Sewanee News, 1987
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THESewaneeNEWS Published for the Alumni and Friends of The University of the South April 1987 Planning an Orderly Nemerov First Future Aiken Taylor Award Winner Overnight Sewanee's campus has experienced metamorphosis. A large, modern dining hall has been built at Howard Nemerov was a guest of the University the Bishop's Common. And Georgia Avenue, and the Sewanee Review for three days in Janu- which runs in front, has been closed to make ary when he became the first recipient of the way for a new Fine and Performing Arts Center Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American connected to Guerry Hall. Poetry. Where does the traffic go? One place it The distinguished poet and critic was pre- doesn't go is through the huge "asphalt alley" sented the award and its 510,000 prize by the between Woods Lab and Carnegie (old Science Vice-Chancellor in a brief ceremony at Opening Hall). The asphalt has been dug up and re- Convocation. From the perspective of Sewanee, placed with walkways, grass, and trees. however, the highlight of his visit occurred the Gailor? You were wondering what happened evening before when Professor Nemerov, with to the old dining hall? Well, Gailor Hall has a reading of his poetry, beguiled an apprecia- been renovated for fine arts. The admissions of- tive audience that filled Convocation Hall. fice is now across the street in Thompson Hall. , The informality of his manner matched his No, wait, old Thompson Union is a student informal appearance. But the wry smile that union once again, and admissions is down the creased his otherwise stoic face gave only a street where the supply store used to be, and hint of the wit that infused his poetry and ex- the supply store is at the B.C. No, that's not planatory remarks. His voice sometimes hov- quite right. All of that has gone into a new Vice-Chancel lor Ayres announced last year ered dangerously near the inaudible, so that his building near Gailor. Except.... intentions to begin work on a strategic plan. listeners sat perfectly still, afraid of missing a Well, it's all (for now) just imagination. Part Since then a twenty-eight member strategic deft image or a jest. They seemed to miss few. of what could be, what someday might be. It's planning committee with ten subcommittees The reading was prefaced that afternoon in a what for now is being discussed, as the Univer- has been formed. Then last summer Arthur M. lecture by critic and Sewanee Review advisory sity and a planning firm put together a long- Schaefer, University provost, initiated work on editor Denis Donoghue, which was itself pre- range master plan for campus facilities and the campus master plan by naming Peter faced in remarks and introduction by Seivanee landscaping. Smith, assistant professor of theatre, as the co- Review editor George Core. Both warned of Mr. A series of meetings among faculty, adminis- ordinator. Professor Smith has been closely in- Nemerov's poetic and "real life" humor. tration, and Dober and Associates of Cam- volved in the work of Dober and Associates Introduced by Professor Dale E. Richardson, bridge, Massachusetts, will soon culminate in a since the firm was hired in October. Nemerov read first from the poetry of K.P.A. review of recommendations by the boards of re- "This is a nationally recognized and re- Taylor, who endowed the poetry prize with a gents and trustees. That will be at the end of spected firm that specializes in campus plan- generous trust bequest, and Conrad Aiken, Mr. April, and the final plan is expected to be com- ning," Professor Smith said. "They have Taylor's more famous brother, who, as a happy pleted this summer. prepared 200 to 250 campus plans for such coincidence, was a friend of Mr. Nemerov's. This new master plan for Sewanee's campus places as Carleton College, Davidson, Grinnetl, The selections of Nemerov's own poetry, is the beginning of two other major endeavors. Macalester, and Skidmore. You can be sure they most of them relatively short, included several It is the first phase of a strategic plan that is are usually consulted only when there are ma- pieces evoked by his memories as an RAF pilot expected to touch every aspect of University jor problems to solve; so there aren't many during World War II. He seemed almost apolo- life—academics, student life, admissions and problems they haven't seen." getic for the time they took and remarked that advancement, facilities, athletics, and others. The Dober staff began visiting Sewanee in almost forty years had lapsed before he had be- Second, the campus master plan will form the December. One of the first problems recog- gun to write about the war. Yet even some of basis of a new capital funds-campaign, for it nized was the lack of accessibility of offices. these works, as well as his poems about dogs, will clarify critical needs in facilities, especially Smith gave the Dober visitors a map and the academics, and domestic life, created humor- for athletics, the arts, music, dining, and even names of six offices to find. None of the of- ous images or such startling reflections of com- student housing. The plan will also pinpoint a fices, including the admissions office, was plex experiences that gentle waves of mirth host of seemingly smaller but still important found in less than twenty minutes of diligent rolled through the hall. Mr. Nemerov was concerns regarding the efficient function of aca- searching and asking directions. Many people brought back for an encore. demic and administrative operations. Continued on jiage 2 Continued on page 2 Q Nemerov News Briefs The crowd dispersed slowly that evening with private intentions to search out a book or books by one poet, Howard Nemerov. Alto- AIDS Task Force gether thirty books of his work have been com- Acting upon appeals from public health offi- piled, though some of those are of short stories cials and higher education leaders, Vice-Chan- and essays, and one is a novel. His most re- cellor Ayres has appointed an AIDS Task Force cently published book of poetry is Inside the On- of for the University. This committee, consisting ion (University of Chicago Press, 1984). fourteen administrative staff and faculty mem- Mr. Nemerov has received numerous honors, bers and chaired by Mary Susan Cushman, among which are a Guggenheim fellowship in dean o( women, has been asked to consider the 1968, a National Book Award in 1978, the Pu- prevention subject of AIDS, "both in the area of litzer Prize for poetry in 1978, and the Bollingen and in the area of possible policies to be fol- Prize for 1981. He has been the Edward Mal- lowed should the disease occur on our cam- linckrodt distinguished professor of English at pus." The task force was to meet April 1 with Washington University in St. Louis since 1976. Dr. Richard Keeling, director of student health Nemerov has contributed poetry and prose to at the University of Virginia and director of the the Sewanee Review since 1946. American College of Health Association. He "Mr. Nemerov has long been recognized not was invited to Sewanee because of his leader- only as one of the nation's leading poets but as task force AIDS. ship of a national on one of its most important men of letters," said George Core in announcing the winner of the Library Award Aiken Taylor Award. "It will surprise no one The Government Documents Department of who knows contemporary American poetry Jesse Ball duPont Library received a Certificate that Mr. Nemerov has been chosen as the first of Excellence in January based upon an inspec- writer to win this important award, and the tion evaluation. The certificate was presented at friends of American poetry will be delighted. "Q Opening Convocation by United States superin- tendent of documents Donald E. Fossedal. The University library has been designated a depo- sitory of U.S. government publications since Planning — 1873. It currently has a collection of more than 113,000 items in paper and 74,000 microforms. may consider that personal characteristic of the campus quaintly Sewanee, but other, more criti- cal, problems were recognized. Mediaeval Colloquium "They said our athletic facilities are worse The fourteenth annual Sewanee Mediaeval Col- than any place they have studied," said Smith. loquium, held April 10-11, focused the atten- "Dober was also upset at where we have put tion of visiting scholars on "St. Augustine and Sewanee. some of our buildings, and he said that the His Influence in the Middle Ages." The Henry buildings are as indiscriminate inside as Volume 53 Number 1 Slack McNeil Lectures, at the first and third outside. plenary sessions, were delivered by Henry not want to have buildings that "We may H. W. Anderson III, Alumni Chadwick, master-elect of Peterhouse College, "Yogi" C'72, Editor people can recognize outside by their function, Clay Scott, Assistant Editor Cambridge, while Douglas Gray of Lady Mar- but we do want them to work better." Advisory Editors: garet Hall, Oxford, gave the lectures at the sec- Patrick Anderson, C57 Early Dober visits were spent measuring and ond and fourth plenary sessions. Among the Arthur Ben Chitty, C'35 evaluating available space. The process was Elizabeth N. Chitty participants who read papers were Richard Ne- aided by the use of a recent study by Edward Ledlie W. Conger, Jr., C'49 whauser of Universitat Tubingen, Peter S. Pinckney, Associates, Ltd., a Charleston, South Joseph B.