Connecticut College Digital Commons @ Connecticut College Linda Lear Center for Special Collections & Alumni News Archives Summer 1999 Connecticut College Magazine, Summer 1999 Connecticut College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/alumnews Recommended Citation Connecticut College, "Connecticut College Magazine, Summer 1999" (1999). Alumni News. 347. https://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/alumnews/347 This Magazine is brought to you for free and open access by the Linda Lear Center for Special Collections & Archives at Digital Commons @ Connecticut College. It has been accepted for inclusion in Alumni News by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Connecticut College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the author. Contents Summer 1999 Vol. 8, No. 3 CONNECTICUT CO LLEG £Magazine • PEER PROFILES: 14 p. 57: Liz tone '49, hampion row r COMMENCEMENT p. 63: i ki Rogo in Lansl-. '63, The Class of 1999 bo k publish r p. 67: Li a Kaufman er hbow '75, art oil tor 16 p. 71: P ter John ton ' , ailb at maker VERBATIM p. 75 F rnand puela '88, Frank Mc ourt on teaching, writing f under of tarM dia and the meri an dream 19 LIKE FATHER, LIKE SONS 2 The President's Page hri ooper '77 and hri ooper '99, . .' fir t father- on I ga y 3 Letters to the Editor 5 CC students help NL school 20 CHAPTER AND VERSE 6 Solar timepiece in the Plex Thoreau lives next door 7 From Brazil to Japan David R. Fo ter '76 re i it Thoreau' 01111try 8 Social justice in New London 9 Walkway will link campus to NL CLASSso NOTES orrespondent ' report 10 Fulbright and Watson winners 11 Researching a CT river 80 12 Monk by the Sea LAST LOOK see page 75 features 40 THE DANCE Writing teacher Barbara Flug olin '61 learn a les on in humanity from her ph ically hallenged tudents. 42 REUNION 1999 0 car-winner telle Par ons '49 and Olympian nita DeFrantz '74 were among a record-breaking 1,400alumni who returned to campus. 36 THE MIND OF THE MATHEMATICIAN an anyone be trained to think mathemati ally? math-phobic writer talks with ' mathematician and I arn there i a impler way Lo und r tand math - you ju t do it. 45 A TIME TO LEAD Jumni participation in the nnual Fund oars to 50 p rcent. President's Page Vietnam: a new vision How a liberal arts education can build a bridge between New London and Vietnam CONNECTICUT CO LLEGE or most Americans, the word Liberal arts education foster the Magazine Vietnam i a Ror chach te t of questioning of received truth. SAT 's age and attitude. Beyond the combination of education and travel Volume 8 I Number 3 F expands the power of the learning once ubiquitous images of de truc­ tion, Vietnam is emerging today a a environment to engage people who may seem very different. The com­ Editor: Li a H. Brownell vibrant and hopeful young nation. La t spring we sent our first Study munity of cholar merges with the Senior Contributing Editor: huck Luce Away Teach Away (SATA) group to community of under tanding to help Associate Editor/Class Notes: Mary Howard Vietnam. I hope you will enjoy, as I individuals envi ion a common News Editor: ina Lentini did, reading about their life-changing future acros apparently ma ive bar­ rier . Art Director: Kati Roe ner '81 experiences, beginning on page 22. ince 1994, 169 student and 20 Like most colleges, Connecticut Editor, A Time to Lead: ancy Lewis faculty members have College has lived for much of its his- Contributing Writers: participated in SATAs tory at arm' length Tri h Brink, Patricia arey, athleen Loffredo in Egypt, Ghana, from the problems of its Hin ch, ancy Lewis, Rebecca ash, Mike Greece, India, The community of urban neighbors, just a alerno Mexico, Morocco, scholars merges with We terner have enjoyed immense ea e relative to Editorial Board outh Africa, the community of AIJen arroll '73, hair, amuel Bottum '89, Tanzania, and mo t of the world. ow Maria Braden lark '68, Warren Cohen '89, Vietnam; thls year, understanding to we must forge a new Donald Filer, Claire L. Gaudianl '66, laire K. groups will go to the help individuals en e of global commu­ Matthews, Alexander Todd '98, George Willauer. zech Republic, nity. Ex officio: Lisa H. Brownell Greece, and Mexico. envision a We, who are privi­ In the ame time, the common future leged in o many way , ollege community, mu t learn to hear with 0 NE Tl UT OLLEGE Magazine is pub­ and I p r onally, have across apparently our intellects as well a lished by onnectlcut ollege. The magazine's ml.s Ion with our hearts when is 10 maincain ties between the college, ilS alumni and engaged deeply in the massive barriers. all other const11uen1s, and 10 report on issues of impor­ economic rebirth of much of the world's peo- tance to these groups. ew London. ple say, "We suffer." These two areas, different a they Regardle of your faith, the ew Contributions: CO ECTICUT OLLEGE Magazine will consider but I not responsible for may seem, are clo ely related. Both Te tament tory of the Good unsollciced manuscrlpcs, proposals and photographs. ew London and Vietnam represent amaritan re onate , and even more Address correspondence 10: Edllor, so, the que tion that the parable was 0 NECTICUT OLLEGE Magazine, Becker the challenges that today's tudents­ House, 270 Mohegan Avenue, ew London, CT06320- and tomorrow's leaders-will face. framed to an wer: Who is my neigh­ 4196. Phone: 860-439-2500; People experience problems locally­ bor? We are all neighbors on this FAX: 860-439-5405. even problems with global ignifi­ shrinking planet. Vietnam i ew 0 ECTICUT OLLEGE Magazine (UPS cance. More than ever, thi genera­ London. ew London is Vietnam. 129-140) ls published four tlmes a year, In summer, fall, tion mu t find new ways to connect And, I believe, Liberal arts education winier and spring, and Is mailed freeof charge to mem­ will buiJd the bridge between them. bers of the Connectlcul College Alumni Association and globally and to solve local problems. friends of the college. Periodicals class postage paid at Around the world, democracy and New London, CT, and at additional offices. the market economy are ascendant. But so, too, are new and urgent chal­ Postmaster: end address changes to lenges. robust liberal art education CO ECTICUT OLLEGE Magazine, 270 Mohegan Avenue, can provide the mean to meet the e ew London, CT06320-4196 challenges, by integrating academic disciplines with real-Life experiences Claire L. Ga11din11i '66 in ew London, Hanoi and el ewhere Pre ident of the allege around the world. 0 ummer 1999 Word for Word Letters to the Editor he did, but by God, you could not be neutral, and she taught me that it was Reactions, flashbacks as honorable to dislike a work on its merits as to praise it. She was the antithesis of academic detachment, but Are cheerleaders a with a mind as incisive as it was enthu­ siastic. Even on the dreariest of days I controversial topic? looked forward to her classes. I cannot mention teachers who were invaluable to this writer's growth At fir t I thought it was a joke, but a ec­ without a word for Lester Reiss, of the ond look at the jubiJantly perky uni­ philosophy department. In my senior form-clad, pompom-wielding, all­ year I took an elective, Speculative female Conn olJege cheerleaders in Fiction and Fanta y, a high-volume the pring issue of 01111ectirnt allege blast of a class that examined the Magazine convinced me that this unex­ sacred, the secular and the profane in pected image wa depre ingly eriou . I Science Fiction and Fantasy, my pre­ wa at onn when Title IX wa pa ed ferred leisure time reading. I cheri h the in 1972, but even in the benighted pre­ memory of Lester Reiss, pausing in the Title IX years we would not have middle of a djscussion of James Blish's dreamed of donning uniforms and "Cities in Flight,"overcome with enthu­ haking pompom to cheer on "the sia m for the work and the ideas it con­ boys." What 1 can imagine from that era tained. "There's great stuff in here!" he is cheerleader in drag exploiting the houted. All the e years later, and a weet idiocy of the whole cheerleading writer of science fiction and fantasy phenomenon. That one picture made I cherish the memory of my elf, the best hope I have for my me ashamed, for the first time in my Lester Reiss, pausing in books is that there is Great Stuff in life, of being a Conn graduate. them, too. Thanks, Lester. Susan Krebs '73 the middle of a discus- Madeleine Robins '75 York, Penn. sion of James Blish's ew York, .Y. "Cities in Flight,"over­ Flashbacks I loved "Fla hback ; AJumni Authors come with enthusiasm Remember Their Favorite Professor ." Thank You for the pring Co1111ectic11t Warren Cohen's reminiscences of College Magazine "Flashbacks" on pro­ for the work and the William Frasure reminded me of the fessors and presidents. These were truly ideas it contained. fear ome and wonderful Miss Dilley extraordinary people who gave much to who was head of the government us, the tudent . Though I only had two "There's great stuffin department when I was a government years at Conn, it struck me how deeply here!" he shouted.