found that many social work students literature and what they might expect once are housed within an area of study to are nontraditional, that is, returning to they actually began the hands-on work at provide a support network. Accordingly, school after working many years or having the organization. Ultimately, they all did faculty members within an area of study a family. Helping nontraditional students wonderful work at the organization and have diverse expertise. They are not often learn had become a challenge and a passion made a huge impact on the people with hired to become part of a peer teaching and of mine. So, when whom they were in contact. There were, research group that has an extensive and the opportunity however, bumps in the road. The beauty in-depth knowledge of their unique subject arrived to interview of this job, and of Empire State College, area. Instead, there is a greater emphasis with Empire State is that bumps in the road are OK. I am on selecting a new hire based on his or her College, I was more a firm believer that as long as the bumps ability to mentor students successfully and than intrigued. It are handled responsibly by the students to contribute to an area of study and the was very exciting and instructor, in the end, the bumps institution as a whole. to learn about an can be instrumental in creating a better institution that learning experience. While the comparison exercise that Angela welcomed this sort and I embarked on has not yet progressed of creativity in Thus, in order to shape this as a better to the detailed level of degree planning helping students learning experience in the future, we and meeting area of study guidelines or to learn. addressed a number of things. I had concentration requirements, the fact that Amanda Sisselman conversations with the students and the

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 13 agency, and asked what worked and that all of the students had a meaningful learning is a process, requiring feedback, what might need some additional work. experience, and were able to break apart flexibility and willingness to make changes. We addressed one of the major bumps these experiences in order to articulate Students were able to see that we, as in the road, which was the structure and exactly what was meaningful, was quite instructors, also are learning and adjusting. organization of the study. The beginning amazing. The students were stretched and It is a parallel process, one that is important was reading and group-heavy, with a brief admitted that they were going outside of to model for our students. introduction to agency personnel, while their comfort zone, but enjoyed this stretch. As I mentioned earlier, initially, I was not the end was more experiential. Student As I listened to the students deconstruct sure how the roles of faculty and mentor feedback, as well as feedback from the their experiences, I was heartened to note would mesh. Now, although I am still agency director, indicated that it would have that their critical-thinking skills improved. learning, I have a better understanding. I been more helpful to begin the experiential This was something that would have been have the opportunity not only to teach, but component sooner. So, I revised the process harder to assess had I relied solely on the to mentor in the true sense of the word. and rewrote the assignments, developing usual written assignments and traditional Teaching is mentoring. I was and am able a first assignment that prompts students class discussion. Having this conversation to interact with students in the field and to interview agency staff and research the about the nature of the work and the actual in the classroom, all the while talking with organization to learn about what they will learning process really provided insight into them about the material, but also about be doing. This new assignment is a direct their ability to stretch and think critically. the learning process. This is what I believe result of student suggestions. This conversation felt quite natural in the mentoring is about. Not only are we Empire State College context and made me Ultimately, these conversations culminated teaching and guiding, but we are teaching appreciate the nature of my new position. in better assignments for the future and students to think critically and to look at the a better understanding about how the Also, students who were normally quiet ways in which we deconstruct experiences to students and organization staff can work in the group were heavily engaged in maintain the pieces that work, and improve together most effectively. This process was the assigned tasks at the organization. I or change those that don’t. This is real life, a part of my adjustment to my new role was able to assess learning in a different yet this process is often hidden from our as faculty mentor. It is still possible that and perhaps more realistic way, and the students, so I truly appreciate the ability to adjustments will be necessary and further students acknowledged capabilities they make the process transparent here at Empire revisions will be made. I am OK with that did not know they possessed prior to this State College. I believe that I have learned possibility. That I had this opportunity to experience. Even the once quiet students and benefited from this experience, perhaps experiment, without judgment, and to be were involved in the conversations about even more so than my students. I brought open and upfront with my students and the process, providing suggestions for future this experience with me as I began to tackle receive the same type of feedback in return Empire State College students who might educational planning with my students is incredible and almost a novelty. To hear take this study. We were able to see that during the spring 2012 term.

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The Professor Goes to Yoga Boot Camp

Judith Beth Cohen, Lesley University

hen I signed up for a 16-day Embodied Teaching and yoga teacher training course Learning W held at an ocean front retreat in Southern Baja, Mexico, I didn’t anticipate From past experience leading and 15-hour boot camp days spent with nine teaching in travel study programs women half my age. Day one: We are facing set in Santa Fe, New Mexico and our teacher, a double for Jesus with his Cambridge, England (Cohen, long shaggy hair, intense gaze and slender J, 1997; Cohen & Counts, body. “Guru Junior,” the nickname I gave 2001), and from participating in him, greeted us: nine lovely young babes programs held in Israel, South and me, one 60-something crone. Though Africa and Peru, I’ve concluded I’d been practicing yoga for years, I was that the physical experience of usually with folks more like myself, ages immersion in a particular site is 40 to 70; some have fit bodies and some the most important vehicle for are well along in middle-age spread. At learning. Here, the location itself Lesley University, I’m the doctoral advisor becomes the primary text, which to several experienced yoga teachers doing we students take in through research on yoga and education, so I didn’t our senses, as well as linguistic consider myself a beginner. During that and cognitive processes. Being initial 90-minute class, I knew I’d landed removed from one’s familiar in unfamiliar territory. Despite my relative environment disrupts habitual fitness, I felt I’d begun a marathon without ways of responding, and opens any training, but I couldn’t turn back. In this us to the enhanced sensual essay, I use auto-ethnography, a qualitative experiences stimulated by new research method that places the researcher’s sights, sounds and smells. My personal experiences in the context of larger solitary walks on the beach, the Judith Cohen issues (Ellis & Bochner, 2000). Through the enormous cacti silhouetted against theoretical lenses of transformative learning, the red sunset, meditating before the crashing waves, even brushing embodied learning and experiential learning, response to carefully composed provocative my teeth or filling my tea cup outdoors I explore my participation as a student in questions. The curriculum sought to embody were as central to my understanding of this yoga teacher training course. the tenets of Pantanjali’s yoga sutras, 196 yoga as the texts I read or the comments teachings compiled between 200 B.C.E. The setting immediately immersed students of the teachers. Food is another important and 200 A.D. The ashtanga, or eight- in the yoga philosophy and way of life: sensual feature of a site-based embodied limbed yoga path, encompasses meditation, The site bordered a wild, Pacific beach; learning experience: At the yoga training silence, truthfulness, service (seva), ahimsa students slept in tents; vegetarian meals we ate vegetarian enchiladas, stews and (consideration or nonharming), bhakti were served outdoors; no sugar, coffee or soups, all made with produce grown on (love, devotion), breath, and finally asana alcohol were permitted; bread, fish and site in the large garden – truly a blooming (seat or posture); thus, physical postures eggs were served only once a week and desert. Eating outdoors, seeing the cooks are only one of yoga’s disciplines. Union computers and telephones were scarce. working in the open kitchen, and walking of mind, body and spirit is said to come All learning and living took place in through the organic garden, all contributed from dissolving the five Kleshas (or this environment: We meditated on the to the embodied experience. I still have veils), which distract us from our “true” beach in the cold, windy pre-dawn hour; vivid memories of meals from other travel/ nature. These distractions include undue we practiced vigorous yoga poses in a study experiences: sitting on the floor and trust in the mind or self, attachment to room facing the sea. Breakfast was silent; eating with one’s hands at a Bedouin camp fleeting pleasures, avoidance of unpleasant chanting and group meditation took place in Israel/Palestine; steak and kidney pie with experiences, and ignoring our “divine” every evening, and three times a week, we pints of flat beer in Cambridge, England; the nature (Carrera, 2006). were pushed to articulate our “truth” in importance of corn to the natives of New

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Mexico. Through food, we experience the These embodied learning experiences In addition to the practice of asanas or smell, texture and tastes as well as literally contribute to what theorist Jack Mezirow postures, three times a week we spent a two- consuming pieces of culture, taking it into (1991) calls the “disorienting dilemma” that hour session in “satya” or truth telling, an our bodies. can precipitate a transformational learning activity I came to call, “the crying time.” A experience. Given that every site has its own question was posed that corresponded to the My notion of embodiment owes much to history and culture, even a temporary visitor chakra or energy center of the body that was the work of philosopher/linguists George makes comparative observations about our focus in class. According to tradition, Lakoff and Mark Johnson (1999), who climate, food, dress, costs and glimpses the first or root chakra located at the coccyx maintain that human reasoning is derived what locals experience. Yet, the missing or perineum is associated with survival and from our sensory-motor system; thus, the elements also must be considered part of security, and its obstacle is fear. We sat in mind is not separate from the body as the curriculum. At the yoga training, a circle on the beach, and one by one, we classical psychology maintains. Rather, our students were all of white, European turned to our neighbor, said their name and image schemas and metaphors represented descent. Though this was Mexico, the only asked: Do you feel safe? This elicited very in concepts such as “in front of,” “in back Mexicans were domestic workers – these emotional responses from several people. of” make our experiences possible (p. 34; absences mirror the fact that in North One woman spoke of being sexually abused p. 509). According to this perspective, every America and Europe yoga is practiced by a teacher; another spoke of her brother’s aspect of learning is involved with our mainly by the affluent and the educated. death; another of her mother’s deteriorating bodies, whether or not we are aware of this, Simply observing such contrasts stimulates genetic illness and her own fear of having yoga’s enormous popularity today may well the critical reflection that theorists argue the same disease. In each case Guru Junior come from our longing to bridge Western is necessary for transformation (Mezirow, asked: “Where in your body do you feel thought’s historic mind/body split. 1991; Brookfield, 2005). it?” In other words, don’t tell stories or In a yoga flow, viyasana, we envision the intellectualize, but try to cultivate “somatic body as a symphony and our breath as a Teacher/Guru intelligence”; observe your fear. He and dance partner. Those who prefer this form his assistant teachers did not offer therapy Our lead yoga teacher, Guru Junior, a maintain that it helps the practitioner stay or try to fix the problem; instead they westerner, began meditating and chanting in the present and models the concept of encouraged us to notice, accept and then as a child, under the tutelage of the Indian energy moving and changing. In other presumably, let it go. guru Sant Darshan Singh. His training forms of yoga, each pose is done separately followed Iyengar’s Hatha Yoga, but As a college teacher, my first reaction to and may be held for several breaths. The additional training in Buddhist meditation this was enormous discomfort at what verbal images used to teach these postures gave him an eclectic mix of teaching appeared to be a lack of professionalism help us to connect directly with our visual approaches. As a young man, he went on a and boundary setting. “These folks aren’t intelligence, kind of a shortcut through month-long solo mountain retreat where he therapists,” I said to myself; I’d never engage intellectual processing. In tadasana, had nothing but water for survival. During with students at this level of emotional pain. mountain pose, one is grounded and stable; this sojourn, he claims to have arrived at the Rather, I’d guide them to the appropriate we’re asked to imagine the chest, pelvis and insight that he and his environment were trained person. Yet, I came to question my feet like floating planets. In warrior pose, nothing but pure energy, with no boundaries own critique: Why should there be such our arms reach out like arrows. Directions between himself and nature. Perhaps if we firmly drawn professional boundaries? such as “bloom the hip bones upward” all had early training like this, we too might Must one hold a special certification in in downward facing dog, or “create space develop our somatic intelligence, but most order to lead others in self-examination? in the spine like an accordion,” provide child rearing and educational experiences Does this assumption perpetuate Western further visual cues. During meditation, we don’t cultivate body knowledge. I was a fragmentation rather than the wholeness we can imagine ourselves as sky, and thoughts poor student in physical education, avoided seek in contemplative work? Maybe Guru as clouds (Farhi, 2000). Woven throughout strenuous physical activity most of my life, Junior is so deeply intuitive and visionary the entire practice is the concept of space: and did not begin my yoga practice until my that he can manage this deep probing We create space in the body for energy to 50s. You could say that my bodily history better than a “professional”? Though I sat move more freely, and we create mental was as different from our teacher’s as an uncomfortably through many truth sessions, space through meditation. A yoga practice elephant’s from a fish, yet he taught as if the tears were soon abandoned for laughter, always ends with sivasana or corpse pose, we could “read” our bodies as well as he and I witnessed no harm being done. a symbolic death; when we roll over and read his. For me, it was often a struggle to come back to sitting, it’s as if we’re reborn. Yoga boot camp also included evening understand his ways of communicating. Just The Western educational system’s avoidance satsangs, group study of yoga texts as it’s harder to learn a new language late in of the body may stem from our fear of through meditation and chanting. Music life, so too is it more difficult to hone one’s death – after all, the body will die (Merriam, is considered one of yoga’s many forms somatic intelligence. Caffarella & Baumgartner, 2007). Yoga (Nada yoga), and some believe that music faces this inevitability. vibrates in subtle ways that purify and awaken spiritual power. Kirtan, the singing

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 16 of God’s name with love and feeling, is interests of the student (Brookfield, 2005). heart chakra, we were asked, “Do you feel supposed to help access inner inspiration. To adult learning practitioners, students are worthy?” We were urged to answer from Though pleasant sounding, the compulsory seen as self-directed, authority is shared, our hearts, not our minds: I exclaimed, “I participation made me feel as if I were and learning is based on dialogue and love my critical mind – and I don’t want in church, doing something obligatory. reflection. In the traditional model, the to let go of it. … ” To assume that “truth” It reminded me of attending mandatory teacher is the authority, students are more comes from the heart – that the mind is a Yom Kippur services and chanting over passive and concerned with performance deceiver – posits a fragmented rather than and over again the collective plea for (giving teacher what she wants). Since we holistic view of the self. In fact, recent brain forgiveness. Though Guru Junior told us live in a democracy, and we “support” research shows us that concepts like heart that he considers the Hindu gods named in the development of democracy in other and mind are metaphors that do not really these chants as artistic creations devised by countries, I question the viability of teaching describe the integrated brain (Cozolino & humans, this interpretation would not be from the traditional stance. Yet, as we Sprokay, 2006). If so, isn’t the attempt to shared by fundamentalist practitioners. Westerners adapt yoga to open, secular “still the mind” both a form of judgment settings, other challenges emerge. A watered- and an invitation to further fragmentation? Discussion/Problematizing down approach that sees yoga as a form of calisthenics may dishonor the Hindu A learning community versus a leader Despite all of the “good” stuff I’ve religious tradition behind yoga. Yet, in dominated community enumerated, several areas of tension India, some progressives refuse to participate made the yoga teacher training experience I have taught and written about the power in yoga since it’s been supported by the problematic for me as a Western, of learning communities (Cohen, 1996) BJP Hindu Nationalist Party as a way of secular person committed to liberatory/ and I believe that experiential learning preserving a fundamentalist way of life. emancipatory teaching and learning. If yoga and the synergy of learning with others Can we authentically adapt yoga to our is nondenominational and secular, as the are inseparable. However, putting people Western model? training leaders claimed, then why require together in the same space is not enough the nightly practice of Sanskrit chanting? to create community; there must be some If it’s the sounds that matter, why include recognition of each learner’s past lived only Hindu chants rather than music from If liberation comes from experiences woven through the curriculum. other spiritual traditions as well? If there letting go, and everything Though I could feel compassion for my is no fixed truth, how can we be asked to classmate’s stories of loss and empathize commit to satya or truth telling? If liberation is continuously changing, with the young woman caring for her comes from letting go, and everything is isn’t this concept itself disabled mother, I sensed no curiosity continuously changing, isn’t this concept from others about my experiences; no one, itself subject to change? Finally, if physical subject to change? for example, asked about my work with postures are only one of yoga’s eight limbs, yoga teachers doing research. Being the why spend most of the training on the only older person in a group of students poses? Does changing the body cause one half my age made me keenly aware of our Critical reflection versus meditation to change at the cellular level as many yogis differences. On the one hand, the surrender claim, or does such deep transformation That critical reflection can lead to of role and status helps to engage one fully depend on generations of human evolution? transformation is a central tenet of adult in the present; on the other hand, genuine The resulting contradictions, listed below, learning theories. As a student comes community needs to honor and include continue to trouble me. to rethink past attitudes, beliefs and personal histories. practices, he or she makes life changes Finally, despite the questions I raised, I’ll Oral transmission versus that lead to greater personal freedom. conclude by emphasizing that the elements constructed learning This consciousness shift can be seen as of this adult learning experience can be similar to the self-acceptance one cultivates Most of yoga’s ancient teachings are based adapted to secular learning environments. through meditation and yoga. In Mezirow’s upon oral transmission, with the sage transformative learning theory, one reflects • The importance of setting. We can or guru at the center and the disciple or on assumptions in order to transform think of ways to transform a classroom pupil following instructions based upon the self, but the reflection Mezirow and into an interesting environment. This faith and the teacher’s authority. The idea Brookfield advocate relies on rational could be as simple as bringing cushions, of teacher as guru and student as apostle discourse. Defining “critical” is the rub; flowers, music, and incorporating conflicts with the kind of self-awareness, in meditation and yoga, we’re asked to opening and closing rituals. It could critical thinking and concern for humanity refrain from judging and to simply observe. involve physically moving the group that I support. In critical pedagogies, this Yet, I wonder if it’s possible or desirable to a more aesthetic location, going transmission model is rejected for a more to suspend judgments (Newman, 2008). In egalitarian, participatory one in which the one of those “truth” sessions focused on the curriculum emerges from the needs and

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outdoors. Simply changing the Every site-based learning experience Cozolino, L., & Sprokay, S. (2006, location of a class can be stimulating I’ve had, including yoga boot camp, has Summer). Neuroscience and adult and evocative. stimulated my creativity and led me to new learning. New Directions for Adult and insights and new projects. Novel experiences Continuing Education, 110, 11-19. • Attention to bodies. In addition to that stimulate heightened sensual learning, yoga poses, or moving meditations, we Farhi, D. (2000). Yoga mind, body and surprise and curiosity can be created in any can weave attention to bodies into the spirit: A return to wholeness. New study or classroom. entire curriculum – sharing food, telling York: NY: Henry Holt & Co. stories, moving around to meet in References Ellis, C., & Bochner, A. (2000). groups, poster sessions, using the space Autoethnography, personal narrative, in interesting and unexpected ways, Brookfield, S. (2005). The power of critical reflexivity: Researcher as subject. In and assignments that require bodily theory: Liberating adult learning and N. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds.), Sage involvement, such as site visits. teaching. San Francisco, CA: John handbook of qualitative research (2nd Wiley & Sons. • Creation of community. It is not ed.) (pp. 733-768). Thousand Oaks, enough to learn in a group. There must Carrera, J. (2006). Inside the yoga sutras: CA: Sage. be time to honor differences and learn A comprehensive sourcebook for the Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1999). from them. We can make space for study and practice of Pantanjali’s Philosophy in the flesh: The embodied students’ life stories and incorporate yoga sutras. Yogaville, VA: Integral mind and its challenge to western what they bring into the curriculum. If Yoga Publications. thought. New York, NY: Basic Books. a class becomes a community that feels Cohen, J. B. (1996). Rewriting our lives: connected, this might help ameliorate Merriam, S., Caffarella, R., & Baumgartner, Stories of meaning-making in an the extreme individualistic orientation L. (2007). Learning in adulthood, a adult learning community. Journal of our mass general culture. Today, comprehensive guide. San Francisco, of Narrative and Life History, texting, cell phones and being online CA: John Wiley & Sons. 6(2), 145-156. seems to dominate the lives of students Mezirow, J. (1991). Transformative of all ages. Can a face-to-face learning Cohen, J. B. (1997). Father Martinez: Folk dimensions of adult learning. San community that includes body-based hero or dangerous infidel? Rereading Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. activities enhance their ability to control Willa Cather’s death comes for the their electronic lives? archbishop. In L. Brannon & B. Greene Newman, M. (2008, August). The “self” (Eds.), Rethinking American literature in self-development: A rationalist • Reflect on our professor/mentor roles. (pp. 146-159). Urbana, IL: National meditates. Adult Education Quarterly, Do you see yourself as a sage on stage, Council of Teachers of English. 58(4), 284-298. as a guru with disciples? Where does your authority come from and how Cohen, J., & Counts, C. (2001, Fall). does your role as evaluator impact the The other Cambridge. Lesley learning environment? Magazine, 22-25.

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The Trip to Grandfather

Robert Congemi, Northeast Center

hen Scotty told his parents that His father was by no means convinced. Scotty tried to press his case hard. “Dad, he wanted to travel upstate “And how are you going to do it?” he I’ve always wanted to go see grandfather at W to visit his grandfather, they further asked. “Have you thought about some time, by myself. It’s not that weird. It’s weren’t keen about it at all, but there was that, too?” summer, I’m not in school, I can get the time nothing else he could think of doing. His off from work, I’m not in any sports now.” Scotty put his hands in his pockets, maybe little sister, Gretchen, was at day care, and to signal that it was a casual thing. “Yes, I Scotty’s mother took the pool skimmer his younger brother, Tim, at soccer practice, have – if that’s all right. Billy and Justin will out of the water and laid it down on the so he was alone with his mother and father go with me into the city. We’ll take Billy’s concrete that surrounded the pool. “They for the time being (a rare occurrence) and car, they’ll drop me off at Grand Central are very close, Peter,” she rather reluctantly he decided to take advantage of it. A sunny, Station, and then I’ll take the train up to observed. “That’s true.” weekday afternoon in July, they were by grandfather’s. They’ll spend the rest of the the pool behind the house. Scotty’s mother “I didn’t think they were that close.” day in the city to take advantage of being skimmed the pool of a few leaves – it there. We worked it all out.” “Dad, I’m not a kid anymore,” Scotty seemed that she never stopped working pointed out to his father. “I’m growing up.” – while his father, in a chaise lounge and Scotty’s mother looked hard at his father. drinking coffee, worked on papers he had “Peter, I’m not crazy about him going on “I suppose so,” his father said. brought home from his office in the city. such a trip.” “I am. I really am.” “You want to take a trip to see your His father tried to read his face On Wednesday, Scotty left his home to make grandfather? All the way upstate in for information. his trip. Having to be on his way to work Albany? Alone?” Scotty’s father looked “Sounds like a mission, Scotty,” his father almost before daylight, his father tiptoed up from his papers. His mother stopped said. “I don’t mind telling you I’m not really into Scotty’s little bedroom at the back her pool cleaning. comfortable about it, either. Not at all.” of their Colonial and, whispering, wished “Yes.” him a good trip. Scotty’s mother was more “Why are you surprising us like this?” his difficult. She made Scotty eat as much “When did you decide this?” mother asked. breakfast as she could, and then made him Scotty was uneasy. “I’ve been thinking about “It’s not a surprise,” Scotty tried to disagree. promise her he would call when he had it for a while. It’s a good time to go. I can go “I had to ask you some time, and I didn’t a chance, to assure her that his trip was Wednesday. I already talked to Mr. Ames at want to do that until I saw if I could arrange going well. the supermarket, and he said it was OK.” it all.” About 8 in the morning, Scotty’s friends “You asked him already?” his mother “Does your grandfather know?” his picked him up, as they had arranged, and said, the pool cleaning pole now at rest father asked. Scotty rode with them into the city. Justin in her hands. sat in the front seat of the car, with Billy. “Yes. I told him yesterday. I called.” They had the radio on, and Billy drove “Yes.” He waited. “And I’ve got nothing “What did he say?” down the highway faster than he should else I have to do.” have, which Justin told him about, slowing “He said he thought it was a great idea. As “I see,” his mother observed. Billy down. Happy for a while to forget long as I was sure, and it was OK with you the reason for his visit to his grandfather, Scotty’s father took a reflective sip of coffee. and Mom.” Scotty was struck by the thought that to an “What’s this all about, Scotty? You’ve never Scotty’s father made a little bit of a sour extraordinary degree Billy was a younger asked to go see your grandfather. To say face. “God bless your father, Miriam. version of his father, and that Billy’s plans nothing of going alone.” I should have known he’d think it was to someday take over his father’s business all right.” made perfect sense. As for Justin, Scotty Scotty felt he had to be evasive. “I just want had known him since they were children. to visit him. That’s not so odd.” Justin never changed – always serious, exact, studious. Justin’s parents had brought

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 19 the family over from England, where their When they had crossed over onto the they love, until they learn something very ancestors had lived for hundreds of years, expressway, they all quieted down for the important. And then they get back to their according to Justin. time being, Billy and Justin listening to world, ready to serve it, as wonderfully as music, Scotty looking out the window at the they can.” “They were tenant farmers in the 16th blocks of commercial buildings they passed century,” Justin had once explained. “And As Scotty continued to look at the passing and trying to focus his mind on them. Soon, Catholics, when it wasn’t exactly the best commercial buildings, more than ever he though, he was thinking of his grandfather, thing to be a Catholic.” felt his grandfather would be able to help a small, gray-haired, scholarly man the him. His friends sitting in front of him On the highway, they talked about music family, of course, loved, but who had always seemed so much happier than he was, or and girls and sports. When Justin asked seemed a little different from everyone else, at least so much more settled. Billy would Billy to turn down the pop music he was thinking about things no one else especially keep on thinking about the music on his playing, Billy teased Justin about liking thought about. No one really made very car radio, and about how many girls he classical music. Billy said he couldn’t much of it, though, and everyone was used could talk into caring for him. He would understand why Justin was old-fashioned, to him. probably fail at school. But soon his father couldn’t understand how come Justin was “Your father lives in a world of his own,” would tell him all there was to know about so different. Justin told Billy that he was Scotty had once heard his father tell his the restaurant business, they would worry the one who was atavistic when it came to mother, with something like a smile on his together about waiters and customers, and music and lots other things, and couldn’t face. They were all watching Scotty’s little Billy would marry the girl of his dreams, understand that. brother in a soccer game behind his school. probably only to betray her and his children “I’m not much different from everybody “He really does. Maybe it’s better. I don’t someday with another. Scotty guessed that else,” Billy told Justin, passing a few cars, know. But it certainly isn’t where other Justin would study his way to law school defending himself. people live. Maybe it’s a luxury the rest of and scholarships, and without complaining, us can’t afford.” honor his family’s hope that he would “That’s an enigma I puzzle late into the become the judge their ancestors never night,” Justin replied, turning around and “Oh, Peter, he’s just an academic,” Scotty’s had. Now he played with his friend Billy, smiling benignly at Scotty, for they were all mother smiled back. “You know that.” but some day Justin would fight brilliantly the best of friends. As for himself, Scotty had always liked for what was right – which suited him “And, anyway, I don’t know what ‘enigma’ his grandfather very much. One of the completely – and earn everyone’s adoration. or ‘atavistic’ means, Jus. You’re just wasting things Scotty most remembered about his Scotty envied them. your time.” grandfather was that in his house he had a room full of books, and that sometimes his “I can tell just what will happen to them,” “Enigma’s from the Latin, Billy,” Scotty told grandfather would talk to him about them. Scotty had told Chloe, a pretty girl he him. “It means ‘to speak darkly,’ though Scotty had always liked mythology, and his was interested in at school, who liked I think Justin means, ‘a riddle.’ That’s a grandfather was certainly someone who to run long distances and hoped to be contemporary meaning.” knew about mythology. an Olympic champion. Billy seemed so happy behind the wheel. They were sitting in the backyard of his “And what about me?” she had asked him. “Terrific, hot shot. What about ‘atavistic’?” house, in the sunlight. The rest of Scotty’s “I dunno,” he had answered her. “You Scotty sat back in his seat. He wasn’t ever family, who were visiting, were inside, could go a lot of different ways.” particularly aggressive. “You’re sure you Scotty’s mother cooking, his father and want to know?” brother watching a football game on A few miles from the city, Justin started television. His sister was in the kitchen, near acting up again, teasing Billy about Billy’s “Sure. What’ve I got to lose?” her mother. Scotty’s grandfather often ended latest girlfriend, a sophomore named Janet. “Nothing,” Justin put in. “People like you up sitting by himself after the family had Justin said Billy didn’t ever think about don’t even have to bother about people been visiting for some time, like an old man, anything else anymore. like me.” nice enough, but almost an extra in his own “You’re mesmerized,” he told him. “We’re home and in his own family. Scotty shrugged. “OK. It means you’re a lucky to get you to do this trip. I figure in throwback, Billy.” “A good thing to know about heroes, a few more weeks, at the most months, Scotty,” his grandfather had said, that long you’ll be totally unavailable. And it will be Hearing Scotty’s explanation, Billy turned time ago. “Is the spiritual journey they go forever.” Justin sighed. “Such is true love the pop music back on loud and, giggling, in on. Some day, when you’re older, I’ll give and devotion.” mock anger, tried to swat Justin on the back you a couple of big, heavy books to read. of the head. But for now, what happens to heroes is that “Take that – music,” he said to Justin. they go through a terrible time when they’re young, often separate from the people

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Hearing Justin say that made Scotty think passing quickly by him, or careful of how “Oh, that’s all right, sister,” Scotty told her. about a story Chloe had told him, a story he was walking, so as not to be in the way “It’s extra money.” He looked at her, hoping her mother had told her. Apparently, Chloe’s of people behind him. Nor could he take the she would say something more. “It’s going mother had a friend whose father died only time to gawk at any of the buildings, which for a good cause, anyway, isn’t it?” two weeks after her friend’s mother did. were becoming larger and larger as he went The nun smiled again at him, but didn’t along, and whose windows promised lots Scotty leaned forward, putting his hands say anything more. Instead she went back of attractions within. All this really made on the back of the front seat of the car, his to jingling the coins on her plate. Scotty him feel exhilarated, and he could not help head between his friends’ heads, only a little thought that maybe she wasn’t sure what to thinking that now he was on his way, that it behind theirs. make of him. was really happening, that the first part of “Chloe’s mother’s friend hardly ever thought his trip was over, and that he was on to the “What’s it like to stand here and ask people about her parents at all,” he explained to second part, the major part, the trip upstate. for money?” he couldn’t help asking her. “Is Billy and Justin, after saying that he knew a For the first time in such a long while, he it hard?” really good story about love and devotion. felt better; he was almost feeling good. He The little nun, who seemed so shy, took “Especially her father. But then she found was actually getting something done, and a few moments to speak. “It’s the Lord’s these letters that the father had written. I the nearer he got to Grand Central Station, work,” she said to him, finally. guess they were fabulous letters, fabulous and the more the crowds in the streets love letters. The lady couldn’t believe it. Her became denser, the higher and higher he Then only minutes later, as if the incident father had seemed so ordinary – just a guy, felt. He was nearly dizzy with emotion. His with the nun weren’t enough, in front of no different from anyone else, pretty much trip, the great city, his being so brazen, the the doorways to Grand Central, Scotty someone you take for granted and overlook. endlessly different people! Scotty couldn’t heard the screaming of brakes. Stopping But these letters were really great. Passionate speak for anybody else. Probably they felt in his travels again, he turned just in time and poetic and terrifically sad. The guy said as he did, but as for himself, the buildings to see a man twist his body violently to he didn’t want to live one day without his becoming larger and larger, taller and taller, avoid being struck by a taxicab, though the wife. He couldn’t care less.” Scotty could tell the trucks and taxis and cars clogging the momentum of the cab did cause it to hit that Billy and Justin were listening closely. streets, horns beeping gloriously, the crowds the man somewhat, the man half bouncing, “Reading those letters, the lady suddenly now nearly at a standstill – they all caused half rolling off its front fender. Instantly, realized what her parents had had going on him to be amazed. He just couldn’t help as if in retaliation, the man got to his feet between them for years, and was furious it. As he stood at a street corner, waiting and pounded his fist furiously against the with herself for not knowing. The only thing for a green light, standing near him were cab’s fender. she could think of doing, to make it up to some Asian women, a black man, a couple “What are you doing, you crazy fellow?” her father, even though it was too late, was of white business men, and a bunch of the man cried out. “Just what are you to carry his picture around with her all the Hispanic men in working clothes. Across doing?” Beside himself, the man hit the cab time now, in a locket around her neck.” the street, he could see an Indian man and several times. “There! Take that! What do Scotty sighed. “Some story, huh?” he asked. an Indian woman in a sari. Despite himself, you think of that?” Scotty watched, stared at all these people, “Wow,” Billy said, driving the car into the trying to figure out who they were, where Startled himself, the cabbie got out of his tunnel that brought them under the river they were going, what they were thinking. cab and shouted back to the man. “Stop and into the city. that, you! Stop hitting my cab! You want me A block from Grant Central, Scotty saw a Justin didn’t say anything. He was to hit you?” tiny nun sitting in front of a store, in black impressed, too. robes and white collar, holding out a plate Some pedestrians stopped their walking, too, When they got out of the tunnel and came upon which were some coins and dollars. curious at the fracas; some did not, but went into the sunlight again, Billy stopped the Almost shyly, she shook the plate, so that on with their affairs. The ones who stopped car and let Scotty off. That was the last part the coins could jingle, the little nun trying to look seemed not sure how to react to the of the plan that he had with his friends. to get the attention of passersby who might scene, though mostly, Scotty thought, they On the edge of the city as he was, Scotty contribute to her begging. Slowing down, decided to be amused. didn’t see too many people making their Scotty reached into his pocket, took a few “But you hit me,” the man tried to explain. way up and down the street, and only a few coins out of it, and gave them to the nun. “Didn’t you see that? I could have been trucks and cars passed by him. But after She smiled brightly at him, and he was badly hurt.” he had walked a number of blocks toward nearly overcome by an urge to talk to her. the center of the city, the crowds increased, The men remained on opposite sides of the “God bless you, young man,” she said to until Scotty had to be careful of where he cab. “But I didn’t mean to hit you,” the him, softly, looking up at him. “May God was walking, so as not to bump into people cabbie tried to point out back. “So leave my bless you always.” cab alone. You don’t look like you’re hurt.”

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The man, in the street, in the middle of the making their way along the river, which until his grandfather escorted him to a small crowded center of the city, turned to his in the strong sunlight seemed to Scotty garden with benches in a courtyard between fellow pedestrians for understanding. “He thousands and thousands of sparkling facets. two of the older buildings. There they sat, hit me. What was I supposed to do? Do you his grandfather taking out his pipe, but not When the train finally arrived at the believe him? He’s crazy. He’s a crazy man. lighting it quite yet, which was what he outskirts of the city where his grandfather No wonder he hit me.” usually did. worked and lived, Scotty got off the train Now the pedestrians started to smile and and got directions to the bus that would “So, Scotty, you’re here. Was it hard?” began to continue on their way. Scotty take him to his grandfather’s university. On Scotty looked at the buildings surrounding himself lingered for a few moments, the bus, empty except for himself and the him. He could see students in their rooms, a watching the man shake his head, brush driver, Scotty tried to be patient and contain little older than he was, but like him. himself off, and finally walk away, gesturing his growing excitement, exchanging a few back at the cabbie. The cabbie, disgusted, words with the bus driver. The driver had “No. I’m glad I did it.” got back in his cab and slowly drove on placed photographs of his family above him “Did you finally go with your friends?” his his way. A man standing next to Scotty, on the visor of the bus’s window. grandfather asked. wearing an expensive business suit and a red “I like it up here,” Scotty said to the driver, turban, said to Scotty: “This goings-on is Scotty nodded. “And then the train. Like we somehow knowing he could be friendly with most interesting, isn’t it? This peoples almost talked about.” the man. came to blows.” His grandfather nodded, too. The gesture “Suits me, too, son,” the man replied, “Yes,” Scotty told him. made Scotty remember a famous family wheeling the bus onto the street that photograph of the two of them when Scotty Once inside Grand Central, Scotty took would take them uphill to where the was a little boy. His grandfather was in an escalator down to the main plaza, university buildings were. “And it has. the foreground of the picture, standing holding on to its hard rubber handrail as For a long time.” in the garden behind his house. Scotty he descended. On the plaza, he was again At the university, Scotty walked among its was standing at some distance behind his engulfed in a crowd, and he wondered many buildings looking for the building grandfather. It had been an accident. how he would find his way to the train where his grandfather was. They were a that would take him to his grandfather. “It’s like they’re one person,” his mother mix – old, dark brick buildings with ivy Following the signs to the upstate trains, had said. on their walls, and then new, modern, he suddenly realized that he was actually plain buildings. Students walked on all “What did your parents think, Scotty?” feeling, himself, a citizen of the world. In the pathways between them. When Scotty his grandfather asked him further. turn, that feeling made him feel a little dizzy reached his grandfather’s office, a few again, outside himself or, perhaps better, in “They didn’t like it. It made them students were just leaving it. Scotty saw his an outside world, where more and more very nervous.” grandfather behind his desk, and waited in these days he seemed to be. So much, he the hallway for his grandfather to notice His grandfather thought a moment. wanted to speak with his grandfather. him. His grandfather seemed older than “This all had to come. They should All the way upstate on the train, Scotty tried when Scotty had last seen him, though not have known it.” to distract himself. As he sat in his seat by greatly so. His hair was even more white “Yes, they should have known,” Scotty the window, he listened to the sound of now, he looked tired, the way he usually did, agreed. “After all, I’ve always liked coming the train rushing forward along its tracks, and his suit was rumpled a little, nothing up here to see you, haven’t I?” and glancing outside his window he mused new. His grandfather’s office was filled on the trees and houses and villages that with books, papers, awards on the walls, a “My little protégé,” his grandfather said. passed by him so rapidly. Long stands of computer on his desk. After that, they sat for a few moments, trees would suddenly open onto a long “Scotty,” his grandfather said when he did saying nothing to each other. Finally, his stretch of occasional buildings, which would notice him, looking up from his desk. “It’s grandfather asked Scotty: “So what is the be followed by houses bundled together, about time. I was getting really hungry. trouble, young man? What is bothering until more trees or a stretch of buildings Would you like to have some lunch?” you so much?” reappeared. Few other passengers sat with him in his train car, prompting Scotty to They ate lunch at a faculty dining room on Scotty looked around the garden again, remember that he traveled midweek, a the campus, surrounded by professors. At up into the buildings where students were thought that made him remember that he the table where he and his grandfather sat, a studying. He could also see some students had forgotten to call his mother, as he had young woman professor talked to two male strolling at the far end of the garden. promised. Beyond the trees and the buildings professors. Scotty’s grandfather introduced “I don’t know, exactly, but … I’m just not was the great river, which Scotty also mused Scotty to them, but his grandfather joined in the same person I used to be, Grandfather. I upon. From time to time, he saw boats their conversation only occasionally. After always feel as if I’m upside down these days. lunch, they strolled around the campus,

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My head always feels as if it’s spinning.” It to become something of … a … sojourner. After about an hour, Scotty and his was the first time Scotty put into any kind of Yes, that’s what I called it … a sojourner. grandfather finished talking. His grandfather words pretty much how he felt. “First, I feel Someone who spent his life, used his life, as asked him about his brother and sister and separate from my family and friends, and best he could, watching everything that was parents, and if he still liked school and then I feel closer to them than I ever have going on around him. Here in this place one sports so much. Scotty said that he did. before. Or, nothing matters to me anymore, day, there in that place another, or, if in one In turn, Scotty asked his grandfather how none of the old things. I always have this spot, taking it all in … missing nothing.” things were going for him. feeling that there’s something else I should Scotty listened. “Busy, busy, busy, Scotty,” he told him. be doing, something else I should be paying “Though I do want to visit your whole attention to.” “I wanted to be a person who was part family soon. I’d like that.” of everything, on the one hand, but also Scotty searched his grandfather’s face. “Or, separate from everything, too. A visitor … “We’d like that, too.” it’s not that I’m not happy. It’s just that a lingering visitor.” His grandfather made I’m up in the air all the time … ” Scotty “And, of course, you know you can come a little laugh. “I don’t know if that was reconsidered. “ … No, that’s not true, either. up here again whenever you want to.” anything to be proud of. I never figured that All the way up here, I loved it. I really loved out completely. But that’s what I wanted “I do,” Scotty told him. “And I will. I it. Driving with my friends, thinking about to become … to be. A sojourner.” His always want to.” them, listening to what they had to say. In grandfather grew a little more animated, a the city, I could hardly keep from … I don’t That seemed to make his grandfather very bit less contemplative. “And, above all, I know … feeling excited, I guess. There was happy. “We have some good times together, remember, what I wanted to do with this this little nun collecting money on a street don’t we?” ‘grand design’ – I already had it figured corner. All of a sudden, I wanted so much to out – was to capture, what was for me, the “Yes, Grandfather, we do.” talk with her. I wanted to know everything most important thing. I wanted to capture about her. And then this guy got hit by a “Maybe they don’t look so great from the something of the … shadowy parts.” taxicab, and he hit the taxicab back, and the outside, but they’re pretty good from the driver and the guy started shouting at each “The ‘shadowy parts’?” inside, aren’t they?” other, and then they tried to explain their “Yes, something of all the aspects of “They sure are, Grandfather,” Scotty said. side of it to all the people standing around reality that didn’t add up right away, but He didn’t think he could be more certain. watching them. It got me feeling so … were maybe the best part, or, at least, the good … I didn’t know what to do – whether When he got back by the bus to the defining part. The part I understood, rather to stay there forever and take it in, or to train station, after saying goodbye to his academically, I guess, as the paradoxes, run away.” grandfather, in front of a lecture hall where the ambiguities, the dualities. Do you his grandfather had to be next, Scotty had Scotty looked at his grandfather, who understand? The part that the philosophers to wait a while for his train to come. As was listening to him very carefully, taking call ‘the ghost in the machine.’ What the he waited, feeling much better, he saw the in everything Scotty told him. For a few scientists called the indeterminate. That’s waiting room begin to fill up with other moments, his grandfather said nothing, what I mostly saw, and that’s what I mostly passengers. When the train did come, he apparently thinking. Then, as if he were wanted to get at. More than anything. I got on board and found a seat in one of slowly making up his mind, making an couldn’t think about it any other way.” the cars. Beside him, he noticed, there was important decision, his grandfather spoke. Scotty didn’t move. “Well, what happened? a man staring out the window, deep in He spoke very slowly, deliberately. Did you do that, Grandfather? What did thought. Across the aisle, a pretty girl read, “Scotty, I want to tell you something,” his you do?” and the man next to her worked away on grandfather began.” He paused, nodded to his computer. It looked like he was going His little grandfather sighed. “In the end, I himself, and then resumed speaking. “Yes, I to be at it for hours. Coming up the aisle did something else, Scotty. I did something want tell you something.” toward Scotty was a woman, maybe in her else, and let my idea go.” His grandfather 20s, holding a baby to her chest with one “OK,” Scotty said. seemed to reflect. “There are other good arm, and leading a little girl by the hand. things to do with your life, you know. With “You don’t know this, but when I was a The little girl kept saying, “But, Momma, good reasons behind them. Aren’t there?” young man – about the same age as you – where’s Daddy? Isn’t he coming with us? His grandfather looked at Scotty. “Either all I wanted to do … was … to become a He said he wasn’t going to let us go that, or after all, it wasn’t finally for me. writer. Did you know that?” without him.” Who knows. But I did know it was a very Scotty shook his head. good thing to think about doing. A very “Never mind. Shush now, honey. We’re on good thing indeed.” the train, and you’ll wake up your brother.” “Yes. It’s true. Oh, I had such big plans in my head.” His grandfather paused again, reflecting. “I remember I wanted myself

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The woman looked a mess. Her hair was all disheveled, and she kept trying to find the strength to keep carrying her baby, while she looked for seats. Scotty wondered if he and the woman would talk. There was a chance that they would, he decided, sometime later.

He also thought, as warmly as he could, of his grandfather, and thanked him. And at that point, too, he smiled the greatest smile of his life, so far.

“Education, or human liberation, is more than a series of events, an aggregation of activities or a set of experiences; in fact, some activities and experiences may be miseducative and nonliberating. To be educative a new experience must relate to and extend the meaning of previous experience. In a very real sense, education – the process of liberation – involves a reconstruction of experience, taking something out of the old and fitting it into the new and using the new with parts of the old to enable the individual to go on to newer and more meaningful and productive experiences.”

– Royce S. Pitkin, “Education and Human Liberation,” A Talk Prepared for a Seminar at Wilmington College, April 10, 1975, In Forest K. Davis, Things Were Different in Royce’s Day, Vermont: Adamant Press, 1996, p. 290

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Confessions of a Fulbright Scholar From Thessaloniki, Greece to Brooklyn, New York and Empire State College: September - November 2011

Betty Kaklamanidou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Introduction I was a little hesitant, simply because I hadn’t heard about I had the privilege of meeting Dr. this kind of activity being done Kaklamanidou when we were both on a at Empire State College yet. panel at the International Association for Nevertheless, I said yes, and the Study of Popular Romance, Second from there it was a relatively Annual Conference in Brussels, Belgium simple process of obtaining in the summer of 2010. We heard each support from our provost, other’s research on the politics of gender Meg Benke, as well as deans in romantic comedies (hers looking at the Bob Clougherty and Cynthia “marriage scenario” in Greek films, and Ward, who would be involved mine on the construction of middle-aged in sponsoring her in terms women in Hollywood films), and found of office space and college that our research had similar implications. facilities. I want to extend We met for breakfast the next morning, my deepest appreciation to where I learned that she teaches film Provost Benke, as well as Betty Kaklamanidou (left) with Mentor Peggy Tally history and theory at the Film Studies deans Clougherty and Ward Department at the Aristotle University of for being so encouraging of greeting, the email starts with the seven Thessaloniki, Greece. She explained that the process, as well as Alan words I least expect: “It is my pleasure to she had just finished co-editing a collection Mandell, who created several meaningful inform you. … ” Well, my eyes are deceiving on recent “superhero” films, The 21st collective experiences for Dr. Kaklamanidou me, I tell myself, and I keep on reading Century Superhero: Essays on Gender, to share her work with the college diagonally until I reach the ending of a long Genre and Globalization in Film (Gray & community. In sum, it was a really gratifying text with details I simply cannot process. Kaklamanido, 2010), and was the author experience to be able to sponsor a Fulbright of two Greek books on film adaptation scholar. I would encourage my colleagues My first reaction would make a very and the Hollywood romantic comedy. to do likewise and can help them through funny cinematic scene. I immediately stand She explained to me that she also had the process. up and move away from the computer been working on compiling a chronology taking hesitant picks at the body of the – Peggy Tally, School for Graduate Studies of romantic comedies for the past 10 email, fearing someone could see me years and had already amassed a large INT. GREECE – THESSALONIKI from the “other” side of the screen. I pick corpus of material. We spoke about doing up the phone and call my husband at some kind of audience research together APARTMENT – March 15, 2011. Early afternoon. work: “Petros, I think I got the Fulbright to flesh out the ways in which viewers Scholarship,” I tell him (remember I hadn’t respond to these films, which culminated s usual, I am in front of my read the whole email by that time). “I knew in a bicultural survey and interview study computer screen, working. The you would,” my always supportive better of Greek and American film viewers of A sound of an incoming email half answers and starts congratulating romantic comedies. Dr. Kaklamanidou also interrupts my train of thought and I open me. I then email Professor Peggy Tally, has almost completed a book on the same my inbox to check who it is. The sender is the woman responsible for the invitation subject, a book on the Hollywood romantic the Greek co-coordinator of the Fulbright letter from an American university that I comedy in the new millennium, which is program, the always accommodating and had to submit along with my proposal to contracted by Routledge. When she first gracious, Tatiana Hadjiemmanuel. As a the Fulbright committee, and my Ph.D. asked whether our college could sponsor hardcore pessimist, I am ready to read a supervisor to give him the news. To cut her for a Fulbright in the United States, polite rejection letter. However, after the a long story short, after quite a long and

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I’m afraid rather annoying bureaucratic Parliament in Athens, and the European principles of individualism, liberalism and processes (endless medical exams, the filling Union – mainly France and Germany – the least intrusive government. Living in in of many forms to get a J1 visa, a trip to along with the International Monetary New York, however, working there, and Athens to get the visa, endless emails to find Fund were basically dictating the Greek interacting with Americans from diverse accommodations in New York – thank you, government’s every move. Every day, I walks of life really consolidated some of Dianne Ramdeholl), I was ready to arrive would pick up The New York Times and my readings. Naturally, someone could in the Big Apple at the end of August. Last find Greece either on the front page or the argue that during my stay, I frequented glitch. Hurricane Irene delayed my departure front page of the business section. I was sad mainly scholars – that is, people with high for five days during which my suitcases but at the same time I was far, far away. I education and a dignified income – and were left untouched next to the front door was also sceptical about the news since I that, consequently, my perspective is quite waiting like me. am not used to believing everything I read. one-dimensional. However, on my first day However, a conversation I had with my in New York, I became friends with an EXT. YELLOW CAB – NEW YORK – sister around the end of September alarmed American woman, originally from Panama, Sept. 1, 2011. me. Although Lia is an optimistic and whose story was quite revealing. Although Around 6:30 p.m. composed individual, she told me: “Betty, a few years back, she had a good job, a you may be gone for a little while but you good apartment and a loving marriage, she My yellow cab finally pulls over in front will come back to a different city.” This had recently lost her job and her apartment of my new dwelling on Carlton Avenue. A phrase haunted me for the rest of my stay. because her husband suddenly got ill and room in a beautiful brownstone in Brooklyn the medical bills were huge. Unfortunately, was waiting for me. My landlady, a Nevertheless, with the help of Peggy, Alan, her better half passed away and my friend wonderful person, helped me settle in but as Dianne, Ruth Goldberg, Tony Spanakos, was left literally homeless, heartbroken I hadn’t slept for about 36 hours, all I could Eric Ball, my landlady Lynne, and all the and with no financial security whatsoever. think of was sleep. wonderful and polite people I met at Empire When I met her, she had started working State College, I soon started to feel at home The next day, I finally visited 325 Hudson part time as a shop assistant and living in New York, having established a daily St. and saw my office, generously provided with friends who could put her up for a routine. Each morning, I would take the by Metropolitan Center Dean Cynthia few weeks at a time. I was shocked by the train to the office or the Bobst Library, Ward. I had a meeting with Peggy Tally state’s inability to provide for its people, have lunch with a friend or colleague and to discuss my project which, by that time, and for a few weeks, I couldn’t help but then return home to write, have dinner had also become a book proposal and had concentrate on the inequalities of the society and watch Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert just been contracted by Routledge, another that was generous enough to cover all the before turning in. Each week, I would visit a piece of wonderful news that my pessimist expenses for my academic research and museum with a friend or engage in another side did not expect. Meanwhile, the lovely had presented me with a once-in-a-lifetime cultural activity. At the end of September, Alan Mandell, whom I had already met in opportunity. Negative ideas and concepts, I was to present my work in progress in June when I was in New York City for a Saratoga and also participate in the film conference, had arranged for me to talk at evening organized by Mark Soderstrom in the college in Albany and in Saratoga at the Albany during the college’s Master of Arts end of September. I had my work cut out I was shocked by the in Liberal Studies weekend residency. My for me. Not only did I have to complete trip upstate gave me the opportunity to state’s inability to provide the research for my book and prepare the enjoy the breathtaking scenery and take in presentations for Empire State College but for its people, and for the natural beauty of that part of the state. I wanted to meet new people and immerse More importantly, however, my weekend a few weeks, I couldn’t myself in the rich New York culture. After in Saratoga was yet another wonderful all, the Fulbright program envisions not help but concentrate experience to interact with students, only the exchange of scholars for academic members of the faculty, and have an exciting on the inequalities of purposes but stresses the cultural education and stimulating discussion with School for and binational cross-fertilization that the society that was Graduate Studies Dean Robert Clougherty, can flourish through the grantees’ stay a fellow Fulbright grantee, who impressed generous enough to in America. me with his vast knowledge of history and cover all the expenses for I arrived in New York at a very difficult literature and had so generously welcomed time for my country, the most difficult me in the USA. my academic research since the seven-year dictatorship that As my area of expertise is Hollywood and had presented me lasted from 1967 to 1974. Wages were cut mainstream cinema, I had read quite a few almost monthly, people were being laid with a once-in-a-lifetime things about U.S. politics. In Politics and off, the Greek “indignants” were in the Film (2006), Daniel P. Franklin argues, for opportunity. streets protesting daily outside the Greek instance, that America was built on the

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 26 such as inequality, difference, disintegration, models. I also can proudly write that I still This devastating recession is not, of racism and individualism kept pestering my keep in touch with many of the people I course, just an artificial stratagem used thoughts but so were positive ones, such as met in the U.S., which confirms that human by global interests to serve the market’s generosity, abundance, freedom, friendship relationships are still something sacred and master plan, although one could certainly and diligence. I started questioning the they are not by definition doomed to stay on argue that. The Greek political scene of nature of neoliberalism, noticing the effects the surface. the last 30 to 40 years has played a major of individualism, and wondering about part in the construction of a system ruled Nevertheless, I regret not being able to racism. I began to feel trapped in the city by corruption, “favors,” and nepotism. write that I am proud of living in Greece. I was always in love with, and looking However, what is at stake today is the future My country and its citizens are still being forward to my return home. Nevertheless, of a country that gave birth to the values reviled worldwide daily. Schoolchildren the news from home, the personal “horror” the Western world is based upon. I fear are fainting at school because their parents stories I read on the Internet, the way my that the concept of democracy has not only cannot afford to buy the bare necessities, loved ones described the situation on the lost each true meaning but is being used such as food. Homelessness is rising phone or Skype, started to dangerously as a smokescreen to cover neoliberalism’s dangerously. People are losing their jobs, resemble the story of my American friend. financial agenda. and those who are “lucky” to be employed I then began contemplating the globalized are facing scenarios that even a screenwriter I hope that things will eventually find their world we are all living in or at least the trained in dystopian worlds, such as Andrew balance and that the Greeks, along with the “Western” developed or developing world. Niccol (Gattaca, 1997, The Truman Show, people of Portugal, Spain, Italy and Ireland, Suddenly, Greece did not seem so much 1998, In Time, 2010) has still to conceive will soon start sighing a breath of relief. different from the United States when it of. Only yesterday, the nursing staff of the Until then, I will keep on cherishing my time came to social inequality, the “hidden” country’s state hospitals received their once in New York, be thankful to the Fulbright classification of social structure, and lurking again decreased two-week pay check which Foundation in Greece, and especially Tatiana racism of different forms. normally averages 1,000 euros. However, and Executive Director Artemis Zenetou, hundreds of my fellow citizens, fathers and and be eternally grateful to the people who INT. GREECE – THESSALONIKI mothers, hardworking individuals who helped make my stay in the USA one of the APARTMENT – Feb. 3, 2012. Night. have plans and dreams, received an amount most significant, poignant and memorable Today marks exactly three months after my that ranged from -7 euros (I’m afraid the experiences of my life. return from New York and the completion negative sign is not a typo) to 150 euros. of my Fulbright grant. Three months that References We are all numb, depressed, melancholic. helped me digest and crystallize my stay in No one can know what the future holds Franklin, D. P. (2006). Politics and film: The the Big Apple, my work, my experience. My for the country. The academic world is political culture of film in the United research there has enabled me to proudly also silenced as tertiary education that is States. Lanham, MD: Rowman & write that I am nearing completion of the state funded and free is facing innumerable Littlefield Publishers. first draft of my book. At this point, I problems, and many departments are on the would like to stress that this book would Gray II, R. J., & Kaklamanidou, B. verge of closing their doors or merging with not have been completed so quickly had it (Eds.). (2011). The 21st century other departments. Scholars, such as myself, not been for the constant encouragement, superhero: Essays on gender, genre and are working for free or for 500 to 600 euros the unbelievable generosity, the knowledge, globalization in film. Jefferson, NC: per month since the ministry cannot appoint and the selflessness of Peggy Tally, who is McFarland & Co., Inc. us due to lack of funds, disregarding the living proof of female power, class, integrity fact that thousands of university professors and beauty (both internal and external), and are retiring. who has certainly become one of my role

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The New York City Laboratory: Science Discovery in an Urban Environment

Kevin L. Woo, Metropolitan Center

“Chlorophyll? More like BORE-ophyll.” The matter was settled. In May 2001, – Adam Sandler in Billy Madison (1995) I earned a Bachelor of Science in interdisciplinary biology and psychology. Unlike some old friends and dreamers, s an undergraduate student at I never intended to be a scientist, and Southampton College of Long like many of our Empire State College Island University, I majored in A students, I perhaps developed a slight marine biology during my freshman year. phobia toward the natural and physical Incidentally, I also was very fortunate, sciences. However, I overcame this as my father provided me with the same fear, and embarked on a career in the educational proposition that he dealt to biological sciences. my older brother: if I continued to stay in school, he would continue to pay The challenge is simply how to make Figure 1. Students engaged in the ethogram my tuition. As a mediocre science and science engaging. At the Metropolitan exercise of my Animal Behavior group study. mathematics student in high school, I Center, we have one clear advantage: the Student David Roland is taking notes on the suddenly found the ability to do calculus use of the five boroughs of New York Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) at the derivations, consider phylogeny based on City as a laboratory. In the following Central Park Zoo, Fall 2010. taxonomic traits, and conquer the formation sections, I will discuss successful and of hydrocarbons for organic chemistry. At unsuccessful activities that I have the end of my first year, I was comfortable executed since my appointment in July Queens Zoo, Staten Island Aquarium and with my courses in the natural and physical 2010. I also will discuss two activities that New York Aquarium) allows students to sciences, but doubted my enthusiasm to earn I have planned, and intend to conduct this study native and nonnative fauna without a degree in science. One fall evening, I went academic year. leaving the five boroughs. Although many on a car ride with my father to complete of my students have visited these parks some errands. During this jaunt, we started The Good independently or with their families, a dialogue (circa, October 1998). many often neglect to identify the subtle Active learning exercises have the potential behaviors that may be meaningful in the Dad: “How’s school going?” to engage students in successful learning animal world. Currently, my students for experiences. I have employed several field Me: “It’s fine.” Animal Behavior, Behavioral Ecology and trips, in situ, and laboratory-based exercises Fundamentals of Biology are required to Dad: “How about your classes?” that have worked. As I serve mostly students select an animal in the WCS collection, who intend to fulfill a general education Me: “They’re fine.” search the literature for species-specific requirement in the natural sciences, my behavior, and prepare to observe a focal Pause. goal is to inform and to have them think individual or group of individuals at the critically. My students need to question Me: “By the way, I was thinking about park. In the group study, students learn anecdotal evidence about the natural world, changing my major.” the different behavioral sampling methods, and find ways to best support an answer as well as the scales of measurement, and Dad: “Oh, really? What were you thinking that builds scientific relationships. are trained to identify behaviors in social about changing it to?” interactions. For this exercise, students Monkey Business at the Zoo Me: “I was thinking that I want to major must complete an ethogram, a catalog of in communications. Despite the ethical controversies that descriptive behaviors in a given context. surround animals in captivity, zoological During my first two years at Empire State Pause. Part deux. institutions provide a platform for College, we conducted several trips: fall Dad: “If you change your major to education, instruction and scholarship 2010 (Central Park Zoo; Figure 1), spring communications, I’ll cut off your tuition.” (Ballantyne, Packer, Hughes, & Dierking, and fall 2011 (Prospect Park Zoo). My 2007). In particular, access to the Wildlife students observed an animal of their choice, Conservation Society parks (Bronx Zoo, conducted some preliminary research, and Central Park Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo, collected data to develop a behavioral

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 28 catalog. Prior to the trip, students observed agroecology from a natural science animals through videos or a Siamese fighting perspective, my students were able to fish (Betta splendens) lab. The subtleties of consider the negative social implications individual behaviors may have implications that are possibly created by innovative for other social interactions, such as urban farming methods. courtship, communication and territoriality. At the zoological park, students record Radio, Radio, Radio! their behaviors with a traditional pen- In the autumn of 1997, I was a senior at and-paper method, as well as employ new Townsend Harris High School at Queens technology, such as video camcorders, digital College, and I participated in a student cameras and mobile devices. Upon the group that documented the mayoral completion, students compare their data to election. It was the year Rudy Guiliani the literature, and most typically find that Figures 2 a and b. Field trip to two defeated Ruth Messinger, and it was the they are able to appreciate behavior that urban rooftop farms in New York City: second time in New York City history they often neglect during casual visits to a) Annie Novaks (left) of the Eagle Street that a Republican won a second term the zoo. To assess their understanding and Rooftop Farm delivers a workshop on local over a Democrat. During this project, I ability to discriminate between behaviors, agriculture (Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Fall 2010); learned about the local electoral process, students complete a tabulated ethogram and and b) Gwen Schantz and 8-month-old Otto (left) discuss the mission of the Brooklyn developed skills in the applied aspects conduct an oral presentation. This activity Grange Farm (Long Island City, Queens, of television and radio production, enhances our understanding of behavior, and Fall 2011). and forged lifelong friendships. More continues to provide support for education importantly, I met a mentor who imparted and scholarship that we can acquire at a his enthusiasm for media production. zoological park. Meet WQXR presenter, Jeffrey Spurgeon. Tomatoes for Bob Carey In May A 2011 term, Dr. Mark Miyake (Hudson Valley Center), Aaron Zachmeier Urban agroecology is a growing trend (former Metropolitan Center faculty among city dwellers. The development instructional technologist), and I offered of urban spaces, such as rooftops, for a group study at the Metropolitan Center green gardens and agriculture has been called Internet Broadcasting: The New a common practice in Europe, but it is a Age of Radio. The study was designed new venture for New Yorkers. Alternative to teach our students about the history ventures into urban agriculture also have of radio, copyright, ethics, and how to considered hydroponic (both vertical and produce and create a radio show using a horizontal) systems as a way to maximize digital platform. We also taught writing, limited indoor space and grow produce Bourdain suggests, good food simply reading, comprehension, public speaking all year. In 2008, the Eagle Street Rooftop costs money to produce (Bourdain, 2009). and interviewing techniques. We aimed to Farm (rooftopfarms.org) in Greenpoint, According to the U.S. Census Bureau and teach radio using a digital format, and to Brooklyn started its growing season, and 2010 American Community Survey, 20.1 consider the similarities and differences in October 2010, I took my first Ecology percent of New York City residents live between live broadcasting versus podcasting. and the Environment study group to the below the poverty line (U.S. Census Bureau, In addition to these objectives, our greatest farm for a field trip (see Figure 2a). One 2010). Given this statistic, we also find a achievement was our ability to bridge the year later in October 2011, we went to the distinct correlation between obesity and theoretical and applied concepts in radio Brooklyn Grange (brooklyngrangefarm. income, and obesity and ethnicity. For with a visit to WNYC/WQXR station (see com) in Long Island City, Queens (see example, obesity is negatively correlated Figure 3). During what was perhaps the Figure 2b). Although both groups with income, such that individuals with best field trip since my visit to the FDNY are private, commercial farms, they lower incomes tend to be more obese 109th Station in Flushing, Queens as a provided my students with an alternative (Wallach & Rey, 2009). Consequently, kindergartener, Jeff was able to conduct to traditional farming methods that is African Americans and Hispanics also a tour of the studios for our study group. seemingly sustainable and local. However, exhibit higher obesity rates (Van Wye et We saw the production studios, met farms that produce crops based on organic al., 2008). Furthermore, if we consider the on-air personalities, saw live broadcasts, principles, such as the Eagle Street and interaction between obesity, ethnicity and discussed the future of radio, and gained an Brooklyn Grange farms, also have raised income, low income African Americans appreciation for the art of radio. Moreover, questions about the socioeconomic divide and Hispanics tend to show the highest students were able to ask questions about toward affordability and issues of social rates of obesity and diabetes in New York the state of the radio industry, and discuss responsibility. Moreover, as Anthony City (Wallach & Rey, 2009). Although the intention for these trips is to examine how to improve their final project, which

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 29

have been used as a model to best study touched, smelled and handled the produce, immunology and sexually transmitted I then cut each item up, and allowed my diseases. As discussed, our ability to students to eat them. Thirdly, we recorded understand the transmission of seminal how many students felt that either produce fluid from the male to the female may “A” or “B” was organic. Lastly, I identified help us to better understand how human which was the real organic product and immunological defense may combat STDs which one was conventional. In my (Radhakrishnan & Fedorka, 2011). As we observation, it was interesting to note the embark on the second seminar series, both inconsistencies for deciding which was students and the general public can access organic or conventional, and based on the schedule at http://commons.esc.edu/ which criteria, such as the look (is it more kevinlwoo/science-colloquium. symmetrical than the other?), taste (is it Figure 3. Internet Broadcasting: The New juicier?) and instinct (this one has to be Age of Radio Tour of WNYC/WQXR with The Blind Taste Test organic!). Although I am an advocate for Jeffrey Spurgeon (left-back) during an local, organic and sustainable produce, as a on-air session with presenter Amy Eddings Recently, urbanites have been shifting scientist I wanted my students to question (left-front). away from commercial produce to local, whether organic simply means better. I organic and sustainable products. Despite wanted them to dig beyond the perceived was a 10-minute podcasting segment. the socioeconomic issues and knowledge taste, look and anecdotal evidence about Overall, I believe that students gained a about general science, more and more organic produce, and consider the deeper greater appreciation for the radio business, people are becoming increasingly convinced biological aspects of bioaccumulation, from the theoretical perspectives to the that local and organic products are healthier sustainable agroecology and genetic technical components. (Harper & Makatouni, 2002; Hughner, modification/engineering. Nutrition is an McDonagh, Prothero, Shultz, & Stanton, important component of everyday life, and Science Colloquium 2007). However, one great question is we can consider it in biological, social and whether they can really taste the difference. The colloquium series was an opportunity consumer terms. for me to invite scientists in New York During the May A 2011 term, I subjected my On the Menu: The Science of Food City to speak about their research interests. The Bad The goal was to provide students with and Nutrition study group to a blind taste perspectives in the natural and physical test. Throughout the term, we discussed Although not an absolute failure, my sciences, and to bridge the gap between the biological aspects, such as the evolution exercise in basic cell biology nearly science phobias and the people who study of domesticated animals, digestive systems encouraged a mutiny. natural phenomena. In the spring 2011 (both humans and animals), difference term, our guests spoke on topics such as between plant and animal cell structure, Pass the Saccharomyces, Please? genetic disposition to disease, diets, vitamins sexual selection, evolutionary biology, For my Fundamentals of Biology study and supplements, and the chemicals that social learning, marine mammal behavior, group, my aim was to teach students the are found in the food based on processed- creativity in the arts, and green engineering. basic principles in biology: 1) cell biology, food labels. Toward the end of the term, we Our guests also came from several local 2) genetics, 3) evolution, 4) biodiversity, 5) watched Food, Inc. (2008), and discussed institutions, such as Brooklyn College, animal and plant form and function, and the interaction between sustainable New York University, Battery Park City 6) ecology. However, we barely survived plant and animal production versus our Authority, LaGuardia Community College, the cell biology unit. I purchased several perception of the food industry. We also St. Francis College, and one foreign college, compound microscopes to have students continued to discuss poverty, as it relates to Université Paul Sabatier (Toulouse, France). examine plant (onion and elodea) and poor nutrition and obesity. However, as we I asked my speakers to provide us with one animal (human cheek) cells both naturally see a popular movement for local, organic or two research papers, meet an hour before and then stained with methylene blue. A and sustainable products, I challenged my the seminar to discuss their work, and then simple compound microscope does not students’ perceptions on why they believe conduct their presentation. Initially, I found have the capacity to see Lactobacillus organic is better. I established a blind taste that the language intimidates the students, acidophillus (yogurt) or Saccharomyces test that paired foods, either conventional as few had some experience in science cerevisiae (Brewer’s yeast), but I thought or organic, to each other. First, I let my literacy. However, the bridge between text, it would be interesting to see living students see and handle the produce. I person and research made it easier for organisms in our food through the use of presented carrots, strawberries, kiwi, apples, students to link science to their daily lives. digital slides. In addition to the exercise, raspberries, oranges and bananas. To also For example, Dr. Preethi Radhakrishnan I included a worksheet to help guide the consider whether bottled water is better, I (LaGuardia Community College) presented students through the exercise. They were compared mineral water to New York City her research on sexual selection in fruit flies to answer some basic questions (e.g., what tap water. Secondly, after the students saw, (Drosophila melanogaster), and how they is cell theory?), and then to draw the cells

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 30 in different objective powers: 4X, 10X and Biodiversity of Invertebrates in Central Park Conclusion 40X. As I began to set up the exercise, I As a replacement for the flora biodiversity was under fire. One student, who I presume Whether I teach at Empire State College activity that I did in Central Park (fall was propelled by a phobia of the sciences, or at another institution, communicating 2010), I decided to examine insects and began to express her frustration with the science is difficult. However, as a compare select locations instead. To start, text and the reading. In response to this nontraditional institution, we have several and to save time, I intended to collect two displeasure, others joined in to reinforce advantages: 1) reaching a population leaf litter samples from known locations, the sentiment, and to express an inability to that has not viewed science as a learning and to compare two invertebrate samples. absorb biological terms and processes. From opportunity or career; 2) attempting Most insects tend to like leaf litter for the here, the discussion escalated, and many exercises that may or may not work, and if security, darkness and ability to retain more students joined the conversation, as the latter, may never be conducted again; 3) moisture (Hansen, 2000). The samples I saw my lab nearly spiral into oblivion. I employing different pedagogical methods would then be placed in a Berlese funnel saw a social psychology experiment unfold, tailored to the composition of each study to collect invertebrates (Berlese, 1905). as it reflected the actions of a mob simply group; 4) allowing our activities to evolve My students would then be responsible for acting in accordance with what the entire as our population and the environment identifying as many different invertebrates group was doing. It continued to fuel the change; and 5) at the Metropolitan Center, according to their order. Here, students argument. At this stage, approximately using the city as a laboratory. As technology would consider the richness and evenness half the students were in an uproar, becomes more accessible and affordable to across these two sites, and calculate diversity repeating how: A) they believed this was an all communities, it is likely that blended using the Simpson’s Diversity Index [D = introductory level study and not advanced; modes of learning may partner well with ∑(n/N)2]. My hope is for students to employ B) this is not a traditional institution, traditional hands-on activities. I suspect that a truncated aspect of the scientific method: so they should not do traditional work; I may never solve years of science phobia 1) Question: Are there different levels of C) the material was simply difficult to in students, but my hope is to pass on urban biodiversity?; 2) Hypothesis: Location comprehend; and D) the expectations were knowledge that students can impart ‘X’ has higher biodiversity than location ‘Y’; too high. This was only the second week onto others. 3) Test: Assess insect numbers by separating of the spring term. After I entertained these individuals according to order; 4) Results: comments, I took half the group study Note Calculate D; and 5) Discussion: Summarize, period to provide them with my personal interpret, and possibly explain the results I would like to thank Metro Mentor Albert philosophy that: A) education is a basic with support from the scientific literature. Castelo for useful comments and suggestions human right; B) yet, education also is a on this article. luxury and students need to earn it; and Do You Smell Something Fishy? C) despite the high expectations, I find it References disingenuous to provide them with a poor- Historically, the fish sold in neighborhood quality education, whereby they would have supermarkets reflected the species that Ballantyne, R., Packer, J., Hughes, K., & taken an introductory biology study without were locally available; however, and Dierking, L. (2007). Conservation learning the fundamentals and foundations more recently, we have observed a trend learning in wildlife tourism settings: of biology. Undoubtedly, as an educator, to provide people with farmed and wild- Lessons from research in zoos and it was my greatest challenge. However, caught species that are harvested from aquariums. Environmental Education as we proceeded to conduct the lab, I around the globe (Burger et al., 2004). Research, 13, 367-383. was reassured that students were indeed Like the invertebrate biodiversity exercise, Berlese, A. (1905). Apparicchio per learning, when one student peered into the my students will travel to Chinatown, raccogliere presto ed in gran numero di microscope and proclaimed, “That’s it – I do Manhattan and consider the relative piccoli artropodi. Redia, 2, 85-89. see the nucleus.” Parlay, please. biodiversity that we see in local fish markets. Here, students will measure species diversity Bourdain, A. (2009). Medium raw: A The “Works in Progress” and consider whether species are native to bloody valentine to the world of food northeastern United States waters or are and to the people who cook. New For every study and every term, I am nonnative. In addition to employing the York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers. constantly piloting a number of activities. scientific method, this exercise also is meant During the fall 2011 term, my Ecology and Burger, J., Stern, A. H., Dixon, C., to provide students with a perspective on the Environment study intended to look at Jeitner, C., Shukla, S., Burke, S., & global fisheries, supply and demand of fish, insect and marine/aquatic biodiversity. Gochfeld, M. (2004). Fish availability and species sustainability. Furthermore, the in supermarkets and fish markets activity may provide us with data on local in New Jersey. Science of the Total consumption and demand for select marine Environment, 333, 89-97. or freshwater species.

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Hansen, R. A. (2000). Effects of habitat compilation and review of why people (2008). Obesity and diabetes in complexity and composition on purchase organic food. Journal of New York City, 2002 and 2004. a diverse litter microarthropod Consumer Behaviour, 6, 1-17. Preventing Chronic Disease, 5(2). assemblage. Ecology, 81, 1120-1132. Radhakrishnan, P., & Fedorka, K. M. Wallach, J. B., & Rey, M. J. (2009). Harper, G. C., & Makatouni, A. (2002). (2011). Influence of female age, sperm A socioeconomic analysis of obesity Consumer perception of organic food senescence, and multiple mating on and diabetes in New York City. production and farm animal welfare. sperm viability in female Drosophila Preventing Chronic Disease, 6, A108. British Food Journal, 104, 289-299. melanogaster. Journal of Insect U.S. Census Bureau. (2010). American Physiology, 57, 778-783. Hughner, R. S., McDonagh, P., Prothero, community survey. Retrieved from A., Shultz, C. J., & Stanton, J. (2007). Van Wye, G., Kerker, B. D., Matte, http://www.census.gov/acs/www/ Who are organic food consumers? A T., Chamany, S., Eisenhower, D., Frieden, T. R., & Thorpe, L.

“If teachers are never self-critical they will lose their capacity for renewal and growth … if teachers are too self-critical they become powerless and timid. The tension is to end each day with a strong understanding of what could be improved, and to begin the next with forgiveness and hope.”

– William Ayers, To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher, New York: Teachers College Press, 1993, p. 130

Thanks to Katherine Jelly, Center for Mentoring and Learning, for suggesting this quote.

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 32

Three Poems

Susan Jefts, Center for Distance Learning

April A Cello in April At Morikami Gardens

Late evening, and I am standing The moan of a cello in April, I am not a painter. I do not speak Japanese.

by the open window. a movement from under the earth, But I know these words in my bones.

Something that reminds me of everything dark sound beneath the city I hear their rat-a-tat in the bamboo grove,

at once drifts through. and outside a tree stands and listens. feel their silky sway on my skin.

Holds me for a moment like an angel Outside a tree stands and people pass by I swallow them, stumble over them,

or an improbable saint. the place where the cello moans press them into my palms.

Like the rain that will come deeply from under the earth, I walk through the swoosh of the winding path and the forsythia that shines slowly rises into the place to the place called Ochaya, or teahouse. even before it has begun to bloom. where people stop to listen, onto the wooden plank porch I only know that it is April. where the cello begins to breathe where I move inside the wind The river runs fast tonight, and the earth holds and releases. and know at once, mono-no-a-wabi, and the half moon hovers just over the hill. Where the earth holds and releases Japanese for “ahhhness.” and the vibrato hovers and reaches

and the cello moans and rises

like a dark bird in flight,

low just over the city

that sits at the edge of a wood

where the trees moan in delight

at the rise of a cello in April

and the dark bird in flight.

Notes “April” was previously published in the Caffe Lena Anthology, Every Drop of Water (2008). “At Morikami Gardens” was previously published in The Bluestone Review (2008, Spring) and the Parnassus Literary Journal (n.d.).

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 33

Changing with Change: A Conversation with Fernand Brunschwig

Alan Mandell, Metropolitan Center

Fernand Brunschwig, who came to the back many memories of your now 40 years a mandate to do everything that traditional college from studies at Harvard and with the college. What were your feelings campuses weren’t doing with a wholly Berkeley, is one of the founding faculty at when you saw these photos? different structure and a wholly different set Empire State College’s Long Island Center. of resources. I did think that maybe what I’d Fernand Brunschwig: It’s the relationships Between 1972 and 2012, he made many gotten myself into was something closer to with the people – with Pat Lefor, Miriam contributions, including central roles in Tom Sawyer painting the fence. Schocken, Jane Shipton, George Dawson, developing the first “generic” prior learning Nat Brod, Betsy Steltenpohl, Jim Robinson, A .M .: Were you at the Long Island Center evaluation and founding the first student- Beverly Rivera, John Morse – with those from the start? alumni association. Fernand served the great, great people. Those relationships are college in many capacities: as mentor in F .B .: Yes, I was one of the founding faculty all intertwined with work in the college. the Science, Mathematics and Technology at Long Island, one of the 14 founding These are people who really made this faculty. My partner, not yet my wife, and college what it is. I came to New York in August, 1972. We They built the place. rented a car and finally found Trainor A .M .: What lured House. It took a long search! The place you to Empire State was empty. No furniture; no nothing. I College? How did that finally found Barbara O’Connell, the dean’s happen? secretary, who had been one of the first hired, and Nat Brod who had previously F .B .: I was a Berkeley taught at Farmingdale in psychology. The graduate student two of them were calling to order furniture. in physics and They had one phone line and a couple of science education. chairs. That’s all they had. I was writing my dissertation in the A .M .: On what had your previous studies spring of 1972 and focused? What were your expectations of looking for a position. Empire State College in relation to your The business manager academic background? at the Lawrence Hall F .B .: My dissertation was in science where I did my work education; it was about “experiments that came to me one day (l-r) Fernand Brunschwig, Don Park and Echeal Sigan walk.” These were experiments that you c. 1972 - c. 1973 and showed me a copy could do at home. And I took the position of The New York that this was a much better way to teach Times that announced a new college – front area of study, as co-director of the initial people who were new to the sciences rather page, above the fold: “Ford and Carnegie self-study for Middle States accreditation, than bringing them into a monstrous award a million each to Empire State as coordinator of the Stony Brook Unit, as university lab that was often really College.” I thought: “Wow!” And the article founding associate dean of the New York intimidating. Rather than spending the hour included the name of Arthur Chickering. So Telephone Corporate College Program, as and a half they’d usually spend in a lab, I wrote to Chickering and he wrote back acting dean of the Long Island Center, and students would be spending six or 10 hours and said: “Well, if you’re in the east, stop as one of the first mentors in the college’s working at home or in the dorm and sharing by.” So I had an interview and I eventually Master of Arts in Teaching program. what they were doing with friends and got an offer. To me it sounded like a dream Fernand recently retired from the college. family. I had a kind of innovative alternative come true. A chance to be in on the ground We talked about his 40 years at Empire approach to teaching physics right from the floor; a chance to design a place, to come State College on 03 February 2012. start. So I thought: “How great; I’d have up with a program, to do the things you’ve this new college; I can do what I want. Alan Mandell: You mentioned that you had always wanted to do. After I got here, I Adults coming and studying independently. just been given a gift from your Master of realized that it was basically an empty I’ll have my science kits all over Long Arts in Teaching colleagues that brought container that we were being handed with

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 34

Island.” I took the empty vessel a “whole” person, as a that was Empire State College, generalist. Did you welcome and I filled it with my ideas and this? Did you fight against it? my ideals. F .B .: Before I came to Empire A .M .: And did you find that State College, I already was your fantasy had any relationship working against the grain to what your job was? of the traditional physics department. I had realized F .B .: Some. But not a lot. First when I was a senior at of all, there was no support. If Harvard that I wasn’t going I wanted to make a “kit,” for to be in a room with a bunch example, I’d have to do it myself. of equipment all my life, I did some of that, and tried to that I needed contact with write and find things that would people, that I had much help students study science in a broader interests than all of way that I felt was important. the other students who were But we found that a lot of the Fernand Brunschwig (center), co-chair of the initial Accreditation concentrating in physics. I students who were coming to Self-Study, speaking with President Jim Hall at Self-Study Steering went through the Ph.D.-level Empire State College were not Committee meeting c. 1973 - c. 1974. (From left, Mimi Dowd, Jogues Egan and Loren Baritz) physics courses and exams interested in the abstract ideas at Berkeley because I loved that I had grown so fond of. along, I programmed a spreadsheet in Lotus the discipline of physics, but They were practical; they were adults who 1-2-3 called DP Assistant that many, many I knew I wanted to do a thesis in education. had jobs and had experience and they students used throughout the college. I prided myself on being able to think wanted to do better at work. There were no about other areas, to go into new fields and general education requirements, no science A .M .: Even in the early years, did you understand and have fun with them and requirements. And most of them didn’t quite get students who came with technology/ enjoy them. I welcomed the idea of dealing see how physics was going to help them. So engineering backgrounds, with applied with students from all different areas and I had to adapt; I had to change my thinking science-based experiences, who just didn’t trying to stretch them – and myself – to quite a bit. have a degree? design these innovative degrees that no A .M .: And as a new mentor, I presume F .B .: Sure. We got people who had one had seen before. I thought that was that you had to deal with the fact that tremendous backgrounds in those areas fantastic. I was making it up as I went along there was always more than just the who had skills that didn’t appear in any and I could see the results. science side of things. academic catalogue. The “advanced standing” possibility was a huge draw for A .M .: The sheer enjoyment of this F .B .: I had to deal with the whole student, them. They needed guidance and feedback ongoing effort to create a new faculty not just the science piece. So, I had to take on their experiential learning and that again role seems strong. them wherever they were, whatever their required me to learn a lot about something F .B .: We really did have a lot of fun! But it interests, whatever their job. That was an I knew nothing about in order to help – in wasn’t without stress, I must say. There were important foundation of the college, which order to connect with them. I mentored times when I had students with interests I believed in, but I didn’t quite realize what students in physics, math and computers, as that I just didn’t share, and I didn’t want the implications of that were going to be. I well as in chemistry and in subjects such as to go there; there were students who had had to digest that and that changed me as I biology, engineering and technology where interests that I just didn’t think were valid went along. I believed in the students – it’s I had to learn alongside the student. This for an undergraduate degree. And you were not that they weren’t interested in education; kind of teaching was different from what I constantly having to establish standards – it’s not that they were unwilling to put had expected; I still had to know the subject, even making them up on the spot. And all of forward a tremendous effort – but they had but I found that it was equally important to this was hard. to see how it connected with their lives. So connect with the student and to match up I worked pretty hard to find ways to make the topics of study, the expected outcomes, A .M .: How did you think about crafting a those connections and to find ways for and the books and other resources with the professional life for yourself? me to learn about what I needed to do to student’s interests. F .B .: In the beginning, there wasn’t time to connect with them. I became adept at degree think about this. We were busy just building program planning in a wide variety of A .M .: You mentioned that being at the the place. We had to build the committees, areas, not just science, and I wrote a couple college changed you. Certainly part of the the governance, the academic programs; we of books to help my students with degree change seems to be the move from specialist had to hire new faculty and set up review program planning. When the computer came to one who is looking at the student as procedures; we had to have a graduation

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 35 even when half of the faculty at the Long interested and that also involved helping the challenges of science education. Are we Island Center totally opposed having a the college to change. I was the founding at the point now, that some of your dreams graduation because they thought it was too associate dean of what at first was called about how to imaginatively teach science traditional! And back to the stress: there the New York Telephone Corporate College have come to fruition? Have we figured out was a lot of conflict. Here were a whole lot Program. I didn’t have sole responsibility, how to do this well? of creative people who came and, like me, but I hired the initial faculty and was F .B .: I think it’s a mixed record. Given endowed this empty vessel with their own in charge of making it real. That was the way our society has developed, it’s hopes and dreams, and then it turned out something that was new for the college: our not the same world. In 1972, we thought that all of these hopes and dreams were first corporate cooperation. It wasn’t perfect; of things in one way; we had these giant different. And we had to compromise and it had all sorts of contradictions, but we had science curriculum projects that developed there were some who didn’t want to do a great faculty and it was exciting to try to that were wonderful, but for a number that either! So given all of this, we didn’t respond to these students. And it was also of reasons, teachers weren’t necessarily have time to worry or even think about our through this experience that I found out that all able to implement them across the professional identities. There was always I wasn’t necessarily cut out for academic country. Implementation was a huge upheaval; there was always something going administration. Given the complexity of the problem. Nowadays, I think there’s been on. This was it, the college was it. This was college by that time, and the fact that it was a tremendous amount of progress in the whole thing. still changing, I was able to keep finding understanding things from the student’s roles for myself where there were new things A .M .: And the “whole thing” was sufficient point of view. The idea, based on Piaget, is to do. for you, Fernand? that we have to look at what the students do A .M .: And your involvement in the MAT and what their inherent ideas are and how F .B .: Eventually you’d feel a lack. I had program was another example of the college they express their understanding of these many colleagues at Empire State College, changing and of you finding a new niche. ideas; and then we have to provide some but I didn’t have many science colleagues kind of input that helps them modify those at the college. In fact, at Long Island, I had F .B .: I wanted to go back to something ideas to coincide with modern scientific none to begin with. So I reached out beyond I’d been trained at and something that concepts. There’s been excellent research in Empire State College, and I found colleagues I hadn’t been able to use because we science education along these lines. But a at Stony Brook; I was offered an office and weren’t able to have a teacher education lot of that extraordinary research has not I got involved in a project out there. But I program. Our science education efforts necessarily affected the way we teach. That didn’t have time for much beyond Empire were very very minimal because we step still has to be made. State College. couldn’t do certification. We tried to get an undergraduate certification program going A .M .: With more people doing studies A .M .: The college has gone through many but we were turned down cold. And it was online, with more resources available changes over these 40 years. How do you only with the energy of [former president] to more students across the world, with think about the differences between the Joe Moore and the two years of effort that more people trying to create materials that college that you are leaving and the college he put in to raise the $2 million that were people can use outside of the conventional that you started? necessary to start the MAT, and to get the classroom and the traditional laboratory, F .B .: It’s very much bigger; it’s very much State University of New York and the State and with more attention, as you mention, more institutional and established; it has Education Department to say yes, that this to “understanding things from the student’s a development office, an endowment and happened. I thought it was a tremendous point of view,” shouldn’t we be closer to thousands of graduates; it’s got a structure; move for the college to get into professional realizing Berkeley science ed. 1972? it’s got momentum. All of these great things. education and was something that was F .B .: Those are all worthwhile developments The thing that kept me at the college has extremely important for the country at the that I think can and should be continued been change. I’ve always been interested time. I wanted to get involved. I had some and amplified. I’ve done some of this myself in change – in creating something that has expertise that I hadn’t used, and I had to by developing virtual labs, simulations of lasting value. And that’s what we have come up to speed on what was going on physical situations that you can interact done, and I am very proud of the little part in science education; still, that sounded as with. I’ve done one on circular motion, I’ve played. But it’s true that after some though it would be fun. But there was a fair another with musical scales, Newton’s First period of time, I did start to get a little bit amount of conflict as well. It’s Empire State Law … You can try them out by searching bored with the mentoring process, so I got College! Even in a relatively prestructured on my name at http://demonstrations. involved in administration. I was in charge program, everyone had his or her own idea wolfram.com. That is all positive. However, of the Stony Brook Unit, and I got involved about what this program should look like I don’t think you can virtualize everything; in the American Council on Education’s and how it should work. you can virtualize certain things but there fellowship program and I spent a year at A .M .: It’s interesting to me, Fernand, that in are other things that are just better done Iona College in administration. As the an important way, we are returning to your hands-on: in the kitchen, on the table college changed, I gradually found different “physics kits” and to 40 years ago and to top. I’m also not optimistic about all the roles for myself that kept me engaged and

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 36 emphasis on high-stakes tests; there are just occasionally, that Empire State College was way too many standardized tests now, and on the verge of eliminating the narrative it always takes the test-makers years and contract evaluation. Those are the people years to catch up, if they ever can, with who showed me how to be a mentor. the best teaching and the best teachers. A .M .: What will you do with your time? We found out 40 years ago with the big curriculum projects that there’s no way to F .B .: I have been generating ideas for the create a “teacher-proof” curriculum, and last couple of years. I got connected with I think we’re now on the verge of finding Teachers College about four years ago and out that tests can’t create a “teacher-proof” they asked me to teach a course in physics, educational system. Teachers simply must be which has been very nice. So I get the respected and supported for their expertise teachers who are getting certified in physics and their dedication; retaining talented at the master’s level, who already have had science teachers in the profession is now a an undergraduate-level physics experience. huge problem. Fernand Brunschwig 2011 They know things that are more advanced but they don’t really know the basics well A .M .: I know you also got involved in heading toward the future and changing, enough, which is what they will be expected working with students in the computer- it’s going to die. It’s not like the Ivy League to teach. They often don’t know how to go related areas. or the Big Ten, where you can rely on about answering students’ questions, and F .B .: I had tremendous students in these momentum almost forever, just turning the they don’t have much of a clue about how areas. There were times when my load was crank. Empire State College must be very to be a mentor. I have a lot of fun with totally filled up with computer people. I got involved in the latest stuff – what’s going that. I’ve also gotten involved with the New into that very early; it was another chance on with the state, what’s going on with the York Academy of Science; I’m the chair of to change, to stretch out a little bit. So I budget, with national workforce issues, with the science education section. We’re now taught myself all about computers and I the unions – I think that’s partly what gives running programs for more than 1,200 went out and got a master’s degree at Stony Empire State College its life blood. I just high school science teachers. I’ve always Brook in computer science. Students weren’t didn’t think I was at the stage where I could wanted to do something for physics in New clamoring to take physics; it required a sell change again in that way. So that told me York City. Physics has deteriorated in the job. They did want to learn about computer the story. city; there are research studies showing that applications and that’s what we did together. A .M .: So you’re suggesting that, above the number of physics courses and physics teachers in the high schools is gradually A .M .: What are your feelings at this all, one of the abiding core values of decreasing. Outside of the specialized moment as you are stepping away from Empire State College is something like schools, physics is crashing. I’ve wanted to something that you have been doing for “stay in flux.” contribute to nourishing physics teachers, so 40 years? F .B .: I think the concern for students, we now have a Google group of about 90 F .B .: I was apprehensive, I must say. I lost access and responding to what students are physics teachers, and once a month we also some sleep over it. The possibility of taking interested in – these are our core values; and meet at Teachers College where we have a Empire State College out of my life would I think that mentoring has a lot to do with physics lab and we offer workshops. We are give me all of this time and that would be that. Does that mean that we always have even going to conduct an intensive three- nice, but still it was so satisfying having this to have one mentor and one student and week workshop on physics teaching in July! set of demands that I knew I had to meet. I learning contracts and narrative evaluations? It’s been exciting and refreshing. I guess I’ve learned how to do all of the things I needed I don’t think so. As much expertise as I never left science education. to learn to make it work, even in the MAT, developed in doing that, as much pleasure A .M .: Thanks for your time, Fernand. Any and I’d be throwing all of that away for this I took in doing it well, and as much as final thoughts? unsettled existence. I thought the college I believed in it, as much as I knew how was starting to change again. I could feel it. effective that could be, it just wasn’t going F .B .: It’s been a fantastic ride. It really has. The scope of it, the emphasis of it, the new to fly forever. There were many new people The college has been extraordinarily good to people – change was everywhere. If I had around the college with their own goals and me. I think I’ve helped the college in many been a younger man I probably would have their own ideas and ideals. That vision of ways; I’ve invested a lot; I’ve had a lot of said: “Hey, great! Now we’ve got another mentoring was just too big, too complicated; relationships that I’ll continue. I really don’t chance to make it new.” Because it needs we just couldn’t maintain it. So if the college think that what I’ve been able to do in these to be redone. I still think that Empire State was going to progress, we were going to 40 years of experience would have been College is one of the most exciting, dynamic have to do something about it. It hurts me possible anywhere else. I really don’t think and wonderful institutions because it has a bit, especially when I think about people so. That the college has been able to keep this protean quality. It can change and needs like Jane Shipton and Nat Brod, or when I me interested through all of these years of to change. As soon as this college stops had to tell Betsy Steltenpohl, who I still see change is pretty amazing.

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Sophisticates, Stereotypes and the Wilderness of Mirrors: International Teaching and Learning

David Starr-Glass, Center for International Programs

mpire State College’s Center Transnational Education and for International Programs has Faculty Enrichment E a small faculty dedicated to its foreign operations. Recognizing the One of the great opportunities that benefits of international teaching and International Programs provides for the learning, International Programs offers the college community is ongoing contact with opportunity for state-side faculty to create students who would not normally find and deliver short courses in the summer. their way to New York, or be a part of our Such exposure can have considerable impact domestic learning programs. Engagement on faculty enrichment and development. with these students in teaching and learning Direct engagement in international situations can allow faculty to develop a education is obviously most effective better appreciation of issues in cross-cultural for providing faculty with cross-cultural communication and to encounter different exposure; however, the number of state-side assumptions, values and perspectives David Starr-Glass faculty members who can experience this via inherent in cross-border education. These International Programs is limited because issues, while perhaps brought into sharper model in which the college logistically and of logistics and budget considerations. relief in international situations, also have educationally engages with students in their Appreciating this, International Programs relevance and utility in dealing with all of own geographic regions, embedded in their faculty are encouraged, wherever possible, our students. own cultures. This model of international to share experiences with the broader In most American colleges, working with education has become increasingly popular college community in the hope that our “international students” is restricted to the for a number of reasons: rising interest in engagement with international students relatively small percentage (approximately the value of dominant models of education might stimulate more general discussions 2 percent) of those who have left their (represented by America, Australia and the and exchanges regarding the nature of home countries in pursuit of higher United Kingdom); the official recognition of teaching and learning. education goals. The characteristics of educational services as part of global trade; This article is an attempt to do that: to these students living on campuses in and the availability of effective modes of share thoughts and reflections gained in America – attitudes toward academic educational delivery (notably electronic) that an international teaching and learning disciplines and toward the educational can support and complement transnational situation that might be of interest to our process, levels of motivation, awareness and efforts. Increased transnational availability broader community of learning. The venue adjustment to national culture, and styles of education also provides a rich cluster of this experience was Prague where, in the of communication – can differ significantly of opportunities and possibilities for the spring of 2011, I created and conducted from their peers, who have remained in faculties involved in such initiatives: a new cross-cultural management course. their own countries to engage in local or • Responding to national and cultural It is hoped that this essay will not only transnational educational programs. difference. The most obvious issue for communicate some of the issues associated Transnational educational models allow faculty is in effectively communicating with international educational engagement students to remain in their countries of their discipline across a divide of but also will prompt (perhaps even inspire) origin – or perhaps to make less culturally cultural and national difference. American-based colleagues to consider challenging moves to neighboring countries This is significant when a “teaching” offering courses through International – and work with an educational provider model of education is involved; it is, Programs. A fuller, more technical discussion that operates locally, but that is based in yet however, critical when the delivery of my learning experience, written for an another country. (For example, transnational mode accentuates distance learning or intended audience of course designers and learning might involve a student from when it tries to establish a relational cross-cultural management specialists, also is Kazakhstan learning in the Czech Republic engagement with the learner. The available (Starr-Glass, 2011). at an American-based college.) International challenge is to appreciate the constraints Programs has adopted a transnational and unique bridges to learning that

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confront students. National and target country, students are immersed (Johnson, Lenartowicz & Apud, 2006; cultural dimensions are always a part in the culture of their local campus Thomas & Fitzsimmons, 2008; of the learning engagement, even if and assumed to be absorbing college Witte, 2010). unrecognized. Instructors, who see and educational values by some vague While the need exists for international themselves primarily as catalysts in process of osmosis. Transnational awareness and exploration – and while the learning engagement rather than students, however, have to be sensitized attempts to introduce this into the as teachers struggling to fill what to institutional cultures and values undergraduate business administration are perceived as empty vessels, must and, for this to occur, faculty have to curriculum are laudable – a number of understand more about cultures of become critically aware of their own difficulties have surfaced. Undergraduates learning and of education other than values and what they consider essential sometimes prefer immediate answers their own. Cultural assumptions and to transmit to their students. The issue (however imperfect), rather than deeper perspectives will inevitably be brought is on clarification and portrayal, not on explorations of issues (however thoughtful) by students to the learning encounter. doctrinal or jingoistic conversion. or more careful articulations of questions • Clarification and articulation of • Personal and professional development. (however difficult). Additionally, many our own assumptions and values. By participating mindfully in business faculty members lack cross-cultural Transnational programs also require transnational programs, faculty training, or have had little experiential the more considered recognition are exposed to different environments contact with other cultural environments. and purposeful projection of the and cultural experiences. This allows The result of these constraints, frequent cultural values and perspectives of the faculty members to appreciate the but not inevitable, is that studies of educational provider. This articulation setting in which learners are embedded cross-cultural management tend to be the is required for students to appreciate and to consider alternative approaches victims of “quick-and-dirty treatment by the distinctive educational culture to making effective learning take practitioners and students who are looking (often nationally shaped) in which place. Exposure to different countries for ways to simplify and make sense of the they are to learn and progress. A and different student populations, world” (Osland & Bird, 2000, p. 67). communication of values (often little if considered and reflected upon, “Quick-and-dirty treatment” also parallels considered) is critical for the learning can enrich instructors and suggest our common behavior in cross-cultural integrity of the institution and its different teaching and learning situations. When we first visit a foreign participating students. Graduating perspectives. Efforts to learn the country, it is quite easy to notice not only students will, in a sense, be products language and history of the place the similarities but also the differences in of the home institution, connected to can reinvigorate those used to the ways that people talk about themselves, it through a commonly appreciated teaching, recasting them in the role of understand their environment, construct sense of value, purpose and tradition. learners. Explorations of difference in their national histories and consider their Transnational students often select educational, professional and personal collective trajectory through history. nondomestic institutions of higher spheres can lead to a deepening The Czech anthropologist Ladislav Holy learning to gain an understanding commitment to the ongoing enterprise (1996) notes that “national identity, like of a different, preferred, educational of educating and exploring Otherness. all other identities, is always constructed in philosophy. In “international” contexts, opposition to those perceived as the Other” where participants have travelled to the Stereotypes and Mirrors (p. 5). Even on a short visit, if you listen to The cross-cultural management course people and seek out their understandings was designed and offered in response to about their country, you can catch a glimpse Transnational students a growing need for international business not only of the national identity that is … have to be sensitized administration students to be aware of projected but also of the oppositional and sensitive to differences in managerial Other that has been constructed as a foil to institutional cultures approaches and national culture. In the against which to accentuate difference. and values and, for this last 20 years, increased globalization and Sometimes it is this initial perception – manager mobility have made it much more useful but superficial – that becomes the to occur, faculty have to likely that business graduates will deal with focus in teaching cross-cultural issues, or in become critically aware those of another culture. Generally, there explaining to students what might constitute has been a trend to accentuate international national identity and its ramifications in of their own values environments in business education and cross-border management situations. There and what they consider to allow students to consider and reflect is an attractive clarity in this first blush of on them, hopefully gaining competencies difference that leads so many international essential to transmit to in cross-cultural aspects of business, educational programs to accentuate their students. management and human resource work the “sari, samosas, and steel band,” as Pasternak has it (1998, p. 260).

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The initial thoughts on national identity & Bodenhausen, 1994). But stereotypes also reconsideration – and often confusion – and cross-cultural difference are reassuring: act as anchors – remaining unchallenged, that her students are prepared, or might be national culture defines the Other and, generally resisting revision and inhibiting a expected, to accept. in a sense, contains it. Initial responses drift into deeper more confusing reappraisals to national cultural difference are often (Epley & Gilovich, 2006). Authenticity and Action Research couched in terms of the exotic and the Deeper ventures into a country, particularly Cross-cultural management courses magical. In Slavic countries, for example, ventures in search of national culture, present their own interesting dynamics and when I meet someone coming out of his have a complex and strangely paradoxical challenges. These challenges are the primary office, I have to remember not to shake result. Osland (2000) found that long-term concern of those who craft and initiate hands – it is considered bad luck to shake sojourners in foreign countries – typically these learning experiences. Facilitating hands over a threshold. This is something managers in international enterprises – learning in this area requires specific that I learned when I went to say goodbye had a less structured and more nuanced disciplinary competencies and preferably to a friend (a Dutch professor of Polish perspective of national culture and identity. experience of cross-cultural communication literature), who was a fellow student in a Often, what they experienced was that and engagement. But the creation of Czech language class in Prague. He looked confrontation with a recognized Other these learning environments also requires at my extended hand and sharply pulled me evoked a sense of how little they really knew a consideration of broader educational into his room, explaining at some length the about their own culture. They talked about and learning perspectives. An additional transgression that I had almost committed. the resulting confusion of their own cultural dimension, and one pertinent to this article, Likewise, when I buy four roses for my identity, of questioned personal boundaries, is that “constructing learning environments” Czech hostess, the florist will probably of complexities in forming and sustaining is not simply a more politically correct suggest that “five” – or any odd number relationships, and of work-related role or convoluted way of talking about – might be a better number, unless it is my conflict (Osland & Osland, 2006). “teaching”: there is a real and fundamental intention to lay the roses at a graveside, in difference. Within the space that constitutes Moving beyond the trivial border posts of which case an even number of blossoms the learning environment, there is an a country – residing there for a long time, would be appropriate. The florist will most opportunity for all participants to learn – learning the language, reviewing the politics, likely suggest this because, for her, it is an to come to an informed understanding, to talking about identity and aspirations – intuitive cultural issue and she appreciates assess issues in a critical manner, to integrate result in a deepening complexity, which my foreignness. Equally, she does not want and complement prior understanding, and to might be salutary for the individual but my Czech hostess to feel any awkwardness. appreciate that to learn is to change. In this, remains difficult to articulate to others. Such Subtle nuances, but once experienced there is no reasonable distinction between excursions into Otherness are often like T. S. always remembered. Remembered too those who are institutionally labeled as Eliot’s “wilderness of mirrors” where images well perhaps; these are part of, but only students or as instructors – all those in the are illusive and illusionary: reflecting parts a small and peripheral part, of what it is learning environment should hopefully learn of ourselves that we had not considered, to be Slavic or Czech. But thresholds and and be changed. emphasizing enigma, and causing a the number of flowers in a bouquet often disorientation that can be debilitating. One of the aims in creating the new cross- have disproportionate importance in the cultural management course was to provide minds of the casual visitor. They often limit This has two implications. At a personal the opportunity for new learning to occur, the excursion into the culture, providing level, all incursions into Otherness and it was understood that I also would clear but insignificant points of references constitute a continuum of awareness learn through this experience. So, in a that appear to be border posts, clearly and and confusion: a struggle between the spirit of educational egalitarianism and unequivocally delimiting national territory. superficial understanding and sophisticated democracy, the learning environment was stereotypes of the visitor and the confusion Obvious, exotic and magical difference can constructed to allow for a collaborative and new openness of the sojourner. The help us construct what have been called flow of experience and consideration second implication is for the instructor – or “sophisticated stereotypes” (Osland & Bird, on the issues of cross-cultural difference the fellow traveler/guide in educational 2000), which serve the dubious purpose of and similarity. The aim was to create a encounters – in cross-cultural management reifying superficial difference and prejudicing learning space in which all participants work. There is a tension between leaving fuller cross-national engagement by would hopefully steer their own unique students with their initial unfounded clarity reducing “a complex culture to a shorthand course between the allure of sophisticated about national difference or challenging description” (p. 66). Stereotypes, of course, stereotype and confusion of a cultural them to become lost and despondent in the have a valuable function. In a world of wilderness of mirrors. As conceptual aids complexity and confusion about the country buzzing complexity and limited mental in achieving this middle path, two elements that they are trying to understand. Of processing capacity, stereotypes and heuristic were introduced into the coursework: course, the wise instructor will seek neither judgments provide rapid solutions and the use of authentic examples and a extreme; however, she will have to make prevent paralysis due to over-complexity (De consideration based on action research. a decision about the degree of complexity, Neys & Vanderputte, 2011; Macrae, Milne

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Authenticity, as related to learning and the ways in which they themselves or suggest. Critically, it also allowed experiences, attempts to introduce real- are part of the cross-cultural process. It participants to look at actual cross-cultural life problems and situations. Learning also was hoped that these exchanges also management scenarios from the published participants are encouraged to consider would allow me to more fully understand literature and comment on these as though these authentic replications of an the individual and collective reflections of each participant was him or herself a subject experienced world and the instructor members of different national cultures. matter expert in his or her own national (mentor/fellow traveler/guide) encourages culture. This required participants to identify The second conceptual ingredient of this students to appreciate the issues raised and explore what might have been intuitive course was the use of action research. Action and supports their efforts to move beyond responses or assumed stereotypes in viewing research is a methodology which recognizes the specific to more general principles. themselves and others. that (Corey, 1953) “it is impossible to know Authentic experiences are characterized as: definitely in advance the exact nature of An action research methodology has been being grounded in ill-formulated problems the inquiry that will develop” (p. 519). used in many situations where outcomes and circumstances; having meaningful Rather than a linear model of research, were not predictable, and where it was contexts; possessing depth, complexity and action research moves forward in a series anticipated that changed behavior brought enduring relevance; involving cooperative of continuing loops: incorporating new about by a sharing of initial research relationships and shared consequences; data, refining assumptions and predictions, results would lead to new contexts. It is and being perceived as real and worth and advancing discovery as new facts are a methodology, but it also is a way of investigating or solving (Lebow & revealed. Engagement in action research instigating change and reconsideration of Wager, 1994). does not mean that the question is asked, initial practice. It has broad implications in Using authentic experiences resonates with the hypothesis made, the research done and change situations: Bridget Somekh (2006) a more general instructional philosophy: the solution is available. Rather, it means has used it to promote deeper intercultural authentic learning. Instructors who use that based on an acknowledged tentative knowledge and understanding; Carolyn authentic learning as a strategy in their collection of data, interim solutions are Holmes (2008) to stimulate an interest learning environments tend to agree with proposed, which are acted upon with the in research articles among social work Van Oers and Wardekker (1999) who intent of obtaining new data, which will practitioners; and others to develop content understand it as: “the dynamic relationship be reviewed and incorporated into prior in higher education or to reformulate between a personality-under-construction findings, to arrive at another – hopefully learning programs (Burchell, 2000; and cultural practices-being-reconstructed, more complete – solution, and so on. Krockover, Shepardson, Adams, Eichinger which is aimed at developing an authentic & Nakhleh, 2002). As a methodology, action research and autonomous person able to participate de-accentuates the role of the researcher in a competent, yet critical way in cultural Reflection on Things Learned (instructor) and incorporates the positions practice” (p. 231). Authentic learning and contributions of those involved in Course participants judged that the new activities provide opportunities for deep the study (course participants). It suggests cross-cultural management course worked (rather than surface) learning (Biggs, 1999; and responds to a greater degree of well. Of course, problems were revealed Rosie, 2000) and for learning participants democracy and participative collaboration and new instructional directions were to appreciate the relevance, complexity in the investigation (Carr & Kemmis, suggested; however, the original design and and transferability of the knowledge that 2005). Action research is open, tentative its implementation seemed to have resulted they construct from their explorations and responsive to new developments and in all participants leaving the experience (Choo, 2007). feedback. Winter (1998) notes that it “does with a more refined awareness of the extent It was hoped that grounding the new not aim to make an initial ‘comprehensive’ to which national culture and identity learning environment in authentic cross- review of all previous relevant knowledge; cultural experiences would not only be rather it aims instead at being flexible and of interest to participants, but also would creative as it improvises the relevance of encourage them to appreciate the fuzziness different types of theory at different stages My own interests were and counterintuitive aspects of much cross- in the work” (p. 370). in facilitating learners cultural work. In the event, students were In my new course, an action research asked to read contemporary fieldwork to appreciate cultural approach was considered advantageous and research associated with cross-cultural because it recognized the limits and bridges, to negotiate management initiatives in many different limitations of “hard data” (empirical, countries. They were asked to study these them, and to understand objective and value-free) in arriving at experiences and to try to understand what cross-cultural solutions. It encouraged through that process would have happened had the situation students to articulate the kinds of additional occurred in their own country. This, it was more about national information, reconsidered assumptions hoped, would encourage participants to and changed action that they would seek cultural issues generally. appreciate and analyze cultural difference

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 41 are critical issues – often unrecognized or recognized – latent and nascent feelings, by degree into larger, more ill-defined incorrectly assessed – in cross-cultural work, attitudes and dispositions that were only versions of sources from which they especially in business-related contexts. revealed and examined when brought into have been extracted. focus by a prevailing difference. My own interests were in facilitating • Engagement with international students learners to appreciate cultural bridges, to In this particular experience, my interest demands awareness. The awareness negotiate them, and to understand through was in the set of values that the Russian that seems particularly relevant is the that process more about national cultural students shared in their cross-cultural uniqueness and individuality that the issues generally. Of course, I include management explorations. They often Other always possesses, but which myself as a learner in that enterprise. Of explained that they considered that those labeled as international students particular interest to me was the shift in there was cultural convergence: that have in abundance. Whether on their student demographics that has slowly been globalization was concerned not only own territory as transnational students, occurring in our Prague program. Initially, with trade and commerce, but also with or on our campuses as visiting students, the majority of our students were either values and attitudes. However, often on they deserve to be appreciated and Czechs or Slovaks. Czechs, in particular, reconsideration, they expressed some doubt understood for their own uniqueness. are keen to point out that their country lies about the globalization of cultural values They also deserve our attention in at the very heart of Europe; that Vienna is and referred to their own value systems matters of communication, crossing east of Prague; and that the Czech lands that have been formulated in the difficult difference and inclusion. – for good and for ill – have always acted and turbulent times since the implosion • Learning engagement with international as a buffer, and sometimes as a bridge, of communism. students is dynamic and stimulating. Of between Western and Eastern Europe: blocs These reflections are not so much about course, all learning engagements should characterized by significant differences in details but about pervasive issues that have aspire to be dynamic; however, the religion, culture and attitude. shaped my international engagement over added nuances and subtleties of cross- Over the years, however, our Prague the years. A number of these seem to be cultural issues can introduce layers of program, has succeeded in attracting an of importance: excitement. The excitement is centered, increasing percentage of new students perhaps, more on the instructor who • Otherness, while imperfectly from Eastern Europe, from Russian has to explore and navigate new communicated, does exist. Difference in and from the Central Asian republics vistas and landscapes. This should values and assumptions, particularly in (Uzbekistan, Khazakstan) that were once not detract from the learning value of terms of a national culture and identity, part of the former USSR. I was interested the enterprise; instead, it should add can be viewed as relatively small or in understanding more about the national a freshness and vitality that might be large. Its degree depends on distance culture and identity of this newer student all the more obvious simply because and its significance on acceptance and body. In the event, 23 students participated we have labeled our students as inclusiveness. However, Otherness in this blended course – lecture presentations “international.” This dynamic and is perhaps better acknowledged and at beginning and end, online contact in excitement also might be profitably responded to than avoided or ignored. between. Course participants came from shared with students. Convergence of national cultural values six different countries – Russia (14), Czech may well be taking place, and such • Learning engagements should be Republic (3), Slovakia (3), Canada (1), India values are themselves being constantly inclusive and benefit all. While there is (1) and Turkey (1) – but did not include constructed and reconstructed, a concern for the student, shifting to any other Eastern Europeans or those from individual national cultures, however an awareness of participants can stress central Asia. ill-defined, have not vanished or ceased that power, authority and influence do Over the years, I have reflected on the to be important. not flow from the centralized instructor. impact – both personal and professional I learn from my students in ways • Stereotypes are unavoidable but – of cross-cultural and international that they cannot perhaps appreciate. need not be limiting. Stereotyping experiences. A number of these experiences Sometimes that learning can be used is an inevitable human response to have been subsequently shared in All thoughtfully in future encounters with uncertainly, complexity and ambiguity. About Mentoring (Starr-Glass, 2008; 2009; other students: sometimes it can only It provides a fast, sometimes comforting 2010), or published in the peer-reviewed change me, which also is advantageous. place from which one makes judgments literature. These reflections, together with In the cross-cultural management and reaches conclusions. It also tends the present ones, do not point to some course, a deliberate objective was to to be resistant to revision and self- sudden realization or quantum shift in create added value for myself as well fulfilling, making the stereotype such an understanding. Rather, they suggest that as for other participants. We might enduring feature of the landscape. But exposure to cross-cultural environments and have learned different things, but the even sophisticated stereotypes can be situations bring about a reconsideration of experience provided each of us with recognized, questioned and transmuted assumptions, assumptions not previously an opportunity to reflect on what we

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thought we understood, realize that our be generalized and used to inform all of Epley, N., & Gilovich, T. (2006). The knowledge was bounded, and make our teaching and learning work. There is anchoring-and-adjustment heuristic: the attempt to push the boundaries value in international education: it acts as Why the adjustments are insufficient. and reconfigure our understanding. a hot-house for germinating innovative Psychological Science, 17(4), 311-318. Put another way, if I did not learn solutions to novel problems; as a forum for Holmes, C. M. (2008). How can curriculum anything from my engagement with reconsidering basic and evolving aspects of action research be used to promote students, what is the likelihood that our educational philosophy and practice. post qualifying practice teaching award they themselves learned anything? The value in international education is not candidates’ interest in research articles? simply for our International Programs but Social Work Education, 27(7), 695-709. The Value and Possibility of also is available, through communication International Engagement Holy, L. (1996). The little Czech and the and sharing, for the whole college great Czech nation: National identity As our college moves toward a new community of learning. Hopefully, some and the post-communist social challenge of openness and accessibility, readers will themselves explore dimensions transformation. Cambridge Studies faculty members might begin to consider that they consider significant through the in Social and Cultural Anthropology, how they may contribute and respond to lens of international engagement in new No. 103. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge these exciting opportunities. It sometimes learning environments. If so, they may University Press. happens that the discussion is centered on be interested in sharing their ideas and the technology or the logistics of change; course offerings directly with International Johnson, J. P., Lenartowicz, T., & Apud, whereas, in reality, the issue is more about Programs. To be present in educational S. (2006). Cross-cultural competence how we will use increased connectedness engagements is to be open to change. in international business: Toward a to engage in more appropriate and effective Involvement in international teaching definition and a model. Journal of teaching and learning. Connections, in an and learning is one of the most direct and International Business Studies, 37, electronic or social sense, are important inspiring ways of initiating personal and 525–543. but they are only the stage upon which our professional growth. Krockover, G. H., Shepardson, D. P., action and efforts are played out. Adams, P. E., Eichinger, D., & Nakhleh, References As we move forward to further connectivity, M. B. (2002). Reforming and assessing it is important to appreciate that this Biggs, J. (1999). Teaching for quality undergraduate science instruction using increases potential but does not guarantee learning at university: What the collaborative action-based research excellence. The old goal remains the future student does. Buckingham, UK: Open teams. School Science and Mathematics, goal: to connect with new learners in University Press. 102(6), 266-284. meaningful, effective ways that facilitate Burchell, H. (2000). Facilitating action Lebow, D., & Wager, W. W. (1994). successful learning and bring about research for curriculum development Authentic activity as a model educational gains. This constant challenge is in higher education. Innovations in for appropriate learning activity: simply made more obvious in international Education and Training International, Implications for emerging instructional and transnational situations, where we 37(3), 263-269. technologies. Canadian Journal of are more conscious of the processes of Educational Communication, 23(3), communicating and crossing boundaries Carr, W., & Kemmis, S. (2005). Staying 231- 244. and borders. These boundaries and borders, critical. Educational Action Research, different but just as real, also are confronted 13(3), 347-358. Macrae, C. N., Milne, A. B., & – but often unrecognized – in engagement Bodenhausen, G.V. (1994). Stereotypes Choo, C. B. (2007). Activity-based with our “domestic,” home-grown learners. as energy saving devices: A peek approach to authentic learning in a inside the cognitive toolbox. Journal This essay has attempted, briefly and vocational institute. Educational Media of Personality and Social Psychology, perhaps imperfectly, to share my experience International, 44(3), 185-205. 66, 37-47. in designing and managing a specific course Corey, S. M. (1953). Action research to in a specific context. There were aspects Osland, J. S. (2000). The journey inwards: improve school practices. New York, of the design and conceptual framework Expatriate hero tales and paradoxes. NY: Teachers College Press. that might be of value to others confronted Human Resource Management, 39(2/3) with similar instructional design situations. De Neys, W., & Vanderputte, K. (2011). 227-239. More importantly, however, was the When less is not always more: Osland, J. S., & Bird, A. (2000). Beyond attempt to convey that engaging in Stereotype knowledge and reasoning sophisticated stereotyping: Cultural learning experiences where difference development. Developmental sensemaking in context. Academy of is recognized – whether in terms of cross- Psychology, 47(2), 432-441. Management Executive, 14(1), 65-77. cultural work, international education or transnational student behavior – can

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Osland, J. S., & Osland, A. (2006). Starr-Glass, D. (2008, Winter). Bridges Thomas, D. C., & Fitzsimmons, S. R. Expatriate paradoxes and cultural in Croatia: Challenges, possibilities, (2008). Cross-cultural skills and involvement. International Studies and opportunities in international abilities: From communication of Management and Organization, education. All About Mentoring, competence to cultural intelligence. In 35(4), 91-114. 33, 33-38. P. Smith, M. Peterson, & D. Thomas (Eds.), The handbook of cross-cultural Pasternak, M. (1998). Is international Starr-Glass, D. (2009, Fall). Beyond management research (pp. 201-215). education a pipe dream? A question the sardine hedge: A metaphoric Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. of values. In M.C. Hayden, & reconsideration of international J. J. Thompson (Eds.), International education. All About Mentoring, Van Oers, B., & Wardekker, W. (1999). On education: Principles and practice 36, 24-29. becoming an authentic learner: Semiotic (pp. 253-275). London, UK: activity in early grades. Journal of Starr-Glass, D. (2010, Spring). The orphans’ Kogan Page. Curriculum Studies, 31(2), 229-249. motto: Strangerhood in international Rosie, A. (2000). Deep learning: A education and mentoring. A metaphoric Winter, R. (1998). Managers, spectators and dialectical approach drawing on tutor- reconsideration of international citizens: Where does ‘theory’ come from led web resources. Active Learning in education. All About Mentoring, in action research? Educational Action Higher Education, 1(1), 45-59. 37, 40-46. Research, 6(3), 361–376.

Somekh, B. (2006). Constructing Starr-Glass, D. (2011). Between stereotype Witte, A. E. (2010). The global awareness intercultural knowledge and and authenticity: Using action research curriculum in international business understanding through collaborative in a cross-cultural management course. programs: A critical perspective. action research. Teachers and Teaching: Journal of International Education in Journal of Teaching in International Theory and Practice, 12(1), 87-106. Business, 4(2), 112-124. Business, 21(2), 101-131.

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Reports from the NEH Summer Institutes

MaryNell Morgan and Wayne Ouderkirk, Northeast Center

The National Endowment for the emerged among the participants and the Humanities Summer Program in the directors. We continue to communicate Humanities for School and College with each other; we invite each other to our Educators provides college and university various campuses, to conferences, and to teachers opportunities to study a variety educational and social activities. of humanities topics from history to I attribute the outstanding quality of this philosophy to political science to literature NEH Summer Institute to its leaders, visiting and languages. Faculty apply to the NEH faculty, field visits, cultural experiences, to participate in a specific residential location, and the participants themselves. summer program across the country. More The visiting faculty all made valuable information is provided at www.neh.gov. contributions in their areas or expertise. (Note that most applications are due by 01 March.) Two of our colleagues attended in For me, the most memorable of the visiting the summer of 2011, and here, they share faculty (and their topics) were: their experiences with us. MaryNell Morgan • Leslie Brown, “Doing Local and Public History”; The Role of Place in African- American Biography engaged with an extensive bibliography, • Charles Dew, “Slavery in the USA”; from which particular readings were MaryNell Morgan • David Levinson and Emilie Piper, selected. In addition to the readings, the “Elizabeth ‘Mum Bett’ Freeman: A I was honored to be one of the 25 applicants visiting faculty and field trips provided an Biography,” and “Searching for Mum selected to participate in the 2011 National intensive, engaging and enjoyable learning Bett: The Documents”; Endowment for the Humanities Summer experience. As my project, I examined Institute titled “The Role of Place in the concept of “place” as geography • Gretchen Gerzina, “Lucy Terry Prince African-American Biography.” The four and “place” as social position through and Abijah Prince: A Case Study”; week institute, June 13 - July 9, 2011, considering the multiple places that • Jerrianne Boggis, “The Life of was sponsored by Massachusetts College influenced the life and work of William Harriet Wilson”; of Liberal Arts, Williams College and Edward Burghardt Du Bois. the Upper Housatonic African-American • Gary Nash, “Agrippa Hull, Tadeus Like the directors, the participants came Heritage Trail and was directed by Frances Kosciuszko and Thomas Jefferson”; from several social science and humanities Jones-Sneed, professor of history, MCLA; disciplines, as well as interdisciplinary • Patricia Sullivan, special lecture Richard Courage, professor of English programs, including history, English, at Clinton AMEZ Church, Great and literature, Westchester Community literature, anthropology, political science, Barrington, Mass., “Lift Every Voice, College – State University of New York and public administration, Africana studies, Du Bois and the NAACP”; and Robert Paynter, professor of anthropology, and women’s studies. Among us were University of Massachusetts – Amherst. In • Deborah Willis, “The Tradition of graduate students, independent scholars, this brief essay, I attempt a statement of the Black Photographic Masters” and junior and senior professors from highlights of the institute, an assessment “James Van Der Zee: A Case Study.” community colleges, four-year colleges of its value to me and other participants, and universities, and Historically Black All the field trips and cultural events were and an encouragement to my Empire State Colleges and Universities. The variety of excellent; they added a dimension of College colleagues to consider applying for interrelated topics and the multiple lenses of learning that could only be achieved through an NEH Summer Institute. the participants contributed to thoughtful direct experience. We visited: Five biographies provided the primary focus and engaging discussions. On several • The Juneteenth Celebration: Craig of the institute, including those of Elizabeth occasions we voluntarily continued our Harris performed James Weldon “Mum Bett” Freeman, Agrippa Hull, discussions beyond our scheduled session. Johnson’s “God’s Trombones” at the Reverend Samuel Harrison, W.E.B. Du Bois In addition, at the request of participants, Colonial Theatre, Pittsfield, Mass.; and James Van Der Zee. Participants were an informal discussion session was added to our activities. An “esprit de corps”

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• UMASS-Amherst; the W.E.B. Du One important theme that attracted me Bois Library and the Department of to this institute was its humanities focus. Anthropology Archaeology Lab, and On its website, the co-directors observed Historic Deerfield and the Places of that discussions of sustainability usually Lucy Terry Prince; turn almost immediately to discussions of economics, climate science, and political and • The Ashley House, Sheffield, Mass.; policy issues. Perhaps it was those kinds of • Berkshire Athenaeum Public Library, foci that, in part, had made me wary of the Pittsfield, Mass.; and concept of sustainability. I had previously avoided making use of the concept in my • Du Bois’ Great Barrington, including teaching and writing, instead staying within the Clinton AMEZ Church, the the more traditional “environmental” arena. boyhood site, the Mahaiwe Cemetery, But here was a major scholarly gathering and the birth place. that promised to broaden out the discussion Wayne Ouderkirk I have previously visited most of these to the humanities. There was no way I was sites, yet to go there with the leaders and not going to apply, and I am more than participants in the institute was very special. Institute. Sponsored by Arizona State happy that I did so. All the nonhumanities aspects of sustainability issues are important, This was my third, and most outstanding University’s Institute for Humanities no doubt, but an exclusive focus on them of three excellent NEH Summer Institutes. Research and held at Northern Arizona obscures the fact that the humanities, too, Prior to joining the faculty at Empire State University in Flagstaff, Ariz., the gathering have important contributions to make College, I was an NEH Institute participant had as its theme, “Rethinking the Land to our understanding and responses to in 1982 where we took up the theme of Ethic: Sustainability and the Humanities.” sustainability – as they have for many, many “Southern Black Culture” at Spelman What follows are some of my own issues that affect our human condition. College, Atlanta, Ga.; and in 1991, during reflections on the institute itself, my which we examined “Behind the Veil: experience there and its aftermath, and some Neither sustainability nor Leopold’s land Documenting African-American Life in thoughts about the role of such experiences ethic is exclusive to any single discipline. the Jim Crow South” at Duke University, for Empire State College faculty. Both are interdisciplinary through and Durham, N.C. 1991 was my last summer through; the institute was as well, in its on a traditional academic calendar. NEH The institute, like all of NEH’s programs for design and in its participants. There were Summer Institutes are scheduled with that college/university faculty had the following 25 participants, from 25 different colleges traditional calendar in mind. It is a challenge general purpose: and universities around the country, from a to include a NEH Institute in our Empire Under the guidance of distinguished mixture of academic disciplines: literature, State College schedule. Administrative and scholars, NEH Summer Institutes religion, architecture, history, American collegial supports were essential to making provide intensive collaborative study studies, philosophy, anthropology, political this invaluable experience possible. It might of texts, topics and ideas central science. In addition, there was a diversity make you feel tired, but for me, that was far to undergraduate teaching in the of experience in the group, from three overshadowed by feelings of renewal and humanities. NEH Summer Institutes graduate students (a new possibility under revitalization! I highly recommend it! aim to prepare NEH summer scholars NEH rules), to new assistant professors, to senior professors. (In fact, I had to make a As a result of this work, my scholarship to return to their classrooms with fast psychological adjustment because some has been revitalized and my commitments a deeper knowledge of current of my institute colleagues – not just the to archival research and field experience scholarship in key fields of the graduate students – were not only younger learning have been deepened. Overall, humanities. (NEH, 2012, NEH than our Empire State College students to paraphrase poet Nikki Giovanni and Summer Institutes section, para. 1) but also were younger than my own musician Sun Ra, the NEH Summer Institute In particular, this institute focused on the adult children!) “The Role of Place in African-American great American environmental thinker, Biography” was so outstanding that “even Aldo Leopold, and his land ethic, which Four weeks in duration, the institute focused the mistakes were correct!” has attracted widespread attention from on a different humanities perspective each environmentalists of all types, from back­ week. First was an historical examination Sustainability, the Humanities and country rangers to philosophy professors. (led by Julianne Lutz Warren of NYU) of the Empire State College Mentor As the institute’s title indicates, the intent how Leopold developed the land ethic, how it relates to our intellectual history, and how Wayne Ouderkirk was to connect that land ethic, proposed more than 60 years ago (and analyzed, all that feeds into a fuller understanding Last summer (2011), I was privileged to elaborated and interpreted ever since), to of sustainability. Indeed, one of the themes be selected to participate in a National contemporary debates about sustainability. we discussed was that Leopold’s ideas, Endowment for the Humanities Summer though formulated long before the concept

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 46 of sustainability gained prominence, are focus on indigenous culture, a prominent over the four weeks of the institute, which not only related to sustainability but also anthropologist of southwest indigenous included in its schedule time for such work. provide a formidable structure in which to peoples, Elizabeth Brandt of Arizona State However, once we began the institute, my situate that concept. Next was a week on University, gave a very interactive lecture assumptions about the project went out the indigenous perspectives on the land and on how the first people to live in the desert window. I discovered, to my delight, that in sustainable use of it, through the lens of southwest did so sustainably over an addition to being excellent scholars in their a Native American poet of the southwest, extended period of time. Her discussion own disciplines, my colleagues there were Simon Ortiz. was all the more meaningful because it committed, talented, and in some cases, was outdoors, beneath the cliff dwelling at inspirational teachers who had much to The third week, led by Bron Taylor of Montezuma National Monument, which teach me about course design, strategy the University of Florida, focused on was the first of our field destinations that and resources. religion and sustainability, connecting to day. The second one was a contrasting but both Leopold and environmental ethics We had many opportunities to consult with fascinating attempt of modern westerners to and to contemporary “green” religious one another on instructional techniques, live sustainably in that climate: Arcosanti, developments and movements. Our fourth materials, plans, and I found myself the desert creation of famed architect Paulo week centered on environmental ethics challenged much more than I had expected. Soleri. After our guided tour and individual and sustainability, examining Bryan As a result, I did indeed revise my course, rambling around the buildings, we were Norton’s arguments for adaptive but at the end of the institute I had only fortunate to have an hour discussion management; Norton, himself, was a general syllabus – though I had learned time with Soleri, who at 92 is still witty, the leader for this week. a great deal about planning a course confident and committed to his vision. and knew where I wanted to go with it. If you look at the general NEH statement (Anyone can visit Arcosanti; go there if you After I returned, I continued revising and of purpose included earlier and at my have the chance!) redesigning. I offered the first version of description of the structure of the institute, Two additional features of the institute the revised course in the September 2011 you can see that there is a model at work deserve attention. First, each of the term as part of the Environmental Studies that can be interpreted in at least two ways. distinguished scholars gave a public Residency. Although it was successful, I If we emphasize the NEH phrase, “intensive presentation at the Flagstaff Public Library. learned still more and again offered it, collaborative study of texts,” the image of These lectures were publicized on the NAU but with several revisions, in the January a group of peers studying and analyzing campus, at the library, in local publications, and March 2012 terms. I am grateful to together comes to mind. If we emphasize and in local stores and shops. Attendance my institute colleagues for their major “under the guidance of distinguished by the community members varied greatly, contributions to my teaching. scholars,” a more traditional classroom but I think the effort to bring scholarly work model might come to mind. Different faculty Needless to say, I believe the requirement to the public who support it is a wonderful at the institute can and do interpret their of a project for institute participants is notion that should be emulated as much role and their structuring of the seminars in an extremely valuable one. It provides a as possible. one of those ways. practical outlet for the intellectual work Second, unlike the institute I attended 10 of the institute, as well as a mechanism Anyone who applies to an institute needs years ago, a requirement of this one was to that can increase the interaction of the to understand that the approaches of the include in one’s application a description of participants, making the experience even leaders can and do vary in those ways. This a project that one would work on during more meaningful, which was certainly the was my second NEH Institute, and at the and after the institute. The project could case for me. earlier one (2001), the faculty were much be either scholarly research and writing more interested in collaboration, though Indeed, for me, one of the most important or a pedagogical project, such as course they were all distinguished scholars. In my results of both institutes I have attended design. Our group was pretty evenly divided Arizona experience, collaboration was not has been to meet, interact with, and be between those two categories, with some universally emphasized. That is not to say professionally connected with a group of participants working on books, some on that I did not gain from all the seminars, amazing colleagues who are passionately journal articles, and others developing just that I had to adjust my expectations and interested in the same things as I. The sustainability-related courses or sections of approaches at different times. connections I made at the first institute courses. I was in the latter group. have been invaluable to me in a variety of Both of the institutes I have attended had When I saw this institute requirement in professional ways; some of the colleagues a wonderful variety of activities built into the application materials, I decided to offer I met there have become lifelong friends, them, all connected with the overall theme as my project the revision of my learning collaborators on scholarly projects, and and with each week’s focus. In this case, contract/study/course, Environmental friendly faces in the crowds at conferences in addition to the main scholar for the Ethics, which I had not really revised in and other events. I have no doubt that week, each week also featured at least one a while. And I thought that this project the friendships I made in 2011 will prove guest faculty member, as well as a field would be one that I could easily complete equally meaningful. trip. For example, in week two with its

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For Empire State College faculty, I think duties to attend a month-long event like None of that constitutes a magic solution such experiences and connections are this. In both of my experiences with summer to individual challenges in doing something essential, and I urge anyone interested in institutes, our college administration has like this. Nevertheless, I think the benefits humanities themes to apply to an institute been extremely supportive. Being selected to individual faculty in terms of professional that is of serious interest to you. (The topics as a participant for an NEH Institute is development are invaluable and make the vary yearly; visit the NEH website.) The an honor for both the individual faculty effort to participate more than worthwhile. institute experience differs from conference member and for the college (participation Also, our students benefit from a mentor participation (which I agree also is is competitive), so both the individual and who returns from such an experience professionally important) in being intimate, the college gains. The central issue then refreshed, with newly acquired knowledge intense and extended, usually for a month! becomes how to manage one’s college and/or perspectives that inform one’s Time spent focused on the institute themes, duties to accommodate the time away. teaching. And the college grows in stature with the continuity that comes from several With the college’s recently instituted ability by having a faculty member who was part weeks of attention, is an absolute treasure to schedule our teaching across different of a prestigious national scholarly event. that we rarely gain in our normal Empire college terms, faculty should be able to take Everyone gains. State College routines. The discussion of time without serious disruption to students. your own or someone else’s ideas can last It also helps to have supportive colleagues Reference for days or weeks instead of an hour at in your local center or unit who can help National Endowment for the Humanities. a conference. Like this one, many of the strategize about such issues and offer (2012). Summer seminars and institutes institutes are interdisciplinary, so scholars appropriate help when they can. Finally, my for college and university teachers from outside the humanities who have a experience is that our summer terms tend summer 2012: NEH summer institutes. strong connection to a theme also can apply. to have lighter enrollments, so the need for Retrieved from http://www.neh.gov/ adjustments is less daunting. Of course, I realize that some colleagues will projects/si-university.html rightly ask how one can manage to break away from regular Empire State College

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Using Feminist Pedagogy in Mentoring Independent Studies in History

Christiane Warren, Central New York Center

Introduction Feminist Pedagogy As a student for seven years and as an To begin my discussion, I feel it necessary educator for now more than 14 years, I have to offer my own perception of feminist found the college experience to be a space theory and feminist pedagogy. In my view, in which new ideas can be introduced and the definition of feminist pedagogy is fluid tried, where inquiry can be fostered and new and dynamic, based on each individual insights can be gained. These aspirations scholar’s concept of feminist theory and have, of course, not always been achieved. its application to teaching. Hence, before I also have found the college classroom engaging in the development of one’s own stifling of creativity and reinforcing of approach and the actual teaching process, hierarchical power relationships between an instructor has to first develop and professor and student through pedagogical affirm her own understanding of feminist strategies that stress rote repetition and theory. Similar to the variations in feminist thus student passivity. Nonetheless, as an pedagogy, feminist theory also has multiple Christiane Warren educator and feminist, I have remained definitions and expressions. Consensus is optimistic. One approach to accomplish difficult to achieve, as there are internal such a goal – and thereby, in my view, to tensions within a dynamic movement that perspective that critiques the intellectual create a forum for truly engaging intellectual does not possess a central core of nationally status quo. I would add my own emphasis discourse in a nurturing environment based accepted leaders. bell hooks (1984) (further supported by Crabtree and Sapp on mutual trust and honesty that fosters addresses that issue in her book, Feminist [2003]) that feminist theory and pedagogy the students’ self-empowerment and offers Theory: From Margin to Center, when she have to include the awareness of racial and learning experiences to both students discusses the ambivalence about power class distinctions within society; therefore, and the instructor – is the application of within the movement, as women refer to one committed to such an orientation must a feminist pedagogy to teaching. In my women as powerless victims, while at the advocate continuously for social change capacity as a mentor and instructor using same time advocating for empowerment and social justice. An instructor who the individualized independent study model, and equality within a patriarchal society. teaches through a feminist theoretical lens I am able to apply feminist pedagogy This is an important aspect to consider, introduces ideas and realities to her students directly to my interactions with my students. as mainstream society tends to categorize that might be uncomfortable at first, but Independent studies are an alternative mode feminists simply as women who want are absolutely necessary to address in of instruction significantly different from preferential treatment in their relentless order to achieve a more egalitarian society. the traditional college classroom or large pursuit of power within currently male- As Sandell (1991) pointed out, “feminist lecture hall. Independent studies allow for dominated spheres. Feminism has to be seen pedagogy seeks to transform the academy an in-depth engagement with the student as much more than just the struggle for pay [through] creating a liberatory environment and her or his ideas and for the experience equity and job opportunities, as important in which teacher and student act as subject of self-discovery. According to Renee as these issues might be. In a more general and not as objects” (p. 181). Sandell (1991), “feminist pedagogy is based sense, as Kolmar and Bartkowski (2005) put on an alternative instructional model” (p. it: “Feminist theory is a body of writing that Practical Applications 180). Sandell sees knowledge construction attempts to describe, explain, and analyze as gendered and experience based. In my the conditions of women’s lives” (p. 3). Given this theoretical conceptualization, one work as an Empire State College mentor then has to develop teaching practices that Feminist theory encompasses aspects of in Historical Studies, I remain committed accurately reflect one’s own beliefs based some of the following points as discussed by to such an “alternative” by offering on research and self-reflection. It is helpful Katherine Allen (1988), who in her essay, students the opportunity to discover the to use feminist educators as role models. “Integrating a Feminist Perspective Into connectedness between gendered identity Ellen Carillo (2007) in her piece, “‘Feminist’ Family Studies Courses,” focused upon three and their own learning of history and Teaching/Teaching ‘Feminism,’” outlines central feminist themes: the assumption to apply their understanding to a larger her own practices of having a collaborative that women are exploited; the commitment historical and societal context. working relationship with her students: not to empower women; and the use of a

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 49 lecturing, but asking questions more than be a facilitator in the challenging endeavor many ways in which women and minorities answering them; not asserting her authority of independent and authentic “inquiry.” have been relegated to the margins of over the student, but working with them. I would argue that their insights can be society and to let the students explore their applied to students in any learning situation own pathways to understanding this key Carillo’s approach reflects my current ideas at any academic level. tenet of feminist theory: that it is essential and efforts. In my mentoring work in an to learn about the experiences of women individualized independent study context, I The Four Domains of Teaching as well as other oppressed groups in can apply my ideas of pedagogy in an ideal American society and to gain insights into way. I meet individually with my students According to Zion and Slezak (2005), their empowerment. These ideas are often regularly for hour-long tutorial sessions inquiry learning and teaching have been reflected in the papers students write that in which we discuss the content of their formulated into four major domains: prove to be enlightening and often thought studies, address any questions they might first, the teachers’ beliefs about inquiry; provoking both to students and to their have, and also discuss the assigned readings. second, the teachers’ pedagogical content mentor. By coming in close contact with the I also offer additional information that is knowledge; third, the teachers’ inquiry voices of the past and intimately working not covered in the texts. My students and I practices; and fourth, the students’ learning with the primary texts, students have a are on a first name basis, which is reflective from inquiry-based instruction (p. 876). medium offered to them that provides the of one ingredient of nonauthoritarian These four domains can be introduced to tools to practice intellectual inquiry, as teaching, a tenet of feminist pedagogy. I the learning process with adult learners Zion and Slezak’s third domain suggests. do my best to get to know each student while maintaining a feminist underpinning. For me, this method of supporting further personally and seek to develop an individual They pose a unique guide post for any inquiry also reflects another connection to rapport. At times, I have to be mindful instructor who emphasizes the importance feminist teaching, which can be understood not to place content over process in order of a student’s independent knowledge as an open forum for challenging previously to allow for my pedagogical ideas to take acquisition. Thus, in my interaction in one­ held beliefs that may have been part of shape and therefore to benefit the student to-one meetings with my students within the dominant hegemonic canon regarding in his or her particular learning process. As an independent study model, I try to put gender and race oppression. In this way, my an historian, I realize how easy it is to get into practice my own belief that learning students can look carefully at topics and easily caught up in weaving the historical about history does not come only through events thus far only marginally addressed narrative, wanting (desperately!) to give the reading a textbook, but by asking questions (or even completely untold) in mainstream student all of the knowledge I have acquired, of oneself, of the author and of the mentor. history texts. and wishing she would soak it up with the No instructor should serve as the sole same enthusiasm I have. Yet, if one wants knowledge-keeper; she has to become a Zion and Slezak’s fourth domain is to teach from a feminist standpoint, one has facilitator of discovery learning and allow interwoven within my overall teaching to find ways to allow the student to become students to bring in their own experiences approach. I implore my students to actively involved in acquiring knowledge and their own unique methods of knowledge undertake rigorous research and thus form through a more democratic process that acquisition into a collaborative and their own questions that they then seek to opens both student and mentor to self- complementary setting that allows for a answer as they engage in further and deeper scrutiny, that encourages collaborative multifaceted discourse. research. In all of my advanced-level studies, engagement in trying to make sense of the for example, students are expected to write a As an historian, I foster this discovery past, and that allows students to draw their research paper on a topic of their choosing, process through the assignment of different own conclusions and interpretations. It is as long as their topic is relevant to the study. kinds of readings. Students learn from my responsibility to acknowledge those ideas The papers must have a clearly defined the reading of secondary texts as well as, as valid and important, even when they do thesis statement based on independently more importantly, from primary texts. As a not fully reflect my own perspectives. This is researched, peer-reviewed, scholarly texts. I result, they are introduced to the ideas and part of the challenge! also ask students to include a discussion of a thoughts of historians who have researched primary text. Teaching from a feminist perspective allows past events and have interpreted them based the student room for independent thought on different historical perspectives. Through Through these assignments, my students and fosters a quest for further intellectual the assignment of critical analysis essays, the often write papers that question the status inquiry. Providing such a forum is accepted students are presented with the opportunity quo based on the learning experience they by teachers and scholars who embrace a to discern critically what the main point have had. As an ongoing commitment feminist orientation across the disciplines. of the author might be, as well as to raise to causes of social justice as a core Thus, for example, Michal Zion and questions and concerns with me at our understanding of feminist pedagogy, in Michaela Slezak (2005) in their article, “It meetings. The readings in primary source tutorials my students gain practice in Takes Two to Tango: In Dynamic Inquiry, collections are of particular importance, as questioning and addressing injustices and the Self-Directed Student Acts in Association they open up a window into the past that becoming more aware of deviations from with the Facilitating Teacher,” emphasize has been largely previously closed to them. dominant society’s expectations. And, all the need for the teacher in the sciences to My goal is to offer sources that show the along the way, they are participating in

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 50 knowledge creation. As Zion and Slezak urge them to offer their own interpretations processing of both the meta-level framework (2005) stated: “Hands-on inquiry properly and form their own ideas and conclusions. and the data-level information” (p. 99). In redistributes the responsibility of learning to Although the contents and the form is other words, learners need a larger context the students and the student’s role changes often quite new to them, in so-called available to them in which they can place from a passive recipient of information to a “hyphenated classes” such as African- the specific “facts” they learn from both constructivist participant in the creation of American history, Native-American history the texts and from discussions with their understanding” (p. 876). and American women’s intellectual history, mentor. Above all, and in keeping with the as well as African history, historiography feminist lens, there needs to be an open My understanding of the constructivist and feminist theory and women’s studies, forum for this kind of work that is offered approach is that I have the role of a guide my students often respond enthusiastically by teaching in a nonauthoritative way. or facilitator of learning. My students’ with comments such as, “I never knew Allowing the student to come to his or her median age is 34, and I have had students anything about this subject”; “This gives own conclusions without interference or who were in their late 50s or early 60s. me a whole other perspective on American guidance from me means that the student This population brings with it its own history”; and “It makes me rethink thoughts gains the knowledge firsthand through his unique skill set. While some may not know on race and gender oppression in our or her own approach to the words written much about history and are apprehensive nation’s history.” My learning contracts in the studied materials. This is especially to re-enter the college experience at a later in all of these studies are created along rewarding for the student as he or she has point in their lives, they have a lifetime of three basic feminist assumptions: that all had significant input in what goes into the knowledge that is invaluable and cannot be women are oppressed; that the social system study, including actively participating in found in the traditional college student of imposes a reality on their daily lives; and setting these learning contract requirements 18-22 years of age. My adult students are that feminists have a “double vision” that in concert with me. This purposefully eager to absorb new knowledge, as they are allows them to function in an oppressive limits my role as an authority figure and more committed to their learning than a society. Historically, women have to come places me on a level that is closer to the typical 18-year-old. They struggle to juggle to terms with a male-dominated system and student, as we both chart the course of work, family and college obligations and survive in it. This has been very challenging the study collaboratively. want to excel at their studies. Thus, they and continues to be so even today. I want come to a history study with a willingness to my students to see that those who have learn and an openness to engage actively in advocated for social justice have had to be their learning process. My mentoring goal is able to move within the dominant society This purposefully limits to match this readiness with an expectation while working on behalf of women’s rights that my students become self-agents of my role as an authority and a more inclusive and egalitarian society. their learning through constant inquiry My own contribution as a feminist teacher figure and places me on a into alternative theories and potentially of history is to guide my students to a challenging propositions that they are level that is closer to the fuller awareness of women’s lives and to expected to address in their ongoing written encourage them to apply what they have student, as we both chart work. Fostering independent learning learned to the present day. revolves around clarifying and sharing the course of the study learning intentions and criteria for success – Methodology collaboratively. a key component of feminist pedagogy. As noted earlier, I think it is vital for any Transcendence of Ideas student of history to be able to listen to the past from firsthand accounts by interacting This approach is similar to what Beverly My pedagogical ideas are sometimes at odds with the voices, thoughts and beliefs Cooper and Bronwen Cowie (2010) have with the general assumptions made by many expressed in the past, uncensored by the found in their definition of so-called of my students regarding college instruction. analysis of historians. Thus my students are assessment for learning. The authors This is, in part, due to the fact that my expected to closely engage in scrutinizing understand “assessment for learning” students have very little knowledge or primary texts and interacting with me in a as revolving around strategies such as awareness regarding class, race and gender way that fosters intellectual inquiry and an “clarification and sharing of learning discrimination issues and do not believe open dialogue. I want my students to gain intentions and criteria for success … that such topics apply to them in their daily practice as historians by doing research comment-only marking and interactive lives. An experiment with inclusive and in archives, by reading other scholars’ feedback” between the teacher and the nonauthoritative teaching methods, along thoughts, as well as finally writing their own student (p. 979). It is at times difficult to with a shift in content emphasis, is not interpretation of history. As Jere Brophy maintain the elimination of grading during what they expected – nor often what they (1995) in his “Essay Review of Teaching the duration of any study. But, giving grades wanted! I thus see part of my task as trying and Learning History” wrote: “Learning places me in a position of authority thus to interweave matters of race, gender and must proceed through simultaneous disempowering the students. Instead, I offer class into the historical narrative and to

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 51 extensive commentary on their written work concept of an everlasting journey for more References as well as their other projects, but often knowledge that questions widely-held beliefs do not give grades on each assignment. and challenges these beliefs with a mindset Allen, K. R. (1988, January). Integrating the At the end of the term, I meet with my of promoting actual change for greater feminist perspective into family studies students to get and give feedback on the social justice. courses. Family Relations, 37(1), 29-35. overall learning experience, which enables Zion and Slezak (2005) also see that Brophy, J. (1995). Emerging research on me to explain how I arrived at the formal instructors foster the honing of critical teaching and learning history: An essay course grade. It also gives the student an thinking skills and self-directed study review of teaching and learning history. opportunity to voice her or his impressions that is necessary for my students in an Teaching and Teacher Education, and reflections on the entire experience. independent study setting. This is of 11(1), 97-102. From this ongoing student feedback, I can particular importance in the study of then address possible revisions of future Carillo, E. C. (2007). ‘Feminist’ teaching/ history as there are no pre-set answers, study offerings. I have found this process teaching ‘feminism.’ Feminist Teacher, but rather multiple readings of texts and particularly rewarding in fostering students’ 18(1), 28-40. different interpretations of events and their self-esteem and self-agency as it promotes significance that I want my students to Cooper, B., & Cowie, B. (2010). their active participation in the study and see and feel. Reading history through the Collaborative research for assessment their self-advocacy. It also directly reflects lens of feminist theory enables the student and learning. Teaching and Teacher and seeks to put into practice the feminist to reach beyond the already known and Education, 26(4), 979-986. idea of creating an egalitarian space for to discover the yet-to-be-accepted new students and faculty. Most importantly, I Crabtree, R. D., & Sapp, D. A. (2003, Fall). knowledge through the ongoing struggle hope that students are slowly becoming Theoretical, political, and pedagogical against discrimination and exclusion from the delineators of their own learning and I challenges in the feminist classroom: mainstream society within and outside am gaining my own practice as the conduit Our struggles to walk the walk. College of academia. through which they gain new knowledge. Teaching, 51(4), 131-140. Our open dialogue becomes a means to Conclusion hooks, b. (1984). Feminist theory: From center their newly gained knowledge within margin to center. Cambridge, MA: a context that addresses feminist concerns I see the need to make the connection South End Press. of equality and power and the formation of between contemporary feminism and a community of learning between instructor feminism as it has been developed and Kolmar, W., & Bartkowski, F. (2005). and student. expressed throughout history in multiple Feminist theory: A reader (2nd ed.). ways through the voices (often silenced) New York, NY: McGraw Hill. Pedagogy for Fostering of women of all colors and classes. It Nokes, J. D. (2010, October). The evolving Intellectual Inquiry is through the study of ideas of our concept instructional strategy: Students foremothers that we all learn and continue The underlying feminist idea of an ongoing reflecting on their processing of to learn to form a greater union that fosters quest of having a questioning mind is multiple, conflicting, historical sources. collaborative and egalitarian learning, reflected in other scholars’ approaches National Social Science Journal, and creates teaching strategies that reflect to learning, even though they may not 35(1), 104-117. feminist pedagogy in teaching history in subscribe to feminist pedagogy per se. For our schools (at whatever level) today. Being Sandell, R. (1991, Spring), The liberating example, Jeffrey D. Nokes (2010) argued student centered and learner oriented is a relevance of feminist pedagogy. Studies that “Healthy skepticism is a useful attribute core principle of feminist pedagogy. Such in Art Education, 32(3), 176-187. to historical inquiry” (p. 104). While an orientation is applicable to teaching his paper focused on the learning in the Zion, M., & Slezak, M. (2005). It takes two history in a unique fashion, and encourages secondary classroom, much can be learned to tango: In dynamic inquiry, the self- students to become more actively involved from his findings. I see Nokes supporting directed student acts in association with in their own lives and the lives around the idea of having students read conflicting the facilitating teacher. Teaching and them. It is invaluable to any informed citizen texts and allowing students to grapple with Teacher Education, 21(7), 875-894. committed to the lifelong process those new ideas and coming to their own of learning. conclusions. That is what feminist theory expects to happen in society at large. In my studies, I can introduce my students to the

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 52

Don’t Bet Like a Girl, and Other Lessons I Learned on the Way to Being a Contestant on Jeopardy!

Cindy Conaway, Center for Distance Learning

I’ve been watching the “trivia”-based, required to take three one- nationally televised Jeopardy! quiz show quarter classes in humanities, most of my life and had always hoped I social sciences, physical might qualify to compete on the show some sciences and biological day. My learning style really doesn’t lend sciences, I could drop the itself to memorizing lists of things; like third quarter of calculus I had many academics, I tend to know obscure been misguidedly placed into. facts and factoids and like to puzzle things Instead, I could take two out. However, it turns out that a wide additional quarters of French. range of knowledge is only half the battle Fast forward to my fourth for Jeopardy! success. As I began preparing year. After a false start to appear on the show, I discovered that concentrating in behavioral successful contestants use a lot of strategies science, I was doing quite Cindy Conaway (right) and Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek that I would have to learn and internalize. well in English. I had covered One of the things I have noticed for years, 17th-19th century novels, for example, was that when wagering (an modernism, theory, theater teach media studies. If anything keeps me integral element of the competition), women and nonfictional prose. I was working on from earning tenure a year from June, or seem to bet less aggressively than men, and a bachelor’s paper about images of women being promoted to associate professor, it is don’t win even though they know more in advertising and planning to work in unlikely to be because I never read “The answers than their competition. I resolved advertising. The final quarter of French Nun’s Priest’s Tale” in the original Middle that if I ever did get on the show, I wouldn’t remained, and I was suddenly required to English (or at all). make that mistake. Once I qualified for the enroll in a class full of bright first years. Not show – proving that I knew enough of the But … part of my educational history only was I three years older than everyone type of material I was likely to confront and was suddenly front and center in my else, and not nearly as fluent, the class met could answer quickly enough – I became consciousness as I stood behind the middle at the same time as Chaucer, a course I had aware that I had a few strikes against me, counter (contestants insist that they are been looking forward to taking. Seventeenth including my gender, my reflexes, my age, neither podiums, because you don’t stand Century Lyric Poetry would have to cover and my lack of numerical agility. on them, nor lecterns, because they do not the poetry and remaining pre-17th century hold books), holding my signaling device This article is about how as an academic, requirements. The end result, no Chaucer (not buzzer; it makes no noise), while taping a woman and a right-brained individual, for me. an episode of Jeopardy! In the category I planned for and experienced my time on Anyhow, although this always bothered “poetry” (which should have been a breeze the show. It also is about how I treated it me, it didn’t keep me from getting a job in for an English major), I was supposed to as a research project in my field of media advertising or returning to graduate school identify the poetry pioneer who wrote studies – one most scholars in television and becoming an instructional designer. It “Troilus and Criseyde.” Well, since I hadn’t studies know little about. I was never likely didn’t keep me, years later, from getting had that Chaucer course, I didn’t have the to get on the set of Gossip Girl or Parks a Ph.D. in American culture studies and answer. It was a costly lack of knowledge. and Recreation, and certainly wouldn’t defending a dissertation on images of I’ve spent a lot of time thinking since then get to star in them even if I did, but this, brainy girls in 1990s and early 2000s about how I learned the things I know. I could experience. teen television. Not taking an in-depth There are quite a few factors that go into look at Chaucer’s works didn’t keep me playing each game of Jeopardy!, however, Background from becoming a tenure-track assistant that may not rely on an individual’s uring my first year as an professor at SUNY Empire State College, educational background. undergraduate at the University where I coordinate the media studies and D of Chicago (U of C), the “core communications area of the Center for curriculum” was changed. While still Distance Learning, mentor students and

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 53

How I Ended Up on the Show a fellow professor at Empire State College, During the interview, Maggie asked me because, as a sports and fellow trivia nut, why I liked my job, and I explained how I I took the Jeopardy! online test from home he could help us win the afternoon trivia liked to wake students up and show them in January 2011. The test is 50 questions contests on our holiday cruises (which we that media has an agenda, and discussed in 15 minutes. You don’t have to answer did); and how I call my cat, Holden, “not the recent series of articles I’d published in the form of a question, but you do have exactly college material,” yet he often with my colleague, Sheila Aird, about how to answer nonmultiple-choice questions outsmarts the best of my ruses when it photos advertised new TV shows with correctly and within five seconds. No one comes to getting him out of my bedroom. actors of color on the periphery and that tells you how you did, but the correct African-American men were nearly always When we arrived on the fourth floor of responses appear on the Jeopardy! website on one side in what we’d termed “black guy the Sheraton, bad Polaroids were taken the next day. Rumor was you needed 35 corner.” She asked about my dissertation. I and we were issued Jeopardy! pens to fill to “pass.” In earlier years, I answered in explained how brainy girls on teen television out application forms. There were 15 in the low 30s and heard nothing. In January in the 1990s/early 2000s had started off my group, including five women, and only 2011, I was confident I had 37, and I must being portrayed as outcasts interested one obviously “nonwhite” person, a young have, because in May I received an email in reading, writing, math or science, but Asian man. Several were auditioning for a inviting me to a contestant audition. That’s always got more interested in boys and second or third time. We were then given a when I began serious preparation. friendship and seemed to forget a life of the paper and pen test similar to the prior online mind. When she exclaimed, “I like what At U of C, we were told constantly that test. Maggie, the lead contestant coordinator you do!” I agreed that I did too, and felt what we were doing was “learning how at my session (and the most visibly in charge good about my chances. When asked what to learn.” My normal way of learning at the actual games), explained the rules, put I would do with the money, despite my own something new is through immersion us at ease, and explained the importance of student loans and love for travel, just to set and experimentation (this also is how I answering loudly and following directions. design courses and teach students). So my myself apart, I said I would spend it on a first goals were to find out how the show Following the test, each group of three mid-century modern “Egg” chair by Arne actually worked. I read 74-game-winner Ken played a practice game. The questions for Jacobsen. Then we were all warned not to Jennings’ book Brainiac, big-money-winner all testing centers are the same. The audition talk about the clues – since they would be Bob Harris’s memoir, the official Jeopardy! concluded with interviews based our stories. used in all the tryouts for the year – and that book, and some blogs of past contestants. In In most cases, Maggie seemed to go down they might call us any time in the next 18 February, I attended a group viewing of the the sheet, spending only a moment on each months (or not at all). match against Watson the supercomputer story. She also asked what people would at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as it do if they won a lot of money. About two How I Began My Preparation thirds mentioned student loans, the rest beat Jennings and highest-money-winner I had, of course, been preparing, in a way, traveling. Of the women (who I saw as Brad Rutter. I read the book about Watson, my whole life. We often watched Jeopardy! more my competition), two appeared much Stephen Baker’s Final Jeopardy. I was at home when I was growing up, and for younger than I am; the other two older. The interested to learn that a lot of what goes the five or so years I’ve had TiVo, it’s been younger women seemed like shoo-ins, with on at the game, and even the format of the set to grab all episodes (including reruns), interesting stories, fast game play and lots game itself (one responds to clues in the so I often watched two or more episodes of correct responses. The two older women form of a question, rather than answering a day. I had been doing The New York forgot to answer in the form of a question questions) are due to the quiz show scandals Times crossword for decades, and “against and ask for the next clue when they got of the 1950s and that the format of the the clock” for several years, and often did something right, which made me snicker to game itself, as well as a lot of the rules, are timed quizzes on Sporcle.com, a general myself. I played in the last game. I got so the result of those scandals. interest quiz site. My favorite board game excited that for the first clue I responded is Trivial Pursuit. My audition was in New York City on a to, I saw only the word “complex” and Monday afternoon in June. I made sure confidently asked “What is Oedipus?” when I felt good enough about the tryout that to look my best, wearing my newest navy the clue was about Napoleon. However, I I thought I should start to prepare to get a cashmere cardigan over a nice gray T-shirt. slowed down and actually read the clues call inviting me to appear on the show. The We were to come in with five stories about after that. I responded to clues about worst that might happen is that I’d learn ourselves typed out that could be used in George Washington, a musical and several something. I had learned that champions the “interview” portion of the show. Mine about obscure older TV. Although I had Jennings and Harris used flashcards. Roger included stories about my dissertation; my no problem answering in the form of a Craig, who won this year’s Tournament cashmere sweater collection; my childhood question, I, too, kept forgetting to ask for of Champions, used computer science to experience in Iceland, and the single word the next clue until prompted (which made predict what topics might come up, allowing I learned in Icelandic – the word for foam me feel old!) but got better at that. him to spend more time studying those rubber – svampgúmmí; how my parents categories and clues. I don’t even know got excited when they met Chris Whann, how to use the (apparently simple) code

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 54 he used to gather the information needed Refining My Preparation on the third, but a category on pro football to run the software program he developed or hockey would be among those where I to use “‘text mining’ of about 211,000 In early October, I got the call. Taping would do best to keep my mouth shut. On archived posers to ‘reverse engineer’ the quiz would be November 8 and 9 in Culver City, Jeopardy!, the stakes for guessing blindly are show and solve ‘a nonlinear optimization Calif. at Sony Pictures Studios. Although high. Not only do you not get points if you problem: How do I study?’” (Mucha, 2011). I had to make some arrangements with guess wrong, but the amount of that clue While his application, which clustered Chris, my co-presenter for the paper is deducted from your total, so guessing is subjects into “bubbles” that would rise as we were giving on November 10 at the never a good idea unless you are pretty sure, he acquired knowledge, is intriguing, even if Sloan-C International Conference on particularly on high dollar value questions. I had known about it before my game (his Online Learning in Orlando, I accepted. I Instead of trying to cram in so much new Tournament of Champions started airing the was warned not to say anything publicly, information, I felt that my best course of same week as my taping), I have neither the especially on Facebook, so I told Chris action was to make sure that anything skills nor the scientific learning style to use and my family, and just a few friends. I did know, I could remember fast. One those tools. I needed to find methods that The producers sent paperwork including thing I had learned was that, although would work for me. legalese stating that I wouldn’t say anything publicly about the results until after airing, the question writers never use exactly the With the exception of, perhaps, irregular and another set of “prompts” for potential same clue twice, they have many concepts French verbs, I was rarely required to stories. I responded to many, including they return to again and again. It rarely memorize lists of things in college or that my most precious possession was takes long before a game comes up without graduate school, and was pretty sure my grandma’s topaz ring, that I would be categories like Shakespeare, opera and U.S. flashcards would not be the best way for using this research as part of the scholarly presidents. Anyone who pays attention to me to study. I had to find ways, however, component for tenure and promotion, the show knows instantly, for example, that to work on my weaker categories. Out and that what I really wanted out of the if you hear classical music and Finnish in the of categories that come up frequently experience, along with fame and fortune, same question, that the answer is obviously on Jeopardy!, I knew that my strongest was for someone to hear about my book Sibelius. If Norwegian: Grieg. If the question categories would be television, film and and want to publish it. is about Russian rulers, you’re looking for literature. I knew less about history, certain parts of the clue to help you home in geography and especially sports. I read That’s when I really got serious. I had on the correct one – awful or bad, Ivan the History for Dummies, and U.S. History for one month to prepare. I was just about Terrible. Open to the West and male, Peter Dummies. This was no time to dig back into at the end of a two-month reassignment the Great. Female and open to the West, A People’s History of the United States or dedicated to converting my dissertation to a Catherine the Great. The last one, Nicholas in-depth books about Jefferson or Lincoln. publishable manuscript, but it became very II. There are a few clues people frequently I also played kids’ geography games online, hard to focus on that task. After a few days get wrong because they clearly don’t study dragging countries into spaces on maps, of frustration, with just a week left in my in a way that exposes these repeated clues. typing in names of countries and capitals. reassignment, and knowing that there was Aside from when these “easy” clues are In many cases, I was reminding myself of real money potential and a real deadline for triple stumpers (not answered correctly by things I’d passed tests on 30 years ago, my Jeopardy! appearance, it made sense to any of the contestants), I am amazed at how but at least I had learned them once, put off the manuscript preparation, because often contestants will add extra s’s to A unlike sports. this was research, too. At that point, I Midsummer Night’s Dream or Revelation, started to prepare practically full time. which come up at least once each season, Of course, I continued to play along with and are ruled incorrect. the televised games I could get to, using the One month is simply too short to try to fattest “clicky pen” with the biggest flattest learn a ton of new information, and expect So I was counting on getting many of these top I could find to simulate the signaling to retrieve it in the allotted five seconds sorts of clues in my games. In that way, device, making sure to wait until Alex in a stressful environment, and there are studying by playing every available game finished reading the clue before clicking, unlimited new categories that might come (rather than by memorizing lists) was a always answering in the form of a question. up in any game. Since I had never been good idea and a more right-brained version (The same pedants who insist on terms like interested in any sport, despite Chris’s of what Roger Craig was trying to do. “signaling device” and “counter” never call availability to coach me, there was no This would make me relatively sure to get these anything but “clicky pens.”) I had read good way for him to simply download commonly asked clues right. Sometimes in a footnote of the book about Watson that information to me, so I had to decide, I got the same clue wrong multiple times the J! Archive (n.d.) had nearly every game ultimately, that I wouldn’t even try. There before finally having the correct question for the previous seasons online, entered by are rarely Jeopardy! categories in which I come as second nature. My goal was to have fans. Since there did not seem to be televised can’t get at least the first two (easiest) clues things I knew as automatic “gets” while not games on Hulu or Netflix, this seemed like right and at least hazard an educated guess forgetting the more obscure facts I knew. the best way to get the most experience, so I played games online in my spare time.

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 55

Information Isn’t Enough – Age also is an issue. Although I was in the press on his second-to-last word. My best Jeopardy! Skills and Strategy middle-age range at my audition, most bet would be to watch several games in the contestants on the show seem to be younger studio before I actually played, but I didn’t There is another component to successful than about 45, putting me at the high end. know on which of the day’s five games I’d Jeopardy! play, however. Not only does While being older than average is good appear, since contestant order is determined one have to know facts, one has to be able when something like older pop culture by random drawing. to decipher a lot of cryptic clues (which is comes up (I watched yelling from my couch Another significant strategy issue is how to a great deal of the reason programming as three very young contestants had no idea wager in the last segment of the show called Watson, the computer, was so complex). what Foster Grants were), there is little “Final Jeopardy!” Obviously, if I was way As the show has continued, the complexity doubt that reflexes and memory recall slow ahead I knew to bet conservatively enough of questions also has progressed, with with time. This is especially interesting, as to make sure I won no matter what, but more logic, quick analysis and synthesis, rumor has it that the average age of the there are many variations. The J! Archive and insight required. As an article in GQ nine million nightly viewers is around 65. (n.d.) described a complicated formula of put it, “In 1991, the areas of knowledge Anyhow, especially against young men used what to do if you were in second place but contestants were expected to be prepared for to playing video games, and who spend time had two-thirds of the leader’s score, but were straightforward, classic, and broad” on trivia circuits and played quiz bowl in the third-place person had at least half of but now clues contain “Lots more jokes, lots high school or college, there was no way yours, and so on, but didn’t really factor more high-concept categories and questions” I’d beat most contestants if we all knew in one’s confidence on the category. In the (Barthel, 2011). Practicing the format of the answers. I was gratified by the fact that last week before my appearance, I ordered clues over and over again also was useful when I played at home, I often knew “triple a much older book called How to Get on because I got used to the sorts of wordplay stumpers” – older TV or literature, or some Jeopardy and Win (Dupee, 1998), and read and humor clues tend to use. It helped me, of the more difficult word games that none the section on wagering, but I was still for example, to reread a category about of the contestants did – and hoped for some concerned about making a really dumb bet “knots,” a subject I know little about, find of those. the word “relative” in the clue, and correctly and losing a game I could have won on respond with “What is a granny knot?” Clues may be centered on information knowledge and buzzer timing alone. Chris relevant to the day the program appears. (who could not come because someone Aside from knowledge, I considered some of There are around two months between had to be in Orlando to deliver our paper my strengths and weaknesses. I suspected I taping and airing. I had been given likely if my flight was delayed) and I agreed that would have issues with the physical agility air dates, and knew, for example, that if I basically the most important thing was, required for the signaling device, which is made it to the second taping day, it might “Don’t bet like a girl,” but play to win. I large and bulky. I cannot say for sure that be a good idea to bone up on Martin Luther read on someone’s blog that 75 percent of this disadvantages women or older people, King Jr., since one of the shows taped that all contestants don’t win their first games, but it seems likely. I don’t have complete day would appear on MLK Day. and out of those, most just win one, so my statistics, but women simply seem to win attitude was that even winning one would I spent a morning reading people’s blog less often and win less money overall than be great. men. The 24 Tournaments of Champions in postings about their experiences, and one of the Alex Trebek era have included relatively the things that nearly everyone mentions is One thing I hoped might be my ace in the few women, and only three have won. In the difficulty of the signaling device and how hole was my lack of stage fright. I grew up the 2011 tournament, for example, there it has been the undoing of many who said doing children’s theater and drama club, were only two women, one the winner of they knew a lot, but just could never get the and singing in the school chorus. Except the college championship. Both made it into timing right. It’s more a question of timing for the lack of recognition for my talent, the semifinals as “wild cards” (top scorers than speed. When Alex finishes reading the I was remarkably like Rachel on Glee. among “nonwinners” in preliminary games), clue, a production assistant presses a button When I give presentations at conferences, but neither played in the finals round that ignites a series of lights on either side of people often remark on my poise. I was against Craig. Aside from there likely being the clue board that stay on for five seconds. hoping that my comfort on stage would a smaller potential contestant pool because Once these are extinguished, someone else give me an advantage over competitors of the ways women are socialized not to can respond. “Buzz in” too soon and you’re less used to performing. “act too smart” in front of men, my mom locked out. “Buzz in” too late, and another pointed out to me years ago that women contestant gets to answer the question. The Playing the Game exact timing of these lights varies with the seem to bet more tentatively than men, and One of the many ways Jeopardy! creates production assistant button presser, and after watching with that in mind, I had to its own reality is by taping five games over the course of a day. TV viewers can’t agree. So did two Swedish scientists who each Tuesday and Wednesday, but asking see these lights, so that reflex was something recently did a study (Lindquist & Säve- contestants to bring multiple changes of I could practice only in the studio. One Söderbergh, 2011). clothes so winners can look like they’re blogger said to read the clue, and try to taping the next day. Alex changes, too. I decode it before Alex finished and then

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 56 packed my three potential outfits (plain figured I’d take it. Contestants do not meet remembered the elevator box. Someone new, black, gray and black pants with pink Alex until just before the game, and spend Brandon, won game four, in an exciting pinstripes; navy, light blue and black no time with him outside of them. match with a Final Jeopardy! about women cashmere sweaters; black, gray and white authors. Like Stephanie, the woman I’d We rotated in and out to practice using T-shirts, along with a sleeveless top in case spoken with during lunch (who had studied the signaling device and respond to some the lights made it incredibly hot). Because English at the University of Chicago before sample clues. I had trouble signaling, using I was to continue to Orlando, I had to transferring), I would have bet big on that, my method of leaning my arm on the check my large suitcase, but made sure to and also gotten it wrong (despite having counter, but got a few questions correct. have an extra outfit in my carry-on bag. read the correct response in The World I realized later that I hadn’t paid attention My flight was on time and six members Almanac a few days before the taping). to the lights. Cards are drawn randomly to of my family, who had traveled to Los I played the last game of the day against determine the order of players, and I was Angeles to watch me play, came to pick Brandon and Preston. thankful not to be picked for the first game. me up with glittery “Congratulations” During the game, all nonplaying contestants When I actually played, I held the signaling signs attached to the rental van to wish are in the studio, but separated from the device with two hands, which allowed me me luck on my appearance and took me general audience. We were instructed not to signal competitively. I could hear my out for a nice dinner. to even look at family members in the heart beating, which I later suspected was On the shuttle to the Sony Pictures Studio audience. My mom, dad, sister, brother-in­ because of the microphone, but did every the next morning, I sat with a friendly law, aunt and uncle plus two of their friends relaxation exercise I could remember. In the woman named Amy (out of 13 in the had traveled to LA to be there, and my first round, I answered some clues in the group, she and one other women seemed cousin, who attends USC film school, came categories “From Page to Screen” and on to be the only ones older than around for the taping. They, too, were told not to “Words that Should Rhyme,” but had little 35). The champion had won one game look at or interact with the contestants. luck with “Gluten Free Foods” (I am lactose the previous week. Mostly, I tried to be intolerant, so could not respond to a clue As the games continued, I kept a “clicky friendly but reserved, not wanting to get about yogurt). I guessed wrong about which pen” in my pocket, watched the lights and into discussions about how I’d prepared or state license plate has the legend “Best tried to get the hang of the timing. The what my strengths and weaknesses might Snow.” (I said Colorado. Evidently it’s Utah. studio was freezing. Luckily, I had brought be. We all spent most of the morning in the Anyone who knows me knows I hate winter, a jacket and I wore it whenever possible. Green Room learning the rules, getting our so that’s an oxymoron.) I did, of course, I had read that shorter people (I’m 5’3”) makeup done and filling out forms. There know “The Empire State” was the nickname often stand “on a box”; it turns out to be were three of my stories on a card – the for New York but was beaten to the buzzer actually part of the set that raises and lowers one about my book, the one about Iceland, so couldn’t respond to that one. During the in the floor. My dad estimates I was 7 inches and the one about using this experience for interview segment, I was pleased that Alex off the ground. My uncle (my dad and his my tenure packet. A contestant coordinator asked me about my dissertation, and that brother never agree on anything) says more practiced each with me, and asked me which his follow-up questions allowed me to share like 4. Considering that I didn’t break my I preferred. I said, “The book.” He said, some of my stronger ideas. ankle (but worried the staff) when I forgot “Alex will like that” and highlighted it, and simply walked off during rehearsal, In Double Jeopardy!, I was pretty sure, but also told me that Alex doesn’t always I’d say more like 4. based on my practice, that despite my choose the highlighted question. Maggie told distaste for poetry, I would do well on us that 100,000 people had taken the test, The reigning champion won the first three “Poets and Poetry,” but had never heard or 3,000-4,000 had tried out and that about games. During commercial breaks (which read the poem described in the $600 clue. 400 were chosen, “But you guys were nice.” are longer than on television) they fixed I jumped to the $1,600 clue, hoping for a Being one of the 400 nicest smart people in technical problems, and Alex sometimes Daily Double, on which I bet $3,500, but America was never one of my goals, but I reread clues for clarity. Then he patiently then guessed that the language used in an answered questions from the audience, area of Spain that led to the development although I knew from my research he’d of poetry in Europe was Catalan (it was answered similar ones a million times. Then Arabic) and lost that amount. I earned they took the contestants who remained $2,000 for knowing that Boccaccio wrote after the first three of the day’s games to the Being one of the 400 The Decameron. I couldn’t remember most commissary for lunch. One thing I hadn’t of the questions, however, until I saw the nicest smart people in expected was that those who didn’t win show two months later. None of the nine mostly left, making the group progressively America was never one family members and friends I had with smaller than the original throng backstage, me could remember most questions on of my goals, but I figured giving it a “Ten Little Indians” quality. After the board – that’s just how fast a round of lunch, we rehearsed again. I still didn’t have I’d take it. Jeopardy! goes and how much is going on much luck with the signaling device, but during any given 22 minute game.

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I was in the lead for a good part of the game The day ended, my family went out for a Despite the fact that it is undeniably a but was in second place going into Final steak dinner and spent the next day at the bummer not to win (Jeopardy! doesn’t pay Jeopardy! The Final Jeopardy! category Getty Center instead of at the studio playing for the flight or hotel, and taxes are heavy, was “Presidential Running Mates.” I bet more and winning big money as I’d hoped so I did not benefit financially. Unlike what relatively big, assuming that all three of to do. Then I took a very uncomfortable many viewers think, I did not get the $6,100 us would get it wrong, so I might, as the redeye to the Sloan-C conference, got a I had left at the end, only the $1,000 third second-place contender with $11,100, still few hours sleep and gave a presentation on prize, along with some Aleve, which won’t win if Preston, in the lead with $14,800, bureaucratic issues in using social media to come until May), it was a fun experience bet too big. The clue was about which team teach online. and it allowed me to explore a less-explored (we were told the response would be two facet of television. I know that I could have people) had boiled lobster and prime rib au The Aftermath studied differently, but I could not possibly jus as their traditional inaugural lunch. My have studied more. Plus, when we went on I then spent the next two months keeping mind could make no sense of this, and all another cruise that December, my trivia secrets. I briefly wondered if, having lost, I I could think of was the groaning boards team was unstoppable. should stay silent altogether but realized that of foods often mentioned in descriptions of people I knew would watch the show. Also, colonial and early federalist times. That we References my family assured me that I’d played really were supposed to connect foods to states well, and that people would be impressed Baker, S. (2011). Final Jeopardy: Man simply did not come to me in the short when they saw the show. vs. machine and the quest to know time we had. This was something most everything. Boston, MA: Houghton people would have to figure out rather than A few weeks before airing, I did share Mifflin Harcourt. remember. Brandon, unlike Preston and me, the news that I would be on television did figure it out (and won, coming from with my associate dean and the college Barthel, M. (2011, August 30). How third place with $6,200, all of which he bet), communications office, although I did Jeopardy! defines us. Retrieved from but told me later he didn’t initially know not share how I did. I was happy to give http://www.gq.com/entertainment/ and considered potential presidents from a presentation for my colleagues at CDL movies-and-tv/201108/jeopardy-trivia­ Maine before landing on the right response. about my experience, and was grateful to game-shows My response of Washington and Adams win the exhibition Jeopardy! game set up Coryat, K. (n.d.). So You Want to Be a was clearly wrong – I knew they were not by my associate dean, Janet Shideler. I have Jeopardy Contestant. Retrieved from “running mates” – but it was something I new Facebook friends from the experience, http://www.pisspoor.com/jep.html simply could not have studied, so it felt like including some who shared their preparation a valiant loss. stories with me (unfortunately, I did not Craig, R. (2011). A web interface for have space to include them in this article), quantifying initial and later conditions The run of questions during my show including Amy, who won two games, and in learning a body of knowledge for a appeared to be unusually cryptic, according with whom Chris and I had dinner in New TV quiz show [Web video]. Retrieved to my parents and many others who have York City. I got texts, emails and Facebook from http://www.youtube.com/ commented. Of the 61 possible questions, posts from a number of old friends and watch?v=jmld3pcKYYA there were 12 “triple stumpers,” meaning appreciate the fact that nearly everyone said none of us gave correct answers to about Dupee, M. (1998). How to get on Jeopardy! the Final Jeopardy! was a killer, and that I’d 20 percent of the clues. and win: Valuable information looked great and “cool as a cucumber.” from a champion. New York, NY: According to the J! Archive (n.d.), my Academia.edu informs me whenever anyone Citadel Press. “Coryat score” – basically the amount I searches for my work, and I got around a would have had if there was no wagering Harris, B. (2006). Prisoner of trebekistan: dozen alerts after the game (and considering involved ($14,600) – was higher than the A decade in Jeopardy! New York, how frequently people spell my last name other two. I got 14 clues right and two NY: Crown Publishers. wrong, it seems like there might have been wrong (including a Daily Double). Preston more). A number of co-workers said I’d J! Archive (n.d.). The fan-created archive of did not get any clues wrong of the 14 done the college proud. There were articles Jeopardy! games and players. Retrieved clues he responded to, and guessed right about me (mentioning the college and based from http://www.j-archive.com/ on two Daily Doubles but had a slightly on an interview) in The Saratogian, which lower Coryat ($14,200). Brandon’s Coryat Jennings, K. (2007). Brainiac: Adventures was picked up by the Troy Record and score was much lower than either of ours in the curious, competitive, compulsive appeared on multiple websites including ($6,200), and he got 14 clues right and five world of trivia buffs. New York, NY: Newsday, and the Albany Times Union. wrong, with no Daily Doubles at all, but he Villard Books. There also were mentions in the Tallahassee won based on a hefty wager and sussing out Democrat, on all three of my alumni Lindquist, G. S., & Säve-Söderbergh, J. the correct response. That’s why they call websites and on Florida State University’s (2011). ‘Girls will be girls,’ especially the show Jeopardy! Twitter feed. among boys: Risk-taking in the ‘daily

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double’ on Jeopardy. Economics Mucha, P. (2011, November 18). Del. man Sheppard Software [Online geography Letters, 112(2), 158-60. Retrieved uses app to break ‘Jeopardy!’ records. games]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http:// from http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j. Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved from www.sheppardsoftware.com/ econlet.2011.04.010 http://www.philly.com/philly/news/ Sporcle [Online quizzes]. (n.d.). Retrieved breaking/20111118_Del__man_uses_ McCarty, K., Schreider, D., Trebek, A., & from http://www.sporcle.com app_to_break_Jeopardy__records.html Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Trebek, A., & Barsocchini, P. (1990). The (Firm). (2005). Jeopardy! An inside The New York Times. (n.d.). Premium Jeopardy! book: The answers, the look. Culver City, CA: Sony Pictures crosswords. Retrieved from questions, the facts, and the stories of Home Entertainment. http://www.nytimes.com/pages/ the greatest game show in history. New crosswords/index.html York, NY: HarperPerennial.

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 Approaches and Disclosures II: Three Photographers Revisit Themselves

Alan Stankiewicz, Suzanne Orrell, Lee Herman, Central New York Center

t is difficult to pinpoint the day that the three people whose work appears here recognized each other as I photographers, but it was certainly by the fall of 2010. At that point, obediently following Alan Stankiewicz, we decided to commandeer the gallery in the center in Syracuse to show our work – together.

But what work, exactly? We are a designer, a geologist and a philosopher, all of whom have done other things, even in addition to photography. Working to and from our multi­ farious experiences, all of us have, over decades, developed multiple portfolios that we have or have not shown to oth­ ers. How could we pick images that would say and not say what we wanted to say and not say, now? Top: Written Water Series: No. 4 by Navigating our differences and similarities, we met at the Alan Stankiewicz center and at our homes. We talked and ate and drank Middle: Two Dried Prosecco. We critiqued each other’s images, usually gener­ Leaves by Lee Herman ously, and we considered ways to select among them to frame a show. Ultimately, we agreed upon no theme and Bottom: Untitled by Suzanne Orrell marched accordingly, deciding that each should choose his or her own images, except for one image apiece that would be selected by the others: trusting, we are.

But how to display our selections? We stared at the gallery walls. We drank coffee and swore softly. We made our decisions and spent our cash and framed and hung our images.

In April 2011, our show, “Approaches and Disclosures,” opened. We drank wine and swilled art-opening food. We talked with our friends and colleagues, an experience so illuminating and supportive that we are now disclosing again here, using a similar approach as the last time. Although our choices have changed, they are still in answer to no theme whatsoever. n Alan Stankiewicz

Untitled, Indian Lake, Adirondack, New York

Untitled, Masai Mara, Kenya, East Africa

Written Waters Series: No. 1

Untitled, Seattle, Washington Suzanne Orrell

Glypta on Sunflower

Palindrome

City Life

Minotaur Lee Herman

Glass Steel and Saffron, MoMa

Brick Pink and J, Highline, NYC

Water Reflection, Skaneateles Falls Tiger Lily 63

Policy Work(s): An Interview with Joyce Elliott, Part I

Ed Warzala, School for Graduate Studies

Joyce Elliott came to Empire State my doctorate. College in 1988, as associate dean of the I found that I Northeast Center. In 1993, she became enjoyed it, and I the Northeast Center dean. From 2000 to was good at it, 2009, she was the college’s vice president and he was such for academic affairs and provost, and an engaging also served as interim president in 2007 ­ professor 2008. Joyce Elliott is currently mentor and that he really area coordinator in Social Theory, Social sparked an Structure and Change at the Center for interest in social Distance Learning. Many thanks to Ed science research. Warzala and Joyce Elliott for their time and E .W .: You commitment to this work. What follows is talked a little bit part I of a two-part interview. about the issues Ed Warzala: Joyce, What is your academic that excited background and education, and did your your intellectual studies influence your career path toward curiosity, but Ed Warzala (left) with Joyce Elliott administration and academic leadership? we know that your interests Joyce Elliott: All of my degrees are in now are in that engaged me in a very different way than sociology – the bachelor’s from Bates women’s issues and have been for quite I’d been engaged. Before that, I think it was College in Maine and the master’s and Ph.D. a while. Was there any seed of that interest more of an intellectual game. from the University of New Hampshire. when you began your college studies I worked in the Maine state corrections E .W .: You said you were “successful” in sociology? system for a year right out of college, and at college study; I imagine that you must then went on to the UNH graduate program J .E .: There was no such thing as women’s have been a good student. Did you carry with the idea of working in the corrections studies when I was in college, and I had a high GPA? field at the policy level. Once I began only one female professor during the whole J .E .: Not always … (laughter). graduate work, I changed course, became degree, and none in graduate school. I must quite engaged in disciplinary study and say, I don’t think I was truly intellectually E .W .: Bates College must have been pretty ended up not ever pursuing the corrections curious until after I completed my doctorate. pricy. Did you earn scholarships to pursue policy angle. I went into college teaching I was good at school and academic work – I college study? and administration instead. found success there, I found it interesting – J.E: Yes, I did have scholarships, but I but I wasn’t passionate about it. In the mid­ E .W .: Many individuals have an influential managed to lose the biggest one in my 70s, I was in Illinois working at Sangamon academic advisor or faculty member who first year. I had a kind of a wild time and State University (now the University of helps to change or shape the direction of went about dropping my grade point Illinois at Springfield). I was a part-time, their studies. Was that so in your case? average below what I needed to retain adjunct faculty member in sociology, and my scholarship. I ended up with a very J .E .: No, it really wasn’t, not in terms of became involved with the newly emerging strong average in my major by the time I choosing the field to begin with. I changed women’s studies program. That’s when I graduated, but I had those early troubles majors four times in college, and ended up got excited about teaching, and research and in that respect, I was like many young in sociology because it sustained my interest. and theory, and political implications and students away from home for the first I would say that in graduate school I had activism. Though the discipline of sociology time. I brought the GPA back high enough a fantastic faculty member in statistics, has an historical thread of support for social to get my scholarship back the next year. believe it or not: Bob Cabral. He was such a action, that was not really the emphasis in I went through Bates in three years and good teacher, and I learned so much about my formal studies in the field. So, really, it graduated when I was only 20 years old, to statistics, that’s probably what tipped me was women’s studies, after the doctorate, save money on tuition. There was no way I toward a more applied research focus for

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 64 could have gone to Bates without substantial J .E .: Well, in the early 80s, I was on the script, so that the workings of an institution scholarships, along with loans and my own board of the shelter for battered women in are more humane, less hierarchical, less earnings, and completing the degree in Springfield, Ill. and that was an expression heavy-handed, I suppose. There are power three years. of my academic interests. I had studied dynamics you have to recognize and work the sociology of families and did a lot of with, and you have to, you know, be smart E .W .: So how and when did you become work on domestic violence in my doctoral about that, but there are ways of doing it interested in higher education? Did your studies, working with one of the pioneers in and other ways of doing it. interest in sociology and social issues funnel the field, Murray Straus, as my dissertation you into administration in any way? Did E .W .: It wouldn’t do much good to preserve chair and advisor. That kind of involvement you think you could accomplish more the structure and change the cast of in public service work was really part of as an administrator? Was administration characters and then still maintain the same what the university expected of faculty. In and leadership a way to achieve some ideology – a patriarchal ideology in running a way, it was much like the purpose of the social objectives? an institution. Jane Altes Award here at the college, which J .E .: My background in sociology did recognizes people who use their disciplinary J .E .: Right. not lead me to administration, but it sure expertise in service to the larger community. E.W: Were there other professional career has helped me understand and address My work in women’s studies was a way activities that preceded your coming to organizational issues. Early in my career, that I could do what mattered to me and be Empire State College? I did not seek out administrative roles. involved in activism. Sangamon State had an unusual focus on J .E .: I was engaged in applied social science I also was in Illinois at the time that the interdisciplinary studies, innovative teaching research on a part-time basis for hospitals, Equal Rights Amendment was killed by the and public affairs, and encouraged making state agencies and community organizations. state Legislature. I spent a lot of time at a difference in terms of community change I came to Empire State College from the state Capitol in those days, sometimes and the world beyond the university. It was Illinois in 1988 as the associate dean of the just bearing witness to what was going a very open, fluid place, willing to engage Northeast Center. I had an incredible group on. It was an amazing thing to go into the faculty in administrative roles. I entered of colleagues in Illinois whom I loved dearly, legislative galleries and watch – no offense administration at a younger age than is yet, I also felt it was time to make a move. – a collection of aging white men turn it normally the case, first serving as director I’m from Boston and was interested in down. It was really quite something, and of the women’s studies program. I was later moving back closer to my family. I did not now we’re years later, you know 30 years appointed dean and worked in the VPAA’s have any interest whatsoever in working in a later, and we’re still not there. office on the academic plan. I was an more traditional institution. assistant professor, and stood for tenure and E .W .: Aging white males? You’re making E .W .: How many years of teaching did you promotion in my second year as dean. me feel guilty and self-conscious (laughter). have all together? But of course, you’re right; we’re not much Prior to that, as a pretenured faculty further ahead in terms of legislation. J .E .: Well, full-time teaching, probably six. member, I held significant roles in I spent a year teaching full time at Illinois governance: I was on the senate, I chaired J .E .: And how could the ERA be anything State University before I became full time the personnel policies committee and led an but a no-brainer? at Sangamon State. So, a year at Illinois overhaul of the faculty personnel policies. E .W .: Did you feel it was part of a personal State and probably five years of full-time So, I got involved in things that were good or societal mission to change the institution teaching at SSU and then I continued to preparation for administrative work and I that you were in at the time, and once teach part time while I was a dean there. At was always interested in making processes you came to Empire State and assumed Empire State College, I carried a significant work better. For example, we had lots leadership positions, did you feel that teaching and mentoring load while I was of faculty on joint appointments across balancing the proportions of men and the associate dean and then dean at the programs, and the personnel policies didn’t women in administration was a public, Northeast Center, before becoming academic accommodate that well. So we changed the institutional good that fed back to vice president/provost. At that point, I gave policies and made them clearer and more your values? up teaching in order to focus my attention supportive of people who were in what I on the provost role. believe is a challenging situation. J .E .: It was always about more than just changing the “who” of the institution. E .W .: And was that one-to-one mentoring E .W .: So, to return to the point of For me it’s not just changing who is in at that time? disciplinary roots and your career in the position, but also changing how the administration, was there anything else that J .E .: Yes, I did a lot of that. I did a lot of work is done, how the institution functions was particularly formative in the beginning study group teaching as well, and co-led politically and ethically. My work is of your career? the 1990 Women’s Studies Residency on informed by a feminist perspective on “Women’s Public and Private Lives” with practice. It’s not just about changing the Carolyn Broadaway. cast of characters, it’s about changing the

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E .W .: That was before Web-based teaching specializations. When you’re in a unit expect in this field – I know my field, I had emerged? or small center it’s not really feasible to know what my students need. It’s easier to specialize so much in mentoring. With fewer simply deliver that to your students than J .E .: Yes, I led study groups and one-to­ faculty, you have to work across areas of it is to invite your students to explore the one tutorials. I had a lot of mentees: I study and, by necessity, you work with a field and learn what’s expected, and why, inherited many mentees who were not much broader range of students in degree and where they can build their own sense succeeding with others and I would be the planning and program design. I think we of educational mission into what they’re utility infielder for students in any field still need this generalist perspective and skill. going about learning. I’m not sure we’re in any situation. So I mentored students doing a great job of helping newer faculty, like you did in Batavia, in business and My biggest concern is not specialization and sustaining in more experienced faculty, communications, whatever. One of my per se, but rather that there seems to be a a kind of passion about student-centeredness favorites was a student developing a dramatically greater emphasis on content and of the founding values and mission at program in orthotics and another was in versus learning processes. I think the faculty the college, in that respect. aquatic exercise. I mentored a few women’s culture is becoming more content-driven, studies students and a couple in sociology, rather than driven by attention to opening E .W .: I’ve wondered though, on this point, but not a lot. I did work with a number of the learning process for students and it seems as though across the college we’ve human services students, as well. opening a spirit of exploration of content hired a lot of quite traditional, newly minted that is more student-driven, more reflective Ph.D.s. It’s not age, but it seems like we E .W .: Well that’s interesting. Let’s delve of the student-centered concept of the used to be perfectly willing to bring in more into a hot topic on the current agenda of founding of the college. I find that to be the life-experienced faculty, often those who the college. What you said about your own most difficult shift in the college that I’ve earned degrees later in life, and perhaps they teaching, helping to devise degree programs seen. It’s more important to me than losing had slightly more empathy for the adult in “aquatic exercise” and “orthotics,” the narrative evaluations. (I might have learner, and in connection, the great value of suggests that you support the position been the only faculty member in CDL who experiential learning. It’s just my take, but that mentors should be generalists. Would voted against the new policy that eliminated this was still well in place when I came to you share your thoughts on the generalist/ narrative evaluations.) the college and I’m seeing less of it now. specialist debate within the college? E .W .: Is that right? J .E .: I’m not sure I see that so much as a J .E .: Sure. factor in the Center for Distance Learning. J .E .: I don’t know, close. I don’t know if I E .W .: There seems to be a trend these days I think a lot of our new mentors are was the only one, but there weren’t many and perhaps for several years of hiring more experienced people who themselves went on of us. narrowly-focused faculty specialists. Some to complete a doctorate later in life, and so of this occurred under your leadership in E .W .: Well, there weren’t many around I don’t think I see so much of that. I think Academic Affairs. These folks, and rightly the college either, I mean, I think it something else may be operative in this. so I would say, want to focus on their was 2-1 collegewide against preserving The college was founded at a time in the disciplinary expertise and are different narrative evaluations. country’s history in which we were breaking in their orientation to mentoring and J .E .: It was. The student feedback was much conventions. There were the movements for scholarship than what might be called the more mixed than that, and more positive civil rights and the anti-war movement and “traditional” Empire State College mentor. about narrative evaluations. You know, there was a huge shift in higher education Has there been a shift toward the specialist? that’s over and done with, and I was not in terms of opening access for people who Do you agree with that? happy about that, but I am less concerned had not been to college before. These gave J .E .: I think there has been something of a about that then I am about this sort of rise to the movements for ethnic studies, trend toward that. That’s not to say that content-centered faculty orientation I’m black studies, women’s studies, in terms there haven’t always been specialists and seeing more and more in faculty culture. of curriculum. There was a clear political accomplished scholars in the college, even impetus for developing those elements of the E .W .: What do you think? How can we from very early on. Where there have been curriculum at least, and political connections explain that shift, what do you think is larger aggregations of faculty, it’s been for a lot of faculty even in more traditional driving that? more possible for people to specialize in disciplines. The movement toward social terms of which students they work with. At J .E .: I somehow think it’s easier. It’s the change and empowerment of those Metro, it’s more part of the culture, there default position for faculty to go about previously disempowered was certainly are long-term faculty who have been able delivering content and making sure that consistent with the establishment of an to specialize in terms of the students they students get what is expected in the field. empowering institution that would respond work with and that has been enabled by It’s kind of like it’s easier to lecture, the to and support such social change. the presence of a larger group of faculty. default value for teaching process, than it We are bringing in new faculty who are very Metro is atypical in this due to its size and is to create more active ways for students engaged with new learning technologies, the aggregation of colleagues with diverse to engage in learning. I know what people and who understand their potential to

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 66 bring educational opportunities to the E .W .: We could delete that question. of the workings of the academic program disempowered and foster social change of and the educational philosophy in practice J .E .: No, no, no … I think it’s a the sort we might have envisioned in the into the role as dean. I found it very hard fair question. 70s. Still, we have been through 30 years of to bring new people in and support their increasing social and political conservatism, E .W .: Because the growth is in that engagement in that way. I would say. I think we’re mirroring that, period, too. E .W .: Is there now more pressure for deans as are other institutions in society. I think J .E .: Yes, but the growth is in the Center to maintain their numbers, to manage, count Empire State College is still unconventional for Distance Learning. The regional and and quantify? and some faculty are engaged actively in other centers are marginally larger in some social change, but as an institution we are J .E .: That was always there for the deans, cases and the forces driving conventionality not oriented so explicitly to larger societal really, always a huge pressure, I think; are not about growth in those settings, in and political developments. I do think the perhaps the most challenging element of the my view. So then it’s about something else Occupy Wall Street movement is promising role aside from personnel matters. and I’m not sure what that is. I think we in this broader sense. certainly have had incredible turnover in the E .W .: I wonder if the changing E .W .: An interesting case study, for sure, but administration of the regional centers. When conversational focus in centers is a function as you were speaking, I was thinking that I came into the college, regional center deans of the focus of the regional dean or of the there also has been considerable growth in had been in place for a long time. There was emphasis of the coordinating center? the college, and with that growth, it’s much some turnover in the associate dean role, J .E .: Well, it’s both, since the coordinating harder to keep a value system, harder to but the associate deans were very close to center shapes the dean role to an extent. preserve core values. I’ve heard and read the faculty, they did a lot of teaching and Still, there’s no question that there is a that the founders were more ideologically mentoring, as did deans – a fair amount of connection between academic quality and coherent and committed. It’s a fascinating that – and there was a kind of academic retention and enrollment, and you can’t study of organizational culture and leadership engagement by those folks. I sustain enrollment if the quality isn’t there. institutional change, really interesting. see less emphasis on that in the dean role We all know that stuff. today, and I’m not sure about the associate J .E .: Growth may be a factor or it may deans. I don’t know if they’re as close to E .W .: Well this is a good segue into talking be a red herring – I’m not sure. I think it’s the academic program as before, as ready about some of the people you’ve worked a factor in distance learning, but I’m not to lead discussions about educational with. Who would you name as your mentors so sure about the regional centers. In the philosophy and practice and see that as at the college and how did they influence early days of the college there was a huge “part of the role,” which I think it needs your career at the college? matter of institution building. That also was to be. Yes, deans have to be externally true of my former institution, which was J .E .: Actually, I would say my early mentors oriented to their communities, have to founded in the same year as Empire State were other members of the associate deans deal with budgets and enrollments and College. When I was there, it was still in group, and at the time, that was quite a personnel, and faculty often don’t want the institution-building phase and people sterling group. There were some really cool administrators to intrude into educational lived and breathed the place. I certainly people there, certainly Anne Bertholf from matters. But we need to expect and welcome did that. But that’s not exactly sustainable NFC, Alan Mandell at the Hudson Valley deep engagement by people in leadership for either the founding faculty or the Center and Chris Rounds at the old Central roles in conversations with faculty about people who come behind them. You can’t New York Center, Evelyn Wells at Long educational values and academic quality. give over your whole being to institution Island, Bob Carey at Metro. They were We need to sustain that space for this building for 40 to 100 years; it’s just not great colleagues. important conversation. possible. I don’t know, I haven’t done a E .W .: So they were already here when study of organizational life spans, but there’s E .W .: I hadn’t thought of it in that way, but you arrived and you were the new something that happens over time. it sounds right. Explaining how and why associate dean? that happened would be a challenge, but I E .W .: I do find it remarkable how well the think you’re right. My former GVC dean, J .E .: Right. college preserved its core values, yet I have Bob Milton, did keep that discussion on observed significant change since arriving E .W .: So they brought you into the system? the front burner and he also worked closely more than 10 years ago when I attended with me as a new unit coordinator early on. J .E .: Right. the new mentor workshops and other Mentoring Institute functions. Do you see J .E .: I think that this has happened during E .W .: And brought you into the culture? the change as taking place over the last 10 my period in the provost role, certainly. A J .E .: One of the differences, I think, is the years, too, Joyce? lot of the deans who were in place when meeting opportunities. We met, I don’t I became provost had come through the J .E .: If I did, then I would be condemning know, four times a year for a couple of days associate dean role and so brought that my own administration (laughter). and we got into very intense conversations academic focus, that intimate knowledge as a group about the academic side of what

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 67 we were doing, the learning contracts we when I traveled for International Programs. I there also is a need to say, “OK, what we would actually have to review and sign, saw Beth Chiquoine and Joe Moore recently think is reasonable is this, and let’s see if we contracts and evaluations and how we did when I was out in Boston for some time can make that happen.” that, what the challenges were, what the with my family. Another area was about student grievances worst ones were, what were the great ones, E .W .: You’ve held the positions of VPAA and student appeals that just needed working with a mentor who was not serving and provost and interim president of updating and improvement. There had students: How do you deal with that? How the college. What achievements in these been several reorganizations before I came do you intervene? It was the down to earth, positions do you want the historical into the provost job, so those policies and day-to-day quality of things and also the record to reflect and do you want people procedures just weren’t accurate anymore. more philosophical stuff that we dealt with. to know about? What are you proud So they just needed an update and more The associate deans don’t have that kind of of in those roles? clarity. We needed to make sure we had meeting time now and neither do the deans. these processes right for students and J .E .: Well, I did a lot of policy work as the E .W .: Well, that goes back to the question the college. provost/VPAA, and I think that certainly the about what may be different now and institutional take on that would be mixed The third area has to do with the study why perhaps discussions about academic in terms of whether some of that work outcomes policies, financial aid and issues at the center level may be fewer and should have been done or not, whether satisfactory academic progress, all of farther between. What you described is a the right outcomes were achieved, that which grew out of the financial aid audit sort of lateral or mutual mentoring, and sort of thing. For me, a major piece of that occurred when I came into the job. exchange of ideas about best practice and being an administrator is working to align I was in the first three months as interim philosophical alignment. I guess, when I the institution with its best values. So it’s provost when we were audited by the state asked the question, I was thinking more about creating more congruency between comptroller on matters related to full-time hierarchically… was there a president, was the actual workings of the place and what financial aid. It was a good two-year process there a provost or higher administrator who inspires students and faculty, and that’s what of completing that audit, and then, truth be was a mentor to you? the policy work was about for me. told, another three years of policy follow-up J .E .: The next time that I had a mentor who to address the issues that we were vulnerable E .W .: Are there particular examples? I think of as mentor, someone who I learned on, including the absence of outcomes for I know there are many, but what would a lot from, was Joe Moore, and there was student academic work. In any event, while be an example of maintaining that a big gap there. I mean, I had good people not perfect, it’s way better now, and some of alignment between mission and core to work with across the hierarchy and I the improvement has to do with that policy values and practices? learned things and gathered things, but there work. Some of these issues were related to was a burst of learning for me from that J .E .: I would say four areas in particular. the academic calendar and in part drove the early associate dean group who really did One is the policies around educational change to revise the calendar. We are in a function as a group of mentors, and then planning, prior learning assessment and much better position to know about student there was a burst of learning when I started the degree program rationale. It seems progress now than we were 20 years ago, working with Joe – a really different level to me that we needed a more consistent and it’s actually better. of engagement with the college and what institutional take on what to expect of E .W .: Its interesting … external demands it is to be in the administration. Later on ourselves and our work with students in have come into conflict in many ways with when Joe left, I drew a lot on Bill Ferrero’s those areas, because they are so much at the some interpretations of the tradition and expertise and colleagueship. He was just a core of what we promise in our educational core values, because as recently as 10 years very important part of that transition. model. I mean everything from doing things ago there were no time limits in practice. in a timely way and enabling students to E .W .: Do you still keep in touch with many create a plan that is a prospective roadmap J .E .: There were time limits on the books of these people or people from the early with room for changing the focus, to – it was a year for an incomplete – but days? Who do you keep in touch with? making it timely so that students get PLA students, in practice, could take much J .E .: Somewhat sporadically. I get word responses in a reasonable time, so they don’t longer. Even back in those days before the about people from other people. I happened wait two years for an evaluator. I’ve seen newer policies, I questioned the value of to talk with Anne Bertholf the other day the worst of it; I’ve seen how students can keeping an incomplete open in perpetuity for on the phone because we were both on a be utterly mis-served by poor process and my own students that I worked with. I don’t webinar. So we talked a little bit later that inattention, and it seemed to me that as a think it served them well. There is a point day or the next day; it was very nice to matter of quality and delivering on what where it makes more sense for students to catch up with her. I do keep in touch with we say we care about, we had to make this cut their losses and re-enroll, in terms of the Bob Trullinger, who retired not long ago, better. Policy isn’t the only way to make continuity and coherence of the study. and certainly, whenever I get to see Alan it better, and certainly we can argue that Mandell or Bob Carey or Chris Rounds, I’m one of the reasons the ball gets dropped is delighted. I saw Evelyn Wells quite often because of the growth and the volume. Still,

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E .W .: Having hard deadlines was not J .E .: The grading policy would be a big one proper balance of issues should be between the tradition less than a decade ago. You for me because of my close engagement in the faculty and the administration, in terms mentioned four accomplishments, what was that, and it was lengthy. It took a long time of setting the agenda for the college? the fourth? and there was a lot of controversy about it, J .E .: I would say faculty underestimate how a lot of upset. J .E .: Well, actually, the fourth one would much their concerns make a difference in be the personnel policies. The policy work One thing that was always curious to the direction of the institution around policy initiated by the APC [Academic Personnel me was that it was perceived by a lot of issues. I think I’d give as other examples Committee] morphed into negotiations people as an administrative initiative that the work on degree planning, PLA and the with the UUP chapter surrounding the we would do this, have a grading policy. faculty personnel policies. Faculty of the faculty review process. I think we needed But the administration did not initiate college in general were aware that processes that – again, I guess it’s an alignment thing. this one. What happened was individual for degree program review, approval for We have certain values about how we faculty around the college brought to prior learning assessment, the success of want to treat people and be treated in this APLPC [Academic Programs and Learning students in education planning and the organization, and you know faculty review Policies Committee, which later became quality of the rationale essay were not at policies are a part of aligning an institution. CUSP] concerns about inconsistent the quality they wanted to see. People were grading practices around the college. At vocal. You couldn’t go to a college meeting E .W .: Is that what you mean by personnel that juncture, we did have grades of a without these issues coming up, and I had work, the faculty review process? sort, which we did not have when I first seen that from the moment I walked in the J .E .: Yes, that’s a big piece of it. But I came to the college in 1988. We were door of the college as an associate dean also did a lot of work on professional doing retroactive grading, which I always in 1988. So everybody is talking about performance programs and evaluations, found to be problematic. A student would something with real concern, distress, making them timely, making them a individually request that grades be assigned even angst, so an administration takes reasonable lead up to the decision about to past studies, and the associate dean that seriously and says finally, “Let’s do permanency. I did a lot of work on that with would work with faculty to retroactively something about it; let’s not have it continue HR and with UUP. We needed to deal with assign a grade based on the narrative CE. this way.” That’s really what I think we that. People have a right to fair and timely did with the degree planning issues. We My personal preference was not to have feedback about how they’re doing and also knew we were moving to some new grades at all, whether or not we had a some guidance about what they could do to technologies to support this work, and we narrative. I was more comfortable with a improve or to advance or to develop. In this thought there needed to be some greater credit/no credit system rather than having way, people should be treated well. consistency across parts of the college so the grades or GPAs and that sort of thing. We technology could be designed in a way to E .W .: The same is certainly true for were facing the reality that we were already actually support the work. administrators, too. Administrators deserve awarding grades and doing it retroactively, the same opportunity to improve and which I thought was not really respectable. At that point in my life at the college, I had develop and I think sometimes we don’t So that was one concern that other people been in these angst-ridden conversations look in that direction in the same way. shared, but the big impetus for change was for 15 years. Of course, you can’t fix things that there was one center that believed that entirely with policy. Policy is a statement J .E .: Yes, there’s actually been a lot of D level work was worthy of credit and of what you think is supposed to happen work in developing people in leadership another center that thought that D level in some sense. We felt, “Let’s make an positions. When I was in the role of provost work was not worthy of credit and students agreement about that.” Faculty were key in we did a lot of individual coaching with and faculty were working across those that, whether they recognized it or not, or administrators, individualized developmental centers. How do you explain to a student whether it produced the expected outcome, work. It sometimes was successful and or an adjunct or an outside party that you which was what motivated it. We can’t all sometimes it wasn’t. It was not very visible could get credit for a D performance in one be this distressed all the time, so let’s do to people, and that kind of developmental part of the college but not in another? You something about it. effort really can’t be regardless of whether can’t have an institution function that way. you’re talking about an administrator or It was really the same with personnel So that’s what brought this to APLPC. It somebody else. policies, faculty review policies. My was that very specific thing and then as we observation over the years has been that E .W .: What were the most challenging and got into it, we realized we had a larger set the college has had a very benign personnel memorable struggles over policy and over of issues that we had to deal with and it process for the faculty. But there has been the direction of the college that you would became a much bigger piece of legislation, I a lot of fear attached to it, and new faculty cite? What was the biggest? guess, than anybody anticipated. coming in continue to be scared by other E .W .: So you’re saying the grading policy people about the process and so there was came out of the faculty for the most part some value in clarifying it. Collectively and that makes me want to ask what the we – labor and management – made some

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 69 statements about what we aspire to in of the institution in every way you can. for certain positions to be filled, and we the review process – let it be fair, let it be In the budget, in planning, in public did that in conversation with the deans for confidential – so that people would not be relations, in marketing, to be a force for the regional centers. We were able to invest able to bring in hearsay information and the quality and value of the academic systematically over several years in those attack somebody at the last minute in a program and the student experience, to be positions and also filled those same kinds review meeting. We wanted the process at the center of pretty much any important of roles (adapted differently) for graduate to be honest and transparent. If there was decision at the college. Especially in an programs and CDL. We had a model of developmental feedback to give, it should institution that is not like Penn State. You building staff with enrollment that was be given. don’t deal with residential life or with funded by solid enrollments for an extended athletics; you’re dealing with students and period of time. So anyway, I think having a E .W .: I personally saw the changed process an academic program. cushion just makes a difference. as an improvement over the time when I was applying for early reappointments. I thought E .W .: Is it fair to say that maintaining the E.W: You were VPAA and provost during by the time my tenure decision came up that integration of the academic program and the the Moore presidency, which is important the system was pretty fair by comparison to core values was the focus of OAA [Office of in the organizational history of the college other colleges where departmental factions Academic Affairs] under your leadership? because it represents in many ways a sometimes get in the way of fairness. departure from the founding, a founding J .E .: Yes, absolutely it was a focus for me. that lasted for three decades. How would J .E .: Why don’t we finish talking about E .W .: Many around the college are you summarize the Moore years for future accomplishments; can we go back? Though concerned that there is precipitous slippage college generations? I expressed concerns earlier about content- away from certain core values and that the driven education, I would have to say that J .E .: I would start with when Joe’s organization is changing rapidly. Are you establishing the MAT program and nursing appointment was announced in March of concerned with this? program were two major accomplishments 2000 and he was invited to come to the All of the college, in both cases involving a J .E .: Well, I certainly worry about College Conference and give a presentation great deal of teamwork. We also closed two “slippage.” I don’t have, at this point, a to the assembly. I would say he hit a home programs while I was provost or interim good vantage point. I do think we have run. He talked about Ernest Boyer and Jim president: the Corporate College program some great people in key roles who continue Hall and the founding values and vision and and the FORUM program. The Corporate to work for the core mission and values. the educational philosophy and he linked College program closing wasn’t at our I would make a connection with the budget it all to a social justice agenda – and that initiative – we didn’t have a choice about situation, in that I think it was easier to is who he is, I think. People were gratified it. The FORUM program was a strategic focus on more strictly academic matters and pleased. He spent a year going around decision. In both cases, we did the right when we had a very significant reserve the college and talking to people about thing for the staff involved. We retained the in the budget. things and seeing every different place we people and gave them opportunities, we had and I think he came out of that with an E .W .: There’s a great answer, the game were upfront with people, and we helped agenda. He had enormous respect for the does change with tight budgets. them find different positions in the college foundations of the college. I think he wanted to the extent that it was humanly possible to J .E .: Back in 2006, you could make a us to bring that forward in new ways and to do that. I’m proud of how we went about it. decision to strategically invest resources deepen it. One part of that involved creating I think that was good work. in having academic support professionals better work spaces for people, a huge effort in centers to help students – that was an around capital projects and buildings. This E .W .: I think it’s remarkable, perhaps investment in academic quality. You could wasn’t about wanting to become known extraordinary, how caring the institution do that when you had funds available as the facilities president; Joe just saw the has been in cases like the Corporate College to invest. Right now, that’s much more places where our staff were working and closing and during the different budget cuts challenging to do. where our students were learning and said, in certain periods of time, when positions “We have to do better.” He spent a lot of were preserved. E .W .: You didn’t mention that, though, in time on that. the list of your accomplishments, but to me, You’ve provided some idea of the hiring of academic support professionals Another thing that was important was his accomplishments you identify with, but was monumental for the college. That external work – I mean, he worked with in more general, philosophical terms, what decision said that we care about student the legislature, the executives, the opinion do you believe are the key responsibilities success and here is the evidence. leaders that we had some connection with of the chief academic officer in terms as a college, he connected us with more of leadership? J .E .: There was a lot of improvement opinion leaders, he brought people onto the in center staffing, not just the academic J .E .: I think I would say the most important foundation board who were amazing, found support people. Joe, Bill and I and the broad responsibility is to place students ways to help them understand what this deans worked that out collaboratively. We and the academic program at the center place is about and why it should matter to created a center staffing model that called

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 70 them. Really amazing at that stuff. I think you’ve had with the college, how do you on the executive committee for the CAOs, he made a big difference in how we were think Empire State College is perceived by and then on the SUNY budget task force seen externally and was strategically very SUNY? What have been the challenges of as a representative of the CAOs. There successful in those efforts. That’s what laid leading Empire State College with regard was a certain amount of respect, but it was the ground work for the facilities. That’s to the college’s place within the SUNY person-based, it wasn’t about Empire State what laid the ground work for the MAT system? I’m interested in this as the college’s College. It was about longevity and the program being approved, which was a huge representative on the University Faculty value of the argument you might make and thing because it required a master plan Senate where I often find considerable the way that you could link your college’s amendment and we had faced tremendous incongruence between the traditional agenda with the well-being of other colleges opposition to expanding our scope in the comprehensive colleges in our sector and our in the sector. I thought I was able to do past. Same thing with nursing – it took those own radical theories and practices. So, how that pretty well – particularly around the kinds of external connections. He navigated do you see the college’s place within SUNY? budget challenges and to make common the politics of New York state, connected cause with that group. When it came to J .E .: I think that adult learners continue to with people on both sides of the aisle. He relationships with the university centers, be an afterthought. I think this is the default didn’t compromise us ever but found ways in some contrast, it was pretty evident the mindset across the system. I can’t speak to work with quite a range of “influencers.” comprehensive colleges were being dismissed directly about the most recent realities, but On occasion, he stood up to very powerful as a group, not just us. It’s not just adult I think adult learners are still not at the people outside of the college with integrity learners who don’t have cache, but it’s also core of peoples’ thinking. Even with the and courage, and succeeded. the comprehensive colleges without the recent emphasis on SUNY as an economic major research agendas. So in some ways, E .W .: Where do you think he learned how driver, adults are not at the center. There’s the teaching mission also is a detriment in to do this? no fundamental core understanding that terms of the politics of the system. educating adults is critical for them, their J .E .: Playing basketball on the streets in children, the community, the state. I just One can gain a certain amount of personal New Jersey, I think. He’s a tough guy! don’t think it’s there. credibility. I think Joe had an enormous E .W .: A tough infighter politically speaking? amount of that and I created some of that E .W .: No, the system focuses on university over time, in my own way. But the college J .E .: He made his way in the world without centers and bringing in large research grants. is not there; we’re not in people’s minds. a lot of advantages, somewhere achieved a It seems that helping to employ adults, The piece that both of us have worked on kind of sense of himself and a confidence many displaced from their jobs by structural in terms of financial aid policies and how that I think is kind of rare and he’s an change in the global economy, doesn’t the state treats adult and part-time learners incredible strategic thinker. Strategy is great matter very much. is one of the regrets I have: that we weren’t fun for him, you know, figuring out how to J .E .: University research grants are able to make more of a difference on move this legislative player to align with that important, and it’s not the only way to drive that, though I think we made a beginning. legislative player to get behind this capital economic development. If you think of the Joe started that and I was able to carry project in somebody else’s district, that’s fun long term well-being, economically and it forward in the interim president role for him. It’s also hard work and he puts the socially, of the more challenged communities in relation to the Spitzer Commission on work in. in this state, having adults get an education, Higher Education, which of course fell apart E .W .: He must have carefully studied and earn a degree that gives them access to a when Spitzer left office. gotten very good advice. better job and makes them role models for E .W .: I cited your report on financial aid their kids, adult education is a huge, long­ J .E .: I think he’s had some mentors in his life in my essay for the UFS Bulletin, and term economic driver. that he would talk about, but he’s a strategic appreciated it very much. thinker and he has his guts. E .W .: At university senate meetings, I meet J .E .: That was a moment where we had an with representatives of the colleges in our E .W .: It sounds like you like him. opportunity to begin to change financial aid sector; sometimes I wonder why I’m in for adults, but the moment was lost by the J .E .: Yes. There were times we were at odds, those discussions. I imagine when SUNY dramatic exit of a governor, and it hasn’t that we had differences, of course. But we presidents meet, it must be the same for our resurfaced. I regret that. also had long drives together across the state college president and provost. and we would talk business for a long time E .W .: Well, it’s actually worse now because J .E .: When I was in the provost role, I’d and then we’d listen to some kind of blues we’re subsidizing the rational tuition policy been in the position long enough that I at full blast. and the so-called TAP-gap, and not as many was one of the longer term people in the of our students can qualify for TAP, and Pell E .W .: That sounds like it must have been CAO (chief academic officers) group. We grants also are either reduced or have been pretty good times overall. Based on your are associated with the comprehensive restricted in some ways. So financial aid for experience as provost, and all the other roles colleges – that’s what our sector is. I served adults is actually worse.

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I wonder if you think that the changing E.W: How do we get adult learning to the J .E .: I think structural change in the higher education marketplace might make top of the SUNY agenda and get on the workplace positions the community colleges us more important in SUNY going forward. governor’s agenda? It would seem that the well, as they are really the first-line response I guess what I’m getting at is whether governor recognizes workforce development to dislocated workers. In terms of the more Empire State College might soon become needs and this chancellor wants to have technical, industry-driven programs, I think SUNY’s answer to the emergence of the a positive relationship with the governor. we are, and continue to be, incredibly for-profit models that focus primarily on Some of the interests are aligned here, but I affirmative of community college education adult learners? Do we represent a system don’t know how it’ll all play out. in the way we bring students in from that capability for SUNY? Do you think history level of the system and into four-year J .E .: There’s some inertia in the state and is on the side of alternative higher education, degrees here. We do function primarily as an even across the country. Several years ago, and might the 2025 initiative of President upper-division institution, and I think our Hillary Clinton had a major legislative Davis to establish New York’s Open role is most importantly one of providing initiative about adult learners and it was University position the college well for a degree opportunities at the upper-division just right up our alley, but it never went prosperous future? level and in the wide range of fields that we forward. It’s tough to get across to people do, and I think the liberal arts element of J .E .: That’s a good question. I’m not sure how important this is. It’s hard to get across that is key. that we benefit in the near future, but how building public higher education in say 10 years, maybe so. I think in the capacity serves people most in need better E .W .: Can it put people to work? larger landscape of higher education, yes. than advancing very large, for-profit, online J .E .: Yes and no. It may not be able to The system to me seems still to be focused universities like the University of Phoenix. put them to work per se, in a direct and on bricks and mortar delivery, with the E .W .: Doesn’t SUNY need something immediate sense, but it may put them in a exception of some community colleges. to offer as an alternative to predatory, position to sustain and grow in their work There are some pockets in other places and alternative, for-profit models? Lots of over the long haul. Does getting a degree some master’s degrees that either blend people go to Phoenix, about as many as in American literature get you a job? In so in online methods or use new learning go to SUNY, so shouldn’t a system of far as you need some kind of college degree technologies. Obviously, there’s more public higher education have something to enter a lot of jobs, it can. Does it give creativity possible and we do some really comparable, but of higher quality and much you a longer term leg up for promotions wonderful, brilliant things. So far, though, less expensive? Shouldn’t SUNY have a and advancement and career flexibility and I don’t see fundamental change in the way response to the Phoenixes of the world? the kinds of skills you need to think? The people look at education in the system. degree in American literature is probably J .E .: They will, in the long run, as the E .W .: What are your thoughts about the better than some other options. There is demographics change, I think. We’re nearing trend toward certificates as nondegree some research evidence about the longer the tail end of a boom that has increased approaches to focused learning and term significance of a liberal arts degree traditional-age enrollment. If the bottom credentialing? There are new demands for success in business. It helps in terms of drops out of that then people will see the in higher education related to structural advancement to higher management and Phoenixes as a competitive problem, or they changes in the economy and mass I think that’s a case that needs to be made might see Empire State College and other unemployment and displaced workers. publicly by institutions that do focus on the adult-friendly institutions as an answer. There is a need for those people to retrain in liberal arts. It’s a case that needs to be made some manner, or to get a specific skill that E .W .: Do you think Empire State College when “SUNY as an economic engine” makes them competitive in the workforce. is positioned well compared to the other is argued. comprehensive colleges for this emerging J .E .: I absolutely agree with you that focused E .W .: It sounds like you’re maybe a little demand from adults and displaced learning can help workers. I do agree that concerned about all of the discussion of workers caused by structural changes we have a role to play in educating displaced SUNY as an economic driver. Do you think in the economy? The numbers are quite workers. I have not seen direct evidence that’s overemphasized in “The Power of significant: 15 million jobs are permanently that certificates have employment value. SUNY” plan? gone and I’d like to connect this back to the I think they are largely a marketing question of a liberal arts education versus J .E .: No, you absolutely have to make that device for colleges intended to attract employment training models of education. case because that’s the climate we’re living nonmatriculated and potentially degree- So how does that all connect? If demands in. I’m disappointed that it is the climate seeking students. For Empire State for alternative forms of education are on the we have after 30 years of disinvestment in College, I am concerned that the generally rise, and the data bears this out, does that higher education. prestructured nature of the certificates position Empire State College in a better moves us away from educational principles, E .W .: It’s not just a climate though is it? place than traditional higher education? without adding much value for students. Labor economists seem to have evidence that suggests that liberal arts education

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 72 alone is unlikely to get it done in the global for a certain class of citizen, but you don’t E .W .: We’ll see, I suppose, how higher economy of the not too distant future. They make that case for the daughters and sons education adapts to its changing point to engineering, math and science and of people in the U.S. Congress or in top environment and how the college evolves upper management education as facilitating levels of corporate America. That’s not the within SUNY over the next decade or so. employment opportunity. education that those people are getting. I ** think there’s a class stratification here that’s J .E .: Yes, but who are the people in power playing out in what people aspire to in and what kind of education did they get? Note terms of the kind of higher education they’re The folks that are really in a position of getting or promoting for others. I think there I wish to thank Joyce for her generosity privilege and power came out of an elite are some real issues there. Are we educating in agreeing to discuss at length and in liberal arts educational background, by and people for slots in an economy? Are we detail her various roles in, and significant large. They went to Yale and they went educating people to be critically thinking contributions to, Empire State College. to Harvard. They got a degree in political citizens of a very complicated world? Are Those who view the history of the college science, it wasn’t in business, it wasn’t we educating people to be able to think their from some future time will benefit from in accounting – so I mean there’s also a way through a life path where they have Joyce’s insights and will appreciate her deep scaffolding of the educational system. You some capacity to shape that path? Different commitment and dedication to the college can make the case about the immediate kinds of education do act differently. and its mission. E.W. economic impact of a certain kind of degree

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Half of No

Karyn Pilgrim, Metropolitan Center

1.1 assigned her seat, and I mine, and these reading material I found around the house. things happened. Mother wouldn’t have Instruction manuals, mostly. I appreciate was a jerk. The staff at the office told liked it, but she never liked anything, and if them greatly for their logical procedures me so. “Holmes is such a jerk,” they’d I hadn’t needed to earn a living, she would and careful wording. She was worried about I say, as I passed by their desks on my have kept me at home forever, to forestall the hippies, which was understandable way to the copy room. But I am not a jerk. situations like these. Fortunately, a man has given their terrible hygiene and disturbing To jerk means to tug or pull, which in to work – and women too, these days. So I proclivities, but wrong that they would relation to me now is nonsensical, though it didn’t take offense when this strange woman have influenced me. I was far too rational may have been true back then. Something with black hair and green eyes took her for that. I have heard there are two kinds big happened on the trip to JFK. I’m not the seat. She was polite enough about it, saying of people in the world: those who color same man, though I have the same name. nothing but “excuse me” when her elbow outside the lines, and those who do not. I I’ve let go. bumped my arm. She had very pale skin, was among the latter at that time, taking Most people are shockingly inaccurate. As like ultra-white paper. Like me, she wasn’t pains to ensure that no stray mark of mine a copier for the Duplicate Department at young or old. I had just turned 36, at 7 p.m. crossed over the boundary line. But I did Oh!No!, I saw those things: the generally on August 20. appreciate things about women, and I don’t think this could be helped. Certain curves unprofessional and inefficient manner of There were so many things to admire and swellings, like the continent of South my peers. The sheer number of Angela about that flight. My favorite was how the America which was painted across the and Rochelle’s typos on any given day flight attendants stood in the aisles and cafeteria wall at work. I always sat facing illustrated this. Worse, when I pointed it demonstrated the safety measures as we the map as I ate my brown bag lunch. out, as I so often had to, they looked abused followed along with the pamphlet in our and muttered things like, “What has the hands. It reminded me of synchronized Fortunately, the woman beside me did not detective found today?” You’d think, from swimming, a sport I greatly admired. If speak. I disliked the types who sat and how they said it, wrong was right. the plane were to fall from the sky and gabbed, or probed and prodded, like the That airplane was a thing of beauty. The crash into the ocean, it was not a hopeless women at work. Some of the men were reason for its beauty was its orderliness. situation. There were inflatable vests stashed like that, too. Unfortunately, the woman There were two aisles that ran the length under the seats, and even the seat cushions beside me had ignored the safety of the plane, with 18 special seats up front could be removed and used as flotation demonstration, and didn’t even skim that people in coach, where I sat, were not devices. If the cabin should suddenly run through the manual. The only thing good allowed to go. Each row consisted of eight out of air, oxygen masks would drop from about that was that if something went lettered seats: AB, CDEF, GH. Those letters, the panel above our heads, which we would wrong, she’d need my assistance. then fasten over our mouths. The flight depicted on little pictograms affixed to the Something did go wrong. About two attendants performed an excellent mime luggage rack, made it perfectly clear where hours into the flight from San Francisco to of a parent applying his or her own mask each person should go. I sat in 53A. There New York, the plane began to jerk. Then first, and then the child’s. I thought about were 60 rows in all. I knew this because suddenly it dropped and we fell through the how I’d have to be quick in putting on my I counted the rows on my way to the air for several seconds. It was quite terrible, own before affixing the mask on the woman bathroom at the end of the plane. The flight and people screamed. The woman beside me beside me. How grateful she would be, her attendants were back there chatting, just like grabbed my hand. the general staff at Oh!No! but not nearly eyes huge and warm as sunny clover above so loudly, and they smiled and asked me the mask. “It’s nothing,” I told her. “A temporary stall when the engine flips over.” This was not what I needed as I approached. Those flight Mother wouldn’t have approved, of true. I know machines. What had happened attendants, like the airplanes they serviced, course. She approved of very little, and was that the engine shut down, and after a were made from a logical blueprint. In that for that reason she home schooled me. pause, another engine turned on. we were alike. We had no TV. She was not a good home A woman sat next to me, which made me schooler, I have since learned. She gave “I thought the engine had died,” she said. uncomfortable in a familiar way, though it very little thought to it, and purchased no Her voice was pure, like a flute. was certainly no fault of her own. She was books. For this reason, I taught myself by

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“No, no. Nothing like that. A routine “It happens. Not often, but it happens.” As though mother would have been spinning mechanical maneuver.” It was quite I talked, I stared at the seat in front of me. in her grave. Our present age, with its disconcerting, her musical voice and her Her eyes were too green, and they unnerved intersecting lines and whizzing arrows, was soft, damp hand wrapped around mine. me. “There was the time I was flying to a masterpiece of efficiency that someone on Brazil and the plane dropped 1,000 feet a mission as important as mine was, would “I thought we were all going to die. I before righting itself. And the trip back from surely notice. could see us plunging down and down, the Japan, when it tilted at a 45 degree angle. airplane nose tilting straight toward the At first, I was uncertain why I was chosen. And once when we were passing over the earth. I even saw how our hair would fly There were, after all, 35 people in the Gobi desert the engine exploded and the up and the wind stretch our mouths so we Duplicate Department. It was true, I’d been plane began to flail around. …” couldn’t even scream. We’d be screaming, polishing my name tag, “Foster Holmes, but we wouldn’t make a sound.” I had become rather excited, jerking my Duplicate” for five years longer than hand so that hers was jerking, too. She everyone else. That is, except Eddy Balloos, I didn’t know what to say to that, so I didn’t noticed her hand in mine and let out a the copy floor manager. He’d been there say anything. This was not the first time sudden cry, like a cat might make if you four months longer than I and never let me I’d held a woman’s hand. I occasionally stepped on its tail. forget it. I would have liked to be promoted helped women from busses when I saw to Mastercopy. Everybody wanted that. they were struggling with packages, or “Oh God!” She snatched it back to her And Eddy rubbed it in my face. “Mornin’, wearing unstable shoes. I did this as often as lap and held it there as if it might escape. duplicate” he’d say as he passed by my possible, which wasn’t much. Once or twice Something happened to her eyes; a shadow station, seven minutes late, occasionally 15. I a month. appeared that hadn’t been there before. “I’m always started at five till nine. Nevertheless, so sorry,” she said. Her voice was no longer Also, when I was 8, there was the girl in my 16 years there, I had never been gentle. “I didn’t know I was doing that. with hair like glass who lived on the other promoted. I started as duplicate and this Pardon me.” A red mist colored her cheek side of our house. One day, her hand shot title duplicated itself, year after year. But the and she looked toward the aisle. through the iron bars and snatched up mine truth was, I was an excellent duplicate, the as we stood on either side of the gate that “Quite all right.” I stared at the seatback best at the company, and everybody knew separated our yards. We stood like that for in front of me. it. So must the higher ups, I reasoned, and 15 seconds, our gazes connected, as if we because of this, it was I who was chosen for She unfolded her blanket and tucked were the only people in the world. this mission. herself under it, careful not to cross over “Was it…” asked the woman beside me, “a into my space. She turned to the side so her Angela, the orders clerk and Eddy’s mechanical twitch?” back was to me, and covered her breasts girlfriend, came over to my machine and with her arms as if I had taken some leaned against the tray where fresh copies There was something similar between her unfathomable liberty. were stacking, the plump curve of her hip eyes and the blond child’s, a glassy shine, pressed against the machine’s edge so that as if she had a very high fever. When I had 1.2 her flesh bulged around it. She had wild a high fever while mother was alive, she curly hair that never stayed put in her would make me lie in a cold-water bath The airport terminal was a sight to behold. ponytail. That day, she’d left it down so while she placed ice cubes on my head, one All of the people, coming and going, neatly it spilled over the front of her yellow shirt by one. I thought about giving this woman a divided into lanes with solid white lines with its low lying neckline that would have cold-water bath, but I couldn’t think about partitioning the northbound pedestrians made mother growl. that without thinking about other things, from those moving south. Dotted lines so I focused on the way the airplane seats separated the rapid movers from the slow. “You musta done something right, Jerko.” were so nicely designed with their panels of There were signs and arrows indicating She grinned, rolling her large round eyes buttons on the arms to turn on the lights directions, and escalators and elevators the color of pennies, and jabbed a manila and tilt back the chairs, and so many other swooping upward and downward interoffice envelope against my chest. useful activities. and sideways, too. Lights blinked and “Take it.” loudspeakers barked, warning irresponsible “Are you a mechanic?” asked the woman. Snapping her gum, she wobbled off in that late people to run for their flights, and lost way of hers, hips trembling and colliding “No.” I knew that mechanics were not people to hurry to the nearest attendant, and like two planets on the very same orbit. I considered important in the way that CEOs for everyone to say something if they see thought about that sometimes as I stared and bankers were. “I’m a businessman. I’m something and guard their packages with at copy piling up in the tray, the course of always traveling on important missions for vigilance. I appreciated the organization those planets. the company.” greatly; its efficiency was a thing of beauty like the Greek Age with all their columns, “Holmes!” she yelled over her shoulder. “Really? I fly frequently myself and I’ve and the Romans with their coliseums. Those “Don’t come to work tomorrow.” never encountered anything like this.” things I learned about on TV. I had one,

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The contents of the envelope were one F. Kennedy and let him know when I was I must have panicked. I found myself memo and one plane ticket, one way, to arriving. Then we could have arranged standing in the middle of the room, New York City. The memo was brief and where to meet. waving my arms and shouting: “Attention! clearly written, altogether an excellent set of Attention! Will John F. Kennedy please I circled the room, looking for what I instructions: come here?” thought should be a tall man with broad From: Office of Executive Director, shoulders and an expensive suit, a man who People around me were staring my way with Oh!No! looked like he was looking for me. It didn’t looks of confusion, but not enough people take long to find such a man. Unfortunately, could hear above the clamor, so I shouted To: Foster Holmes, Duplicate there was more than one man like him: even more loudly: “Attention! Attention!” Mr. Holmes, seven in all, tall and broad and muscular, A large woman in front of me turned to though this was only apparent by the bulk The company is entrusting you with an snarl, “Stop screamin’ in my ear, you freak.” of their bodies beneath their identical dark IMPORTANT MISSION. Tomorrow, suits. As I passed by one of them, catching A man laughed and said to the woman, you will report to San Francisco Airport his eye, he’d stare back intently, studying my “Some people oughtta stick to their meds.” and fly at the stated time on your ticket face. Something about his look prevented She cackled, which made him laugh harder, to New York City, John F. Kennedy me from asking if he was John F. Kennedy. and I stood there feeling my ears turn Airport. There, at the airport, you will Instead, I reasoned that if he were my man, red and my head grow light, on the verge ask to speak with John F. Kennedy, he would have noticed my briefcase and of crying, of all things, which I’d never at which time you will present him called me to him. Wouldn’t John F. Kennedy done before. with the briefcase the company has stand apart from the crowd, dressed in a left for you in the mailroom, on the manner that distinguished him? I realized he 1.3 bench beneath your mailbox. This might not be tall at all, or dressed formally. briefcase is filled with IMPORTANT The green-eyed woman stared into the It was his airport, after all, so why bother MASTERCOPY. Do not open the bathroom mirror, picking fluff from the with business attire? briefcase for any reason. Upon receiving airplane blanket from her long, black dress. the briefcase, John F. Kennedy will give I began to search for a man in the kind of She turned sideways to see if there was you a return ticket to San Francisco. clothing you’d find at home, a not so tall anything unsightly stuck to her hips, and It is urgent that you SPEAK TO NO man with maybe even a bit of a paunch noticing nothing, moved away from the ONE about this important mission. like Eddy was getting. I found plenty of mirror toward the door, thinking how tired these types, gaping at the metal machines she looked, but also how glad she was that DO NOT FAIL! with their mouths slack, wearing a look she’d slept on the flight, after the turbulence Oh!No! Executive Director of boredom. Men dressed in sweatsuits, that made her feel sick. And how glad she in blue jeans, in flip flops and shorts. So was, too, that sleeping had kept her from I knew nothing about this man, John F. many of them, it was obvious my strategy having to ignore the businessman beside Kennedy, or why he had an airport named was failing. I was already feeling a bit light her, who had made her feel like such a fool. after him. Maybe he was rich and had paid headed with anxiety when luggage began Holding his hand! Get a grip. for it. Mother had never kept newspapers to pop from a hole in the center of the or magazines in the house, and I’d kept to Before exiting the bathroom, she checked nearest machine, each piece carried down that habit after she died. And though I had a her phone for a message. Nothing. She a short belt to the main belt, and from television, in partial and guilty deference to dropped it into her leather handbag and there conveyed round and round, piece mother, I only allowed myself three movies carefully snapped that shut, since it held after piece, so I saw then why the room a week, usually from the Evening Oldies on everything she had, that she’d traveled with was called “luggage claim.” People jumped channel 11. I had doubted my significance this time. On her last vacation, her “Jack­ to life, buzzing with motion, pushing and to the higher-ups, but this trip verified ation” as she called it, luggage had hindered shoving, women shouting directions to their my importance, for I was being sent on a her ability to just be. partners and children, or pushing themselves mission to a VIP, with Mastercopy, no less! into the fray. I saw, with a mounting fear, Even so, she entered the baggage claim This trip would do more than elevate my that as soon as they identified and grabbed wearing a look of attention, and moved position; it would educate me, too. I was their suitcases, they headed straight for the toward Claim B as the sign instructed. She equally thrilled and worried. sliding glass doors that lined the far wall, lingered around the edges of the room, It was not until after I exited the plane and and passed under signs reading “TAXIS,” watching the people watching the empty was pulled with the crowd into an enormous “BUSSES TO ALL BORROUGHS,” conveyor belt, her gaze sweeping in a room with huge machines encircled by “SHORT-TERM PARKING,” “LONG­ practiced arc past the exit doors, then back moving belts that I realized my mistake: I TERM PARKING” and “CAR RENTALS.” to the crowd. Over the course of its path should have asked the flight attendants – Everything indicated immediate departure. she saw little to impress. A few women perhaps even the pilot – to contact John What if John F. Kennedy left, too? who could possibly turn Jack’s eye, not that she was worried. Thin things with shiny

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 76 hair and newness stamped on their smooth This trip had been longer than most. She between them. They were laughing, their faces. More and more, youth struck her as had added a few unexpected stops, on top hands draped easily over a buddy’s shoulder something achieved by a stun gun, and she of the already spontaneous path of her with a familiarity unheard of for American gave it less of her attention. vacation away from Jack, her husband. men. Now and then, they would jump up in Seattle. Portland. A quick jaunt up to see an excited manner and point at the ground. The men were even more underwhelming. the Aurora Borealis, which turned into six The woman wanted to see what it was they Something had gone missing from the pack, weeks on a houseboat parked in a little were watching, but knew well enough that she thought wryly. Apparently Jack, with harbor on Kodiak – that last, because she’d if she approached, they would simply whisk his common good looks, was the missing smiled at an old lady in a hotel in Juneau, her into a waiting cab. link. She snapped open her handbag and for which she was invited to dinner with had the phone halfway out before realizing When she looked again, the businessman the old lady and her son, the park ranger, what she was doing. Out came the hand, was still there, his reflection perfectly clear who turned out to be a fine specimen of snap went the handbag. She began to pace in the glass, so that she could make out his male. He’d lent her his houseboat, a rusty restlessly back and forth. Something was tense expression. He was agitated, hopping ensemble that was clearly for dock-use only. holding up the luggage. The crowd was from foot to foot. His arms hung down at She’d loved it, though. Even missed it now. growing restless, all the mirth of arrival his sides, hands like paper weights bunched leaking away till they sagged on their feet. All in all she had to admit she’d been gone into fists. Did he see her, she wondered? But She wove between the defeated arrivees, for six months, and that coming flat on the he wasn’t facing her, exactly. His gaze was a strained look on her face that stood out heels of a trip sans Jack to the Philippines. roving along the windows, the doors, the under the harsh terminal light. But her hips That one had been truncated, at least, out signs above the doors. were rounded in contrast to the line of her of boredom. Could a man in his early 40s His hopping grew faster, till he looked like silhouette, and as she passed by, men turned change his appearance dramatically in half he might just spring into the air. A family of furtively from their female companions to a year? a mother, father and three children with hair take a look. Her slow nonchalance made it She turned around and smacked against a ratted from sleep moved away from him, clear that such looking would slide off her woman with fish hooks for earrings, true to their mother shooing them to safety while back like water off a duck, yet her glance size, but bright yellow. “Watch it.” the father followed behind, grimacing at the brushed their faces like a soft finger might, ceiling. Suddenly, the businessman shot up and they shifted their stances and leaned in Her nostrils flared and her mouth opened his arms. The woman spun around on her toward her. halfway, froze momentarily, then closed. seat to face him. She moved away from the woman, in the The conveyor belt choked up its first direction of the sliding glass doors. But “Attention! Attention!” he shouted. piece of luggage. The crowd murmured, instead of exiting, she sat down by the all eyes on the red suitcase. It was a tense People stared, bug-eyed, and stepped out of windows and turned partially to the side, moment, a long moment, and then a blue his path. keeping one eye on the exit and the other on backpack hurtled out of the void, followed passers-by. “I’m looking for John F. Kennedy,” he immediately by a bright green trunk. shouted. “Will John F. Kennedy please When the man from the plane pushed out of She kept moving, weaving between a short come here?” the crowd and stood looking at the doors, woman with frizzy hair and short man in she turned her face to gaze out the window. * cargo pants one size too small. His eyes She could see his reflection in the glass. She gripped her back like two flies. looked past it, at a fleet of yellow cabs with Note “Dammit, Ralph. Help me out here,” the their foreign drivers standing in a circle, These are the opening three chapters of a short woman barked. watching something or other on the ground novel in-progress.

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The Obama Administration as History: First Waves of Interpretation A Sabbatical Report

Wayne Willis, Genesee Valley Center

ournalists used to say fondly that the the thinking of historians than much of daily newspaper is the first draft of the more ephemeral output of the media, J history. Today they would have largely because book-length exposition to add the contributions of news and remains a vehicle for the kind of fully opinion magazines, radio and television, developed argumentation that may persuade documentary films, and the vast outpourings later scholars. from the Internet. What all of these rapid My plan is to continue to track these “first response media can do is not only record waves of interpretation” at least through events but begin to place them in one sort the early post-election analyses for 2012, of context or another and interpret their which will surely bring forth either an significance. Thus, when historians come abundance of postmortems on Obama’s trailing behind, they will encounter not rejected leadership or an equivalent surfeit only lots of factual (or purportedly factual) of vindication. For now, I would like to information, but also a variety of past touch briefly upon some main themes in scripts for making meaning out of the data. Wayne Willis the historical consideration of Obama’s This, of course, has always been true in presidency to date. the writing of history, and the historian is A closely related and more widely debated not limited to the versions of truth left by Perhaps the most striking claim made on theme is Obama’s potential to be a those who were there. But in constructing behalf of our 44th president is that his “transformational” president in ways their own interpretations, historians are ascent defines a period in history, the end that extend beyond race relations. In his often guided by what contemporaries had of which is yet to be determined. Gwen Ifill speeches and writings from 2004 through to say, and modern communications are (2009) and Katrina vanden Heuvel (2011) the campaign of 2008, Obama (2006) multiplying the number and range of voices both refer to “the Age of Obama” in the sometimes encouraged this perception of clamoring for influence over the present and titles of their popular books and this has his aspirations, calling for the creation of the future. become an often repeated phrase in Obama “sustained, broad-based political coalitions commentaries. Similarly, other writers During my recent 24-week sabbatical, I set needed to transform America” (p. 248). He have announced that we are now living in out to examine current debates concerning spoke of his desire to “remake America” “Barack Obama’s America.” In this way, Barack Obama and his presidency that through a “project of national renewal” Obama’s historical legacy was being elevated seek, explicitly or implicitly, to shape the (p. 40). What the specific content of this to the level of the most renowned presidents contours of ongoing historical judgment. transformation might be, and how far when his administration had hardly begun. This project expanded upon the work that Obama wanted to take it, became a leading Few presidents have been judged by I had previously done to give my lectures matter of controversy. Clearly, Obama historians to be important enough to give as Scholar Across the College in 2009­ promised to bring change (often spelled with their name to an era. (Arthur Schlesinger 2010 about whether Obama’s presidency a capital C), but how much change was Jr., for instance devoted several books to could become the 21st century “new New needed to qualify as transformative? The Age of [Franklin] Roosevelt and The Deal” envisioned by progressives, such as Age of [Andrew] Jackson.) Underlying the Transformation might suggest revolutionary Paul Krugman (2009). While I continued claim for Obama is the contention that upheaval, but no American president has to follow daily commentaries in the mass his nomination and election constitute ever advocated change of this magnitude. media, I also read more than 40 of the both a culmination of past progress in Instead, the concept of a transformational rapidly accumulating Obama-related race relations and perhaps a turning point president, as formulated by political books by journalists, biographers, political toward a new era of interracial equity and scientists such as James MacGregor Burns activists, social scientists and psychoanalysts. comity. Whether for this reason, or any (1984) and Stephen Skowronek (1993), Despite claims that the “Age of the Book” is other, historians eventually agree that the refers to the exertion of effective presidential coming to an end, I think it likely that some Age of Obama is an appropriate label for leadership to bring about major, long lasting of this literature will have more impact on our time, the idea is up for consideration. public policy changes affecting important

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 78 areas of American political, economic or Roosevelt “was pushed to the left by a the history department at Harvard, takes social life. A transformational president, so genuine mass movement” of workers and issue with the progressives’ critique. Far conceived, succeeds in moving the course farmers, while Obama has been “facing the from attributing it to naïveté or neuroticism, of public policy and political dialogue opposite” in the rise of the conservative Tea Kloppenberg (2011) argues that “Obama substantially (but not drastically) to the left, Party (p. 147). Recently, progressives’ spirits has demonstrated an exceptionally like Franklin Roosevelt, or to the right, like have been lifted a bit as the Occupy Wall sophisticated and sustained engagement Ronald Reagan, with enduring results. Street phenomenon spread to other cities with the history of American thought and around the country, hoping to see it grow political culture” (p. 2). Obama knows As some observers noted, Obama’s policy into a coherent leftward counterforce. that “Democracy in a pluralist culture positions in the 2008 campaign were means coaxing a common good to emerge standard liberal democratic fare, not Although, as Alterman (2011) put it, their from the clash of competing individual dramatically different from his top rivals for “thrill is gone” for Obama, progressives interests,” a process in which “no formulas his party’s nomination. Yet it was Obama often concede that the legislative record ensure success” (p. xxxvi). In his book, who endowed these positions with an aura in Obama’s first two years places him “in Reading Obama, Kloppenberg writes a of transformation (e.g., the “Change We the company” of Lyndon Johnson and complex account of Obama’s intellectual Can Believe In” theme). For progressive Franklin Roosevelt “as one of the most growth, attempting to show that the policy intellectuals, such as Robert Kuttner consequential Democratic presidents of the true “explanation of his commitment to (2008; 2010), this raised hopes that when last hundred years” (p. 145; p. 1). Several conciliation lies in his idea of democracy as Obama entered office amidst the worst volumes of articles by academic political deliberation, his sure grasp of philosophical economic crisis since the Great Depression, scientists reach much the same conclusion. pragmatism, his Christian realism, and his he would seize the moment to embrace Through close analysis of the challenges sophisticated understanding that history, the bolder reform agenda proposed by the that the Obama administration confronted with all its ambiguities and ironies, provides most left-leaning thinkers, organizations to build congressional majorities for its the best rudder for political navigation” (p. and public officials associated with the policy initiatives, these scholars often 58). According to Kloppenberg, Obama’s Democrats. Obama’s choice not to do so find the highly compromised outcomes effort to govern in a post-partisan manner was keenly disappointing to these elements (of Democrats bargaining mainly with is “not a sign of weakness,” but instead and has led to a portrayal of his presidency themselves) to be the most that could displays insight about “how the nation’s as a wasted opportunity to win greater realistically be achieved. They note that political system was designed to work” (p. reforms in the health care system, workers’ despite the resemblances between the crisis 83). He acknowledges that “as political rights, financial regulation, full employment atmosphere of 1932-1933 and late 2008­ strategy” Obama has taken “a calculated policy and other issue areas. 2009, the overall economic and political risk … a gamble he may lose” (p. 83). environments were actually quite different Having decided that Obama has fallen short However, given this analysis, Obama’s and, in Obama’s case, not so propitious of what he might have achieved in leading pursuit of genuinely deliberative democracy for “transformative” change. They do not Congress and the public, these critics offer might, if ultimately successful, be the most generally share the premise of progressive a variety of explanations for historians to profound legacy of his presidency, perhaps journalists and activists that Obama could ponder. Some, like Ron Suskind (2011), not so much transformative as restorative of likely have gotten a bigger and better see in Obama a surprisingly insecure, as a tradition of principled compromise for the stimulus package, or stronger financial well as inexperienced, leader who lacked “common good.” regulation than the Dodd-Frank bill, or the confidence to make a winning case for health care legislation that at least included But not all historians will agree that left-of-center policies and was intellectually a “public option” plan, if he had made more ideals of deliberative democracy, or civic captured by Clinton-era advisers with ties to aggressive and inspiring rhetorical use of republicanism, have ever been translated Wall Street elites. The psychoanalyst Justin his presidential “bully pulpit.” Still, Theda into actual political behavior on a regular Frank (2011) thinks that a “pathological” Skocpol and Lawrence Jacobs (2011) fault basis in the United States. Indeed, in what inability to express anger explains Obama’s Obama severely for failing “to frame public might be taken for an implicit reply to persistent, unavailing quest for bipartisan issues successfully in major speeches” (p. 28) Kloppenberg, the Princeton historian, consensus during his first years in office. after he became president, with the result Sean Wilentz (2011) has recently discussed Other progressives agree with Roger Hodge that support for his achievements declined “The Long and Tragical History of (2010), who says Obama has essentially rapidly among the public. By not providing Post-Partisanship from Washington to sold out, committing a “betrayal of the “effective public leadership” for his policies, Obama.” Wilentz argues that transcending best elements of American liberalism” (p. they contend, Obama “botched a central partisanship has long been more a wish 20). More forgiving commentators on the function of the presidency,” one in which he than a reality and that, in fact, partisanship left, like Eric Alterman (2011), blame the had been expected to excel (p. 31). has “been Americans’ most effective vehicle structure and operations of the American for democratic social and political reform” political system as a whole, more than Regarding Obama’s endeavor to formulate (para. 3). Obama himself, for blocking greater change. policies that would attract bipartisan Alterman also points out that Franklin support, James Kloppenberg, the chair of

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Ironically, it is conservative intellectuals, The conservatives’ rendering of the Obama King, D. S., & Smith, R. M. (2011). Still pundits and politicians who give Obama the presidency will seem ludicrously hyperbolic, a house divided: Race and politics most credit for executing a transformative if not paranoid, to many who stand outside in Obama’s America. Princeton, NJ: presidency. Conservatives routinely their movement. However, Americans Princeton University Press. call Obama a dedicated radical who increasingly live in differing “communicative Klein, A., & Elliott, B. (2010). The has successfully presided over a federal and reality communities” (Skocpol & Manchurian president: Barack Obama’s government “takeover” of major sectors Jacobs, 2011, p. 28) that reinforce opposing ties to communists, socialists and other of the economy, including health care, world views. Argumentation that seems anti-American extremists. Washington, the automobile industry and the financial quite feeble to one camp looks powerful to DC: WND Books. system. Obama, they commonly declare, another. Rather than being simply a cynical is a socialist or fascist whose policies scare tactic, the conservatives’ interpretation Kloppenberg, J. T. (2011). Reading Obama: undermine capitalism and individual of Obama fits neatly into a larger right-wing Dreams, hope, and the American liberty, and are disastrous for economic narrative of modern American history that political tradition. Princeton, NJ: recovery and growth. These charges come depicts liberalism’s ostensibly failed “big Princeton University Press. not just from talk show personalities, but government” programs and its “totalitarian” Krugman, P. (2009). The conscience of a from figures who are more intellectually tendencies. Obama has now been accorded liberal. New York, NY: W. W. Norton. respected among movement conservatives, his place within this narrative and there is such as Dinesh D’Souza, Jerome Corsi reason to expect that this is roughly how Kuttner, R. (2008). Obama’s challenge: (Ph.D., political science, Harvard), former he will appear in later histories written by America’s economic crisis and the professor Newt Gingrich (Ph.D., history, conservatives, just as a future incarnation power of a transformative presidency. Tulane), and Jonah Goldberg (2009), whose of Howard Zinn on the left may view the White River Junction, VT: Chelsea book Liberal Fascism has been hailed by Age of Obama as yet another episode in Green Publishing. Charles Murray, Daniel Pipes, and many the stabilization of capital’s dominance over Kuttner, R. (2010). A presidency in peril: other conservative luminaries as a major America. Whether Obama is eventually The inside story of Obama’s promise, work of intellectual history. To support their celebrated as a hero of pragmatic liberalism Wall Street’s power, and the struggle Obama thesis, conservatives emphasize his and deliberative democracy by historians to control our economic future. involvement in the community organization who hang closer to the middle of the White River Junction, VT: Chelsea movement founded by the self-described political road may depend on whether he Green Publishing. radical Saul Alinsky, his relationships gets that second term and what he is able to with members of Michael Harrington’s do with it. Obama, B. (2006). The audacity of Democratic Socialists of America, and past hope: Thoughts on reclaiming the connections to other left-liberal groups. References American dream. New York, NY: They dwell on lectures that Obama might Crown Publishers. Alterman, E. (2011). Kabuki democracy. have heard when he attended a couple New York, NY: Nation Books. Scokpol, T., & Jacobs, L. R. (Eds.). (2011). of socialist scholars conferences while an Reaching for a new deal: Ambitious undergraduate at Columbia University. Burns, J. M. (1984). The power to lead. governance, economic meltdown, D’Souza (2010) tries to link Obama to third New York, NY: Simon and Shuster. and polarized politics in Obama’s world, anti-colonialist ideology through D’Souza, D. (2010). The roots of Obama’s first two years. New York, NY: Russell his Kenyan father and his youthful reading rage. Chicago, IL: Regnery. Sage Foundation. of Frantz Fanon and other black radicals. Conservatives maintain that these elements Frank, J. (2011). Obama on the couch. New Skowronek, S. (1993). The politics of Obama’s personal history dominated the York, NY: Free Press. presidents make. Cambridge, MA: development of his political beliefs and goals Harvard University Press. Goldberg, B. (2009). A slobbering love but have been ignored in the liberal media’s affair. Chicago, IL: Regnery. Suskind, R. (2011). Confidence men. “slobbering love affair” (B. Goldberg, 2009) New York, NY: Harper. with him, allowing Obama to become a Goldberg, J. (2009). Liberal fascism. New “Manchurian president” (Klein, 2010) of York, NY: Broadway Books. Thurber, J. A. (Ed.). (2011). Obama in whom D’Souza (2010) counsels us to “be office. Boulder, CO: Paradigm. Hodge, R. (2010). The mendacity of hope: very afraid” (p. 56). Candidates for the Barack Obama and the betrayal of vanden Heuvel, K. (2011). The change Republican nomination have started to American liberalism. New York, I believe in: Fighting for progress warn voters that Obama will be even more NY: Harper. in the age of Obama. New York, dangerous if elected to a second term, since NY: Nation Books. this will be his last opportunity to unleash Ifill, G. (2009). The breakthrough: Politics presidential power to fulfill his dreams of and race in the age of Obama. New White, J. K. (2009). Barack Obama’s radical change. York, NY: Doubleday. America. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

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Wilentz, S. (2011, November 17). The long and tragical history of post- partisanship, from Washington to Obama. The New Republic. Retrieved from the History News Network website: http://hnn.us/articles/sean­ wilentz-long-and-tragical-history-post­ partisanship-washington-obama

“True. Teaching is even more difficult than learning. We know that; but we rarely think about it. And why is teaching more difficult than learning? Not because the teacher must have a larger store of information, and have it always ready. Teaching is more difficult than learning because what teaching calls for is this: to let learn. The real teacher, in fact, lets nothing else be learned than – learning. His conduct, therefore, often produces the impression that we properly learn nothing from him, if by “learning” we now suddenly understand merely the procurement of useful information. The teacher is ahead of his apprentices in this alone, that he has still far more to learn than they – he has to learn to let them learn. The teacher must be capable of being more teachable than the apprentices. The teacher is far less assured of his ground than those who learn are of theirs. If the relation between the teacher and the taught is genuine, therefore, there is never a place in it for the authority of the know-it-all or the authoritative sway of the official. It still is an exalted matter, then, to become a teacher – which is something else entirely than becoming a famous professor.”

– Martin Heidegger (J. G. Gray, Trans.), What Is Called Thinking? New York: Harper and Row, 1968, pp. 14-15 Original work published 1954

Thanks to Dawn Riley, Center for Planning and Institutional Effectiveness, for suggesting this quote.

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New Mentor Reflections, Part II

Jennifer A. Blue, Rebecca Bonanno, Sue Epstein, Michele Forte, Thalia MacMillan, Audeliz Matias and Sarah Hertz, Center for Distance Learning

Reflections of a New Mentor perhaps not. Either way, it is a start toward identifying his desires and needs. We have Jennifer A. Blue another call scheduled for later in the week.

he new student file lies open on my My homework is to learn more about what desk. The Student Degree Planning IS/IT degrees are, both in the eyes of Empire T Guide and Undergraduate Catalog State College and of other schools. The lie nearby, pages turned down and sticky student will have a similar exercise later, notes everywhere. The scheduled time for but for me to understand his journey, I too the phone call arrives. No matter how shall prepare. many scenarios I have run through my Counterclockwise from top left: head, I know the actual call won’t be like I don’t want to be the blind leading the Sue Epstein, Rebecca Bonanno, any of them! Am I scared? Am I excited? blind. Am I alone in this feeling? I walk out Audeliz Matias, Jennifer A. Blue, Thalia MacMillan and Michele Forte. Yes and yes. Both are healthy, I think. As my office door to the one next to mine. I Missing from photo: Sarah Hertz a mathematician, I find comfort in rules am happy to see Michele is there and not on the phone or with anyone. Michele also is and definitions. Empire State College noticed that we use a lot of acronyms, like a new mentor. We chat. While Empire State has few of these; rather, guidelines and PLA and CBE (which seem to refer to the College seems like a crazy place, we know recommendations abound! same thing). By videoconference from my things will all be OK. I dial the number. The student answers. He location at the Metropolitan Center, I attend sounds excited to go back to school. This is I now have around 30 mentees, several in center meetings, faculty caucuses, area of great news! We chat about his past, present Planning and Finalizing the Degree, and study meetings, and curriculum conferences and future, getting to know each other. Talk one who already completed Planning and and I try to keep up with the flurry of then moves to specifics about his degree. His Finalizing and has submitted her degree information coming my way. Certainly, area of study interests are in information program plan and rationale to committee. there is much that a new mentor must learn science and information technology. Now While each first phone call to a new mentee to navigate at Empire State College, which I, the mathematician, am at a loss. I remind is still exciting, I am no longer scared to makes it hard to figure out who to ask the student that what makes this college make that call. about what. special is the ability to create one’s own I’ve managed by making an educated guess So Many Questions … degree. Yet he wants to know exactly what and trying not to get too anxious when courses he has to take for his degree. The Rebecca Bonanno I miss the target. Without fail, whoever guidelines fail me here. How to proceed? I ask for assistance has been able at least In the last seven months since joining CDL to point me in the right direction. I can Three deep breaths! I had training for this! I as a new mentor, I’ve started dozens of honestly say that each time I have asked a am able to regroup. I remind him I am new emails and phone conversations with the question – of a fellow mentor, my faculty and, even if I wasn’t, my part in this is to following phrase: “I’m not sure if you’re “buddy,” a support staff member, or an share his educational journey with him. The the right person to ask about this but. … ” administrator – I have been treated with hour time slot I had allotted for our call is I did it yesterday, in fact, and this time support and understanding. Not once have quickly coming to an end. We both leave the I was asking the right person after all. I been made to feel that I am asking a silly conversation with homework. Now that’s progress! question or that I should already know The student’s homework is to review the Empire State College is a highly complex the answer. After all, much of the time Undergraduate Catalog, reading the title organization and I can’t say that I the answer to my question is the college’s of every course the Center for Distance completely understand it yet. There are staple, “It depends.” I’ve learned from Learning offers and highlighting those that centers and units, areas of study and my new colleagues that we, as a college spark an interest. Then a few days later he is academic teams, area coordinators and community, are all in this complicated soup to look over the highlighted courses again. conveners, committees and task forces – lots of mentoring and educating together and Perhaps he will see a theme in his interests, of organized groups of people doing the that the questions will keep coming. I am important work of making a nontraditional, becoming comfortable with the idea that student-centered college run well. We’ve all any institution that provides the flexibility

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 82 and student-centeredness that Empire State course catalog). When we need information in my same proverbial boat, and I can College does will necessarily be complex from other sources (e.g., the Empire State say without hesitation that the consistent and, at times, confusing. I’ve always told my College site, DP Planner) I can bring that support from my collegewide colleagues is students that there are no stupid questions information up as well and share the screen my most valued experience. To that point, and now I am learning to believe it. with the mentee so we can both view the what most strikes me about these first six information simultaneously. months is how much my own steep learning Seamless Conversations curve mirrors what students new to Empire While this may seem like a small change, State College must experience. What do Sue Epstein it has radically changed the conversations you mean I facilitate the development of a I have with mentees. I no longer ask “Can When I accepted my position with Empire degree program? What do you mean I have you find?” but instead say “Let’s take a State College, I believed one of the positive the freedom to assign general education look at the courses together” or “Let’s aspects would be interacting with students credits if they aren’t in the GETA? What is a review the area of study guidelines.” A in my role as their mentor. Within the first GETA? (Back to movies: To me, it sounded few of my mentees have been able to meet few weeks of starting, I was involved in like something from Star Wars.) How face-to-face with me in my office. I find the New Mentor Orientation sessions and should I know what a good concentration the conversations I have in-person and the participated in discussions on the role of title might be? How do students get credit conversations I now have over the phone the mentor and what I could anticipate in for life experience? are remarkably similar. In both, we focus on my mentoring discussions. Soon I would be their expectations, goals and begin to discuss The students I work with as a primary assigned my first set of mentees. their degree plans. The difference is that we mentor have the same questions and more. So what types of questions did I ask in see each other face-to-face when we meet If I want to wax philosophical about the those conversations? How did I approach in-person. However, there is a camera in my freedoms afforded to them as a student mentoring as a new mentor? I found the Elluminate room, so my next change will at Empire State College, they want to conversations frequently had me asking likely be to add some type of face-to-face know how many credits they need, what the following questions: “Tell me what you component to those virtual conversations! will transfer and how long it will take to see on your screen now … do you see the graduate. I don’t blame them. I have the The use of these two elements has allowed tab for ‘Academics’? Just tell me when you exact same questions and more when I first me to focus my conversations on the find it”; “When you click on the course look at their files. I often have the feeling elements of mentoring instead of verifying catalog link, do you see the section that says of free-falling though files, transcripts and and explaining the logistics of navigating ‘Business, Management and Economics’?” conversations about potential prior learning. the website – which makes the conversation This is just a small set of examples of Some days, it feels like I can’t keep anything more enjoyable and productive! the types of questions I frequently found straight, and I am often afraid I will ruin myself asking mentees, most of whom lives with one impetuous click of a DP Mentoring … The Final Frontier I interact with on the phone or online. dropdown box. It occurs to me, I might be My conversations seemed, at least to me, Michele Forte a bit more dogmatic and controlling than to focus more on the logistics of navigating I thought. I talk about dialogic models of Since I am a television and movie enthusiast, the college website and finding the education but then it appears anxiety fuels I often try to make my hobby academic in information than they did on discussing the desire for definitive answers. Hmmm. nature. Given the rather questionable quality the mentee’s expectations, plans and our of the shows I often watch, it isn’t easy. As a new online instructor, I have had to work on their degree. learn how to thoughtfully establish and That said, I wonder how I might title either Luckily, for me, my initial orientation maintain teaching presence and convey a TV show or movie about my first six meetings also included conversations and something about myself and my pedagogical months of mentoring. I would definitely training on Elluminate and developing beliefs in the process. Sometimes it say it has been more Clueless than Dead faculty websites. With assistance (thank means entering too much on the bulletin Poet’s Society – quizzical looks aplenty you to Lisa Rapple and Linda Lawrence), board. Sometimes it means hanging back and not so much in the way of pedagogical I was able to get my faculty website up, in discussions and sometimes it means enlightenment. Even though for 12 years was trained on how to use Elluminate redirecting discussions. Often, it means I taught in a nontraditional program, the and was provided an Elluminate meeting asking a more seasoned colleague for advice. program – and my role as instructor – was room. I decided that, from that point on, I I often miss the face-to-face engagement and still housed in a traditional university. Now, would tell my mentees they needed to have the spontaneous connections arising from I find myself in a nontraditional role, in a Internet access for our calls and log in to organic classroom conversations. I hope to nontraditional institution within a larger my Elluminate room. Now my mentees soon incorporate more in the way of “live” traditional framework. and I look at the same screen at the same office hours and chat sessions to bring some time! We use my faculty website to explore I think I might title an episode of this of that back to this online model. links I have placed there that I believe nameless show Collaborative Confusion. mentees will frequently use (e.g., the CDL I take comfort in being a part of a cohort

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As I write this, we have just completed our Many may question if one feels disjointed majoring in my area of expertise and other second New Mentor Orientation residency. working with individuals from a distance; areas, students from underrepresented I can now use some Empire State College I relish the fact that I never feel this way. backgrounds as part of informal programs acronyms like an old pro. (I often don’t While, at times, I will admit that I feel for several academic associations as well as know what they stand for, but I hear that’s clueless in working with students, I have for community colleges. Of course, I have not a requirement in our first five years.) grown to realize that this is OK and I don’t also experienced mentoring as a mentee It was great to see people from our July mind it; in fact, I relish it as it allows me to myself in many formal and informal settings. residency, and new collaborations were figure things out and better help people. I Thus, for me, the mentoring concept was formed – case in point, the idea for this like watching shows on HGTV, like House not a new idea and I felt very confident article. I remember asking at our first Hunters and For Rent, because I see some of when receiving my first set of primary residency exactly what colleagues “looked the same process in working with mentees mentees. After all, I worked at the Center for” when they first received a student’s (and because I like looking at the houses). for Distance Learning for close to three file: I wanted a checklist. Their answer On House Hunters, potential buyers weigh years before the new appointment and have then, as it might be now, was “it depends.” housing choices based on their wish list of a mentoring philosophy that has been my I am only now learning to be a bit more amenities. When I make a connection with motto even before: mentoring is an ongoing comfortable with that phrase. Being a my mentee, I feel like I try to determine their process that can occur at any time and in mentor is a little like doing a puzzle or being wish list and help them to select courses any place. Well, this is not completely true. an anthropologist. No wonder everyone said or choices based on that. Much like For The ongoing process piece of my mentoring it takes three years to really feel like you sort Rent, I also try to find creative solutions philosophy has always been the driving force of might know what you are doing here. for my mentees, perhaps in the form of behind Audi as a mentor. Good mentoring course selections or thinking about CBE. By But back to television. Google tells me that should begin with listening and be followed hearing their wish list and trying to come Mentors, a Canadian show featured on with communication. It also needs to be up with creative solutions, it has helped to Discovery Kids here in the states, ran from instilled with empathy, thoughtfulness and strengthen the interaction. 1998-2002. According to the description, inspiration. We are here to be our mentees’ the show was about a brother and sister The final show that comes to mind is the The advocates and not their managers. Since who have a computer that can summon Golden Girls. Each of the ladies had a trait day one, I knew part of my new role was historical figures to help them with a current that made them unique and endearing in to share information about the college and problem. These figures appear for about the show. If someone asked me which traits answer questions my mentees may have. two days, advise them and then retreat I’d bring to being a golden girl, it would be However, I was more concerned about how back in time. that I’m irritating and annoying. This is a to inspire, empower, encourage and provide good thing. When I worked in research and support to my primary mentees, particularly I don’t know how popular the show was program evaluation, I excelled (if I can brag since most of our conversations undoubtedly and I never saw it myself, but I would sure a bit) in conducting surveys over the phone would take place at a distance. I needed love to summon historical figures to help and via email. Why? Because I wasn’t afraid a way to keep mentoring personal. As a with my own mentoring. I am confident to call people and irritate/annoy them over scientist, I know that whatever I decide to Albert Einstein could help even me crack the the phone with a survey. As a CDL faculty do as a new mentor will probably evolve Empire State College acronym code. member who is working at a distance, since into something else in the future. Hence, I’m based at the Metro Center, having your with high optimism, I decided to explore Mentoring: Golden Girls or Ab Fab? two best traits be irritating and annoying is different ways to add a personal touch Thalia MacMillan a downright necessity. By not being afraid to the process and to build a mentoring to call or email people to annoy them with relationship based on mutual trust. When I think back about my time here at a question that I have, irritate them about Empire State College, many phrases come to With the help of a friend, I embarked something that hasn’t happened yet, or just mind and, like Michele, I tend to relate these in the creation of a welcome video that, to call someone when I feel isolated, it has to TV shows that I love. When I describe my idealistically, would show new mentees more empowered me. I have learned that like the work to my friends, family and colleagues, about me as a person. Fifteen recordings golden girls, I can’t be afraid to lay out my the phenomenal British show Ab Fab later, I concluded the office setting for the own path and charge ahead. Well, that and comes to mind as I would describe work as video was not really going to tell much the fact that cheesecake and chocolate will “absolutely fabulous, darling.” Much like about my personality – no offense to those solve any problem. Edwina and Patsy in Ab Fab, I truly feel like involved in choosing the colors and furniture I have had a ton of fun-filled, bewildering, of the office. We then moved the filming to Keeping Mentoring Personal sometimes confusing, yet exhilarating my backyard, surrounded by a comfortable hi-jinks and adventures working with my Audeliz (Audi) Matias environment and my beloved gardens. Well, colleagues, mentees and students. Before I joined Empire State College as a that did not work either. After what seemed mentor in 2011, I engaged in mentoring in to be hundreds of recordings, the video idea a variety of forms. I have mentored students with a happy Audi welcoming students and

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 84 talking about her academic and personal that this approach can be time consuming print and digital materials, as well as self was not a good idea. The film then and confusing at times). I am still trying to conversations with colleagues, I was struck became an animated video only showing figure out what is the best way to utilize by the realization of the enormity of the clips similar to silent movies, where you Facebook or other social and virtual tools skills, the tools, and the education I would can see my mouth moving but not much is to facilitate communication. need to obtain and develop to become a coming out, with text at the bottom of the successful and effective mentor. Fortunately, a handful of the most recently page expressing what I could not say. This assigned mentees are local to the Saratoga As I embarked on my mentoring career, and experience certainly taught me to respect Springs region, allowing for face-to-face began accumulating and developing those those who can be part of a video in a time with them. Although I have focused tools and skills, I also sought to develop a coherent and rational way, without rolling my “mentor energy” on creating a relaxed, mentoring philosophy that can synopsize their eyes or forgetting what to say or being personal atmosphere with the mentees since and encapsulate my goals as a mentor: too obvious when reading from a piece of the first contact, much still needs to be done. “People over Practice.” To me, this means paper. By the way, several students have Yes, many of my students have succeeded to the student and their educational goals commented on how much they enjoyed the date; still, some mentees have been placed are paramount, conformity and rigidity animated video. on academic warning after the first term, a distinct second. Although this idiom is Nonetheless, from my perspective, sending others have dropped from the college and very much still “under construction,” my the video link to my mentees was better enrolled at more traditional institutions, and experiences as a mentor, together with the than nothing, at least for now. Students several have not been in contact regardless extensive resources and training Empire want to feel they are important as well, and of my numerous emails and phone calls. State College provides, have combined to I can’t keep mentoring personal if I don’t My journey so far as a mentor at Empire form that all-encompassing (for me, at know things about them. I believe that when State College has taught me that keeping least) mantra. It was mostly the gradual mentors understand and know more about mentoring personal is not only about cognizance that, from a mentor’s view, a mentee’s personal values they will be more making the connection with students but the mentee is the locus around which able to respond nonjudgmentally to their also assessing my own goals and growth as a all revolves, a sort of sun to an Empire mentee. So, I also added a survey to the mentor. As I finish my first year as a mentor, State College solar system, if you will. welcome email I send when getting a new I need to remind myself that mentoring is My attitude is that for a mentee, being mentee. I called it the “Getting to Know an evolving relationship that requires time committed, diligent, and eager to learn was You” survey. The survey is not about me, and attention to develop. More importantly, enough to grant them center stage, and it but rather about them: what they think are I have to keep in mind that mentoring was up to me, as the mentor, to “rotate the their strengths and weaknesses as learners, includes not only successes but challenges, solar system” if necessary to afford them their professional goals, hobbies, pets, and that a good mentor knows that they, maximum opportunity to fully utilize their children and any other information they too, need mentoring. potential. The college’s framework provides would like to share. It is great to be able just this: just the right blend of standards to comment or ask about his or her life Of Mentors and Mountains and flexibility. during our first conversation using the Sarah Hertz In conclusion, perhaps it is fair to say that information shared. I have learned about the skiing analogy is indeed somewhat how much they like to travel and take Picking up the phone and dialing the apropos. On the one hand, unlike skiing, pictures, about their biological and foster number for my first-ever mentoring call, I mentoring is a) a long-term commitment, children, and that I share common interests felt a certain rush, an excitement, a “This is anything but fleeting, b) uphill, and c) not a with some of them: local planning and it!” moment. I recalled the very first time I DIY or “go-it-alone” endeavor, as opposed development, and Latin dancing! had stood at the top of a (seemingly vertical) to skiing, a solitary sport. On the other hill, strapped into ski gear, about to descend. My quest to be personal was not over yet. hand, perhaps the similarities outnumber In both cases, all I knew was that it would How could I provide mentees with a warm and outweigh the differences. After all, don’t be unlike anything I had ever done. figure they can relate to when we talk over both skiing and mentoring contain twists, the phone? I do not have a video camera on Having joined the Empire State College turns and unexpected “bumps”? Require my office computer and most of the mentees faculty during the early summer of 2011, a single-minded and intense focus? Don’t are far away. What to try next? I decided I was gratified to hear and learn about the both have the ability to grant a true sense to test the famous social networking tool emphasis on mentoring. Loosely defined, I of accomplishment and always offer more Facebook. I started a professional Facebook view mentoring as “devoting every available to learn, new skills to acquire, and new account that only my mentees know about resource so that every student is ensured peaks to conquer? Lastly, if by way of my and asked them if they would like to join every opportunity to grow and excel” humble offering of advice, when mentoring, me. Of course, not everyone agreed; they – something that I feel is missing in the as well as when skiing, stop every so often wanted to be my “friends” and I learned course advisement found in more traditional to simply look around and enjoy the view. more about some of my mentees than, colleges. Starting to learn about mentoring, It can be breathtaking. perhaps, I should have (not to mention through orientations and a variety of

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Transformative Research in China: Insights into a Recent Research Journey

Kathleen P. King, University of South Florida

Pre-Journey Discoveries if the author is sitting in your living room, for the dual revealing the modern history of this ancient purposes of begin this unusual research article with civilization through her personal journey. presenting at a story about a discovery I made at least It was a powerful, personal and humane a conference I two months prior to my research trip introduction to the experiences many of my and to the People’s Republic of China. At that interviewees or their parents experienced conducting point, I realized that many of the women just 30 to 40 years ago. continued in Hong Kong and Wuhan, China who extensive agreed to be interviewed had lived through The Research Project Continues research the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976 under on my In spring 2010, I planned to commence an Chairman Mao Zedong [often known in the international international research project about the Kathleen King West as Mao Tse-tung]). Since I had been study of life journeys and potential transformations a youngster in the USA during the time, women leaders in higher education proved of women leaders in higher education. there were two major factors that limited successful, and I prepared to go to China in However, at that time, I also had accepted my knowledge of this specific history. First the fall of 2011. of all, during this period, the USA was still a new position at the University of South engaged in the Cold War and secondly, Florida and became quite occupied with However, yet another significant change Chinese leaders had taken great care to moving and settling family and household occurred based on insightful advice. As I shield their conditions and politics from the in a community 1,200 miles from my spoke to the China conference organizer, Western world. lifelong residence in the greater northeastern she advised that if I wanted to study women parts of the USA. We moved early in the academics and administrators in China, Coming to this realization, I immediately summer (June), and by fall of 2010, I I really also should visit Hong Kong, conducted an Internet search for quality had agreed to present at a conference in as the experience would be drastically books about the Cultural Revolution. One Belize. My colleague there helped arrange different while providing another view of my discoveries was the book Red China interviews with the country’s women leaders of the People’s Republic of China. With Blues (Wong, 1997). I picked this one up in higher education. her guidance, I began to try to contact first and was gripped by the compelling women academics and administrators in As a result, in November 2010, I found story. The author describes how as a Hong Kong to interview. My plan was set: myself experiencing a profound research Chinese-Canadian college student, she is following a week of research in Hong Kong, experience as these warm hearted and enthralled with the idealism of Maoism and I would then fly to mainland China and dedicated Belizean people welcomed me puts into motion a plan to study in China conduct interviews and give lectures at the into their hearts and lives for 10 days of during the 1970s. During the next 40 years, conference’s host university. In total, the research, conferences and social gatherings. she lives through the revolution, labors in research trip would be two weeks – one each The experience not only yielded fascinating the fields as a peasant, works in factories, in Hong Kong and Wuhan, China. I did not results about their women leaders’ journeys and struggles with her Canadian privilege. personally know a soul in either place, but (especially about the impediments they During some point in her experience, the trusted that my colleague could guide me face and the gender realities that figure so idealism begins to crack as she sees friends through making sufficient arrangements. prominently in their lives), but also changed betray one another for the sake of party I also knew from a previous trip to me as a person and researcher. I realized loyalty. Additionally, after living back in mainland China in 2009 that the Chinese anew the power of qualitative research and Canada for a while, she returns to China were most hospitable and gracious hosts was struck by the outsider being brought and witnesses the 1989 Tiananmen Square to invited academics. protests up close as a reporter on site (the “inside” by such generous people. Chinese government refers to this event as My new university has an internal grant Transformation of the the June Fourth Incident). competition for international research, Researcher in the Process and I was awarded one for spring travel The author deftly weaves the philosophy, While I will discuss this topic more in depth to Canada. However, the notice of the aspirations, history, difficulties, conflicts at the conclusion of this essay, I want to award arrived too late to accomplish that and tragedies of China’s history through the introduce a most significant outcome of my trip. My third effort to use this same grant experiences of her life journey. One feels as research endeavor. More than just being a

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 86 researcher who interviewed and gathered anonymously with other women leaders so similarity to gender equity/disparity in the data about changes in the lives of others, I that all of us may benefit. In our discussion, USA during the 1940s and 1950s. was deeply changed by this experience. In follow-up questions, notes and formal In Table 1, I summarize the several salient, the terminology of Stake (2010) and Denzin analysis, I also stayed alert for signs of specific characteristics that differ in the data (2001), this paper is in part an account barriers, conflict and hesitations. Women in communicated by the participants. This of “interpretative interactionism.” That different cultures experience very different matrix reveals findings not only about Hong is, I have made meaning of the research gender constructions. Therefore, gently Kong and urban mainland China, but also experience for myself. This phenomenon encouraging interviewees to explain details includes results from formal and informal occurred in both the Belize and China about their gender roles and expectations interviews about life in mainland China’s studies. I have therefore concluded that within various social contexts (work, countryside. Several of those individuals investigation of international transformative family, community, specific educational I interviewed represented this countryside learning experiences may possibly foster organizations) was crucial to developing as perspective because it is where they had potential transformative experiences among accurate an account of a culture that I was been raised; they wanted me to understand those conducting the research. able to construct. that city culture was quite different. Much qualitative research methodology In the next section, I will share preliminary Overall, it was quite evident that Chinese literature discusses the role of the researcher results from the Hong Kong and mainland professional women are responsible for as an instrument, lens and participant in the China research. Following this section, I caring for the children, home and for the research process (Creswell, 2003; Slotnick will return to my current understanding elderly. However, Hong Kong experience & Janesick, 2011; Stake, 2010; Yin, 2011). of transformations, as this research study is distinctive because of the presence of However, my thesis moves this dynamic continues through in-depth analysis. relatively inexpensive household help and further: rather than considering only our child care as a result of the large immigrant participation/influence in the research Preliminary Research Results: Time population of single Filipino women. process, it also considers the changes that Machine Phenomenon or Chinese The Hong Kong culture has adapted to occur in us because of the research we Women Leaders in Higher Education this dynamic and those I interviewed conduct. Indeed, my approach flows from During the two-week journey across the described feeling no guilt in arranging a specific orientation and philosophy of People’s Republic of China. I conducted for these services so that the children and research – it is specifically both humanistic 15 interviews – 10 in Hong Kong and home are well cared for and they can fully and feminist. five in Wuhan. Eight of the Hong Kong address their professional responsibilities. For example, based on humanistic interviews were with professors and deans In contrast, such arrangements are rare in philosophy (Elias & Merriam, 2004), at two different major universities. The mainland China. However, regardless of I intended for the interview experiences to other two Hong Kong interviews were held specific location, Hong Kong or mainland be beneficial for the people I interviewed. with lead administrators at centers that China, I was told that virtually all I used semi-structured interviews, but research gender issues in Hong Kong. The professional women must manage all their followed my respondents’ lead in the five interviews in Wuhan included four domestic and professional responsibilities interview conversation in order to learn professors and one administrator, once again well and without any expectation of more about their experiences, insights, from two different universities. assistance from their male partner. This victories and conflicts. Especially because expectation results in great angst and As I asked questions about their experiences I was mindful of their potential discomfort ongoing pressure on these women. of significant change (transformative with the questions I pose, I tried to develop learning) across their professional careers, The women in Hong Kong reported that a friendly, collegial and safe climate. From several major themes emerged immediately. I they must constantly cope with emergencies the start, I emphasized that my goal was to believe these themes reflect realities that are among their hired help and arrange learn from them and stated explicitly my in stark contrast to experiences of women hiring of replacements when necessary. appreciation for their willingness to meet academic leaders in many Western cultures. While in mainland China professional with me. women must somehow routinely balance One of the perceptions I developed through Drawing from the feminist methodology all responsibilities alone, not only in this experience is that for an American, perspective (Hesse-Biber & Leavy, 2007; emergencies. Coupled with what I repeatedly discussing gender issues with female Chinese Villaverde, 2008), my approach to issues heard as the extreme perfectionism of academics felt like I had been transported of power included eliminating the disparity Chinese culture and the call to be the back in time. Specifically, at this point, between my role and position and theirs “best” in all aspects of one’s studies, life, gender equity/disparity in Hong Kong seems (particularly when I may be perceived work and relationships, it was obvious to resemble the same dynamic in the USA as outranking them professionally). I that women shoulder significant additional during the 1970s and 1980s. In contrast, cultivated an equal sharing relationship responsibilities beyond that of their male applying the same schema, the small sample with the interviewee for the purposes of counterparts and, as a result, experience I gathered in mainland China suggests learning together and sharing their stories pervasive and unrelenting stress.

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Characteristic Hong Kong Mainland China City Mainland China Countryside Generally women solely Child care Child care Child care responsible for Housework Housework Housework Eldercare Eldercare Eldercare Professional women may Mother may assist or employ Mother may assist Mother may assist help for assistance in these duties No other option for assistance No other option for assistance Women may be more educated Carefully accepted Never accepted Never accepted than their husbands

Women may be more successful Carefully accepted Never accepted Never accepted than their husbands

Limitations on number Not enforced Strictly enforced Frequently not enforced of children

Marriage practices Generally couples make Often combination of traditional Women still sold as own decision Chinese and Western traditions brides in some areas Many international residents Frequent Seldom Rare and employees

Multicultural society Multicultural urban cities Middle range cities and greater Very traditional Chinese culture focus on Chinese culture; open to international visitors English taught All grades; some universities Now beginning to teach children English learning is not teach in English English in primary grades widely available in the educational system

Table 1 Findings Regarding Difference Within People’s Republic of China

Other sections of Table 1 reveal a variety female) still struggle with this cultural belief. to rationalize their choice of hiring a male of findings about the status and role of Moreover, because it is so engrained, the over a female. The result is that in order women in these varied areas, but three younger men and women I spoke to cannot for a woman to obtain a professional aspects are extremely distinctive. First, in imagine it changing. This struggle is indeed position for which she is competing with mainland China women may never be more part of a broader transformative experience men, I was told that she must be 200­ educated or more successful than their that involves these women’s recognition 300 percent better qualified. Here again, husbands. This axiom is absolute. In several that they are caught in a tight cultural web. the experience of extreme stress and the interviews, women shared how they had Importantly, however, I did not find evidence standard of perfectionism for women women friends whose husbands refused of this same cultural tension in Hong Kong. emerges quite starkly. to support their pursuing doctoral studies. The second notable trend is that among The third finding that emerged because Why? Because when completed, they would those I interviewed, expectation of gender of my research concerned the way that have reached or exceeded the same status as equity does not exist in mainland China, but Chinese people now understand the Cultural their husbands. Other interviewees revealed is dominant among professional women in Revolution itself. In mainland China, I that female colleagues had traveled abroad Hong Kong. There are laws in both areas was told in both formal and informal to complete their doctoral studies with their to ensure gender equity in the workplace, interviews that, unlike 10 to 20 years ago, husband’s approval, but their marriages yet most Chinese professional women people could now discuss the Cultural failed upon their return. with whom I was in contact laughed at Revolution in private. Even now, they Gradually, I understood that there was the idea that these laws could be enforced. made it clear that it could not be criticized an abiding belief that a man is shamed by Personally, I found these interactions publicly (such as in the newspapers), but his wife being more accomplished than confounding. If there were laws to support they could voice their dissent in day-to-day he. He is to be the provider and authority gender equity, why could they not appeal to conversation. Many considered this change in the home and at work. It is a cause of the law? The Chinese women I interviewed a great advancement. At the same time, the disappointment, despair and hardship for explained that it would be futile, and that women I met felt shame at what had taken women that younger adults (male and employers could always develop a reason place in their country; they grieved for the

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 88 wrongs committed, but felt that in the future interviews and research journeys as more • the college dorms in this city used the “books” would be opened and they than mere data gathering. I recognize that to be an army hospital during the could eventually learn how many people I am entering the world of “the other” Japanese occupation; had died. They optimistically believed that and need to respect their world, culture • their towns and cities have been the actions of the current government in and understandings. Yin (2011) discusses ravaged by civil and international a so-called “New China” would result in these ethical responsibilities and calls for war for millennia; more representation of and responsiveness “professional demeanor” in all our actions to the people. as researchers. Personally, this commitment • what we think of as the “Chinese and realization manifest itself in choices I culture” differs greatly among A most alarming related finding I uncovered have made at many moments of these trips, 56 different ethnic groups; was that the young professional women I in even the most mundane interactions: interviewed realized that many Chinese, • cultural practices and beliefs in the city how I respond to people on trains, in including their relatives, were still brain and the countryside vary considerably; restaurants, at shops and hotels; how I treat washed (their phrase) as a result of methods cab drivers, hotel clerks and new colleagues, • they have a recent history of used during Mao’s rule. My only prior and how I approach unknown foods, smells, tremendous human loss, the result experience with this phenomenon was environments and cultural cues. of actions of their own government; through movies and historical readings. It required several discussions for me to In all of these circumstances and an infinite • the women live under extreme pressure comprehend that the actions to which number of others, I need to set aside my to be the absolute best in all things they referred affected members of their cultural preferences and demonstrate respect they do; own families who were living during my and kindness. It is an ideal response at • they are taught as children that if they lifetime. For me, this point was especially which I often failed, but it is a goal that are not “no. 1” (in their own eyes and disorienting. Examples they shared included I find necessary in order to be authentic in the eyes of those around them), they how party leaders told the people that a as a humanistic and feminist researcher are considered a failure. “natural disaster” had caused devastation and educator. that was actually the direct result of The women I met were coping with While these behaviors are necessary in military action. The leadership used this influences and demands that are drastically my daily activities, in the interviews I strategy for many years, and people did different than my lived experience. specifically discovered it valuable to orient not know otherwise. Although not widely myself to the participants as colleagues representative, to my surprise, it appears I Transformation among from whom I seek to learn. In addition, interviewed a professional woman who lived Women Leaders in China rather than only “taking” data from them, through these events and continues to hold I felt a responsibility that our conversations Based on my experiences with and interview these “party-line” beliefs. should always be professional and should of women leaders in Hong Kong and have benefit for the interviewees as well. mainland China, their educational and More Than I Bargained For! I sought to affirm and validate their laedership experiences do contribute to Transforming the Researcher particular journey; I tried to delve into changing perspectives of their world and Reading my account thus far, it should be their understandings of conflict and to ask themselves. Even based on preliminary evident that this research journey and study them to think about barriers, conflicts and anlaysis of the data and reflection on our greatly changed my own understanding. victories. Likewise, I made efforts to sit conversations, I have recognized several Indeed, I had several experiences of what with them and willingly feel the pain that critical points that need to be addressed the transformative theorists would describe often emerged in their stories and to look at in the final analysis and future research. as “disorientating dilemmas” where life through their eyes and hearts. Through First, when I presented research about information and experiences contradicted their interviews, the participants gave me transformative learning to graduate and prior assumptions and understanding. In the so much; it was such a small thing to offer doctoral students and faculty, there was midst of traveling through an ancient foreign genuine concern and validation of their concurrence with my impression that a nation alone and conducting research with experiences as women and as professionals. collective model of transformative learning people whose lives I was only beginning to is needed. As indicated in research among The lives of the Chinese professional people understand, I had to sort out this confusion collective-oriented societies (especially are different from those of Americans in in ways that would allow me to be open to Africa), their collective interrelationships, innumerable ways. As I spent time with their accounts and, at the same time, remove dependencies, pressures and dynamics them in museums, cultural performances, my own cultural biases. are not well represented in the current gardens, banquets, shops and universities, transformative learning theories and models. Both the China and Belize research has I came to understand many of these I have already been approached by several assisted me in developing interview strategies differences and to recognize details, large Chinese professors to participate in a that are consistent with my philosophy and small, that affected their lives often research project based in grounded theory in of research and education. I approach profoundly. For example, China to develop a model of transformative

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 89 learning reflecting learning in their culture. I but feel helpless and hopeless that change Elias, J., & Merriam, S. (2004). strongly believe that this is something those will occur. The women in both mainland Philosophical foundations of adult of us from individualistic cultures cannot China and Hong Kong believe it must education (3rd ed.). Malabar, do; we must encourage our colleagues change. The coming years will provide FL: Krieger. to help us understand the shortcomings rich opportunities for longitudinal studies Hesse-Biber, S. N., & Leavy, P. L. (2007). and changes needed in our individualistic of this cultural change and shift in gender Feminist research practice: A primer. frame of transformative learning. The lens roles; linking these sociological patterns Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. of individualism and collectivism change to personal transformative learning will how we examine and experience many provide powerful ways to understand Mezirow, J. (1991). Transformative aspects of ourselves, our lives, worlds and women’s leadership development. dimensions of adult learning. San relationships, that we need this orientation Franscisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. to be particular to the culture. Conclusion Slotnick, R. C., & Janesick, V. J. The cultural context of the current views of In the midst of the overwhelming flood of (2011). Conversations on method: transformative learning was most apparent information I absorbed and the cultural Deconstructing policy through the to me throughout the research that I did contradictions I felt in the Hong Kong and researcher reflective journal. The in China. Indeed, it was because of this Wuhan interviews, I began questioning: Qualitative Report, 16(5), 1352-1360. shortcoming that the Chinese scholars “What is research?” Is it the data, the Retrieved from http://www.nova.edu/ surprised me by their intense interest in experience, the journey or is it the people? ssss/QR/QR16-5/slotnick.pdf this theory. However, I believe their interest I understand better now that research in Stake, R. E. (2010). Qualitative research: reflects the links between transformative the social sciences requires building sharing Studying how things work. New York, learning and psychology, an area that the and trusting relationships so that we might NY: Guilford. Chinese have only recently begun to teach learn from one another. We need to treat and research. This situation provides a such research with care and both delicately Villaverde, L. E. (2008). Feminist theories prime opportunity for future research. and quietly walk through the experience of and education. New York, NY: “the other” to discover aspects of the world Peter Lang. Second, the professional women in both – including our own – to which we might areas recognize that inequity in family and Wong, J. (1997) Red China blues: My long have been blind. professional expectations is unfair and march from Mao to now. Harpswell, needs to change. They are on a precipice ME: Anchor. References of rejection of traditional practices. Based Yin, R. (2011). Qualitative research on Mezirow’s model of transformation, the Creswell, J. (2003). Research design (2nd from start to finish. New York, women are at the point of testing new ways ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. NY: Guilford. of acting, but the highly patriarchal society Denzin, N. (2001). Interpretative remains a great obstacle. Interestingly, the interactionism. Thousand Oaks, younger professional men with whom I CA: Sage. spoke at length in mainland China agree,

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My Mentoring Creed

Eric Zencey, Center for International Programs

What Does it Mean to be a Mentor? previous inquiry in a variety of disciplinary avenues of connection to the experience areas to address new inquiries suggested by of others led some progressive educators ach of us has to find an answer the problems that present themselves for to an excessive and essentially romantic to that question in our own way, inquiry – and – resolution in the present. celebration of the individual self as the E subject to guidance and correction To me, being a generalist means more than validator of that self’s knowledge – a by those in whom some authority is vested, specializing in several subfields within a stance that lent inadvertent support to the either institutionally or through our own discipline. And it doesn’t mean thinking that narcissism promulgated by an advanced acceptance of their good advice. While good I could teach any subject in the panoply of consumerist culture, which is, itself, a mentoring is to some degree personal and college or university offerings. The generalist cultural problem worthy of investigation.) individual, I think there are principles of is one who has followed real and compelling When it comes to mentoring, the most effective practice that are broadly applicable. inquiries across disciplinary boundaries, effective teachers are those who cycle These are rooted in the deep structure and developed some useful and successful between four distinct roles: authority, of successful learning – in a pedagogy, expertise in the process. a philosophy of teaching and learning. facilitator, linker, colleague. The first is the Recently, an online exchange within the model employed in traditional education Cultural Studies area of study at Empire – the “sage on the stage.” (Few traditional State College led me to put into writing institutions remain completely committed some of what I believe to be the foundation to this model of “I talk, you listen”; of an effective practice of mentoring. progressive institutions like Empire State College have succeeded in changing industry I believe: practice.) The second and third are the heart and soul of mentoring. (As to the fourth: Effective education is student centered, not effective education should eventually allow a faculty centered, not discipline centered. student to enter into this kind of relationship This doesn’t mean the student is boss: with the teacher. In traditional schools, this It doesn’t mean the student defines the magically happens somewhere in graduate curriculum or the criteria for success. It school. Judicious granting of some elements means, in the spirit of John Dewey, that no of “colleague” status to a learner at some one learns anything until and unless they other level can be an effective teaching have understood it to be part of the solution Eric Zencey strategy. “What sort of examination would to a problem whose immediacy they have you give yourself if you were the teacher? been made to feel – by events, by tutelage, How about demonstrating your mastery of by inborn curiosity. Because by long tradition academic expertise the subject by working up a midterm in it?”) is validated by the authority of disciplines, Problem-centered education is necessarily In this context, “to facilitate” means, to me, transdisciplinary work looks illegitimate. transdisciplinary. Dewey was insistent to tutor a student’s curiosity – to provoke, The danger with transdisciplinary work is that the world in which we operate – the channel and guide it, which is no small task; of course dilettantism and the development world in which we feel, think, act, evaluate to suggest (or to draw out a recognition of the kinds of spotty knowledge (and the and, therefore, learn – has no disciplinary of) connections, implications, fundamental retention of crucial ignorances) that plague boundaries drawn on it. This presents a assumptions in a student’s inquiry; to autodidacts in any field. If transdisciplinary problem to educators. Their expertise is support the learner’s use of effective learning work has any legitimacy, the legitimacy validated within disciplines and success at and problem-solving strategies for the must come from success – it must produce mentoring (and teaching) requires expertise. subject matter – the problem – at hand; to refined products of inquiry that resolve the Solution: Establish expertise within a challenge (gently) dysfunctional approaches, problematic aspects of the experience that discipline, but also become a generalist, including abject ignorance and dogmatic led to the inquiry; those products must be which (to me, following Dewey) means thinking. Success at all of these requires capable of being communicated to others becoming capable of using the refined disciplinary knowledge and expertise; but for consideration, use, testing, validation. products (facts, theories, interpretations, use of that expertise to short-circuit the (In the past, failure to emphasize these perspectives) of their own and others’ learner’s process of inquiry – to tell students

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 91 the “answers” – can be dysfunctional. is the resolution of a problem that has little To the extent that the teacher, as learner, Conversely, withholding needed information application outside the discipline. That treats a disciplinary boundary as a border or knowledge can be dysfunctional. This is sort of inquiry runs the risk of being a that must not be violated, he or she will find why teaching – mentoring – is an art. mannered exercise of little practical import, it difficult to be a fully effective learner, and productive of dissertations and articles and will be that much less prepared to be an The linker is the teacher who puts the essays read by a handful of people whose effective mentor. learner in touch with a resource, thought, tastes have been shaped to conform to the person, perspective or experience that, in the New, a-disciplinary thinking in the academy same cramped vision of success. Such work teacher’s expert judgment, will promote the requires new, a-disciplinary systems of is likely to be primarily about other work learner’s successful pursuit of a satisfactory validation, verification and legitimation in the discipline, making it little more than resolution of their inquiry. The teacher who of expertise. Sadly, we have yet to evolve a self-important version of “whisper down has expertise across several disciplines will those systems. Too many colleges continue the wind”: a very formal, apparently serious be more successful at this than one who to administer budgets through discipline- game played out over time in academic doesn’t. It is a disservice to the learner – based departments, to hire faculty through journals, where the point can hardly be and to the learning – for the teacher to limit discipline-based job descriptions, and to more than paying attention to who said the student’s inquiry to just those areas in evaluate faculty against criteria for success what about whom. which the teacher is most expert. (That promulgated by disciplinary practitioners would be faculty-centered, not student- That kind of academic work has little rather than against criteria suggested by a centered learning.) relevance for the ongoing task of human perceptive reading of Dewey’s problematic life in culture, which, in part, is to meet world. This reinforces the notion that fully Growth, for this kind of teacher, means the challenge of making meaning (and effective, realistic, transdisciplinary work has expanding his or her competence to serve as proceeding to successful outcomes) in a no place in the academy. a linker and a facilitator to student inquiry; world that is both difficult, confusing, that growth comes from being an effective A college that wanted to distinguish itself evolving and crisis ridden, and also (transdisciplinary, problem-oriented) learner might try to change that. A college with a nurturant, sublimely beautiful, and him- or herself. progressive heritage would be well-placed to ravishingly capable of engendering human take on that task. Traditional, discipline-bound inquiry pleasures and passions and joys. Given the demands that we define problems in ways limitations on their work that the need References that respect disciplinary boundaries. But for disciplinary legitimacy foists on them, those definitions may not correlate with it is no wonder academics are held in low Dewey, J. (1897, January). My pedagogic the reality of the expression of the problem esteem; no wonder that in the culture at creed. School Journal, 54, 77-80. in the world. Inquiry that respects the large, “academic” is nearly synonymous Retrieved from http://dewey. boundary of the discipline that hosts it is with silly, irrelevant, misguided – abstract to pragmatism.org/creed.htm likely to fail of its object, unless its object the point of uselessness. Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. New York, NY: Macmillan.

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On Narrative Contract Evaluations

Mentors from Across the College

Earlier this year, I invited a number of insufficient length. These shortcomings made expectation for all CEs as the large number colleagues to reflect on the writing of me wonder if the assignment description of students with whom I was working was contract evaluations. The goal was not to was not clear enough to the students, in group studies. How could I individualize resuscitate the narrative evaluation debate, if certain important concepts needed to narratives when most students’ learning but rather to think about our experiences be taught more rigorously or differently, was almost 95 percent or more identical? as contract-evaluation writers. In effect, if certain course concepts were just not Except for Educational Planning, there was I imagined this reflection as perhaps one interesting or too difficult to articulate, or a lesser degree of individualization possible component of our own PLA essay on if the amount or level of learning activities in other courses. So, at the advice of some mentoring. Thanks to those who took up was not appropriate. Thanks to the final senior colleagues again, while I continued this little prompt. narrative evaluation, I was motivated not to provide detailed feedback on each only to develop a richer system, but also to assignment, I also utilized a “customized” Alice Lai write each formative evaluation carefully so cookie-cutter approach by slightly modifying Center for Distance Learning that at the end I could see a coherent picture the narrative’s language based on each of each student’s learning. It was a task student’s performance. The same approach At the each end of the term, I would worth taking. continued to be used when I taught in prepare to write final narrative evaluations. the three FORUM programs and in CDL. I always found focusing on completing the Bidhan Chandra Nobody questioned me and everybody narrative compelled me to reflect harder on Center for Distance Learning seemed to be happy. my teaching and course learning materials. Because an end-of-term narrative evaluation Personally, I have always believed that I will not greatly miss the end-of-term was required, could be read by the student’s timely and incremental formative feedback narrative evaluations. Most students never mentor and others, and was in the student’s at regular intervals during the entire read them anyway except for looking official record, I wanted the evaluation to duration of the course is more useful for at their letter grades. As I wrote before, reflect a student’s learning from beginning helping a student learn. To me, “formative” detailed formative incremental feedback to end. I also wanted to make sure that my always meant during the learning process to students at regular intervals is more evaluation was coherent when it came to itself and not just when the learning contract important. And, I have been following this the different levels of learning outcomes. or the course was over. practice for a long time. However, for the I gradually developed a system (in a word past few years, I have been experimenting The idea of writing an “individualized processor file) for recording my formative with a “novel” system where I include narrative evaluation” was completely feedback to each student’s work throughout very detailed feedback on every written alien to me when I joined the college as the term. It was organized by the student’s assignment and then require the student to a part-time lecturer in 1988. I had no name and then each learning activity. My read the feedback carefully and send back prior experience in this thing that was so feedback contained a very brief summary a one-paragraph counter statement about important to Empire State College. When of the student’s work (e.g., the title of my initial formative feedback’s value in questioned politely, one argument given to the work, the most interesting/rigorous improving his or her learning. With some me by some senior faculty colleagues was ideas) and my remarks and suggestions for initial resistance to the “requirement” of the that narrative evaluations were useful for improvement. Sometimes it also included my counter response mechanism, most students students as they could use them as proxies thoughts about the particular ideas that I really appreciate this methodology as it for letter grades when they were applying found gripping. forces them to read my comments more to graduate school or for job applications. carefully and re-evaluate their own academic When it was time to prepare for the final Remember that the system of providing work. As several students shared their narrative evaluation, I would open up the letter grades in our college began much later. thoughts with me later, this approach was record and re-read my feedback. How With some guidance from a veteran of new and challenging to them but extremely could I not think about my teaching while the college who also was my first “buddy helpful in improving their overall learning. I, re-reading my feedback to students’ work? mentor,” the late Lester Levine, I began myself, have observed marked improvements I would tend to notice criticism more than including narratives in the end-of-term in their subsequent course performance. And positive remarks, such as short development contract evaluations. However, I always felt this is what finally counts to me. Perhaps of a certain topic, misunderstanding of that it was hard for me to comply with this certain key concepts, writing problems or

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 93 we should all be doing this as an experiment mostly interested in reading contracts – early Note and then examine whether we really miss on to see how well they were individualized; 1 the “narratives.” and later, to admire their originality; and With apologies to Richard Bonnabeau most recently, to vet the reading list – for who, as director for academic planning Xenia Coulter example, I was criticized once by someone in the small world of the Center for Center for International Programs on the CDL assessment committee for International Programs, does read and Narrative Evaluations: A Dialogue assigning a New Yorker article. But the openly support faculty narratives. evaluations? Nah, I don’t think anyone in Psychologist: So you don’t have to write the college ever read them, or if they did, Eric Ball narrative evaluations any more. How do took them seriously enough to talk to me Center for Distance Learning you feel about that? 1 about them. Two things I learned through the experience Me: Pretty sad. I used to really enjoy the Psychologist: Wait a minute, then. If the of writing narrative evaluations: First, I chance to think about what my students students and colleagues didn’t read them, learned how to be more forthright about got out of studying some topic with me. I’ll it’s hard to imagine that anyone else would the dialogical character of peer knowledge miss that opportunity – and the chance to either – like graduate school admissions construction and evaluation. Not being able practice writing about, you know, what we officers or human resource managers. to hide behind the pseudo-objectivity of “a psychologists call, “knowledge acquisition.” How were these documents justified for B+ is a B+ is a B+,” I knew that how and Psychologist: So you enjoyed writing them so many years? what I wrote as an assessment of a student’s because it was a learning opportunity learning was itself open to interpretation Me: Look. I don’t really know that the for you? and assessment by a student’s primary students didn’t read them – I only know mentor or anyone else who might read it Me: Yeah – that sounds about right. that they didn’t talk to me about them. It on a transcript. I was always learning how seems to me that they must have read them. Psychologist: But weren’t these narratives to communicate my own positionality (as I would have if I were them. Gee, a lot supposed to be for the student? Or for the well as the nature of my own legitimacy) of them were quite positive, and I’m sure record when someone needed to know what as an evaluator to any and all readers. I students must have liked seeing their work the student accomplished in college? was always learning how to articulate and so carefully described and taken so seriously, construct the kinds of meaningful contexts Me: Oh, yes. I forgot about that. I don’t don’t you think? that truly open, peer-to-peer knowledge know if students actually read them. Psychologist: Let me get this straight. You processes require. Psychologist: You’re kidding, of course. regularly wrote detailed narratives as part of Second, I learned how to communicate to your job for 25 years without any external Me: Well, no. I honestly don’t recall a single students in yet another mode. Apart from reinforcement. The only reward you received conversation that I ever had with a student the very first time I would offer feedback came from what you imagined someone about his or her evaluation. Oh, wait – I do to a student, every moment of evaluation like you might have enjoyed reading as a remember one time – maybe 15 years ago, was a “final” evaluation in that it sought student. Do I have that right? a student called to complain that I wrote to incorporate, implicitly or explicitly, down the wrong number of hours she spent Me: Eh … yeah. And you know what? I everything else prior that I had decided on her internship somewhere – something think the students, even if they didn’t thank mattered along the way with that student. like that. That was back when students me for them, liked them well enough to However, knowing that the student knew had to sign evaluations before they were keep coming back for more. A narrative that the capital-F Final narrative evaluation submitted. (Pause) Hmmm … given that describing student strengths and making had a somewhat different status (and I must have written hundreds, hey, maybe weaknesses into future goals, is a lot more was literally open to a broader audience), even thousands of these evaluations, that inviting than the letter C. enabled me to communicate with her or him so little happened after they were written in a different register, and with something Psychologist: So you think enrollments will (other than relief that they were done) is more than simply a sense of “just the last now drop without them? rather strange. piece of feedback.” So I was always learning Me: Well, maybe not if those Cs begin to how to communicate in multiple registers, Psychologist: Well, at least your supervisors, migrate into As and Bs. and how to use this unique, institutionally- or maybe your peers – they must have constituted moment, as a potentially crucial commented on them, yes? Psychologist: And yet, if good narratives site for a valuable communication that was really could motivate students and stimulate Me: Well … actually no. I might have otherwise unavailable. mentors, I agree then that it’s sad that they included a few in my early portfolios, but are now gone. Too bad your college wasn’t they were not required, and they were able to figure out a system so that mentors certainly not discussed. Colleagues were might have wanted to keep coming back to write them.

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Steve Lewis, Hudson Valley Center Morgan), soon after the past president of conversations about the implications of A Beautiful Backache this college got hired and looked around at education on individual destiny. A place the audacious educational experiment he that was not a place but a rarified space I’ve been thinking about my old ’65 Morgan had inherited and was appalled. Appalled. where my colleagues and I, for better and 4/4, the cheap one: no wire wheels, ill- worse, sat in the passenger seats alongside He was appalled at what my old colleague fitting black ragtop, clip-on side curtains, students as they learned to navigate their Mayra Bloom called the weeds growing leather belt holding down the double-sided own unique ways toward a more mature, up in the cracks of this academic sidewalk. bonnet. That ridiculous shifter! And my old more nuanced understanding of the planet Appalled at the rampant inconsistencies pals, Richard and Jim, pushing the British upon which all of us are desperately trying from center to center, unit to unit, mentor racing green beauty down Langdon Street in to stay on the road. Madison, Wis., until I’d pop the clutch and to mentor across this college that eschewed skid off to campus. walls of all kinds. Appalled at the notion So yes, here I am again, back in that of a college without distinct, discernible ridiculous Morgan, Richard and Jim in You should know that I’m not one to dwell standards; without clearly established the shaking rear-view mirror, fists raised, on the past, but while composing the dozens guidelines for constructing lesson plans or cheering as I finally chug off to my of end-of-term narrative evaluations for my rules to follow when evaluating student American Lit. class, a lecture on futility in students at Empire State College in January, work. Without rubrics! A wholly unwieldy Hemingway, only to make a left and plow that old Morgan kept cutting me off with a college where every student, every study, into that Chicken Delite truck – and in the toot and snotty little wave. was considered unique. course of the next few days understand futility and despair and grace firsthand. I’ve probably written several thousand of And, thus, sufficiently appalled, the new these reviews in my some 30-odd years president moved quickly to construct As old Hem said, “If you are lucky enough at this institution, but, of course, these walls, real and metaphorical. He wanted to have lived in Paris as a young man, then evaluations were different, among the last structure, he wanted standards, rubrics, real wherever you go for the rest of your life I would ever write. No more wordy and and unmetaphorical. No more of that ’60s it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable ponderous assessments of student work, fiddle, no poetry, no imaginary gardens with feast.” Same goes for that Morgan and no more discursive encouragements, no real toads in them. He wanted to know that narrative evaluations and Empire State recommendations for improvement. No a course that would be offered in Buffalo College itself. thick, cumbersome transcripts. Just grades. would look like, feel like, act like, move Clean and simple. like the same course offered in Albany or Sylvain Nagler, Northeast Center Manhattan. As Gertrude Stein might have I’m told that’s what graduate schools want. How sweet to have atop my “to do” said had she looked out the window instead What students want. What many of my list four requests from graduating and of at the vase on the piano, a car is a car is a colleagues seem to want. graduated students to submit letters of car. (Yes, back to the Morgan). My wife of 43 years wants to know whether recommendation in support of their I’m sad about the change. Yes, a little. In 1965, even I knew that the Morgan application to graduate school. I labor over Disappointed? Maybe, probably. Relieved? was not simply a car. It was a beautiful such requests, investing significant effort Well, you would think so, reflecting back backache: no springs, a hard wooden frame, and time to make these recommendations on the cumulative hours/days/weeks/months inches off the highway. It was an elegant informative and persuasive. So, I review the spent trying to put into words what an A, headache, needing to be push started most students’ previous narrative evaluations, B, C, D, F does a fine job of suggesting. But mornings after the temperature dropped sample some of their past written work no, I’m definitely not relieved. Just a little below 32 degrees. It was a transcendent and, in some instances, get in touch with sad. A tad disappointed. Maybe a bit angry. heartache, breaking down weekly, them to arrange for a time to chat. I also sputtering, losing power, black smoke ask them to share with me their application The way you feel after getting blinded by blowing out the exhaust pipe, those clip-on essay. Assembling all this information I have the sun one afternoon on State Street in windows blown sideways whenever you compiled, I set out to summarize what I Madison, Wis., turning left and ramming got the bloody contraption going over 55 believe to be a fair and accurate description your beloved, unreliable, oil-dripping mph. At times it was little more than art, of the students’ work, the learning they have Morgan headlong into a Chicken Delite a dusty sculpture sitting in the gravel and achieved, the progress they have indicated delivery truck. The way you feel after weeds. And after the incident with the and, sometimes, what prospects I see for walking into the garage the next day, the Chicken Delite truck, an unrequited love, them. I have, on occasion, received some engine block like a soul hovering over the a lost dream. feedback from the admissions office to crunched green metal, the mechanic shaking which I have addressed the letter. Sometimes Like this college. For me, the past 32 years his head with a smirk. the response has been rather perfunctory, have been a beautiful backache of a dream something like: “Thank you for taking the Frankly, I knew this day was coming years of individualized education, sometimes time. …” Other times, the response has ago (FYI, I’m back to the death of the smooth, often clunky, of countless gone beyond such polite recognition to narrative evaluation, not the demise of my heartening, heartbreaking face-to-face

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 95 include more particular appreciation for topics that the student and I reviewed on an There were the harder ones. For me the the informative quality of my letter, citing ongoing basis. In the narrative evaluation, harder ones were those I had to write for the richness of detail about the student, I tried to find an accurate way to highlight students who had the least curiosity, and information that provides the admissions these observations (beyond a single letter honestly, those constitute a significant committee with relevant findings to aid in and algebraic sign), and, most importantly number of our students. I found myself their decision-making process. all in a public document. approaching the writing of their CEs in the same spirit as they approached their studies. Also, on my “to do” list is a list of So, as I contemplate the evaluation tasks outstanding student CEs that await my at hand, I cannot help but be bemused by Writing these documents often made me attention. For those students enrolled in the contrast in what we now demand of think of those students who, especially at the November term, my task will be to ourselves as Empire State College faculty the beginning of a study, were trying to select from one of four letters, i.e., A, B, C, (letter grades only) and what graduate make themselves invisible or who were just or D, and one of two algebraic symbols, offices of admission request of us (rankings lurking around and then, over time, showed a “+” or a “-” ; in total, 11 letter grade and a narrative description). The college that they had a great deal to offer. I enjoyed options. Given that this is the first time I is now content to have an evaluation of a describing what comes out of people, what’s will experience this method of describing student ‘s term work squeezed into one of more than meets the eye. I also could show the nature and quality of student work 11 letter grade options. How ironic? How the real respect I feel for someone who is in the nearly 40 years I have been on the far we have come. For what? For whom? willing to swim against the current. faculty, I wonder to myself what that effort I always knew that a lot is at stake in these will be required of me. Apparently, many Steve Tischler, Metropolitan Center transcript narratives, so I always wanted of my faculty colleagues are persuaded (From a conversation with Alan Mandell on to be professional about the activity. What that a grade-alone evaluation is preferable 21 February 2012) I included was my honest assessment. If to one that is a descriptive narrative, in I could stick to the “criteria,” I always many ways quite similar to those letters of I loved the idea of narrative evaluations as a said to myself, nothing I wrote would be recommendation I previously cited. For the way of sizing up what a student has learned. inappropriate and I’d be putting into words record, I was among those “old timers” It just became evident to me that I couldn’t what I thought a student really learned. who strongly, even vehemently, disagreed do justice to the task at hand. with the elimination of narratives. Given The narrative has been important because Mary Mawn the huge magnitude of this policy change, it forced me, always, to re-examine the Center for Distance Learning I only wish there had been more time for learning contracts I had created. For the exchange of views and experiences, When I came to Empire State College in example, it forced me to think about more experimentation and much less of 2007 and first learned about narrative whether the student really had done a rush to discard a fundamental value of evaluations, this was an approach that I “advanced” level work; whether the student how we engage students. More on that in a had not encountered before. Honestly, it really had measured up to a “general subsequent piece, perhaps. reminded me a little bit of my elementary education” goal. school days when, at the end of each The narrative contract evaluation process Sitting there and writing these documents, quarter, my teachers would include a few was nearly always quite instructive for I always had to ask myself: who exactly is sentences on the back of my report card that me. It made me pause and reflect on my this particular student? I always noticed how provided additional insights and feedback interactions with the students over the different my students are. So I was always on my progress to date. After glancing over course of the term. Where did they begin? taking stock of who I teach and, at the same my grades, I remember being eager to read What was it like for them to move beyond time, and this always happened, thinking these handwritten notes. their starting point? How well did they about who I am as a teacher. respond to feedback? Did the learning Fast forward many years later, I was now experience kindle in them an enthusiasm to Writing these documents gave me pause. asked to do something similar at Empire learn more about the subject matter? About Was I being fair, honest, clear? I noticed State College. I quickly discovered that other subjects? What about their prospects? how often I rooted for a student who had writing narrative evaluations was not For sure, the quality of my writing and the made the most progress over the term – an easy task to do. I needed to strike a depth of my investment surely varied from not always the person whose academic balance between providing students with student to student. Still, when confronted work was the strongest. I wanted to use constructive feedback, while keeping with a blank page waiting for my narrative the narrative to try to describe the whole a potential external audience in mind description, I was required to step back and story: problems, progress, areas of dispute (graduate school committees, prospective do some serious measuring and analysis. – always looking for a fuller picture; always employers, etc.). This was somewhat Providing this feedback was not confined making an effort to try to capture the challenging, but I also saw it as an to a final written document. To the extent nuance in a student’s learning experience. opportunity to provide outside readers with that I was successful in my work, these are

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 96 some context for a given grade. This was personal loss (most scholars agree that King as a mentor, but as a mentor tasked with particularly important when a student’s final and Milton were not particularly close), evaluation. Not that I necessarily like it grade did not reflect their true capabilities. than it is about the difficulty of committing that way. It has always been easy for me to oneself to one’s craft, particularly in light of slight evaluation in order to sport with the Sometimes “life” can get in the way, and the triple threat of time, tide and transience. more “Amaryllisy” aspects of working with this can be especially true for adult learners And here the connection between Milton’s students, like creating innovative learning who often juggle many commitments poem and CEs is, for me at least, pretty activities, exchanging provocative ideas outside of school. This scenario played out darn seemly after all. Because the question or even crafting lush and lyrical CEs that during the September 2011 term, when I kept asking myself after the faculty voted in the end may not say much of anything. life circumstances prevented one of my to abolish CEs was simply, “How do I – or Still, every time I started to write a CE, I students from fully engaging in her studies. even should I – maintain a commitment to had at least a fleeting reminder that the She ultimately completed this work about Empire State College’s core values – even as best of my mentoring comes down to that two months after the term ended. In the the vehicles through which those values are really hard, always uncessant, surprisingly narrative evaluation, I was able to discuss expressed continuously erode?” strict, and remarkably homely (as in simple, her strengths and capacity for learning unassuming, ordinary, intimate, homelike, science and, even though her final grade So. Back to Milton. In a distinctly Miltonic but also, I admit, sometimes plain and was acceptable, I believed that she had “it’s not you, it’s me” tactic, “Lycidas” unattractive) task of meditating on what the potential to do better. This scenario moves fairly expeditiously from the requisite exactly my students had accomplished, on is just one of countless examples where outpouring of grief for King to the speaker’s how I could talk to them about the gap the narrative evaluation provided relevant existential articulation of doubt, particularly between those accomplishments and some context beyond the letter grade. in terms of a commitment to his vocation as other point (too vague to be a standard) a poet: While going forward, at least formally toward which they were aiming, and finally, there won’t be opportunities to provide Alas! What boots it with uncessant care on how I could reasonably capture all of “handwritten notes” on each student’s To tend the homely slighted this in a way that makes sense to me, to “report card,” there will continue to be Shepherds trade, my student and to the various audiences ways to provide feedback to our students. And strictly meditate the to whom we are each, in some way, At least for me, I need to keep in mind the thankles Muse, accountable. lessons learned while preparing narrative Were it not better don as others use, That kind of meditation can happen with evaluations. Grades provide only one piece To sport with Amaryllis in the shade grades, too. But I can no longer count on of the puzzle; ongoing, individualized (64-68) the weirdness of DocPak and the uncessant feedback completes the whole picture. In these lines, Milton’s speaker asks a homeliness of prose to bring me face to prototypic bang for buck question that face with the strict task of evaluation. I will Cathy Leaker, Metropolitan Center I suspect many of us have echoed, albeit have to be more intentional about my work, A Brief Elegy for the CE less lyrically and more crudely, as we toiled make a more conscious commitment to the Weep no more, woeful mentors, over our CEs back in the not always good thankless Shepherd’s trade, just as Milton’s weep no more, old days. “uncouth Swain” concludes his elegy For Narratives, your sorrow, (spoiler alert!) by rededicating himself to a Even as shadier grading pastures beckon, are not dead, more engaged, deliberate but not necessarily I want to linger for a moment on Milton’s Sunk though they be beneath efficient poetry: descriptors for that slighted Shepherd’s the DocPak floor … . trade: uncessant care, tend, slighted, At last he rose, and twitch’d his With apologies to John Milton (1637), I’d homely, meditate, thankless. These words Mantle blew: like to rather irreverently riff on “Lycidas,” seem so apt when conjuring narrative To morrow to fresh Woods, and his justly celebrated elegy for his recently evaluations, but they are not the kind of Pastures new. (193-194) drowned schoolfellow, Edward King, as I words I typically associate with grading, reflect not so much on what I learned in the where words like standard, calculate, Reference process of writing CEs, but equally or even precision, point total, score, percentage and Milton, J. (1637). Lycidas. In A.Quiller- more importantly, what I’m learning with distribution seem more apropos. Yet I want Couch (Ed.), The Oxford Book their departure. to believe I can carry the Miltonic resonance of English Verse: 1250-1900. of them with me when I log into the new It would be unseemly, to say the least, to Retrieved from http://www.bartleby. system to post my final grades. use a poem mourning the death of a loved com/101/317.html one as a point of departure for yet another I say this because in the end, whether I’m tedious lament about the tragic loss of slaving over CEs or adding up totals in narrative contract evaluations. Ultimately, a grade book, Milton’s list of adjectives however, Milton’s poem is less about gesture toward my responsibilities not just

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Lee Herman Central New York Center Evaluating and Learning A vista. A world of details holding worlds of details. Too many details, endless possibilities. Which ones to choose? They’re all true. Each chosen, a memento of disclosure; each unchosen, an excision. I must frame, inexorable limitation, a necessary instrument of intelligibility. I fix the frame and make the possibility of composition. Is there a story? It will be a journey for mindful eyes, a journey about a journey already taken. A gaze of lines and shapes, shade and color, focus and brightness, blur and darkness: a gaze beyond, toward what it could mean. All these elements (not the elisions though) disclosing the disclosures, some of them, that were disclosed to me. Within the frame I fixed, I compose a memorandum of disclosure.

It is always full. It is never complete. I mourn the absences I will forget. I review. Is it well pondered, light writing? I am full of the hope I hope to offer in a framed thing that looks beyond itself. Then, I save. It is finished.

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A Mission to the Dominican Republic: What is a Batey?

Julia Penn Shaw, Center for Distance Learning

The Idea because they are not served by the DR announcement to CDL brought in nearly infrastructure. Meager education is only $500 in contributions from my Empire State Last November (2011) on a Sunday up to the fourth grade. Because the DR is College colleagues, and also encouraged a morning at Emmanuel Baptist Church in one of the few nations that does not grant CDL colleague, Chrissy Wall, to try to join Albany, N.Y., Tony Malone (Dr. Anthony citizenship to people born within its borders, our group. Although Chrissy was not able Malone, local pediatrician affiliated with children born of Haitians in DR have no to adjust her schedule to join us, her support Albany Medical College) said a few words national identity (and DR identity is needed of the group was energizing. With respect to about a projected medical mission planned to attend high school). The need of these the significant financial contribution, I was for spring 2012 to the Dominican Republic people is great. proud to share it with the mission group, on to provide medical care for Haitian sugar behalf of my college. cane workers. Who, he asked, thought they There are two primary aspects to this would like to come? Within a New York mission – one long term and one short The time between the initial announcement minute, I decided to go. Having been on term. The long-term mission is construction: and final plans for the trip went quickly. missions before, one with the Presbyterians construction of a hospital in La Romana Our personal contribution for flight and to New Orleans for reconstruction after that serves Haitians as well as Dominicans; transportation to and from Newark airport Katrina, and one with Unitarians for a construction of community centers and would be about $1,200. That was doable. singing mission to support small churches in churches in particular bateyes; and Soon we should ensure that we had tetanus Transylvania/Romania, I already knew that construction of the base site for mission shots, hepatitis B shots, and consider I like being part of groups that contribute groups coming to La Romana. The whether we wanted a prescription for an to a larger goal. A medical mission fit cumulative work of these groups is very antimalarial drug. A trip to my primary care well with what I know about Emmanuel, impressive. Since 1987, brick by brick, physician addressed those considerations. which has a strong social justice presence in the La Romana hospital has grown from We hunted for suitcases and clothes we Albany, including a daily breakfast “club” nothing to two well-equipped floors, serving were willing to leave there as part of our for the homeless and a food pantry for the Haitians from the bateyes in ways that no contribution, and shopped for medical community. It also fit well with how I like to other medical facility does. We spend my “vacation” time. were told that of the 32 people in our group, 22 of them Over the next month or two, I learned would work on construction more details about the trip scheduled for projects at the hospital. Feb. 11 - 18, 2012 from both conversations within our group and by exploring various The short term mission, and Internet sites. I learned that bateyes are the primary goal of the Albany company towns of sugar cane factory group, was to provide medical owners established in the 1960s with assistance and health education Dominican Republic government support to five or more bateyes in the to isolate immigrant Haitian laborers who Dominican Republic during are needed to work, but are not desired as our stay there. A call came out citizens. Kristy Engel, the Baptist missionary for monetary donations to help supporting our medical missions, indicated cover the cost of medications, that there may be as many as 5,000 bateyes since we would need to pay in the DR and close to 200 in the vicinity of for all meds we delivered, as La Romana, our base. Bateyes contain most well as clothing and eyeglasses. of the Haitians in the Dominican Republic With my dean’s permission, I sent out a short announcement estimated to be between 10 percent and 40 tom liahut : percent of the total DR population. The about the medical mission variation in these figures is an indication of and the needs of the Haitian how poorly these groups are served. The workers who would be bateyes are enclosed, frequently having no served. I was touched and photo credit electricity and possibly no running water, heartened that one small Many small volunteer construction teams build a hospital

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 99 scrubs. Some of us started to learn Creole In some way we all felt called to offer sheets with us. Tony showed us a photo/ or brushed up on Spanish, while others our gifts to a project whose form is yet video story from the last mission two years less gifted in languages such as myself, in the making. ago. Many who had been in missions to this read history books and tour books about part of the world said that their lives were I said that I wake up each morning after a Hispaniola, the island upon which both changed by the people they met. I expected sound sleep in a comfortable bed in a warm the Dominican Republic and Haiti rest. I this would be true for me as well. Although room with no deep concerns or anxieties focused on learning about the sugar cane the upcoming trip still felt distant to me, I about my welfare, my finances or my health. plantations and the bateyes they contain. anticipated that my participation in it would I am an immensely lucky person and I know diminish my personal “occupy” gap. I The amount of work that had been done to it. After the pleasant realization of starting hadn’t even gotten on the plane, but already prepare the way for this week-long mission a new day with few impediments, I then it felt good. was impressive. I knew that this trip was do have a point of discomfort as I think made easier by the work of others. The about the difference between my own well­ I expected some of what I learned to creation of the sleeping quarters over time being and the plight of so many others in appear in different ways in the Human at La Romana by the construction teams the world who have only a fraction of my Development program that I coordinate meant that we would not be trying to sleep comfort. This is what I call my “gap.” Like at Empire State College. I hoped our just barely off the ground confronting huge the gap between the 1 percent and the 99 interactions with individuals would allow cockroaches skittering through the tents percent that has “occupied”’ our attention me to see threads of behavior that I could as experienced by members of a former for the past few months, my personal gap identify as warp and waft of cultural mission group. I could trust that Kristy is between what I need and what I have contexts. I personally anticipated many had a pulse on the people and a longer that I don’t need, and therefore, between challenges for myself, not the least of which view of what they need, so that our my smaller and larger selves. I need only would be the fact that my language training contributions would be consistent with a portion of what I have. After all of my had been in Latin and German, not Spanish other missions that have come before, needs are met – my comfort needs (the or French, which would be so much more and will come after. Medications had warm bed counts for a lot), my status needs useful here. I saw a frustrating gap between been purchased and sorted, and labels had (not strong; I drive a 2000 van and live my desire to meet individuals and hear their been made, arriving in time for distribution in a working class urban neighborhood) stories, and my ability to do so, but foresaw into our many second suitcases. and my recreational needs (mostly books, that possibilities would open up once we swimming and a dinner now and then), arrived and got started with our work. My Personal 1 Percent - there is still a gap between what I use and When I volunteered for this medical 99 Percent Gap what I have to offer. It is that difference mission, I thought of it as I had my other that gives me an urge, particularly in the Emails about planning began to include volunteer trips – something I do on my own morning when I awaken so comfortably, members from Syracuse and Rhode Island, time. As the team started making plans, to reach beyond myself and think about so our view of our group enlarged from our however, I began to see the relationship others. The signs of poverty in my own local seven to the total of 32. About two between this trip and my job as academic neighborhood surely contribute to that weeks before the trip to further prepare area coordinator of Human Development urge. Recently there was an article in The us for the experience, Tony and Marilyn at CDL. I would be observing “human Chronicle of Higher Education about a Malone, our local leaders, invited the development” of a different culture with couple who “tithe for poverty” (Troop, Syracuse group to join us, the Albany group, different languages at a different place. 2011). They save at least 10 percent of their at their house in Latham so we could meet Although the trip would only be a week, joint income (an academic and a doctor) and each other and begin making more detailed it provided an initial opportunity to know donate it to services that directly serve the plans. This meeting helped us get to know the people from a somewhat inside view: poor. The direct donation assures that no each other and gave us the opportunity to their health; their communities; their significant portion of the donation goes to ask the many questions that would make multigenerational relationships; and their overhead, advertising, notecards in the mail the difference between comfort and anxiety education (since I would visit the schools or other expenses not directly benefitting about a new experience that we hoped could and meet the teachers, if possible). What the intended recipients. I find this concept make a significant difference to the lives of place do Western theories of Piaget, compelling. It is part of what motivates the people we would visit. Erikson, Bandura and Vygotsky have in me to diminish my personal gap between these communities? Although their theories At this meeting we shared our motivations my resources and the uses to which those inform learning in literate Western cultures, to join this medical mission to the resources can be put. what place do they have for largely illiterate Dominican Republic. People phrased it At this meeting, Richard Horan, an English­ populations? This experience reminded me differently, but all of us had words that as-a-second-language teacher, invited his of being pregnant: I could read all I wanted reflected a desire to connect to a larger friend, a Haitian student at Hudson Valley and talk with those having the experience, community and to contribute to balancing Community College, to speak a bit of but it would not prepare me for what I unevenly distributed resources in the world. Creole and share Creole-to-English cheat would learn. It was comforting to realize

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 100 that all of my preconceived ideas would fall of cultural messages. Think of the staying my workplace in Saratoga Springs, I live away once we were on DR soil doing what power of the European children’s dance in a virtual world. As a CDL mentor, I we came to do. We would have so little time game that intones: “Ring around the Rosy, engage students and colleagues through there that, at best, we could only impact a pocketful of posies, ashes, ashes, we all online courses, emails and phone calls, lives in soft and swift ways, but already I fall down.” These words may or may not doing much of my most effective work was expecting the trip to be long enough to refer to the Black Death of the 14th or through the World Wide Web using words impact me in deep and lasting ways. 17th centuries, but nevertheless, nursery to reflect images of realities. I expected that rhymes demonstrate that particular stories our mission site would be primitive with Stories to Believe In and myths have a staying power that is few amenities. The reality was that our not always conscious, but is somehow accommodations were more than adequate My first step was to buy books written meaningful. Having learned of some of the for a mission camp, with electricity, gender- by Haitians, so I hit Amazon.com, and health issues in the bateyes, I found myself specific bunk beds in a pleasant well-lit bought children’s books, novels and some envisioning a new set of “folk” stories for dorm, an airy kitchen and eating area, and history and travel books with the intention the current generation, with associated showers that provided warm water for the of leaving them there for the schools. songs, that warned young people of the first few takers. Nevertheless, because I Although I found the books of Edwidge tragedy of AIDS, or the advantages of went on this mission with the expectation Danticat (1994; 1998) to tell me much being educated before being pregnant, or of having very limited resources, I called my about Haitian culture that I needed to know, the usefulness of listening to one’s children family members and close friends before I I found folktales to tell me even more. The and creating secure attachment with left, believing that everything would go well most useful book for me was The Magic them, or the value of continuing to take a and I would contact them again in a week Orange Tree and Other Haitian Folktales medication even when the symptoms are upon my return. collected by Diane Wolkstein (1980). I gone (hypertension, for example). This idea borrowed the heading of this section from is not bizarre; I know our local Head Start Five Beautiful Young Women her phrase, “stories they believe in” (p. has short catchy songs to help preschoolers Without Names 10). This book included 27 folktales that remember to wash their hands and brush she collected from storytellers in Haiti. Our first action on Sunday morning was to their teeth. The tales were informative, but useful as attend church at a nearby batey, Batey 80. well were the stories that she told about The creation of health-sensitive stories was Attire would be simple: as a woman I would the context of hearing each story – the obviously not an available option for us on wear a skirt, and both for respect and also storyteller and his or her relationship to the this trip but other options were. Jean Burton as a fair-faced stranger, I would wear a hat. audience. This gave me a much appreciated led a skit at our first visit demonstrating My broad-rimmed garden hat was my best glimpse into traditional Haitian society. how adults could respond positively to choice of those I brought and had I put a Many of the stories had evil stepmothers a child wanting attention. At later batey woven flower on it, it would almost have who deprived their stepchildren of food visits, a different pattern emerged: Victoria, passed for a bonnet. Protective of my health, or even killed them. Animals played a Spanish-speaker in our group in her 70s, I also wore solid shoes with socks – a important parts as well as General Death, played a wonderful role as storyteller using choice based on prevention of round worm various hungans (medicine men) and the colorful illustrated books that some of infection - not on fashion. To conserve what Wolkstein identified as the Haitian us brought. Perhaps because storytellers packing space, my church shift also was peasant trinity: Jesus Christ, Damballah are attended to by all ages and perhaps my swim cover. Suffice it to say, I was not Oueddo and Papa God. In the stories, also because adults were without education anxious to have photos taken of me while societal order was maintained sometimes and stories were valued, groups of young on this excursion. by local administrators, sometimes by the women, young men and children gathered But once I arrived at Batey 80, I wanted intervention of Papa God, sometimes by around Victoria and her daughter, Maria, photos of most everything else. Our yellow natural elements (such as the Magic Orange every time Victoria sat in a chair beside our school bus pulled in front of the Baptist Tree), and sometimes by the cleverness of medical location and started to read. It was church, “Iglecias. … ” This was one of the the protagonist. The collection also included a wonderful sight to see – fewer warning simplest but also one of the most powerful some of the songs that accompanied well- health messages, perhaps, but certainly places of worship I have visited in my life, known stories. more joy. including many cathedrals and shrines I related reading these folk tales to a The Reality: The Real World across the world. More of a chapel than question that was posed to the mission in the Bateyes a church, the dimensions of about 20 feet group: Is there a way, in the short time we by 25 feet were excellent for a gathering had at each batey, to communicate a useful We arrived Saturday evening, Feb. 11, to a of about 60 people. Light came through health or developmental message? What perfect Caribbean day. the slatted windows onto a podium with came to my mind was that once a story, or Perhaps ironically, I did not take a computer boom box speakers proudly displayed on a song or a children’s game, gets a place in or a cell phone on the trip: Ironic because each side, set against a back wall with a a culture, it can become a reliable carrier in my home in Lansingburgh, N.Y. and large mural of a river of water from heaven

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 101 to earth skirted by trees, and a large dove watched from a holding a branch. Before us was a tall, slim, distance, nodding black man in a Western suit with open arms. in response to He greeted us and invited us on a brief tour my smiles and of the batey. clumsy Spanish.

As we made our way over constricted, Watching my feet uneven, muddy, root-secured paths, we as well as my could see that in contrast to the neighboring surroundings, domiciles, the church was well-equipped: the I walked back boom boxes, supported by an independent with the others generator, were actually a status symbol to the church. In for electricity. We did not know it then, but my memory, our these were among the poorest houses we excursion had

would see in any bateyes, with crumbling extended over edith leet concrete and wood foundations and sides an area about : and roofs made of tin. Not everyone the size of a attended church and as we walked along basketball court. the narrow dirt paths, we could see that We were now photo credit for many people, it was wash day. Women directed to the Sunday: A day for church and girls were outside on their stoops, Sunday school attending to wet clothes in large plastic being held at the communications center for the community. washtubs. Clotheslines with clothes (no back of the church. Children, clean-clothed The setting was quiet and comfortable, sheets or towels) interspersed faded reds and and alert, sat in a row with their backs to almost serene, until a line of singing children blues among the green of the trees. Water the church wall, facing a young woman who paraded up the center aisle of the church, could be heard from a short distance away, looked about 13 but was actually about accompanied by a sizable and very loud trickling from a common source about 6 feet 17. Comfortable in an adult role, she was traditional drum played by a teenage girl off of the ground. The source had a small responsible for teaching the children Bible and a rhythm keeper of some kind held concrete block pad, immediately surrounded verses and handing out flat breads the size by another girl musician. The music was on all sides by packed dirt. Two women of cookies to those who responded well. We so loud (even without the speakers) that were there washing buckets. Two small were told that was the first food of the day it was hard to hear our vigorous singing donkeys showed their backsides to us while for the children. and clapping. I found myself wondering munching on grass, which was perhaps a whether the pattern of loud music that Church was to begin. As worshippers, we bit lusher in the damp ground. A boy of drowns out voices came from settings like sat in the simple pews. There were a few about age 4 named Peter followed us as this into some U.S. black Baptist churches, outlets on the side walls with three cell we moved about, and an old man or two or did a U.S. tradition penetrate into this phones charging, suggesting that this was the community? The question unanswered, I listened to the sermon, a mix of Spanish and English which, although more political than spiritual, served to bring us together. I sat at the end of the third of six rows where I could watch both my fellow Americans and fellow batey churchgoers. I was especially intrigued by three young ladies who sat next to me. Postures erect and with perfect composure, they attended to the sermon. They could have been teenage models from the Bronx. Although centered in the batey that was their home,

their style demonstrated an awareness of an outside world. I was amused as they tried to edith leet : keep a young boy in check who sat behind them, mindful of the eye of this American stranger (me). photo credit Sunday: Wash day

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Evidently, I was not the only one intrigued Meeting these young women our first day bateyes? Were there Spanish versions of by the self-possession of these young in a batey set the tone of the trip for me. As CLEP tests that they could take for college women, and after the service, some of us a person of action, I knew that I wanted to credit? What were the paths that connected approached them as they stood in a tight be part of a solution for women like these. the dots between these young women group with two of their friends. Marilyn I envisioned the young women each having with academic needs and the financial and Malone asked them what they would like a CD player for listening to a Spanish educational resources that could satisfy these to learn in school. Two needs? I noticed that said they wanted to be my concerns were about accountants, one wanted the education of young to be a doctor, one wanted women. What about the to do something else in young men? For the most the medical field and one part, they were on the wanted to be a lawyer. Had periphery of our church this been a setting in the experience. Perhaps U.S., all of these goals might they made themselves have seemed to be eminently visible in other settings, possible, but this was a but (not surprisingly different setting and we, here as elsewhere) more the visitors, were becoming women than men were aware of the difficulties that strongly associated with these girls faced: There was a church and the benefits no schooling in their batey edith leet it offered: boys, old men : beyond the fourth grade, and the pastor were

and these students either the exceptions. Gender needed to walk a total of differences were apparent three hours a day to learn photo credit with young men on the in a neighboring batey, or (top) A church community supports young women seeking to become outside of the church “yard” take a bus that they could educated. (below) A family community supports a young man seeking waiting to quietly flirt with medical help, transporting him to the medical mission on plastic chairs. not afford. To go to high the young women who school and college in the were within. DR, they each needed a DR As a result of this trip, citizen to adopt them or they I hoped to be able to needed to return to Haiti to know these aspiring get birth credentials – a very young women by name improbable option, especially as I learned more about due to the loss of records in them, perhaps assisting the recent hurricanes there. with resources available The girls looked like they to me to help them gain were in their teens, but when the education they seek we asked their ages, they and the new life that told us they were between education could bring the ages of 25 and 18: They

to them. There were five were not girls but young in this group. Five is a women. This registered with mark chaffin

: number that one can us all because we knew that grasp. As an individual, these young women were it is hard to envision following quite a different how to make a difference path from their age-mates photo credit in the overwhelming who commonly start having poverty we had already witnessed: Five babies at about age 14 or 15 (frequently version of “The Teaching Company” and young women, however, stood there ready with a family of seven by age 35). The discussing lectures together, perhaps at the for help; it is conceivable that they could be young woman who was 25 was not only church that had quite limited but workable given the assistance they need, and perhaps taking a very different course from her batey electric lights enabling these women to in so doing, create a path for others like sisters, but also potentially sacrificing having study in the evenings. Could our college be them. There also was an intense younger children, a strong value in her culture. involved, providing “study groups” in Santo girl, a leader among the children, who stood Domingo with young students from other

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 103 as close to this clique as she could without houses had a window with a shutter that seen, and even fewer that would be classified invading their space. She, too, I wanted to blocked the light when closed, and better as useful tools aside from the machetes that know by name. I wanted to see her have a houses had a window with a slatted shutter the men use to harvest sugar cane. Once I life that she, herself, somehow knew she had that could be adjusted for light and air. No saw a boy sweeping the central dirt surface the potential to achieve. So perhaps for me private houses that I saw in the bateyes using a broom constructed of twigs tied to there were six young women without names had signs of either electricity or running a branch. Many women in our first visit who moved me on that first day in a batey. water. Communal outhouses, which were on Sunday morning were scrubbing clothes surprisingly clean considering the conditions, in large round plastic buckets, drawing The Yellow School Bus were usually in pairs, with each stall being water from a common faucet. Do clothes large enough only for an elevated poured lines count as tools? In the more fortunate We had other adventures that Sunday, concrete block with a hole and a small schools, I saw about 12 two-student desks, but I will return us to the world of our container for waste paper. a file cabinet labeled “bibliotechnica” comfortable mission space. As we sorted (library), chalk for large painted boards that through medications, clothes and eyeglasses Day after day, we were greeted by many served as blackboards for group instruction, to give away, we also prepared for our work Haitian residents who had anticipated our and a few notepads and pencils for the for the trip. arrival. Again and again, I was moved by children. The only words I saw were Spanish the small welcoming crowd. Most were Five times during the next week, our signs on the churches (i.e., Iglecias. … ), young – children, adolescents or adults medical mission group traveled in our Spanish words on the school walls (i.e., under the age of about 40. Almost all wore yellow school bus to a neighboring batey, Rincon de matematica) and English phrases bright smiles and trusting eyes. Perhaps passing field after field of growing sugar on T-shirts (i.e., “Life is Good”). Uniforms their open demeanor reflected their only cane and railroad cars stacked with stripped do count as tools in this society where what protection, which was the shield of faith in sugar cane poles. I stepped from security one wears designates who one is. Uniforms us. As they stood there (there were no places and sufficiency in my solid Rockport are restricted to those who have the to sit so even the oldest had to stand), I walking shoes onto various dirt surfaces, status that the clothing represents: police, saw evidence of both hard work and pride each with a visible mix of soil, puddles, school children and medical people are in their elegant strong backs. Although sugar cane shards, and occasional remnants all immediately recognized by their attire. many were without shoes, the clothes of of animal dung. I wore the sturdy shoes to Not only was there a dearth of medical all were clean. Groups of two or three protect me from what I could not see in supplies to address ailments, but also an might gather, and occasionally, particularly the dirt, especially round worm eggs. I also absence of sufficient food to accompany when encouraged, young girls played hand- wore an invisible shield of DEET to protect the medications as prescribed to “take with clapping games with rhythmic words I could me from malaria, SPF 70 lotion to protect food.” How can people hack at sugar cane not understand. A primary source of activity me from the hot sun, clothing to protect without flip-flops, at least, to protect their was for people to watch each other. While me from exposure to scabies, and I took a feet from the cutting shards on the fields? we were there, I saw no apparent conflict container of purified water to protect me How can a 40-year-old mother of seven among any of the people. Relationships from dehydration. Fortunately, there were cope with hypertension without high-blood­ appeared relaxed and comfortable, although few insects, which Edith conjectured were pressure medications? How can a child be social groups were defined by who stood held at bay by the colorful roaming chickens nourished when intestinal parasites sap so with whom. There were no streets, but that might be eating the grubs before they much of the nutritional value of the little the packed dirt paths between the living became adults. There were no paved roads food he receives? How can a grandmother spaces were generally well kept. Once I in any of the bateyes, some of which were teach her granddaughter to sew repairs on did see a girl of about age 7 clinging to a difficult to reach by bus. Public buildings recycled clothing without eyeglasses to bring cast-off, undressed doll. I was touched to in the bateyes, such as a church or school, the stitches into focus? see Mark’s photo of one other toy, a small were generally made of concrete blocks dump truck made from a juice container The wonder of what I witnessed was the and are no larger than 20 feet by 25 feet. or plastic bottle. social cohesion and hope of people we saw Two churches in bateyes we visited had in spite of their very real material poverty. electric wires (without switches) for electric Seeing that lone much-beloved dolly caused There are so few outsiders like us to attend lights; one had a few outlets in side walls, me to recall a phrase that I sometimes use: to their basic needs, so little to sustain their and one had an above-ground water pipe “the tyranny of the material.” What I mean bodies, and so little to occupy their minds; providing running water. Individual homes by it here in Lansingburgh is that my life is nevertheless, each, almost without exception, with typical dimensions of perhaps 10 feet filled with too many objects to manipulate, maintained a physical posture of strength by 12 feet contained a small bed and single organize and use. It is associated with a and an aura of dignity. I saw poverty – too table in poor conditions, and perhaps a comparable clutter of ideas in my head. The much poverty, heart-breaking poverty – in cupboard for kitchen supplies and other “tyranny of the material” in the bateyes, the bateyes, but not the appearance of amenities in better situations. Homes were however, is quite different: It represents the emotional impoverishment. Religious faith either assembled from scraps of tin roofing absence of sufficient objects to maintain a made a significant difference in the lives or constructed of concrete blocks. Poorer constructive life. So few objects were to be

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0. De-worming for roundworms and pinworms was available to everyone, whether or not they had the yellow card given by the health provider mandatory for receiving medical service inside the church. On this day, many women and children took the sweet liquid in very small disposable cups. Then a young man interrupted by saying that taking the medicine would kill or weaken you.

The trickle of takers diminished at that point, and most men refused to take it. edith leet

: The primary de-wormers today were Mary Beth, a penitentiary counselor

and Ashley, a college student, assisted by Maria, a nurse, and Victoria, her photo credit Victoria reading to children with the yellow bus in the background mother, both of whom spoke Spanish and served as interpreters here.

1. To enter into the mission, a resident of those we met. Faith and education were suitcase and we gave away nearly all of needed a yellow card obtained from intimately connected through the Bible and them. I wish I had bought 100 more. I the health provider of the batey for a hymnals, which were the only books I saw would have bought 100 flip-flops, also at $1 small fee of about 90 U.S. cents per in any of the bateyes. The hope offered apiece. I could easily have packed another family. We only saw those among the by faith helped the people maintain their suitcase of clothes for women, having population who could afford a card, dignity while living in the bateyes, and also discovered that we had so few women’s, although many others came in hopes provided a path into a larger world. It gave men’s and adolescent’s clothes to share. The of obtaining clothes or eyeglasses. many girls the discipline not to get pregnant few books brought by Susan and myself Roberto, a Haitian interpreter working at 14 or 15, so they could continue on in brought delight to the children, adolescent on his high school diploma, managed their education even though there was no boys and young women when Spanish- the inflow of patients into the sign of the financial sponsor needed to speaking Victoria, in a grandmother role, makeshift clinic. enable that to happen. read them aloud; more books could have brought even more joy. 2. High blood pressure is endemic in I later learned that we did not see the this group, as a result of diet and weakest of the people because only those A Day in Our Medical Mission genetic propensity. An initial step for who paid a small fee to the health provider care was to take the blood pressure of their community (with a required eighth I offered to write a blog for Tuesday, Feb. of the patient. Marilyn, an EMT, and grade education) were able to come to the 14, 2012, Valentine’s Day. Donna brought Mark, a geriatric chaplain, did this makeshift medical site that we provided. At us all Valentine cards and chocolate Kisses work, assisted by Roberto. He ushered each batey we saw about 100 people and to remind us of home before we stepped patients to that area from the entrance. at the La Romana barrio, we helped about onto the yellow school bus, once again, Daily vitamins for the whole family 200 people. Some of the medical team made to make our medical visit. How could I were distributed here. home visits to those who were too weak to describe our experience? I decided to show move, and Phyllis, Raquel and Tom brought you how we set up a medical site on this 3. If necessary, the patient was next sent back heart-wrenching stories of witnessing day in this particular location so that we to Bonnie, a licensed nurse, for blood the steadfast support from the caregiver to all could visualize the reality of the work pressure counseling with Raquel as the a malnourished and dying elder. If the level we did. Hopefully this schematic helps. On primary interpreter. of relative wealth that we saw was the face this day, the clinic was in a church. Envision 4. The “waiting room” was a set of white of those who could seek the basic help we the chapel as being the “pharmacy”; the stackable plastic chairs set up in the provided, I could not conceive of what we waiting room in the middle; and other middle of the room. did not see. medical stations in a circle around those waiting. I gave each station a number so 5. Patients needing to have a tooth pulled Seeing what I saw, it is hard not to regret that I can describe them, but any single or other dental work performed were what I personally could easily have done patient may not follow this exact sequence. sent to the local DR dentist assisted to help more. I was very glad that I The schematic looks tidy, but the reality by Donna, a certified dental assistant. spotted reading glasses for $1 apiece at was dense with people and high volume Patients, stretched out on a portable Yankee Dollar, and brought 100 of them. in three languages. They easily packed into about half of a

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unknown :

photo credit

The Medical Mission “Clinic” on Tuesday, Feb. 14 in a 20 feet by 25 feet church in Batey La Gina.

KEY - Local resident

- Medical mission volunteer

- Local interpreter on staff (many from the Bateyes)

- Local doctor or dentist

Details about the Medical Services on Feb. 14, 2012 0. De-worming for roundworms and pinworms. 1. Entrance to the medical assistance. 2. Initial high blood pressure check. 3. Blood pressure counseling. 4. The ‘waiting room.’ 5. The dental area. 6. The pediatric area. 7. The adult area. 8. Pharmacy: Prescription distribution. 9. Pharmaceutical counseling.

10. The exit. 11. Family planning area.

julie shaw 12. Clothes and eyeglasses. : 13. Victoria read children’s stories in Spanish. credit

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dental chair, were given only one and his wife, Marilyn (blood pressure except their community and their faith; injection of Novocain. No dental screener) who had primary responsibility 3) How the “tyranny of the material” has patients called out in pain. for the medical part of the trip, assisted by different effects in different parts of the Lauren, Loretta and Donna from Rhode world and the difficulty of balancing “too 6. Children were received by Tony, the Island who helped with procuring the much” with “too little”; 4) The power of medical doctor and pediatrician, and orders, as well as designing and making stories about Haitian culture that I read Loretta, a licensed nurse. Interpreters, all the labels used. This image shows how before I went on the trip, and the power of Joanna and Ariel, assisted. all of the pieces come together with grace. one storyteller with children’s picture books 7. Adults were received by Tom, a It is hard to describe the feeling of being a sitting in the shade surrounded, always, by licensed physician’s assistant, and part of such a successful, meaningful and children and adults in listening awe; 5) The Phyllis, a nurse practitioner and nurse spiritual venture. I was transformed by the juxtaposition of my “real” and “virtual” anesthetist. They were assisted by connection I felt with others on the team worlds that this mission made clear; 6) Hilda, an interpreter. who also were serving on this mission – The effectiveness of a very small group of with the interpreters, cooks and staff (many organized and willing volunteers in helping 8. Prescriptions were efficiently addressed of whom had been born in a batey); and others with very diverse needs: offering from the church chapel area by Steve, with the people whose spoken language to almost 600 people a level of medical a licensed pharmacist, Esperanza, a I could not understand but whose smiles, assessment and support, pharmaceutical licensed pharmacist technician, and grateful touches and hugs communicated in aids, eyeglasses, clothes and family planning Jean, a retired social worker. a language of connection known to all of us. not otherwise available. 9, 10. Pharmacy counseling (9) was given My experiences of this mission came from I had not been on a medical mission such as to patients when receiving their the perspective of someone involved in the this before. I don’t yet know how the group medications by Lauren, licensed nurse, medical mission, although there was ample will follow-up on what we learned and Dr. Café, DR doctor, and Emillio, evidence in our comfort at the mission make decisions about how we can continue an interpreter and guardian of the center and in our visit to the truly impressive to contribute to the well-being of the people exit door (10). clinic of the cumulative effort of the we visited from the distance of our comfort. 11. Family planning was supervised by construction groups for the past 15 years. As we “decompress” and share experiences, Melissa, with a MSW, assisted by On this day, I will remember how a small insights and frustrations, I believe the stories Louise, an interpreter, and Estella, a group of people with love in their hearts of the young women and others will be health provider. In the relative privacy came together to make a small difference in remembered. We will see if, over time, we inside of the bus, they evaluated a very big world. can initiate actions that will make significant pregnancy tests and offered family differences in the lives of those whom we planning guidance. Families of seven or Back to My Virtual World met on our special trip. eight children of women in their Not all of our time in the DR was in 30s were relatively common. References bateyes: we spent three exquisite late 12. Those with yellow cards were eligible afternoons on a perfect beach. On our last Danticat, E. (1994). Breath, eyes, and for clothes and eyeglasses. Edith, a beach excursion on Friday afternoon, we memory. New York, NY: Vintage freelance writer, and Julie, an educator, gathered in a large circle on the sand and Books, Random House Publishers. organized and dispensed most of the recounted major events of our mission. It Dandicat, E. (1998). Farming of bones. New clothes. Andrea, an interpreter who was a soft and fine finish to our quickly York, NY: Soho Press. served as a makeshift optician, fitted passing adventure. Saratoga Springs and patients with eyeglasses stored in Lansingburgh seemed far, far away. America Malone, A. (2012). Mission to La Romana a suitcase. is close enough in the virtual online world, February 2012. Retrieved from http:// but not close in the real world of wants www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW9LGIoc 13. Later in the day in the shade at the and needs, of hunger and sickness, and of HVU&feature=youtu.be back of the church/clinic, Victoria illiteracy and ignorance. read children’s stories in Spanish to Troop, D. (2011, February 13). The tithe an appreciative audience of many These are only a few highlights of the trip, that binds: A reasoned campaign generations. Maria was there to but I can stop here. As I read what I wrote, I against global poverty. The Chronicle support her. see some patterns that became a part of my of Higher Education. Retrieved from experience on this medical mission: 1) My http://chronicle.com/article/The-Tithe­ Creating this schematic was a very useful personal 1 percent - 99 percent gap that this That-Binds-a/126344/#> exercise for me. It helped me to see the trip helped me to address; 2) My protection larger picture of which each of us was Wolkstein, D. (1980). The magic orange tree by invisible substances against the world a part. It helped me to appreciate the and other Haitian folktales. New York, that the Haitians in bateyes experience daily, tremendous organization provided by Dr. NY: Schochen Books. and against which they have no protection Anthony Malone (Tony, the pediatrician)

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Found Things: Manageability and Viability of Mentor Role (1976)

What follows is a section of a task force The whole concept of individualized and press of other responsibilities can report, Manageability and Viability of education seems to militate against mean that students are left adrift in their Mentor Role: President’s Commission on significant mentor flexibility. If a mentor intellectual growth. The larger the number College Development. The report, issued in wishes to spend time on scholarly research of students per mentor and the greater the May 1976, was the product of a committee or grant writing in his or her field but must quantity of bureaucratic chores, the poorer chaired by mentors Pearl Mindell and meet students in unrelated fields who have the quality of that dyadic relationship. Rhoada Wald. Other members of the task their own set of priorities, then the students (Other personal factors also enter into force were: A. Nancy Avakian, Paul Bradley, come first. And individualized education the equation, but the numbers involved Jack Burke, Tom Clark, Frederica Daly, increases the difficulty and increases the affect the personal factors too.) In light Carolyn Forrey (Broadaway), John Jacobson likelihood of finding a group of students of these two constraints, the question of and Fred Mayo. who want to study in a mentor’s chosen mentor flexibility remains worth pursuing discipline. On the other hand, if mentor as an important element of professional The task force grappled with three major flexibility means ability and commitment development. The way in which a mentor questions: 1) “In what ways does the to respond to the needs of students, then orients to work and the responsibilities college support its faculty in its academic mentor flexibility is strongly encouraged by given highest priority are an important and creative pursuits?” 2) “How does the individualized education. aspect of professional development. The college support and develop a working/ first issue is who establishes the priorities living environment that offers the necessary Mentor’s willingness and ability to adapt – the dean, the mentor, the student, the freedom and autonomy for faculty?” And to the needs of each student has become staff handbook, the mentor’s colleagues? 3) “How can faculty have a genuine a cornerstone upon which this college is A second is the order of the priorities influence in determining academic built. How else could a college designed to in actual work, and third is the reward development and policy issues affecting both help students meet their own educational structure for those priorities. If a mentor’s the teaching/learning process and decisions goals function? Yet the question of faculty job consists of counseling, instructing, about their own destiny within the college?” development which includes a faculty reading, career planning and guidance, The focus of the section of the report member making decisions about personal college governance, reading, contract contained below is on “role flexibility.” and professional growth demands that writing and evaluating, administrative the decisions about flexibility be made by Thanks so much to colleague Bob Carey for responsibilities, professional reading and the faculty member, not the student. This unearthing this document. writing, and scholarly development, then apparent conflict, inherent in the present the ordering of these tasks becomes an structure and concept of the college, needs Role Flexibility for All Mentors important key to encouraging professional to be seriously considered. development. The mentor’s own response he question of mentor role flexibility The requirements of cost-effective education to each of these areas, the support received at Empire State College suggests also present particular problems for for personal priorities and the priorities the two notions: changeable priorities T mentor flexibility and the kind of faculty college sets become crucial. If working hard in the demands that a mentor must meet development that can be enhanced by such on assessment or governance is rewarded and shifting roles and ways of meeting flexibility. The number of students that and supported while scholarly research the new demands. Both notions carry the Empire State College mentors must handle and publishing or attending professional connotation of maneuverability and imply and the number of stages in a student’s conferences is not, then a mentor’s flexibility that flexibility means freedom to change, to college career present heavy demands for in establishing priorities depends on internal adjust working demands, to choose ways of serious mentors. Academic advising, career strength. Such a response clearly indicates growing as a professional, and to make one’s planning, degree program designing and the lack of support for mentor flexibility in own decisions about the demands made on portfolio creating are all time and energy establishing priorities. mentors. The institutional constraints of the consuming tasks, not to mention the regular college, however, demand that any notion The second notion of flexibility involves contract planning and writing, instructing, of flexibility also meet the requirements of the ways in which the demands made on supervising and evaluating. At its best, cost-effective and individualized education a mentor might be met. The concern for the dyadic relationship between student designed to respond to student needs. orderly paper flow, the establishment of and mentor can provide a challenging and business office hours, the provision of exciting education; at its worst, the numbers

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 108 offices in an executive manner all suggest charismatic person who turns on his or her – encourage mentors to develop satellites that Empire State College has adapted a students and enthuses them to study? The for reduced FTE business office style and set of procedures diversity of ways that mentors can meet – encourage mentors to design and for a substantive process that operates on their responsibilities could be limited only by lead residencies different procedures. For example, it is the variety of people attracted to the Empire ironic to note that Empire State College State College faculty or it could be narrowly Some other ways to promote flexibility offices are open for business hours 8:30 a.m. limited by our assumptions of “appropriate outside the college are: - 4:30 p.m. five days a week and closed on mentor behavior.” – recommend mentors for consultantships evenings, weekends and state holidays, while Some ways to help us look at the question at other institutions the college is committed to an educational of our implicit assumptions might include: process that does not conform to class – establish a speaker’s program (at Center schedules or business routines. We expect – consultants designing Degree Programs level and College-wide levels) to speak students to study when they want as they and mentors working with students on to businesses, government, etc. want but to see their mentor during banker’s developing portfolios appropriate to – assign to mentors the task of publishing hours. Why not have a schedule of Empire those Degree Programs or vice versa about specific aspects of Empire State State College offices being open 6 a.m. to – round robin contracts in which a College’s programs noon more like college libraries than savings colleague writes the evaluation section banks and more flexibility in mentor’s use – bring about faculty/mentor exchange for another’s contract of office hours. If the Empire State College with other institutions of higher student population is diverse and includes Other ways to promote flexibility within education in roles of teaching many people who carry full time jobs such Empire State College are: and administration a schedule seems a reasonable way to meet – recognize the mentor as tutor – bring about placement on editorial their needs. role per se staffs of journals specializing in The other areas or ways in which faculty innovations in higher education – develop specialty roles (e.g., meet their mentor responsibilities relates assessment specialist) – sponsor mentor research on to freedom in contract writing, advising innovations in higher education patterns, counseling techniques, etc. – exchange mentors from one How strict is the orthodoxy about how Center to another – host conferences in which mentors should ment? Is it acceptable and mentors participate – exchange mentor role with encouraged to be a quiet scholarly person administrative role – encourage on-the-job observational who does not shine at meetings and who visits of mentors by individuals tends to be slow at completing the paper – encourage intellectual development interested in the mentor role work or is the ideal mentor the bright, within or among “areas of study”

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 109

With Freire … In Brooklyn

Robert Carey, Metropolitan Center

A Review of: then “an actual conversation among and by the co-constructors” (staff and Adult Literacy in a New Era: students), and a third section in which Reflections from the Open Book the author “question[s], unpack[s], By Dianne Ramdeholl and “problematize[s] the preceding conversation” (p. xxiv). ur colleague, Dianne Ramdeholl, has written a study of an adult The “conversation” that starts things O literacy program, Open Book off happens between John, the teacher- (an affiliate of Good Shepherd Services), coordinator of the program; Virginia, that served students for 15 years in a one of the first instructors who had come Brooklyn community. It closed in 2001. from Women in Self-Help (another Good While providing instructional services to Shepherd program); and Cecilia, a graduate people in the neighborhood, it understood of Women in Self-Help, who worked in itself to be carrying out a Freirean mandate: the program as a counselor. At the time “to interrupt dominant scripts and rewrite of the discussion, the program was serving roadmaps of power,” thereby enabling the eight students. adults they worked with to “tell their own The conversations, like conversations about “community” and how well, or poorly, the stories – to become actors in a historical starting anything new, highlight the hard Open Book community was managing to be script that they themselves author.” The work associated with beginnings, turns that empowering community. history that resulted, the history under in the road, successes, and participants The model invoked in the book is an old review, functions as a “critique of dominant who found the program and became an one in American culture, a way of dealing culture” (p. x). That critique is interesting asset to it. What is lifted up is a sense with a political culture and society that is and laid out in some detail, and raises of “community,” the term in this case seen as fallen, destructive and dehumanizing. questions about the kinds of change literacy referring to the community of Open Book The work of “community” involved quite programs can bring about. staff, students and volunteers. Whatever a bit of meeting time, exploring shared Crucial to the Open Book story is the idea services the program was providing, one leadership – a “quest for agency and equity that “adult education has a pivotal role to of its goals was to “model an alternative through shared governance and solidarity” play in preparing people to challenge unjust vision of society rooted in a more equitable, (p. x). In other words, the program carried socioeconomic systems that increasingly lovelier world that everyone at the program a very heavy interpretive agenda along with dominate the lives of the vast majority of could co-create” (p. 5). The experience negotiating budgetary hassles and changes human beings and rob us of humanity by of community was as important as any that were in play in the world of adult dehumanizing entire subsections of society, skill instruction – “if participants’ voices literacy programs – a world that we see, fragmenting our sense of responsibility for were listened to in developing the culture but only indirectly, as the book unfolds, one another and the world we inhabit” of the program, it would then be a viable but a world that gave the ongoing (pp. xi-xii). Just how “pivotal” a role adult possibility for those participants to go out discussions about community and education programs can play in shaping of their communities and be agents of empowerment their urgency. individuals to reshape the fragmented change” (p. 7). The politics of the period (welfare reform world that the author describes is certainly This central vision of the program as and, in the world of adult literacy program, worth considering. a community shaping students into the advent of the Workforce Investment Act As the author describes it in her preface, change agents as a result of the students’ and testing student progress) were easy to this oral history is a three-layered affair. experiencing an empowering community read as an assault on the poor. Two pieces The result of her 10 years of involvement, is enormously attractive and flavored by the director, John Gordon, (included as it is not so much a straight-forward with a touch of the utopian. A good deal Appendix D and Appendix E) spell out the historical analysis, as much as it is collection of the transcribed conversations moves politics and controversies that adult literacy of ruminative pieces: an introduction back and forth across the terrain of providers had to deal with during the that “sets the stage for conversation,” 10-year period the book covers: attendance

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 110 requirements, testing and adjusting to the do hear a few stories of students going on forces that must “work toward creating demands of the Workforce Investment after Open Book and achieving personal fairer, more equitable spaces, where more Act, which made program completion goals (though in one case, questions of self- voices can be heard …” (p. 104). It is a and job placement a high priority.1 All of esteem and self-doubt linger). But we don’t vision I find particularly attractive, but I these external forces were seen as stripping really get a full picture of the program – also am aware of how many others have programs of the possibility of building and Adult Basic Education, pre-GED, GED – the to be involved in working to create “fairer, extending a nurturing community, and lend number of people served and where they more equitable spaces.” As studies by the some discussions in the book and either/or went. That kind of information would make Economic Policy Institute have reminded finality, as in the following: the program, in its entirety, more visible to us again and again, inequality arrives at the us. Does the concern for community spur schoolhouse door on the first day of school.2 Currently, program directors are being students to develop skills they need and Educational institutions of all sorts can forced to spend so much of their time want to master? How could that be shown? provide the openings – the possibilities for struggling to keep up with the onerous people to envision a more just and equitable and mounting pile of bureaucratic The use of long swatches of first person society – but the work of creating that will requirements in order to maintain reflection about Open Book and what it involve political will and muscle. The fact funding – filling out forms, testing meant to a variety of participants, what it that adult literacy programs exist at all is a students more often, documenting goals meant to staff and how participants became measure of how far we are from being that (primarily employment), and following part of the program means that the reader society, but such programs remain a vital up with those goals (primarily is creating a narrative sense of the issues as necessity for people to reclaim their lives as employment) – there is no time left to the book proceeds. Some of those strands their own – a profound political act in itself. struggle and grapple with the terrain would not be unfamiliar to anyone who we engaged in at the Open Book. The has worked in an adult literacy program, Epilogue: Who Learns and Who system is splintered, and we in the field whether at the ABE level, or at the pre-GED Doesn’t – Some Parting Thoughts are burdened with increasing demands. and GED levels. There are the issues of Programs have become so preoccupied self-esteem and of histories that are pock­ When I took a sabbatical to explore the with testing and performance measures, marked by all the elements that shape the issue of literacy and the several issues that little time is left to focus on education, lives of the marginalized and overlooked in are attached to it, my first surprise was and even less for conversation that this society: getting by on low paying jobs, discovering how extraordinary an act this could threaten the status quo. (p. 90) coping with inferior housing and having to first technology (reading and writing) really send their children to neighborhood schools is. The brain has to be shown how to read, The idea that a literacy program could that, themselves, need help. and this is where the issues that Ramdeholl “threaten the status quo” or that testing touches on in her book begin. Mary Anne (or some other form of assessment and Many of the stories convey a fierce sense Wolf in Proust and The Squid (2008) progress) marks the end of the possibility of neighborhood, not necessarily because reports that by age 5, a child who grows up of education seems a very large claim. the neighborhood is attractive and rich in in a verbally rich environment is some 32 There is much that can be said about the resources, but because that is where you million words ahead of a child raised in a desirability or usability of particular ways are known and some sense of community verbally poor environment. So a child enters of testing, but the question of assessing is possible, though one should approach school ahead or behind before the first day student progress remains. How well are the idea of poor neighborhoods as a starts. Discussion of improving schools has people doing? Are they experiencing success particular kind of refuge with some care. to have an equally serious discussion about in the program? Wouldn’t a program Poor neighborhoods are first and foremost a jobs policy and support to families, topics want to know if approaches to teaching poor, and poverty isolates people in their rarely linked in discussions of why schools are working, and whether teaching staff, shared marginalization and militates against are failing or succeed. If we are going to volunteer or paid, are acquainted with the development of a sense of moving argue about schools, we should begin best practices in the field? beyond imposed limits. The fact that many with William Julius Wilson’s When Work of the people in the program did profit by Bemoaning the need to see if students are Disappears (1996). their involvement, did enlarge their range meeting their goals – primarily employment of comprehension, and became involved Ramdeholl’s emphasis on community has a – raises the further question of how closely readers and active in their community, good deal of relevancy to any discussion of aligned the vision of Open Book as a source speaks to the possibility of change that such educating people – but the community that of forming change agents was with students’ programs hold for people who attend them I have in mind is one of households where goals to learn to read and write and get in the hope of forging a richer, more possible husbands/wives/partners have jobs; they can a better job or to help their children with future for themselves and others. buy a computer or enroll their kid(s) in a homework. Could it be that some students test prep course, or hire a tutor for a little don’t want to change the system but want In her last chapter, Ramdeholl makes a help. If those kinds of households are not very much to be part of it and enjoy what strong case for the relevance of effective present in sufficient numbers – households the system can provide? (Why not me?) We adult literacy programs as being part of the where stories are read, and the ABCs are

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 111 sung (over and over), where there are a Freirean twist, because the person who pulls References lot crayons and paper for drawing and that off is already deeply into fashioning his doodling and learning to spell – schools, by or her own narrative and speaking in his or Ramdeholl, D. (2011). Adult literacy themselves, cannot do the heavy lifting. her own voice. in a new era: Reflections from the open book. Boulder, CO: When I began tutoring in a literacy program, Notes Paradigm Publishers. I decided to work with beginning readers. I am glad I did. You have to get into language 1 Adult education has a long and varied Wilson, W. J. (1996). When work as though it is a big Lego set and work on history in America, but the immediate disappears: The world of the showing how lines on a page and a sound issue for understanding the changes new urban poor. New York, are a word, something that can be used that the program was coping with had NY: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. to name the world. My students have rich their beginning in the Reagan years and Wolf, M. (2008), Proust and the squid: The vocabularies; they are bright and engaging. came to something of a culmination in story and science of the reading brain. But their words do not stick to things; that the Clinton administration. Funding New York, NY: Harper Perennial. is what the mastering of reading helps bring for adult education programs had about. I also began to understand that been part of the War on Poverty of the even as people master recognizing words Johnson administration. The Economic and attaining a certain kind of fluency, Opportunity Act, Title IIB of Public comprehension was a more elusive prize. Law 88-542 created state grants for adult education programs. Over the Some Words with The next discovery was that this difficulty course of the Reagan and George H. Dianne Ramdeholl describes a good many college-level students. W. Bush administrations, questions of They can “decode,” but comprehension – Alan Mandell: How did you get involved in reporting and accountability became being able to converse and explore what this project and in the Open Book? a pressing issue: Who is learning? is being said – doesn’t happen. They are How do we know? During the Clinton Dianne Ramdeholl: I was working in the “aliterate”: able to read, but not engaged by administration, the NRS (National area of adult literacy education for many the process, seeing it only as an assignment Reporting System) was created; the years and I went to work at the Open to be dealt with as best they can. No Government Performance and Results Book and it was a pretty transformative matter the number of “apps” they have on Act (1993) required federal systems experience for all of us who were a part whatever gizmo is the newest and fastest, to develop indicators of progress, a of that program. It was an experience that they are stuck intellectually. They are awash requirement that reached down to the continued to live with me for a good many in information but can’t make it yield states and state program, as well. The years and shaped my practice. And so understanding, which then shows up in the WIA (The Workforce Investment Act of when I was thinking about a dissertation, kinds of writing they produce. 1998) gathered these several strands of one of the things that Stephen Brookfield, Lastly, Ramdeholl has, intentionally or not, development into one place, replacing one of my professors, said was to look for raised the question of whose education is the earlier Adult Education Act. It the thing that was the fire in our belly and it anyway, and for what? The slighting of was not enough to care and provide tap into that – it would be that thing that teaching people to be able to find a job that services; agencies and their programs would sustain us. So I wrote a paper and laces through the book is reminiscent of had to show results. See Literacy Brookfield read it and then circled an entire academicians descrying the pragmatic focus Assistance Center, ALECC (Adult page and said: “This right here is it!” And it of their students. But what is wrong with Literacy Education Core Curriculum), was a page about the Open Book. getting the credentials that might land you fall 2010-2011, Module # 1, http:// A .M .: One of the attractions about this a decent job with living wages and benefits? www.lacnyc.org/profdev/alecc. program was its truly alternative nature. If you have been outside looking in, now 2 A case in point would be Class and Was that part of what drew you to it? that you are inside, maybe other things can Schools: Using Social, Economic, and follow; certainly your children have a better D .R .: There was a sense in which the Educational Reform to Close the Black- shot at doing even more. I can’t find a flaw philosophy of the program was really, White Achievement Gap, a study by in that thinking, even though, child of the in large part, about trying to foster a Richard Rothstein (2004), published middle class that I am, I might want that democratic society and trying to model that by the Economic Policy Institute. person to read Dickens, Baldwin or Plato philosophy through everyday actions and The Institute, according to its website, and understand what the Civil War was structures – and in this way to become a is a “nonprofit, nonpartisan think about along the way, if only to be able to microcosm of a more egalitarian society. tank … created in 1986 to broaden show that they too have cards of identity; discussions about economic policy to A .M .: I was struck by one comment on the that they are the “ right sort.” Academic include the needs of low- and middle- topic of democracy from the book. You success, even academic success that leads income workers.” wrote: “What happens when democracy is to employment has, in this country, a very so intimately intermingled with power, space

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 112 and voice and when most of us in society A .M .: Such “trust” seemed to be present solidarity there is a recognition of a have never had any firsthand experience in the student voices that were heard common struggle, and that’s not to say that of what a democracy could look and feel throughout the book. It struck me that you everyone is doing exactly the same thing, like?” (p. 70). It seems like this is what wanted us to hear the voices, the reflections, but there is a way in which there is more you confronted. of the participants themselves. mutuality and reciprocity. Those of us who are drawn to a solidarity model believe in D .R .: And it is initially a daunting D .R .: Actually, the thing I felt was that mine what a place like the Highlander Center was reality because most of us carry around was the voice that really didn’t need to be trying to do and what Horton and Freire a definition of democracy, which is very there! I felt that the story was their story. I were committed to. There is something very much the dominant definition of going to just happened to come along and chronicle paternalistic, ultimately more colonizing, the polling booth and voting every four it. It was there in all of its richness and all about the charity model. It’s perpetuating years, as opposed to really grappling with of its complexity. It was there; very much a the same hierarchies that have done so much everyday decisions and co-creating space multiple splendored thing. damage to one’s soul. in which multiple voices and multiple A .M .: Why did the Open Book die? access points for decision making involving A .M .: What do you think of the future of multiple group interests can be enacted and D .R .: Because the funding situation literacy programs that hold this larger social sustained. We have very little practice as a strangled it and structures were added vision, this democratic vision? society engaging with these concepts. That’s that privileged standardized testing and D .R .: It’s important that we be optimistic partially why it is so critical to keep alive dominant forces of assessment. These types and believe in the power of these programs. efforts and spaces that wrestle with this. of experiments often exist at the margins They have tremendous power! However, and that’s both good and bad. The bad A .M .: One of the other themes of the book looking at the ways that funding is operating thing is that it makes such programs is how damaging schooling has been to so at the moment, the picture is pretty grim. vulnerable; the good thing is that there many people. This makes this democracy I think that part of the challenge is for is some small space created outside experiment even more difficult. programs to think about other ways to regular scrutiny to play around with more sustain themselves in the midst of these D .R .: It’s difficult work in the best of interesting notions of democracy and gigantic cuts. circumstances; It’s extra difficult because alternative forms of education. it involves being gentle and careful with A .M .: The process, the engagement, seems A .M .: In your writing, you make the people’s selves. If this is going to work at all, so important to your work – to our work. distinction between “charity” and trust and safety have to be nurtured. And “solidarity.” I often wonder about this D .R .: It’s critical that all of us engage in people’s imaginations for rewriting scripts in the context of our work with students something that is toward a vision of making and believing in different ethics – that’s at Empire State College. How do you the world a better place. It doesn’t have to very important too. It attracts people who understand the difference? be literacy, but it should be something. If all are more idealistic and who believe that of us did work, there would still be work another type of schooling and another type D .R .: This is a complex question. For me, to do. That’s how much wrong there is. of society is possible. when charity is enacted there are notions It’s important that all of us do something, that a person who is “giving” knows whatever context we’re in. better – is better. In the paradigm of

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 113

Faculty-Librarian Collaborations

Dana Longley, Office of Educational Technologies

A Review of: that the Information Management section • Inputs: finding, reading, of our General Education Requirements understanding, evaluating; (2005) is a start, but those “requirements” Teaching Information • Outputs: synthesis, knowledge creation, are outdated, too narrow, too focused on Literacy Online communication of knowledge. Edited by Thomas Mackey the written word, and are not addressed and Trudi Jacobson in a cohesive and coordinated enough way One problem at the institutional level. At the individual is that this hile this is a discussion of the level, the skills students possess are often input-output Thomas Mackey and Trudi overestimated by both students themselves, framework W Jacobson edited book, Teaching and by faculty and higher education is a chicken Information Literacy Online, I thought institutions as a whole (Ferguson, Neely and egg I’d start by divulging my somewhat biased & Sullivan 2006; Maughan, 2001; conundrum. perspective in approaching this book, as McGuiness, 2006). You can’t well as my ulterior motive for writing become Given this, I pose some questions to keep in this review. First: I’m a librarian here at knowledgeable mind as you read this review (or better yet, Empire State College. More specifically, I’m in a field of the book itself): assistant director for library instruction and study until information literacy. To shed some light on • What are the core skills students need you have the my perspective, here is a brief synopsis of in order to successfully interact with critical ability my instructional philosophy: information across a variety of media in to navigate Information can take many (some would their discipline and beyond? (and evaluate) that field’s always shifting information say infinite) forms: ideas, concepts, • Is the college doing enough to equip landscape. But it’s also very hard to critically conversations, text, what we see with our students with (or provide them navigate that landscape without having eyes or take in with our other senses or put motivation and opportunities to some foundational knowledge: terminology, out to the world around us by our actions; acquire) the lifelong skills needed to history and theory. what we think or even dream. All learning, master their area of study or otherwise formal or informal, consists of interacting achieve their learning goals? Combine this with the fast-evolving and with information in order to input existing myriad technological platforms that house • Are these skills being successfully knowledge and output new knowledge. In and are used to navigate and communicate carried over into the workplace order for learners to master their field of an exponentially growing and inter­ (or other areas of their lives) after study, they must first (or, more accurately, connected pile of information, and realistic students graduate? concurrently) learn how to effectively solutions to the set of questions I posed interact with information in a variety of • Can we do better in these areas? above become even murkier. forms as needs arise throughout the learning If so, how? and research processes. When students don’t In their book, Teaching Information know what questions to ask, they tend not Through the lens of an information literacy Literacy Online, editors Thomas Mackey to ask any questions at all. In other words, perspective, the mission of higher education and Trudi Jacobson (2011a), and the they must “learn how to learn,” which can be seen as that of stimulating or faculty-librarian author teams they have is where the importance of integrating enabling the interface between student and gathered together, attempt to tackle this information literacies into many different information. If effective, this interaction question from a variety of perspectives. The aspects of the college curriculum comes in. must be enabled in multiple directions book is organized into two parts based on (internal, external, via collaboration, the type of learning: 1. blended and hybrid; One of the major goals of my position is reflection, etc.). For any such interaction 2. open and online. It also methodically to stimulate a collegewide discussion on to be effective (to enable any kind of presents projects that run several different the place and necessary levels of student learning), students also must have the skills gamuts: from undergraduate to post­ information skills (or fluencies or literacies – to navigate and manipulate the inputs and graduate, from a single class assignment the specific term used is not as important to outputs of the human-information interface to an institutionwide program, and from me) at Empire State College. I would argue in all its forms: a casual faculty-librarian partnership to a

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 114 large, formal committee with additional • Shakespeare is Not a One-Shot Deal and how it might be adapted by others. It collaborators. In all, the editors have done a (University of Central Florida): a ends up stuffing unique projects that might very effective job of gathering an interesting wiki as platform for students to benefit from some creatively descriptive or and useful variety of contributions. collaboratively create their own topic presentation freedoms, into a formulaic, guides. Reflection and flexibility are encyclopedia-like structure. As I see it, the core of the book is based used to encourage students to “envision around four basic pedagogical assumptions Beyond that quibble, I found the book the larger context of the works being – assumptions that perhaps aren’t widely thought provoking from a theoretical studies” and “to make their own accepted, or at least practiced, in academia: perspective, powerful as a tool for the connections … ” (p. 7); promotion of information literacy, and • Information literacy is a necessary and • Framing Multiliteracies (University informative as a set of case studies. I found integral part of any learning; of Manchester): “a holistic course, some of the contributions (the examples • Explosions in available learning and designed and assessed in ways that of reusable learning objects, information information technologies and types of encourage students to identify and literate avatars and working outside the information require new or expanded connect their own individual context” org chart) less useful, too generic, or not information literacies or literacy that focuses on reflective learning and relevant to our own learning environment. frameworks, as well as new methods the impact of social media (p. 50); However, that response may speak more to help students acquire these skills to my own focus and the unique learning • Finding Your Fate (Morehead State (Mackey & Jacobson, 2011b); environment at Empire State College than to University): an approach that immerses the quality of those sections. • Constructivist frameworks need to be students in primary sources through expanded into the networked world “fate cards” utilizing multimedia In the remaining chapters, another uniting through increased interactivity and sources and role-playing activities to theme was that of learning context and connection making (“connectivism”) enable a personal connection to history; critical reflection. Just like the input- (Mackey & Jacobson, 2011a, p. xii); output model, context and reflection are • Supported Open Learning (The interdependent skills: if you can’t understand • Faculty-librarian collaboration is Open University): early librarian the context of any piece of information, one of the best available tools for involvement in curriculum design you cannot reflect on what that information accomplishing the first three points. to effectively integrate information means for your larger learning/research literacy and maintain fluency over Most of the eight projects documented in need. If you don’t know how to critically time in an evidence-based social this book offer, to varying degrees, viable reflect on something, you are unlikely work degree program; jumping off points for how Empire State to be able to understand the context(s), College (or any college or university) might • Information Literacy by Design which helps to define what that something explore ways to more effectively tackle the (University of Connecticut): the use of is and how it relates to you or to your problem of student information literacy a Resource-Enriched Learning Model information need. levels. The central theme of all these projects for course development, which aims to Sadly, attaining adequate information is leveraging the complementary skill sets “provide students with the ability to literacy levels, such as those discussed of faculty and librarians through increased master processes rather than outcomes. above, are a struggle everywhere. Here collaboration. In every case, early and The distinction is that the former can at Empire State College, I believe skills collaborative involvement of a librarian in be repeated and replicated in other among our current and even some of our the learning development process is stated classes to foster new learning and can graduating students are lower than they as a necessity for seamlessly integrating be applied in the workplace to truly should be for several reasons. First, it information literacy into the learning. fulfill the goal of lifelong learning in a has been well documented that this is a substantive way” (p. 151). Don’t take this description, however, as continuing issue throughout secondary and meaning the book is for librarians only. Each chapter is organized according to a higher education and that it impacts not In fact, I would say the target audience common template, which highlights related only student achievement, job acquisition is primarily faculty and administrators, literature, institutional and interdisciplinary and lifelong learning, but also student the ones in the trenches designing courses contexts, the faculty-librarian collaborative retention (Blackburn 2010; University of and curriculum where the collaboration relationship, and project description Washington Information School, n.d.). Also, of librarians and instructional designers sections (planning, learning model, impact I see firsthand, day after day (on the library can result in the highest return on the on student learning, and assessment). This reference desk for the last eight years, on the learning investment. rigid organization serves as an efficient Information Management GEAR [General tool to place each project into the larger Education Assessment Review] team, and Here’s a brief summary of the projects context of information literacy. However, in the workshops I give every term), how I found most useful: it also constricts some of the author teams students struggle with so many aspects from more effectively presenting the work of their learning, especially the parts that

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 115 involve doing research. These struggles Mackey, T. P., & Jacobson, T. E. (2011a). occur all along the research-writing process: Teaching information literacy from interpreting assignment instructions online. New York, NY: Neal- and finding a viable topic, to finding and Schuman Publishers. critically reading and evaluating academic- Mackey, T. P., & Jacobson, T. E. (2011b, level sources, to knowing how to quote and January). Reframing Information paraphrase and properly cite the sources Literacy as a Metaliteracy. College used, to synthesizing information and using & Research Libraries, 72(1), 62-78. relevant sources to back up ideas. Retrieved from http://crl.acrl.org/ The college does provide some scattered content/72/1/62.abstract?sid=7ef7ea99­ opportunities and support services for 0979-44b4-968b-7acf2682576c students to gain these needed skills, starting Maughan, P. D. (2001). Assessing most importantly with individual mentors information literacy among who work with students and design undergraduates: A discussion of assignments that provide scaffolded support the literature and the University for students as they delve into the research of California-Berkeley assessment process. In addition, directors of academic experience. College & Research support, librarians, and other support Libraries, 62(1), 71-85. Retrieved from personnel around the college offer various http://crl.acrl.org/content/62/1/71. services and resources that chip away at the abstract?sid=c93b42b0-afd4-428a­ edges of this issue. Unfortunately, however, 94e0-17d6b50f7f49 none of these learning opportunities reach all students who need them (or more than McGuinness, C. (2006). What faculty a small percentage of them, I fear), nor think–Exploring the barriers to always when they need it. A short session information literacy development in by a librarian, faculty member or DAS at an undergraduate education. The Journal all-day residency or in consultation for two of Academic Librarianship, 32(6), or three assignments scattered among the 573-582. Retrieved from http://www. totality of a students’ career, unfortunately, sciencedirect.com.library.esc.edu/ may not be enough. science/article/pii/S0099133306001066

The ideal, of course, is to create diverse, SUNY Empire State College Center sustainable, scaffolded, and coordinated for Planning and Institutional learning opportunities that reinforce Effectiveness. (2005). Information information skills throughout each student’s management rubric. Retrieved from academic career. Taken as a whole, this http://www8.esc.edu/ESConline/ book offers a varied tool box of ways that Across_ESC/InstResearch.nsf/ this ideal might become a reality. db1a77fb2f6bcf2085256bfa005466b0/ fd6102f975ba5f3b85256fc7005d9f27? References OpenDocument Blackburn, H. (2010). Shhh! No talking University of Washington Information about retention in the library! School. (n.d.). Project information Education Libraries, 33(1), 24-30. literacy: A large-scale study about Retrieved from http://library.esc.edu/ early adults and their research habits. login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/ Retrieved from http://projectinfolit.org/ login.aspx?direct=true&db=lih&AN=5 5737368&site=ehost-live

Ferguson, J. E., Neely, T. Y., & Sullivan, K. (2006). A baseline information literacy assessment of biology students. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 46(2), 61-71. Retrieved from http://www.rusq.org/wp-content/ uploads/2007/winter06/ferguson_ feature.pdf

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Race … RACE … RACE

Nancy Kymn Rutigliano, School for Graduate Studies

A Review of: No one wants to talk about racism. In academic environments we talk The Handbook of Race about cultural diversity, ethnicity, and Adult Education multiculturalism and inclusivity. Edited by Vanessa Sheared, Juanita Situations, policies and even people Johnson-Bailey, Scipio A. J. Colin are either culturally sensitive or III, Elizabeth Peterson, Stephen D. culturally inappropriate. We pat Brookfield and Associates ourselves on the back for politically correct, culturally responsive support t says something – something – that the programs … But why do we need them United States president is a biracial man in the first place? What are they born I who identifies as black and is largely of? What is the real problem? No one perceived by the world as black, that the wants to talk about race. racism-exposing motion picture The Help is gaining top honors in the film industry, and What is missing from today’s university that interracial marriages are at an all-time environment is heart, and without high (Wang, 2012). This agreement that racism still exists the heart the brain can’t function. becomes both the saber and scalpel On a spiritual level our students are All this – and more – says something the authors and contributors wield to exhausted, our universities bereft. It is about race in this country, but what is penetrate denial, unearth falsehoods, to the heart that indigenous pedagogies that something? expose complicity and bring to light new speak, bringing a unique voice to our The Handbook for Race and Adult strategies for combatting racism. Although educational world. (p. 91) “adult education” is in the title, this book Education (2010) is what its subtitle says: This section of the book concludes with is applicable far beyond our educational A Resource for Dialogue on Racism. The a reflective essay by the primary authors world. It can serve as a basis for authentic editors and 27 contributing authors take who make this powerful statement: “Race discussion in organizations and enterprises, readers deep into that “something” that reflects who we are and racism reflects acts professional associations, religious needs to be, wants to be, and must be voiced of negation, denial and aggression against institutions as well as in coffee shops, about race today. a people because of the color of their skins beauty and barber shops, and nearly or the sound of their voices. Understanding As Phyllis M. Cunningham, distinguished every arena of life. teaching professor emeritus, Northern the difference between the two means that Illinois University, writes in the Foreword: Skillfully organized, The Handbook on we acknowledge that race and racism are Race and Adult Education has four major not either/or; they are both/and” (p. 99). Many people today believe we have parts. Part One, “The Myth Versus the This becomes the prelude to Part Two, moved beyond racism, pointing to Reality,” includes raw, sometimes gut- “Problematizing ‘Whiteness,’ Supremacy, the major achievement in electing wrenching stories from contributing and Privilege: Their Impact on Race.” an African-American president. And representatives of Native America, African Provocative voices of both white and though we have indeed come a long America, Chicana America, feminism nonwhite authors make the case in this way since the civil rights struggles of and Maori New Zealand. In her chapter section that “whiteness is still widely taken the 1960s, the sociopolitical and the “Transforming Teaching and Learning: for granted and thus remains invisible” personal structures of racism have Teaching Race,” Nichole Ray presents the as an issue to be confronted; addressing become so entrenched over the years struggles and importance of building a “whiteness” is essential if racism is ever that they continue to resist destruction. “safe space” for herself and her students to be eradicated (p. xxvi). Doug Paxton, to nurture authentic expression of ideas, Therefore, agreeing that racism is still a white male, writes, “Engaging in a beliefs, and opinions instead of simply with us, the authors set out to offer an dialogue about race is not just an exercise didactic conversations. Leslay Ngatai builds opportunity to engage in a discourse on in white shame and guilt. A dialogue on on Ray’s chapter with her own, “Who is race and racism and provide strategies race can help us heal our humanity and this Cowboy? Challenging the Cultural for dealing with the issues in practice. relationship with the world … we must (p. xxvi) Gatekeepers.” She writes:

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 117 come to understand the paradigmatic water us as mentors, educators, professors and The Epilogue addresses the wide-ranging in which we swim” (p. 130). The authors of facilitators of adult education, this section implications for curriculum, programming Chapter 9, “White on White” present their offers approaches in educational practice to and research. Four paradigms, one presented dialogic practice called “critical humility” combat racism. The contributors, a diverse by each of the primary authors, are offered that fosters open communication about group of scholars and education activists, for further exploration. “Africentrism difficult issues. challenge adult educators to examine their in Practice” is presented as a mode of own racial identity and to critically reflect inquiry that challenges racial assumptions Critical humility embodies a delicate on how it shapes their pedagogy. The especially deeply-embedded beliefs about the and demanding balance of speaking contributors’ soul-baring experiences of nature, intellect and capabilities of African out for social justice while at the multifaceted racism build the case that, as people. A thought-provoking Africentric same time remaining aware that our Gandhi said, “You must be the change you Scholars Credo is offered. “Womanist knowledge is partial and evolving. … want to see in the world.” in Practice: Giving Voice” is introduced We hold the assumption that we who as a framework educators may use to benefit from white skin privilege have In addition, this section of the Handbook move the discourse in their classrooms the responsibility to confront racism in on Race and Adult Education gives toward a more democratically and just ourselves and in society. We also feel credence to Elana Michelson’s 2011 article, learning environment in all dimensions, that white people need to find ways “Autobiography and Selfhood in the Practice including race, gender, class and language. to engage questions about race with of Adult Education,” in which she builds a “Black Feminism in Practice” involves one another. Rather than relying solely case for that which jars introspection and transformational learning through dialogue on people of color to inform us about self-awareness and for the importance of life that instructs behavior, gives voice and racism, we need to accept responsibility narratives as a tool for engagement: encourages risk. Libratory pedagogy, for and direct our own learning about For many reasons, the writing of life as informed by Freire’s (1972) critical racism as well. (pp. 146-147) narratives is likely to remain central pedagogy, suggests that instructors should The case for “critical humility” fuels Part to the practice of adult learning. They claim their authority and share power in Three of the book. More theoretical than are important and effective in multiple a manner that does not mirror the power the other sections, it is a treatise on Critical ways. There must, however, be room structures of society. “Recognizing and Race Theory and answers the question, “Is in our practices for narratives that are Challenging White Supremacy” makes the it possible to end racism?” affirmatively. jarring, unsatisfying, and/or structurally case that white epistemology still dominates Critical Race Theory, whose genesis came and emotionally jagged. … [W]e must the field of adult education and should be from the legal field in the mid-1970s, treats allow stories that acknowledge how a challenged. A common thread connecting race as a social construct, dissects racial life can be messed up in ways that are the authors in this section is this: “With reform efforts, and offers educators and not only apparent, or how an attempt obtaining a greater sense of understanding activists a lens through which to understand to break away from the constraints of comes a sense of responsibility that all of us racism and what is needed to loosen the the past is only partially successful, as I must engage” (p. 331). stranglehold it still has on society. Its two believe it always is. (p. 18) Throughout this book, while there is a call primary tenets are that: (1) the nature of Part Five, “Individual and Collective to “reimagine” a world where racism is race and racism is ever-changing; and that Responses to Race and Racism,” includes absent, what is fervently argued for is the (2) racism is not necessarily the product the primary authors’ reflective conversations need to confront the person in the mirror – of biased actions but can be the artifact of what they have learned through their one’s own thinking, behaviors, assumptions of seemingly liberal, neutral, or normed work on this book. They make the and actions – and to work diligently to rules and actions (p. 168). The authors of compelling case that “having a leg up ferret out any “somethings” that keep this part of the book present compelling, and an opportunity to work hard is not racism intact. sometimes opposing, viewpoints on CRT as something that all people are afforded. In a tool for positive change. Mary Alfred in part, we believe that racism has played References Chapter Twelve offers CRT for introspection and continues to play a significant role in and asks people of color as well as whites Freire, P. (1972). Pedagogy of the oppressed whether a person or a people can believe this question: “Are you part of the problem (M. B. Ramos, Trans.). New York, NY: in life chances and finding opportunities” or part of the solution?” She suggests that Herder & Herder. (p. 336). Each author in this section writes “any campaign to end racism must also of ways in which racism occurred in her or Michelson, E. (2011, February). involve the insiders who operate in disguise” his life or was perpetuated by something Autobiography and selfhood in the (p. 170). he or she did. The oftentimes slow process practice of adult education. Adult The suggested approach of Socratic of overcoming the impact of these acts can Educational Quarterly, 61(1), 3-21. inquiry and dialogue leads into Part lead to new ways to approach what, for Sheared, V., Johnson-Bailey, J., Colin III, Four, “Reframing the Field Through the many, has become a stalled and draining S. A. J., Peterson, E., Brookfield, S. Lens of Race.” Of particular interest to conversation to be avoided vociferously. D., & Associates (Eds.). (2010). The

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handbook of race and adult education: A resource for dialogue on racism. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Wang, W. (2012, February 16). The rise of intermarriage: Rates, characteristics vary by race and gender. Retrieved from Pew Research Center website: http:// www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/02/16/ the-rise-of-intermarriage/

“Compassion and love are not mere luxuries. As the source both of inner and external peace, they are fundamental to [our survival]. Moreover, they are the very thing that gives meaning to our activities and makes them constructive. There is nothing amazing about being highly educated; there is nothing amazing about being rich. Only when … we establish understanding between ourselves and others … do these attributes become worthwhile.”

– H.H. the Dalai Lama, Ethics for the New Millennium, New York: Riverhead Books, 1999, pp. 130-131

Thanks to Lynne Wiley, Genesee Valley Center, for suggesting this quote.

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Managing and Mentoring in Lean Times

Christopher A. Whann, Metropolitan Center

A Review of: failure to recruit and manage talent can have The Fall of the Faculty: long term consequences. The Rise of the All-Administrative Better budget University and Why It Matters management can help, By Benjamin Ginsberg but short-sighted budget management can dig Good Strategy, Bad Strategy: holes too deep to escape. The Difference and Why It Matters Some recent works By Richard P. Rumelt address elements of hese are hard times at colleges – the challenges we face publics and privates, for-profits in higher education. T and nonprofits. The pressures Richard Rumelt’s Good of demographic busts, financial crises Strategy, Bad Strategy and budgetary exigencies have created or (2011) focuses on the of upper administration, faculty members exacerbated myriad challenges for faculty critical action elements of strategy formation are often seen more as creators of problems and administrators around the United and implementation. He warns us against than solutions to them. States. In our roles as leaders, managers strategic planning processes or plans that fail Large organizations need strategies. and mentors, we are under internal and to address essential organizational change. Sometimes strategies are implicit. Choices external pressures to do more with less. Benjamin Ginsberg’s The Fall of the Faculty are made to conduct “business as We have obligations to our students, our (2011) is a polemical commentary about usual.” In flush times, that may not be colleagues and ourselves in our personal the rising number, proportion and growing an obvious problem. In lean times like and professional lives. We must provide relative power of nonfaculty members these, unexamined choices are profoundly ever more services to ensure that students at colleges, changes that do not serve, or dangerous. Creating strategic plans can be can meet our high expectations for them actively threaten, the core mission of higher a useful way to focus one’s choices, if they while we have fewer resources to distribute education. Rumelt’s book was short-listed involve genuine choices to be evaluated. among them. by the Financial Times as “Best Business Book of the Year” for 2011; Ginsberg’s So where does strategy come from? Why Mentoring and teaching can be very labor book has received wide coverage in the has it become such a hot theme? Leaders intensive processes when done well. Because educational press. of every big company or organization seem they are labor intensive, they take a lot of to talk all the time about the strategies time and money to sustain. In lean times, Most colleges are not “for-profit” businesses they have, or the “strategic visions” they when resources are hard to come by, it (save the colleges like Apollo Group-owned have, or the strategies they are developing is especially urgent to monitor where the University of Phoenix), but they are not or implementing. Many people have the resources are going so they are not diverted meant to be “for-loss” either. Large complex mistaken impression that strategy is a new from the important tasks of mentoring and organizations, no matter what their tax idea from business. That is not so. Strategy teaching that are before us. Members of statuses, also can share similar problems is an old topic for those who were trained the college community need to engage in and challenges. For at least two decades, in history (think Thucydides’ 2,500 year a process of clear headed analysis of the the shrinking pot of taxpayer support for old History of the Peloponnesian War), situation we are in, and diagnose ways to public university systems means that colleges or international relations (think Carl von optimize the allocation of resources to serve operate within stricter fiscal parameters Clausewitz’s almost 200-year-old On War) the institution’s mission. than they once had to. As such, old ways of running things are no longer adequate, or economics (think Nobel Prize-winning Strategic plans can help. They also can especially from the outside perspectives of Thomas Schelling’s Strategy of Conflict harm. They can sharpen our focus or they boards of trustees, state legislators, voters from the 1960s). In business, strategy as can distract us from making genuinely and the media. From the inside perspectives a discipline or planning tool is actually hard choices in times of real scarcity. Better newer than those older sources, but it does talent management can help, but the build on those much earlier notions. Walter

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Kiechel (2010), in his important work The always the same: discovering the critical inoffensiveness over hard choices are never Lords of Strategy, lays out the evolution factors in a situation and designing good. In lean times like these, they are of strategy as a common tool in business. a way of coordinating and focusing truly dangerous. Dating from the 1970s, consulting firms like actions to deal with those factors. A Bad strategy is pretty easy to identify. McKinsey and Company, Boston Consulting leader’s most important responsibility Rumelt (2011) tells us to look for four Group and Bain and Company, and faculty is identifying the biggest challenges hallmarks, which one does not need any members like Michael Porter at the Harvard to forward progress and devising a special expertise to find: fluff; the failure Business School have led the rigorous coherent approach to overcoming them. to face the challenge; mistaking goals for development of strategic thinking as a tool In contexts ranging from corporate strategy, and bad strategic objectives for companies to sharpen their focus and direction to national security, strategy (Loc. 735-740). compete more effectively in the marketplace. matters. Yet as we have become so There are multiple schools of thinking about accustomed to strategy as exhortation Admittedly, a college (save for-profits) strategy. The consulting firms developed that we hardly blink an eye when a is not a business. It is, however, a large ideas in strategy as ways to clarify planning leader spouts slogans and announces complex organization or conglomerate for their corporate clients, but strategy high-sounding goals, calling the mixture of organizations – like a university quickly moved into top-tier business schools a “strategy.” (Loc. 166-177) system – that operates in a competitive and has become a standard capstone course environment. Leaders have to look at Leaders with a strategy must identify in most schools – whether it is called by the internal operations, structures and challenges and map out an approach to the more general names of business policy processes of an organization, as well as address them. Too many leaders fail to do or strategic management, or applied to at the external environment in which it so. Rumelt (2011) says many leaders: particular business subfields like marketing functions. Obviously, a college must have a strategy, entrepreneurial strategy or … say they have a strategy, but they do core mission, which identifies the students global strategy. not. Instead, they espouse what I call it serves and the relationship of the college bad strategy. Bad strategy tends to skip to the larger world in which it operates. Porter, rightly, is among the most famous over pesky details such as problems. But choices must always be made. Teaching scholars and consultants in the field. Richard It ignores the power of choice and colleges have faculty members who do Rumelt, at the UCLA Anderson School of focus, trying instead to accommodate research, and research universities have a Business, is in the top tier of the field as a multitude of conflicting demands teaching faculty, but one type of institution well. Porter was trained in engineering and and interests … bad strategy covers is not likely to morph into the other. That then in industrial economics; Rumelt was an up its failure to guide by embracing involves choice. engineer before migrating into business. the language of broad goals, ambition, Goals are crucial to success, but they are not Rumelt’s Good Strategy, Bad Strategy (2011) vision, and values. Each of them is, of a substitute for strategy, as Rumelt (2011) is a signal contribution to the field. Strategy, course, an important part of human states. Small organizational units can have ultimately, is about choice. Consider this life. But, by themselves, they are goals and can even have strategies, but the point he makes after explaining why Lord not substitutes for the hard work of overarching organization should have a Nelson’s British navy won the Battle of strategy. The gap between good strategy clear way to distinguish among competing Trafalgar against larger and ostensibly and the jumble of things people label priorities and make sense that the multiple superior French and Spanish forces: “strategy” has grown over the years. goals do not conflict with each other. The (Loc. 211-22) Good strategy almost always looks this more decentralized an organization, the simple and obvious and does not take For a strategy to be “good,” it should more likely conflicts will happen because a thick deck of PowerPoint slides to have a kernel of three things – a diagnosis, more organization units mean more places explain. It does not pop out of some a guiding policy and a coherent action for managers to have to negotiate with “strategic management” tool, matrix, (Rumelt, 2011, Loc. 252-265). Without each other and compete for the same pot of chart, triangle or fill-in-the-blanks these elements, it is by definition bad. Bad resources. This is a simple math point, not scheme. Instead, a talented leader strategy is not some innocuous thing. It really an arguable philosophical proposition. identifies one or two critical issues in can misdirect energy and resources and In lean times, as resources dwindle, the the situation – the pivot points that can waste valuable time. Rumelt reminds us gentle frictions among competing goals multiply the effectiveness of effort – that strategy is not just setting goals and become more pronounced. My group’s goals and then focuses and concentrates trying not to offend people; it is problem and your group’s goals may create structural action and resources on them. Despite solving (Loc. 269-273). Choices are difficult; and procedural tensions. In times of genuine the roar of voices wanting to equate making people happy or being inoffensive is budgetary crisis, these can be extremely strategy with ambition, leadership, easier than making them angry by doing the pronouced. Good strategies have the “vision,” planning, or the economic right thing. But the end results of choosing potential to force a debate about the choices logic of competition, strategy is none among goals and clarify an organization’s of these. The core of strategy work is

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 121 direction. Bad strategies can do the opposite, (Loc. 789). Moreover, given the short time credentials – who often have held faculty hence Rumelt’s call to understand the in office of many presidents and senior lines and have teaching talent – are essential differences between them. administrators before they are off to their to help promote student success. next jobs at other colleges, much of their I love a good screed as much as anyone. Insofar as students at any college or time at their current institutions can be I think that Benjamin Ginsberg’s book university deserve to leave with the best spent planning (Loc. 788-76). Even when The Fall of the Faculty (2011) meets my education we can provide, the debate about plans do get completed, Ginsberg notes that standard. The gist of his argument is this: where best to place resources to meet our too many of them are surprisingly “cookie­ Colleges and universities are meant to be mission and fulfill our vision is the most cutter” in their style and content, in spite of educational institutions first and foremost. important debate we have. As a mentor all the months and person-hours invested in The purpose of faculty governance is to preparing them. He notes a couple of cases ensure that those people most reponsible for in which large parts of university plans were “delivering” learning are responsible and copied from other college’s plans (Loc. 824). accountable for the decisions that involve Insofar as students at the educational mission of the college. Ginsberg does have some legitimate Regrettably, Ginsberg indicates, the loci of questions about whether strategic plans any college or university power and authority have shifted away from provide the sort of meaningful direction for deserve to leave with faculty and from the faculty governance academic excellence that leaders purport process. Decision making about academic they do, or whether they are designed to the best education we matters, which were traditionally the employ more administrators or provide can provide, the debate purview of the faculty, has moved to a larger cover for exisiting ones to expand their and rapidly growing cadre of professional power relative to the faculty who actually about where best to administrators who do not really come from educate the students. place resources to meet the ranks of the traditional faculty, who I happen to agree with Ginsberg on that plan administration as their career apart our mission and fulfill point. On other points, I strongly disagree. from teaching and research, and who have In one area, I think he says things that are our vision is the most usually not spent enough time teaching fundamentally misleading. For example, (or have taught badly) so that they do not important debate we there is little doubt that the number of comprehend or consciously misrepresent full-time administrators has risen both have. the core values of the institutions within absolutely and relatively at most colleges. which they work. Ginsberg observes: “For There is little doubt that the proportion of many of these career managers, promoting full-time faculty has declined relative to that teaching and research is less important at SUNY Empire State College, I am of contingent faculty at many institutions; than expanding their own administrative committed to finding the best way to get certainly the absolute number of contingent domains. Under their supervision, the means my mentees what they need. At times when faculty has risen. Many employees at have become the end” (Loc. 69). the college was better funded, I am sure colleges duplicate services while gaps remain that was easier to make happen. In times Administrators, especially at the most senior in what needs to be done (no matter what like these, every dollar spent on an objective levels (presidents, provosts, vice presidents the task). other than this is one less (or more than one and deans) also need to place their “stamp” My biggest disagreement with Ginsberg is less) dollar available to help my student to on the organizations they manage and lead. that he does not discriminate among “types” get a good education. In all honesty, I care The most popular way to do this is to devise or categories of administrators – those who less about whether that money is placed on a new “strategy” or “strategic vision.” deal directly with students’ learning and a faculty line or on an administrative line, Everyone who has ever worked in higher those who do not. All administrators are not and more about whether that money goes education in the last 20 years has seen at created equal; some add value, while others to a person who directly serves a student least one strategic plan, and often several. do not (we all have met those in both camps to accomplish that essential goal as distinct New administration, new plan – it’s almost over our careers). Some administrative from money for a person who moves paper like clockwork. “The college president’s first positions are designed to plug holes in or email, or conducts surveillance over commandment seems to be, ‘Thou shalt otherwise dysfunctional organizations, others. I’d rather see a professional employee have no other plan before mine’” (Ginsberg, while others have responsibilities that are teach a student how better to write a paper 2011, Loc. 756). genuinely essential to serve new functions than see one who never connects with Ginsberg (2011) observes that plans serve in 21st century universities. Given the often students. This isn’t saying that there aren’t three main purposes; New plans show who problematic preparation many students things to be done of value, but it is to say is in charge (Loc. 769); They are a form have when they arrive in college or transfer that scarcity forces choices to be made, and of co-optation of faculty and staff (Loc. with from one college to another, many strategy should help us understand, make 777); They serve as a substitute for action nonfaculty members who have distinguished and implement those choices.

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Ginsberg does not address one point that If this is true about the executive and good strategy will solve all the problems, I think would make his argument, overall, legislative branches of the U.S. government, but there is an absolute guarantee that much stronger; since he and I are both why should we expect more or less from a bad one can make things worse. In fat trained as political scientists, I am actually a university administration in its dealings times, spending money on expanding surprised he did not address this effectively. with “the faculty.” Faculty committees administration that doesn’t serve the mission To my mind (and supported by legions can slow down processes; they can debate is not so much an issue. In lean times, it of political scientists whose work I have ad nauseam policies the administration draws away from the genuine needs of encountered), there is a chronic tension in want to implement; they can complain and students. Whether we believe in planning or decision making between organized and resolve and petition forever – but they can not, we should all remember, as mentors, centralized groups with small numbers of rarely stop things from happening that that our students’ needs should come before decision makers, and groups of decentralized they do not like. Once leaders of academic our administrators’ wants. groups with large numbers of decision administration want to move in a direction, makers. Decentralized groups can obstruct one should not be surprised that they References or slow things down, but they are not very usually get their way. Ginsberg, B. (2011). The fall of the faculty: effective when they try to direct. Centralized In some ways, this makes the matter The rise of the all-administrative groups can make plans, take decisons and of strategy even more important and university and why it matters implement them much better. This is not a the dangers of bad strategy even more (Kindle ed.). New York, NY: complex point, and one doesn’t have to have troublesome. I suspect that some of the Oxford University Press. read Mancur Olson’s Logic of Collective “bad strategy” we have all encountered Action (1971) to figure it out. Anyone who Kiechel, W. (2010). The lords of strategy: in multiple corporations, governments has opened the newspaper and read an The secret intellectual history of and colleges is exacerbated because article about the Cold War, Vietnam or the the new corporate world. Boston, leaders decide to mollify the competing Obama administration’s latest battle with MA: Harvard Business Press. constituencies on issues they individually Congress over the debt ceiling or health care about, rather than cutting to the core Olson, M. (1971). Logic of collective care can see that the White House is better of the issues, diagnosing the problems and action: Public goods and the theory positioned to develop a budget, propose producing fluff-free language to implement of groups. Cambridge, MA: Harvard a law, and implement a policy than is a solutions that might actually work. University Press. legislative branch with two houses, 535 members and committees fighting over or In lean times, strategy is much more critical Rumelt, R. P. (2011). Good strategy, bad sharing jurisdiction on the most pressing than in fat times. Bad strategies can do in strategy: The difference and why it matters of the day. any organization, but it will happen faster matters (Kindle ed.). New York, NY: in lean times. There is no guarantee that a Crown Business.

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Remembering Moses Musoke

Colleagues from Empire State College

Our dear colleague, Moses Musoke, died on 01 July 2010. Moses, a highly respected and supremely kind mentor at the Hudson Valley Center in Business, Management and Economics for over 20 years, was born in Uganda where he did his B.A. in economics- history at Makerere University. Later, he earned an M.A. at SUNY Binghamton, an M.S. and Ph.D. in economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an MBA at Rutgers. Many across the college miss Moses’ wise counsel and deep care.

Kate Spector, School for Graduate Studies Moses was on the search committee responsible for inviting me into Empire State College in the Hudson Valley Center at Hartsdale. After I was hired, I recalled the scenario of my interview, and with many of the staff and faculty, would chuckle over my recollection and other conversations as we sat around the Hartsdale lunch table (aka the HVC training/mentoring room because it is where we learned so much about the college, the center and each other, and where these rich exchanges hopefully still continue today!).

The story went like this: During the interview, and after rounds of questions and pleasant exchanges between Dean Trullinger, Marie Tondreau, Joan Altman, Moses Musoke and me, Moses suddenly stood up. In his serious and melodic manner and shaking his head from Moses Musoke side to side, he stated “If you’re looking for an easy job, this is not the place for you! It is a busy place and you’ll work hard! I have come to understand he wasn’t Now if you will excuse me, I have another After I was hired, I asked Moses that responding to anything I had said, he meeting.” He extended his hand for a question and he laughed and said, “I was was describing himself: A busy man, departing handshake, and left quietly. telling you the truth, wasn’t I?” Over the years we worked together, and, out of working long hours, with always I was stunned and thought to myself: curiosity, I continued to ask Moses that another meeting to attend. “What did I say that made this guy think question; his reply was always the same. Rest in peace dear friend and I’m looking for an easy job?” esteemed colleague.

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Deborah A. Noble, Moses was quite a remarkable man. His Perhaps the thing I miss most about Moses Metropolitan Center intelligence, wit and thoughtfulness earned is his presence – the smiles he generously him the respect of all. When he spoke, shared, the light in his eyes, and even the I will always remember Dr. Moses Musoke people listened. He was often the voice of tone of his voice and the pattern of his for making me feel so welcome at Empire reason at center meetings. He had a calm, accent. By enlightening us about governance State College when I first met him back reassuring way about him that made people and UUP, or by the warmth he brought into in 2005. It was a pleasure to know and to feel safe. Moses was often the catalyst for a room, he created light in our lives. engage in discussions with him. His presence lunch time conversation, both philosophical is truly missed. and practical. People sought out Moses for Marie Tondreau, his camaraderie, advice and friendship. His Hudson Valley Center Leslie Ellis, Hudson Valley Center presence is still felt at the Hudson Valley Moses Musoke was a gentle and caring Center and he will always be missed by the Moses – along with Jay Gilbert, Terri colleague, always concerned about the people who knew and loved him. Carter and I – occupied a group of offices welfare of others. Soon after I became off the beaten track at HVC for almost 20 a full-time, tenure-track mentor, Moses Wendy Chabon, years. Moses and I shared students and suggested that I might replace him on the Hudson Valley Center ideas. He would mentor the accounting and Affirmative Action Committee, and spent finance students, and I the management and It was a privilege for me to know and work time explaining the value of such service policy students. We wrote the first set of with Moses at the Hudson Valley Center. to me. I was invited to serve after his BME rubrics with Joe Angiello. We talked His picture is up on my bulletin board, and recommendation, and was very grateful for governance with Marianne. All of us in I look at it and smile to remind me of the that experience and the way he “mentored” Hartsdale ate lunch together. We debated gentle, kind, compassionate and caring man me into it. politics, argued over degree programs, he was. He is sorely missed. shared text books and discussed our I remember one time he called me at home on the weekend – I was watching a golf families. He was my friend. After he passed, Anna Bates, Hudson Valley Center one of his students told me that he would tournament on TV and he joined me in work with her, no matter how late at night, The thing I will remember most about discussing the action for a while, which to make sure she understood what she was Moses Musoke was his leadership during was an unexpected pleasure – so that he studying. He would miss his dinner to help the two years he served as faculty chair of could offer his advice (“as your colleague, her and she was grateful. He was that kind the Hudson Valley Center. Moses was a true professor”) on how I might improve my of mentor, that kind of person and that kind colleague. He understood us, advocated reappointment portfolio. I was touched of friend. This group of offices will never be for us, and most of all loved us. He had by his generosity of spirit, taking the time the same. tremendous institutional savvy, and he to reach out and help someone else, after loved our college. To have a person with hours, motivated by nothing more than a Joan Altman, Hudson Valley Center those skills, and collaborative spirit, was a desire to see someone else shine. I miss true blessing. the distinctive sound of his voice. I miss It’s hard not to miss Moses. He was one the distinctive flavor of his presence. of the kindest people I’ve ever known. I Phillip Ortiz, Center for I miss Moses. never heard him say a negative thing about Distance Learning anyone. He was kind to everyone, even Oto Jones, Center for Moses was a very important part of the strangers. I remember the time he stopped Distance Learning his car outside the Hudson Valley Center, to college for me – he was more than a pick up papers strewn about Central Avenue colleague, he was a mentor. Many times we Please permit me to say a few words in that came from atop a car in front of him. sat in difficult meetings at senate or UUP memory of my dear friend, and well- A woman he did not know, who had no and his way was always gentle and kind, but respected colleague, Moses Musoke. affiliation with Empire State College, left a strong and firm. We would talk afterward, Although I did not work with him at the stack of papers on top of her car and drove and he never failed to teach me something same center, I considered him one of my off. Moses stopped and got out of his car that helped me better understand the issues close and trusted colleagues, in part because on a busy four-lane road, dodged traffic and make better decisions. I miss being able we were both members of the Diaspora. coming at him from both directions and to ask him questions, but even more, I miss Having arrived at Empire State College at gathered up all the papers. I remember him the way he would wait for a break in the roughly the same time in mid 1980s, we going through the papers, looking for a clue meeting and pull me aside so that he could both faced the challenges of learning the to track down the owner, finding her phone explain to me the aspects of the discussion art of mentoring and advising. We also number and eventually returning the papers that he felt that I needed to know. In a very happened to belong to the same area of to her. real way, he was my mentor, and he very study, BME, and from the beginning, I ably took me under his wing! I wish that I observed the leading role that he played had had more time to learn from him. in its deliberations and in the group’s

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 125 development. He never shied away from the frequent topic of conversation had to do and I would challenge of volunteering for many ongoing with retiring and our dreams for the future. respond, “Moses, Moses, how are you? and ad hoc committees, and with an easy I’m so sorry he didn’t realize his plans. Hello Moses. … ” going personality matched by an enviable In Nanuet, we were reminiscing about I do miss him and will always cherish level of honesty, he contributed to all the Moses, and what came to me was the memories of him major activities of our group, be they for memory of his presence – a beautiful and his legacy. Moses left behind his wife, internal matters like the ongoing revisions man with a gentleness about him, always children, grandchildren, of the AOS guidelines, or in preparation well dressed in an unassuming way, soft families, colleagues, friends and faculty for the perennial Middle States reviews. He spoken with a charming accent. Good at Empire State College. also was mindful of the needs of students to be around. Missed. He left his family with all of his love, and he volunteered on occasion to complete and the college independent studies for students that I had Dick Butler, Genesee Valley Center his academic teaching, stories and referred to him. academic journey Moses and I came to Empire State College He championed the idea of making the of working with students at Empire in 1985. Both of us were subsequently college more inclusive by helping to develop State College. recognized for 25 years of service. Moses the first symposium on diversity in the His work will never be untold at Empire served as mentor in Hartsdale, while I 1990s and in creating that affinity group a State College. served a variety of other centers. We became few years later. He was very proud of his Moses’ legacy will always continue through colleagues and friends primarily through status as a naturalized U.S. citizen, but he the eyes of others. our work in the BME area of study, and our also was determined to expose students to joint work as officers in our faculty union, I always looked up to him for other cultures. where Moses served as grievance officer. encouragement. He would always Perhaps the most enduring legacy of Moses Over 30 others have written elsewhere, ask me about my family and might be in the establishment of the first often movingly, about Moses’ kindness and gave me great advice. Africa Residency at Hudson Valley Center. approachability. His intellectual capability His advice on business and financial He led the drive of like-minded faculty to is amply attested to through earning four planning was the greatest. I will plan and execute the initial residency in academic degrees from three different always cherish 2010. Unfortunately, he never lived to plan universities. I especially valued Moses for the words he said to me: “Bess you or attend any future ones. However, we will his courage, evidenced in leaving Uganda are the greatest always remember his determination to make to engage a new culture and life in the U.S. of the greatest.” the world, through education, a better and Moses and I shared not only ideas and I will always remember Moses with great more informed place. I sorely miss my work related to improving BME, our union, love and appreciation. dear friend. and Empire State College, but our hopes for our families, and concerns for the well Joseph Angiello, School for Miriam Tatzel, Hudson Valley Center being of colleagues and the college. Over Graduate Studies the years, Moses became a valued colleague Moses was my friend. We were in different and friend, one whom I miss. Reflection In his first month at the college, Moses locations, but I got to hang out with him at on Moses’ service as an Empire State and I agreed to travel together to a college meetings like the All College Conference. He College mentor, and on Moses’ service as meeting. After waiting at a designated was such good company and easy to talk to. an influential companion – part of my own place for Moses to arrive, I was pretty sure We talked about the college, of course, and life’s journey – helps clarify those values that we on the search committee that had how we were faring. (Moses was politically I cherish. recommended his appointment had made astute and sometimes emailed HVC to a mistake, especially since Moses seemed gently chide us about one issue or another.) Bess Walker, Hudson Valley Center unaware that he was two hours late. I We talked about our homes. Moses was grumbled, swearing to myself that I would building his and had various frustrations, Moses Musoke was a great have little to do with him. Had I kept that and I am forever renovating mine. In time, mentor. Moses would always enter promise, I would have been the loser. Ed and I went to visit him and his wife, faculty meetings at Nanuet with Myrtle, to see this house I heard so much a great big smile and a great As it turned out, Moses served his students, about. I was floored by the magnificence of big welcoming spirit. his colleagues and the college steadfastly it. Everything was the highest quality and so As I reflect back on Moses’s and honorably for 25 years and came to be well thought out – the design, the materials, days at Nanuet, N.Y., respected for his intellect and his mentoring the decor. He was just finishing it when he I think of Moses entering the doors ways. But of greater importance are the died. He and I were the same age, and a at the unit enduring values that he embodied. Moses with thanksgiving and much happiness. was a friend. He always seemed busy, He would said, “Bess, how are you?” perhaps, because he was disorganized but,

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 126 certainly, because he always made time this time and age as it is strong. Moses loved Second and less well known is the fact that for the people around him. He cared and Uganda. As a result, he and I shared the joys we were both the oldest of 11 children, he showed it. He showed it by listening and concerns of news from East Africa; at although as I would often chide Moses, carefully and by remembering. Anyone who times wringing our hands, at other times, at that was hardly a similar experience since was with Moses was the only person in his least for me, lost in yearning for the unique he went to live with his grandmother life at that moment. He showed it by not qualities of African life – where for example, who needed him in her widowhood at an judging and personal concerns conveyed to the marking of time was and perhaps still is early age, and I was left with a passel of him remained with him. governed by human interaction rather than squawking, squalling younger siblings. a ticking clock. On my daily way to the Moses left Uganda for the U.S. for Moses had no illusions about his own good nursing school where I taught in Asmara, educational purposes, and I left the U.S. for fortune and had great empathy for those if I would meet someone I knew, it was Africa, also for educational purposes. who are less fortunate. He understood the imperative that I stop and ask about them, ways in which hidden agendas misguide And, of course, we shared a commitment as their family, etc. for a few minutes rather popular thinking and even the sciences in many do at our center to overturning social than show up exactly on time at the school the economic and political subjugation of injustices through education; that somehow or hospital. And this was true universally. many by the few. And yet, he was positive included staying late to see students. This Not one nurse ever complained when her and never lost hope that things could be was his service and it took untold time replacement was late – it was an accepted better. That hope was reflected in the causes and sacrifice not only from him, but also practice and everyone knew it – a taken-for­ that he supported. It was reflected in the from a family whom he loved above all. granted ritual of politeness. content of his teaching. It was reflected in For Empire State College, even before the his abiding view that people are capable of This is one of very many cultural practices current transition, functioned like a not-for­ growing and, in turn, capable of changing that are embedded early into human lives profit organization – long hours with less the world. It was reflected in his kindness as a consequence of repetition and precise than expected compensations. Moses and I and his gentleness. behavioral instruction to the young that were typically the last two mentors seeing makes us who we are and changes how one students at night in the past few years. The Perhaps, there is one more thing that needs perceives the world. While I only visited work was never done, wearing down a sense to be said. Given the opportunity to wait Uganda during my tour in the Peace Corps, of self efficacy. One night as we left around again for Moses, for two hours or for I imagine these sorts of cultural distinctions 9 p.m., Moses captured that experience with however long it might take for him to arrive, that make indelible identity marks formed a pithy, spontaneous and hilarious remark I would. the young Moses and informed his adult (although something is lost in the retelling, I life in spite of his incredible integration into am afraid). As we walked out the back door, American life. Something like that had to he stopped, shook his head and said, “The The following eulogy was given by our account for Moses’ unique unflappability. thing about this college is that it makes colleague, Marianne Arieux, Hudson Valley It always seemed very African – whereas I you feel bad about yourself.” I burst out Center, at a memorial honoring Moses on would rail against and suggest he should laughing in complete synchrony about the 12 July 2010. respond to some personal injustice, he impossibility of the work and the residual would recognized the injustice, but shrug it feeling of never being able to utter the sigh Moments of Moses off his shoulders. This was an integral part of work well done. Moses and I became colleagues just over of his being. It was because of our mutual In the past few years, as Moses and I were a decade ago, a relationship that was to love for a part of the world most people do the last mentors at Hartsdale versed in the morph into a deep friendship with mutual not think about and his unflappability, that original ways of educating at Empire State love and support for each other in the past I could march into his office sometime last College at Hartsdale, we became closer. several years, for which I will always be year concerned about some horrid injustice At differing times, we would comfort or grateful. Our connectedness was instigated from Uganda that had made news that strategize in response to the latest indignities in addition to believing in the unique kind of seemed so foreign to my understanding of and disregard for certain ideals. He education possible at Empire State College, the country. And he could come into my somehow just became my buddy, a willing by similarities not readily apparent. office another time to tell me about another partner in the strum and angst that was this yet unbroadcast famine in Ethiopia. It was Firstly, we shared a love of Africa, college for the past seven years. But Moses this kind of camaraderie that we shared. particularly East Africa. Moses was from and I were different in our approaches. Moses also was very generous and quite Uganda and I had been a Peace Corps While I typically advocated action, Moses understated. When we planned the Africa volunteer in Ethiopia, an experience that left would amaze me by somehow letting this or Residency, which happened a month or so an indelible mark on my life, my interests that run off his shoulders in what I believe before he passed, it became clear that there and my heart. Going to Africa as a young to be quintessentially Moses, or perhaps were not enough rooms available for all of woman, I fell solidly in love with the quintessentially African – a parsimony of the presentations, so Moses insisted he share country (East Africa and Ethiopia/Eritrea in his time with my presentation. particular), a love that is as unreasonable at

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 127 energy regarding fights not winnable, hence I recall with him capture both his intense out. My first thought was maybe his car is worth ignoring, although experiencing the concern for his children and the part of not shutting down and I need to tell him; pain nevertheless. his nature that will always be remembered but no, the keys were in the ignition. Then by me as delightfully enigmatic. In our I began to panic – did he go deeply into the Moses loved his family, and cherished his last conversation walking into the college trunk to get something and get locked in? students and friends. He was incredibly he voiced concern about his daughter, a But all the car doors were locked, so I could kind. I would watch him from my office performing artist, and how difficult it was to not open the front door to get the trunk several doors away, talking with students succeed in the arts, noticing how the many opened to check. I quickly decided that long into the evenings. When I would go who do, do so through family legacies. I thought was just too crazy! Not knowing in to ask a question, it was clear that the agreed, having read enough of those bios to what to do, I turned to go back into the student and he were deeply engaged in notice the same. That was Moses: he would college to look for him just as he came out talk about a degree plan or study or some not know where the closest gas station the door – not mugged, not in distress, but problem. This always surprised me since was, but he grasped how and why systems walking quickly toward his car. And I said Moses seemed such a contained person. worked for and against people. “the car is running” and he said “I know.” He silently wrung his hands at students’ Then opening the passenger door to get handing in assignments late, and evaluated Finally, later that week, I got into my car to in, he says something like, “Well I forgot them anyway. He quietly chomped at the leave for the day, and the light was still quite a paper and had to go back.” I still don’t bit occasionally at mentors asking for a last bright. As I pulled away from my parking understand, but the moment will always minute BME PLA, yet never said “no.” spot, I noticed Moses’ car parked, running be with me. Good bye my friend and thank without anyone in the driver’s seat. I looked As much as he was committed to his you for all your kindness, your patience, around, but he was nowhere to be found. work, it was his family that was always your love, and your surprises. I will miss Concerned, I pulled up next to it and got primary. The last few parking lot moments you terribly.

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Core Values of Empire State College (2005)

he core values of SUNY Empire We value learning-mentoring processes that: • recognizes that learning occurs in State College reflect the multiple communities, environments • emphasize dialogue and collaborative commitments of a dynamic, and relationships as well as in formal T approaches to study; participatory and experimenting institution academic settings; accessible and dedicated to the needs of • support critical exploration of • attracts, respects and is enriched a richly diverse adult student body. These knowledge and experience; by a wide range of people, ideas, values are woven into the decisions we • provide opportunities for perspectives and experiences. make about what we choose to do, how active, reflective and creative we carry out our work in all parts of the academic engagement. We value a learning-mentoring organization institution, and how we judge the outcome and culture that: We value learning-mentoring modes that: of our individual and collective efforts. • invites collaboration in the multiple More than a claim about what we have • respond to a wide array of contexts of our work; already attained, the core values support student styles, levels, interests our continuing inquiry about what learning and circumstances; • fosters innovation and experimentation; means and how it occurs. • foster self-direction, independence • develops structures and policies We value learning-mentoring goals that: and reflective inquiry; that encourage active participation of all constituents in decision- • respond to the academic, professional • provide opportunities for ongoing making processes; and personal needs of each student; questioning and revising; • advocates for the interests of adult • identify and build upon students’ • reflect innovation and research. learners in a variety of academic existing knowledge and skills; We value a learning-mentoring and civic forums. • sustain lifelong curiosity and community that: critical inquiry; • defines each member as a learner, • provide students with skills, insights encouraging and appreciating his/her and competencies that support distinctive contributions; successful college study.

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Submissions to All About Mentoring f you have a scholarly paper-in-progress or a talk that you have presented, All About Mentoring would welcome it. If you developed materials for your students that may be of good use to I others, or have a comment on any part of this issue, or on topics/concerns relevant to our mentoring community, please send them along. If you have a short story, poem, drawings, or photographs, or have reports on your reassignments and sabbaticals, All About Mentoring would like to include them in an upcoming issue. Send submissions to Alan Mandell (SUNY Empire State College, Metropolitan Center, 325 Hudson St., New York, NY 10013-1005) or via email at [email protected]. Submissions to All About Mentoring can be of varied length and take many forms. (Typically, materials are no longer than 7,500 words.) It is easiest if materials are sent via email to Mandell as WORD attachments. In terms of references and style, All About Mentoring uses APA rules (please see the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th ed. (Washington: APA, 2010) or http://image.mail.bfwpub.com/lib/feed1c737d6c03/m/1/BSM_ APA_update_2010.pdf).

All About Mentoring is published twice a year. Our next issue, #42, will be available in fall 2012. Please submit all materials by Sept. 1, 2012.

suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 41 • summer 2012 Issue 41 • Summer 2012

ALL ABOUT ALL A PUBLICATION OF SUNY EMPIRE STATE COLLEGE MENTORING

ALL ABOUT MENTORING Issue 41 • Summer 2012

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