V A NDERBILT MAG A ZINE

Vfall 2006

Nobel Peace Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus, PhD’71 How $27 and a simple idea changed the lives of millions also: New Hope for Autism Alaskan Sanctuary Meth Explosion

the PERFECT GIFT for the PERSON WHO HAS EVERYTHING (or the STUDENT WHO HAS NOTHING!) . d e v r e s e r s t h g i r l l A • m o c . s a m o h t n o s r e d n a . w w w • . c n I , n g

V ITAL i s e D s a m o h T n o s r e d n A 6 0 0

Every gift counts. Every year. 2 © In fact, every gift is vital…and truly makes a difference every day in the life of Vanderbilt.

With your participation in the Vanderbilt Fund, you decide what particular area of Vanderbilt you’d like to support. You can choose to give to a specific college or school. Or, you may “Kirkland Hall” by Joel Anderson want to participate in your class Reunion gift 18” x 24” Gallery-Grade Limited Edition Print s e or give to a donor society. Whatever matters c i v r

e most to you. S e v i t

a Just know that your support to any area, e r

C in any amount, will count greatly toward t l i b r Vanderbilt’s continued success, every year. e d n a V d n a

A few of the 53 designs in the critically-acclaimed collection e g o H n o t y e

P www.vanderbilt.edu/thevanderbiltfund y b

1-866-882-FUND s o t o To see all 53 of the limited-edition prints from Anderson Thomas Design’s Spirit of Nashville Collection, h P please visit our web site at: www.spiritofnashville.com or call 615-327-9894.

Contributors

Editor Debra McKinney Andrew W. M. Beierle A fourth-generation journalist, Oregon-born Debra McKinney became a Art Director and Designer feature writer more than 20 years ago for the Anchorage Daily News. In 1994

Donna DeVore Pritchett 2006 issue the Fall For she and photographer Fran Durner won the $10,000 Dart Award for coverage of victims of violence. McKinney was part of a team of reporters who won Editorial a Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for a series about alcoholism and despair in rural Associate Editor Alaska. In the summer she disappears to her off-the-grid cabin near Fairbanks, where she GayNelle Doll grows a huge garden and goes for days without writing a single word. Arts & Culture Editor Gary Gerson Bonnie Arant Ertelt, BS’81 Gary Gerson, BS’85, majored in geology at Vanderbilt. After doing archaeology Class Notes and Sports Editor in Kenya, getting lost in the Nepalese Himalayas, and playing a season of foot- VNelson Bryan, BA’73 ball for the Amsterdam Rams, Gerson took a job teaching and coaching for Science Editor Cranbrook Schools in Michigan. He and his wife, Shelley, are the parents of David F. Salisbury Maddie, 4, and Eli, 3. Gerson would love to hear from former Commodore teammates at [email protected]. Production and Design Ryan Farha Production and Advertising Manager Phillip B. Tucker Ryan Farha is a junior in the College of Arts of Science. He hopes to graduate in 2008 with a major in history and minors in Islamic studies and French. Chief Photographers Farha is on the staff of the Vanderbilt Hustler and is a member of Delta Kappa Neil Brake, Daniel Dubois Epsilon, the Middle Eastern Students Association, and Dores for Palestine. He Color Correction and Retouching plans to return to study or work in the Middle East in the spring, and is con- Julie Turner sidering careers in government, journalism or academia. Vanderbilt Magazine Advisory Board Audrey Peters Roy Blount Jr., BA’63 Caneel Cotton, BA’88 Audrey Peters graduated from Vanderbilt in 2004 with a B.S. in English and Terry Eastland, BA’71 political science. As a student she participated in the McGill Project and was Robert Early, BA’71, MDiv’76 a copy editor for Slant, Vanderbilt’s satire magazine. She spent the first two Sam Feist, BA’91 years after graduation as a portrait photographer and is now an adjunct pro- Frye Gaillard Jr., BA’68 fessor at Northeast State Technical Community College’s Regional Center for Janice Miller Greenberg, BS’80 Applied Technology, where she teaches developmental writing and learning strategies. G. Marc Hamburger, BA’64 Wendell Rawls Jr., BA’70 Anthony Wilson Edward Schumacher Matos, BA’68 Anthony Wilson was born in Atlanta and spent his childhood there before Michael Schoenfeld moving to the swampier environs of Lafayette, La., at age 11. There he found

Advertisers interested in purchasing ad space in Vander- a very different kind of South: a distinct blend of cultures marked by unique bilt Magazine should contact Phillip Tucker, advertis- cuisine, music, and relationship to the landscape. He carried his interest in ing manager,at [email protected] or 615/322-3989. multiple Southern cultures into graduate school at Vanderbilt, where he Vanderbilt Magazine is published quarterly by Van- derbilt University from editorial and business offices at received his Ph.D. in English in 2002. His book, Shadow and Shelter: The Swamp in Southern 110 21st Ave. S., Suite 1000, Nashville, TN 37203. Phone: Culture, grew out of his interest in the relationships between Southern culture and literature 615/322-2601. Fax: 615/343-8547. E-mail: vanderbilt- [email protected]. Please send address corrections and ecology and environmental studies. Wilson is now an assistant professor of English at to Gift Records Office,Vanderbilt University,VU Station B LaGrange College. 357727, 2301 Vanderbilt Place, Nashville, TN 37235-7703. Opinions expressed in Vanderbilt Magazine are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the Additional Contributors: Joanne Lamphere Beckham, Joan Brasher, Caroline Sarros views of the Magazine or the University administration. Colley, Ari Dubin, Lisa DuBois, Courtney Evans, Ryan Farha, Angela Fox, Terryl Hallquist, Vanderbilt University is committed to the principles of equal opportunity and affirmative action. Rick Hilles, John Howser, Bridgette Kohnhorst, Princine Lewis, Melissa Marino, Melanie Copyright 2006 Vanderbilt University Moran, Jessica Pasley, Jim Patterson, Kathy Rivers, Cindy Steine, Cindy Thomsen, Terri Witek

4 F all 2006

DoreWays

From the Editor From the Reader The Walk-on Stretching a Point Let’s see. Four out of five of the featured hen I arrived at Vanderbilt in mid-August, an unusually contributors to your Summer 2006 issue are hot Nashville summer was stubbornly refusing to relinquish its men. The lead sports article is about a man. grip on the city. Nonetheless, the campus was aswarm with work- “Vanderbilt Holdings” is about a man. The men feverishly preparing for the arrival of the incoming Class of ideasA forum for exchanging W “In Class” article is about a man. There is a 2010 some two weeks hence: replacing a window in the lobby of moving feature called “Waiting in the Light” Carmichael East, grooming the lush carpet of grass on Alumni Lawn. about Tom Fox, an amazing and very coura- Having spent most of my professional life on college campuses, I am familiar with geous man. Most of the sidebars and fea- the ebb and flow of life at a university: the bustle of arriving students after a blissfully turettes are about or include men (as well as quiet summer, the welcome solitude of the winter holidays, the frenzied run up to Com- women). mencement. But the sights and sounds of this university were new You’d have to ignore an awful lot of the to me, and I felt like something of a freshman myself. content about strong men or strong people I was warmly welcomed by my colleagues, but nonetheless I felt a lit- to declare that you see an emerging theme tle intimidated during my first weeks on campus. I was, after all, joining about strong women [From the Editor, p. 5]. a team of professionals who had worked with each other for the bet- Why not get off the political soapbox and ter part of a decade. I was the newcomer, the rookie, the walk-on. focus on Vanderbilt, in which case the theme In some ways, I imagine I was feeling a bit like Gary Gerson, is clear and something to be proud of: Van- BS’85, who during his freshman year at Vanderbilt decided to join derbilt produces strong alums and is attend- the football team—with virtually no experience on the gridiron. ed by strong students. Gerson tells his remarkable story in our feature “A Pipsqueak Men and women. Among Giants,” which begins on page 40. Chip Heartfield, BA’78 “There was no turning back now,” Gerson writes. “All 5-foot- Bethesda, Md. 10, 145 pounds of me was going to be a football player for the Van- derbilt University Commodores.” One Article,Two Views Gerson was embraced by coaches and fellow players alike, and he Ordinarily I find great pleasure in Van- became part of the legendary 1982 Commodores team who played

KEVIN MENCK derbilt Magazine. However, I am writing to in the Hall of Fame Bowl. And though his cleats never touched the express my disappointment in the article gridiron during regulation play, I am inspired by Gerson’s tenacity—and his heart. “Warriors in a Post-9/11 World” [Summer “I had never thought of quitting,” he writes. “On the field I had gotten a tiny bit of 2006 issue, p. 30]. What these ROTC students respect from men who were going to the NFL. It was worth every bit of pain—and not are undergoing and will undergo was cov- something that could be explained to most people who had never played football.” ered as if it were a beauty contest instead of The analogy to my own experience is not perfect. I am, in reality, no rookie, having a deadly serious topic. War is not “a game.” spent the past 26 years editing a university magazine. But like Gerson, who struggled to People die; people are maimed. fit into a pair of oversized shoulder pads, I realize I have some big cleats to fill. The mag- Certainly the war occupying our atten- azine’s former “quarterback,”Ken Schexnayder, and longtime associate editor, GayNelle tion today is not déjà vu. Except within the Doll, had overseen a renaissance of the publication, and Vanderbilt Magazine is now administration, there is little evidence of the firmly in the big leagues, successfully vying for the attention of our readers against main- arrogance that inhabited the American mind stream commercial magazines and competing professionally for accolades with maga- in the 1960s. After all, we were the saviors of zines from, among others, the Ivies and the Big Ten. the world—not once, but twice. We could do It may be hard to explain my feelings to someone who has never edited a maga- no wrong! How could we lose? America— zine. Suffice it to say that, like Gerson, I hope to be part of a team that has a champi- love it or leave it. I don’t hear that now. We onship season, or two, ahead of them. know better. But also like him, I am grateful for the opportunity just to suit up. Déjà vu? The Viet Cong did not crash air- —Andrew W. M. Beierle planes into the Pentagon or the buildings in

V ande r b ilt Mag azine 5

New York nor murder almost 3,000 civilians designer, and we have taught our children it brought back fond memories of my instruc- living and working there. Like the Korean well (well, most of them anyway). tors and fellow classmates, prior to my start- Conflict before it, Vietnam was a civil war Is it déjà vu? No. Does the danger exist ing a 20-year Navy career. I was in that which the United States entered ostensibly to that parallels could emerge? Yes. Consider the generation that studied Russian, along with curtail communist expansionism, among recent discourse regarding the shortage of my chemistry major classes and required other reasons. This task was accomplished personnel given our all-volunteer military. A NROTC courses (which didn’t count as cred- by sending 18-year-old children to the jun- short-term solution is multiple tours of duty; its for graduation the last three years). I always gles to become sniper fodder. More than on the horizon is reinstating the draft. Con- felt comfortable at Vanderbilt then, despite 50,000 of my generation perished in a never- sider also that the national discourse is begin- the Vietnam-era protests, and was happy to declared war. Many were just poor young ning to address the possibility that Iraq is read of the continued support for ROTC men who did not know how to use college experiencing a civil war (despite Secretary students and programs from the Vanderbilt to avoid dying in a rice paddy. War is seldom Rumsfeld’s denial). Eventually, the critical community. an equal opportunity slayer. mass will ask if our blood should be poured I also enjoyed the various articles cover- Déjà vu? No way! Were ROTC members on someone else’s civil war. ing topics from movies to science and science targets of animosity? Yes. Were they the sym- Kristine Renee Derer, PhD’92 fiction. Your history articles from the fortu- bol? No, we did not need a symbol. We had Las Cruces, N.M. itous or fortunate past with Commodore Van- the real thing—bloody death nightly on TV derbilt [“The Commodore’s Strange Gift,”p. for the first time in history. Were Vietnam I really enjoyed the article on the ROTC 46] and the tragic present of Tom Fox [“Wait- veterans who returned to school targets of programs you published in the summer issue, ing in the Light,” p. 54] were also enlighten- animosity? Yes. Did we do everything right discussing the few but spirited group of ded- ing. I was at Vanderbilt at the same time as in our attempt to stop the dying? No. But we icated brave students who continue the long the author of the article on Bettie Page and did learn from our mistakes. We do now know Vanderbilt tradition of study and service. As also regret not meeting a Peabody girl [A.P.O.V., how to distinguish the executor from the a graduate of the NROTC program in 1975, “Cheesecake and Apple Pie,” p. 68].

6 F all 2006

Your pictures were very enjoyable, as I Surely the story was on campus when the Vanderbilt family of an alumnus who members were posing in 1973 [contents page], gave his life as an Make and my father was on campus during World instrument of peace War II [The Classes, p. 70] as part of the Army in Iraq deserves Your Specialized Training Program held for 10 greater emphasis Message months during 1943–44. He enjoyed Christ- than a person’s set- mas dinner in 1943 with Chancellor Car- ting two world Matter michael, whose namesake dorms I later lived records for marlin in for three years. fishing? Thanks again for a great ROTC article. I I realize there’s more to Mrs. Huizenga Reach an exclusively Vanderbilt look forward to other diverse and entertain- than just marlin fishing. I also certainly cel- audience by placing your ad in ing issues. ebrate strong Vanderbilt women, but the Vanderbilt Magazine. A full range Dr. Harry Brammer, BA’75 excerpts from Mr. Fox’s blog,“Waiting in the of sizes is available to fit your budget. Brookfield, Wis. Light” [p. 54], should be required reading For more information please for the entire Vanderbilt family. His writings view our media kit online at Family Ties bring the reader face to face with the reali- www.vanderbilt.edu/alumni/ I was very pleased to read the tribute ties of the war and one person’s courageous publications/mediakit or contact to Frank Crawford in the editor’s column of struggle to build peace in a horrific situa- Phillip Tucker, advertising manager, the summer edition [p. 5]. This and the fas- tion. As the article states, he was a hero. Noth- at 615/322-3989 or by e-mail at cinating article by Michael McGerr [“The ing against Mrs. Huizenga, but Mr. Fox’s story [email protected]. Commodore’s Strange Gift,” p. 46] is most should have been front and center on the welcome recognition, as is the news that one cover of the magazine. Advertise in of Vanderbilt’s residence halls is to be named Jonathan M. Crowder, BA’90 after her. Breckenridge, Colo. Vanderbilt Magazine. Frank Crawford was my great-great aunt. Her brother, Robert L. Crawford, was my Encouraging Words great-grandfather. Among the items in Lau- Vanderbilt Magazine is the greatest! We enjoy football when instead of reading the usual rus Crawfordiana: Memorials of the Crawford the stories, which are so well written, as well note from mommy in her lunchbox one day, Family 1660–1883, compiled by R.L. Craw- as the selection and photographs. Print, art her note simply contained the final score of ford, are a description of an interview the and placement are well done. Yours is beyond the Vanderbilt-Tennessee game. Commodore had with President Lincoln in compare with the other magazines we receive. Go ’Dores! March 1862, in which Lincoln asks if Van- Frances Baucom Anne Vereen, BA’90 derbilt “can stop the Merrimac,”and a reprint Hermitage, Tenn. Thomasville, Ga. of a newspaper article that appeared short- ly after Vanderbilt’s marriage to Frank which You know, of course, what you have My wife (Beth Colvin Huff, BSN’74, is highly complimentary to her but prophet- done to our magazine. Well, all I can say is MSN’79) and I are both Vanderbilt alumni. ic as well. BRAVO! BRAVO! BRAVO! The entire body We very much enjoyed the article on evolu- Robert L. Crawford, ’49 of alumni thanks you from our hearts. tion and creationism in your Spring 2006 Bayside, N.Y. James R. Tuck, BA’40, LLB’47 issue [“Science Friction,”p. 36] and are shar- Nashville ing it with a friend. Cover Criteria Dr. John G. Huff, MD’77 I thoroughly enjoyed the recent sum- Spring Feedback Nashville mer issue. However, I wonder about the As a diehard Vanderbilt football fan criteria for determining the cover story.While living just 30 minutes north of Bobby Bow- Letters are always welcome Fonda Huizenga certainly appears to be an den’s evil empire, I was delighted to see the in response to contents of the magazine. accomplished woman rooted in her faith, Spring 2006 cover story, “’Dores Who Love We reserve the right to edit for length, family and community [“Call of the Wild Too Much”[p. 54]. I am surrounded by obnox- style and clarity. Send signed letters to the Blue Marlin,” p. 38], the most compelling ious FSU and Georgia fans who need to be Editor, Vanderbilt Magazine, VU Station story in the magazine was about Tom Fox (a reminded that player arrest rates should never B #357703, 2301 Vanderbilt Place, Peabody graduate), who literally gave his life exceed graduation rates. My 7-year-old daugh- Nashville, TN 37235-7703, or e-mail in Iraq as a peacekeeper. ter understood the importance of Commodore [email protected].

V ande r b ilt Mag azine 7

VJournal e f i l

s u p m a c

n o

s e v i t c e p s r e Star of David, Rising P As Vanderbilt’s Jewish student population grows, so, too, does the challenge of making religion relevant in daily life. By Ari Dubin

hen I took the job get involved, to experience being Jewish. of executive director of For a smaller group of students who are the Vanderbilt Hillel in very committed to a specific kind of Jewish Wthe summer of 2005, I life, Vanderbilt has been steadily building the expected perhaps 450 or support system they are looking for on cam- 500 Jewish students on campus. Instead, the pus. For the vast majority of Jewish students, undergraduate student body last year includ- though, what we have at Vanderbilt now is ed nearly 700 Jewish students. About 15 per- more than sufficient. cent of last year’s freshman class was Jewish, The sheer growth in numbers has also pre- H E an amazing statistic when you consider that sented challenges. One example is our Shab- I S H

M I just four years ago, the population of under- bats—our Friday night Sabbath dinners. A J graduates was only about 3 percent Jewish. few years ago they were held perhaps once The most significant factor in this increase a month. Then two years ago Shabbats were the course of the year. For us to be able to has been the Ben Schulman Center for Jew- offered every week, alternating between a make that claim is a source of pride. But that ish Life, a 10,000-square-foot building locat- more traditional service and a less traditional doesn’t mean we necessarily touch those lives ed at the heart of campus. Dedicated in 2002 service. Now we offer both services simulta- in a Jewish way. We’re always trying to find and named for Vanderbilt alumnus Ben Schul- neously, followed by dinner. In the past, some- ways to reach out to Jewish students on cam- man, BA’39, who contributed $1 million where between 20 and 40 students might have pus and to get them involved. toward its construction, the Schulman Cen- attended. Last year between 60 and 80 stu- Religion ought to mean more than going ter houses the Vanderbilt Hillel, the popular dents attended each week. This year we have to synagogue on Saturday morning or to church Grins kosher vegetarian café, and space where had more than 100 students every week. on Sunday morning. When we compart- all kinds of groups, Jewish and non-Jewish, Our social and cultural programs, pizza mentalize religion, when we only let it touch come together. parties and bagel brunches have brought in us during those specific ritual moments until Hillel is the largest Jewish campus organ- many students we hadn’t seen before. And we have to pull it out again, then we aren’t ization in the world, with a presence at more we’re going where the students are. When we really experiencing religion in our daily lives. than 500 colleges and universities. Hillel takes organized a comedy night with a Jewish come- For a minority group in any culture, the its name from a first-century Jewish sage whose dian, we originally planned to have it in the influence of the majority culture is enormous. message was the love and pursuit of peace. Schulman Center, but we brought in more We try to show students that religion can My phone conversations with Jewish par- students by having it at the Overcup Oak pub touch multiple aspects of their lives. If our stu- ents who are considering sending their kids in the Sarratt Center instead. dents are into poker, we’re going to figure out to Vanderbilt invariably include four ques- Having Grins, the kosher vegetarian café how to get involved with that experience: Can tions: Is there a Hillel building? How many (it’s pronounced “greens” and means “veg- we do it as a charity tournament or a fundrais- Jewish students are there? Do you have a rabbi? etables” in Yiddish), in the Schulman Center er, and somehow connect it back to Katrina Do you have kosher dining? brings people from many parts of campus or the tsunami or something related to Israel? Many parents do not expect their children into the building. Few Hillels in this country Last year during High Holy Days in Octo- to go to Hillel every week—but they want can say that virtually every Jewish student on ber, those of us who work in the Schulman their kids to have the option to explore, to campus will come into their building over continued on page 83

Vanderbilt Magazine 9

People All Over the World, Join In

Marching bands from Tennessee State University and Vanderbilt joined forces during the first-ever football match-up between the two Nashville schools. The bands jointly performed the TSU and Vanderbilt fight songs as well as the O’Jays classic “Love Train.” 11,000,000WordsWo r d s Photo by Neil Brake.

10

The Campus Fall“ 2006

Twenty-five percent of the entering class scored above 1470 on the SAT, and that is remarkable. —DOUGLAS L. CHRISTIANSEN, “ associate provost for enrollment and dean of admissions

First-Year Students “Although we do have that, day a week at Vanderbilt, States can remain competitive finally paying off. A specialty Bring Diversity, it’s important to know that if attending classes, conducting in the global marketplace of program in transplant admin- High Scores you are academically prepared laboratory research, and partic- technologies and ideas. istration at the Vanderbilt and you can’t afford Vanderbilt, ipating in discussions and Owen Graduate School of Vanderbilt’s 2006–07 enroll- that shouldn’t be a deterrent.” videoconferences with scien- Web site: Management, established in ment of first-year students rep- Of the 1,590 first-year stu- tists and other students across www.vanderbilt.edu/cso conjunction with the Vander- resents dramatic increases in dents, 983 are enrolled in the the world. bilt Transplant Center, is the quality, diversity and academic College of Arts and Science, “The school will serve those Owen Students first of its kind in the country. excellence, according to the 313 in the School of Engineer- students who excel in science Learn Business Side Targeting second-year IMAGES.COM/CORBIS Office of Undergraduate ing, 236 in the Peabody College and math and [who] enthusias- of Transplants health-care M.B.A. students, Admissions’ annual 10th-day of education and human devel- tically seek an advanced cur- the program will allow for in- compliance, and organ avail- enrollment report. opment, and 58 in the Blair riculum that will challenge For more than 15 years, depth training in clinical ability and allocation,”says Applications were up 4 School of Music. The first-year them to go beyond traditional Ed Zavala, administrator for the administration and the eco- Zavala, research assistant pro- percent from the 2005–06 class comprises 840 women instruction,”says Virginia Vanderbilt Transplant nomic aspects of transplant. fessor in the Department of academic year, rising from and 750 men. Shepherd, director of the Van- Center, has been thinking about “Students will be able to Surgery at Vanderbilt for the 11,688 to 12,192. Of those derbilt Center for Science Out- the benefits of a specialized edu- do just about everything— past three years. “The role of who applied, 1,590—or 33.9 Math and Science reach, which is designing and cation program for health-care oversee staffing, contract the transplant administrator percent—were admitted, Whizzes to Study implementing the school. management students interested with managed care, Medicare has evolved along with the down from 35.2 percent last at VUMC Within one year a curricu- in transplant administration. reimbursement and compli- complexity of organ transplan- year, a testament to Vander- lum will be provided for all This fall his determination is ance, profitability, regulatory tation. These students will be >> bilt’s increasing selectivity. Vanderbilt University four high school grades. Up to “We continue to be more Medical Center will host a one- 25 students will be enrolled in selective and have a more day-a-week science and math each grade. Students who robust pool as we make our high school for the brightest enroll following completion of We cannot be ignorant of fact,

selections,”says Douglas L. public-school students in eighth grade will be required to “ we cannot be ignorant of issues, Christiansen, associate provost Nashville beginning next fall. A commit to a four-year program we cannot be ignorant of things

for enrollment and dean of collaborative project of VUMC that will include increasingly that happen past the borders of admissions. NEIL BRAKE and Metropolitan Nashville intensive academic-year and our immediate reach if we are “ More than 77 percent of A record number of under- effort to recruit underrepre- Public Schools, the science and summer programs. to be engaged in a truly vital, Vanderbilt’s first-year students represented students—African sented students.” math school will be funded by Students also will be self-actuating civil society. were in the top 10 percent of American, Asian, Hispanic and Financial aid also has grants and other sources out- required to keep up with their their graduating classes, repre- Native American—enrolled at increased. This year 59.4 percent side the public school budget. studies in their home schools. senting an average GPA of Vanderbilt this year. In 2000 of new students are receiving Beginning next spring, stu- “This won’t excuse them from —Kevin Klose, president and chief executive 3.73 and an average SAT score just 18.2 percent of the first- financial aid from Vanderbilt. In dents who are currently required work in their regular officer of National Public Radio, in a Sept. of 1370. year class was made up of 2000, 52.4 percent received aid. enrolled in eighth, 10th and classes,”Shepherd says. “These 27 address at Vanderbilt “Our academic quality minority students. In 2006 “When you look at the 11th grades in Metro Nashville students will have to commit to remains strong,”Christiansen that number has increased to whole undergraduate class, schools will be selected for the extra time.” says. “The entering class is the 28.6 percent. more students are receiving program based on grades, stan- Shepherd, professor of most prepared in Vanderbilt’s “It went from less than a need-based aid than no aid at dardized test scores, teacher pathology and medicine and history. Twenty-five percent of fourth to almost a third of the all,” Christiansen says. “That recommendations, interviews, associate professor of biochem- the entering class scored above entering class comprising goes against the notion that written statements and original istry, says the project recognizes 1470 on the SAT, and that is minorities,”says Christiansen. Vanderbilt students all come projects. the need to improve math and

remarkable.” “We are making a concerted from wealthy families. Next fall they will spend one science education so the United QuoteUnquote NEIL BRAKE

12 Fall 2006 Vanderbilt Magazine 13

able to spend an entire academ- haps the gold standard of uni- ic year learning the essential versity rankings,”says Chancel- Inquiring Minds Alumni and Friends Get Plugged In aspects of the job.” lor Gordon Gee. “Vanderbilt www.vanderbilt.edu/alumni The Downside of Community College Credits Zavala, along with Jon clearly stands side by side with Just 14 percent of students who start out Lehman, associate dean of the the very best universities in the The Alumni Association has ramped up its Web site to better connect at a community college with the goal of Owen Graduate School of world, which is a tribute to the alumni, parents and friends. Check out the redesigned site to find transferring and getting a four-year degree Management, will lead a small quality of our faculty and stu- Vanderbilt Chapter events in your area, network for your career,search actually meet that goal. William Doyle, group of students in the first dents.” the Dore2Dore online directory, take advantage of alumni discounts assistant professor of higher education, year of the program. Vanderbilt’s improved rank- and more. All comments are welcome as the Alumni Association reached that conclusion after studying U.S. “This is a very real oppor- ing was buoyed by a strong Department of Education statistics. works to be a more valuable resource for the Vanderbilt community. tunity for these students,” score of 81 out of 100 for facul- Doyle, who summarized his findings in July for the Carnegie Lehman says. “We have the ty/student ratio. The rankings Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, says that 79 percent of community-college students planned to get a four-year degree transplant center here, the also considered peer-review and 66 percent of that group had transferred to a four-year institu- specialized health-care scores, graduate recruiter Virtual Vanderbilt tion within six years. Whether those students in fact earned a bach- M.B.A., and a group of people reviews, citations of academic elor’s degree, however, appears to be linked to how many credits with the ability to take the papers, and percentage of inter- ber of other rankings. Kaplan/ icals schools in the United North Nashville Community childhood obesity and consis- transferred to the four-year school.The odds of graduating diminish concept and run with it.” national students and faculty. Newsweek, publisher of the States, according to the agency’s Outreach Partnership Center tently heard how difficult it was the longer a student is enrolled. “Our students will be well How to Get into College guide, most recent figures. VUMC (COPC), the RiverWest Com- grounded in many aspects in for some local residents to pur- has selected Vanderbilt as one received 586 awards totaling munity Development Corp., Juices May Reduce Alzheimer’s Risk transplant administration and chase high-quality, fresh pro- of the “New Ivies” for the 2007 $244.2 million, an increase from and several other Nashville In a large epidemiological study, researchers have will be able to go into a trans- duce in their neighborhoods. edition of the guide. The “New $226.8 million in 2004. organizations. Darcy Freed- found that people who drank three or more servings plant center and be immedi- Last summer Freedman learned of fruit and vegetable juices per week had a 76 per- Ivies” list was created this year Research by Vanderbilt man, a doctoral student at Van- ately productive,”Zavala says. that COPC, in partnership with cent lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease to recognize the growing repu- mathematicians is also getting derbilt, organized the project. “Many places train transplant RiverWest Community Devel- than those who drank juice less than once per week. tation and heightened selec- increased recognition via one The produce stand is an exam- surgeons and physicians, but opment—comprising the Pre- The study by Qi Dai, assistant professor of medi- tiveness that academically of the top industry standards— ple of the action-research proj- no programs exist for admin- ston Taylor, Hadley Park and cine, and colleagues appeared in the September outstanding schools have the frequency of which pub- ect model in practice at the Tomorrow’s Hope neighbor- issue of the American Journal of Medicine. istrators.” achieved in light of growing lished papers are cited in major Vanderbilt Institute for Public hoods—also was concerned Originally, researchers suspected that high intakes of antioxi- The Owen transplant popularity among top students. mathematics journals. Accord- Policy Studies, she says. about the dearth of healthy dant vitamins might provide some protection against Alzheimer’s administration program joins Schools that made the list were ing to a recent analysis by Freedman spent her first foods available in these neigh- disease, but recent studies have not supported this hypothesis. Dai two other transplant training selected based on admissions Essential Science Indicators, year at Vanderbilt and in the began to suspect that another class of antioxidant chemicals, programs: the transplant phar- borhoods. The three neighbor- statistics as well as interviews Vanderbilt ranks in the top 1 Nashville community research- known as polyphenols, could play a role. Polyphenols are non-vita- macy residency program and hoods, along with several other Vanderbilt also was ranked with administrators, students, percent in terms of journal ing methods for addressing min antioxidants common in the diet and particularly abundant in the transplant nurse practi- areas in Nashville, are what >> the No. 26 university in North faculty and alumni. citations. The number of cita- teas, juices and wines. Most polyphenols exist primarily in the skins tioner program, which is and peels of fruits and vegetables. America, up from No. 53 last For the fourth straight year, tions a paper receives is gener- offered in conjunction with Mary Hulse (left) year, and the No. 9 university in Vanderbilt ranked among the ally considered an indication of and Caitlin Skin- the Vanderbilt University Researchers Map GI Disorders’ Effect on Magnetic Fields the world for academic staff-to- top 20 national universities in its quality and importance. ner bag produce School of Nursing. A team of Vanderbilt researchers has won the 2006 Nightingale student ratio. As of the fall 2005 U.S. News & World Report mag- at RiverWest. Prize from the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine for semester, Vanderbilt had a 9-to- azine’s annual “Best Colleges” the best 2005 paper published in the journal Medical and Biological VU Ranks Among An Oasis in the 1 ratio of students to faculty. rankings. Vanderbilt ranked Engineering and Computing. Their paper describes a new way to Nutritional Desert World’s Best The top 10 universities in the 18th among national universi- process information from tiny magnetic fields produced by electri- Vanderbilt moved up 61 world as cited by The Times of Sandwiched between cal activity in the stomach and small bowel. The goal is to develop ties and again was recognized places to No. 53 in the 2006 London are, in order, Harvard noninvasive techniques for diagnosing gastrointestinal diseases. for its value, economic diversity North Nashville’s gas stations The Vanderbilt team developed a method for projecting three World University Rankings by University, Cambridge Universi- and service-learning programs. and fast-food restaurants, an recorded magnetic-field components or “vectors” in different The Times of London, the most ty, Oxford University, Massa- Moreover, despite a recent organic produce stand piled directions. By doing this,“you can separate out the fetal heart sig- comprehensive and respected chusetts Institute of Technology, tightening of the federal research high with fruits and vegetables nal from the maternal heart when monitoring a pregnancy, and worldwide ranking of universi- Yale University, Stanford Uni- budget, Vanderbilt University gave residents of three nearby the stomach signal from the small bowel signal in a patient with ties. The rankings were released versity, California Institute of Medical Center has maintained neighborhoods the chance to a gastrointestinal disorder,” says L. Alan Bradshaw, the paper’s Oct. 6. Vanderbilt, which was Technology, University of Cali- its position among the nation’s buy healthy, affordable foods lead author and a research assistant professor of surgery, physics ranked No. 114 last year, was fornia-Berkeley, Imperial Col- top medical schools for National during the summer. and astronomy, and an adjunct assistant professor of biomedical the sole university from Ten- lege and Princeton University. Institutes of Health funding for The RiverWest Produce engineering. nessee to make the list. Vanderbilt also has per- the fiscal year 2005. VUMC Stand was the result of a part- “The Times represents per- formed well recently in a num- ranked No. 15 out of 123 med- nership among Vanderbilt’s DANIEL DUBOIS

14 Fall 2006 Vanderbilt Magazine 15

T HE C AMPUS

organizers call “food deserts”— played an important role in the appearance of the campus. was designated a National Center to Study areas without ready access to Vanderbilt’s history. The Garden Club’s efforts Arboretum in 1988. How Financial Top Picks nutritious food. In the decades after Vander- gained a champion in Margaret Today the design of Vander- Incentives Affect “There are places where you bilt’s 1873 founding on 75 acres Branscomb, wife of Harvie bilt’s grounds falls under the Achievement Neuroscientist Receives can buy chips, beer, cigarettes of farmland, campus aesthetics Branscomb, Vanderbilt’s fourth auspices of Associate Vice MacArthur ‘Genius Grant’ Do financial and soda,”Freedman says. “If were not a priority. Timber was chancellor. She was the force Chancellor for Campus Plan- incen- Kenneth Catania, a neuroscientist who studies there are fruits and vegetables cut from campus grounds and behind one of the most signifi- ning Judson Newbern, who is tives for teachers, admin- odd-looking mammals for clues about the work- at those stores, they’re often sold to supplement the univer- cant tree-planting projects ever assisted by Pam Sevy, the uni- istrators and schools affect ings of the human brain, has been named a poor quality and they’re very sity’s income from tuition, attempted by the university. In versity landscape architect. student achievement? The MacArthur Fellow. More commonly known as expensive.” according to The Real Dirt: A 1954 she proposed planting “The women in the club have new National Center on “genius grants,” the fellowships are awarded The produce stand offered History of the Vanderbilt Gar- magnolia trees along West End taught me a lot about Vander- Performance Incentives at annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur residents a chance to purchase den Club for Campus Beautifi- and 21st avenues to create a bilt’s history, and their love of Peabody College, estab- Foundation for creativity, originality, and poten- organic or locally grown pro- cation. Because money was natural barrier between cam- and desire to improve the cam- lished through a $10 mil- tial to make important future contributions. Each recipient receives a total of $500,000 “no strings NEIL BRAKE duce in their own neighbor- scarce in the years after the pus and the city streets beyond. pus landscape has certainly lion grant from the U.S. attached” support over a period of five years. Catania, associ- hood. Produce came from the Civil War, early administrators By 1959 two-thirds of the then- rubbed off on me,”says Sevy. Department of Educa- ate professor of biological sciences, is one of 24 individuals to tion’s Institute of Educa- Nashville Farmer’s Market, a co- deferred maintenance on campus’ periphery was lined Today’s grounds mainte- receive this year’s awards. He was recognized for his study of the tion Sciences, will address sponsor, as well as from local grounds and building upkeep. with magnolias. nance shop comprises 45 sensory systems of insect-eating mammals, particularly the star- farms. Delvin Farms in In 1927, Mary Henderson Around the time Vanderbilt employees, including an irriga- that question. nosed mole. His research could lead to a better understanding of Williamson County provided “This center will give how complex skills are learned and how the brain can recover DANIEL DUBOIS us hard data we can use organic fruits and vegetables to James Guthrie (left) and Matthew Springer from injury or strokes. the produce stand at no cost. to finally understand the Says owner Cindy Delvin,“We relationship between perform- exercising leadership on per- Vermund to Lead International HIV Trials could sell this produce other ance and incentives and give formance incentives in educa- Sten Vermund, director of the Vanderbilt Insti- places, but we felt this was such policymakers real input on tion, our team is committed to tute for Global Health, has been selected to lead an important endeavor that we how best to invest resources to a fair and honest evaluation, one of six new clinical-trial units created by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious couldn’t take money for it.” improve student learning and not some predetermined out- Diseases to combat HIV/AIDS worldwide. As pri- With ongoing support from success,”says Camilla Benbow, come,”Springer says. mary investigator of the newly formed HIV Pre- the Patricia and Rodes Hart Joining Vanderbilt in the the community, organizers hope vention Trials Network,Vermund will guide Dean of Education and Human center’s work is the RAND to continue the RiverWest Pro- prevention trials around the world. Vermund’s Development at Peabody Corp., a nonprofit public policy duce Stand and branch out into ANNE RAYNER own NIH-funded research projects involve the other areas of Nashville in need College. research institute based in AIDS epidemic in Africa, India and China. He is the Amos Christie of better access to healthy food. The center’s first project Santa Monica, Calif. The center Chair in Global Health and a professor of pediatrics, medicine, “There’s tangible evidence will examine the effect of stu- is also working closely with preventive medicine, and obstetrics and gynecology.Total fund- that something good is hap- dent achievement-related Metropolitan Nashville Public ing for the six new clinical-trial units is expected to reach $285 pening here,”Freedman says. Vanderbilt GardenGarden Club bonuses for teachers on indi- Schools, the Metropolitan million during the first year of operation. members (from left) members (from left) vidual and institutional behav- Nashville Public School Board, Sharon Hogge, Virginia Sharon Hogge, Virginia What Is the Sound of One Hand Scraping? Ladies of the Club Holladay and Jean Wright. ior and dynamics. the Metropolitan Nashville James Guthrie, professor of Education Association, The first week of October brought Centennial Hang Up Their Dibbles DANIEL DUBOIS public policy and education; Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell, Professor of Psychology Randolph Blake two signal honors. On Oct. 7 he was inducted into the The venerable Vanderbilt chair of the Department of the Nashville Alliance for Pub- Kirkland, wife of Vanderbilt’s merged with Peabody College in tion specialist, two tree-mainte- American Academy of Arts and Sciences with Leadership, Policy and Organi- lic Education, and the Ten- Garden Club for Campus second chancellor, James Kirk- 1979, Board of Trust member nance specialists and two former U.S. presidents George H.W. Bush and Beautification—the organiza- land, founded a group for wives Hall Thompson gave $1 million horticulturalists. And the Gar- zations; and director of the nessee Education Association. Bill Clinton, Supreme Court Chief Justice John tion that helped grow a campus of faculty members and toward a proposed $2 million den Club is closing its roll book. Peabody Center for Education The new center makes Roberts, and former poet laureate Rita Dove.

lush with magnolias, mani- trustees.“It was originally a very endowment to improve the “When I am asked about Policy, is the executive director Peabody the only education Just two days earlier, Blake received the “cov- CHRISTINA HARRISON cured lawns, and carefully hoity-toity invited group of “aesthetic qualities” of the the Vanderbilt Garden Club,” of the new center. Matthew school in the country to host eted” Ig Nobel Prize from the Society for Improbable Research tended flowerbeds and shrub- ladies who wore gloves and hats grounds. Current Garden Club Hogge remarks, “I say … it is Springer, research assistant two national research and for a 1986 study that examined why nearly everyone cringes at bery—is dissolving after nearly and had tea,”says Sharon members credit the administra- a group of fine, crusty old professor of public policy development centers funded the sound of fingernails scraping on a chalkboard. (His hypoth- 80 years of service. In recent Hogge, president of the Garden tion of Chancellor Joe B. Wyatt, ladies—and I certainly am and education, is the center’s by the U.S. Department of esis: The offending sound mimics chimpanzees’ warning cries.) years a sizable crew of full-time Club from 1996 to 1998, who which began in 1982, as the time included in that—who have director. Education’s Institute of Educa- Perhaps he should consider a collaboration with Ig Nobel Peace Prize winner Howard Stapleton, who won for inventing an electro- grounds workers has made the compiled and edited The Real when the university began its affected the appearance of this “As a national research and tion Sciences. Peabody College mechanical teenager-repellent device, which makes an annoying need for a garden club less Dirt. From its inception, howev- serious commitment to improv- campus over the last 80 years.” development center charged by is also home to the National noise designed to be audible to teens but not to adults. compelling, but the group has er, the focus was on improving ing the grounds. The campus the federal government with Center on School Choice.

16 Fall 2006 Vanderbilt Magazine 17

ics t le th t a l rbi

Sportse d n a t V

k a At Home on the Lanes

A loo Bowling, a new varsity sport at Vanderbilt, is old hat to Michelle Peloquin. By Nelson Bryan, BA’73

ou can find Michelle Pelo- school. Up to a point, soccer was definitely The academics at Vanderbilt have been a quin easily enough. Just listen something I was a little more serious about. good fit for Peloquin. A chemistry major, she for the sound of rolling thun- But once I got to middle school, soccer turned is leaning toward a career in pharmacy. The der followed by the crash of into a Monday through Friday event with bigger challenge for Peloquin was going from Ysplintering wood. The soph- practices and games after school. So my week- what had been a strictly individual sport to omore bowler is with her team- ends really became dedicated to bowling. I a team sport. mates, at home on the lanes. started going to local and regional tourna- “Connecticut does not offer high-school Michelle Peloquin Just a 25-minute drive from campus lies ments. Probably my freshman year of high bowling as a team sport,”she explains, “so the Smyrna Bowling Center, home of the Van- school, I knew that bowling was the route I everything I competed in was individual. My derbilt women’s bowling team, now entering wanted to take.” league was individual, and I bowled in region- its third year as a Vanderbilt varsity sport. She credits her father with sparking her al tournaments through an organization called The Smyrna location is a good choice, coach interest in bowling. A bowler himself, he is the Junior Bowlers Tour.” John Williamson says, because unlike clos- an assistant bowling coach at Sacred Heart The Junior Bowlers Tour doesn’t distin- er bowling alleys, Smyrna lets Vanderbilt call University, where her older sister, Nicole, guish between men’s and women’s divisions, the “shots”—the amount of oil used and was a collegiate bowler. Sacred Heart seemed and the number of female competitors was where it’s applied on the lanes. like the natural destination relatively few. Collegiate tournament play- for Michelle, but she was look- “I was basically bowling against males the ers require different standards ing for more. entire time. It was probably a good thing. than the local leaguers. “I needed something a In order to stay in the pack, I really had to “This is like a brand-new, little bigger.” put a lot of effort into it and probably a good old-school bowling alley,” Sacred Heart’s head bowl- amount more than they did, just because I Williamson says.“It’s a bowl- ing coach tipped off Peloquin had that much more to make up.” ing-only center, no arcade that Vanderbilt was starting a In 2003 she won the Keystone Junior games.” new bowling program. Bowlers Tour Tournament of Champions and But Vanderbilt and Smyr- “She said it might be some- in 2005 was the New England Conference na are a lot farther down the thing I want to look into because Junior Bowlers Tour Bowler of the Year. She road from Peloquin’s home- I was really trying to get the has bowled a perfect score of 300 on a num- town of Enfield, Conn., where best of both worlds,”Peloquin ber of occasions and says of the experience, she was valedictorian of her says.“I wanted a good academic “It’s very cool.” class at Enrico Fermi High School and a mem- institution that would also enable me to bowl There’s an old coaches’ saw that says,“There ber of the National Honor Society, and where competitively.” is no ‘i’ in team.”OK, but there is an “m” and she started bowling when she wasn’t much Peloquin’s high school principal offered an “e,”and after years of individual compe- taller than a tenpin. to put in a good word for her with Williamson. tition, Peloquin is happy to blend her “me” “I started bowling when I was 5,”Peloquin “Coach called me later that night and into a team environment. recalls. “I started playing soccer when I was asked if I wanted to come take a look at the “Last year we played almost entirely five

6. I did double duty all the way through high school,”she says. “It happened pretty fast.” continued on page 83 PHOTOS BY NEIL BRAKE

18 Fall 2006

S PORTS

Organ Picked to Lead has a record for developing young swimmers, Doster patch each year Sports Roundup Women’s Swim Team and he will be an asset as we begin in this throughout Johnson’s Jeremy Organ has been chosen head coach demanding league.” coaching tenure. of the fledgling women’s swimming program, The 2006 team will be the first reincar- Doster, the SEC Vanderbilt’s newest varsity sport. He comes nation since 1990, when the university dropped Freshman of the Year Women’s Golf: Program Earns to Vanderbilt after serving as head senior assis- the swimming program due to inadequate in 2002, was killed by No. 4 National Ranking The women’s golf program has been ranked tant/head masters coach at the Nashville facilities. The Aquadores will make the near- gunfire in his home- fourth nationally for junior golf prospects, Aquatic Club, one of swimming’s most com- by Centennial SportsPlex their new home town of Tampa, Fla., according to a study compiled by Golf Digest Price petitive club teams. A former collegiate swim- with a schedule that begins this winter. on Dec. 26, 2004. Last NEIL BRAKE Goff magazine. “We’re building a successful program year the entire Com- pitched. This was his second year to play for mer himself, he was a six-time All-American at Vanderbilt,” says Coach Martha Freitag, “and modore squad paid tribute to Doster by wear- the USA Baseball National Team, which was at the University of North Dakota and was Goff Football Jersey for us to have earned recognition as one of the coached this year by Vanderbilt’s Tim Corbin the North Central Conference Swimmer of Honors Slain Teammate ing a “Dot 1” helmet decal. nation’s best schools validates the initial vision and also featured Vandy third-baseman the Year in 1995. Junior linebacker Jonathan Goff has been “Jonathan is a perfect choice to honor of where we could take this program.”The Pedro Alvarez. “We are excited to begin our women’s selected by teammates to wear a special jer- Kwane,”Johnson says. “He is a great team- two-time SEC Coach of the Year has guided swimming program and become part of a sey patch honoring the memory of former mate, academically responsible, and has a Vanderbilt to three NCAA Championship finals Cross Country: Keith Called Commodore tailback Kwane Doster. dedicated type of leader- and the 2004 SEC Championship while pro- very competitive Southeastern Conference to Coach Commodores sport,”says David Williams, vice chancellor Goff, a mechanical engineering major ship.”The designated patch ducing six All-America honorees and 22 SEC Steven Keith has been named men’s and features the Vanderbilt star Academic Honor Roll selections. for university affairs. “In Jeremy Organ we from Salem, Mass., is the first player to wear women’s cross country coach. A Vanderbilt logo through Doster’s No. Also, Jacqui Concolino was named second- have a seasoned swimming expert who has the patch, according to Head Coach Bobby alumnus, he lettered in cross country from Concolino team All-America by the both competed and coached successfully. He Johnson. A player will be voted to wear the 1, surrounded by the ini- 1977 to 1981. He has 20 years of coaching tials KD. It appears on Goff’s National Golf Coaches Association last May, experience at the Division I level, most recently upper left chest, just above the C (designat- becoming the first fresh- a five-year stint as head women’s cross country ing him as a team captain). man in school history to coach at Alabama. “Vanderbilt has the potential earn the distinction as to rise to an elite level on the national stage Scholarship to Honor Late one of the top 22 golfers in cross country,” says Vice Chancellor David Vanderbilt Voice Paul Eells in the nation. She also Williams, “and we believe Steve Keith is the Several Commodore alumni are establishing was the first Vanderbilt right person to lead us in that direction.” The cross country teams started the 2006 a memorial scholarship fund in honor of for- freshman to earn All-SEC fall season at the Belmont Invitational with the mer radio play-by-play announcer Paul Eells, first-team honors after finishing fourth at the men’s team finishing second and the women’s who was killed in an automobile accident team finishing fifth. near Russellville, Ark., on July 31. SEC Championship. NEIL BRAKE Eells was a former sports director at WSM radio and television and, from 1967 to 1978, Baseball: Price Named the voice of Vanderbilt Summer Player of the Year Vanderbilt pitcher David Price was named football and basketball Baseball America magazine’s College Summer games. Members of the Player of the Year in August. He was dominant

THE CITY PAPER famed “F-Troop” basket- on the mound for the USA Baseball National ball team from the mid- Team’s pitching staff and helped lead the squad ’70s—Butch Feher, Jeff Fosnes and Joe Ford, to a gold medal at the FISU World University

Where are they now? JOSH ANDERSON/ along with teammate Dickie Keffer—are work- Championships in Havana, Cuba. He logged a PAUL LEVY Cross Country Coach Steven Keith, BA’81, ing to fund an athletic scholarship to com- 5-1 record with a 0.20 ERA and struck out 61 Thirty-some years after his playing days at Pearl High School and preps his runners at the Belmont Invitational. Vanderbilt University, Walter Overton, BA’74, is still integral to the memorate Eells’ contributions to the university. batters with just seven walks in 44 innings football community in his hometown of Nashville. The former executive The group encourages all former student- director of the Metro Nashville Sports Authority, he joined the NFL athletes impacted by Eells to contribute. Tennessee Titans organization last March as general manager of LP “Paul was the type of person who made Field, home stadium of the Titans and the Tennessee State University Tigers. He was the first black football player from a Metro Nashville you feel like you were his best friend,”says school to receive a football scholarship at Vanderbilt and, as a quarter- Keffer.“As a student and player, I found him back-turned-wide receiver, led the team with 20 catches for 317 yards to be very generous and gracious.” and two touchdowns in 1972. He also was present at the historic first- At the time of his death, Eells was sports ever meeting between Tennessee State and Vanderbilt on the gridiron this director at KATV in Little Rock and had spent The women’s year.“It’s a dream come true,” he says. “Having been exposed to both of the past 28 years as the voice of the Univer- swim team kicks these universities at an early age, it means so much to me for this to off this winter after sity of Arkansas football and basketball games. finally happen.” By the way,Vanderbilt won the historic opener 38-9. a 16-year hiatus. PHOTO BY NEIL BRAKE

20 Fall 2006 Vanderbilt Magazine 21

VanderbiltHoldings 1491. The Hoyt Collection goes into the 20th Within the Fine Arts Gallery collection are century, but its real strength is in the Old numerous woodcuts and engravings that were Master prints and those from the 16th through used to illustrate great works of literature. les b i 19th centuries.” One set by Salvador Dali, the famous surre-

lect A number of Japanese woodblock prints alist, illustrates Dante’s Divine Comedy. The l o also were shown this fall, the majority from largest set of engravings, by far, was given to d c

n the Fine Arts Gallery’s extensive Asian Art the Fine Arts Gallery in return for its help in

s a Collection. mounting the exhibition Witness to Our Cen- n o

i “Milan Mihal [professor of fine arts, emer- tury: An Artistic Biography of Fritz Eichenberg itus], when he began teaching in 1968, gave in 1997. Eichenberg, a well-known printmaker lect l a few prints to the collection, some 18th-cen- who provided illustrations for Dorothy Day’s Co Into the Wood tury woodblock prints,”says Mella,“and then The Catholic Worker, also illustrated many that aspect of the collection slowly grew over great works of literature by Poe, Brontë, Dos- Vanderbilt’s Fine Arts Gallery boasts an incredible range of prints time. Now we have more than 170 that are toevsky and others. made from images cut into wood. By Bonnie Arant Ertelt, BS’81 Japanese color woodblock prints. We estab- “We have several portfolios by Fritz Eichen- lished a fund some time ago for Japanese art, berg,”says Mella, “including what’s called in ver since the Chinese invent- and with that money we have bought some the trade ‘the 248,’which means there are 248 ed paper about 2,000 years ago, really fine woodblock prints.” “Ichikawa Kondanji V as Torii Matasuke” prints in it. They were given to us by the Fritz someone has been trying to print On view this fall were prints by Yoshitoshi, (1860) by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi Eichenberg Trust as payment-in-kind for help- on it. The practice of making mul- Hiroshige and Hokusai, all three well known ing organize the traveling exhibit. It’s a series Etiple copies of a single image in the pantheon of Japanese woodblock artists. Yoshitoshi’s “Ichikawa Kodanji V as Torii Mata- of volumes for which Eichenberg pulled prints through relief printing—the old- suke” (1860) is in the vein of earlier Ukiyo-e from the original woodblocks of illustrations est print medium and another process first prints that captured the interests of Japanese of great works of literature that he illustrat- perfected by the Chinese—has spread around citizens at that time, particularly those prints ed for Random House and publishers of that the globe in the path of the papermaking trail. that featured Kabuki actors dramatically posed nature. There are portfolios of prints from The evidence of this one-two graphic punch in their most famous roles. Crime and Punishment, Wuthering Heights, is clear in the collection of the Vanderbilt Fine Both Hiroshige and Hokusai were land- Jane Eyre, The Idiot and others.” Arts Gallery: Prints abound. scape artists famous for their numerous series These prints are distinguished by the move- Anna C. Hoyt, who founded the collection of views. Hiroshige’s “Tokaido Road” from ment of fine white lines within the rich black more than 50 years ago with a gift of 105 Pictures of Famous Places Near the Fifty-Three of the uncut block and the expressions on the Old Master and modern prints, would be Stations (1855) and Hokusai’s “The Kazusa faces of his figures. impressed. From her initial gift—born of her Sea Route” from The Thirty-Six Views of Mt. continued on page 83 friendship with Walter Sharp, an art history Fuji (1830–32) both exhibit the finely toned professor at Vanderbilt whose tenure predates color that makes the Japanese print look more the formation of the art history department, like a watercolor painting than a print cut and her expertise as a print curator at Boston’s from multiple blocks of wood (each color Museum of Fine Arts—the collection has grown “Connecticut Pastoral” (1936) by Thomas Nason printed from a separate block). to include a broad range of historical periods No matter how popular individual series and styles ranging from 15th-century wood mundane items as playing cards or mementos the Collection I, the Gallery’s first show since of prints became, woodcuts continued to find engravings to works by contemporary artists of saints for citizens making pilgrimages. Orig- undergoing renovations. a place in book illustration, and wood engrav- who combine media and techniques. inally, woodcuts were associated with the com- A number of Old Master prints by Ger- ings in particular became the standard. While Of major significance within the print col- mon people. The anonymous artists making man artists, likewise donated by Hoyt, also woodcuts were cut along the grain of the “Man with lection is the number of relief prints, the vast these blocks belonged to craft guilds reserved were shown, including woodcuts by Albrecht Spring plank, wood engravings were cut using the majority of which are woodcuts. Relief prints for woodworkers and cabinet makers. Altdorfer, Lucas Cranach the Elder and Hans Plants” end grain, which is much harder. As a result, are made by cutting into either wood or The 1500s saw the introduction of high- Baldung Grien, all done in the early 1500s and (1922) by much finer detail and quality of line could linoleum in such a way that the areas of the er-quality serial prints, each edition contain- picturing Christ’s Passion or other scenes from Leonard be chiseled, with the additional advantage block that are not cut away form the image. ing only a defined number of prints. Among the Bible. Baskin that the harder end-grain blocks could with- The block is then inked and pressed onto the major artists working at the time was “To this day, they’re really some of the stand the pressure of the printing press much paper. Albrecht Dürer, who not only designed but better things we have in our print collection, better than the less sturdy plank-grain blocks. As papermaking made its way to the West, also cut the blocks for his prints. Vanderbilt as far as historic importance is concerned,” Wood engravings were the preferred method spurred by the invention of the printing press, owns several Dürer prints.“The Lamentation” says Joseph Mella, art curator and director for illustration in virtually all print media, woodcuts became the primary mode for book (1511), from the collection given by Anna of the Vanderbilt Fine Arts Gallery. “They including newspapers, until the advent of “In Praise of Folly: Portrait of Erasmus” illustration as well as the production of such Hoyt, was on exhibit this fall in Views from start early; I think our earliest print is from photographic reproduction. (1972) by Fritz Eichenberg

22 Fall 2006 Vanderbilt Magazine 23

Bright Ideas “ up d

oun Maya farmers and Nashville consumers don’t know anything about each other, yet are intimately connected. —EDWARD FISCHER, anthropologist

ship r “ r a l o The Crucifer of Desire nected,”says Fischer, associate In the book, Fischer and University Department of also have an important effect dark conditions of the womb. humans, the master biological d sch professor of anthropology and Benson explore moral, socio- Anthropology and a former on our mood,”McMahon says. The finding that exposure to clock is located in an area of n Next time your director of the Center for logical and historical issues student of Fischer’s. “This study suggests that constant light disrupts the the brain called the suprachias- ch a children turn up r Latin American and Iberian surrounding the economic For more information about cycling the lights in NICUs may developing biological clock in matic nuclei (SCN). It influ- a their noses at the Studies at Vanderbilt. “The connection between these two the book, visit www.sup.org. be better than constant lighting baby mice points to an under- ences the activity of a broccoli you put Rese 1. two groups are tied togeth- groups and that connection’s for premature babies from the lying mechanism that helps surprising number of organs, before them, try this er in a web of desire and a roots in the victimization of Constant Lighting perspective of developing their explain the results of several including the brain, heart, liver tactic: “Eat your vegetables, web of economics.” the Maya people throughout internal clocks.” previous clinical studies. One and lungs, and regulates the kids. Poor children in May Disrupt Fischer studies cultural history. Through profiles of Preemies’ “Today we realize that light- study found that infants from daily activity cycles known as Guatemala won’t be able to anthropology and political individual farmers and con- ing is very important in nursing neonatal units with cyclic light- circadian rhythms. attend Catholic school if you economy, with a focus on sumers, they illustrate the Biological Clocks facilities, but our understand- ing tend to begin sleeping The SCN is filled with spe- don’t finish that broccoli.” the Maya of highland stark differences between how Every year about ing of light’s effects on patients through the night more quickly cial neurons that are wired in It turns out that Americans’ Guatemala. While conduct- the groups attempt to satisfy 14 million low- and staff is still very rudimen- than those from units with such a way that their activity desire to live well has a great ing research there, he their own desires for a better weight babies born tary,”says Dr. William F. Walsh, constant lighting. Other studies varies on a regular cycle of deal in common with Maya noticed that poor Maya life and the vastly higher level worldwide are ex- chief of nurseries at the Mon- confirmed that infants placed roughly 24 hours. In a normal farmers’ desire to live well. In 2. farmers had started to of risk the Maya must assume posed to artificial roe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospi- in units that maintain a day- brain the activity of these clock their new book, Broccoli & grow new specialty to do so. lighting in hospitals. But a neurons is synchronized to a Desire, anthropologists Edward crops such as broccoli, One such profile involves a new study suggests that keep- single cycle that is set by the Fischer and Peter Benson, cauliflower and snow peas farmer named Pablo, a mar- ing the lights on around the 24-hour day-night cycle. BA’01, trace the complex con- for export. ried, 39-year-old Kaqchikel clock in neonatal intensive Newborn mice provide a nections between the hopes “After asking around, I Maya farmer. care units may interfere with good model for premature and dreams of Maya farmers in learned that some of the both groups were bound by a “For farmers like Pablo, the development of prema- human infants because baby Guatemala and the health and larger, corporate agriculture common driver: desire. surviving—meeting the basic ture babies’ biological clocks. mice are born at an earlier stage dietary choices made by shop- operations in the area had “Consumers in Nashville needs of human existence—is The study, headed by of development than humans, pers in Nashville. tried to grow some of these and across the United States always present as an imperative Douglas McMahon, profes- a stage closely equivalent to “The idea behind this book crops, but gave it up because have a desire to eat healthy that must be met and satisfied,” sor of biological sciences that of premature babies. was to link Maya farmers with it was such labor-intensive, foods and live well. These Fischer and Benson write. “But at Vanderbilt and an inves- The researchers studied two Nashville consumers who don’t grueling work,”Fischer says. desires are constantly present there is something else at work tigator at the Vanderbilt groups of newborn mice. One know anything about each “They then started contracting in popular discourse about liv- here. … Export agriculture is Kennedy Center for group was exposed to a normal other, yet are intimately con- it out to small-operation ing the good life,”Fischer says. compelling for farmers like Research on Human Devel- cycle of 12 hours of light and

Maya farmers.” “We often think of the Third Pablo not because it is the only opment, reports that expos- NEIL BRAKE 12 hours of darkness for the Fischer found that hun- World as having needs, while way they can survive, but ing baby mice to constant first three weeks of life; the sec- dreds, possibly thousands, of we in the ‘first world’ have because it plays into the desire light keeps the master biologi- tal at Vanderbilt. “We need to night cycle gain weight faster ond was exposed to constant these farmers are now growing desires. Peasant Maya farmers, for ‘something more’ or ‘some- cal clock in their brains from know more.” than those in units with con- light for the same period. The broccoli for export to the Unit- for example, are struggling to thing better’—a diffuse desire developing properly and can Although older facilities still stant light. researchers used a special ed States. He decided to follow get by—how can they have with which the average Ameri- have a lasting effect on their use round-the-clock lighting, The research is a follow-up transgenic strain of mouse with the broccoli on its journey from desires?” he says. “But they do. can broccoli consumer would behavior. The results were pub- modern NICUs, like that at from a study the McMahon an artificial gene that produces field to grocery store, interview- They want to save money, buy also be familiar even if the par- lished in the Aug. 21 issue of Vanderbilt, maintain their group published last year, a green fluorescent protein ing the farmers, importers in a truck, send their kids to ticular desiderata differ.” the journal Pediatric Research. lighting in a day-night cycle and which found that long periods under the control of one of the Miami and consumers in Catholic school. And these Broccoli & Desire is pub- “We are interested in the keep lighting levels as low as of constant light disrupt the genes associated with the bio- Nashville. He found that despite desires drive them to produce lished by Stanford University effects of light on biological possible. Covers are kept over synchronization of the biologi- logical clock. As a result, when the obvious differences between crops they know they can sell, Press. Peter Benson is a gradu- clocks because they regulate the isolets that hold the babies cal clock in adult mice. In all the neurons are active they the farmers and consumers, like broccoli.” ate student in the Harvard our physiology extensively and in an effort to duplicate the mammals, including mice and produce a bright glow. >>

24 Fall 2006 Vanderbilt Magazine 25

Dr. Paul Sternberg with This allowed scientists to Ginseng Found to eventually go to clinical trials.” use of other complementary New Treatment for patient Boggs Huff determine that the SCN neu- Improve Breast Shu and colleagues assessed and alternative therapies could Age-Related Macular rons in the baby mice who Cancer Outcomes the effects of ginseng use in not be fully accounted for in Degeneration were exposed to a normal breast-cancer survivors as part the analysis. Also, the quality- light cycle quickly became Ginseng, one of the Shanghai Breast Cancer of-life measures relied exclu- Vanderbilt Uni- synchronized. By contrast, of the most Study, which followed 1,455 sively on patient self-reporting. versity Medical the clock neurons in baby widely used breast-cancer patients in Shang- Although side effects of gin- Center recently mice exposed to constant 3. herbs in tradi- hai since 1996. Researchers eval- seng use were not recorded in 4. began offering a light were unable to maintain tional Chinese uated breast-cancer patients for this study, Shu warns that the new treatment for coherent rhythms. However, medicine, may improve ginseng use both before and seemingly innocuous root can wet age-related macular degen- when the constant-light mice survival and quality of life after their diagnosis of breast create problems when improp- eration (AMD) that may were exposed to a day-night after a diagnosis of breast cancer. All patients who used erly used and should be taken improve—and in some cases light cycle, the clock neurons cancer, according to a recent ginseng had received at least with caution. restore—patients’ vision. rapidly fell into lock-step. study by Vanderbilt-Ingram one type of conventional cancer “It’s not a ‘drug’ in terms of Nearly 6 million Americans “This is a new area of Cancer Center researchers. therapy such as surgery, chemo- being managed by the FDA, but 55 and older suffer from AMD, research,”says McMahon, “so The large epidemiological therapy or radiotherapy. it was used as a drug in tradi- with 1.5 million cases resulting there are a lot of unanswered study, led by Dr. Xiao-Ou Shu, Information about ginseng tional Chinese medicine,”he in some vision loss. It is estimat- questions. For example, could professor of medicine, was use prior to cancer diagnosis, says. “Any drug may have some ed that 100,000 people develop disruption of a baby’s biologi- published online recently in which was available for every side effects and may interact wet AMD each year. cal clock increase his vulnera- the American Journal of Epi- subject, was used to determine with other drugs. So, discuss Lucentis, also known by the bility to associated mood demiology. whether prior ginseng use pre- with your primary care doctor generic name ranibizumab, NEIL BRAKE disorders like depression and Ginseng is a slow-growing dicted survival. before you decide to take gin- was approved by the Food and “In the past we have told patients But it was short-lived. Three seasonal affective disorder? perennial herb whose roots At follow-up—about three seng roots or products.” Drug Administration in June. there is nothing we can do. Now months later he developed wet Could it make it harder for have been used in traditional to four years after diagnosis— Shu hopes to confirm and The drug is administered by we are hopeful and excited that AMD and came to Sternberg

someone to adjust to shift Chinese medicine for more CAMILLE WEBER the researchers asked about expand the current findings injection directly into the eye- we can tell them there are drugs early this year. work or suffer more from jet than 2,000 years. The two main ginseng use since diagnosis. through continued collection ball of patients suffering from that might be able to help slow “I feel hopeful,”Huff says.“I lag? All this is speculative at classes of ginseng—red and That information, which was of data in this patient popula- wet AMD, a chronic condition down the deterioration.” live in hope, but I am prepared this point. But, certainly the white—have different biologi- much stronger effect and is available only for survivors, was tion, from another ongoing caused by abnormal growth of “We now can offer a drug to know that if it doesn’t help, I data would indicate that cal effects, according to tradi- used for short periods to aid in used to look at quality-of-life study of 4,000 breast-cancer blood vessels behind the eye. that has the potential to tried it all. When you start los- human infants benefit from tional Chinese medicine disease recovery. measurements, including phys- patients and, eventually, in ran- The disorder leads to leaking improve visual function,”adds ing your eyesight, you’ll go the synchronizing effect of a theory. White, or unprocessed, Both varieties contain more ical, psychological, social and domized clinical trials. or bleeding within the eye, Dr. Franco Recchia, assistant through any route.” normal light cycle.” ginseng is used over long peri- than 30 chemicals, called gin- material well-being. Scientific study of comple- causing central vision loss and professor of ophthalmology In clinical trials of Lucentis, The research was funded by ods to promote general health, senosides, which have anti- Before diagnosis, about a mentary and alternative medi- often blindness. and visual sciences, who was nearly 40 percent of patients a grant from the National Insti- vitality and longevity. Red, or tumor effects in cell culture quarter of patients (27.4 percent) cines is tricky, though, says This is the first drug to the first to administer the drug experienced significant vision tutes of Health. processed, ginseng provides a and animal studies, suggesting reported using ginseng regularly. Shu. “Chinese traditional medi- show promise in significantly at Vanderbilt. improvement. that the herbs may provide spe- After diagnosis, that percentage cine is very individualized. It improving visual acuity for That’s just what Boggs Huff, Each injection costs nearly cific benefits to cancer patients. jumped to 62.8 percent. gives you different drugs based these patients, says Dr. Paul BA’46,is hoping for. Huff, now $2,000. Many insurance compa- Ginseng use has been The researchers also found on your symptoms and your Sternberg, the George W. Hale 81, was diagnosed in 2000 with nies are covering the treatment, increasing among cancer significant improvements in overall health. There is much to Professor of Ophthalmology the beginning stages of AMD in Sternberg says. patients in recent years, partic- both survival and quality-of-life be learned.” and Visual Sciences, chair of both eyes. Last year he under- Sternberg and his team, which ularly in women diagnosed measures in patients who used Other authors on the paper the department, and director went cataract and corneal includes Assistant Professor of with breast cancer. Despite the ginseng.“When patients used were Yong Cui, Hui Cai, Meng- of the Vanderbilt Eye Institute. replacement surgery in his left Ophthalmology Dr. Anita Agar- encouraging laboratory find- ginseng prior to diagnosis, they Hua Tao and Wei Zheng from While other treatments slowed eye, which was showing signs wal, have treated about 10 ings, scientific analysis of gin- tended to have higher survival,” Vanderbilt and Yu-Tang Gao the progression of the disease, of worsening. patients so far. All have tolerated seng’s health benefits in patient Shu explains.“Ginseng use after from the Shanghai Cancer Lucentis helped improve vision “Doing the surgeries worked the treatments without complica- populations has been lacking. cancer diagnosis was related to Institute. The research was sup- by inhibiting the growth of great,”Huff says.“It was amaz- tion, says Sternberg. Each patient “There is a lot of skepticism improved quality of life.” ported by grants from the blood vessels. ing—it changed my sight. I will return for at least three more about herbal medicine,”says The findings suggest that National Cancer Institute. “This represents a tremen- could read without a magnify- doses for a total of four treat- Shu. “That is why we are taking ginseng may provide tangible For more on breast cancer dous step forward for patients ing glass, and I could see the ments, at which time they will be the observational approach at benefits to breast-cancer sur- treatment and resources at with wet AMD,”Sternberg says. signs on the road.” evaluated for visual acuity. V this time to see whether there vivors, but the study has limita- Vanderbilt, go to www.vicc.org/

NEIL BRAKE is any efficacy. If so, we can tions. The varieties and the cancers/disease.php?id=7. For more information about stories in Bright Ideas, visit Vanderbilt’s online research journal, Douglas McMahon uses transgenic mice to study bioclocks. go to the next phase … and methods of ginseng use and the Exploration, at http://exploration.vanderbilt.edu.

26 Fall 2006 Vanderbilt Magazine 27

k Inor Class d their w n ty a ul ac n f t o igh l t John Sloop uses a hit television show to help students navigate the maze

A spo of mass media, culture and consciousness. By Angela Fox

t’s a typical muggy Nashville Paul Du Gay’s “circuit of culture.”He also ref- island in a remote corner of the Pacific and afternoon in late August, and the fall erences The Electronic Hearth by Vanderbilt faced with the common goal of survival, semester is just getting under way. Rain professor Cecelia Tichi and Neil Postman’s Sloop’s class also will form a community and threatens as students scurry back from Amusing Ourselves to Death, both seminal develop the skills and self-discipline neces- lunch across 21st Avenue to the Van- books about television and its effect on cul- sary to survive—and thrive—in Vanderbilt’s Iderbilt campus, intent on getting to ture. Not exactly the sources quoted in TV challenging academic environment. their next class on time. At 1:10 p.m. Guide or Entertainment Weekly. Then, just as “Lessons from Lost: A Case Study Intro- sharp in a small room on the second floor the “uh-oh, what kind of course have I signed duction to Cultural Studies” is one of more of Calhoun Hall, Vanderbilt pro- than 80 first-year writing semi- fessor John Sloop launches into dis- nars designed to launch entering cussion of his favorite topic— students into a new academic and television. social order. Not surprising, since Sloop, head “This course works on a number of the Department of Communi- of levels to do that,”Sloop explains. cation Studies since 2005, holds a “First, students learn to write at col- B.S. in media/advertising from lege level. Second, the course eases Appalachian State University, a mas- the transition into college because ter’s in speech communication from of the small class size and the fact the University of Georgia, and a that students get to choose a topic Ph.D. in communication studies they are passionate about—and that from the University of Iowa. He is also gives them a built-in commu- an acknowledged expert on the rhet- nity a couple times a week.” oric of the mass media, with 15 years’ Indeed, only one student in Sloop’s

teaching experience, dozens of pub- ©00A9 2006 ABC, INC. class has never watched Lost and lished articles, and several books to his credit. up for” look begins to flicker in the students’ most, like Sloop himself, are avid fans who What is a bit surprising is that the 16 fresh- eyes, Sloop almost winks at them with the eagerly discuss characters and plot details men in Sloop’s seminar are there to hone their question, “What character would you have from the past two seasons and speculate about writing skills to college level through a study killed off on Lost by now?”A light discussion what the third season will bring. of the hit television series Lost. ensues before Sloop steers the class back into Still, as Sloop stresses in his overview of Ah, a softball class with a pop-culture hook, deeper waters. the course, this is not a class about a popu- you say. Well, hold on to that remote for just Ultimately, it becomes clear the issues lar television show but rather one that will a second. Sloop will ask these freshmen to confront “utilize Lost in order to think about and “If our reality is in large part ideas that humans have created,” says John Sloop, The class isn’t more than a few minutes during the coming months may be as con- criticize relationships between and among “we should ask ourselves how we get old when Sloop has introduced in rapid suc- founding as those facing the castaways on mass media, culture, economics, production these ideas. It isn’t through other people cession authors like Marshall McLuhan (“the Lost itself. Like that fictional group of strangers and consciousness or ideology.”To do this but through mediated text—so we must medium is the message”) and concepts like thrown together on an apparently deserted continued on page 84 deal with the media issue.”

28 Fall 2006 NEIL BRAKE

Muhammad Yunus, PhD’71 (center), celebrates Oct. 13 with jubilant supportersters inin Dhaka,Dhaka, Bangladesh,Bangladesh, after receiving word that he had won PEACE thethe NobelNobel PeacePeace PrizePrize forfor 2006.2006. through PROSPERITY

Thirty years ago, Muhammad Yunus loaned out $27. For millions of the world’s poor, it was enough to start a revolution. FARJANA K. GODHLY/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

By Jim Patterson “I saw that one man

uhammad Yunus, who earned a Ph.D. in Department of Economics after receiving a one-year Ful- were made available to the poor could stand up and say, helped select Yunus as the first economics at Vanderbilt in 1971, won the bright Fellowship. But he was encouraged to remain at on terms and conditions that are Distinguished Alumnus, recalls: Nobel Peace Prize in October for his work Vanderbilt to earn a doctorate, receiving support from the appropriate and reasonable,“these ‘No, you are wrong,’ “When we first heard his name M combating poverty through a bank that university and becoming teaching assistant to Nicholas millions of small people with their suggested, he was something of gives small loans to poor people. Georgescu-Roegen, then Vanderbilt Distinguished Professor millions of small pursuits can add even with the an unknown to us. Bangladesh Yunus’ concept of microcredit—small loans to poor vil- of Economics. up to create the biggest develop- isn’t a major focal point for media lagers in Bangladesh to help them buy livestock or fund an “It was the most fascinating period in American history ment wonder.” whole world saying, attention, and Muhammad Yunus, enterprise—has grown from the $27 he loaned out of his own as far as I was concerned: the Civil Rights Movement, Viet- Grameen takes banking to the like few who have accomplished pocket into the Grameen Bank, which has loaned more than nam, flower children, and the assassinations of Martin Luther customer. Its agents travel by bicy- great things, does not call atten- $5.7 billion to 6.61 million borrowers. Despite lack of collat- King and Bobby Kennedy,”Yunus recalled in a 1997 Van- cle to villages to find women whose ‘We are right.’” tion to himself. But he turned out eral or signed loan documents, 99 percent of the loans have derbilt Magazine article. circumstances might be changed to be an inspired choice.” been paid back—a rate unheard of elsewhere in the banking “It changed me, too. I saw that one man could stand up by the means to buy laying hens –Muhammad Yunus Yunus is the author of an auto- industry. The Grameen Bank provides services in more than and say, ‘No, you are wrong,’ even with the whole world or honeybees or materials to make 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner biography, The Banker to the Poor: 71,000 villages in Bangladesh through 2,226 branches. Grameen saying, ‘We are right.’ The whole society could turn around fishing nets. Micro-lending and the Battle was jointly named recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. from just one voice.” It is also part of the bank’s mis- Against World Poverty. “Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large popula- Yunus spent four years at Vanderbilt and three at Middle sion to help educate women. Borrowers pledge to have small “I once asked Yunus what he did for fun,”recalls James tion groups find ways in which to break out of poverty,”the Tennessee State University as an assistant professor of eco- families, oppose child marriages and dowries, and to send Foster, professor of economics at Vanderbilt.“He told me he Nobel Committee said in awarding the $1.36 million prize. nomics. In 1971 he was awarded a Ph.D. in economics from their children to school, among other things. spent his spare time thinking of new strategies to help peo- “Microcredit is one such means. Development from below Vanderbilt. He returned to Bangladesh the following year. Yunus has visited the Vanderbilt campus regularly since his ple help themselves. That’s the kind of person he is.” V also serves to advance democracy and human rights.” The Grameen (which means “rural” in Bengali) Bank began graduation and was named the university’s first Distinguished Yunus first arrived in Nashville in 1965, entering the Van- in the village of Jobra in 1976, when Yunus gave $27 to 42 self- Alumnus in 1996. John W.Johnson, BE’68, who was then pres- Four other Nobel laureates have been affiliated with Vanderbilt: derbilt graduate program in economic development in the employed crafts workers. He reasoned that if financial resources ident-elect of the Alumni Association and one of those who http://www.vanderbilt.edu/alumni/publications/20gifts.pdf

30 F all 2006 V anderbilt Magazine 31

mysteries &As miraclesdiagnoses skyrocket, researchers pursue new insights into the hidden world of autism

By LISA A. DUBOIS | Photography by NEIL BRAKE

Recently, 8-year old Tammi McDaniel asked her mother to buy her some red cabbage. “What do you want red cabbage for?” Angela McDaniel asked. “I want to make red cabbage water and apply lemon juice to it to test whether it is an acid or a base,” her daughter answered. For the McDaniel family, this interchange between Tammi and her mother is noth- ing short of a miracle—well beyond a young child showing an interest in science. Two years ago Tammi had a large vocabulary, but she couldn’t carry on a conversation. Before that, her mother had to quit taking her to Wal-Mart because if Tammi heard another child cry at the far end of the store, she would become so distraught she’d put her hands over her ears and rock and moan, trying to block out the sound. But the worst mental image, Angela says, choking back tears, was when her little girl was 3 and she suddenly let out a blood-curdling scream and began smacking her- self in the head. Tammi’s parents had no idea what was the matter with their daughter. Shortly before Tammi’s fifth birthday, the McDaniels had her evaluated at the Van- derbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development, although by that time they were almost sure of the diagnosis. Confirming their worst fears, Kennedy Center researchers diagnosed Tammi as having mild atypical autism. Their little girl was, as people involved with autism now phrase it, “on the spectrum.”

Tammi McDaniel and her mother, Angela

32 F all 2006

Once thought to be extremely rare, diagnoses of autism professional on campus focused on the problems of autism. Special Education and Kennedy Center language specialist part of a peer group. For instance, have been skyrocketing since the 1970s, with reports of a 556 “I had nobody to collaborate with, which is very lonely for Paul Yoder, who works with 2- and 3-year-olds, says children they may participate in a game percent increase between 1991 and 1997 alone. Some experts a researcher,”she says. with autism communicate less frequently and in less sophis- that requires them to stand in argue that this is due to better diagnostics and improved access She soon received a grant from the National Institute of ticated and socially acceptable ways than children with other line to get ice cream, order their to services, but others aren’t so sure that these alone account Mental Health that allowed her to begin identifying early developmental delays. Rather than pointing at a book, for ice cream, and then pay for it. for such an astonishing increase. The Centers for Disease characteristics of autism in children under 3 years old, but example, a child with autism may take an adult’s hand and Later, they’ll actually go outside Control and Prevention estimate that as many as one in that only added to her frustration, as she witnessed the widen- throw it in the direction of the bookshelf. The adult then must and put these skills to use at an 166 children born in the United States may have an autism ing gap between what these children needed and what was figure out what the child wants. A cookie? A toy? To go play ice cream carnival. spectrum disorder (ASD), which incorporates a series of available in the community. outside? A book? It’s easy to see how these interactions become They also rehearse using good developmental problems ranging from the severe form known exasperating for both the child and the grown-up. manners, behaving appropri- as autistic disorder to the milder Asperger’s syndrome. All Yoder and others have discovered that one way in which ately in a large group or crowd, disorders along the spectrum are characterized by varying Individuals with autism often were young, pre-linguistic children connect with others is through and performing relaxation tech- degrees of deficits in communication and social skills and by the use of declaratives, and many times declaratives don’t niques to reduce anxiety. unusually repetitive activities and interests. grouped under the umbrella of emerge naturally in children with autism. For example, when Researchers often articulate First described as a neurological disorder in 1943, autism a typical toddler looks at an aquarium filled with beautiful two long-term goals for chil- was thought to occur in only one in 10,000 children and was mental retardation—until clinicians fish, his eyes light up and he says,“OHHH!” That response is dren with an ASD. First, by the considered virtually untreatable. For the next 40 years, it a social communication, a way for little ones to share won- end of childhood, those with was relegated to back-burner status among most behavioral discovered children with average der, interest and intellectual curiosity with others. autism should have at least one and neurobiological scientists. Individuals with autism often “One of the motivations for learning to speak is to share good friend. Second, they should were grouped under the broad umbrella of mental retarda- the contents of the mind—to share what I think about and have acquired skill sets that enable and above-average IQs. Language specialist Paul Yoder’s work tion. Over time, however, clinicians began to discover more what I care about. Not just to get things, but to connect. And them to be employable. These improving children’s communication skills and more children with autism who, despite having social and that’s hard to do without language,”Yoder says.“All these ges- are not easy goals to reach. Yet, has produced changes in some that are language deficits and exhibiting idiosyncratic behaviors like tures, grunts, vocalizations and tantrums [typically seen in TRIAD camp coordinator Nico- “almost miraculous.” spinning, hand flapping and finger flicking, actually had aver- “Here I was telling parents, ‘Your child has autism, but children with autism] just don’t serve the purpose as well as lette Bainbridge-Brigham reports age and above-average IQs. Children with an ASD, it turns there’s nothing here for you to do about it … because there language does.” that several school-aged campers became friends during the out, are in a class by themselves. aren’t many people around who do autism work,’”Stone says. Yoder has found that declaratives can be taught. And, once summer of 2006, and a few even set up play-dates outside Once scientists realized that, more and more of them began “I almost left because it was so miserable.” taught, many children with an ASD can then generalize this of camp, a monumental achievement in the ASD world. working together to decipher the brain architecture unique Instead she petitioned Dr. Ian Burr, then pediatric chair- knowledge to other situations. He and others are teaching to people with autism. Consequently, they are spawning a man, to allow her to begin developing certain autism serv- groups of these youngsters how to play and how to indicate welve-year-old Grace Goad was first diagnosed with revolution in new treatments and interventions. Many chil- ices that would be accessible to the public. In 1998 she founded interest, and from there they can help broaden the children’s autism at age 32 months. Her parents, who are now dren are now moving from TRIAD and, with Vanderbilt pediatrician Dr. Sue McGrew, inquisitiveness and desire to communicate through play. He divorced and share custody, realized that she played the lower-functioning to the began to offer new services and programs for autism and to recently completed a study of 40 children using declaratives in odd ways as a toddler—banging her hands on higher-functioning end of the contract with local school systems to train teachers and aides as an intervention, and 39 of those children showed improve-t every light post they passed or wanting them to rock spectrum and, in some cases, on methods for teaching students with the disorder. ment in some measurable outcome by the end of the study. and sing to a plastic silo from her farm set. She was are making enough progress Stone also began to investigate markers in young, pre-ver- Importantly, different treatments worked for different types hypersensitive on some areas of her body, such as her tongue, to “leave” the autism spectrum bal children that might indicate a diagnosis of autism. She of children, depending on their level of communication when and markedly less sensitive on other parts, such as her altogether. These children bear found that the stereotypical flagrant, repetitive behaviors like they entered the study. head. After developmental experts confirmed that Grace was the torch of hope for others. rocking and spinning are not good identifiers in toddlers. “There were such big changes in some children’s autism “on the spectrum,”Leisa Hammett, her mother, embarked “We don’t really know why, Instead, among the very young, autism is identified by the lack that it seems almost miraculous. All of a sudden these kids on a year of grueling, nonstop intervention. but more children are leaving or absence of typical development in behaviors and social started to communicate intentionally in ways that included “There’s no one-stop shop for children with autism, and the autism spectrum than ever communication—a child doesn’t make eye contact, or does another person,”Yoder says. “However, I’ve only seen three that’s true all over the country,”Hammett says.“You’re driving before,”says Wendy Stone, not imitate sounds or gestures, or won’t smile responsively, or kids who’ve come from nonverbal communication to talk- from appointment to appointment. And it’s maddening.” professor of pediatrics, direc- may not point to a desired toy. ing in full sentences within a year. So talking in complete sen- When Grace was 4, Hammett stopped and asked herself, tor of the Treatment and Stone developed the Screening Tool for Autism in Two- tences is not the ultimate goal of short-term treatment. But “Where is the joy here? Where’s the fun of being a child?” Research Institute for Autism year-olds (STAT), which enables her to assess with remark- more frequent, clearer and more socially connected commu- Because it was necessary to intervene as aggressively as Spectrum Disorders (TRIAD), able accuracy the risk of autism in children as young as 24 nication is an appropriate goal.” possible and to have Grace learn basic life-functioning skills, and co-director of Vander- months, and she is testing a newer scoring system that can be Socially acceptable communication is a bedrock of Camp the family had lost all spontaneity. As Hammett puts it, bilt’s Marino Autism Research used down to 14 months. Investigators are finding that the TRIAD, a summer day camp for children with autism run by they were sucked into the “autism vortex.”Determined that Institute.“I think it’s because key to success is to diagnose ASD as soon as possible because the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center. Divided into two three-week her child should experience the joy of creativity and expres- intervention works.” the earlier the intervention begins, the better the ultimate sessions, Camp TRIAD serves children ranging from ages 6 sion, Hammett signed Grace up for art, music and dance/move- Researcher Wendy Stone has developed a tool Stone came to Vanderbilt outcome. to 18, comprising 70 percent who have autism and 30 percent ment therapy classes, and immediately recognized that Grace for assessing the risk of autism in children as in the late 1980s and spent Critical for clinicians is the ability to distinguish between who are typically developing. The camp offers these children had talent as an artist. young as 24 months. years flying solo—the only autism and other forms of mental retardation. Professor of exercises in social skills and the chance to work and play as Although Grace struggles with manual dexterity and has

34 F all 2006 V anderbilt Magazine 35

trouble holding a pencil and writing her name, she can grasp but she is not yet conversational. Although she has not engaged They can only guess as to how that is externalized in learn- For a while, some people argued that thimerosal, a mer- a paintbrush and a glue stick and is capable of creating vibrant in self-injury, such as the head-banging and arm-biting ing and behavior. cury-based additive in childhood vaccines, was behind the works of mixed media. that is stereotypical of many older children with autism, Without question, scientists agree that genes play a large rise in autism cases—but that theory has not held up under “Grace’s greatest artistic strength is her sense of color she has gone through episodes of wetting her pants and role in autism. Through studies of identical twins, investiga- scientific scrutiny. Thimerosal was removed from Ameri- and composition,” explains her mother, showing off a liv- ripping her clothes. Meanwhile her parents and teachers strug- tors have found that autism is one of the most “heritable” can vaccines in 1999, and as far as anyone can tell, there has ing-room wall adorned with her daughter’s paintings.“Here gle to find a reason why a child who is normally so easygo- of all the neuropsychiatric disorders, meaning that if one been no subsequent decline in ASD in children born after you have a child who is communicatively, socially and cog- ing, sweet and compliant would engage in those behaviors. identical twin has autism, there is an 80 to 90 percent chance that time. Environmental factors have proved a formidable nitively challenged, but who can produce these beautiful Grace has now “maxed out” on many of the Kennedy Cen- that the other twin also will have inherited a vulnerability for challenge to solvers of the ASD puzzle—first, because so many expressions of art. Everything in her paintings is very method- ter studies that younger children with an ASD can partici- the disorder. By comparison, the heritability between iden- ically and thoughtfully placed. It’s not random.” pate in for free—and her mother is not happy about that. The tical twins for schizophrenia is 45 percent and for depression, Grace’s artistic compositions have appeared in numer- cost of various ASD therapies and interventions can be exor- around 25 percent. People have blamed autism on everything ous art shows and exhibitions, and Hammett dreams of her bitant, upwards of thousands of dollars a year. Participants Geneticist James Sutcliffe, associate professor of molecu- daughter one day attending high school part time at the in studies at the Kennedy Center usually have access to a mul- lar physiology and biophysics and psychiatry, has been exam- from infections in the mother to toxins Nashville School for the Arts. tidisciplinary team, a medley of therapists and behavioral ining abnormalities on various chromosomes that may be “But I’ve got to make a tremendous leap here,”Leisa admits. analysts, as part of the study criteria. implicated in autism. Unlike Down syndrome, where the pres- in pesticides, to the use of ultrasound, “I’ve got to get her out of one-on-one art production and Kennedy Center Director Pat Levitt acknowledges the fall- ence of an extra copy of a specific chromosome is responsi- into a group setting. And how do I do that? We’ve now hit off all across the country in treatments available to meet the ble for the disorder, autism may be caused by a combination that gap. We’re not in early intervention anymore.” needs of pre- and post-pubertal children with an ASD. of discreet changes in individual genes or by larger chromo- to allergens in the diet. The actual cause In truth, Grace remains positioned right in the middle of “Life transitions have really been under-supported, under- somal defects involving many genes. Sutcliffe and his col- the autism spectrum. She can feed herself but still reads on a researched, and we have a huge dilemma,”Levitt says, adding leagues have found a number of genetic mutations affecting may be some combination of these or first-grade level. She understands most of what is said to her, that the Kennedy Center is making plans for hiring experts in levels of the chemical serotonin in the brain that provide a adolescent ASD.“There’s a period of time before puberty when link between autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder. other exposures. some kids show aggressive and self-injurious behaviors, and “If you look at first-degree relatives of people with autism, then it gets better. Then all of a sudden it reappears again just that is, siblings and parents, you see increased rates of obses- after puberty or in their 20s, and we don’t know why. sive-compulsive disorder, of major depression and of anxi- potential causes are out there, and second, because these expo- “The way the medical world has been managing the behav- ety disorders,”Sutcliffe says.“So there is growing and strong sures trigger genetic changes in only a subset of children. Peo- ioral issues is with pills. That’s bad because over time the pills evidence that the genetic factors in autism are going to be ple have blamed everything from infections in the mother to lose their effectiveness. So they add another pill and another related to the genetic factors in things like depression and toxins in pesticides, to the use of ultrasound, to allergens in pill and another pill. In our Behavioral Analysis Clinic, [Direc- obsessive-compulsive disorder. In the parent or sibling, they the diet. Worse still, the actual cause may be some combi- tor] Craig Kennedy has had teenage and adult patients who may be mild manifestations of what is seen in the extreme in nation of these or other exposures. come to him taking many different psychotropic medications an autistic child.” Sutcliffe believes once scientists understand the biologi- at the same time—at the extreme, up to 12! To be honest, I’m Given its strong genetic component, basic scientists are cal mechanisms for autism, they very well may “back into” not sure we’d be allowed to do that in our experimental stud- taking a multi-pronged approach to decoding the autism understanding the environmental agents that are also involved. ies on mice.” rebus. Sutcliffe is participating in the Autism Genome Pro- They may find that a certain molecular pathway is interrupted Once children with a severe autistic disorder reach ado- ject, a consortium of researchers collaborating to analyze in people with an ASD and then parse out which chemicals lescence, they can be larger and stronger than the grown-ups “multiplex” families, where two or more members have been or infections can damage that pathway. around them, and they may exhibit behaviors that are danger- diagnosed with an ASD. Using genomic testing, investigators ous to themselves and others. Pills may temporarily allay the hope to discover unique genes these family members share. n understanding of autism is further obscured aggression, but they will not get to the root of the problem. Of course, defining the genetic culprits in ASD probably by the fact that the phenotype covers such a wide In fact, the genesis of ASD remains a mystery. Scien- won’t have an immediate impact on families dealing day by array of symptoms and behaviors. Diagnosed tists do know this much: The structural architecture of day with autism. On the other hand, it might give scientists with an ASD, Evan Shouse, 10, has a twin brother, the brains of people with autism differs from the typical their first real foothold into the disorder. From there they can aBrendan, who is typically developing and a 17- person’s brain, but doctors aren’t sure whether this is a cause begin to identify risk factors, develop screening tests for ear- year-old sister, Emma, who is also typical. Long- or a result of the disorder. The brains of children with autism lier diagnosis, and design drug therapies that target specific limbed and athletic, with an acrobatic sense of balance, Evan tend to grow at a faster rate by age 2, although certain areas abnormal molecules. is more even-tempered than his twin brother and adjusts to of the brain seem to grow at a slower rate. Using advanced Complicating matters further are environmental factors most transitions without a problem. computerized X-ray technology, researchers have found that that scientists are a long way from understanding. In other “He’s one of those kids who blows the autism stereotype certain portions of the ASD brain show signs of inflamma- words, even with a genetic propensity towards autism, a child out of the water,” says his father, John Shouse. “You hear tion, and the section known as the amygdala, which con- must have some outside exposure that occurs before birth how kids with autism won’t engage in pretend play. Evan trols emotion, perception of danger and social behavior, is and influences the cascade of events taking place during devel- loves to dress up, to wear a cape and sword. And he’s very enlarged. Yet, recent studies out of the University of Cali- opment. Says TRIAD Director Stone, “We don’t know what affectionate.” Although Grace Goad struggles with manual dexterity, she can fornia at San Diego indicate that the amygdala in males with these environmental contributions are. It could be that more As if on cue, Emma walks into the room carrying Evan, who grasp a paintbrush and is a talented artist. autism appears to have a decreased number of neurons. environmental toxins are creating more stressors in utero.” is draped around her thin frame in an adoring bear hug. Emma

36 F all 2006 V anderbilt Magazine 37

ammi McDaniel is one of those children with an ASD habits to parents. She also is preparing to conduct an early- who did experience a breakthrough—an awakening, stage clinical trial on the relationship between sleep distur- in the literal sense. Tammi was a turbulent sleeper. bances in ASD and melatonin, a naturally occurring hormone Her mother says she’d wake up in the middle of the that is reportedly deficient in autism. t night and hold a “mini-concert,”singing for 30 min- “Our hypothesis is that the level of natural melatonin may utes before going back to sleep. Willing to try any of correlate with sleep disturbance, and that giving children with the studies that the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center was offering, ASD supplemental melatonin may help insomnia,”she the McDaniels enrolled Tammi in a sleep study when she was says. “What’s really nice about melatonin is that it’s natural, 6. Neurologist Dr. Beth Malow, director of the Vanderbilt it appeals to parents, it’s bio-friendly, and the side effects are Sleep Disorders Center, diagnosed Tammi with obstructive minimal.” sleep apnea, a disorder that causes sleep to be disrupted, tak- The next major breakthrough in autism research, says Van- ing a toll on a child’s ability to function optimally during the derbilt Kennedy Center Director Pat Levitt, will arise from day. Subsequently, Tammi had surgery to remove her tonsils the collaboration of investigators like Paul Yoder, Wendy Stone and adenoids, which had been blocking off her nasal pas- and Beth Malow, who join forces with clinicians, pediatric sages. It turned out her tonsils had been so enlarged that eat- sub-specialists, therapists, educators, geneticists, neurobi- ing was an unpleasant activity for Tammi,and she would gag ologists, electrophysiologists and engineers to tease out the on her food because she was trying to breathe through her myriad factors that place a child on the autism spectrum. mouth and eat at the same time. “Early identification and new techniques for interven- “A week after she had her tonsils out, she was eating like a tion—that’s where I think the big changes will be,”Levitt says. horse,”says her mother, Angela. As therapies become more targeted to address individual Tammi also was put on a gluten- and casein-free diet, cases, one by one, he predicts, more and more children will whereupon she seemed to “come out of a fog,”which led to begin inching their way off the autism spectrum. V quick improvements in some areas, but she also became over- loaded with sensory inputs and regressed in other areas. She Evan Shouse, with his parents, twin brother, Brendan, and sister, Emma, exhibits deficits in his expressive language but bucks other stereotypes of children with autism. soon reached an equilibrium, allowing her to focus better and handle more demands. She became less whiny and anxious. puts him down, and he chirps once and runs off to play. room wastebasket, which his father was able to put out, but Her coping, reasoning and social skills shot forward, and her The Shouses aren’t sure where Evan falls on the spectrum only after it had caused a substantial amount of damage. rate of learning picked up speed. because he has major deficits in his expressive language, When Evan acts out this way, his parents must backtrack “It’s amazing what getting a good night’s sleep will do for although his receptive language is probably close to normal mentally through recent events to figure out why he might you,”marvels Angela. Today Tammi is deemed “twice excep- for his age. Says his mother, Janet Shouse, “I can’t ask him be upset. Sometimes he goes for long stretches, months even, tional” because she tests out as academically gifted but attends how he feels and get an answer. I find out he’s sick when he without any of these destructive episodes. special education classes for social-skills training. Her mother throws up on one of us.” Evan also has a variety of interests. He observed his father is now cautiously optimistic that Tammi may one day come Rather than verbalize his frustrations, anger or desires, using the search engine Google on his computer and imi- off the spectrum. Evan tends to break glass objects. He once set fire to a bath- tated him. His family discovered this when he presented “She’ll always need extra help in learning social skills, and them with a list he’d written from memory while at school. she is able to learn them now. She cares. She wants to learn It was a full credit scroll from the Disney animated film The how to fit in and how to make friends,”Angela says. “Get- Many children are now moving from Emperor’s New Groove that included the names of all the ting her tonsils out was a shot in the dark, and look what it’s directors, screenwriters, producers, voice talent, animators, done for us.” the lower-functioning to the higher- composers and lyricists. Dr. Malow says at least half the children on the autism The Shouse family refuses to feel imprisoned by Evan’s spectrum are affected by sleep disorders, but only a small per- autism. They go to the movies, the mall, the toy store, and centage have obstructive apnea. Insomnia, she says, seems to functioning end of the spectrum and, to certain restaurants (which is tricky because Evan is aller- be an intrinsic part of autism, and the disorder itself may gic to wheat, soy and dairy products and is on a gluten-free, be causing some children not to sleep well. Studies have linked in some cases, are making enough casein-free, soy-free diet). Although they try not to let it sleep problems in children with an ASD with stereotypic autis- dominate their lives, still, John admits,“I go to bed at night tic behaviors like repetitiveness and compulsiveness, and, progress to “leave” the autism spectrum thinking about autism, and I wake up in the morning think- in teenagers, with self-injurious behaviors—tempered with ing about autism.” the knowledge that even typically developing children, when altogether. These children bear the torch Their family dynamic is about to undergo a cataclysmic grossly sleep deprived, are likely to become hyperactive, inat- change. Emma—patient, compassionate, loving sister to her tentive and hypersensitive. of hope for others. little brothers—will leave for college next year. Unless Evan As a rule, Malow does not prescribe sedatives and nar- has a remarkable breakthrough in expressive communica- cotics to address the issue because of potential side effects Tammi McDaniel, second from right, is deemed “twice exceptional.” She tests out as tion, he won’t be able to convey how that makes him feel. and withdrawal symptoms. Instead she teaches good sleep academically gifted but attends special education classes for social-skills training.

38 F all 2006 V anderbilt Magazine 39

A PipsqueakAMONG GIANTS

How a 145-pound walk-on went the distance with one of

Vanderbilt’s greatest teams ever By GARY GERSON, BS’85 | Illustrations by KEVIN MENCK A t the beginning of my freshman year at Vanderbilt in 1981, I joined the marching band. I lasted about two weeks, when I figured out I was no longer the big band boy I had been in high school back in Morristown, Tenn. After the director told me he wanted me to move props around during the halftime shows rather than star on the xylophone, quitting marching band was an easy decision. I would have more time to goof off and wallow in self-pity. I started hanging around with the football players in their dorm rooms at night, though they were usually too tired to do anything except telephone their moms and study a little and play bad electric guitar. These guys were huge and good looking and always tired out, but tired with a sense of satisfaction and accom- plishment. Though I hadn’t gone out for football in high school, I had always read about college football players in Sports Illustrated and had glamorized them through my adolescence, worshiping them at UT while I was growing up in East Tennessee. Now I was living with football players, watching them drink beer and have girls around (usually not Vandy girls, who were a bit too demure and smug and off-limits) and be cool in that casual way.

40 F all 2006

I found a bit of substance at WRVU, where I got my “Well, let’s get your name and address on the list and get eventually start at tackle as a freshman, hold that position own time slot, rising to become a very bad disc jockey who you a workout schedule. You stick to this good!” he bel- for four years, make All-American, and later become the could only play Springsteen and The Who because I knew lowed, handing me a timetable of sprinting drills and lift- first million-dollar offensive lineman in the NFL with Buf- nothing else. Some of the freshman football players noticed ing techniques, most in a foreign language of squats and falo and Indianapolis and Pittsburgh. He was probably me on the radio and got a kick out of knowing who I was: shrugs and power-pulls. I stood there, dumb, until he com- Vanderbilt’s best football player ever, though linemen rarely “Yo, dude, you were righteous on the radio, man.” manded me to leave. earn that type of distinction. I got to eat chicken and french At the end of the first year, my grades stunk but I was There was no turning back now. I was going to learn fries with Will at the training table in his first week of big- happy to have joined a nerdy Jewish fraternity, where I was how to fly, to bench press a million pounds, to push intrud- time college football, and he was tickled that I was trying the star athlete during intramurals. I was a mediocre foot- ers away at every turn, to sweat nobly like I had never sweat this game out for the first time. ball and basketball player but very good compared to my before. All 5-foot-10, 145 pounds of me was going to be a I took whatever padding the manager put on me, and frat brothers, the Jewish academicians of Alpha Epsilon Pi. football player for the Vanderbilt University Commodores. that included two pairs of cleats, one for artificial turf and I gained more confidence with every game and was thrilled one for grass, that would be mine forever, no matter what. that these guys counted on me athletically. worked that summer of 1982 at the Holiday Inn I got a gold helmet with “GERSON” spelled out in white Eventually, I got enough nerve to joke to one of the var- I restaurant back in Morristown. I got off in the early athletic tape. In my locker basket was a mesh bag with skin- sity receivers about sort-of, maybe, trying out for the real afternoon and headed to the Nautilus gym for intro- tight gray shorts, a gray half T-shirt, socks and a jockstrap. football team. We both knew I would be the worst player ductory weight lifting. After a few weeks, little biceps start- I had never worn a jockstrap before and didn’t know that on the worst team in the Southeastern Conference, proba- ed to show up on my skinny arms. I ran wind sprints and your butt hangs out, uncovered. bly in Division I, and perhaps in the whole NCAA. But it speed laps on the high school track every day. I visited the There were shoulder pads (too big; I had to trade them was possible that I could make the team, he said, since they coach at my old high school and borrowed a helmet and in later, embarrassed) and leg and girdle pads, which fit rarely cut anyone who had heart and worked hard. I loved shoulder pads. At home I put on the helmet and pads and, into little slots in the uniform practice pants. For the rest of him for telling me I should go ahead and do it. with a tentative jogging start, ran into our garage wall over my life, I would have that bad dream where the game was During the last week of school in the spring of 1982, I and over, trying to imagine what it would feel like to get hit. starting and I could not fit all the pads into their proper breathed in the bravest air I could find and walked with I made sure nobody was watching as I hit the brick: Wham! places, frantically trying to make them go in, and I would stony legs over to the McGugin Center. I asked a small gray- Wham! Wham! always wake up in a panic. How many other football players haired man where I might find Coach George MacIntyre. Mom and Dad were quick to point out that no one was have had that dream, years after their last game? He smiled a pixie smile and told me I was speaking to him. pressuring me to go out there on that field with those big I was not a very good receiver, but I didn’t totally stink. I said breathlessly,“I’m sorry to bother you, sir, and I know men, only to get my neck broken and my leg pulled off. Coach “Flip” [Gene DeFilippo] was patient enough to teach I had never worn a jock strap you must be busy and I’m very small and have no experi- They said I could quit at any time; it was fine with them. It all of us the correct pass routes, and I listened hard and ence, but I want to play football next year.” was kind of like reverse Jewish guilt, where they tried to get learned where to put my feet and hands and head on every and didn’t know that your I started to list more reasons why he should not have me me not to do something. All the friends in our close-knit step, becoming more confident every day. I loved, absolute- on his team, but the coach cut me off and said he would be Jewish community let the folks know that I was insane. ly loved, being out on that field in the stadium. I got artifi- butt hangs out, uncovered. glad to have me, that there were lots of places I could help Even though I was a sophomore in the fall of 1982, I was cial-turf burns on my elbows and knees from falling and the team. “Coach Mac” told me to go find “Doc” in the allowed to come to the freshman football camp a week ear- skidding on the fake grass that first week, and they stung in There were shoulder pads weight room—and then he was off to a meeting and I was lier than the rest of the varsity. I walked into camp with the the shower when the water hit, as if someone were rubbing still alive. He had taken me seriously. idea that I would do whatever it took to stay on the team. I the wound with sandpaper as the skin contracted. I learned and leg and girdle pads. For With almost no breath left, I staggered in a daze to the would let everyone know that I was there to learn and help to tape my elbows before practice. weight room, where E.J. “Doc” Kreis presided like royalty in any way, and that no one was to worry about me being Other walk-ons quit and went home, frustrated because the rest of my life, I would behind his desk, a knowing scowl behind a walrus mus- disappointed. the coaches could not see how wonderful they were. When have that bad dream where tache. He was a monster of a man who could have eaten me I soon realized that the other walk-ons had been football the rest of the varsity returned after my week’s introduc- in one bite. stars at their high schools, while I had played the xylophone tion to the game, my old friends from the year before were the game was starting and Doc looked me over with great skepticism, and his voice at halftime. Some of them were huge and muscularly de- astounded to see me on the practice field. From that first boomed, “Well, where the hell have you been all spring?” fined, while others were just big goofy kids. They were all day they treated me like one of them, every man on the var- I could not fit all the pads I looked absolutely like I would wet my pants, I am sure. just like I was—nervous and excited and ready to earn a sity respecting me for sweating and aching alongside them. “Uh … I didn’t know I was supposed to …,”I began, feebly. spot somewhere doing something, though many thought I threatened no one else’s playing time, and that probably into their proper places, and “Hell! You didn’t know you needed to be in this weight they would be stars by the time the season started. helped. room, gettin’ yourself ready? What do you think, this is all Many of the new freshmen were humble and kind, like We ran pass-routes over and over. I learned that, while I would wake up in a panic. fun? You think this is television?” Will Wolford, who was the most likable and earnest of the painfully slow, I could make a few head-fakes and get open “No, sir.”That was the first time in my life I just stopped freshmen. Will was an amazing athlete. He was 6-foot-6 when playing against the good defensive backs. Sometimes and shut my mouth. and 280 pounds and could dunk a basketball. He would that would make the other receivers shout out my name in

42 F all 2006 V anderbilt Magazine 43

Sometimes the receivers We lost “between the hedges” down at Georgia after leading into the fourth quarter; had we won that game, we would shout out my name would have been conference champs and gone to the Sugar Bowl. Against Mississippi, linebacker Joe Staley intercepted in delight when I made a a pass to preserve a narrow victory. Some say that was the play that made our season. With every dramatic win a pos- decent catch or got the sible bowl invitation loomed closer. People around the country were starting to talk about us. Gamblers in Las Ve- defender turned around. gas won a lot of money betting on Vanderbilt. It was hard to tell if they I got to suit up against Virginia Tech in the middle of the season because they were non-conference. We de- were making fun of me or stroyed them. Leading 45-0 in the final minutes, my team- mates started to chant my name. Holy cow! Were they go- not, but it didn’t matter. ing to put me in? Coach Mac called me up on the sideline.“Gerse,”he said Getting a slap on the back with his pixie grin and sad-dog eyes,“I’d love to put you in, but I didn’t have a chance to check your eligibility, so I can’t or a high-five became my do it. You understand?” He could see how shaken and relieved I was.“Coach, I’m only goal. so glad, ’cause if you put me in, my heart would probably come right out of my jersey.” That quote made the Monday Tennessean in an article about how this Vandy squad was made of real team players, from superstar quarterback Whit Taylor all the way down to little Gary Gerson. My parents were sent copies of the delight when I made a decent catch or got the defender hanging around the frat, a sort-of real football player. joined the huddle, slapped and shrouded in praise by my paper from friends all over the state. turned around and stumbly. It was hard to tell if they were After a while, when the depth chart got established and I teammates. Moments like those became my Saturdays. After that game we went into the locker room and lis- making fun of me or not, but it didn’t matter. Getting a slap was in place in the far basement, I got moved over to the tened to Coach Mac. He told us with great excitement that on the back or a high-five from a teammate became my scout team with the other bottom dwellers to help teach the s the season began it became clear that this Van- we had been invited to play in the Hall of Fame Bowl in only goal, and I got to catch some passes from Whit Taylor, defense what to expect from each upcoming opponent’s of- A derbilt team was special. Doc had made the play- Birmingham on New Year’s Eve. The coaches were teary- the second-highest-rated passer in the country that year fense. I took this role very seriously and worked hard each ers strong and fast with his demanding off-season eyed and hugging each other and jumping around. It was (behind the great John Elway), every day in practice. He practice. Once I got to be Willie Gault, the world-class strength program. Our offense was innovative, relying on a the first winning season in 10 years for Vanderbilt, and I was the best quarterback in Vanderbilt history, some say, sprinter from Tennessee, and I was assigned an orange jer- short passing attack in place of an inside rushing game, es- would get to go with them to Birmingham. though Jay Cutler in 2005 was pretty darned good. Whit sey with number 80 on it. That’s probably where the com- pecially after our star running back, Ernie Goolsby, went There were a bunch of important-looking men in the was the same size as me, though a little thicker. One of his parisons stopped, but I wore it with pride as the varsity down for the season in the opener at Memphis State. Our locker room that day after the game. One man, wearing a linebacker friends, Joe Staley, used to call out to him when- boys pounded me. offensive coordinator, Watson Brown, who had been a for- sticker on his lapel that said “Hall of Fame Bowl,”offered ever he completed a great pass, in falsetto,“Oh, Whit honey, One day I was told to run a post-corner pattern against mer wunderkind quarterback at Vanderbilt a few years ear- me congratulations. I thanked him and asked if he was on kiss my baby!” The whole team would crack up. our first defense, which meant I was supposed to run a long lier, was the true leader of the team, getting extra yards and the bowl committee. He said, “No, son, I’m the chancellor As September arrived it started to sink in that I had not route, first looking over my inside shoulder to fake the de- touchdowns out of men much smaller than the ones at of Vanderbilt.”It was Joe B. Wyatt, whom I had not recog- been dismissed yet. Coach Mac, while busy with important fender and then suddenly turning to the outside. As I came Tennessee and Michigan and Notre Dame. After an early nized. Guess I should have paid attention to the campus matters of running the team, seemed to like me, and the out of my final turn, the ball was in the air and coming over season loss to Alabama, our season started to take shape. newspaper more often. rest of the team adopted me as sort of a pet, a curiosity. My my outside shoulder. I jumped higher than I ever had be- Highly ranked Florida came to Nashville on a perfect On the way out the door, Doc handed me an envelope— parents continued to worry, but there came a fabulous sat- fore and made a one-handed snatch, flipping over in mid- night, and our bend-but-don’t-break defense held them in $10 in meal money. I was getting paid for all this, too! I isfaction when the school year began and the harsh presea- air and landing on my shoulder and head just in-bounds, place for much of the game, even though the great James showed the $10 bill to my folks outside the stadium with son practices ended. My parents could tell their friends that ball in my grasp. The first offensive team and coaching staff Jones of the Gators (and later the NFL Detroit Lions) had great pride at what I had “earned.” Dad reminded me that I was healthy and an honest-to-goodness member of the across the field had just taken a water break and happened over 200 yards rushing. We won 38-31. Forty-two thousand another $10,990 would repay that year’s tuition loan. football team. The smart Jewish boys at the Alpha Epsilon to be looking my way, and they let out a shriek of delight at loyal fans went crazy, and it was obvious that this team was We beat Tennessee in the rain to end the season, and the Pi house teased me ceaselessly about becoming the jock my catch. I trotted back to the scout-team quarterback and going to be different from every other Vanderbilt team in newspaper picture of Whit Taylor with the ball held over his amongst them, and I could tell they were happy to have me looked so cool as I casually flipped him the ball and re- recent memory. head as he crossed the goal line with the winning touchdown

44 F all 2006 V anderbilt Magazine 45

was symbolic and satisfying. Our final regular-season record The two littlest children stared at me with open mouths, was 8-3, the best in decades for starving Vandy fans. and a smiling man, perhaps their father, sat in a pair of I figured if I drove to Birmingham from my grandmoth- shorts on the arm of an easy chair, gently stroking the head er’s condo in Fort Lauderdale, I could sell the airplane tick- and face of a sleeping infant on his lap. Nobody really said et that had been provided by the bowl committee and put a anything, but it was understood that the dropping-in was few dollars in my pocket. I had the nerve to beg a ride to accepted and appreciated. After refusing a cold drink and Birmingham from Allama Matthews, the tight end, and big some food, we continued on. Our visit there was soon only cornerback Leonard Coleman, the interception king, two a dream, a world I would not know. But these visits meant All-Americans who lived in Florida. Allama reluctantly said that I would never begrudge the money these two men yes, but only if I drove part of the way while he slept. I said would earn in the NFL. I would be glad to. I had never driven a stick shift before. In the lockers before the game, the coaches were walking I spent Christmas with my family at my grandmother’s in circles with tears in their eyes. They had just learned that condo, proud to be out on the beach with my new body, which Watson Brown had accepted the head coaching job at the had some decent muscles from all that running and lifting. University of Cincinnati, a great loss for our team. That I loved going to the beach just so I could show off a little, no meant the breakup of an exceptional coaching staff that longer a little squirrel inside my shirt. My weight was up to had brought our tiny school a great season, a bowl invita- about 170, and there was no fat. tion, and a rare win against the Big Orange. Allama picked me up near the interstate in Fort Laud- And so the game began. I stood on the sidelines while erdale, and we continued on to Boynton Beach for 75,000 people cheered us on. In the third quarter Norman Leonard. When we got there I saw that Leonard, who Jordan scored another touchdown on a pass from Whit would be in the NFL in a few years, lived in a tiny house Taylor as we were appearing to dominate our opponent. and had a little boy a few years old. This was shocking to On the sideline after the play, I heard Norman say to his old me, naive kid that I was, that a college student could have a buddy Whit with a knowing smile, “We’re just showin’ off child who was fathered in high school. Mean Leonard, who now!” Little did he know. scowled at me during practice and never hesitated to bury We were stunned when the Air Force quarterback his helmet between my shoulder blades when I tried to turned a third-down sneak play into a very long touch- I had the nerve to beg a ride from the tight end and the big catch the ball, was kissing his little boy over and over as he down run. That put the Force up for good, and they won by said goodbye. It was a moment of confusion to me, eight points. There was not much sadness, really, as the cornerback. Allama said yes, but only if I drove part of the Leonard living in the housing projects of Boynton Beach game seemed anticlimactic compared to the season as a and loving his little boy so much. whole, especially when held against the Tennessee win, but way while he slept. I said I would be glad to. I had never We decided to drive overnight and reach Alabama in the it still stung. morning. I got behind the wheel of Allama’s Celica about Whit Taylor was saluted as player of the game, despite driven a stick shift before. midnight, hoping they wouldn’t notice my gear-shifting the score, having thrown for more than 500 yards in a tru- skills amounted to grinding hamburger. As they slept I ly remarkable performance. This overshadowed, unfairly, cruised down Interstate 10, focusing on not falling asleep. I the 20 receptions by Norman Jordan, the tiny, dedicated of photos of me and my teammates, with me looking em- the unforgiving artificial turf. Looking back at all the scabs didn’t notice that the car I passed at 80 miles per hour had running back who had been the X-factor in Coach Brown’s barrassed the whole time. What a year it had been, the best and stingers and ice baths, there was no doubt I had regu- blue lights on top. offense the whole season. These two players had been year in Vanderbilt football in forever, and I had been told larly gotten the hell kicked out of me by huge men. The Florida state trooper was kind as I nervously ex- friends and teammates forever, and it was the last game by Whit and Norman and others that I had been a key part But I had not quit. I had never thought of quitting. And plained that the two sleeping giants in the car were Vander- Norman would play in pads. Whit got drafted into the of our success. I had gotten stronger and faster and smarter. I finally had bilt stars on the way to a bowl game. He let me go, unim- USFL and was a backup with the Michigan Panthers (Bob- some arms with a little meat on them. On the field I had pressed, warning me to turn off my brights if I decided to by Hebert was the first-stringer), came back to coaching at ooking back, it all came at a price, as football al- gotten a tiny bit of respect from men who were All-Ameri- pass another car. Allama awoke just as we were driving Vandy for my senior year, and then played a bit more in the L ways does. You never play football for free. You cans and going to the NFL. It was worth every bit of pain— away. I told him to go back to sleep, that everything was all Arena Football League. Everyone admired those two and may pay for it when you are 16, 40 or 70—but you and not something that could be explained to most people right, except for my racing heart and dry mouth and the their quiet leadership and how far they had taken little Van- pay. All season I had been getting beat up on a daily basis. who had never played football. V thought that I almost got a ticket in his car. derbilt. Norman soon became a Nashville stockbroker and There was the helmet underneath my shoulder pads that We stopped near the Alabama border at 3 a.m. to see Al- I’m pretty sure made a lot of money. Playing on the same knocked everything around my right deltoid out of place, Gary Gerson is a science teacher and head football coach for lama’s relatives. We woke the whole household just to say team with them and Will and Leonard and Allama and Joe my shoulder aching nonstop for the next several years. I the Cranbrook Schools in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. This article hello. I felt sheepish as a realized I was the only white per- was a huge honor for this little walk-on. had smashed every one of my fingers at some point, and is taken from a memoir, Scoring Points: Love and Football son in this tiny, crowded house in the middle of the night. So we all went home, but not before Mom took all kinds there was practically no skin on my knees and elbows from in the Age of AIDS.

46 F all 2006 V anderbilt Magazine 47

By DEBRA MCKINNEY Photography by MARC LESTER The Woman Who Welcomed

Lynne Ballew’s home is a hotel room with no kitchen, no dining table, not even a closet. She doesn’t mind because she has no need for such things. She eats on the fly—whatever the local soup kitchen delivers that day— and she owns only two pairs of secondhand jeans. She doesn’t even have what most people would consider a proper bed: Books stacked in plastic milk crates and cardboard boxes full of grant proposals and scholarly papers serve in lieu of box springs beneath her mattress. She lives this way entirely on purpose. ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS MARC LESTER/

48 F all 2006 V anderbilt Magazine 49

What she values in terms of “things” is a ment. She then turned her attention to hous- so problems don’t define who people are. But wall of floor-to-ceiling books, heavy on Homer ing. The place she helped create, and now those who stay must be referred by one of nearly Safe Harbor isn’t a and other works of classical antiquity. Because calls home, is Safe Harbor Inn. There’s noth- 50 social-service agencies hooked into the Safe homeless shelter or she would never flaunt it, the homeless men, ing else quite like it in the country. Harbor mission. Even so, they’re guests, not women and children staying in the rooms Safe Harbor isn’t a homeless shelter or a clients. They arrive to find chocolates on their a housing project. around her have no idea that the 60-year-old housing project. It’s a nonprofit hotel, a kind pillows, private bathrooms decked out with Ballew has a Ph.D. in classical philology from of sanctuary where people coming out of tub toys, and people behind every door facing It’s a nonprofit hotel, Vanderbilt or that she taught Greek philos- shelters or off the streets can work things out some of the same struggles they are. ophy at Boston College. Or that she trans- before moving into homes of their own. More than a hotel even, Safe Harbor is a a kind of sanctuary lates the astrological writings of Marsilio Ballew’s vision was to create a place that neighborhood. Ficino from Renaissance Latin into English wouldn’t get the life smothered out of it by “Sort of a cross between Fawlty Towers where people coming for kicks. That she loves opera. That she once government rules and regulations. Above all, and Cheers—without the booze,”as a guest dated Frank Zappa. she wanted a place that radiated dignity. That’s once put it. out of shelters or off What’s led her to this bare-bones life is why Safe Harbor has the ambiance of a coun- With her education, Ballew could be mak- empathy, compassion and outrage. And try inn rather than a transitional housing ing a living that affords a nice house, with a the streets can work Anchorage, Alaska, is a better place for it. facility, with rooms decked out in used-but- bathroom as big as the room that’s now things out before Ballew, BA’68,MA’74,PhD’75, first trav- classy solid wood furniture, cheery bedspreads, her home. But she’d be miserable. This is eled to Anchorage in 1977 and has made a and walls painted in warm Tuscan colors. where she wants to be. moving into homes long list of contributions to the city ever since. “None of those bad-day-out-on-the-tun- “It’s the least phony place in the world,” Among them was creating a soup kitchen dra colors,”she says.“The nicer it is, the bet- she says. of their own. where people could get a hot meal and a warm ter it works.” Ballew lives in one of the smaller rooms, place to be without any preaching or judg- Safe Harbor offers no social services on site, a stone’s throw from the office. As project direc-

tor she works the noon-to-11-p.m. shift, mak- I guess I’m just fortunate in that the things ynne Ballew grew up in the same ing sure guests have what they need, helping I really love, enjoy, and think make life worth consumer society we all did; she them navigate a maze of bureaucratic paper- living don’t cost anything.” Ljust never bought into it. “I was work and offering physical labor—hauling Safe Harbor has been a dream more than raised by people who had too much boxes, bedding and donated couches when 25 years in the making.“She’s worked so hard money, and it made them miserable,”she they finally move into apartments of their own. for this to happen, it was natural for her to says. “So I learned from very early on that Actually, it’s more like the 24/7 shift. When move in,”says her daughter Leesie. “It’s the money doesn’t buy happiness.” her day is done—which never really happens meaning of her life. It’s what gives her the She, along with a twin sister, was born in because she’s always on call—she heads home most joy.” San Francisco and adopted into a home to do the books and other computer work, Although countless others have contributed she doesn’t like to talk about too much. usually until about 3 a.m. Then, if she has to the creation of Safe Harbor, Ballew is the “Unfortunately, my adoptive parents, who any brain power left, she pulls out Greek or reason it exists. Those who have seen her in were consumers first, last and foremost, always Latin poetry because, as she says, “you can action consider her an organizational genius. made it very clear that if we weren’t really never read Homer too many times in Greek.” Whenever the city or state bestows honors good we’d be taken back. You know, like we She sleeps late, until noon if she can— upon her, she’s gracious enough to show up were a purchase and, if defective, we were and she’s finally learned to stop apologizing for the ceremony, but she doesn’t really like going back to the adoption agency. So the for that. that sort of thing. She prefers keeping a contingency of existence and the fragility of She doesn’t get paid for any of this. Every- low profile, being the engine under the hood life on earth was something I always knew. thing she has ever done for Safe Harbor, from rather than the ornament upon it. And I never wanted to perpetuate that.” the time the board formed seven years ago Neil Olson, who came to Safe Harbor after Ballew was a triple major in Latin, Greek until this very moment, she’s done as a volun- decades of drinking and living on the streets, and philosophy at Vanderbilt. Then she teer. So she can go about fundraising with a doesn’t know about any of that; he just can’t entered graduate school at Yale. There she clear conscience and no conflicts of interest. get over how strong she is. became one of the founders of the Yale Review That’s how important Safe Harbor is to her. “You wouldn’t think so since she’s not very of Law and Social Action, one of only two She lives off small pensions from previous big,”he says.“The more I hang around her, the women on the board of editors, the other jobs and a little income from some property more she amazes me. I asked her some time being Hillary Rodham. she sold. She eats the same food and dresses back,‘What’s your deal? How come you’re here? “From there I went on to be a welfare the same way as those living around her. You don’t drink, you don’t have problems.’ mother, and she went on to Bill Clinton.” What Lynne Ballew values in terms of “things” is a wall of floor-to-ceiling books, heavy on Homer and other works of classical antiquity. “I squeak by,” she says.“My wants are small. “‘Workaholic,’she said.” That “welfare mother” stint came in 1970

50 F all 2006 V anderbilt Magazine 51

“What impresses me known as Fannie Mae’s National Housing “The rules are pretty minimal,”says Ballew. physical mistake and an ethical mistake to Impact Division. “No alcohol, no drugs, no visitors in your assume that stuff is the key to happiness,”she is that she lives right When she returned to Alaska in 1995, she room. Mind your manners. Be nice to peo- says of the way she chooses to live. set about making Safe Harbor happen. What ple. Keep your room reasonably clean.” “The travel writer Bruce Chatwin has this where she works. she learned at Fannie Mae is that a project Safe Harbor staff members, most of them piece in his book The Songlines about how like this didn’t need to be complicated. former guests, do safety inspections. nomadic people are happier than settled peo- That’s the test, isn’t it? “The secret to our success can be summed “If it looks like a grenade has gone off in ple because they only take with them what up by saying that we are not in the social serv- the room, then SpongeBob will be waiting they absolutely need. Their riches are in their I don’t think ‘sacrifice’ ice business; we’re in the hospitality busi- for you on your sink when you get back,” stories, their memories, and their interac- ness,”she says.“It’s so simple.” Ballew says.“If you get more than three vis- tions with others.” is a word I’d use. She’s Although making it happen really wasn’t. its from SpongeBob, it disqualifies you for Here’s where the Greek philosophy comes very intentional in The original effort to buy an old hotel, for our security-deposit assistance.” in. instance, crashed and burned after a year of With a grant from Alaska Housing, Safe First, according to the ancient practice what she does and negotiations. That was a huge disappointment. Harbor can offer help with deposits when of gift giving, anything that comes to you “I may be inconvenienced, but I’m never guests do move on. Safe Harbor also helps as a gift, whether it’s time, talent, energy, All of Ballew’s dogs, stopped,”she said at the time. stock their new apartments with beds, couches, money or things, must be passed along.“An including Dolly, always has been.” have been rescued Forging on, the board she helped assem- and other furniture and household goods accumulation of wealth is almost an oxy- from shelters. —Professor Susan Ford Wiltshire ble eventually bought another hotel. The deal donated by the community and delivered by moron,”she says.“Your wealth is what you went through in October 2001, and after Ballew in her trusty old pickup truck, Lefty. give away.” some sprucing up, Safe Harbor Inn opened Ballew has no plans to live anywhere else, Second, in ancient Greece, strangers and when her daughter Leesie was born. Ballew always named everything. It was never ‘Go ing lot from the Brother Francis Shelter, a for business less than a month later with 21 except maybe in a yurt—a traditional nomad beggars were from Zeus and were sacred to eventually returned to Vanderbilt, where she sit on the couch and turn on the lamp.’It was facility Anchorage opened after a succession rooms to offer. Instantly, the inn was full, home—on a nice, quiet piece of land some- the gods.“Your most sacred and important earned her master’s in Greek in 1974 and her ‘Go sit on Loafy and turn on Wanda.’” of people froze to death on the streets. with a growing waiting list. day. Even so, she wants this to be her final obligation as a citizen, as a human being, doctorate in classics in 1975. On their cross-country trip,“Bean” set up Leesie has only fond memories of times Construction of a new three-story build- resting place. She’s saved the ashes of all the was to welcome strangers and to give them Susan Ford Wiltshire was one of her clas- shop in the bed of the truck under the canopy. spent at the old Bean’s Cafe, helping her ing came later, giving Safe Harbor 55 rooms, dogs she ever loved, all rescued from shelters, what you had that they needed. Not to do sics professors.“I don’t think there’s any doubt At mealtime she’d slide open the glass win- mother and hanging out with the “Beanies,” enough to house 120 to 130 people at a time, naturally.And when the time comes, she wants that is literally, for the Greeks, a crime against that she’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever dow, lean into the cab and announce:“Bean’s as the patrons came to be called, playing cards about half of them children. her own mixed in and the whole lot sprin- nature, a crime against the gods. met,”says Wiltshire, who now chairs the Cafe is now open for business. May I take and listening to their stories. That’s where Guests or their sponsoring agencies pay kled among the flower beds at Safe Harbor. “And when you think about it, that’s very Department of Classical Studies.“My mem- your order?” Her mom would say something she learned to play pinochle. $380 a month for a private room with real beds, “I think it’s an enormous mistake, a meta- good social policy.” V ory is that some time ago she read all of Plato like,“A granola bar, please,”and Leesie would Her mother never worried; she never felt firm mattresses and clean sheets, a microwave, in Greek. Twice. That’s huge.” rummage through supplies, and find one. down-and-out people were less worthy of a small refrigerator, a coffee maker and cable The two of them have kept in touch all Ballew was smitten with Alaska:“the space, trust than anybody else. television. Some new arrivals take one look these years, and Wiltshire keeps a file full of the mountains, the clarity.”She was also But not everyone saw things the way she at their accommodations and cry. their correspondence. Although Ballew has moved by what she saw in downtown Anchor- did. “I realized years later that her parents With capital funding and startup costs always shown extraordinary imagination and age. It didn’t take her long to figure out and other people came down hard on her for behind it, Safe Harbor now operates on very empathy, Wiltshire wouldn’t have guessed that the street people she encountered had exposing me to ‘those people,’”says Leesie. little public money, only about 6 percent. she’d be living the life she is today. nowhere to go but the streets. “And that’s when it really hit me what she The rest comes from rent and the private sec- “Anything Lynne does I respect, so I’m She and Leesie returned to Anchorage the was up against.” tor—individuals, foundations, corporations. not a very tough critic,”she says.“But what following summer to do something about it. As far as he knows, there’s nothing quite impresses me is that she lives right where Ballew got a job with the Anchorage Com- allew left Alaska in the fall of 1980 like it anywhere in the country, says Paul Carl- she works. That’s the test, isn’t it? I don’t munity Council, started making connections, to return to teaching and other pur- son, regional coordinator of governmental think ‘sacrifice’ is a word I’d use. She’s and set about founding Bean’s Cafe, the soup Bsuits in the Lower 48. She was seven agencies dealing with homelessness. very intentional in what she does and always kitchen named for her daughter. She spent months pregnant as she drove back With their necessities covered, and Bean’s has been.” her savings securing a five-year lease on a down the Alaska Highway. Her second daugh- Cafe delivering two meals a day, guests’ time In 1977 Ballew was teaching philosophy windowless warehouse next to an old board- ter, Nava Rio, now living in Seattle, was born and energy are freed up for more important and social action at Boston College, as well ing house. She and a crew of volunteers, many that December. With no child support, at things, like getting their lives back on track. as volunteering at a Haley House soup kitchen, of them from the streets, got to work fixing times Ballew worked multiple jobs to pro- Nobody’s on vacation here. Guests must be when the road beckoned. That summer she up the place with new paint—orange—sec- vide for her two girls. working on their program, whatever it may and 7-year-old Leesie, whom she started call- ondhand tables and used maroon carpet. During those years she learned to speak be, and pursuing permanent housing. They ing “Bean” as a baby, drove up the Alaska They clashed like crazy but were free. a whole new language as the “token bleed- sign a contract including the phrase “I agree Highway in a blue Ford pickup named Tucker. Bean’s Cafe opened in 1979. Six years later ing heart” at the Federal National Mortgage to work diligently… .” “That’s a quirky thing about Mom,”says it moved into a brand-new, much larger build- Association. There she helped create the low- As long as they’re trying, they can stay Ballew has no plans to live anywhere else, except maybe in a yurt —a traditional nomad home — Leesie, now grown and living in Seattle.“We ing at its present location, across the park- and moderate-income housing program now at Safe Harbor as long as they need. on a nice, quiet piece of land someday.

52 F all 2006 V anderbilt Magazine 53

By JOHN HOWSER CRYSTAL MENACE Tennessee is well known for country music, the Great Smoky Mountains and Elvis, but during the last few years, the state has received another distinction— one that comes with no pride: It’s one of the top five states for methamphetamine- lab seizures. And where meth is made, it’s used in abundance. While the drug has been present in the area for decades, the new millennium brought a flood of methamphetamine into Middle Tennessee. In the last few years, doctors, nurses and counselors at Vanderbilt have increasingly seen the effects of the drug as it has made its way into Vanderbilt clinics, hospital rooms and operating suites. Nowhere has meth made its presence felt more visibly than at Vanderbilt’s Regional Burn Center.

V anderbilt Magazine 55 NEIL BRAKE

After World War II methamphetamine in concert with a significantly elevated body moved into commercial use. During the 1950s it temperature, perhaps as high as 106 degrees, was sold as the prescription drug Pervitin, for a prolonged period. which was prescribed for narcolepsy, alco- Long-term meth use typically results in drug The exact number of patients brought to Vanderbilt University Medical Center holism, depression, Parkinson’s disease and obe- tolerance, requiring users to take larger doses to sity. Prescriptions reached a peak of 31 million achieve the same effect. Chronic use of meth (VUMC) for meth-related illness or injury may never be accurately tallied, but in the United States in 1967. can lead to psychotic behavior,including intense what is known is that Vanderbilt has provided millions of dollars in uncompen- Illegal manufacturing of meth in the United paranoia, visual and auditory hallucinations, States started in Southern California in the and rage-fueled violent episodes. Research has sated critical care—surgeons, nurses, intensive-care bed space, therapists, social early 1960s as a cheap, easily synthesized, shown that long-term meth use can severely effective and highly addictive stimulant. Follow- damage dopamine-producing cells in the brain. workers and medications for victims of meth-related explosions and fires. ing a west-to-east migration, the drug crossed “PET [positron emission tomography]-scan the Mississippi River and is now a common studies have confirmed that chronic use of The impact of this phenomenon extends far beyond meth users and those who scourge of rural American life nationwide. methamphetamine actually decreases the

Meth 101 NEIL BRAKE A 2002 survey from the U.S. Department of amount of dopamine transported and, therefore, manufacture the drug in home laboratories. It also includes the innocent victims A derivative of amphetamine, which was first Health and Human Services found that more the amount of dopamine in your brain,” says synthesized in 1887 by Romanian chemist than 12 million people in America aged 12 and Donna Seger,Vanderbilt’s chief clinical toxicolo- of meth: children whose parents lose themselves in the labyrinth of its addiction; Lazar Edeleanu, methamphetamine was devel- older reported they had used methamphetamine gist.“That’s one of the chemicals you need in oped in 1919 by Japanese chemist Akira Ogata, at least once in their lifetime. Of those surveyed, your brain to feel good.” families torn apart by its ravages; others who have their lives shattered by drug- who was able to purify and distill the more pow- 597,000 reported meth use during the past “When we see meth patients in the emer- related criminal activity or by meth users driving while impaired; and, finally,the erful form of the drug simply by the reduction month. gency department, it is often heartbreaking,” of ephedrine and other commonly available Legally manufactured methamphetamine is says Dr.Corey M. Slovis, chair of the Depart- taxpayers and health-care consumers who ultimately pick up the tab for treat- chemicals.Today’s street chemists find recipes a Schedule II drug under the Controlled Sub- ment of Emergency Medicine.“We see broken- for meth readily available, cheap, and extremely stance Act of 1970, which means it is accepted down young adults who look much older than ing drug addicts who rarely have health coverage and whose bills can easily run easy to duplicate with appropriate access to for medical use but has a high potential for their stated years.They often have really bad key, if highly toxic, ingredients. abuse. Its use may lead to severe psychological teeth due to a condition we refer to as ‘meth into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Methamphetamine’s history was checkered or physical dependence. mouth.’We see patients looking to detox again from the very start.The drug was widely distrib- An overdose of meth causes increased blood and again when they run out of options.This is a In these pages John Howser, assistant director and media director for the uted during World War II to soldiers in Ger- pressure, rapid heart rate and euphoria—even drug of abuse about which one cannot really many as a stimulant and was used heavily by hallucinations if the dose is high enough. But say anything other than,‘What a waste to the Office of News and Public Affairs at VUMC, reports on the cost of Tennessee’s Nazi SS personnel. Adolph Hitler received daily perhaps the most serious consequence, leading person, the community and our society.’” meth epidemic in economic terms as well as human lives. injections from his personal physician. to morbidity and mortality, are these symptoms

ithin the Intensive Care Unit at Vanderbilt’s Regional Burn can be taken orally, smoked, snorted or injected. The drug No matter the size of the lab or who runs it, processing Center, a patient lies motionless in her bed. Her swollen face is a powerful stimulant, which in a matter of minutes over- methamphetamine is dangerous. Ignitable, corrosive, reac- What crack cocaine is held together with strips of carefully placed sterile surgi- whelms the central nervous system, producing an intense tive and toxic chemicals can cause explosions, fires, toxic cal tape, forming a criss-cross pattern that leaves exposed high. The “rush” from the drug is caused by the release of fumes and damage to individuals’ health and the environ- was to the nation’s only her eyes, a small portion of each cheek, and her lips. high levels of dopamine into the part of the brain that ment. Nationwide, the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) WBeneath the dressing her face resembles a horribly scorched controls pleasure. reports that methamphetamine-related admissions to the inner-city minorities piece of red, raw meat. The ease with which methamphetamine can be manu- nation’s emergency departments have been steadily on the The woman was “cooking” a batch of methamphetamine factured is a major contributing factor to the increase in its rise since 1995. DAWN identified 17,696 meth-related emer- during the late 1980s when her experiment in home chemistry went horribly awry. production and use. It is easily “cooked” by anyone in makeshift gency-department admissions in 2002. and early 1990s, But other than the damage to her face, which will now labs hidden in mobile homes, warehouses or even motel It was in that year that Dr. Jeffrey S. Guy, associate pro- bear the scars of her drug addiction for the remainder of her rooms. No specialized equipment or advanced technical fessor of surgery in the Division of Trauma and Surgical Crit- methamphetamine life, she is one of the lucky ones: She will survive. Count- training is needed. Sparsely populated rural areas are pop- ical Care and director of Vanderbilt’s Regional Burn Center, less others have not been so fortunate. ular sites for production because strong odors are produced first began to see an influx of patients who had been horri- has become to rural What crack cocaine was to the nation’s inner-city minori- during manufacture, and small, locally controlled laborato- bly burned while cooking meth or while handling the volatile ties during the late 1980s and early 1990s, methampheta- ries have become more numerous, especially in the Midwest precursor chemicals necessary to manufacture the drug. white America. mine has become to rural white America. Typically seen in and rural South.“Mobile” labs also have begun to appear in The burn center’s patients are typically younger adults, powder or rock form (called “ice”), methamphetamine a number of states, making seizures more complicated. predominantly male, almost exclusively white, and mainly

56 F all 2006 V anderbilt Magazine 57

Office of National Drug Control where he is exposed to drugs and the shrapnel from rural areas in and around Middle meth-lab seizures in Tennessee in 2004. This placed the state Policy (ONDCP), production of 1 from the mother’s lifestyle, which is poor nutri- Tennessee, although some patients come second only to Missouri that year. In 2005 the FDA reported pound of meth typically results in 5 to 7 tion, infections and perhaps even trauma.” from as far away as Arkansas, Mississippi 897 such seizures through August. pounds of toxic waste. Babies born from an in utero meth environ- and Alabama due to a lack of available When asked to describe the extent of the meth prob- At Vanderbilt, toxicologist Donna L. ment can suffer withdrawal symptoms, which burn-care beds in surrounding states. lem in Tennessee, Donna L. Seger, Vanderbilt’s chief clini- Seger and the Tennessee Poison Center are range from subtle (being jittery or sensitive to A smaller percentage of patients are cal toxicologist and director of the Tennessee Poison Center, Innocent Victims working to distribute educational materials light) to pronounced symptoms such as children, critically burned by being pres- simply states,“Real big.” to emergency departments statewide that seizures that may require tube feeding until ent when their parents’ meth labs explode. As director of the poison center, Seger oversees a state- As the pediatrician in charge of provide a consistent reference on how to treat withdrawal symptoms pass. One patient, a 15-year-old girl, arrived and federally funded 24/7 telephone triage system of trained child-abuse diagnosis for the Monroe Carell children rescued from a meth-lab environment. Other telltale signs of exposure to meth in at the burn center cocooned in melted poison information specialists who serve as a resource for Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, Dr. Chris When children are discovered by law- utero include prematurity and low birth weight. plastic and burned clothing. She had civilians as well as for the state’s law enforcement and emer- Greeley, assistant professor of pediatrics and enforcement officials in a dwelling used for As disturbing as all this sounds, Greeley been in a room with large sheets of plas- gency medical personnel. medical director of the Child Maltreatment cooking meth, no standard evacuation protocol says the meth problem at Vanderbilt Children’s tic covering the walls (to hide the stench Seger says the incidence of meth use in Tennessee is on Program, routinely sees the handiwork of the is followed. Frequently, if children are present of the cooking drug) when an explosion the rise dramatically among white males in their mid-20s. worst of human behavior. Almost every day he when a lab is discovered, well meaning law- occurred, covering 85 percent of her She recalls a patient she met when asked to perform a must look into the eyes of children who are enforcement personnel may add further emo- DANA JOHNSON body with molten plastic. Thanks to the medical competency evaluation to determine if he was fit to victims of willful neglect or assault at the tional trauma by taking a child outside into “This is a home- burn center, she survived the incident. enter jail. The man told her he’d been using meth since age hands of those charged with providing love the yard, stripping them and hosing them grown problem,” “Definitely, from the aspect of impact on the staff, the 13, when his father, a meth “cook,”used him to deal drugs. and care. down. Seger says this behavior is excessive in says Donna L. toughest ones we see are the truly innocent bystanders, Surrounded by meth constantly, he started using. To play this unenviable-yet-critical role as many instances. Seger, Vander- a detective of child abuse, Greeley has under- “When we look at a child exposed to meth bilt’s chief clini- the innocent children who are burned in structure fires from “He was high for several days in a row on a meth run. So cal toxicologist lab explosions,”Guy says. he and a friend kidnapped some people and held them at gone specialized training to teach him how to manufacturing, we know what he’s been and director of According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administra- gunpoint for two days while they were high,”she says.“With seek out not only the obvious but also the sub- exposed to in terms of broad categories of the Tennessee tion’s Clandestine Lab Seizure System, a centrally col- chronic meth use, you really do lose rational thought.” tle signs and symptoms of abuse in children. chemicals,” she says. “The immediate reaction Poison Center. lected database of local, state and federal records, and the Seger says that with all the clandestine meth labs cur- Almost since his arrival at Vanderbilt by some people is to want to take usually Tennessee Governor’s Meth Task Force, there were 1,574 rently in operation in Tennessee, many such young meth Children’s Hospital, Greeley has seen children unnecessary action on the child.That’s why cooks are learning their craft from their parents—not just who were exposed to methamphetamine by we’re producing a poster—so folks will have for the money, but also for their own use. parents who were users or cooks, or babies accurate information.” “This drug is called ‘the poor man’s cocaine,’and it has a who suffered exposure during pregnancy due The other risk factor for children living in a Over the Counter very similar action to cocaine,”she says.“It gives users a feel- to the mothers’ drug use. meth environment is exposure to their parents’ ing of euphoria, and a real feeling that you can do more while “Here at Vanderbilt the smaller of these erratic behavior. In 2004,Tennessee legislators changed the availability of pharmaceutical

on the drug.” two groups is the children who are exposed to “Living with parents who are meth ANNE RAYNER products essential to the manufacture of methamphetamine—such as cold And unlike cocaine, methamphetamine is a local drug. meth after they are born,” he says. “This is a addicts exposes children to needles around “It’s not just the meth itself, but the medicines containing ephedrine—from over-the-counter to behind-the-count- “It doesn’t have to be brought in from some other place. It small but quite significant population who the house, booby-trapped houses and guns. environment in general that’s harmful,” er. Despite this change, the patients never stopped arriving at Vanderbilt’s says Dr. Chris Greeley, medical director is not a drug that is traveling. This is a homegrown prob- comes in with postnatal exposure.” The parents themselves have such poor Regional Burn Center. of the Child Maltreatment Program. lem,”she says. Typically, these children continue to be health that neglect becomes a big issue,” “Initially, before the cold-medicine ban, it got so bad that as many as The legal issues surrounding meth use complicate treat- exposed to meth and other drugs in their living Greeley says. “Especially when they are high, Hospital is not as pronounced as in some other 25 or 30 percent of our patient census was because of meth,” says Dr. ment and rehabilitation efforts. environments. “It’s not just the meth itself, but and subsequently when they crash, parents are large children’s hospitals in the Southeast, or Jeffrey S. Guy, associate professor of surgery in the Division of Trauma and “Some patients do not readily, if ever, acknowledge the the environment in general that’s harmful.” not providing nutrition or hygiene.” even as pronounced as the problem in other Surgical Critical Care and director of the burn center.“After the state’s cause of their burns due to concern there may be a crimi- These children are exposed not only to the More frequently than he sees meth’s effects large city hospitals in the East Tennessee cities Meth Task Force banned the sale of these cold medicines over the counter, nal investigation,”says Dan Ramage, a licensed clinical social finished product but also to the toxic solvents on young children and preteens, Greeley sees of Knoxville and Chattanooga. And, propor- the number of meth-related patients seemed to go down, but now it’s going worker at the VUMC Burn Center who helps patients and and chemicals used to manufacture it—chlo- the end result of babies who have been exposed tionally, Vanderbilt’s incidence of pediatric back up again. their families heal the psycho-social aspects of their injuries. rine, phosphorus, and other fertilizer-caliber to meth and other illicit drugs during gestation. meth patients is likely not as prevalent as in “Different theories are out there as to why this is occurring. I don’t “Only after we spend some time with them, and perhaps materials—thus placing them in direct con- “Pregnant women who are drug users, some smaller hospitals in rural Tennessee com- think people stopped using. One theory is that manufacturing moved away develop some trust through counseling, do some of them tact with materials that can explode or cause specifically meth users, have significant prob- munities being ravaged by the drug. from home cooking and went to industrial labs south of the border. Some disclose what happened. lung disease, burns, or cognitive and intestinal lems with their own health from doing drugs or “During the past year it seems the inci- folks in law enforcement have told me the meth users don’t like the grade of “Some of these patients are very ashamed of what hap- problems. trading sex for drugs, which often leads to sex- dence of the problem has reached a plateau the product, that mass-produced meth doesn’t have that zing they crave. So pened to them as a result of their drug use, or the way they While recipes for making meth can vary, ually transmitted diseases,” he says. “Then the here, at least for now,” he says. “However, it’s now, more are going back to home cooking.” have been living their lives. Maybe their drug use led to many of the essential and highly toxic base baby, much like during postnatal exposure, is too early to call that a trend.” continued on page 61 chemicals are the same. And according to the living in an environment inside the mother

58 F all 2006 V anderbilt Magazine 59

Twila Hurst’s life was shattered when the SUV in which she was riding (below) was hit by a truck driven by a man high on methamphetamine.

“Twila’s severe scalp laceration came from divorce or to losing their children to foster care. So there is her head shattering the sunroof,” he says. an element of shame with these patients that perhaps we “However, the paramedic on the scene said don’t see in others.” that if the vehicle’s roof had been metal Ramage says many of the meth-burn victims he coun- Burn Center instead,Twila’s neck probably would have sels suffer from poly-substance abuse and are in dire need social worker been snapped in two during the wreck.” of substance-abuse treatment once they are ready to be dis- Dan Ramage, left, and surgeon Fortunately, after months of recovery and charged from the hospital. Because virtually none of these Dr. Jeff Guy say rehabilitation, and more than $400,000 in patients has health insurance, the need for counseling poses the lack of medical expenses, Hurst has made a remark- a significant problem. community help able physical recovery.Today her lingering “In addition to their dependence on drugs, these patients for substance physical effects include a limp from where her are often disfigured as a result of their injuries,”he says.“So abusers leaves patients adrift. pelvis and leg bones were screwed back they leave the hospital with an additional set of problems DANA JOHNSON together, and a few less-obvious physical limi- such as body-image issues coupled with related depres- tations. However, her effort to remember the High Behind the Wheel NEIL BRAKE sion and social anxiety.” “They can’t get TennCare [Tennessee’s managed-care pro- accident and the several weeks immediately Ramage recalls a recent patient who is typical of the prob- gram for low-income individuals], they can’t get Medicaid, so For Tim and Twila Hurst, the world was look- ing the vehicle across the highway’s center afterward has proven futile. lem, a young man in his early 20s who, despite his meth use, we wind up as their catchall for everything,”Guy says.“You ing up.Tim had just accepted a new job as line and head-on into the front of the vehicle “I know it would be all bad memories. But was trying to turn his life around. The man was employed can’t turn them away, so we do the very best we can to meet publisher of the Glasgow Daily Times in carrying the two women. to have bad memories would be better than and engaged to be married. some of the other medical needs these patients may have.” Glasgow, Ky., and the couple was in the Sybil Leamon was killed instantly.Twila no memory at all,”Twila says. “He told me he was trying to get off meth, and at the time Perhaps one of the meth-burn patients most exasperating process of looking for a house so they could Hurst was badly injured. The young driver of the pickup pleaded of his accident was in outpatient counseling,”Ramage says. to Guy was a man in his mid-30s, treated at Vanderbilt dur- relocate from the town of Henderson. The 19-year-old man who caused the acci- guilty, receiving an eight-year sentence for “But he had not been able to stop the abuse. In the midst of ing late 2004 and early 2005, who wound up in the burn cen-t During the course of the house hunt, dent and an 18-year-old passenger also in his manslaughter in the second degree and all this, he has the explosion and is now out of a job, his ter. The total charges for the uninsured man’s care at Vanderbil Twila was riding with Glasgow real estate truck were not hurt. assault in the second fiancée left him, and he is living with his mother so she agent Sybil Leamon, who was driving a GMC Twila and Tim credit her degree.The Hursts can care for him. He’s become something of an invalid. He Jimmy.The women pulled away from a rural survival to a fortunate series believe this sentence isn’t has no medical insurance and doesn’t have any real way to Meth-burn patients intersection on Highway 31 East on Friday, of events that quickly nearly enough. get into a drug treatment program.” Aug. 20, 2004. brought emergency medical “Our nightmare lasted Surgeon Jeff Guy says the lack of community resources seldom have health Twila Hurst remembers nothing from that personnel to the accident months,” says Tim. to address drug addiction leaves patients adrift and ready to point until about four weeks later. scene: the staff of the com- “Twila spent 10 days in go back to previous illegal acts. insurance. Conservative What others have told her is this:The vehi- munity hospital in Glasgow, the trauma center and “No community resources exist to help these people once cle in which she and Leamon were traveling and then the quick-response NEIL BRAKE another 11 weeks in a they leave the hospital. None! So what happens is no sur- estimates put the cost was smashed head-on at high speed by a 19- crew of Vanderbilt’s LifeFlight air ambulance. nursing rehabilitation facility because she prise. They go back to the same risk-seeking behavior,”he year-old man high on methamphetamine.The “My head was cut from about the middle could not use either of her legs or her right says.“It’s a vicious cycle.” for their care into the teenager lost control while behind the wheel at the top, and the cut went almost complete- arm due to the extent of her injuries.” But in addition to being concerned about the well-being of his full-size Ford F-250 pickup truck, send- ly halfway around my scalp,”Twila says. “The Tim says that while his new boss was of his patients, Guy is worried about the financial impact to millions. The financial left side of my pelvis was shattered. My right accepting and supportive during Twila’s hospi- the burn center for treating uninsured meth-burn victims. burden could impact the wrist was fractured. My right thumb was frac- talization, the ordeal was too much for the Conservative estimates put the cost of care for these patients tured. My right femur was shattered into two couple—physically, emotionally and financial- into the millions of dollars, with much of this expense borne burn center’s mission. pieces. My right ankle was fractured, and my ly.The exciting new job didn’t work out. After by Vanderbilt—a financial burden that could impact the left arm was broken.” 16 months Tim resigned from the paper. burn center’s long-term mission. Hurst spent 10 days in Vanderbilt “During my exit interview my boss said, ‘I “These people can cost the hospital several hundred thou- far exceeded $500,000. This was on top of an equally large bill University Medical Center’s Trauma Unit as just don’t know what happened to the man I sand dollars each. And that’s just the acute-care portion,”he Guy later learned the patient racked up at another hospital. surgeons worked to piece her broken body hired.’ But I knew. Meth happened,” he says. says.“Then comes the chronic-care portion of treatment. Do The man survived and hasn’t been back to VUMC since. back together. Her recovery was followed by “I didn’t take it. My wife didn’t take it. We they need reconstructive surgery or ocular surgery? They all “If you had a big building on fire in your community, weeks in a physical rehabilitation facility back knew little about it. But because a young man need physical rehabilitation therapy and drug counseling. In someone would do something about it,”Guy concludes. home in Kentucky. from Glasgow thought it was a good idea to terms of insurance coverage, all of them are not eligible.” “The local, state or federal government would step in to help. Tim Hurst says his wife likely would not take meth and get behind the wheel of his In fact, virtually none of the patients has any form of But here you’ve got these people’s lives who are being burned have survived the accident if the SUV in which truck, meth changed our lives forever.” health insurance. By the time most arrive at the burn cen- up and nobody seems to be taking responsibility for it but she was traveling had not had a sunroof. ter, the drug has robbed them of every asset they ever owned. Vanderbilt.” V

60 F all 2006 V anderbilt Magazine 61

We can look at the arts … as making pictures,[or] we can look at the arts as tasks which develop the mind because of the kinds of thinking they evoke, practice and develop. “ “ —ELLIOTT EISNER, Chancellor’s Lecturer Irish dance until I was 30 Dance Commission in Dublin identify common goals and to Dance: Wendy Windsor- Visual Art: years old and pregnant with several years later by passing a share resources.” Upcoming An Irish Dance Equation Hashiguchi my first child,”she says. rigorous weekend-long exam “Creating Community and For some, the connection Comes Full Circle A gymnast and mem- in four parts: written, music, Opportunity for Artists with Visual Arts: between math, music and dance ber of a drum and teaching and dance. Lain York, director of Zeitgeist Special Needs” was just one in a Harold Lowe Jr. is found in their shared structure bugle corps in high “I think they do it like that so Gallery in Nashville, sits before series of workshops that has shows civil rights of numbers and rhythms. At school (“I played that you really have to want it or a group of eager artists, parents been offered through the Van- photographs at Vanderbilt the connection flag,”she says), she you wouldn’t subject yourself to of artists and art enthusiasts derbilt Kennedy Center Univer- Sarratt Gallery between the three could be became intrigued it. I could teach Irish dance no who have come to the Vander- sity Center for Excellence, Jan. 15–Feb. 16, said to be alumna Wendy with Irish dance after matter what my certification bilt Kennedy Center (VKC) to thanks to a Metropolitan 2007. The collec- Windsor-Hashiguchi, BS’87. seeing a dancer perform was, but if I want my students to hear about his experiences as a Nashville Arts Commission tion contains A math major during her with the legendary Irish be eligible to compete at a feis painter, to discuss marketing, grant. Judging from the ideas powerful black-and-white photographs of civil rights undergraduate days, Windsor- band The Chieftains not [pronounced fesh], which is an and to brainstorm about the that were shared and the activities in Nashville taken by Lowe for The Tennessean Hashiguchi is a numbers long after she finished her Irish dance competition, I need possibilities that could arise enthusiasm among workshop between 1960 and 1964, including the well-known cruncher by day and teacher undergraduate work at to be fully certified.” from creating a community of participants, a community of Kresge’s lunch counter photograph. of Irish dance by night. Vanderbilt. Enthusiastic, At Vanderbilt, Windsor- artists with special needs in artists seems not only plausible She has taught Irish step, set but finding no teachers in Hashiguchi teaches mostly col- Nashville. but necessary. Music: Jon Hendricks and LHR Redux and social dances with the Van- Nashville, she tried the closest lege students and some staff, but “I know what it is to want to Leisa A. Hammett, mother bring jazz to the Great Performances at derbilt Dance Group since the thing she could find: Scottish at her studio in nearby Franklin pursue painting in an environ- of an 11-year-old visual artist Vanderbilt Series on Feb. 14 at 8 p.m. in late ’90s. A few years ago she Highland dancing. she has taught kids as young as ment with limited prospects of with autism, has been advocat- Ingram Hall. A vocal innovator, Hen- founded her own school, the “I started really late. I mean 3. One of her adult students sales and subsidies,” says York, ing for some time to meet the dricks has been dubbed the “Father of Scott-Ellis School of Irish Dance music and dance 22 back then was ancient to be won the adult championship who for years has served as the need for an established com- Vocalese and James Joyce of Jive.” (www.scott-ellis.com), and she has been involved starting Highland. I was com- in Washington, D.C. munity in the form of an art plays hammer dulcimer with with it since child- peting in the ‘12 and over’ cate- In addition to her work as center for people with disabili- Theatre: Vanderbilt University Theatre presents The The Jump Gypsies, an Irish band hood, but that’s gory,”she laughs,“but I kept a human resources analyst at ties in Nashville. (See related Playboy of the Western World, John M. Synge’s rustic, she and her husband, Franko not the case doing it because I wanted to do Hospital Corporation of Ameri- story, p. 32.) irreverent commentary on Irish rural life at the turn of Hashiguchi, co-founded. with Windsor- it, and I wanted to do it well. ca and teaching Irish dance at “I came here tonight think- the 20th century, Feb. 16–24 at Neely Auditorium. One might assume that Hashiguchi. And I competed up to champi- Vanderbilt, at her Franklin, ing I could plant a seed,”Ham- someone so immersed in Irish “I didn’t do NEIL BRAKE onship level, though I did not Tenn., studio, and in Franklin, mett said. “I want to have a win any championships.” Ky., she’s now learning button place where people with dis- Verbatim When her husband pointed accordion to go along with her abilities can go and experience provide a supportive atmos- at the VKC, was the product of her to classes in Irish dance at hammer dulcimer work for The the joy and the therapeutic phere in which to create, share a series of workshops facilitated “What we need in American education is not for the arts to look the Augusta Heritage Center in Jump Gypsies. She encourages nature of making art. I know experiences, and develop by Full Circle Art. In the work- more like the academics … but for the academics to look more West Virginia, she was finally on all her dance students to play that creating art has been right stronger survival skills as shops, participants first invited like the arts. We need programs that pay much more attention to her way. She became a certified music as well as dance. there with speech and behavior artists, but it would also benefit and engaged the artistic muse “Mandala” the imaginative, to the playful, to the stimulation of curiosity, to ceili (pronounced kay-lee) “I think being a musician therapy, with occupational parents, caregivers and friends through drumming and move- the pursuit of unanswered questions, to the opportunity to work teacher, or one who teaches makes you a better dancer and VKC’s preparator of art therapy and education as being who are often given the task of ment. They then carried out to the edge of incompetence. We need schools that promote risk- Irish social dances, in 2000 and being a dancer makes you a bet- exhibits featuring artists with an important factor in my marketing the art. the Full Circle Art mission to taking of an intellectual kind and in which meaning matters.” received her full certification as ter musician, because they’re developmental disabilities. daughter’s development.” One window into the world “communicate a shared vision a TCRG—Teasgicoir Choimi- really two sides of the same “What works is identifying and The advantages of creating a of the artist with special needs of peace, love and hope” with —Elliott Eisner,the Lee Jacks Professor of Education and professor siuin Le Rinci Gaelacha (Gaelic coin,”she says.“But given my stressing what makes you dif- community of artists with spe- opened in the form of the paint brushes and canvases, of art at Stanford University, delivering the second of the 2006–07 Chancellor’s Lectures Sept. 29, titled “What Do the Arts Teach?” Commission Dancing druthers, I’d rather be dancing.” ferent. It is a matter of coming cial needs are many, say sup- Common Ground art exhibit. ceramics and stained glass. Teacher)—through the Irish —Bonnie Arant Ertelt together as a community to porters. Not only would it The exhibit, held this summer The result was a colorful and >>

62 Fall 2006 Vanderbilt Magazine 63

T HE A RTS &CULTURE

energetic display of common Accolades ground among the Full Circle artists and youth and adults All Souls’ Eve Frye Gaillard, BA’68, writer-in-residence with developmental disabilities. Polish Military Cemetery, Kraków at the University of South Alabama, author (View the exhibit online at of 20 books, and frequent contributor to kc.vanderbilt.edu/kennedy/ Dusk and so many flowers, lit votives, mourners Vanderbilt Magazine, has won the presti- art/art0406.) who come leaning leggy baguettes on headstones gious Lillian Smith Award for his most “As the University Center recent book, Cradle of Freedom: Alabama for Excellence grows, there will with vodka shots, steaming containers of soup— and the Movement That Changed America be an increased number of (University of Alabama Press). The Lillian workshops in the areas of edu- some open their gifts directly on the graves. Smith Award recognizes authors whose work challenges cation and the arts,”says Elise One woman, a friend, upends the local pilsner, all Americans on issues of social and racial justice. McMillan, the center’s associate director. “It is an exciting time, her dead man’s pleasure, and the piss-steam Virginia Derryberry, BA’73, and we are honored to con- MA’76, a noted painter and Univer- tribute all we can to help forge hisses a hillside specter. I’m here but somewhere sity of North Carolina-Asheville art relationships for community else: my mind, racing, moves at the speed of dreams. professor, returned to Vanderbilt artists with special needs.” for a solo exhibition at Sarratt —Courtney Evans The woman’s son climbs from my shoulders Gallery during the month of Octo- ber. The paintings for Second Music: and sprints the length of cobbled graveyard wall Nature featured complex figure sce- Sound Space toward some inscrutable fury, becoming all voice narios in Eden-like landscapes and were begun during Derryberry’s Sept. 9 marked the grand open- Blair faculty members and Nashville —like the white-bearded cantor on Rosh Hashanah 2004 residency in Auvillar, France. ing of the Schermerhorn Sym- Symphony musicians William Wiggins The exhibit, held in conjunction phony Center, a new, $123 (left) and Bobby Taylor inside the who for one vast moment arrived at a resonance symphony’s new, $123 million with Derryberry’s award of the million centerpiece for music performance hall I could almost taste 2005–06 juried Southeastern College Art Conference Artist performance in downtown Fellowship, coincided with SECAC’s annual conference in Music City. For the more than NEIL BRAKE as it held us alive and at the brink of shattering. Nashville. Derryberry held her first professional solo exhi- 20 members of the Nashville through all the gala activities chairman of the Nashville the hall is named. Slatkin has bition at Sarratt Gallery in 1980. Symphony who are also teachers for the opening of the hall— Symphony’s official committee agreed to serve in the interim —Rick Hilles, senior lecturer in English, from his book Brother Sal- and professors at the Blair with the experienced perspec- searching for a permanent and assist in the selection vage: Poems, published in September by the University of Pittsburgh An album produced by School of Music, the occasion tive that allowed the orchestra music director in the wake of process of the permanent Press and winner of the 2005 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize

Dale Cockrell, professor was the culmination of many to stay focused on the most the death last spring of Ken- director. ©2006. REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH PRESS of musicology, and Butch weeks of practice for a singular important thing, the music.” neth Schermerhorn, for whom —Cindy Steine Baldassari, adjunct asso- opportunity to perform publicly William Wiggins, the sym- Symphony Honors The honor recognizes ciate professor of man- in a brand-new space specifically phony’s principal timpanist designed acoustically to enhance and Blair assistant professor Alumna Amy Grant Grant’s many contributions dolin at the Blair School he Nashville Symphony includes more than 20 Blair faculty to the symphony through the of Music, is the first music symphonic music. Not least in of percussion, echoes Taylor’s T On Sunday evening during the members, in addition to Bobby Taylor and William Wiggins: years. When the symphony was selection to be added to a the list of first-ever experiences sentiments. new symphony hall’s opening Jeff Bailey (trumpet*), Denise Baker (acting assistant concert- struggling to overcome a bank- National Endowment for was performing with the interim “It was the most rewarding weekend of gala festivities, a Baldassari and Cockrell master*), Larry Borden (trombone*), Cynthia Estill (bassoon*), ruptcy in the 1980s, Grant the Humanities collection music director for the Nashville experience to be able to hear sold-out crowd enjoyed “An Gerald Greer (acting concertmaster*), Erin Hall (acting associate began pairing with the sym- of works that are perceived to strengthen students’ under- Symphony, renowned conductor my colleagues while playing— Evening with Amy Grant,”the concertmaster*), Charlene Harb (keyboard/harp*), Cassie Lee phony for a series of concerts standing of American history and culture. Happy Land: Leonard Slatkin. and play in an unforced man- hall’s first truly public perform- (clarinet*), Erin Long (first violin), Gil Long (tuba*), Brad and turned over net income to Musical Tributes to Laura Ingalls Wilder is part of the new “I couldn’t be happier with ner to produce the best sound ance. Vanderbilt alumna and the organization, single-hand- We the People collection from the NEH. This year’s collec- the sound in the hall,” says possible from my instrument,” Mansell (cello), Ellen Menking (oboe*), Leslie Norton (horn*), Grammy-winning performer edly paying off the debt, says tion has the theme of “Pursuit of Happiness,”and includes Bobby Taylor, the symphony’s says Wiggins. “The sound is Gil Perel (bassoon and contra bassoon), Dan Reinker (viola*), Amy Grant, ’82, was surprised by the symphony’s president and Those Happy Golden Years by Wilder, A Wrinkle in Time by principal oboist and Blair asso- wonderful: resonant, yet clear Joel Reist (bass*), Norma Rogers (piccolo), Chris Stenstrom Nashville Symphony executives CEO. Numerous collaborations Madeleine L’Engle, Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, and ciate professor of oboe. “It and clean. Everything can be (cello), Julia Tanner (cello*), Glen Wanner (bass*), and Roger during her performance with the between Grant and the Nash- other classics of literature. The NEH will distribute the cho- allows us to play the full range heard—that’s the good news Wiesmeyer (English horn). announcement that the hall’s of dynamics with confidence. and the bad news!” stage has been named the Amy ville Symphony have followed sen works to 2,000 public, school and military libraries in *Indicates either principal or assistant principal ever since. the United States and overseas. I thought Mr. Slatkin was the Mark Wait, dean of the Blair Grant Performance Platform. perfect choice to navigate School of Music, serves as

64 Fall 2006 Vanderbilt Magazine 65

minute briefing on how Lebanon had seen far est we ever came to being under fire. I was silent several days into the conflict, after the more appalling catastrophes, and that these in my bathroom brushing my teeth when I Lebanese mostly fled to the mountains. Most kinds of “events” were “normal” in the coun- heard jets roar overhead as our building of the American students in the city, forced try. Several days later, as bombs fell closer and shook. Instantly, everyone in the dorm ran to wait for their government while it stum- S.P. O.V. closer to the university, classes were finally out to see what was happening. A leaflet can- bled over evacuation plans, stayed near the

w canceled, though even then, some fearless ister that failed to explode in the air had university campus. On one of my last days e i * instructors held impromptu Arabic sessions. ripped a large hole in the soccer field next to in Beirut, I ventured out to a hole-in-the- Violence is nothing new to wall crêpe store to get some

t of V Lebanon. The country has suf- food. The gruff shopkeeper in o fered through decades of con- nonchalantly asked me a ques-

t P flict and warfare with Israel tion that has stuck in my head: n e d Peace to Beirut with All My Heart and other Middle Eastern pow- “Are you going to stay for the ers, and the Lebanese have war?” Stu

* A year’s exploration in a reborn city had scarcely begun when Lebanon’s adapted to the persistence of “Do you think this will be aggression that plagues their a war?” I responded. fragile peace crumbled. By Ryan Farha, Class of 2008 country. During the five days He gave me an incredu- of the conflict I experienced, I lous look, as if there were no round 11 o’clock on I had arrived in Beirut on June 26, eagerly Starlet. Beirut’s charms kept us constantly learned a great deal about the other option but war. While the morning of July 17, anticipating the year I was to spend study- busy; I can hardly recall an idle moment. Lebanese people and how they I was still hanging on to the 2006, I received a call on ing at the American University of Beirut. I What struck me most about the city were survived decades of war. They hope that the situation my Lebanese mobile phone was enrolled in an intensive Arabic language its remarkable, continual contrasts. The road would do anything possible to would calm down and I could from a number I didn’t program for the summer, to be followed by from the airport passes through grimy shan- downplay the threat, or find resume my studies in Beirut, A recognize. a year of liberal arts courses in the Faculty of tytowns, congested urban areas, and finally ways to forget about the the Lebanese seemed to believe “Is this Ryan Farha?” asked the voice on Arts and Sciences. reaches the pristine downtown district, built impending danger. As bombs that war was inevitable — my the other end of the line, an American woman. I was not a complete stranger to the city. with the dollars of wealthy Gulf Arabs and fell right and left, life in Beirut family included. The day after “Yes.” My father, a doctor who fled Lebanon after other investors. Walking down the street, one continued. Even I fell into their the Israelis first bombed the “The U.S. embassy is evacuating a small the Israeli invasion of 1982, had brought me could pass gorgeous, scantily clad Lebanese tradition of willed disregard airport, my father called me group of American civilians today. Can you and my family there several times before. women locking arms with their completely for the brewing violence, con- and told me he thought the be ready by 3 p.m.?” Nevertheless, I was excited veiled friends and family members. The city tinuing my life as normal. Once situation would quickly esca- NATALIE COX MEAD “Yes,”I answered, calm yet to finally explore the coun- is a fragile compromise between tolerant classes were canceled, my friends late. He had already planned clearly excited. After the woman try on my own. Western liberalism and the conservative, and I, instead of sitting in our dorm rooms our dorm, where we had been playing the to fly to Damascus and whisk me away from instructed me not to tell any of Beirut went above and religious and family-oriented society of the and waiting, played soccer, ate whatever food previous afternoon. We hurried down to the the danger. my fellow students about the beyond my expectations. Middle East. we could get our hands on, partied all night field. Scattered everywhere were leaflets that Despite their pessimism about the com- evacuation plot, the conversa- The Arabic language pro- Because of my admiration for and attach- on our dorm’s balcony, and searched for places proclaimed in Arabic, “The resistance pro- ing days, life continued for the Lebanese. The tion ended abruptly, with few gram was truly intensive. We ment to the city, my first impulse was to to go out near the university. tects the country? … The country is a vic- day before I was evacuated, some of my rel- details about the actual evacua- spent most of the day in class, mourn for Beirut’s seemingly unavoidable One night a few of us were walking toward tim of the resistance!” The leaflets had little atives picked me up and drove me across tion procedure itself. Regardless, received several hours’ worth fate when I heard the Israeli bombs drop- a nearby café called Prague when we clearly effect in convincing the students that Hizbul- Beirut (parts of which were being bombed) I wasn’t concerned. I scurried of homework, and our teach- ping. It was as if Israel were not attacking heard at least four shells fired, most likely from lah was the enemy; most of them simply to their apartment to have a pleasant lunch. up to my dorm room to pack ers spoke to us almost exclu- Lebanon itself, but unraveling the 15-plus the Israeli ships off the coast. We paused and mocked the poorly drawn cartoon, which Their apartment afforded a wonderful view the one bag I was allowed to take sively in Arabic. Still, my years of peace and progress that had grown looked at each other silently, wondering if we ironically showed Lebanese citizens dodg- of the southern suburbs, the primary target

with me. Clothes, books, and DANIEL DUBOIS evenings were free to explore since fighting ceased in the 1980s. Lebanon should return to campus, but without a word ing Israeli bombs. for the Israeli bombs. Between courses of fat- souvenirs I had purchased in Lebanon had to the charm and craziness of the city’s rebirth had flourished into a safe and attractive vaca- we continued walking once the loud explo- The next day the Israelis attempted another toush, grape leaves and kibbe, remarkably loud stay behind. Hunched over from the weight following the years of war it had seen. I wan- tion hotspot during the past 20 years, and sions ceased. This experience was represen- leaflet drop at the university. The canister burst bursts went off periodically as puffs of smoke of my stuffed backpack, I left my room and dered through marketplaces, past cafés and just as it geared up for its most bustling tative of our time in Beirut during the war, this time, but the leaflets all fluttered into rose in the distance, in plain view through ventured out to find a restaurant where I could courtyards, and visited countless restaurants and profitable summer in years, violence which was dominated by long periods of what the Mediterranean. It was fairly symbolic, I the balcony doors. enjoy one last chicken shawarma. and street vendors, devouring chicken penetrated its borders, infecting Beirut’s still- my friend Daniel called “painful tranquility,” believe, of the failed propaganda campaign Following the meal, my great-aunt drove That night I was one of 34 Americans shawarma, baba ghanoush, falafel and other fragile, carefree atmosphere. interspersed with moments of distant explo- waged by the Israelis. In the first leaflet drop, me back to my dorm, and while it was strange headed for the island of Cyprus on board a Lebanese delicacies. While the Israeli armed forces gained steam, sions and screaming Israeli jets flying over. In the canister did not work properly. In the sec- in itself to be driving through a city under Greek cruise ship chartered by the French. Although it is nestled on the tranquil both students and faculty at the American fact, we came to find the “kabooms,”as we ond leaflet drop, the canister worked but missed attack, what amazed me most was the fact My plans to spend a year studying in Lebanon Mediterranean Sea, Beirut pulsates with University avoided discussions about the con- innocently labeled them, relieving in a sense, its target. Either way, the Lebanese were not that she insisted we stop on the way to buy a had come to a crashing halt, just as Israel energy at night. My classmates and I fre- flict and its politics. When “the situation,” for they provided a strange sort of respite from going to accept Israeli propaganda as long as box of pastries. When I bashfully insisted that began to intensify its devastating offensive quented the city’s hotspots, visiting night- as our instructors referred to it, broke out, the uneasy restraint of silence. their bombs continued to pound the country. it was not necessary, and hunger was not the on Lebanon and her people. clubs with names like Crystal, Taboo and classes continued with little more than a two- The following day was perhaps the clos- The streets of Beirut had become eerily continued on page 85

66 Fall 2006 Vanderbilt Magazine 67

I wanted to go to graduate school, was fail to choose at all, allowing our lives just to to understand that fact. Although around half accepted into several, but did not receive happen to us. of us live with our parents, according to the financial aid. There was simply no way I would More-established adults say to imagine Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, be able to absorb the additional debt burden, what you would do if you had unlimited our parents seem to think we are just being A.P. O.V. especially considering that nagging sensation resources and didn’t have to work, and that’s lazy about seeking a high-paying, high-pow-

w I had in the pit of my stomach that maybe— what you should pursue as a career. For me, ered job. This is compounded by the media e i * just maybe—graduate school was just a way however, and I imagine for many others like image of recent graduates, embodied by those for me to put off the real world Taco Bell “Good to Go” com-

t of V for a while and regress into the mercials, featuring a 20-some- in o little cocoon of security I always thing whiling away his time on

i P felt at Vanderbilt. his parents’ couch playing video n As I look around at my friends, games. The cold, hard truth,

um A Fork in the Road l I find that almost the only ones however, is that the job market A * One graduate grapples with the “quarter-life crisis.” living successfully are those who is tough, there is heavy com- got degrees in engineering or sci- petition, and college degrees By Audrey Peters, BS’04 ence. The great glittering liberal don’t mean as much as they did arts degrees are wonderful, and 20 years ago—unless they are fter receiving my idea how to make more. Perhaps most impor- interest. I was suddenly outside a support sys- I don’t regret mine, but it’s sim- advanced or professional degrees. diploma on a sweltering tant, I had no job prospects—and no clue tem, and it was hard. It was easy to fall into ply not as easy to find decent work Perhaps the answer is in morning in May 2004, I how to get any. ennui. It was easy to sit at home after work, with a degree in medieval phi- searching. Sure, the job mar- found myself filled not with My parents were nice enough to let me apathetically glancing through the want losophy, for example. Even those ket is tough, but it’s been tough a sense of hope but with trep- move back in with them, rent free, and drive ads without intending to follow through on who have the jobs they had before and will eventually get Aidation. I had been having their car to the job I had yet to get. I was grate- anything. It was easy to waste spare hours planned for are barely making better. Sure, a lot of my peers are nightmares in which I had forgotten I was ful but also a bit downhearted: This wasn’t watching South Park rather than trying to get enough to get by. They are work- still relying on their parents for signed up for a required class—and the final how it was supposed to be. I was supposed a grip on my life. ing two jobs, living at home, or financial support, but maybe we was about to start. This dream, however, was to graduate with a plan for life in hand along I was afraid. I was afraid to stay in this cir- fitting four people into a one- should be counting our bless- not the cause of my unease. With a bit of with my diploma. I was supposed to be liv- cumstance that made me so unquestioning bedroom house to pay the bills. ings that our parents are able to shock, I realized that neither was it due to the ing my dream in some bright, shiny city of and full of self-doubt. I was afraid, too, to Many of them went to law school do this for us, that they held edu- fact that I had yet to pack my dorm room, the future, not sleeping in the same twin bed take that chance—the giant leap of faith— just to have something to do, cation as a priority. despite knowing I had less than 24 hours to in the same room in which I had slept for and step out naked into the real world, try- some pretense at moving for- The process of writing this move out. Not only did I have more than 20 years. ing to find my bliss. Disoriented in this new ward. And most of the ones who article has helped me tremen- no idea how I was going to pack Although I found a job world, and fervently hoping to break through didn’t are planning to go in the dously in dealing with my emo- in time, but I also had no idea within a few months, I be- ennui and into the life I was meant for, I future. Our lives are filled with tions. I’m not alone. I’m not a NATALIE COX MEAD where to go from there. came depressed. I ached did nothing. Add to that the insult that Com- apprehension and self-doubt— freak. Maybe those nightmares In many ways my college expe- with homesickness for Van- edy Central’s “Adult Swim” kept changing its the world will reach its limit on lawyers even- me, the answer to that question is simple: that I’m the last kid picked for kickball in gym rience was a prolonged adoles- derbilt. I missed conversa- lineup every time I got used to it, and I knew tually, after all, and I think critical mass is nothing. I would do nothing. I would lie class will slowly end. cence; Vanderbilt was a safety tions about politics, philos- this was not the way it was supposed to be. scheduled for two weeks from now. What will around on a beach somewhere writing poetry I’ve quit my dead-end, joyless job, and net between me and the real ophy, theology—often with I had no idea where I was going. What we do then? or travel the world. I’ve not been happier since graduating from world. Thanks to dorm living, I people I’d only just met. I happened to my life plan? I was supposed to Call it the quarter-life crisis. It’s not that I’m lazy. No one with a degree Vanderbilt. So maybe I haven’t figured it all didn’t have to face the realities missed (and still miss) my graduate, then set forth on a great adven- In his book Generation X, Douglas Cou- from Vanderbilt is lazy. It’s more that I have out, and I still don’t really know where to of rent or utility payments; my college friends dearly, for ture—the career of my choosing, sunny apart- pland describes this occurrence as “a period been trained to think critically about the go—but I’m not paralyzed anymore by my life was highly structured, with they watched me grow and ment in a fabulous city, lots of friends and of mental collapse occurring in one’s twen- world, how and why it functions, and I don’t fears of being stuck in a job that I hate until well-defined parameters of what know the hows and whys of lots of wealth. But here I sat, lacking even a ties, often caused by an inability to func- really know how to do anything else. I can’t I die from sheer boredom. I can keep search- was expected of me; my social network was who I am today. I definitely miss being able to basic knowledge of where the road to the tion outside of school or structured build a carburetor, but I can write a 30- ing. Jobs and cities—these things work them- essentially provided; and I had ample oppor- put my work-study paycheck towards what- future lay. I was working in a job I wasn’t par- environments, coupled with a realization of page paper on the Kabbalistic influences on selves out in the end (I hope). I have within tunities to expand my circle of friends and ever I want, rather than student-loan pay- ticularly fond of—OK, a job I hated with the one’s essential aloneness in the world.” Dante’s Paradiso. How can I transfer that into my power the ability to seek and strive and explore my interests. ments. I felt more financial freedom work- fire of a thousand suns—back in my home- Yes. Yes. A resounding yes. We live in a a career? And how, especially, can I transfer eventually find that job that provides a suit- It is no real surprise, then, that I found ing 20 hours a week than I do now, working town, living with my parents, with no idea complex and multiple-choice society, which that into a career that wouldn’t render my able standard of living and emotional fulfill- myself completely unprepared for life after full time. what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go. can make choosing from our options a daunt- expensive degree completely useless? ment. But anyone who knows of a well-paying college. The few bills I had to pay filled my I was struggling to find where I should be, (I did, however, buy my very first car two ing task. (If we can’t pick between five entrees We are facing the bitter truth that our edu- job in a sunny city involving something like stomach with a cold knot of dread. Most of struggling in this vast world beyond the Van- weeks before my 24th birthday. So, theoret- at Ruby Tuesday, how are we supposed to cations, although among the best in the world, touring beaches, high-stakes poker, or being my friends from high school no longer lived derbubble, where I was basically alone and ically, I could go anywhere as soon as I found choose a career?) So daunting is this task, in don’t mean as much as they did in our par- a professional moviegoer is more than wel- in my hometown, and I had absolutely no everyone was looking out for his own best the road.) fact, that many recent graduates (like myself) ents’generation. Sadly, our parents don’t seem come to call me. I’m game. V

68 Fall 2006 Vanderbilt Magazine 69

TheClasses “ “ Charles Plosser, BE’70, has been appointed president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

Alumni Association News

N Alumni Interviewing Program Expands The Office of Alumni Relations and the Office of Undergraduate Admissions have expanded the Vanderbilt Alumni Admissions Interviewing Program. All students applying to Vanderbilt have the opportunity to request an interview with an alumnus or alumna. The two offices jointly launched the program in the fall of 2003 in Atlanta, Chicago and Houston. It was doubled the following year to include Birmingham, Ala.; Dallas; Memphis, Tenn.; and the Metro New York area. Last year the program was expanded again to include Boston, London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, St. Louis and Washington, D.C. In 2005–06 more than 1,000 students requested interviews in the above- Karen Thomas mentioned areas. Fesmire, BS’80

NEIL BRAKE Invested for Life

Karen Thomas Fesmire knows something about multi-tasking. When Vanderbilt Magazine caught up with her at her Memphis, Tenn., home to ask about her plans as president of the Alumni Association, she was happy to share her thoughts—as soon as she got off her other phone line, on which she was in the midst of a planning meeting about Reunion Weekend. “I’m sort of a professional volunteer—schools, church, chari- ties,” says Fesmire, whose eventual presidency of the Alumni Association was a foregone conclusion. After being named to the The program serves as an informal exchange of informa- Alumni Board, during one meeting Fesmire spoke up and asked, tion between Vanderbilt applicants and alumni. It also allows “Are we just here to listen and be made to feel good about our- alumni to serve as a personal link to prospective students and selves, or are we actually supposed to be doing something?” their parents in local communities. Much appreciation is due Fesmire arrived at Vanderbilt in 1976 from the small town of to everyone who participated in this program during its first Coshocton, Ohio. She majored in business administration and three years. married Dr.William Fesmire, BA’80, a Memphis pediatrician. Interviews began in October.Vanderbilt expects a record They are parents of Maggie, a Vanderbilt sophomore, and 9- number of applicants this fall, and alumni interviewers can help personalize the application experience for prospective students. year-old Witt.The Fesmires are big fans of Vanderbilt sports. If you are interested in becoming an alumni interviewer As president of the Alumni Association, Fesmire has ambi- for the 2006–07 application season, please complete the tious plans.“I want to give students the tools to help them required online training session at www.vanderbilt.edu/ become engaged as alumni,” she says.“Alumni aren’t just people admissions/AIP. who come back at Homecoming or give Vanderbilt money— they’re invested in the life of the university.”

70 Fall 2006 Vanderbilt Magazine 71

T H E C L ASSES “ Karen Kohanowich, BS’82, joined three other NASA astronauts aboard Aquarius, the underwater laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “ Robert Boniface, BA’87

TOM PIDGEON Cool Is Back

Why did all the coolest kids always drive Camaros? Red Camaros. You could see them coming from down the street. And you knew that whoever was on the inside was going to a great party you weren’t invited to … with the hottest date in town. In 2002 the last Camaro rolled off the assembly line in Canada. But if you’ve always dreamed of owning this American icon, relax. In 2009 the Camaro will be back on the market and better than ever, thanks to Robert Boniface, director of the General Motors Advanced Design Studio. Boniface came to Vanderbilt with a career goal of car design in mind. He started out at the School of Engineering but quickly realized he wasn’t “particularly gifted at math.” But his degree in psychology has definitely come in handy. “A car is a very emotional purchase,” Boniface says. “A car says something about you. And when it comes right down to it, you don’t buy a Corvette or a Mini Cooper because of crashworthiness or fuel economy. You buy it because you like it.” Chances are, aficionados will like the new Camaro, which won Best in Show at the most recent Detroit Auto Show. And if you’ve always had a secret itch to drive what the cool kids drove, chances are, you’ll like it too. —Cindy Thomsen

72 Fall 2006 Vanderbilt Magazine 73

T H E C L ASSES “ “ Tony Bates, BS’91, has launched MoozikooRadio.com to promote independent music.

John Lunn, BE’92

Lucy Dalglish, JD’95

PAMELA LEPOLD NEIL BRAKE The First Freedom Tradition in a Bottle When she was in school in Grand Forks, N.D., Lucy Dalglish When John Lunn was studying chemical engineering at Vander- was editor of her sixth-grade newspaper. She came out against bilt, he never dreamed he’d be using his education to make the war in Vietnam, against women’s liberation, and against her moonshine. father’s tendency to restrict her television viewing. That last As master distiller for George Dickel Whisky, Lunn oversees column resulted in Lucy’s being grounded, despite her telling production of the Tennessee sipping whisky in Cascade Hollow her father, “I have the First Amendment. I have the right to say in the hills near Normandy,Tenn. Moonshine is one of the early what I want.” Parental rights prevailed back then, but Dalglish stages in the distillation process, before the whisky (the tradi- has never stopped promoting the rights of journalists. tional Scottish spelling) is mellowed, diluted and aged. After working as a journalist in St. Paul, Minn., and receiv- At 36, Lunn is one of the youngest master distillers in a busi- ing a master of studies in law degree at Yale, she came to ness that honors longevity and tradition. He says his Vanderbilt Vanderbilt to complete her law education. One attraction was education prepared him well for his current career:“Distillation the just-created Freedom Forum First Amendment Center is very much a chemical engineering process.” where she worked part time. It’s also an old-fashioned art. Lunn and his staff eyeball and “It was very exciting just to be there and hang out with taste-test their product at each stage of development, without [center founder] John Seigenthaler and to see who was coming the aid of computers. through that place,” she said, remembering her days in “I get the biggest kick from the fact that our 27 employees Nashville. make all the George Dickel Whisky in the world,”he says. Today Dalglish is executive director of the Reporters His greatest challenge is keeping the product the same as it Committee for Freedom of the Press. Since its inception in was when Dickel, a German immigrant, founded the company in 1970, the committee has been involved in virtually every press- 1870.“In a world where everything changes, that’s not easy,” freedom case that has come before the Supreme Court. She Lunn says. spends a lot of time explaining just what First Amendment law He invites alumni to tour the distillery Tuesday through Sat- is all about and why America needs a free and independent urday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. press. It’s an argument she’s been honing since the sixth grade. —Joanne Beckham —Cindy Thomsen

74 Fall 2006 Vanderbilt Magazine 75

T H E C L ASSES “ “ Nicole Duciaume, BA’00, has traveled to Kenya, Bolivia, Mozambique and Uganda as a support officer with the Christian Children’s Fund. Why Your Parents Move to Florida

BY TERRI WITEK, BS’83, MA’84, PhD’88 Other imports thrive: roller coasters, Spanish moss, Cooled air and a pair of teenaged armadillos Who fled a traveling tent show in the Thirties (heirs dot the berm like overturned helmets). There are still giddy miles of citrus To consider and, although at first they’ll buck it, The sweet corn of March. That fewer clothes Are needed means robins arrive all at once Like a shipment of discount, flame-hued mittens. It will seem small-minded to be sad here, though they are. The graves fill up same as anywhere. But as long as they keep a dozy eyelid propped, The sky (so low in buttoned-up Illinois or Ohio) By some huge blue agreement forgets to drop.

© 2006 Terri Witek, courtesy Story Line Press

Terri Witek teaches English and poetry workshops at Stetson University in Deland, Fla., where she holds the Art and Melissa Sullivan Chair in Creative Writing.

76 Fall 2006 Vanderbilt Magazine 77

T H E C L ASSES

Vanderbilt University Alumni Association Board of Directors, 2006–2007

NEW MEMBERS (For a complete roster of board members and club liaisons, visit www.vanderbilt.edu/alumni/aassocbod.) President: Karen Fesmire, BS’80 President-Elect/Vice President: Billy Ray Caldwell, BA’85 Immediate Past President: Sharon Munger, BA’68

NEW REGIONAL REPRESENTATIVES

Region I: Nashville Kasey Dread, BS’93, MEd’02 Clare Michels, BA’99, MBA’95 Theodore Morrison Jr., BS’92 Region II:Tennessee (excludes Nashville) Lisa Uiberall-Noble, BA’93 Region III: Southeast (MS, AL, FL, GA, SC, NC) Laurie Ann Burton, BS’93 John Douglas, BA’93 Jay Harris, BA’80, JD’84 Tom Reardon, BA’06 Austin Bauman, BMus’06 Mark Riley, BA’77, JD’80

NEIL BRAKE Region IV: Northeast (KY and VA northward) Charles Myer III, BA’75 Pedaling for Change Cheryl Nichols, BA’81

Following their graduation from Vanderbilt last May,Austin Bau- Region V:West (all states west of the Mississippi River) man and Tom Reardon embarked on a 5,000-mile bike ride to Doug Atnipp, BA’82 raise money for the Rally Foundation, an organization that sup- Tricia Morris, BS’86 ports childhood cancer research. Region VI: International In June the two started in Atlanta, riding east toward the Landis Hicks, BE’66 Atlantic and turning north when they saw the blue of the ocean. They followed the Atlantic coast from Savannah, Ga., to Scarbor- NEW ALUMNI CLUB REPRESENTATIVES ough, Maine, and then rode west until they crossed the Missis- Dallas—Larry Green, BA’91 sippi River. In each city, they visited children affected by cancer, Houston—Jeffrey Horner, BA’80 often staying with the children’s friends and families. Each stop Los Angeles/Orange County—Laura Hardy, BA’86 also brought a visit to the local pediatric oncology hospital or San Francisco—Trish Cook, BA’83, MA’90 department. Washington, D.C.—Kimberly Nelson Hill, BA’97 “It was great to help take their minds off their sickness, NEW SCHOOL LIAISONS because the kids in the hospitals just want to be treated like kids,”Bauman says. Divinity School—Martha Ford, BA’84, MDiv’95 The pair cycled through mountain ranges, across rivers, and Peabody College—Olympia Ammon, BS’96 once rode 200 miles in a single day.They cycled through 19 Law School—James Crumlin, BA’94, JD’97 states and visited more than 300 children. School of Nursing—Kacy Smith Jones, MSN’05 They arrived back in Nashville Sept. 5 to a welcoming crowd NEW EX-OFFICIO DIRECTORS at Vanderbilt. After three months and 5,000 miles of “pedaling —MarLu Scott, MDiv’03 for pennies,”they raised more than $116,000.“The whole idea Divinity President —Tom Steele, BS’76 is that everyone can give something, and we’ve really experi- General Chair of Reunion —Elizabeth Farrar, BA’90 enced that,”Bauman says. Nursing President — For more information about Rally Across America, visit Owen Graduate School of Management Nancy Abbott, EMBA’91 www.rallyacrossamerica.org.

78 Fall 2006 Vanderbilt Magazine 79

T H E C L ASSES

Alumni Association News

Vanderbilt Chapters Bring VU to You Vanderbilt Chapters offer exciting ways for Vanderbilt alumni, parents and friends to connect across the country and world- wide. With more than 30 chapters offering 300 volunteer-run events yearly, they are a great resource for networking and getting plugged into your local VU community. Alumni and friends enjoy happy hours, viewing parties, events with Vanderbilt professors, wine tastings, family activi- ties and more. For a list of chapters and their events, check out www.vanderbilt.edu/alumni.

Chapter highlights from 2006 included:

Chicago: The Tutankhamun exhibit and a lecture with Barbara Tsakirgis, associate professor of classics and art history, at The Field Museum

London: A summer garden tea for alumni, faculty and students

Louisville, Ky.: A tour, brunch and tasting on the Woodford Reserve Distillery veranda, followed by the Commonwealth Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland thoroughbred racetrack

New York City: A discussion of “9/11: Five Years Later,” from a historical perspective, with Thomas Schwartz, professor of history, including brunch and a walk to “Ground Zero”

Philadelphia: A family event at Linvilla Orchards, including hayrides, a petting zoo, and a campfire dinner with hot apple cider on a 300- acre working farm

Washington, D.C.: An evening with John Geer, professor of political science, for a lively discussion of his new book, In Defense of Negativity: Attack Ads in Presidential Campaigns, and the election season

Don’t Miss Out Many Vanderbilt Chapter activities are publicized through e- mail. To ensure that you receive invitations, be sure to update your e-mail address online at www.Dore2Dore.net, or e-mail us at [email protected].

80 Fall 2006 Vanderbilt Magazine 81 VJournal continued from page 9 campus, and it was, in fact, a very difficult as we move forward, the people who thought Center arrived at work one Monday morn- one. But we had put a lot of time into devel- about Vanderbilt for undergraduate school will ing to discover a pig’s head on our patio.What oping relationships across all faiths, and when also consider it for graduate school. first appeared to be an act of anti-Semitism it became clear that the conference was com- In a short time Vanderbilt has put itself turned out, apparently, to be done out of igno- ing to campus, I was able to pick up the phone on the map in the eyes of the national Jew- rance rather than malicious intent: Sigma with various groups on campus represent- ish community, and now Jews all over the Chi fraternity, whose house is across the street ing different viewpoints, people with whom country are looking at Vanderbilt as an option. from the Schulman Center, had held a pig I was on a first-name basis, to say, “Let’s It’s an exciting time to be here. roast the previous weekend, and somebody talk about this.” It made a huge difference in Over the last year I’ve met many people got the bright idea that it would be a great the way the campus experienced it. in the Jewish community who have told me, prank to leave a pig’s head outside the vege- Part of Hillel’s goal at Vanderbilt is to have “I love Vanderbilt, and it always made me sad tarian restaurant, without any appreciation activities and dialogues with Christians when friends and family around the country for how that might be perceived by Jews. and Muslims and whatever denominations would call me and say,‘We’re looking at Van- That event and the ensuing publicity showed are on campus. The idea that Hillel might be derbilt. Is it a good place to send our kids?’” me something I hadn’t really considered before. involved in bringing a Christian conserva- These people have told me how unhappy it Here was this fraternity right across the street tive or a staunch Republican speaker or group made them to have to answer no. Now these from the Schulman Center. Every day, they to campus, for example, can be uncomfort- same people tell me how gratifying it is to be walk in and out of their fraternity, we walk in able for liberal Jewish students, but we try to able to recommend Vanderbilt to others. The and out of our building,and we aren’t even the provide programs that touch all our Jewish excitement on their faces and the comfort kind of neighbors who wave from across the students. Some Christian groups on campus it gives them are gratifying to me, too. V street or greet one another as we’re driving past. use the Schulman Center for their weekly Given a situation in which you’re not com- meetings, and we try to open up our experi- municating with your neighbors, eventually ence to different faiths. And it’s not just inter- Vanderbilt Holdings continued from page 23 something unfortunate happens—whether faith; it’s also intercultural. It’s Latino, it’s gay, Other German woodcut artists represented it’s a miscommunication, whether it’s mis- it’s any kind of group on campus. in the collection include Erich Heckel, the chievous, whether it’s malicious, a problem Although the number of Jewish under- Expressionist, whose print of a young girl was will inevitably arise, and when it does, you graduate students has grown dramatically at reproduced in the first issue of the magazine don’t have a relationship you can fall back on Vanderbilt, our graduate student population Genius in 1920, and Gerhard Marcks, the to help resolve problems. is only now beginning to see significant growth. Bauhaus artist. Of contemporary living artists, Before I came to Vanderbilt, I was direc- This may be because Jewish students who the most arresting work is by former East tor of the Freeman Center for Jewish Life at didn’t consider Vanderbilt when they were German Christiane Baumgartner, whose Duke University. While I was at Duke, there choosing an undergraduate school are unlike- series of prints, 1 Sekunde, represents one was an anti-Israel conference that a student ly to consider Vanderbilt when they’re looking second of video shot during a road trip on group brought to campus, not something the at graduate schools, and based on the growth the Autobahn translated into 25 individual university endorsed. That could have been a of this year’s graduate student population, this wood engravings. terrible experience for the Jewish students on does appear to be happening. My hope is that, Taking the woodcut medium one step further in the direction of film, during Feb- ruary and March the Fine Arts Gallery will Sports continued from page 18 exhibit the work of American renaissance freshmen who were all very experienced sets of eyes behind you. It’s not really an man Jay Bolotin, a writer, composer, per- bowlers,”says Williamson,“but Michelle had authoritative type of system. It’s an exchange, former, stage and set designer, choreogra- never bowled on a team. Anytime you do any- and being able to talk it out helps a lot. pher and visual artist whose latest work is an thing that’s team oriented, it’s a different atmos- “I went to the Junior Gold Championships animated film made entirely of woodcut phere. This year I’m expecting a lot more from this summer, and they’re completely indi- prints. In a collaborative programming effort, them because they’ve experienced those things. vidual,” she says.“So that was the first event the Fine Arts Gallery will exhibit the prints, It should no longer be new to them.” I had attended by myself since being here. while Sarratt Gallery and Cinema on cam- The players now count on the coach and The first shot of the tournament—I’m pret- pus will screen the film and exhibit studies each other to keep things in perspective and ty sure I struck the first shot—I walked back and precursors to the completed portfolio. in focus. There are times, Peloquin says, when thinking,‘Where are my high fives? Where is All of which proves that even with the in the middle of a game, “you think what everybody?’You get used to that. It’s so sup- oldest print medium known, there are might be happening on the lane is not actu- portive. For the first time not to have it, I def- always new paths on which to collaborate ally what’s happening. It’s nice to have extra initely missed it.” V and explore. V

V ande r b ilt Mag azine 83

In Class continued from page 28 ers, Lost works with a transnational group of loop’s colleagues at Vanderbilt are also pop culture as a larger reflection of our social people but through mediated text—so we must students will use Television: Critical Methods characters who reflect all sorts of questions Samong his fans. During the busy pres- values and philosophy,”says Matt O’Brien, deal with the media issue. I’m not worried and Applications, by Jeremy Butler, and Tele- of age, race, gender and even size politics,” idential primary season in the spring of who graduated from Vanderbilt in 2001 with about students remembering the text but in vision: The Critical View, by Horace New- says Sloop.“Other shows aren’t so explicitly 2004, Sloop team-taught a course with Eng- a degree in communications studies and com- remembering the ways in which we as a cul- comb, both of which deal in high-level theory, tied to these questions.” lish professor and author Cecelia Tichi and puter science. O’Brien worked as a produc- ture look at that text. Frankly, I also worry about as their primary textbooks. At the same time, The question of gender and the media is Bruce Barry, professor of management at the er at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart for four the health of democracy in a world with so Sloop and his students will bounce those one that has long interested Sloop. His book Vanderbilt Owen School and a professor in years before becoming a head writer on the many mediated sources that the striations of weighty theories off episodes from the first Disciplining Gender: Rhetorics of Sex Identi- the sociology department, where he teaches newest entry into late-night talk television, beliefs are becoming so great.” and second seasons of Lost and flex their crit- ty in Contemporary U.S. Culture was pub- a course on technology, media and culture. TalkShow with Spike Feresten. Thanks to John Sloop, Vanderbilt students ical thinking muscles with the myriad inter- lished by The University of Massachusetts “He is an astute critic of media and pop- “He taught me to develop a much larger are challenged to think about those sources and connected “products” like Web pages and Press in 2004. He is currently working on a ular culture,”says Barry,“one who brings rig- perspective and frame while observing media beliefs in ways they never before have. Or, as books the series has spawned. project that investigates the relationship orous intellectual force to bear, but also seems Sloop came up with the idea for the course between gender, sexuality, citizenship and able to make it accessible to students and oth- last year while teaching Rhetoric of the Mass transportation technologies (such as DVD ers who are not academic specialists in the Besides exciting the Media, a course that explores how everything players in cars) as media. The first essay emerg- fields of rhetoric and culture studies.” passion of its viewers, from politics and economics to style and sports ing from this work will be published in Com- According to Barry, Sloop’s approach in is distributed within contemporary culture munication and Critical/Cultural Studies,a the classroom is energetic and passionate. Lost works with a via mass media. It’s a course described by Sloop respected professional journal for which Sloop “Students—many of whom, like the rest of group of characters as “providing critical skills and ways of read- has been named editor-elect for volumes to us who know him well, just call him ‘Sloop’— ing mass-mediated discourses that encourage be published between 2007 and 2009. love him because he is deeply engaged in try- who reflect all sorts reflection on the ‘unnoticed’ influence of mass Sloop also is co-author with Kent A. Ono ing to get them to share his enthusiasm for of questions of age, media on the contours of everyday life.”When of Shifting Borders: Rhetoric, Immigration and the subject matter. He seems always willing race, gender and a student used Lost specifically as his jump- California’s Proposition 187, published by to go that extra mile to connect with students ing-off point to do that, Sloop took notice. Temple University Press in 2002. and offer feedback on their work. I would even size politics. “The student did a reading of gender roles “John’s approach to rhetorical studies is add that he is well known and respected in Lost, and the class really got into it,”Sloop unique,”says Ono, director and professor of among many faculty at Vanderbilt in vari- ©00A9 2006 ABC, INC. recalls.“Lost is one of those shows that peo- Asian American studies and professor of the ous fields because he is a sharp intellect who or pop culture. That perspective is one of the O’Brien puts it,“You can watch Lost the couch- ple feel fanatical—and political—about, and Institute of Communications Research at the ranges widely as a thinker and critic.” most crucial skills used in writing something potato way, or you can watch it the Sloop way. I thought it would be the perfect show to use University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Sloop’s far-ranging interests, aside from like topical comedy. The larger your per- The Sloop way adds a very tangible philosophical as a case study.” “While deeply grounded within classical television and its influences, include Marlon spective, the more funny common threads aspect to experiencing media that most people Sloop himself has been a fan of the show rhetorical studies, his approach acknowl- Brando, Thelonius Monk and Iowa Buckeye you can unearth as a result.” don’t have the luxury of seeing.” V from the beginning. edges, indeed nuances, post-structural and basketball, to name a few. His ability to relate While most of Sloop’s students won’t go on “I was a Survivor fan and had been read- cultural studies approaches to the discipline.” so many topics—and refract them through to write for television, the professor sees com- Angela Fox, a freelance writer specializing in ing about Lost before its debut,”he says. “I Yet, notes Ono, Sloop’s work reaches a the lens of mass media and cultural studies— munications studies as vital to any career.“Com- the arts and travel, lives most of the year in was intrigued because Lost sounded like a broader audience than most rhetorical stud- is the key to his appeal as a teacher. munication is the essence of humanity,”Sloop Nashville, where she also is an actress. Her show where the viewers would already know ies scholarship. “With a class like Sloop’s Rhetoric of the says.“If our reality is in large part ideas that “Travels with Angela” segment is heard the genre and automatically have an in-group “The topics he chooses—prisons, trans- Mass Media, the most valuable lesson for me humans have created, we should ask ourselves weekly on the nationally syndicated Lifetime community.” gendered identity—are ones that bridge aca- was learning to look at television, media and how we get these ideas. It isn’t through other Radio for Women. Sloop’s instincts proved right as Lost became demic and theoretical knowledge with everyday an instant hit with an especially devoted fol- life. That he is so successful at bridging more lowing that not only watches the show each traditional rhetorical studies with upstart S.P.O.V. continued from page 67 about the fate of the city we had grown to love. ture, nightlife and its people. Only now week but dissects its plot and character devel- cultural studies is a testament to his overall most important thing on my mind, she was Traveling from Cyprus to Istanbul to London, can I begin to understand the feelings of my opments and symbolic nuances via the Inter- social skills and ability to work with others.” adamant about the fact that I would need we constantly judged each location vis-à-vis father, my relatives and the Lebanese, who net each day. Internet postings, in fact, are an Ono, whose own focus is rhetoric, cul- food while waiting until an evacuation plan Beirut. For some reason we could not clearly have all gone through similar experiences, integral part of the way Sloop’s freshman tural and media/film studies, also has written was made. define, no city could compare to Beirut’s glam- only on an immensely greater scale. writing class will interact with each other and several articles with Sloop and has known him Unfortunately, my friends and I had devoured orous energy and excitement. Upon arriving home I heard a song by the stake their claims on their own academic since graduate school.“We both made it through the baklava by the next day, when I was to be Looking back I’m still mystified why I was legendary Lebanese singer Fairuz that some- “island” during the coming months. the rhetorical studies program at the Univer- evacuated with a friend the embassy allowed never scared of the events unfolding around how perfectly encapsulated my feelings:“To Lost also works as a vehicle for an explo- sity of Iowa and shared many a walk across at the last minute. Packed on a ship bound for me in Lebanon. Mostly, I felt excited to be Beirut—Peace to Beirut with all my heart … ration of cultural studies because it operates the Iowa City campus to get coffee,”Ono recalls. Cyprus, we simultaneously felt relief and dis- in a war zone for the first time, angry at / From the soul of her people she makes wine, on so many levels—something most televi- “John debated with me on a wide variety of appointment. We were glad to be on the safe- the Israelis and those who sanctioned their / From their seat, she makes bread and jas- sion shows do not. topics ranging from popular music and col- ty of the cruise ship, but we were saddened actions, and a curious attachment to the city mine. / So how did it come to taste of smoke “Besides exciting the passion of its view- lege basketball to red-dirt tobacco farming.” that our plans had been ruined and incensed and those with whom I experienced its cul- and fire?” V

84 Fall 2006 Vanderbilt Magazine 85

Southern Journal continued from page 88 Southern states in which a significant num- My urge, as conservationist and cultural Even after the vogue for romanticized visions ber of the residents turned to the swamps for critic, is to resist such an apocalyptic view. of the plantation South passed after World their livelihood in the face of agricultural Such a total concession of the natural world War II, the swamp retained its vilified status. decline and poverty. to the vagaries of the human will is a dan- Hollywood, particularly in B movies, perpet- While official preserves market the swamps gerous, limited and potentially irresponsible uated horrific versions of the Southern swamps. on the basis of their freedom from human move. If the natural no longer exists, is entire- Hollywood bombarded the public with films adulteration and their pristine, natural beau- ly a product of human imagination, then what about swamp monsters (Curse of the Swamp ty, the Louisiana swamp-tour industry bal- stands in the way of practical ecological catas- Creature is a typical example of the B-movie ances ecological appeal with promises of trophe, pollution, deforestation, and a host swamp craze, as is 1959’s Attack of the Giant “extreme” encounters with primordial wildlife, of other potential and current disasters? Leeches), lurid depictions of criminals escap- appeals to myth and superstition, and claims While the mainstream contemporary South ing into hellish steamy swamps (Swamp Women, a Roger Corman effort, stands out in this genre, as do better-regarded films such as I Am a Fugi- In the antebellum North, abolitionists applied tive from a Chain Gang), and images of river- boat captains wrestling alligators in forbidding disparaging images of swamps they often had swamp landscapes (1956’s Swamp Fire, star- ring Johnny Weissmuller, best known for his never seen to describe the moral decadence of portrayals of Tarzan,is a dubious but notable the entire South. Yet the qualities of alienation entry in this category). The current climate of ecological aware- from societal order also held a profound appeal ness and its valuation of wetlands as natural and cultural resources developed slowly and for American writers and thinkers outside the hesitantly. The early Southern conservation South, who elevated the swamps for the char- Vanderbilt’s movement was acutely tied to the preserva- tion of elements of Southern culture threat- acteristics that led most people to shun them. ened by wetland development. Sportsmen, WIDE hunters and fishermen, often politically con- servative in other respects, banded together to protect the land that enabled their activ- of cultural authenticity. Most swamp-tour may regard swamps with nostalgia and ide- ities. Even now the environmental movement companies combine the promise of easy access alization, cultures that continue to live in the WORLD in the South is made up of what might seem to unsullied nature in the confines of an arti- swamps respond differently. For surviving strange bedfellows: more traditional ecolo- ficial preserve with the kind of “extreme swamp-identified cultures, natural and cul- in your mailbox gists, academics and conservationists as well wildlife” showmanship mandatory for com- tural degradation and destruction are inex- as throngs of hunters and fishermen—a group mercial success in the era of the “Crocodile tricably linked. The swamps continue to signify that has claimed the tongue-in-cheek desig- Hunter.”Many companies augment the allure differently for various cultures that experi- nation “Bubba environmentalists.” of the physical and factual swamp with veiled ence them, and various views of the swamps Southern swamps are now, for the most promises of swamp horrors to be viewed from have been influenced by technology and sci- ach issue of Vanderbilt Magazine gives you glimpses part, protected; many have been designated the comfort and safety of Coast Guard- ence as well as by ideology and culture. Eof the university’s past, present and future—scientific as wildlife preserves, protected from drainage, approved vessels. The specters of chaos that The contemporary Southern swamp has advances, arts and culture, sports, historical pieces, deforestation and contamination. No longer initially freighted the swamps with fear and taken on a new set of paradoxes and contradic- lively essays by alumni and students, and the always-popular sheltered from progress by impenetrability menace have become faint evocations of movie tions, superseding the old contradictions of water class notes. and myth, the swamps are now shielded by monsters, the stuff of tongue-in-cheek enter- and land, purity and pollution. The swamps’ Please consider making a tax-deductible gift of $35, $50, $100, federal mandate. tainment and savvy marketing. physical survival is somewhat secure; their con- or whatever amount you choose to Vanderbilt Magazine’s The wetlands have become not only nation- In an era when Southern identity must temporary significance, though, remains an voluntary subscription fund. (Regardless of whether you al parks but theme parks. Southern swamps now be considered in terms of the urban, intriguing and complex question. V contribute, you’ll continue to receive Vanderbilt Magazine.) have spawned a surprisingly vigorous indus- thriving, vital and increasingly multicul- Send your check—payable to Vanderbilt Magazine—to: try, particularly in Louisiana. A Web search tural New South, the swamps have become Anthony Wilson, MA’98, PhD’02, is assistant for “swamp tours” returns more than 5,200 odd embodiments of a vanished identity, professor of English at LaGrange College in Vanderbilt Magazine Voluntary Subscription Fund results, an overwhelming majority of which repositories of faded fears, forgotten cultur- LaGrange, Ga. This essay has been adapted VU Station B #357727 are hosted by Louisiana businesses. The 2301 Vanderbilt Place al history and compromised purity. Must we from his book, Shadow and Shelter: The Swamp Nashville, TN 37235-7727 Louisiana concentration makes sense; after then herald “the end of the swamp” as natu- in Southern Culture (University Press of Mis- Thanks for keeping it going. the Civil War, Louisiana was one of the only ral site and subversive space? sissippi, 2006).

Vanderbilt Magazine 87

SouthernJournal flections on the South

Re Shadow and Shelter Through slavery, Hollywood exploitation and suburban sprawl, the South’s swamps endure. By Anthony Wilson, MA’98, PhD’02

he swamp occupies an most dismal swamp. I enter a swamp as a intriguingly complex place in sacred place, a sanctum sanctorum. There is the Southern and national the strength, the marrow of nature.” Walt imaginations. As the South Whitman, too, extolled the charms of the T comes to look more and more Southern swamps before the Civil War in his like the rest of America, colo- poem “O Magnet South”(1860):“O the strange nized by the relentless progress of strip malls fascination of these half-known half-impass- and suburban sprawl, Southern wooded wet- able / swamps, infested by reptiles, resound- lands have come to embody the last part of ing with the bellow / of the alligator, the the South that will always be beyond cultur- sad noise of the rattlesnake.” al dominion, however illusory that under- While the swamp’s figurative significance standing may be. came to define it for much of the nation, for Traditionally, the term “swamp” has been the South its physical presence as obstacle to used to define an area outside civilization agriculture and shelter for the dispossessed whose geographic features—notably its keeps its significance grounded in tangible

treacherous mix of water and earth—ren- reality. The swamp carried both a promise of JIM HSIEH der it resistant to colonization or agriculture. freedom for escaped slaves and a threat to Swamps have represented a challenge to social order for the plantation aristocracy. help thinking that it was not necessary for imposed order since well before the colo- Aside from the specter of the escaped slave, men to work so hard as they themselves were nization of America. The swamps’ essential swamp dwellers of various kinds emerge obliged to; that if they were free they would resistance to culturally viable classification repeatedly as ideological and practical threats. not need to work.” was compounded by the nature of their ear- One of the most threatening aspects of the The 1939 release of Gone with the Wind, liest denizens. The presence of Native Amer- swamp, paradoxically, is its very bounty— perhaps the most influential representation icans in the swamps only underscored their the effortless “living off the land.”In his famous of the American South in the 20th century, wicked association for Europeans who viewed 1856 study, A Journey in the Seaboard Slave and its legion of less-noted precursors and the Indian as the embodiment of savagery. States, a collection of pieces written for the ubiquitous imitators, largely redefined the In the antebellum North, abolitionists New York Daily Times between 1853 and 1854, nation’s concept of the antebellum South. applied disparaging images of swamps they Frederick Law Olmsted recounts a conver- Edward D.C. Campbell, in his 1981 study, The often had never seen to describe the moral sation with Mr. R., a South Louisiana plan- Celluloid South: Hollywood and the Southern decadence of the entire South. Yet the qual- tation owner,about a nearby group of Acadians: Myth, explains that in the late 1930s and early ities of alienation from societal order also “Mr. R. described them as lazy vagabonds, 1940s,“plantation stories were good business, held a profound appeal for American writ- doing but little work, and spending much attracting Academy Awards and, most impor- ers and thinkers outside the South, who time in shooting, fishing, and play. … Why tantly, customers.”As they recreated the myths elevated the swamps for the characteristics did he so dislike to have these poor people underpinning an idealized plantation South, that led most people to shun them. Thoreau, living near him? Because, he said, they demor- studios also proved adept at reviving the image for example, said that “[w]hen I would recre- alized his negroes. The slaves seeing them of the Southern swamp as breeding ground ate myself, I seek the darkest wood, the thick- living in apparent comfort, without much for natural and supernatural horrors. est and most interminable and, to the citizen, property and without steady labor, could not continued on page 87

88 F all 2006 These West African masks were donated to Vanderbilt by Lewis “Scotty” Greenwald, BA’67, JD’70. They are on display at the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center.

Oliver Banks (Operations) and Josh Stewart (Marketing) trade business suits for scrubs as part of the Vanderbilt Health Care MBA.

Students in our Health Care MBA program don’t just study health care. They’re immersed in it. They spend night shifts at Vanderbilt Medical The result? Graduates who understand this Center. Grasp the perspectives of patients, complex industry from the inside out and are ready physicians and managers. Gain critical experience to make a difference their first day on the job. from consulting projects and internships. Make If you’re looking to become a future leader invaluable contacts among Nashville’s health care in health care — or to recruit one — look to community, a city that’s home to over 300 health Vanderbilt, the leader in health care management care companies. education. HealthCare

www.owen.vanderbilt.edu