Lawrence Today, Volume 78, Number 4, Summer 1998 Lawrence University
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Lawrence University Lux Alumni Magazines Communications Summer 1998 Lawrence Today, Volume 78, Number 4, Summer 1998 Lawrence University Follow this and additional works at: http://lux.lawrence.edu/alumni_magazines Part of the Liberal Studies Commons © Copyright is owned by the author of this document. Recommended Citation Lawrence University, "Lawrence Today, Volume 78, Number 4, Summer 1998" (1998). Alumni Magazines. Book 31. http://lux.lawrence.edu/alumni_magazines/31 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Communications at Lux. It has been accepted for inclusion in Alumni Magazines by an authorized administrator of Lux. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Lawrence T 0 0 A Y Editor Gordon E. Brown 920-832-6593 gordon.e. [email protected] Art director Marsha Tuchscherer Director of Public Affairs Steven Blodgett Associate Director of Public Affa i rs and News Service Manager Rick Peterson Graph ic designer Lisa Peterson Sports Information Director Michell e Burzinski Family Weekend- formerly Parents Weekend- at Production coordi nator Lawrence University offers a wide variety of activities for Debbie Gibbons family members of all ages, including siblings. Class Not es Writ er Dan Freiburg, '00 The Friday schedule affords parents an opporttmity to attend classes with their sons or daughters and enjoy an Address correspondence to: Lawrence Today, Lawrence Unjversity evening concert by Chanticleer, a professional vocal P.O . Box 599, Appleton, WI ensemble. 54912-0599 920-832-6586 Saturday morning, President Richard Warch will update Fax: 920-832-6783 parents regarding activities and programs on campus. Office of Alumni Relations The president and his staff will be available to respond (address as above) to questions in Riverview Lounge, Memorial Union. 920-832-6549 Following the president's remarks, parents will have the Fax: 920-832-6784 [email protected] opportunity to attend informational programs featuring http:/jww \¥. lawrence.edu students, faculty, and staff- including a simulation of Special thanks to Image Studios for Freshman Studies. Younger siblings will be treated to a providing photography for this issue. cartoon breakfast followed by a host of "fun" activities. Lawrence Today (USPS 012-683) is pub Older siblings will have an informative agenda focused li shed quarterl y in March, June, on college life and choices. September, and December by Lawrence Uni ve rsity, Office of Publi c Affairs, The Lawrence Vikings will host the Monmouth College Appleton, Wisconsin 54911. Second Fighting Scots in football on Saturday afternoon. class postage paid at Appleton, Wisconsin 54911. POSTMASTER: Send The Wind Ensemble and the Symphonic Band will address changes to Lawrence Today, present a Saturday evening concert. Siblings will have Lawrence U ni ve rsity, 115 South Drew Street, Appleton, WI 54911-5798. the opportunity to Trick-or-Treat their way through the residence halls. Articles are expressly the opini ons of the authors and do not necessaril y represent Sunday will offer a parent/student brunch that has been official unive rsity poli cy . We reserve the a traditional Lawrence family favorite. right to edit correspondence for length and accuracy . For more information, please contact the Family Lawrence U ni versity promotes equal Weekend Coordinator, Stacy Shrode, at 920-832-6556. opportunity for al l. SUMMER 1998 VOL. 78, NO. 4 FEATURES Transformations 9 Two views of change in post-communist countries Societal Transformation and Belarus Private Higher Education in Belarus 10 By David H. Swartz The Czech Republic: Ascendant- or Stuck? 12 By Mojmir Povolny Why We Are in Bosnia - And Should Have Been There Sooner 14 By Richard Holbrooke Fixing D.C. 18 An alumna takes on the capital's toughest job By Stephen J. Siegel, '89 Sudden Sensations 20 Lawrence quartet finds fame in four-part harmony Finding More Than a Tan on Spring Break 22 Students discover history in a Virginia park A New Rite of Passage? 23 Celebrating Freshman Studies On the cover: David H. Swartz, Lawrence's 1997-98 Stephen Edward DEPARTMENTS Scarff Memorial Visiting Professor (and author of the Correspondence 2 article on page 8), is the cen Inside Lawrence 3 ter of a lively discussion with (from left): Boyan Dimitrov, Sports 24 '98, from Bulgaria; Susan K. Alumni Today 27 Raddant, '99, from Appleton; and Maxim Popov, '98, from La·wrence Yesterday 44 Minsk, Belarus. CORRESPONDENCE Responses to President Richard Warch's essay, "Toughed-Minded or Thin-Skinned," which appeared in the Winter 1997 issue of Lawrence Today. Dear President Warch: Retrospective consideration of my spiritual experiences available Congratulations for arguing that we life as a Lawrentian, in light of your through courses and the local reli need to be more thick-skinned in essay, leads me to question whether gious community -just to touch our academic conversations and or not a true and meaningful liberal the surface. more willing to be critical of each education might not have room for Thank you for challenging me other's ideas. Although your mes a dialectical style of student-profes to think a bit about my experience sage is right on the money, I felt sor engagement in which both pro in and witl1 the liberating arts and obliged to honor the spirit and find fessor and student come away from how those four years have dictated something critical to say. Al as, I an interaction pondering, wonder in many respects the character of the failed. ing, feeling challenged, and seeking years of my life since then. John Strassburger truth and meaning. Would not that Hollace G. Roberts, '33 President interactive style be an appropriate Green Valley, Arizona Ursinus College aspect of the implicit "educational Collegeville, Pennsylvania compact"? The notion of civility when engaged You write: "Every faculty mem in constructive debate and disagree Professor Robert Waite would write ber shares an obligation to promote ment struck home based on a cur in red ink two inches high on your students' learning by posing tough rent discussion we are having witl1in essay in Lawrence Today: "Great." questions about important, sensi my company. We have a tendency in Walter B. Wriston tive, even controversial and con our culture not to want to offend or New York, New York tentious topics in the spirit of free challenge people, and this often inquiry and open exchange." I won means that it takes us forever to get Your central theme- being chal der if students might not be granted to the root causes of issues. Taking lenged to learn by some stress - the privilege (and accept the respon your advice, we, as a company, need needs to be said often. [The exam sibility) of doing the same thing for to get a little more tl1ick-skinned. ples you gave] are demonstrative of their professors, who presumably David C. Blowers, '82 a "please me" environment- one embrace the sagacious perspective of Lake Forest, Illinois that does not contain any challenge being "lifelong learners" (in stark to [a student's] current notions, no contrast to those whom Henry Your remark that "genuine learning matter how poorly held they are. It Seidel Canby described). is more likely to be a product of is an attitude of "I am happy with Julie Bergquist Cox, '87 criticism tlnn of praise" is one of my beliefs and what I know; I only South Hadley, Massachusetts the most poignant remarks one can want validation and comfort." make about education. It also Good work! With reference to your thesis, I hl<e to describes the scientific method. Gordon Lamb think of the boundless power of the True learning is done by question Interim Chancellor liberating arts and the setting( s) in ing, and using the Hegelian University of Wisconsin-Parkside which that power is proclaimed .... Dialectic. To accept information Kenosha, Wisconsin While I cannot now document without questioning is essentially a the source, I seem to recall that cop-out on rigorous, disciplined Great President's Report! Even some years ago a study of Harvard tl1inking. And tlnt is, in many ways, apart from my son's picture [Ian University undergraduates showed tl1e nature of education at the McLellan, '98] on page 26 with that learning (in the best sense) undergraduate public-institution Professor Maravolo. It really says took place outside the classroom level: absorb, read, regurgitate on something when you're moved to equally abundantly as in tl1e tests graded by teaching assistants, read aloud portions of the president's classroom. then accept a diploma as evidence message to your spouse and co Just being in the setting where one has been educated. That is a workers. Many colleges and univer one is exposed to the liberating-arts dichotomy to education in the sities would kill to have a president phenomenon is a powerful learning truest sense and to liberal education. who speaks and vvrites as well. tool, even if not a learning experi Peter Geoffrey Bowen, '60 Donn McLellan ence: the "bull session" in a dormi Adjunct Professor of Business Director of Public Relations tory or fraternity house, the dinner Management William Mitchell College of Law evening with a classics professor, a Colorado Mountain College St. Paul, Minnesota fraternity chapter meeting itself, the Vail, Co lorado 2 Summer 1998 INSIDE LAWRENCE to encourage women of talent to achieve their potential in the sciences. Leta Steffen, a junior from Des Moines, Iowa, was named as Lawrence's first Luce Scholar in 1997-98. According to a national study Cindy Regal, sophomore from conducted by Project Kaleidoscope, Duluth, Minnesota, has been named a Washington, D.C.-based higher Lawrence University's second Clare education alliance, Lawrence ranks Booth Luce Scholar. Among the in the top seven percent of all college's most prestigious honors, four-year institutions as a baccalau the merit-based award is given as reate source of natural science doc recognition of the top female science torates earned by women.