DIALOGUE
dean’s notes Inspiring Curiosity IT WAS MY PRIVILEGE to spend days in China at the website for this project listed on the left. While and Korea this summer visiting universities with in Beijing, I asked our students how their lab meet - which the College has relationships, as well as meet - ings were going, and Justin pointed out that chemi - ing our large group of wonderful alumni in those cal formulas are the same everywhere. Similarly, Xi - countries. But of all those I met —university presi - aowen writes on his blog: “Chemistry =Chem –is –try.” dents, provosts, and faculty members, among others International understanding is certainly all about —the most memorable were: Tiffany Chen, Justin trying, and that begins with the recognition of the Lomont, Brian O’Keefe, Wei Wang, Xiaowen Feng, things we have in common with others such as the Xiaoxue Zhou, and Yiran Shen. These seven extraor - scientific method. It is the goal —indeed duty —of dinary young people are undergraduate chemistry liberal arts colleges to inspire a curiosity for all students from LSA and Peking University in Beijing things human. And when chemistry majors with no (PKU ), and they are the pioneers in a remarkable ex - background in Chinese studies jump at the chance change program we launched this summer with the to study chemistry in Beijing, we have succeeded. Arthur F. Thurnau help of the National Science Foundation, the Drey - It was the same kind of curiosity and pioneering Professor, Professor of History, fus Foundation, and generous alumni such as Rich spirit that led early leaders of the University to and Dean Rogel (’ ) and his wife, Susan. begin our deep relationships with all Asian coun - Terrence J. McDonald Because chemistry is chemistry the world over, tries. University President James B. Angell served as Professors Brian Coppola and James Penner-Hahn Minister to China in and former Regent John of LSA ’s Department of Chemistry proposed an ex - M. B. Sill became Minister to Korea in . These LSA online change between our undergraduate chemistry ma - early connections led to UM having the largest www.lsa. jors and those from PKU , who were selected by number of Asian students of any university in umich.edu chemistry faculty in China under the leadership of America by the s. Our “Oriental Civilizations UM-PKO E XCHANGE WEBSITE : Professor Zi-Chen Li. As a result, three of our stu - Program” began in that decade (succeeded today by www.umich.edu/~michchem/ UMPKU dents (Tiffany, Justin, and Brian) were in China the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures) this summer and four PKU students (Wei, Xiaowen, and in the s our various Asian studies centers Xiaoxue, and Yiran) were here. Each worked on a began their own rise to national prominence. project in the lab for eight weeks, culminating in a While in Beijing it was an honor to meet with the “poster session” in which the students and their fac - current U.S. Ambassador to China, Clark T. Randt ulty sponsors presented their work to one another Jr. ( J.D.’ ), an alumnus of UM ’s Law School, who via a high-speed Internet transmission. The pre- said he selected UM because of its broader reputa - program orientation and many on-site logistics tion in Chinese studies. From Angell to Randt, the were organized by a joint institute that the College tradition continues. We stimulate curiosity about shares with PKU , which was founded by the Direc - the world in part so we can make the Michigan tor of our Center for Chinese Studies and a Freder - Difference in it. ick G. L. Huetwell Professor of History, James Z. Lee. We hope to spread these scientific opportuni - ties to other disciplines in the sciences over time. o l i t t
You can meet these wonderful students yourself a D . T p i l i h P
2 LSA fall 2007 DIALOGUE
HmEy nLamLe iO s
Copyright © 2007 University of Michigan ARTICLES APPEARING IN LSAMAGAZINE MAY BE REPRINTED BY OBTAINING PERMISSION FROM: Editor College of Literature, Science, and the Arts University of Michigan Suite 5000 500 South State Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1382 734.615.6333 [email protected] What’s in a Name? Terrence J. McDonald ARTHUR F. THURNAU PROFESSOR, AROUND OUR EDITORIAL OFFICES , we began referring to this issue as the PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, AND DEAN, COLLEGE OF LSA “power” issue: We showcase China as a rising superpower (p. ); we look at Peggy Burns the viability of ethanol and other alternative fuels to power our vehicles (p. ASSISTANT DEAN FOR LSA ADVANCEMENT ); and of course there’s our article on James Earl Jones (’ ), one of the most Lara Zielin powerful men on screen and on stage today (p. ). EDITOR Yet perhaps we should have called this the “math” issue. We interviewed Bob Rebekah Murray Megginson, Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Education, and he told us how ASSISTANT EDITOR he’s helping LSA students look at numbers in new ways (p. ); we asked alum - Patricia Claydon ART DIRECTOR AND DESIGNER na Fran Allen ( M.A. ’ ) how she used her math degree to become a renowned success as a computer programmer (p. ); and we spoke with LSA Professor Hyman Bass, who was just awarded the National Medal of Science for his con - Regents of the University Julia Donovan Darlow, ANN ARBOR tributions to the field of mathematics (p. ). Laurence B. Deitch, BINGHAM FARMS Then again, we could have called this the “risk” issue. Alumnus Sam Zell Olivia P. Maynard, GOODRICH (’ , J.D.’ ), the new owner of media assets such as the Chicago Tribune , Rebecca McGowan, ANN ARBOR talked to us about the role risk plays in success (p. ). Zell joins other alumni Andrea Fischer Newman, ANN ARBOR success stories, including those in our article “If I Can Make it There,” which Andrew C. Richner, GROSSE POINTE PARK tells the story of how four alumni in New York City went from having night - S. Martin Taylor, GROSSE mare jobs to dream careers (p. ). POINTE FARMS We could also call this issue the “generosity” issue —but then we’d have to call Katherine E. White, ANN ARBOR every issue the generosity issue since UM alums continue to answer the call to Mary Sue Coleman, EX OFFICIO fund critical research and teaching opportunities that might otherwise be jeop - The University of Michigan, as an equal oppor - ardized due to cuts to the University’s state funding. Two alumnae, Beverly tunity/affirmative action employer, complies with all applicable federal and state laws re - Hamilton (’ ) and Amy Rose Silverman (’ ), have funded programs for stu - garding nondiscrimination and affirmative ac - tion, including Title IX of the Education Amend - dents to study abroad (p. ); David Evans (’ ) honored the memory of his ments of 1972 and Section 504 of the grandfather by giving to the Department of History (p. ); and Randall Kaplan Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The University of Michigan is committed to a policy of nondis - (’ ) started a scholarship for students who were in the foster care system, after crimination and equal opportunity for all per - sons regardless of race, sex, color, religion, he found out his grandmother had been a foster care child herself (p. ). creed, national origin or ancestry, age, marital Then again, we might as well just call this issue —and every issue for that status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gen - der expression, disability, or Vietnam-era veter - matter —the “victors” issue. Because all faculty members, students, and alum - an status in employment, educational pro - grams and activities, and admissions. Inquiries ni with ties to UM prove, time and time again, that they can apply their or complaints may be addressed to the Senior Director for Institutional Equity and Title IX/Sec - knowledge and their degrees in fantastic ways, with results that impact the tion 504 Coordinator, Office for Institutional Eq - world. Hail, hail indeed . uity, 2072 Administrative Services Building, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1432, 734-763-0235, TTY 734-647-1388. For other University of Michigan information call 734-764-1817. LARA ZIELIN, EDITOR
fall 2007 LSA 3 DIALOGUE (let ters ) Your story on Mary Frances Berry reminded me of my brief encounter with her, one that made me pay atten - tion to her career as it unfolded. It was during the mid-1960s (I don’t recall the exact year), when I was a graduate student in history. Taking a break on a bench outside Haven Hall, I was approached by a determined-looking young African- American woman. She declared: “My name is Mary Frances Berry, and I am here to get a Ph.D. in history. Where is the history department?” I gave her directions and she disap - peared into Haven Hall; I never saw her again in Ann Arbor. N
O For some reason, her manner and directness made a deep C A
B impression on me, and I’ve always liked to think that I played . U s y r e a c i r n v
b the smallest possible cameo role in helping Mary Frances r i L e l S h a o c t i r o o o h t P s i H M J y U Berry get her career started on the right foot at Michigan. e , l n t i n v l e a y B G e . h R t b t f t o o y c s S e ; t ) r e
u DONN C. NEAL (M.A. ’63, P h.D. ’73) g o a c p ) e e t g i a s
p Fielding Yost Fritz Crisler Bo Schembechler o p s i
p 1871–1946 1899–1982 1929–2006 h t O ( (
21 Enough already with the diversity mantra! While diversity is nice, it is really a sideshow for the vast majority of your readership, and doesn’t I really enjoyed Mr. John Bacon’s The magazine merit the constant and unremitting atten - article, “Pigskin Pioneers,” in the Spring tion it has received for far too long by UM. 2007 issue of LSAmagazine. However, the looks wonderful. Let’s turn the page so to speak. It would accompanying item called “Seconds on The increased be preferable if UM’s President and the the Clock” contains an error. Pertaining to number of entry Dean of LSA could talk about something the Indiana game on October 27, 1979, it points makes it else once and awhile. I thought that your says, “The 10th ranked Wolverines were magazine was primarily for alumni? Does trailing Indiana with the ball on Indiana’s inviting and in - the Dean in his “Notes” column really 45 yard line and just six seconds left in the creases the tempo, think the most important thing alumni game.” Actually, the game was tied and so instead of put - are desperate to hear about is how UM Michigan was not trailing. A tie against In - ting it down to will do everything in its power to assure diana was like one was trailing, but the read later, I am “diversity” will continue regardless of Let us know statement is incorrect nevertheless. the decision by the people of the state forced to read little of Michigan? what you think! Tell Mr. Bacon I look forward to his up - coming book on Bo. tidbits every time What I and many, if not most, alumni We welcome your thoughts, JOHN F. BEDNARSKI (’84) I pick it up. want to hear about is how the university opinions, and ideas regarding KAREN POPE (’66) is going to improve itself. When I was at LSA magazine . Letters may be Editor’s Note: Thank you for bringing this to our UM there was no question Michigan was published in the magazine attention. We regret the error. the second-best state university in the na - and/or on our website, but we tion, behind UC Berkeley, and even as good as several Ivy cannot print or personally re - The newest issue of the mag is by far the best League universities. Now we are tied with UCLA, often be - spond to all letters received. one I’ve ever seen. I usually just casually scanned the issues hind UVA, and always behind the Ivy League universities, as Letters may be edited for length and threw them away —they were boring and hard to read well as many universities that never used to be mentioned or clarity. Opinions expressed and of uninspired format and colors. Nice job —keep it up. in the same breath as UM. in “LSA Letters” do not neces - JANET ROBSON (’62) sarily reflect those of LSA mag- I submit that the Dean of LSA would be better advised if he told us how he and the rest of the university are going to im - azine , the College, or the Uni - Thanks for the article by Gail Flynn on the John versity of Michigan. All correspon- prove the quality of “our” university so we can return to our F. Kennedy visit to the UM campus in 1960. It was my fresh - dence should be sent to: Editor, former elite status. Trust me, focusing on diversity all the man year and I wandered down the hall from West Quad to LSA magazine , Suite 5000, 500 time won’t accomplish this. As a successful UM alum, my South State Street, Ann Arbor, the lobby of the Union while the crowd was waiting. John F. experience has been that what is vastly more important to MI 48109-1382 . You can also Kennedy did appear and, while walking toward the front success in life is the quality of one’s education, not how di - email us at lsamagazine@ door, passed by where I was standing. I reached out and verse my classes were. umich.edu. Please include shook Kennedy’s hand and said, “Good morning, Mr. Presi - Higher academic rankings, not diversity, is what I bet will your name, address, and dent.” He looked at me with a smile and said, “Not yet.” make UM alumni proudest. graduation year. I will always remember that moment. BILL SULLIVAN (’72) JIM PENAR (’64)
4 LSA fall 2007 COLLEGE
Doing More with Less BUDGET BELT-TIGHTENING CONTINUES ACROSS CAMPUS Sources University General Fund FOR THE SIXTH CONSECUTIVE YEAR , the Michigan Legislature has reduced State Appropriations, Tuition, Indirect Cost Recovery UM ’s appropriation, either in base or as part of a mid-year recession. Last year at and University Transfers 399,768,485 75% this time, UM received million for FY , which was later reduced by External Grants & Contracts 60,640,404 11% . million, leaving UM with million —the same amount being given Gifts 30,538,528 6% now, for FY . And there’s still the chance the state could take away some of Endowment Distribution 20,743,691 4% that million. Additional Revenue 19,667,298 4% The current state appropriations were included in the . billion – Total Sources 531,358,406 100% General Fund budget for the Ann Arbor campus presented to the University of Michigan Regents in July. The FY budget reflects a tuition increase of . percent for both resident and nonresident undergraduates, and a five percent increase for most graduate programs. In an effort to offset these costs, UM will increase centrally funded financial aid at a higher rate than its tuition increase. The FY budget calls for an overall increase of more than . million in centrally awarded financial aid, an . percent increase over FY , for a total of more than million. This includes a nearly . million, or . percent, in - crease in financial aid earmarked for undergraduates. The College of LSA continues to diligently steward its funds, which has staved the need for across-the-board cuts. Faculty recruitment and retention remains high, meaning the best and brightest minds are still teaching on campus. Additionally, the number of scholarships awarded in the College rose . percent this year. The College has also been able to fund-raise successfully during the Michigan Difference Campaign, raising more than percent of its mil - Uses Instructional and Research lion goal. Yet, still more needs to be done. “Alumni support is crucial for our investment in the future,” says LSA Dean Salaries and Benefits 238,177,582 45% Operating Expenses and Terrence J. McDonald. “With Michigan’s uncertain financial circumstances, it Construction 204,264,832 39% is imperative that LSA graduates help when the state cannot. With assistance Scholarships, Fellowships, Tuition Grants 55,160,923 10% n o
d from our alumni, we will continue to provide an unparalleled education for y Additions to Endowment a l C our students.” and Other Fund Balances 33,755,069 6% a i c i r t a Total Uses 531,358,406 100% P
fall 2007 LSA 5 COLLEGE COLLEGE
who produced ground-breaking research. Anna Mapp and the Holy Robert Parry (UM: –), for example, performed synthetic work and structural studies in Grail of Chemistry Today several areas of chemistry, helping the department by Karl Leif Bates develop an approach that brought together different The cellular machinery that turns a stretch of DNA into a protein is a convo- academic areas to create new patterns of research. luted, Rube Goldberg-like process involving dozens of oddly shaped molecu- Werner Bachmann (UM: –) studied at lar actors, some of whom still lack names. And it’s all too tiny to see. UM and then stayed on to teach. “He developed a “It’s a mess. It’s a bloody mess. But that’s what makes it so interesting,” practical method to manufacture an explosive says Associate Professor of Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry Anna Mapp, RDX called , a nasty compound that was very im- whose career so far has been dedicated to finding ways to flip the on-off portant in the war effort,” says Professor Emeritus switch of this process. Robert Kuczkowski. “He also synthesized equi- lenin, the first synthesis of a naturally occurring This protein-manufacturing machinery is where scientists will find disease at hormone. He was a very distinguished chemist its earliest stages. Many ailments are created by the cell cranking out too many proteins, as in inflammatory diseases, or too few, as in Type I diabetes. whose students called him ‘The Chief.’’’ Finding the on-off switch would be a boon to both. Kasimir Fajans (UM: –) and Lawrence Brockway (UM: –) contributed to our un- The nucleus of the cell, where all this action occurs, is a veritable black box derstanding of radioactivity and molecular struc- and one of the hottest frontiers in science right now. The genes that hold all ture. “Brockway was one of the first students of the instructions for protein-making, and the actual recipes, have at least Linus Pauling at Cal Tech and a leader in the field been identified by the Human Genome Project. The diseases at the other of structural chemistry,” Kuczkowski recalls. end of the scale are familiar foes medicine has been grappling with for gen- erations. Between these extremes lies the cellular realm where genes be- Two of Brockway’s students, Jerome Karle (M.S. ear come proteins, and proteins become machines, and the machines operate of the Impossible ’, Ph.D.’) and Isabella Karle (’, M.S.’, the cell. Anywhere along the way miscues can create disease. As the LSA Department of Chemistry celebrates its Ph.D.’), did work on X-ray diffraction methods One would expect to find a biologist engaged in this sort of question, but Mapp 150th anniversary, we take a look at the people who —essentially beaming lasers through various crystals to help determine the structure of atoms—that brings her skills as a synthetic chemist to the task, plus a passion for figuring now, and throughout the years, have always searched earned him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and out some incredibly difficult intricacies. “To a chemist, a cell is huge!” she says. for ways to do what everyone else says cannot be done. It took another years before the American her the National Medal of Science in . Mapp’s team has been working on making synthetic molecules that step into Chemical Society named the discovery of organ- Professors at UM have also edited the Journal of the earliest stages of gene transcription, the process whereby the raw ge- by Davi Napoleon ic free radicals at UM a National Historic Chem- netic code of DNA is translated into a template for making a new protein. The original chemistry the American Chemical Society, moving it to Michi- building (right), built in IN , UM PRESIDENT HENRY TAPPAN ical Landmark. During the century separating gan in after years at the University of Rochester. Controlling transcription is crucial for a cell’s normal functioning and its abil- 1857, was the first chemical appealed to the University Regents to erect a chemi- Gomberg’s discovery and this recognition, scien- Another ACS chemistry journal, Inorganic Chemistry, ity to respond to changes in its environment. Flaws in the system are at the laboratory at a state uni- tists applied Gomberg’s research to a variety of versity. The one-story, cal laboratory. By the time it opened, the three rooms, was launched here in . root of cancer, diabetes, and a host of other conditions. 3,000 sq. ft. building was equipped with lab tables, cost nearly ,, and questions from how diseases develop to how to The holy grail of Mapp’s work would be a synthetic molecule that controls Davi Napoleon (’66, M.A. ’68, Ph.D. ’88) is a freelance both a laboratory and a the innovative facility was the first chemistry build- produce plastics. transcription in diseased cells, while leaving normal cells alone. “That’s still classroom. Construction journalist based in Ann Arbor. ing at any public university in the country. Gomberg was just one of many UM scientists a long way off,” she says, but without seeming the least bit deterred. (Bottom right) Adam Matzgen was continuous as the Courtesy of the Bentley Historical Library chemistry building, shown Studying in that facility was Moses Gomberg above in 1874, was added (UM: –), a Russian immigrant who came to Karl Leif Bates is a writer specializing in to seven times between science communications. 1856 and 1901. Eventually UM as a chemistry student in , earned his destroyed by an arson fire Ph.D., and stayed on to become an assistant profes- in 1980, some bricks from sor of chemistry in . In , he made a discov- Anna Mapp checks on the original building re- experiments in the main and have been set ery that surprised other scientists. Chemistry Building into a bench on the Diag The others said it couldn’t be done: Everyone lab where she con- near the northeastern cor- knew, after all, that organic molecules contain an ducts her research. ner of the Hatcher Gradu- ate Library. even number of electrons. The notion that they could have an odd number challenged all prevailing thinking at the start of the th century. So when Gomberg confirmed the existence of free radicals, skeptics spoke out against his findings.
6 LSA fall 2007 fall 2007 LSA 7 COLLEGE COLLEGE
(Left) LSA students (from left to right) Keith Reisinger, Tracey Rosen, and Rachel Lauderdale talk numbers with Bob Megginson (second from right).
service,” Megginson says, and are unenthusiastic. Meggin - son’s world of math is creative. It is fluid, fun, full of secrets and solutions. And it is full of new discoveries made by dedicated, passionate mathematicians —like Megginson. To create more of these enthusiastic mathematicians, we must inspire students and reform math education, he be - lieves. Megginson has been involved, in fact, in two initia - tives that may help achieve those goals. The first is the Algebra Project. Last year, Megginson invited Robert Moses, whom Megginson describes as a “legendary civil rights leader and mathematics leader,” to speak at UM . Moses’ appearance sparked interest in an outreach project to local school districts. The mission, Meg - ginson says, “is to help with the mathematical education of Math Connections pre-college students” in area high schools. got a great score on a test and said, ‘Wow, I can “Math is the gateway course for the 21st century,” The other effort is the brainchild of Nick Collins, Direc - do this,’ or a time when the teacher dissed you says Nick Collins, Director of LSA’s Comprehen - tor of UM ’s Comprehensive Studies Program, and will allow and you said, ‘Oh, that was awful.’ I want you to sive Studies Program and the co-creator of an in - undergraduate students and staff to participate in teacher write about those, and just tell me about yourself novative teaching program, the Michigan Calcu - development in Detroit Public Schools (see sidebar). The mathematically.” lus Achievement Program, which enables high goal is to establish a “very strong pre-calculus program, The result? “Those things are fascinating,” says school students to improve their knowledge, which should be the full equivalent of what we do here with Megginson, a long-time math professor at UM skills, and insights about college math. “At the Can 2+2 =5? pre-calculus,” Megginson explains. and now Associate Dean for Undergraduate and core of the program are two goals,” Collins ex - ASSOCIATE DEAN BOB plains. “One, to increase high school teachers’ Graduate Education. “Almost always, when a stu - SHATTERING THE STEREOTYPE MEGGINSON SAYS THE RIGHT dent says, ‘I love math,’ you find a great teacher. insight into how to prepare students for math at And when they say, ‘I hate math,’ you find a bad Megginson grew up in a small town in Illinois. He earned a B.S. in physics, an the college level, and two, to increase students’ ANSWER IS LESS IMPORTANT experience. It’s not the subject, it’s how the person M.A. in statistics, and a Ph. D. in mathematics, all from the University of Illinois at knowledge about what they can expect in math at > has had to interact with it.” Urbana-Champaign between and . He began teaching at UM in . the college level.” THAN YOU THINK. When students receive a simple dismissal — A six-foot-four, narrowly framed man, Megginson shatters the mathematician The program equips and trains teachers at Martin by Sheryl James “Wrong” —math anxiety and hatred can begin. stereotype. He seems always to be talking, smiling, or both. He’s gregarious. He Luther King Jr. High School in Detroit, giving them sees great excitement in wrong answers, even when they are his own wrong an - the tools they need to prepare their students for WHEN BOB MEGGINSON taught pre-calculus, he “Okay, sure, two-plus-two equals four, that’s true,” Megginson says. “But that doesn’t mean swers. He sings opera. He climbs mountains. college math. “We also help students make the surprised his students with a most unusual first assign - He’s also one of “shockingly few” Native Americans with a Ph. D., especially in connection between what they’re studying now ment. They were to write their “automathbiography.” you can’t explore and try things. The answers might not be right, but that’s how we learn.” his field. He says despite a prevailing myth that Native Americans are not good and careers they might want to pursue later,” Say what? in math, it was his unschooled Native American grandfather who loved math says Collins. He did not invent the concept, but Megginson is Things such as automathbiographies and an ap - and intrigued his grandson with math riddles. Collins, who developed the program with LSA As - its biggest fan. This is how he explained the assign - preciation of how two-plus-two could, in one stu - Megginson’s work on reservations in North Dakota has inspired him to try to sociate Dean Bob Megginson and math professor ment to his students: dent’s mind, equal five are perfect examples of why Megginson is leading the chorus to reform all eradicate that myth. It also sensitized him to the low presence of other minori - Nkem-Amin Khumbah, hopes to expand the pro - “Somewhere in your life, you’ve had a good expe - ties in math circles. The opposite needs to happen, he says. gram to other school districts in the future. rience in math, and somewhere in your life, you’ve things math. It is a mission many see as crucial if the United States is to remain globally competitive. “Most of the mathematicians in this country are white males. And it’s fine had a bad experience. There was a time when you that the profession continues to attract them. But why don’t a corresponding “Math has been called the queen and servant of Associate Dean for the sciences,” Megginson says. “It plays a central number of African-American women become mathematicians? Or African- Undergraduate and American males? These are segments of our population we cannot disregard. Graduate Education, Okay, sure, two-plus-two equals role in the sciences and engineering. Those are Bob Megginson. y
r They must have the same opportunities as everybody else . . . to become part of areas where we have to do well. People can’t pre - e s c i
s the technological work force that we need to compete in the st century.” four, that’s true. But that doesn’t dict what impact the math we’re doing right now C e g r
o If and when this future materializes, we suddenly will no longer be competing
will have years from now. We don’t even know e G ) y t
mean you can’t explore and try e with the rest of the world at all, Megginson believes. We will be able to cooperate h
what math we’ll need years from now.” g m i r a
“ R m
t with them. Thus the equation: Parity plus diversity equals global cooperation. r For too long, Megginson believes, math instruc - o t e t b things. The answers might not be o o
B Now that’s creative. R tion has been thoroughly uninspiring. Part of the ( right, but that’s how we learn . problem is that many teachers are “forced into Sheryl James is a freelance writer from Brighton, Michigan.
8 LSA fall 2007 ” fall 2007 LSA 9 (LSA CnOLLEeGE w s) Social Gaming?
Harlem Sixth Graders Tour Campus A recent study of nearly > Thirty-four socioeconomically disadvantaged sixth 1,500 teens nationwide graders from Leadership Village Academy, a Harlem shows game players and non-game players spent charter school, were given a UM preview this past the same amount of time summer when they visited campus sites such as Angell socializing with parents Hall, the Diag, the Life Sciences Institute, and Michi - and friends. For boy and gan Stadium. The UM visit was funded by Fred girl gamers, the more time Wilpon (’ ), a member of the charter school’s board they spent playing video of directors and chairman of the New York Mets. games with their friends Wilpon recently donated million to UM , includ - on the weekends, the ing million to LSA for need-based scholarships. more time they spent in other activities with friends as well, says Hope Cummings, a graduate student in LSA’s Depart - ment of Communication A Mammoth Studies. But while video games did not negatively affect teens’ social inter - DISCOVERY action, the same could not Daniel Fisher, curator of paleontology be said for school-related activities. Compared to at LSA’s Museum of Paleontology, has > non-gamers, kids who spent his life studying mammoths and played video games spent mast o dons. Now, he knows what they re - Historic Pumas 30 percent less time read - ally looked like. He recently returned New bronze puma statues are now perched in ing and 34 percent less time doing homework. from Siberia, where he spent a week as part front of the Ruthven Museums Building, home of a six-member international team that of LSA’s Exhibit Museum of Natural History on examined the frozen, nearly intact re - Central Campus. Weathering had caused the orig - mains of a four-month-old female inal terrazzo sculptures, which date from 1940, to BACTERIA AND woolly mammoth. Researchers will be crack and crumble. Funding by a donation from ALZHEIMER ’S Jagdish C. and Saroj Janveja replaced the original The discovery came by able to determine such things as the ani - pumas with more durable bronze casts. This past mal’s health, variations in local air tem - chance, but LSA scientists spring’s return of the pumas coincided with the are making the most of it: perature during its lifetime, and when opening of an exhibit on the work of museum When LSA microbiologist mammoths matured and reproduced. artist Carleton Angell, the pumas’ sculptor. Matthew Chapman and co-workers found that bac -
teria create and use a type > of fiber common in neu - breaking the waves rodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, they dis - Manipulating light waves, or electromagnetic radiation, has led covered a potential treat - to many technologies — from cameras to lasers to medical im - ment that turns conven - aging machines that can see inside the human body. LSA scien - tional wisdom on its head. tists have now developed a way to make a lens-like device that Instead of trying to block focuses electromagnetic waves down to the tiniest of points. fiber formations in order The breakthrough opens the door to the next generation of to prevent diseases, LSA technology, says LSA Professor of Physics Roberto Merlin. The scientists are looking at discovery holds promise for applications in data storage, non- forcing the formation of contact sensing, imaging, and nanolithography. fibers in ways that skip toxic intermediate steps.
fall 2007 LSA 11 UM ’S CHINA NOW THEME YEAR TACKLES THE PROMISES AND
CHALLENGES OF THE WORLD ’S
RISING SUPERPOWER enter e dragon
Swift jade-green dragons, birds with plumage gold, / I harnessed to the whirlwind, and behold, / At day - break from the land of plane- trees grey, / I came to paradise ere close of day. I wished within the sacred grove to rest, / But now the sun was sinking in the west; The driver of the sun I bade to stay, / Ere with the setting rays we haste away. / The way was long, and wrapped in gloom did seem, / As I urged on to seek my vanished dream.
—Excerpt from “The Lament” by Qu Yuan
by Sheryl James UM campus in September, explores every facet of rate of growth that is unprecedented in human history; second, the speed, scope, what he calls China’s “supercharged emergence,” in - and depth of change in Chinese society is by far the greatest in the world today Nearly 2,500 years ago, cluding population, trade, technology, social, politi - —they are simultaneously pursuing urbanization, privatization, mechanization, Qu Yuan, one of China’s most famous poets, wrote “ The Lament” while living China is also working to advance academically. cal, and environmental issues. and globalization. No country has ever sought to do that before. The scope of it along the Yangtze River, scholars believe. Qu Yuan had fought for justice and “The Chinese are very interested in American public For instance, he compares the city of Chongqing’s is almost incomprehensible. Thirdly, China’s successes pose enormous problems unity in his beloved nation, beset by warring factions and complex social prob - universities as a way of modeling themselves,” says explosive growth to that of Chicago in the s, for the United States and many others. But those pale in comp arison to the kinds lems, until he was exiled. His most famous poem mixes truth, myth, and legend McDonald. when it was dubbed the “city of the century.” It was of problems that would be posed if China were to fail badly.” known as the fastest-growing city on earth, Kynge Failure in its monumental environmental challenges would bring perhaps the and features the poet’s anguished soul riding upon dragons and serpents. When To that end, UM is working hard to forge relation - writes, its social ills and pollution of the livestock most serious repercussions, Lieberthal says. China and the United States represent Qu Yuan committed suicide by throwing himself in the river, his admirers tried to ships with China. In , UM President Mary Sue abattoirs notwithstanding. It took years “until the world’s two biggest producers of greenhouse gasses, he says. “The biggest issue save him. Dragon boat races have marked this event ever since. Coleman visited China to formalize UM ’s partner - , to increase its population by . million peo - is whether we can cooperate on energy efficiency and climate change. They are UM joined that ancient tradition by kicking off its – theme year, ship with three universities there and, this past June, “China Now : A Contemporary Exploration,” with a Dragon Boat Race and Fes - Dean McDonald took his first trip to China to visit ple,” the book states. “Chongqing is growing at not ignoring it, but they are doing some things fairly well and other things disas - tival this past September. The mixture of pathos, poetry, and pageantry of the the faculty and students enjoying those partnerships. eight times that speed.” trously bad.” The same holds true with the United States, he says. dragon boat tradition is an especially fitting start for an array of activities as “The experiences that our faculty and students are “I am delighted that UM has decided to make my “If the United States and China can’t cooperate on making [the environment] diverse as China itself. having in China are quite remarkable,” says Mc - book recommended reading for first-year students,” a higher priority . . . and learning best practices from one another, the game is lost Donald, “and I found the country to be extremely Kynge says. “ . . . China is such a huge place, so driven on this issue. So the stakes here are very high.” with contradictions, so difficult to encompass with a The College of LSA , in conjunction with the Center for Chinese Studies, has WHY CHINA ? W HY NOW ? intriguing, kind of an emerging economic giant, but with some challenges itself, socially. There is a single overarching theory that any work on this sub - organized theme-year activities in broad categories and has recognized the im - The focus on China is appropriate, first, because of “ UM ’s longstanding rela - tremendous interest in higher education, which is ject is partial and fragmentary.” His book “represents portance of the environment by calling one group of activities ChinaGreen. The tionship with China,” says LSA Dean Terrence J. McDonald. “ UM President great for the future of our relationship.” only a small, imperfect piece of the bigger picture,” UM School of Natural Resources and Environment, and the China Data Cen - James Angell was the ambassador to China during the [President Grover] Cleve - he says, “but if it stimu - land years in the s. So we historically have had links with China.” lates interest among CHINA SHAKES THE WORLD Those links helped spark the creation of UM ’s Center for Chinese Studies, con - readers —whether they Every um student will soon be sidered one of the best in the country. The Center’s faculty, in fact, conceived of The mega-emergence of China in the st century be students experiencing and is largely overseeing the theme-year activities. outweighs any historical time pegs for the theme- an early introduction or working in a global community, of which “China is now a major economic and political power reaching far and wide year selection. Mystical ancient dragon myths evapo - seasoned experts —then into the world,” says Jen Zhu, UM ’s Coordinator of China Programs and a rate in the face of the momentous changes occurring I am happy.” “China is a part. The theme year en- member of the theme-year planning committee. “It is on pace to overtake Ger - throughout China, and, unavoidably, the rest of One explicit demon - many this year as the world’s third-largest economy, behind the United States the globe. This China has been captured in another stration of the contra - hances their ability to take part in this and Japan. At the same time, China is meeting pressing internal challenges such work featured in the theme year, China Shakes the dictions: The book, global environment. as energy, the environment, and public health. How China addresses these and World: A Titan’s Rise and Troubled Future —and which has received good other problems will affect not only Chinese citizens but also the world.” the Challenge for America , by James Kynge. The reviews from Taiwanese —JAMES LEE, Director of the Center for Chinese Studies award-winning book, a bestseller, was selected for and Chinese experts, is the summer reading program for , first-year not yet available in China; officials have demanded ter, are addressing China’s environmental problems in a symposium. undergraduate students, who read, discussed, and the deletion of too many sections, Kynge says. China’s economy is probably the most often cited in ordinary convers”ation, otherwise dissected it. and one expert, Albert Park, who has taught at UM and is now at the University “. . . The world must learn to contend with a new, TIMELY TOPICS of Cambridge in England, says the standard of living for most Chinese citizens, convulsive force,” writes Kynge of the nation he has urban and rural, has risen. He also says that when it comes to so-called compe - “I can’t think of a more appropriate theme year.” covered as Beijing bureau chief for the Financial tition economically, the United States can either engage the Chinese, alienate This comes from one of UM ’s most distinguished Times . “ . . . Will the Western world be able to ac - them with short-sighted import policies, or ignore them —which appears all and experienced experts on China, Kenneth commodate the manifestations of the extreme but impossible anymore. Lieberthal. He is an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of strengths and profound weaknesses that are emanat - “The United States needs to think about ways to engage China for mutual r i Political Science in LSA and distinguished fellow at the ing from the vastly different presence in its midst? e W benefit,” he says. “China is the largest recipient of foreign direct investment in a
s William Davidson Institute. He served on the Nation - i
The answer to that question will de - L ) the world . From an economic standpoint, we must ask how China’s growth can e
g al Security Council during the Clinton Administra - a
fine much of the course of the p benefit American workers.” s i
h tion, speaks Chinese, and visits China frequently. t st century.” ( ; s
e Lieberthal, who usually teaches the course China’s g
Kynge, who visited the a
m LOBAL NIVERSITY I Evolution Under Communism, is teaching a politi - A G U y t t e
G P D / cal science senior seminar this fall and a h. . semi - All of this reinforces the growing reality of globalism—of global cooperation s s e r
P nar in Asian security issues winter term. Both courses and global citizens. “The China Now theme year reflects the continuing expan - o A view of downtown Shang - t o F
a allow him to help students explore how China’s sion within LSA —and at UM more broadly —of activities and programs with
hai taken by Lisa Weir n i h C
(’06). Smog, more than ) growth is affecting international issues. an international focus,” says Mark Tessler, Vice Provost for International Affairs e g
clouds, obscures the a p “If there were three things to say about China, it and Director of the International Institute. “There are similar developments s
sun. For more of u o i
v would be: One, that China has achieved a sustained with respect to Korea, Africa, Eastern Europe, India, and many other countries
Weir’s photos, e r P please see p. 18. ( and world regions.” Marjorie Horton, Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Education, says studying Experience China is a “phenomenal choice because for some time we have been keenly mo - China Now tivated to prepare our students to be global citizens.” Activities are organized At the September launch of the theme year, China Now : A Contemporary Exploration, students from around different themes on campus, “and everyone can find something very various College departments competed in dragon boat races. A drum and gong procession, made up pertinent that can introduce students to China.” of musicians from the UM Percussion Ensemble, took place on the banks of the Huron River. Only Zhu agrees, adding, “While not every student will end up working in China days before, China Shakes the World author James Kynge hosted a book signing and reception at the or engaging in international affairs, having knowledge of China will help any Power Center. student be productive and engaged in our increasingly interconnected world. Events connected to the theme year will continue well into 2008. “The activities the China Center Students should try to understand China’s complex realities and the implica - and others have planned will engage students, faculty, and the community, and will help us all tions for the United States as well as the international system.” understand the place of China in the contemporary world,” says Assistant Dean for Undergraduate As such, China will be a nearly ubiquitous theme for undergraduates. “We Education Evans Young. “Why China? Why now? Join us to find out.” take undergraduate education seriously,” says James Lee, the Frederick G. L. Here are some activities open to the public during UM’s theme year, and more information can be Huetwell Professor of Chinese History and Director of the Center for Chinese found online at www.lsa.umich.edu/chinanow . Studies, “and so we’re doing a variety of things to pull in the undergraduate population, such as working with student government and other student organ - XU BING EXHIBIT, UM ARTISTJINJRESIDENCE. Additional public events include: izations to push the international side of education. Globalization is a fact, and Thursday, November 8, 2007, at the Michigan CHINA THROUGH A GLOBAL LENS. This is a weekly Theater. Xu Bing is known for his pseudo-characters every UM student will soon be working in a global community, of which China distinguished speaker series that will bring in guests made of elements of Chinese characters, which form is a part. The theme year enhances their ability to function, to live, to take part to address political, cultural, economic, societal, and words that can be read in English. in this global environment.” governmental topics related to China’s globalization. For evidence of UM ’s part in the global community, McDonald points to an CELLIST YOJYO MA. Saturday, November 10, 2007, CHINESE DOCUMENTARY FILM SERIES. Michigan exchange of undergraduate chemistry students between UM and Peking Universi - at 8 P.M. in Hill Auditorium. Theater. UM PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBIT “INGE MORATH & ARTHUR ty in Beijing, one of ’s partners. Four Chinese students studied here this past (Left) Photos by Inge MONTHLY PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES. Rackham Audito - summer; three UM students studied in Beijing. Morath, from the upcom - MILLER: CHINA.” January 12 to March 23, 2008, at rium. This will highlight the work of faculty associates “It was just really heartwarming to see how excited the Chinese faculty and ad - ing “Inge Morath & Arthur UM’s Museum of Art (UMMA) and other sites, featuring at UM’s Center for Chinese Studies, and UMMA’s Chi - MIller: China” exhibit the creative partnership between photographer Inge ministrators were about this chemistry program,” says McDonald. “It’s definitely at UMMA. nese art collection. Morath and her husband, playwright Arthur Miller. a way to build a bond between countries.” From top to bottom: By the way, McDonald adds, “people in China who heard about the dragon 6:30 A.M., Chang An PIANIST YUJA WANG. January 20, 2008, Hill boat races thought it was just great.” Avenue, Beijing; “Peak Auditorium. Flying from Afar” near So, what does a dragon boat look like, anyway? Most are long and narrow, the Ling Yin Temple, MASTER PIPA PLAYER WU MAN. February 10, 2008, with a small dragon head and tail. They bear a drum and teams of paddlers, Hangzhou; Hotel Lobby, Hill Auditorium. who row to the drumbeat. They draw a lot of attention, but the point is, they Datong; Interior, Double Bridge Commune, Beijing; PIANIST LANG LANG. April 2, 2008, Hill Auditorium. are not as intimidating as their name suggests. Workshop, May 7th Cadre ) t
h School, Nanniwan. SUNRISE TO MOONRISE FINAL EVENT. June 2008. This g
That may be the common drumbeat as UM celebrates and builds upon a i r o
t will close out the theme year and will include an array
t (Bottom, left to right) long, fruitful relationship with China —and perhaps contributes to stronger f e l
, Wu Man, Lang Lang, of cultural events in collaboration with the Ann Arbor m
bonds and safer outcomes. Qu Yuan likely would bless the effort: o t and Yo-Yo Ma. t
o Summer Festival’s “global parties” theme. There will b ( ; s
The past I probed, the future so to scan, o be a Tai Chi demonstration at the Arboretum, and t o h And found these rules that guide the life of man: P tours at Matthaei Botanical Gardens, the UM m u
n Exhibit Museum, and the Kelsey Museum. g
A man unjust in deed who would engage? a M / n o i
Whom should men take as guide except the sage? t a d n u
In mortal dangers death I have defied, o F h t a r
Yet could look back, and cast regret aside. o M n e a g i l n I e n Sheryl James is a freelance writer e a h T D t
in Brighton, Michigan. n h e g h i r p y e t p o S C , G © D ) / a m r o a t t k s o s b a o K t , i p q o t n , u t J f e u i L ( L
After graduation, Lisa Weir (’06) and Daoism, the linchpins of Chinese thought, encourage conformity and teach that the individual is insignificant. postponed applying to law school As an American who has been taught to cherish individuality, I learned this the to travel abroad and teach English hard way on my first day of teaching. When I prompted my class to participate in in China. She gives us an on-the- discussion, their eyes shifted downward in unison; they hid without moving. Frus - trated, I explained that I expected them to be vocal in this spoken English class. On ground look at Shanghai, a city the second day, Aldaris, a bright international business student from Ningbo, wait - full of contradictions and changes ed for me. “I think,” he explained, “that we are nervous to talk alone.” — a reflection of China itself. Days when I’m not teaching, I’ll take the subway around the city, sometimes to meet a friend, other times just to explore. From certain vantage points on the by Lisa Weir train, you can see shiny Shanghai. Massive silver towers leer over the life below, Guangling Yi road, the back street adjacent to my gleaming surfaces that appear as if they condemn the traditional ways. The new apartment, is overflowing with the chirp and clatter developments remain mostly empty, glimmering skeletons to fool eager eyes. of middle-class Shanghai. Scores of uniformed pri - Shanghai is the land of vacant lobbies, of a new era still waiting to be realized. It mary school students flood the skinny street, spend - is a city that has not yet grown into itself. To an outsider, Shanghai seems like a ing their few precious renminbi on treats after a long teenager getting accustomed to new long limbs and strange sensations; the in - school day. Korean students from the university nards of the city are boiling with confusion. where I teach drive their mopeds up on the sidewalks, Disfigured beggars sprawl in front of luxury hotels, humbling even the most their girlfriends clinging to their backs. Women mill prestigious address. From the train, I see a construction lot as long as the Big about in quilted pajamas. Passersby clog traffic as House. A month ago, it was blocks of homes and in a few months it will likely they peruse pushcarts piled with hand-painted dish - be another empty apartment building. In an adjacent lot, laundry dries in the ware and fresh flowers. pane-less windows of clay-roofed homes scheduled for demolition. In the street, This is real Shanghai. The hub of downtown glit - crowds swarm fruit carts stacked high with deep green winter melons and ters with Mercedes hood ornaments and Fendi bag palmellos bigger than soccer balls. Elderly women in cotton coveralls carry plas - buckles; my neighborhood twinkles with the clink of tic bags laden with freshwater fish, still gasping for breath, slated to be tonight's the garbage man’s cowbell and the squeak of ancient dinner. New model sedans with tinted windows cruise by soundlessly. bicycle brakes. These are strikingly different land - On the subway, I sit next to a woman whose hands are tipped with gaudy scapes, symptomatic of the contradictions within the acrylic nails, fierce purple talons that contrast with the sweet pink ruffles of her city. It is a city in limbo; a city caught between the dress. She rapidly sends text messages on a bejeweled cell phone that looks like it shimmer of the future and the soul of the past. must have cost more than my iPod. Most Shanghai dwellers think the subway is China’s duality is evident every day in my job too expensive and opt to take the bus, which is a fraction of the cents that it teaching English at Shanghai University of Finance costs me to get downtown this evening. The subway therefore provides me with a from Shanghai and Economics. Here, my students receive educa - limited picture of Shanghai’s wealthier residents. Those who can afford to go by >Dispatches tional opportunities their parents never dreamed of. train are a part of China’s nouveau riche , who seem to observe from their more While living in Shanghai in central Shanghai; bam - the street in southern (Opposite page, left to Lee, for instance, is the son of a successful entrepre - lofty carriage the distant lives below. and traveling throughout boo rafts on the Li River; Shanghai; rush hour on right) the Bronze Buddha neur with a middle school education. In a recent They are an emblem of new China. China, Lisa Weir has cap - Yao minority women in tra - the central subway line on Lantau Island, Hong tured images of a contra - ditional clothing at the in Shanghai; seasonal Kong; a trolley en-route to email, Lee explained to me that people like his dad dictory country. (Clockwise Long Ji (Dragon Backbone) snacks at a market in Happy Valley, Hong Kong; “who were born in the s had not many opportu - Lisa Weir majored in English in the College of LSA and moved to Shanghai after graduation. She spent a year teaching English and history at Shanghai University from top left) Nanjing West rice terraces; a man with no Hong Kong during the traditional mountain homes nities to go to schools because of their poor life and Road, a pedestrian street hands sells calligraphy on Chinese New Year. in the Long Ji hills. of Finance and Economics and is now working as a coordinator for New York the cultural revolution.” This is a reference to China’s University’s study abroad program in Shanghai. Mao-led socialist movement that attempted to equalize society by, in part, sending educat - ed people into the country to work as farmers. In contrast to his dad’s middle-school educa - tion, Lee has just finished an application to transfer to Cambridge University in England. Lee is an emblem of the new China. Lee asked me not to tell his classmates about his application. I have found that even my most exceptional students are wary to stand out, even for superior achievements. Despite the westernization seeping into Chinese cul - r
i ture, Chinese philosophy is still anchored to e W
a the principals of collectivism. Confucianism s i L areas, like the Hebei province where Asianera Limited moved their home to China. Today, businesses like Three On The Bund and sponsors an elementary school. There, Grace still sees Asianera Limited reflect some of the many changes in Chinese society. the traditionalism that is slowly disappearing from “Three On The Bund could not have been successful years before or larger cities. even years before,” Paul says. “China wasn’t ready then.” “I find it fascinating,” she says. “The younger Now, Paul sees changes in individual priorities as well as the country’s entire generation is given a great deal of independence, underlying economic structure. “There is still an ideological overlay,” he says, but when it comes to the things that matter most “but in reality, most people are doing their own thing.” —whom they should marry and what work they For Grace, physical and structural changes in the country have made it should be involved in and what company to work easier to create and sell hand-painted fine china. From a small workshop, for —those decisions are very much dictated by Asianera Limited has grown to employ more than people and now ex - their parents. It’s a more traditional Chinese value ports its products all over the world. “The infrastructure has been built up so that parents know best.” well over the last years, it has made running Asianera Limited much more efficient,” she says. CHINA ’S PULL a In some ways, becoming successful entrepreneurs in STUDYING CHINA ’S FUTURE n a developing country was a natural progression after UM students today analyze a completely different China than the one Paul i Paul and Grace left UM , but they didn’t always have and Grace studied in the late s and early ’ s. “Now, the private sector h such creative jobs. has taken over a major section of the economy, and exposure to the outside C After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in world through trade, travel, and the Internet has dramatically changed peo - political science and Chinese studies, Paul obtained ple’s expectations and outlooks,” Paul says. o a graduate degree from Johns Hopkins University’s That’s particularly evident when it comes to China’s youth. “The objectives t School of Advanced International Studies and of young people in China now are really not that different than those in the especially in the last years.” launched a career in corporate finance at JP Morgan United States,” Paul says. “It’s that drive to improve oneself and make a better It’s an education Paul and Grace are especially in New York City. Grace took her liberal arts degree life that’s driving China’s growth and dynamism going forward.” d grateful for, now that they’re some of Shanghai’s in political science and Chinese studies, comple - It’s a future Paul and Grace are eager to watch. While there are some things a When Paul Liu (’83) most successful business owners. mented by many art history courses, and started her they miss about the United States —“an English newspaper on your o and Grace Lee (’84) met Paul is involved in historic renovation projects in first career working in New York City for IBM ’s doorstep,” Paul says, or “a crystal blue sky free of pollution” —there’s the ex - Shanghai. For seven years, he was the Executive Di - Sales and Marketing Division. citement of living in the midst of so much change. u R i in 1982 outside UM’s Frieze L e
rector and Chief Financial Officer of Three On The c Starting at IBM was a great beginning, Grace says. “Our assumption, living here and working here, is that China’s continuing a r
e G Building, they connected over Bund, what he refers to as “a center for lifestyle, arts, d “Even though my current line of business has noth - transformation is just beginning,” Paul says. “I think it’s going to be tremen - n a
h l u
and culture.” Located in a seven-floor, , a ing to do with computers, I was able to take a lot dous. It’s going to impact so many different fields —social, political, cultural,
their mutual interests in the arts, busi - P f o
T y square-meter building on the Shanghai waterfront, away with me regarding sales and marketing tech - economic —and the world will change as a result.” s e
ness, politics—and especially China. After 20 t r
the historically preserved building, built in , u
o niques, product development, understanding of mar - c > ) Rebekah Murray is the Assistant Editor of LSAmagazine. years of marriage and the launch of successful houses four unique restaurants, fashion retailers, and m o kets, as well as concepts regarding corporate culture.” t t o b a day spa — all centered around an atrium anchored ( In , Paul was transferred to Hong Kong businesses in China, the spark is still there. ; s e g
by the Shanghai Gallery of Art. Paul has now a with Union Bank of Switzerland, yet even while m
by Rebekah Murray I y t
founded his own company and is involved in anoth - t living there, Grace says there was a tremendous e G
When Paul and Grace were studying Chinese literature and Chinese history to - / er historic renovation in Shanghai’s Hongkou Dis - P pull towards China. “Here we were, living in the F > At the end of the 18th century, China accounted for one-third of the world’s A
gether at UM , they were analyzing, what seemed to them at the time, their par - ©
trict. Through these projects, Paul is revitalizing ) underside of China, not really in there, and China population and half of its wealth . p o T ents’ country. what is already a very cosmopolitan city. ( was developing so rapidly. I had a desire to play a > Imperial China’s achievements include the INVENTION OF PAPER, THE .
Born to Chinese immigrants, Grace grew up in a small town in New York, . But China is, if noth - small part in the de - COMPASS, AND GUNPOWDER. Paul in Ann Arbor. Both families were involved in activities within their Chi - ing else, a place of con - velopment of China .
> Less than 10 percent of high school graduates in China are admitted to W nese-American communities. “My parents always wanted us to learn to speak tradictions. and hopefully to Chinese,” Grace says, “but we kids more or less rebelled and never learned a university. O
Grace sees a much dif - gradually make more N
much Chinese growing up.” ferent side of China in of an impact.” > China manufactures MORE THAN LK PERCENT of the world’s toys. K
It was after high school that both Paul and Grace separately immersed them - her work. In , she Eventually, Paul > In 2002, 60 percent of all Internet spam originated in China. U
selves in Chinese culture and each studied in China. But Paul says UM was the O founded Asianera Limit - was given the oppor - > More than 200 million people in China study English. English is a compul - place to be. Y ed, a manufacturer of tunity to be involved sory subject for all Chinese primary school students. D
“LSA was able to take our latent interest in China hand-painted fine china. in the historical I (Above) A fashion retailer > China’s three most popular surnames—Li, Wang, and Zhang—are shared located within Three on The and deepen it by helping us analyze and understand She works with many preservation project D by 270 million Chinese, NEARLY EQUAL TO THE ENTIRE POPULATION OF Bund; (bottom left) Paul Liu what was going on in the country,” Paul says. “Our young artists, some of that became Three in the Shanghai Gallery of THE UNITED STATES. Art; (bottom right) Grace academic grounding still influences us today and whom live in the smaller On The Bund and in Lee with her company’s helps us understand what has happened in China, cities and more rural , the couple hand-painted china. Source: China Now magazine: www.chinanowmag.com All the World’s a Stage LIGHTS UP ON JAMES EARL JONES
by Lara Zielin “I’m devoid of a sense of humor,” says James Earl Donald Crouch, Jones began to function despite Jones (’ ), “but there are some things, when I re - the impairment. Crouch encouraged him to read flect on them, that are as funny as hell.” poetry and drama aloud, which Jones found he Funny and ironic, too, such as the time in could accomplish without stuttering. “Most stutter - when, as a student at the University of Michigan, he ers don’t have a problem with poetry if they read it and other members of the Reserve Officer Training a few times, or with song, or with drama,” he says, Corps ( ROTC ) were given unloaded rifles and asked “especially if it is good drama. The better the drama to serve as members of the honor guard for the Shah is, the more it achieves a rhythm, even an uncon - of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, during a contro - scious one.” versial campus visit. The Shah was receiving an hon - Crouch continued to encourage Jones academical - orary degree and “there was great protest among the ly, and eventually Jones applied and was admitted to student body,” says Jones, in large part because the the University of Michigan. Shah succumbed to pressure from the CIA to re - “I was not a good student and did not have good move Iran’s elected Prime Minister, Mohammed study habits,” says Jones. “Maybe it was a classic case of Mosaddeq, from office. “Students threw eggs at the a farm boy who had gone to a high school with a grad - honor guard,” says Jones. “Here we were, guarding uating class of . I was a frog jumping from a very this man with our unloaded rifles. Funny as hell?” small pond into a very big ocean. The plunge never Despite his self-ascribed lack of humor, (his assis - stopped. I never hit bottom, I never rose to the top.” tant will argue that his sense of humor isn’t absent, Part of the problem may have been the heavy load it’s just different ), Jones smiles often enough. It’s a of science classes that Jones was taking as a pre-med movement that goes beyond his mouth and involves student. “Since I loved all my science classes in high his whole face. And though he doesn’t exactly smile school, I didn’t understand why science stymied me at when recalling his days in the ROTC , he’s certainly UM . My sophomore year, I enrolled in a senior anato - fond of them. “I always felt like a soldier,” says my class with the idea that if I could pass that class, I’d Jones, adding, “I was a good soldier, I think. And I continue [with pre-med]. The professor came across as
always lived a kind of soldier’s life, being a farm kid. s cold and deadly. I failed. I bailed out of the pre-med e g a m
We grew up with firearms and weapons and were I program and chose theater as my new major.” y t t e
totally familiar with them.” G But the transfer didn’t lighten his load. He still had / e v i
Yes, that’s right: a farm kid. The man who would h the obligation of paying his way through college. c r A
grow up to command the stage as Othello; who n He managed to hang on to his Regents Alumni o t l u H
would infuse boxing with interracial adversity as / Scholarship, and “the ROTC was a way to get an r e g n Jack Jefferson in The Great White Hope ; who would i extra stipend, and that always helped. I was also a r t S / s
fly the plane carrying the bomb as Lt. Lothar Zogg s janitor in the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre, so I was e r P l
in Dr. Strangelove —this man once took the exam a working back stage and on stage. r t n e
for his Regents Alumni Scholarship with, as he says, C “I also did nude modeling for art classes,” Jones ) e g
“manure on my boots.” a says, laughing. “I was in much better shape back in p e t i
It was the animals on the -acre farm in Dublin, s those days.” o p p o Michigan, where Jones lived with his grandparents, ( But the jobs didn’t end there. “I delivered the De - ; y r a that received most of his attention because it was r troit Free Press every Sunday to West Quad, where I b i L l a
easiest to communicate with them. “I talked to the c also had some kind of guard position. And I ran the i r o t s animals at home —you had to, to work with them i switchboard.” H y e l
on the farm.” But it was harder to communicate t Eventually, Jones says he sought academic help n e B
with people because, in his youth, the voice of e for his suffering report card. h t f Darth Vader, the iron fist of the Galactic Empire; of o “There was a time when I had y s e t r
Mufasa, the great lion king; of CNN and more, once u to admit the fact that I wasn’t a o c )
t Most stutterers don’t have a problem stuttered so badly he was nearly mute. “I could basi - f good student and I didn’t have e l ( ; u
cally communicate with the family, but the minute a good study habits, and I availed e
b with poetry if they read it a few times, or e
a stranger came to the house I could not introduce T myself to the psychologist on n h o myself, I was that impaired,” Jones says. J campus to assess what my prob - y
b with song, or with drama, especially if it n o
With the help of a high school English teacher, i lems were. The advice they gave t “ a r t s
u me was to study harder. They is good drama. The better the drama is, l l I ) e
g didn’t say cut down on my extra a
(Left) As an undergraduate, James Earl Jones performed in p
s the more it achieves a rhythm, even an
u work load, because I couldn’t.
a production of The Birds on UM’s campus. (Opposite o i v e page) Jones on stage in The Great White Hope. r There was no point in telling P ( unconscious one. ” me that. There was no other way I could get through.” against what you will confront when you get out When asked if he ever thought about leaving UM because of the hurdles, there.’ Well, I went to school with Finnish kids, Pol - Jones’ face darkens. “I don’t even know why that’s a question. As long as I could ish kids, Native Americans, so I had to figure out at hack it and hang onto my scholarship, as long as I could hold down my jobs on a very young age —six or seven years old —that campus and pay my way, why leave? What was the alternative? Go to another somebody was wrong and I had to do thinking for school? Why should I do that?” myself. I became, to the best of my ability, an inde - While the school psychologist wasn’t much help, Jones did find allies on pendent thinker, much more like my grandfather, campus, whom he now calls “heroes.” who, unlike my grandmother, was a very fair and “Claribel Baird Halstead was a legend. She is a legend. I say is because she’s balanced human being.” James EARL JONES still alive in me and her training is alive in me.” But it was Jones’ grandmother who stood by him Claribel was involved in many of the productions at the Lydia Mendelssohn when he went into the theater. After Jones finished HAS APPEARED IN MORE THAN Theatre, one of which, Deep are the Roots , starred Jones as a G.I. returning home to his service in the Army (the Korean War ended and 433 FILMS, TELEVISION SHOWS, the south after World War II . “I’d learned to wear the uniform quite well by then. I he was never called overseas), he returned to Michi - AND THEATER PRODUCTIONS. was in my element. All the while Claribel mentored us and advised us on makeup, gan for an annual apprenticeship at a theater in on acting —all kinds of things.” Manistee. “She was there in the front row. She was HERE ARE A FEW GEMS FROM HIS SPARKLING CAREER: Claribel’s husband, drama professor William Halstead, also had an impact on the most supportive person in my life when I chose Jones. “He was tall, and he reminded me most of Donald Crouch. He was grey- to enter the theater because, for her, theater was not 1964: Flew the plane 1981 –1982: 1991: Won an Emmy haired, dignified, very handsome.” an elite cultural form. Theater for her was drama, as Lt. Lothar Zogg in the Received critical acclaim for Outstanding Lead Ac - The list goes on. and she knew drama. In Mississippi she had wit - film Dr. Strangelove or: for his performance on - tor in 1991 for his role as “I took an art appreciation course and the teacher had us experiment. Water nessed murder, rape, lynchings, storms, hurricanes, How I Learned to Stop stage as the title role in Gabriel Bird in the colors was the first, I remember. He came by the table and said, ‘You seem to be and floods. She knew drama.” Worrying and Love the Othello , opposite Chris- drama Gabriel’s Fire. going at it like [William] Blake. If anyone has told you that, don’t let that make After Manistee, Jones headed out to New York, Bomb. topher Plummer’s Iago. 1994: Voiced the you embarrassed. If you think in those kinds of images, continue.’ It was a bit where he lived for a while with his father, actor 1968: Played Jack 1982: Died by the mighty Mufasa in Dis - like Donald Crouch would have encouraged me toward poetry. Very supportive, Robert Earl Jones. Jefferson on stage in The sword as Thulsa Doom ney’s film The Lion King. very encouraging.” “I give my father half credit for my becoming an Great White Hope and (the Serpent King) in the 1995: Played the Rev - Professor Karl Litzenberg taught Shakespeare and proposed a creative solution actor,” says Jones, who had emotional ups and downs earned a Tony Award for film Conan the Barbarian. erend Stephen Kumalo to Jones’ failure to complete some exams: “He encouraged me just to come to in his relationships with both biological parents. the performance. In 1988: Donned the in the remake of Cry, the class and read Shakespeare out loud. He said, ‘if you do enough of that I’ll give His father was not only black, but blacklisted at 1970, he repeated his mantle of leadership Beloved Country. you a passing grade.’” the height of the McCarthy “witch hunt period.” performance in the film again as King Jaffe Joffer But Jones wouldn’t take him up on the offer. “I was going into the Army and As a result, Jones’ father was denied work in film version and was nomi - 2004: Nominated for in the film Coming to an Emmy for Outstand - I thought to Korea, so I shrugged off all my exams.” and television. nated for an Academy America. ing Actor in a Guest But there was more to it than that: Jones wanted to do it right or not do it at all. “I wouldn’t say it was in honor of my father that I Award for Best Actor. 1989: Played reclu - Series as Will Cleveland “I was a square kid, square in all kinds of ways —ethically, morally. So when became an actor, but almost in spite of him. He 1977: Lent his famous sive, grumpy writer Ter - in Everwood . the idea of taking a shortcut for a passing grade came up, I didn’t like it. once said, ‘if you do this work, you have to do it not voice to the menacing ence Mann in the film 2005: Played Norman “Two years later, after I was out of the Army, I went back and covered every - because you want to be rich but because you love it.’ character of Darth Vader Field of Dreams. thing with correspondence courses in order to get my degree.” So he gave me enough warning. But I had nothing in Star Wars IV: A New Thayer, Jr., on Broadway Of his behavior and conservative sensibilities Jones admits, “I was kind of a else I wanted to do better.” Hope , and in subse - 1990: Wore a uniform in On Golden Pond , as Admiral James Greer which received critical case, you know?” and there were others on campus at the same time who Today, Jones is still working and staying busy. He quent Star Wars films. in the film The Hunt for acclaim. seemed to have thought the same thing. lends his famous voice to documentaries and anima - Red October ; played Roger Wilkins (’ , J.D.’ ), a civil rights leader, history professor, journalist, tion, to audio books, to CNN , and he still loves to the same role again in UM and graduate, wrote a book titled A Man’s Life: An Autobiography (Ox Bow do commercials, especially with Verizon. Patriot Games (1992) Press, ) and in it he describes his fellow classmate Jones: “Call me a flack if you want to, but I’ve had a and Clear and Present I wanted to be a journalist, a strange pursuit for us then. But my choice of pro - great time with that company.” Danger (1994). fession was no stranger than that of … the stiff loner from the West Quad who Besides being an active actor, he’s also an active was going to be an actor. We all knew he was crazy, partly because he never audience, especially regarding shows like Deadwood , mixed with anybody and partly because everybody knew there were no decent which ended its run much too early for Jones, and acting jobs for Negroes anyway. Even after we had seen him in a few campus the Sopranos —right up until the popular HBO se - plays, we still thought he was crazy. His name was James Earl Jones. s ries ended in a controversial haze last June. e g a m I
“Stories shouldn’t give closure,” he says. “It’s an odd y This passage is quoted in Jones’ book V oices and Silences (Limelight Editions, t t e G
phrase, closure. A good story never begins and never / ) as the preface to chapter five, called “Loner.” r e g n i
ends. It just sort of happens to you and you witness it.” r
It may have been his grandmother’s influence that caused Jones to be, to some t S /
And then you wonder if he’s talking about the n degree, such an independent thinker and an outsider. o e L o
“My grandmother was an out-and-out racist who taught us children every Sopranos or something else. d n a n r e
racist concept she understood. Her point was, ‘I’m giving you some armor F Lara Zielin is editor of LSAmagazine. if I can make it there . . .
We asked four alums
thriving in the city that
never sleeps to tell
us their success sto -
ries and to offer up
some advice on mak -
ing it there, making it anywhere . n i l e i Z a r a L ) m o t t o b d n a p o t , t h g i r ( ; u a e s b e e g T a n m I h o y J t t ) e m G o / t t e o n b o t d S n / a b p m o a t L , t n f h e L o J (
by Lara Zielin she’s a registered dietitian at KKG Body Fuel, Inc., with a calendar full of clients — with the Somerset Patriots, a minor league team in New Jersey. They paid me general studies major with a wealth of art history and It’s a hot, bright Tuesday some pregnant, some diabetic, some obese —who need help managing their diets. seven dollars an hour to sell season tickets and merchandise.” The salary was low anthropology courses under her belt, Englebardt and Yankee Stadium looks like a rippling mirage in But after graduation, Englebardt Metz was working at World Packaging Corp. and the work was grueling, but Cartmell gained experience and eventually Metz was intimidated by classes like organic chem - the heat. I sweat as I walk around the entire thing to selling breath mints and candy. At the time, though she was grateful for the job at showed the team he had the qualities they wanted in an employee: The Somerset istry. But she didn’t let that stop her from enrolling the back, where employees such as Craig Cartmell a company started by two UM alums, Englebardt Metz says, “I wanted a career Patriots hired him full-time. “I still had to help the grounds crew pull the tarp on in New York University and completing the degree. (’ ), senior manager of promotions and special where I could help people in a hands-on way and make a difference.” the field when it rained,” says Cartmell, “but at least I was working in sports.” “I had to take the classes I was always afraid of as an events for the New York Yankees, work everyday. Todd Rosenbluth had a similar experience. Today, he conducts equity research A few years later, a friend of a friend helped land his resume on the desk of undergrad,” says Englebardt Metz. “But I took a He shows me around, and as we walk down a tun - for Standard & Poor’s from an office with a breathtaking view of the East River the right person at the New York Yankees, and by early , Cartmell was chance. I was scared, but I did it.” nel past security personnel, his demeanor is almost and the Brooklyn Bridge, but after graduation he was a glorified telemarketer working for his favorite team, full time. By this time he had earned his master’s Englebardt Metz has been with KKG Body Fuel for reverent, as if we’re walking on sacred ground. And making cold calls to sell stocks. And Adaora Udoji, a Court TV correspondent degree as well. “My passion became my business,” he says, “and if I had to do it two years now, and she appreciates the range of expe - for Cartmell, maybe we are since, as a life-long Yan - and journalist who has covered international stories for CNN , ABC , and Good all over again, I wouldn’t do it differently.” riences she had that led her to this position. “I try to kee fan, “this is the holy grail of jobs,” he says. Later, Morning America , once made copies and fetched coffee during an on-campus Cartmell’s success in the industry surprises no one as much as himself. tell other people, you don’t have to know what you as we’re seated in an air-conditioned diner down the internship after graduation. “Growing up, I thought I would be a doctor or a lawyer. But my advice to any - want to do —you might think you want to be a doc - street, his face looks like that of an eight-year-old The point? Even today’s hip, young, successful grads in the Big Apple didn’t one trying to find their path is to do what you’re going to enjoy. There are al - tor, but be sure that along the way you take an art kid, he’s that excited to talk about his work. He tells always know what they wanted to do, and they worked some tough jobs in the ways more doors open than you think.” history class, too.” me about watching a Yankees game in which process of finding out. And while their UM education gave them all a great Aaron Boone hit a home run to send the team to start, their diploma didn’t come with instructions. “You have to uncover what Lara Englebardt Metz: Take risks and Adaora Udoji: Find a mentor the World Series, and how, as Cartmell and the you’re passionate about, and that’s not always an easy thing,” explains Udoji. Adaora Udoji will make time for you —it’s just that crowd exploded with jubilation, he thought, “You might go to hell and back in the journey, get internships she might have to squeeze you in between another “Holy crap, I’m getting paid to do this.” but in the end it’s all worth it.” Even as an undergraduate, Lara Englebardt Metz interview (where she’ll be asking the questions) and, Cartmell’s not the only LSA grad who loves In telling their success stories, distinct themes loved to cook. “At UM , I was always cooking with “I had friends who “You have to uncover say, the recent criminal trial of Phil Spector. what he does in New York City: Lara Englebardt emerged among each of these grads. And they’re a group of friends. I’ve always loved reading Udoji is a recognizable face —she’s logged hours Metz (’ ), Adaora Udoji (’ ), and Todd Rosen - worth a closer look, whether you’re a seasoned pro recipes and modifying them. I used to look for - were working in in - what you’re passionate of air-time in her varied career as a television jour - bluth (’ ) are three other graduates who have at your job or a newbie grad just out of Ann Arbor. ward to Monday mornings when Martha Stewart found a way to make it in a city hard-packed vestment banking would send out her recipes of the week —I just about, and that’s not nalist —but at UM , Udoji at times felt unrecog - with people and competition. Craig Cartmell: Get more couldn’t wait.” nizable. “It could be a real pain trying to figure But the road to success for all of them has been and here I was with When it was time to graduate, Englebardt Metz always an easy thing. out how to make a big place like UM small and a winding one, and at times an uphill trek. education wasn’t exactly sure what to do next. She’d had a how to become more than a number. I got really a degree selling You might go to hell In , Cartmell was on-track to graduate pre- After graduation, while working at the mall, living host of internships during her undergraduate years good at figuring out how things work, how to make the system work for me.” med from UM until, as he says, “I realized I hated ties with Bugs at home, and wondering what to do with his life, —everything from working on Capitol Hill for a and back in the jour - science.” He wound up graduating with a history Craig Cartmell started thinking about what he senator to working for designer Cynthia Rowley — Udoji also worked in the literal sense: hours a degree and remembers thinking, “what can I do Bunny on them. It loved. The answer was sports, but Cartmell knew but nothing seemed to fit exactly. And none of it ney, but in the end it’s week for former UM Vice President Walter Harri - with this?” that to get into sports marketing or sports man - was related to cooking —or nutrition. son —a job that started out as simply a way to He went back to his home state of New Jersey was rough.” agement, he needed a business background. “Because I’d had so many internships, I knew all worth it.” make some extra cash and help pay for school. But and started looking for employment —anywhere. “I started doing research into sports marketing, what I didn’t want to do,” Englebardt Metz says, Vice President Harrison —or “Walt,” as Udoji now He wound up living with his parents and working and where I could get that kind of degree,” says “and that’s as important as knowing what you do knows him —was, she says, “indicative of UM . As at a Warner Brothers store in the mall. “It was Cartmell, who eventually decided to enroll in a mas - want to do.” Englebardt Metz soon realized she busy as he was, he took some time for me, to get to rough,” he says. “I had friends who were working in ter’s program from Seton Hall University, located just outside of New York City. wanted to pursue a career in nutrition, and decided obtaining a master’s was the know me, to help me figure out what to do in life.” investment banking and here I was with a degree While Cartmell learned, he worked. “I quit the mall and started an internship way to go. The only obstacle in her way was a litany of hard science courses. As a That something turned out to be journalism, selling ties with Bugs Bunny on them.” From a clean-lined, well-appointed office on Madi - son Avenue, Lara Englebardt Metz can relate. Today >Think you could cut it in the Big Apple? A NUMBER OF THINGS COULD MAKE A DIFFERENCE: s e g
a Number of New Yorkers Number of licensed Number of eating estab - Number of subway rid - Average number of m I y t t according to the last medallion taxis: 12,778 lishments: 18,696 ers per year: 1.4 billion feature films shot in the (Previous page, clockwise e G / a
c census: 8,008,278 city annually: more from top left) Craig Cartmell, i Number of trips the Number of visitors to the Total number of acres in n o t
o than 250
Lara Englebardt Metz, Todd h Number of city buses: Staten Island Ferry city in 2006: 44 million Central Park: 843 P / y r Rosenbluth, Adaora Udoji. t 4,489 makes per day: 104 Number of airports serv - n
a Number of subway Length of Manhattan’s i l
g ing the city: 3 o
C routes: 28 widest point: 2.3 miles l e a h
c Source: www.nycvisit.com i M though Udoji never planned it that way. “If “I graduated without a clear path,” he says. you would have told me that I would become a Because of a finance internship he did while an undergraduate at UM he “had journalist, I would have told you that you were a good understanding of the stock market,” he says, “but because I didn’t have a completely insane.” business or finance degree, sometimes I had a hard time getting interviews.” After graduation but before Udoji started law school So he took the first job he was offered: a financial adviser for a large investment in , Walt helped her secure internships in Ann company or, as Rosenbluth calls it, “a glorified stock broker.” Arbor at WUOM radio and at the Ross School of It was harder than he expected. Business, working in communications. Three years “It was so stressful. I had to cold-call potential clients and convince them of later, after graduation from law school, Udoji checked my financial expertise. It was hard enough to convince me of my financial expert - in with Walt again. “He told me he had a cousin at ise. I worked there for one year and then they let me go. I’m not a salesman.” ABC who needed off-air reporters to help cover the And then Rosenbluth had a realization. He liked research, liked advising O.J. Simpson trial. I thought, this is so cool, they pay clients, and eventually saw himself as someone who could provide stock research you to read a newspaper?” and recommendations to investors —but he didn’t have the credentials to actu - From there, Udoji immersed herself in the field, ally get a job doing that type of work. “So I knew I had to take a step backward eventually covering news such as the presiden - so I could go forward,” he explains, which amounted to a data entry job in a re - tial election, the Concorde jet crash in Gonesse, lated field. “Slowly, I began to move up the food chain,” he says, “and along the France, and the Iraq war. way I had to take a couple more jobs that weren’t a perfect fit. I knew, though, When Court TV came calling, Udoji was ready. that the jobs could get me closer to my goal.” “When you’re as curious as I am, everything is fasci - Along the way, Rosenbluth got hooked into the UM network in New York nating. It’s interesting every day. Court TV covers so City. “I found the UM club through watching football games,” he says. He and much ground —criminal trials to Supreme Court his then-girlfriend, Miki (’ ), who is now his wife, attended events together and decisions. It’s the original reality television.” became members of the Board of Directors. “It became cultural, a way to make Still today, Udoji cites Walt’s influence in her life friends,” says Rosenbluth. Currently Rosenbluth serves as the club’s president, and encourages people to “find their own Walt. If helping more than , alumni keep in contact with each other. “ UM alumni someone offers to help you, take them up on it. truly help each other out. But you need to get to know people. There are always There’s no guarantee it’s going to work, but there’s new faces who want career advice but then never come to an event again. The no guarantee it won’t work, either. People are usual - real value of the network comes from sticking around.” ly happy to share their experiences.” The alumni network was And of finding a different path than the one on there six years ago to help which you originally started out? Rosenbluth celebrate when he UM grads in the Big Apple looking for “I tell young people all the time, be careful of landed a financial advising ways to network should consider the boxing yourself in. Sometimes plan B is better role at Standard & Poor’s. He University of Michigan Entertainment than plan A, you just don’t know it.” still works there today, and Coalition, which offers a range of activi - now he has an M.B.A. under ties including the Michigan Media dinner his belt as well. Todd Rosenbluth: Don’t just take series. The series features speakers “I’ve had to fight a little bit the first job you’re offered and from mass media, book publishing, tele - to get where I am today,” says vision and more, with the goal of bring - plug into the UM network Rosenbluth, “but it’s helped ing together UM alumni in the media Todd Rosenbluth just got a promotion at work. me be more confident and to industry. The idea is to unite alums with These days, things are coming up roses for the appreciate that this is a good an interest in media, whether from the general studies graduate, but that hasn’t always setting, a good fit for me.” business or creative side, to help been the case. His next obstacle? Convert advance their careers. For more infor - the guy in the cubicle next mation about the Michigan Media dinner door: “He’s an Ohio State fan,” series or more generally about the says Rosenbluth, grinning like Entertainment Coalition, please visit www.um-ec.org. he just might try. Lara Zielin is Editor of LSAmagazine.
FACULTY
whole world opened to me.” In that world, she took an ex - traordinary intellectual journey. It led to graduate school at Emory and the University of Minnesota, then to archives where she uncov - ered the linked lives of a Native American man and an African- American woman, both long dead; and finally to her study of that couple in Ties That Bind: The Story of an Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom (California, ), recently awarded the Frederick Jackson Turner Award from the Organiza - tion of American Historians, the Lora Romero Distinguished First Book Award from the American Studies Association, and the pres - tigious Hiett Prize in the Human - ities from the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. Even though the book is a success, Miles acknowledges that the path to producing her scholarship was a difficult and complicated one. REALITY CONFOUNDING THE IDEAL At Harvard, Miles says, “I was doing African-Ameri - Ties That Bind can studies, and I was really passionate about that.” Her knowledge of Native Americans consisted of only TIYA MILES CONFRONTS “a little history and a lot of mythology,” including the MISCONCEPTIONS IN HER image, long cherished by many African Americans, of black slaves who “ran away to the Indians.” >WORK AND LIFE To Miles, now a recently promoted associate pro - by James Tobin fessor of American Culture and Afroamerican and African Studies, that image symbolized the will to TIYA MILES WAS AN UNDERGRADUATE at Har - self-liberation and solidarity between two oppressed k vard in the early s when she met the man who e
s peoples. But as she and Joseph Gone headed toward a r
u would become her husband. He was a Montanan
Y marriage, she found reality confounding the ideal. a c
i named Joseph Gone, a Native American of the Gros s “We learned that our families —both families of s e J Ventre tribe, neighbors of the Assiniboine and the color —were not very well-equipped to relate with Blackfeet. As their relationship grew, she says, “A
fall 2007 LSA 33 FACULTY FACULTY
one another,” she says. “I had a fantasy that people old woman, was declared free, and she lived into the on the editing room floor, even the narrator’s tone of color would have a natural affinity and support Civil War. of voice —shapes the film and its message. each other. We learned in a very personal way that It pained Miles to confront evidence that some “Films have always manipulated reality in some that was not necessarily the case. There were all Native Americans, rather than rejecting the racism ways,” Sarris says. “Even the films that call them - kinds of misconceptions and even a sense of com - of white Americans, seemed to have adopted it. selves documentaries.” parison about who was treated worse. I was disillu - “I’m sure many researchers who do this kind of No documentary should be taken as absolute sioned to learn this. But it made me feel committed work —social history —read their documents and truth or fact, Sarris says. The savvy viewer should to try to do something to combat all the misinfor - feel distraught,” she says. “It’s awful, it’s horrible, you realize that all media —documentary, news, fiction mation and the negative emotion that came with wish the history hadn’t happened. But there it is.” film —represent the maker’s choices and has bias, it.” Perhaps, she thought, she could find historical Still, within the larger picture of a society driven point-of-view, and often an agenda. precedents for Afro-Indian unity. by race, she found moments when “people recog - “The label ‘documentary’ may lead some viewers In graduate school, reading widely about Afro- nized each other as human beings and were willing to expect fairness or balance in the treatment or cov - Indian relations in early America, Miles spied a foot - to stand up to these incredible systems that were erage of the subject,” says Sarris, “but even these note about a Cherokee warrior-soldier named Shoe bearing down on them, and it’s important for us to terms may represent impossibilities. Some expect Boots and the African-American mother of his chil - know that people could and did do that.” And if she documentaries to present both sides of an issue when dren —the first Cherokee-black relationship to be could not forgive Shoe Boots, she says she came to a there may in fact be many sides to an issue and cov - recognized as a marriage by the Cherokee Nation. deeper understanding of the influence of social con - ering every nuance of a subject may be impossible. “I thought, ‘Aha, this is going to be that revolu - text on human relationships. In addition, even in documentaries that strive for ob - tionary story I’m looking for,’” she says. “I found a story that was mainly about people who jectivity, documentarians use the same techniques She collected all the surviving evidence of Shoe were in desperate circumstances and tried to survive, that theatrical filmmakers use to meet the needs of Boots’ family. It revealed the complexity of race rela - and who, in those circumstances, did awful things to the film, and such shaping begins in pre-production.” tions in antebellum America in a way few historians one another,” she says. “Putting this story, this fami - Strategic editing can sculpt players into villains or have glimpsed before. But it was not the inspirational ly, into the context of U.S. colonization of native As an editor of this heroes to create conflict, says Sarris. Shooting up story Miles had hoped to find. people and American slavery helped book, Miles con - Documentary from a low angle empowers a subject, shooting The woman named Doll — me to understand how tributed to scholar - down diminishes a person. “a tall, strong-made woman,” people, no matter what ship about Afro- Dilemma The same techniques are used in broadcast jour - according to another slave race, can turn against each Indian relations in nalism, commercial television, even reality TV . —was not Shoe Boots’ wife other. They were just try - early America. For instance, one technique of Moore’s is to pose but his slave. He had ac - ing to survive in a situa - WHAT’S FAIR? hypothetical questions and answer them in the next w quired her in the late s tion that was deeply inhu - o scene through editing. In Sicko , Moore wonders l WHAT’S BALANCED? l e Y
when she was a teenager. mane. I do hold Shoe s aloud where forgotten heroes go for health care. In i by Laura Bailey c
n >
She bore five of his children Boots accountable. But he a the next scenes, Moore and his band of ailing Sep - r F y and lived with him for some was a citizen of a nation b MICHAEL MOORE ’S DOCUMENTARY Sicko tember volunteers are filmed in a boat chugging e g
years. But he never re - that was caught up in a a generated much debate and controversy when it was purposefully across the water asking the Coast m i r leased her from enslave - horrible moment.” e released this past summer. Sicko also gave Moore’s Guard the way to Guantanamo Bay. v o c ment. At one point, in fact, Miles continues to explore ) critics, who often argue that his films distort reality, Some may call that approach going overboard, t h g i he gave her and one of their the world of Cherokees and r another round of ammunition. Sarris says, others might feel that Moore and other ( ; s children to another slave - black slaves. Her latest re - s We asked Terri Sarris, who teaches media produc - documentarians don’t push far or hard enough. e r P
owner. After Shoe Boots’ search deals with a Cherokee a tion in LSA ’s Department of Screen Arts and Cultures, “It’s a subjective call as to what goes too far,” she i n r s o e death in , Doll made a named Chief James Vann f about documentarians using film to tell not just the says. “What is a creative treatment, what is a delib - i g l a a C James Tobin (’78) is an m story, but story. Is such storytelling ethical?
I their claim for his U.S. veterans’ who owned a plantation and f erate deception, what is a lie? Those are terms that o y
associate professor of t y t t e benefits —he had fought the black slaves in northern i Should we hold documentaries to a higher standard are hard to define and maybe have differing defini - s G
journalism at Miami Uni - r / e r v e than we do newsprint, television, or even other films? Creek Indians with Andrew Georgia. She and Joseph versity in Oxford, Ohio. i tions depending on whom you ask. In writing this g n n U i
He is the author of Ernie r t Jackson —and she testified Gone, an LSA assistant pro - e In Moore’s case, critics dismiss his work as propa - article, you are doing what a filmmaker does — S h / Pyle’s War and To Con - T r f
e gandizing serious issues to further his own agenda. that they had been married fessor of psychology and o making choices as to what to leave in, what to ask, k l
quer the Air: The Wright y a s e
W But, Sarris says, all documentarians distort reality — “in the Cherokee way.” De - American Culture, are the Brothers and the Great t what to take out. As a journalist, you must think of . r u H
Race for Flight . o
w it’s the natural fallout of making choices during the nied at first, she finally won parents of twin girls. C the exact same issues all the time.” e ) r t f d e her claim. When her last n filmmaking process. Every detail chosen by the film - L A ( maker —from lighting, to camera angles, to the cuts Laura Bailey is a senior public relations representative owner died, Doll, by then an with UM’s News Service and the School of Public Health.
34 LSA fall 2007 fall 2007 LSA 35 FACULTY
on the editing room floor, even the narrator’s tone of voice —shapes the film and its message. “Films have always manipulated reality in some ways,” Sarris says. “Even the films that call them - selves documentaries.” No documentary should be taken as absolute truth or fact, Sarris says. The savvy viewer should realize that all media —documentary, news, fiction film —represent the maker’s choices and has bias, point-of-view, and often an agenda. “The label ‘documentary’ may lead some viewers to expect fairness or balance in the treatment or cov - erage of the subject,” says Sarris, “but even these terms may represent impossibilities. Some expect documentaries to present both sides of an issue when there may in fact be many sides to an issue and cov - ering every nuance of a subject may be impossible. In addition, even in documentaries that strive for ob - jectivity, documentarians use the same techniques that theatrical filmmakers use to meet the needs of the film, and such shaping begins in pre-production.” Strategic editing can sculpt players into villains or heroes to create conflict, says Sarris. Shooting up Documentary from a low angle empowers a subject, shooting down diminishes a person. Dilemma The same techniques are used in broadcast jour - nalism, commercial television, even reality TV . For instance, one technique of Moore’s is to pose WHAT’S FAIR? hypothetical questions and answer them in the next WHAT’S BALANCED? scene through editing. In Sicko , Moore wonders >by Laura Bailey aloud where forgotten heroes go for health care. In the next scenes, Moore and his band of ailing Sep - MICHAEL MOORE ’S DOCUMENTARY Sicko tember volunteers are filmed in a boat chugging generated much debate and controversy when it was purposefully across the water asking the Coast released this past summer. Sicko also gave Moore’s Guard the way to Guantanamo Bay. critics, who often argue that his films distort reality, Some may call that approach going overboard, another round of ammunition. Sarris says, others might feel that Moore and other We asked Terri Sarris, who teaches media produc - documentarians don’t push far or hard enough. tion in LSA ’s Department of Screen Arts and Cultures, “It’s a subjective call as to what goes too far,” she s e about documentarians using film to tell not just the says. “What is a creative treatment, what is a delib - g a
m story, but story. Is such storytelling ethical? I their erate deception, what is a lie? Those are terms that y t t e Should we hold documentaries to a higher standard are hard to define and maybe have differing defini - G / r e than we do newsprint, television, or even other films? tions depending on whom you ask. In writing this g n i r t In Moore’s case, critics dismiss his work as propa - article, you are doing what a filmmaker does — S / r e gandizing serious issues to further his own agenda. making choices as to what to leave in, what to ask, k l a
W But, Sarris says, all documentarians distort reality — what to take out. As a journalist, you must think of . H
w it’s the natural fallout of making choices during the the exact same issues all the time.” e r d
n filmmaking process. Every detail chosen by the film - A maker —from lighting, to camera angles, to the cuts Laura Bailey is a senior public relations representative with UM’s News Service and the School of Public Health.
fall 2007 LSA 35 FACULTY FACULTY
work, a date that seems destined now. She says the the town, and it’s taken something shared to stick English word in her mind, “sweethearts,” likes the back together the families of men who returned to way it sounds. She listens to Churchill, the voice of work and those who stayed out. The village would England, imagines him whispering it gravely, swal - have died if not for the resurgence of Plaid Cymru, lows a smile. She concentrates on the speech, thinks the Party of Wales, reminding them of what they of the men on the beaches, and feels herself fill with had in common, their Celtic race, reminding them emotion for her soldier like a slow-pouring glass of of their common enemy, the English. Guinness. There’s a thickening in her throat, a She tells herself that most of the locals are as filled brimming pressure behind her eyes. It’s gratitude with excitement as she is, even if they’re reluctant to she feels, mixed with pride and hope, and she trusts admit it. She yearns to be British, tonight of all that together this blend amounts to love. nights. She’s proud of her Welshness, of course, in The broadcast ends and the noise builds again in the same half-conscious way she’s shyly proud of her the pub. It’s not quite a cheer —the speech has been looks, but she’s impatient with all the history. Some sternly cautious —but there’s a sense of excitement part of her knows that nationalism is part and parcel kept just in check and a kind of relief, as if a long- of provincialism. She has her own dreams of escape, held breath can finally be released. All spring the modest ones mostly —of a spell in service in Liver - whispered talk has been about an invasion, and now pool like her mother before her —and occasionally it’s here, D-Day, the beginning of the end. The sus - more thrilling ones, fueled by the pictures she sees pected secret the whole country has silently shared at the Gaumont in Penygroes. for months can be talked about openly at last. . . . This corner of North Wales feels such a long way Esther steps up on the crate once more and turns from the center of life, from London or Liverpool or, the radio dial through the catarrhal interference heavens, America. But nationalism, she senses, is a until it picks up faint dance music, Joe Loss and His way of putting it back in the center, of saying that Orpheans, from the Savoy in London. She hears what’s here is important enough. And this really is Wales of a Tale something like applause and, looking round, sees what Esther wants, what she dimly suspects they all Excerpted from The Welsh In The Welsh Girl , a wartime romance, LSA’s ing off the crate. Behind her, over the calls for serv - with delight that it’s literally a clapping of backs. want. To be important, to be the center of attention. Girl by Peter Ho Davies, ice, she hears a few low whistles before the machine The crowd in the lounge is three deep and thirsty, Which is why she’s so excited as she moves through published by Houghton Peter Ho Davies , associate professor of . . . and she pulls pints until her arm aches, and the crowd collecting empties, stacking them up, glass Mifflin Company in Febru - clicks into life, first with a scratchy hum, then a ary. Copyright © 2007 by English Language and Literature, writes whistle of its own, finally, as if from afar, the signa - froth fills the air like blossom. But when she turns on teetering glass, by the presence of the soldiers, by Peter Ho Davies. Reprint - > ture tune of the program. The dial lights up like a to ring up the orders, she sees the public bar is emp - the arrival of the BBC Light Program a few years ago, ed by permission of about nationalism, loyalty, and honor in tying out. It’s shearing season, after all. Invasion or by the museum treasures that are stored in the old Houghton Mifflin Compa - sunset, and the noise around her subsides at once. ny. All rights reserved. this, his first novel. no, farmers have to be quarry workings, even
Turning, the girl looks down into the crowd of faces y n a EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER ONE staring up at the glowing radio, and it seems to her p up early . . . . by the school-age evac - m o for a moment as if she has stilled them. C Pretty soon the pub is uees. They’re refugees n
It’s a close June night in the Welsh hills, taut with i l f
f down to just soldiers from the Blitz, most of The men —soldiers, mostly, —sip their beers i
the threat of thunder, and the radios of the village M
n and die-hards, the Welsh them, but she doesn’t o cough with static. The Quarryman’s Arms, with the slowly during the broadcast. She looks from face to t h
g voices behind her waft - care. If she can’t see the face, but they’re all gazing off, concentrating on the u (Opposite page) The rugged tallest aerial for miles around, is a scrum of bodies, o H but beautiful landscape f ing over with the smell world, she’ll settle for all waiting to hear Churchill’s broadcast. prime minister’s shuffling growl. The only ones to o y where The Welsh Girl is set. s of pipe tobacco . . . . the world coming to her. e
catch her eye are Harry Hitch, who’s mouthing t
There’s a flurry of shouted orders leading up to the r u
o Their talk for once isn’t . . . But soon now, she
something —“me usual” —and Colin, who winks c (This page) Peter Ho Davies
news at six. Esther, behind the lounge bar, pulls pint ) t
h politics. This is a na - thinks, setting her stack recently served as the Zell
broadly from across the room. g after pint, leaning back against the pumps so that the i r
( Director of the M.F.A. Pro -
; tionalist village, passion - of glasses down just be - Colin’s one of the sappers with the Pioneer Corps y
beer froths in the glass. At five to six by the scarred h gram in the College of LSA. p
a ately so. It’s what holds fore it topples, they building the base near the old holiday camp in the r The son of a Welsh father
grandfather clock in the corner, her boss, Jack Jones, g o t the place together, like a might all leave —the and Chinese mother, Ho valley. They’ve been bringing some much needed o
calls across for Esther to “warm ’er up.” She tops off h P cracked and glued china soldiers, the evacuees, Davies has written two business to the Arms for the last month, and for the g the pint she’s pouring, steps back from the counter n short-story collections and i r e teapot. The great quarry the BBC —and sudden - was named one of Granta’s and up onto the pop crate beneath the till. She has last fortnight Esther and Colin have been sweet - B )
m strike, all of forty-five ly she can hardly bear Best Young British Novel - hearts. Tonight she’s agreed to slip off with him after o to stretch for the knob on the wireless, one foot lift - t t ists in 2003. The Welsh Girl o years ago, almost broke the thought of it. Of B ( was long-listed for the pres - being left behind. tigious Man Booker Prize.
36 LSA fall 2007 fall 2007 LSA 37 FACULTY
Faculty Awards Every year, faculty in the College COLLEGIATE PROFESSOR GOLDEN APPLE AWARD LSA E XCELLENCE Juan Cole FOR EXCELLENT IN EDUCATION AWARD of LSA receive awards and their History TEACHING Brad Bushman Sergey Fomin Andrei Markovits Communication Studies, achievements are recognized Mathematics Political Science, Psychology throughout UM, the nation, and Deborah E. Goldberg German Derek B. Collins Ecology and Evolutionary Classical Studies the world. “An outstanding faculty Biology GUGGENHEIM Joshua Miller Sharon Herbert FELLOWSHIPS English is the foundation of all we do for Classical Studies E. Garcia Santo-Tomás Ian N. Proops our undergraduate and graduate Conrad Kottak Romance Languages Philosophy Anthropology Arthur Lupia Ctirad Uher students,” says LSA Dean Terrence Robert K. Lazarsfeld Political Science Physics J. McDonald, “these awards ac - Mathematics Roberto Merlin Pamela Raymond Physics LSA I MES & M OORE knowledge that —but they are just Molecular, Cellular, and Piotr Michalowski FACULTY AWARD Developmental Biology Near Eastern Studies Homer Neal a fraction of the many awards re - Norbert Schwarz Physics Psychology HAROLD R. J OHNSON cently received by our faculty.” George Tsebelis DIVERSITY SERVICE LSA M ATTHEWS Political Science AWARD UNDERCLASS AMERICAN Alan M. Wald Frieda Ekotto TEACHING AWARD ASSOCIATION FOR English, Romance Languages Despina Margomenou ADVANCEMENT American Culture Bruce Frier Classical Studies OF SCIENCE Classical Studies Carol Fierke DISTINGUISHED LSA R UTH SINCLAIR Chemistry FACULTY ACHIEVEMENT HENRY RUSSEL AWARD MEMORIAL AWARD Robert Griess Laurence Goldstein Anne Curzan Susan Gass Mathematics English English Academic Advising Center Arthur Lupia Joyce Marcus Political Science Anthropology JOHN H. D’A RMS NATIONAL ACADEMY FACULTY AWARD OF SCIENCES Samuel Mukasa Geological Sciences DISTINGUISHED Celeste Brusati James S. House UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR History of Art, Sociology, Ben A. Van Der Pluijm Women’s Studies Survey Research Center Geological Sciences Stephen Darwall Philosophy Gillian Feeley-Harnik Anthropology NATIONAL MEDAL ARTHUR F. T HURNAU Henry Wright OF SCIENCE PROFESSOR Anthropology Donald Lopez Asian Languages and Hyman Bass Anne Curzan Yu Xie Cultures Mathematics, English Sociology Education David Gerdes LOMONOSOV Physics FACULTY RECOGNITION RACKHAM DISTIN - AWARD GOLD MEDAL Andrew Shryock Rodney Ewing GUISHED GRADUATE Anthropology Scott Page MENTOR AWARD Political Science, Geological Sciences Economics Michael Woodroofe THE CLASS OF 1923 LSA D ISTINGUISHED Statistics M EMORIAL TEACHING Brenda Volling Psychology SENIOR FACULTY AWARD LECTURER REGENTS ’ A WARD FOR DISTINGUISHED Kristen Moore FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR Carl Simon Mathematics PUBLIC SERVICE Ruth Behar Complex Systems, Mika Lavaque-Manty Economics, Anne Ruggles Gere Anthropology, Mathematics Political Science Women’s Studies English, Education Nancy R. Hunt History UNIVERSITY Jennifer Robertson UNDERGRADUATE Anthropology TEACHING AWARD Allen Hicken Political Science
38 LSA fall 2007 FACULTY Books LSA faculty publish some of the most topical, timely, nomics Scott E. Page. Page’s research shows that progress and innovation may depend less on lone and engaging books on the market today. We invite thinkers with enormous IQs than on diverse people you to explore some recent titles by these renowned working together. Faith in the City: Preaching Radical Social scholars, and we’ll continue bringing you more facul - Change in Detroit (University of Michigan Press, ty publications in future issues of LSAmagazine. 2007) by Angela Denise Dillard, an associate professor of Afroamerican and African Studies. Dillard discusses College Knowledge: 101 Tips (University of Michi - how the worlds of politics and faith merged over the gan Press, 2005) by David Schoem, Faculty Director of decades for many of Detroit’s African Americans—and the Michigan Community Scholars Program. Based on how that convergence provided the community with a 25 years of experience as a professor, dean, and vice- powerful voice and identity. president, Schoem gives tips about academics, social growth, finances, and more for students heading off Trinity of Passion: The Literary Left and the to college. Antifascist Crusade (University of North Carolina Press, 2007) by Alan M. Wald, a professor of English The Difference: How the Power of Diversity and American culture. In his second of three volumes, Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Wald tracks the political and personal lives of several Societies (Princeton University Press, 2007) by Profes - generations of U.S. left-wing writers during the Span - sor of Complex Systems, Political Science, and Eco - ish Civil War and World War II.
BO’S LASTING LESSONS THE LEGENDARY COACH and troublemakers and guys who just aren’t getting TEACHES THE TIMELESS FUN - it. How to handle sudden setbacks, and crushing pressure, and constant criticism. How to keep out - DAMENTALS OF LEADERSHIP siders from meddling with your program and insid - John U. Bacon (’86, M.A. ’94), an ers from undermining it. How to handle failure — and how to handle success. Even when to call it award-winning sports writer and quits, and how to do it right. excerpt And trust me: there’s a right way and a wrong way LSA lecturer in the Program in Amer - Hey. I’m just a football ican Culture, needed five years to to do all these things. coach. I’m not going to I can tell you this: the fundamental values that convince UM’s renowned football try to tell you how your worked for me coaching football work everywhere industry works. But I else, too —in business, in medicine, in law, in edu - coach Bo Schembechler to write a know how to do the book on leadership. Bacon co-au - cation. I know because I’ve seen my players succeed things everyone needs to in all those fields, using the same principles they thored the book, finishing almost know if they’re going to learned playing on our team. And these principles two years of interviews just a month be successful. I don’t care never change. They are the key to success, real suc - if you’re running a For - cess, and that’s what this book is about. before Bo passed away last year. tune company or a I’ll be honest. My body isn’t worth a damn any Girl Scout troop. You more, and all my records will be broken one day. I need to know what to do from the day you become know this —but it doesn’t bother me, because these a leader to the day you step down. How to pick the values will outlast everything else I’ve done. right mentors, and how to lay down your laws when I’m now, and it’s time I told you what I’ve learned. it’s your turn at the top. How to hire your people — and fire them, when you have to. How to train Excerpted from BO’S LASTING LESSONS: The Legendary them, motivate them, and mold them into a team. Coach Teaches the Timeless Fundamentals of Leader - ship by Bo Schembechler and John U. Bacon. Copyright How to get them to execute what you want, perfect - © 2007 by the Estate of Glenn E. Schembechler, Jr. ly, every time. How to handle conflicts and crises Reprinted by permission of Grand Central Publishing, New York, NY. All rights reserved. STUDENTS STUDENTS
Art in Dark Places by Rebekah Murray
EVERY SUNDAY AFTERNOON , Rachael Hudak connected with PCAP . The courses, offered with all of this in class,” Alexander says. He tells things they are struggling with.” (’ ) and Jaime Nelson (’ ) travel from Ann through LSA and the School of Art and Design, students, “You have no idea how much you’ll For Iyer, the reward for a year of working with Arbor to the Cooper Street Correctional Facility teach students how to help form a creative space grow through all these challenges.” students wasn’t a polished final performance but in Jackson, Michigan. The recent graduates meet in places typically devoid of them. Geetha Iyer (’ ) admits she felt a little awkward, the chance to just listen. “It was being there so we >with eight prisoners and each person shares a When beginning a PCAP course with Alexander, at first, around ninth grade students at Detroit’s could talk about things that matter,” she says. short story, essay, or poem written that week. It’s a students find out just a bit of what they’re in for in Cooley High School. Last year, she and fellow Iyer has also led poetry and art workshops in creative writing workshop hosted by UM ’s Prison the upcoming semester. “I ask them to believe in PCAP teammate Sarah Carswell (’ ) held two prisons and was a member of PCAP ’s th annual Creative Arts Project ( PCAP ), and Hudak and people, even when the evidence isn’t there,” Alexan - theater workshops at the school. Iyer and Carswell art show committee. She continues to be involved Nelson are just two of about PCAP members der says. “I tell them we’re going to work together, encouraged the students to just tell their stories — with PCAP , currently serving on its executive who, along with UM students, are facilitating but it’s going to be hard and painful.” not read scripts or memorize lines. The students committee. more than workshops this fall —in theater, art, It can be hard for UM students to see youth in used everyday language and created a play about film, creative writing, or poetry —within prisons, urban high schools drop out of school, as that issues they face. No issue was off-limits. The topics WITNESSING PRISON ART juvenile facilities, and urban high schools. may mean they’ll end up in prison. UM students in just two plays performed this past May included While most of PCAP ’s work takes place inside Since Buzz Alexander, an Arthur F. Thurnau holding workshops in a juvenile facility might alcoholism, sexual abuse, family break-ups, reha - urban high schools, juvenile facilities, or prisons, Professor of English Language and Literature, hear of a suicide. In the prisons, students may see bilitation, reconciliation, dating, teen pregnancy, once a year about , members of the communi - founded the project years ago, more than the reality of economic and social injustices. and abortion. ty have a chance to be a part of PCAP through the , UM students have elected to take courses Yet as hard as this may be, “we’re going to deal “It’s a part of their lives,” Iyer says. “These are Annual Exhibition of Art by Michigan Prisoners.
40 LSA fall 2007 fall 2007 LSA 41 STUDENTS STUDENTS
Curated by Alexander and Janie Paul, Associate Pro - religion, philosophy, personal relationships, or art.” fessor of Art in the School of Art and Design, the Paul knows it works. “I get letters from people exhibition contains artwork by more than saying, ‘This is what’s keeping me alive, this is what artists collected from Michigan I’m living for.’” prisons and displayed for two weeks Art can be what some former prisoners are living To survive, at the Duderstadt Center Gallery on for as well. Through the PCAP Linkage Project, for - North Campus. merly incarcerated artists, writers, actors, musi - prisoners have to People are often surprised by what cians, and dancers can continue to develop their create meaning, they find at the art show. work with the help of community mentors. “ “Visitors expect ‘prison art,’ de - Art can also help develop character and help give whether it’s pressing images and poor quality, and former inmates the drive to succeed. Gary Green, are stunned by a room full of color now a quality control inspector for a Michigan auto through religion, and an immense range of talent and parts manufacturer, says the nine months he attend - accomplishment,” Alexander wrote ed PCAP ’s creative writing workshop at Cooper philosophy, per- almost three years ago after the th Street Correctional Facility directly contributed to sonal relation- annual show. his accomplishments outside prison. “Often, people come to the show “I am more assertive and expressive now,” he says. ships, or art. thinking about how every artist fea - “Rachael and Jaime challenged me in writing. I had tured in the gallery has committed a to really dig and think to be able to put on paper crime. At the same time, these artists have created what otherwise was too painful to talk about. Be - complex, beautiful, intricate art that confronts and fore, I’d run from the pain to other things like drugs que”stions them. The art challenges us to think and alcohol. These feelings had been locked away about who the people are that are incarcerated and for years but by putting them on paper, I was able how we’ve learned to think of them,” says Hudak, to get them out, to confront these issues.” who, after graduating from UM , became one of only Being a part of this kind of transformation has a A Stranger with a Rope . . . two full-time PCAP staff members. lasting effect on UM ’s PCAP community. Former During the two-week art exhibition, PCAP hosts PCAP participants have left UM to become lawyers, by George Hall special events and speakers to talk about issues sur - activists, and teachers in urban schools. Some, like Prison is like a pool of deep water, rounding incarceration. After the event, each prison LSA senior Abbey Marshak, have interned with ad - at first so clear that you can easily see the surface vocacy organizations and say they “just want to receives a video of the artwork and individual artists and grasp the reaching hands of family and loved ones are given comments from guests and press clippings make the world a little bit better.” about the show. And that’s what unites current and former PCAP holding you, keeping you from sinking. “The art show provides a way for people who are members. “It’s an experience we can’t forget,” says But years pass, and grips tire and loosen, really isolated to become validated and grow in their Hudak. “ PCAP creates a connection that extends be - one by one finally letting go until all are gone, artwork,” says Paul. yond Ann Arbor and beyond graduating.” and you begin to slowly sink, deeper and deeper, But more than just creating art, Paul says the art Rebekah Murray is the Assistant into the murky depths that have become your world, exhibit and PCAP workshops can give incarcerated Editor of LSAmagazine . people a sense of purpose. “In the prisons, life is and the light above slowly fades into pieces geared toward meaninglessness,” she says. “To sur vive, of imperfect memory until, finally, all that remains of hope prisoners have to create meaning, whether it’s through is an unclear vision of a stranger far above somewhere with a rope... and the prayer that she will throw it. n e t o D a n i
Through PCAP, alumni t s
i The 13th Annual Exhibition of Art by Michigan Prisoners will be held r
Jaime Nelson (left) and K March 25 –April 9, 2008, at UM’s Duderstadt Center Gallery. The 2nd An - Rachael Hudak (right) fa - nual Linkage Exhibition of Art, featuring work by formerly incarcerated cilitate a creative writing artists and their mentors, will be held from November 9 –December 19, workshop at a prison in 2007 at Focus Hope in Detroit. Jackson, Michigan. Artwork by Michigan prisoners (clockwise from top left) “The Love Between a Father and Daughter,” by Keith Burns, “Nature in Prison,” by F. Mumford, and “Locals,” by Bryan Picken.
42 LSA fall 2007 fall 2007 LSA 43 STUDENTS STUDENTS
conditions for women and inadvertently paved the to share one sink, two toilets, and no toilet paper. Now, she helps for - way for PCAP . Yet because of the court case, Glover had a cre - merly incarcerated Glover hopes PCAP’s It started on August , . That’s when -year- ative outlet in education. Even while behind bars, youth and adults old Glover entered the Detroit House of Correc - she became a certified paralegal in and in through re-entry efforts are helping young tions faced with life in prison. She doesn’t like to earned a UM bachelor’s degree in religion. “I kept challenges, and she adults avoid the mistakes talk about the circumstances that put her there. To working towards my goals, my educational pursuits links them with a put it simply, she says she stole money at a gas sta - as a way to maintain my sanity and my sense of community mentor she made at their age. tion to pay rent and after she fled, her then-husband self,” she says. to help the artists produced a pistol and a shooting took place in an On August , , after serving and a half continue their craft. altercation with three men. years in prison and just before her th birthday, She also works with PCAP ’s youth programs in “The remorse was overwhelming,” Glover says. Glover was released on parole. Despite her elation, four juvenile facilities coordinating the Portfolio “They offered me a plea to second degree murder she found re-entering society wasn’t easy. “I came Project and giving youth an impressive item to show —which didn’t require an intent to kill —and I home and found my mom dying and my dad with a parole board, judge, or prospective employer. pled guilty.” Alzheimer’s,” she says. “I had to relearn everything Glover hopes PCAP ’s efforts are helping young Prison was worse than anything she could have —how to drive, social rules, new technology, how adults avoid the mistakes she made at their age. Rebekah Murray is the imagined. “It’s an assault on your humanity,” Glover to cook, care for myself, even acceptable behavior “We don’t want them to end up in prison,” she says. Assistant Editor of says —of the conditions, the treatment, and of on a job. I had to get to know my family again.” “We want the students in the juvenile facilities to see LSAmagazine. course the mental and emotional torture that comes Last year, Glover took the opportunity to join themselves as something other than screw-ups. We with guilt and exile. PCAP once again —this time as the Administrative want to help them with their identity and character.” 1 Glover v. Johnson , 478 F.Supp. 1075 (E.D. Mich. In September , Glover attended law classes Coordinator for the Linkage and Portfolio Projects. And that, Glover says, is worth it all. 1979) that attorney Judith Magid offered at the prison. The women told Magid of all the benefits male pris - oners received, such as access to the courts and op - portunities for wages, college degrees, trade appren - ticeships, paralegal and job training, and minimum security camps. If the State of Michigan had a line item in their budget for male prisoners, couldn’t they add one for female prisoners? Magid said, “Here’s the deal. We can file a civil A Path Through Prison rights action in the federal court, but first, we need TAKE An inmate once herself, Mary Glover now as - to name plaintiffs.” sists formerly incarcerated youth and adults. Glover was the only one who volunteered. She re - members thinking, what do I have to lose? “I felt like I had already lost my life.” YOUR > by Rebekah Murray In , after a -day trial, U.S. District Court WATCHING MARY HEINEN GLOVER (’ ) in her Judge John Feikens ruled in favor of the women in Angell Hall office, one would never guess why she is Glover v. Johnson 1. “This case has been a landmark exceptionally qualified to work with UM ’s Prison ruling for decades,” Glover explains, “as it was the SEAT Creative Arts Project ( PCAP ). It’s not entirely because first in the United States to establish a constitutional of her paralegal certification, two bachelor’s degrees, right to court access and to parity in educational and completion of advanced coursework, or the UM vocational programming for women prisoners.” and Be a Part of Michigan History Forever Hopwood Award she won. Still, even with the improvements that came be - Rather, it’s because she’s been there. cause of the advocacy of the women prisoners and It was because of inmates Mary Glover and Joyce their counsel —the first interim order was for show - Dixon that LSA ’s Buzz Alexander came to the Cold - er curtains —Glover vividly remembers the horror of y water, Michigan, Florence Crane Women’s Facility imprisonment. Especially the fear and the sickness e m Make a gift of $1,000 to the LSA Fund and receive a R
and started doing theater workshops. But even be - —as when the flu struck and, due to overcrowding, t r an assigned seat, a deed of sponsorship, recog - e b
fore that, Glover was working to improve prison Glover and the other women living in a gym had o
R nition on the Donor Wall, and a timeless legacy.
Contact the LSA Fund office at 734.615.6630 for more information on how you can become an Angell Hall seat sponsor. 44 LSA fall 2007 STUDENTS STUDENTS
meet the gap between pay for higher education. money they receive and Money is the A study by LSA Associate $ their Expected Family Con - most taboo sub- Professor of Economics tribution ( EFC ) as calculat - Robert F. Schoeni found ed by the Free Application ject in our society,” that percent of young Costly for Federal Student Aid “ adults receive financial as - (FAFSA ) that families must says Duguay, “and sistance from their parents. College complete to qualify for any “While parents are more Across the nation, financial aid or grants, in - parents and able than in the past to the cost of a college cluding federal loans such as children don’t provide assistance,” says education has risen Stafford or Perkins. Schoeni, “some are overex - steadily over the In , Congress re - talk about it. tending themselves.” past 30 years—more sponded to the rising cost of Increasingly, parents are than twice the rate education by passing the Reauthorization of the Ed - dipping into savings and delaying retirement or tak - of overall inflation. ucation Act, which raised the amount of money that ing out home equity loans. Many young adults have Tuition and fees at students could borrow under the student loan pro - chosen to a”dd a home equity loan to their mortgage public four-year uni - gram. Unsubsidized loans were made available to de - to consolidate school loan payments, make their in - versities had the pendent students for the first time, which resulted in terest tax deductible, and extend their repayment largest five-year in - 1 more loans to students from higher-income families. term to ease their debt burdens. Although home eq - crease on record — Also, the number of private loans has been growing uity loans are preferable to other private loan op - 35 percent, after ad - steadily. Whereas federal loans have a fixed interest tions, there may be problems on the horizon. justing for inflation, rate, many private loans have high variable rates with According to LSA Professor of Economics Frank according to a no cap on the upper limit, as well as repayment Stafford, home equity is masking massive debt in 2001 –06 study by Students, Graduates, and Debt penalties and less flexible repayment options. “What’s our society. “Although it may not be unusual for The College Board. troubling about private loans,” says Rodriguez, “is someone in his or her s to have limited wealth,” State funding for “Students come to UM with high expectations As the cost of education rises throughout that more and more we’re seeing tiered rates depend - he explains, “now we are seeing many people in higher education for receiving scholarship support,” says Margaret ing upon the credit rating of the student borrower the - to -year-old range who have no real as - has consistently the nation, students and parents struggle Rodriguez, Senior Associate Director of Financial and parent co-signer. Lenders are advertising ‘Interest sets. On the positive side, home ownership is high, been reduced. At to control debt. Aid at UM . “They have excellent grades, outstand - rates as low as X,’ but only to percent of borrow - but people mortgage large portions of their home’s UM, state support > ing accomplishments, and may have been offered ers get that great rate. Most are offered a rate higher value through non-collateral debt.” for the General by Gail Flynn money by other institutions. But because of the than advertised but, by the time they find out, they Today, because technology makes extensive per - Fund has dropped high caliber of students that UM attracts, the com - often choose to take that rate rather than get a better sonal information readily accessible to creditors, from 78 percent in STUDIES SHOW AN OVERWHELMING majority petition for scholarship money is intense.” one elsewhere. Also, private lenders who work with lending decisions are often based on borrowing 1960 to 24 percent of parents plan to pay for their children’s education. A national survey found that percent of finan - universities usually require the school to sign off on history, education, employment history, and other today, while the tu - Yet as costs climb, many are not able to save cial aid administrators at public and private univer - loans to determine the cost of attending the institu - factors rather than on collateral assets. ition contribution enough. Dara Duguay (’ ), director of Citigroup’s sities say parents overestimate the amount of grant tion and what other aid the student will receive, and “The problem with non-collateral loans,” says has risen from 20 Office of Financial Education and author of Please money their children will receive. As education costs then offer only the amount that the student needs. Stafford, “is that if you have borrowed percent percent to 62 per - Send Money: A Financial Survival Guide for Young outstrip family savings, students and their parents Many direct-to-consumer lenders don’t communicate of the value of your house, you have no equity. cent of the budget. Adults on their Own , says, “The Institute for Higher often turn to loans. with schools and consequently offer loans that are not When property values drop, you could be left Michigan is seeing Education Policy found that parents saved, on aver - Today nearly two-thirds of students at four-year in the best interests of the student.” holding a , debt for a house that is only an average tuition GRADUATE DEBT age, a total of , by the time their child was universities have multiple loans, compared with The Project on Student Debt warns that even worth , . This type of excessive borrowing increase of 11.3 per - s
ready to enter college, yet at most public schools, e c cent across the fewer than half of graduating seniors in , accord - i
For Michigan students v though students today are graduating with greater contributed to the Depression, when people r this will barely cover the cost of one year.” e state. UM tuition who take out loans, ing to the Project on Student Debt. Also, the average S debt than in the past, current low interest rates have walked away from homes that they couldn’t sell o Families have increasingly put their hopes in t loan debt has more than doubled, from , to o and fees for a first the average debt for h enabled monthly payments to remain low. As interest for enough to pay off their loans. The federal gov - scholarships and grants, but state and federal fund - P a graduate with a , —a percent increase after inflation. For M year in-state under - U rates rise, young adults will be increasingly squeezed ernment subsidizes this non-collateral borrowing ,
ing for student aid has not increased at the rate of n graduate are approx - those who take out loans, the average debt for a i
bachelor’s degree v
l by growing student loan payments, in addition to by making interest payments tax deductible, costs, although this year UM will increase institu - a imately $10,447. G
is $23,500. Michigan student graduating with a bachelor’s de - .
R bills for car loans, mortgages, and credit cards. thereby encouraging borrowing. When people t
tionally funded need-based aid for students by . t
gree is , . o c Parents also have been taking on more debt to borrow at these levels, they have fewer resources Sources: The Project on Student Debt; USA percent. UM has traditionally increased need-based S Students are taking on higher levels of debt to Today , July 26, 2007; The University Record , aid at a higher rate than tuition increases. July 23, 2007. 1 “Student Debt: Bigger and Bigger,” briefing for the Center for Economic Policy and Research
46 LSA fall 2007 fall 2007 LSA 47 STUDENTS STUDENTS Fostering Funds Surviving Debt $ for their children’s education, for retirement, and ultimately to leave as in - RANDALL KAPLAN AND HIS WIFE, Financial sense from alumna and author heritance, so overall individual wealth goes down. The bottom line is that Dara Duguay (’84), currently the director of Citi - people in the United States consistently spend more than they make.” LARA, ARE MAKING A UM EDUCA - group’s Office of Financial Education and formerly Duguay agrees . “We live in a consumer culture with a personal savings rate the Executive Director of Jump$tart Coalition for Per - TION POSSIBLE FOR KIDS RAISED of negative one percent, which means for every earned, we spend . . This sonal Financial Literacy and Director of Education at > IN FOSTER CARE the Consumer Counseling Service. AS JULIA EDER APPROACHED her th birthday, her grandson Randall Write a budget down on paper so you can see The bottom line is that people Kaplan (’ ) decided to produce a video montage of her life. In the process, where your money is going and can address the Kaplan discovered something he never knew: One of his grandmother’s problem. When one thing stands out as a major in the United States consistently greatest regrets was not attending college, something she could not pursue cost, you need to make lifestyle choices and spend more than they make . after being raised in foster care. downsize. “ “My grandmother is a brilliant woman,” Kaplan says. “She was a straight- If your mortgage or rent is more than 50 percent is the lowest personal savings rate since . By taking out home equity loans A student but because she lacked the financial means, she unfortunately of your income, you need to downsize. Also, do to pay off student loans, credit card debts, and, basically, to use their house as a never had the ability to pursue a collegiate degree.” you really need a car with large payments? personal lender, people are getting into deep financial trouble as home va”lues Moved by the revelation, Kaplan and his wife, Lara, decided to create an Never keep more than two credit cards, and drop and adjustable rates go up. We are seeing one out of every homeown - academic scholarship designed specifically for foster care students. They con - don’t use specialty store cards. ers in foreclosure proceedings, often because they have resisted making the tacted LSA about establishing the Julia Eder Dean’s Scholarship, which Keep the low credit limit that comes with your hard choices.” would provide a full-tuition, all-expenses-paid scholarship for a foster care credit card to help you keep tabs on your So what is the best way to pay for college and have a secure financial future? student. Unfortunately, there was a hitch: Because students with foster care debt level. First, all of the experts agree that people need to become better educated experiences don’t indicate this background on their UM applications, it was If you consolidate your debt to make it manage - about financial planning. Sixteen states, but not Michigan, have mandated a impossible to determine who might be eligible for the funds. able, cut up your credit cards so you don’t run class in financial education for every high school student before graduation. Not to be dissuaded, Kaplan contacted the two leading foster care govern - up more debt. “Money is the most taboo subject in our society,” says Duguay, “and par - ing bodies in Michigan and told them of his scholarship idea. After dozens ents and children don’t talk about it. Often parents don’t understand budget of initial phone calls and emails, Kaplan convinced these organizations to To students and parents of college students, decision-making and the difference between wants and needs, so they don’t send out more than , letters to foster care homes encouraging all qualified Duguay recommends: make it clear to their children.” FAFSA Set a college budget; Rodriguez recommends that every family file a , whether they think they will qualify for aid or not. “They should use all scholarship, grant, and It’s an incredible thing to have File a FAFSA, even if you don’t think you’ll qual - work study resources available first and then take the maximum amount of ify for government financial aid; federal student and parent loans before borrowing from private lenders,” she the opportunity to permanently Utilize all scholarship, grant, work study re - says. “Students often think it is easier to take out a private student loan be - change someone’s life for the better. sources, and federal loans before borrowing cause they don’t have to supply the financial information required by FAFSA , “ from private lenders; but end up with higher interest rates and more debt to repay.” high school seniors to apply. A few months later, the scholarship had its first Borrow only what you’ll need for tuition, room Another caution is that students borrow more than they need, without recipient —a young woman who had been abandoned at birth, had been and board, and books; and thinking about repayment. “Students often take the maximum amount they physically and emotionally abused and, at one point during high school, had ” If you must take out a private loan, shop are offered,” says Duguay, “more than they need for tuition, room and board, been homeless and living in a car. Despite these obstacles, she’d managed to around for the best deal. or books. They see it as necessary to pay for spring break trips, entertainment, maintain a . GPA and gain admittance to UM . and other extras that are part of college life. That’s a mistake; it isn’t extra “People don’t want to think about their debt and, By the time the details of the scholarship had been worked out, Kaplan’s money. Parents need to do a budget with their children at the beginning of when they do, they radically under guess the grandmother was slated to turn . For her th birthday, Kaplan flew from amount,” says Duguay. “When everything is added each year, before they accept loan money, to see how much they really need.” Los Angeles to Detroit to surprise her with not only the scholarship but a up, whatever people guess, their debt is usually When students do take private loans, they should shop around, ask ques - dinner at which she met the scholarship’s first recipient. double. They think they owe less than they do be - tions, and look for the “catch” to special offers. They should find out how “My grandmother told me that was the greatest moment of her life,” says cause they don’t want to know how much they have much their monthly payments would be after they graduate. “When new Kaplan. “And now that we’ve had such success with the first scholarship, spent. Roughly 50 percent of the population doesn’t graduates get their first job, furnish their apartment, and buy a car, they we’ve decided to create a second, permanent one.” sometimes forget about loan payments that begin a few months after gradua -
contribute to their company’s 401K plan because k The endowed Randall and Lara Kaplan Scholarship will help gifted students e s
tion,” says Duguay. “They are surprised that monthly payments can be sig - a they need their entire paycheck for bills. Working r in need. “It’s an incredible thing,” says Kaplan, “to have the opportunity to u Y through a budget is healthy shock treatment.” nificant, much more than they can afford on an entry-level salary.” a permanently change someone’s life for the better. It’s not just that person’s life c i s s
e that will change, but future generations will also benefit. We are very fortunate Gail Flynn is the Development Communications Manager for the College of LSA. J to be able to help change the lives of so many talented students with need.”
48 LSA fall 2007 fall 2007 LSA 49 STUDENTS Fostering Funds RANDALL KAPLAN AND HIS WIFE, LARA, ARE MAKING A UM EDUCA - TION POSSIBLE FOR KIDS RAISED > IN FOSTER CARE AS JULIA EDER APPROACHED her th birthday, her grandson Randall Kaplan (’ ) decided to produce a video montage of her life. In the process, Kaplan discovered something he never knew: One of his grandmother’s greatest regrets was not attending college, something she could not pursue after being raised in foster care. “My grandmother is a brilliant woman,” Kaplan says. “She was a straight- A student but because she lacked the financial means, she unfortunately never had the ability to pursue a collegiate degree.” Moved by the revelation, Kaplan and his wife, Lara, decided to create an academic scholarship designed specifically for foster care students. They con - tacted LSA about establishing the Julia Eder Dean’s Scholarship, which would provide a full-tuition, all-expenses-paid scholarship for a foster care student. Unfortunately, there was a hitch: Because students with foster care experiences don’t indicate this background on their UM applications, it was impossible to determine who might be eligible for the funds. Not to be dissuaded, Kaplan contacted the two leading foster care govern - ing bodies in Michigan and told them of his scholarship idea. After dozens of initial phone calls and emails, Kaplan convinced these organizations to send out more than , letters to foster care homes encouraging all qualified It’s an incredible thing to have the opportunity to permanently “ change someone’s life for the better. high school seniors to apply. A few months later, the scholarship had its first recipient —a young woman who had been abandoned at birth, had been physically and emotionally abused and, at one point during high school, had ” been homeless and living in a car. Despite these obstacles, she’d managed to maintain a . GPA and gain admittance to UM . By the time the details of the scholarship had been worked out, Kaplan’s grandmother was slated to turn . For her th birthday, Kaplan flew from Los Angeles to Detroit to surprise her with not only the scholarship but a dinner at which she met the scholarship’s first recipient. “My grandmother told me that was the greatest moment of her life,” says Kaplan. “And now that we’ve had such success with the first scholarship, we’ve decided to create a second, permanent one.”
k The endowed Randall and Lara Kaplan Scholarship will help gifted students e s a
r in need. “It’s an incredible thing,” says Kaplan, “to have the opportunity to u Y
a permanently change someone’s life for the better. It’s not just that person’s life c i s s
e that will change, but future generations will also benefit. We are very fortunate J to be able to help change the lives of so many talented students with need.”
fall 2007 LSA 49 A LU MNI A LU MNI
after she received those one course qualified cuff links, entering the Allen was sent by her Allen. She took a job as a field of computer sci - programmer and has ence. “I believe it’s our employer to the been at the same compa - fault,” she says. “We University of Michigan ny basically studying the haven’t made it sound same subject area ever very interesting.” Com - to recruit potential since. She retired in puter science, Allen says, but is still active as IBM “has a reputation of employees, and a Fellow Emerita at the FRANCES ALLEN (M.A. ’ ) won her first profes - being very geeky —geeky young man said, T.J. Watson Research sional award in the s. She’ll never forget it. guys sitting around Center in Yorktown The award was for computer programming, a screens all day. They see I didn’t know Heights, New York. new, chal lenging field at the time. She already had no excitement, yet it’s ex - It takes something of a several years experience, so she was both a pioneer tremely exciting.” IBM sent their translation to describe and a leader. She was excited as she reached for In the early days of secretaries . Allen’s work. This is her the award and the gift that came with it —until computer science, Allen “ cocktail party version: she looked at it. rubbed shoulders with “It’s really providing the It was a tie clasp and cuff links. lots of women who entered the field from diverse di - bridge between the person who wants to use a com - Oops. rections and unlikely origins. Allen was no exception. puter and the computer.” For instance, in weather She was born in and grew up on a small prediction, “I sa”y the scientists who predict weather “The man who gave it to me was incredibly em - barrassed,” Allen recalls. “I just gave it back and farm in Peru, a tiny community in upstate New need very powerful computers in order to get it they ordered up a very nice necklace.” York. She attended a one-room school and, later, a right and quickly —because sometimes you need to Then there was the time, also in the ’ s, when one-building school that housed all grades. She was do that quickly, as in the case of tornadoes. I pro - Allen was sent by her employer, IBM , to the Uni - valedictorian of her graduating class of , and vide a tool for that.” versity of Michigan to recruit potential employees, yes, she was good at math and science — and every Now, she wants to provide tools to get women and a young man said, “I didn’t know IBM sent other subject. into her field. She recently attended a symposium In , she earned a bachelor’s degree in mathemat - on women in science at Harvard University, and their secretaries.” 1 Given the time period, these gaffs are forgiv - ics from Albany State Teachers College and returned tries to visit as many universities as possible to get able. It’s harder to overlook the incident in to Peru to teach. She needed a master’s degree for full across the message that computer science is an excit - when Allen was “anointed to be an IBM Fellow,” certification so, “I decided to go to UM because it was ing destination. Fifty years may sound like a long as she put it, the first woman to be so honored, the cheapest place I could find to get a master’s degree time, but the field, she says, is still so young. and accepted her certificate, which referred ele - in mathematics,” which she earned in . “When I talk with people at schools, I always say, By chance, she took one of only two courses in ‘This is what has been created in the last or gantly to “his contributions.” Sheryl James is a “They sent me a corrected version,” Allen says. computers. When IBM sent recruiters to UM looking years. We just got the pieces together. This is just freelance writer from “I have both hanging in my office.” for bright, young, computer-trained employees, that the beginning.’” Brighton, Michigan. All of this Allen can overlook. She is, after all, . She has weathered her share of oops-scenarios and seen plenty of “first woman this” and “first Back to the Drafting Table: Women Comprise Only a Fraction of the Engineering Field Fran Allen’s woman that,” some of which feature her. EARNED BACHELOR’S DEGREES IN ENGINEERING: NUMBER OF EMPLOYED ENGINEERS BY GENDER: More importantly, she has reached the mountain - top in her field. In June, she received the Tur - 80,000 2,500,000 ing Award from the Association of Computing Ma - 70,000 Hard Drive 2,000,000 chinery ( ACM ), the Academy Award of computer 60,000 AN LSA ALUMNA PROCESSES 50,000 science honors. Nominated for the award by her 1,500,000 .
r 40,000 peers without her knowledge, the Turing recognized J
HER SUCCESSES IN A MALE- a r r
her pioneering work in the theory and practice that e 30,000 1,000,000 c e DOMINATED FIELD B 20,000 enabled the use of high-performance computers. k n
> a 500,000 r
by Sheryl James What is much more difficult for Allen to over - F 10,000 look is the dearth of women today, some years 0 male female 0 1975 1981 1986 1990 1994 1998 1983 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
Source: Society of Women Engineers website: www.swe.org Source: Society of Women Engineers website: www.swe.org
50 LSA fall 2007 fall 2007 LSA 51
2 A LU MNI A LU MNI
Noble in Character, Courageous in Deed JOAN H. TISCH 2007 HUMANITARIAN SERVICE AWARD safety and education she has brought hope of a bet - ter future. The actions of Lori and her partners in Joan H. Tisch of New York, New York, is a philan - WINNERS NAMED Africa are making a difference for hundreds of thou - thropist and active volunteer who has helped educa - tional, civic, arts, and health organizations in her The LSA Humanitarian Service Award was established sands of people today. These people will make a dif - ference for others tomorrow.” hometown of New York City as well as across the this year to recognize altruistic alumni who promote country. LSA graduates are most familiar with her greater understanding in our world. This year’s recipi - JACK HOOD VAUGHN generosity when they reflect on their studies that took place in Tisch Hall, built with the gift she and Jack Hood Vaughn of Tucson, Arizona, served in ents of the 2007 Humanitarian Service Awards are: Lori her late husband, New York Giants co-owner and every overseas agency of the U.S. government: the M A Loews Corporation Chairman Bob Tisch, gave to Wood Knapp (’82); Jack Hood Vaughn (’43, . . ’47); and U.S. Information Service, USAID , the State Depart - the College in . In addition to the tremendous Joan Hyman Tisch (’48). ment, and the Peace Corps. As the second Director generosity she has shown the University of Michi - of the Peace Corps, Vaughn oversaw the largest con - gan, Tisch has also supported other educational in - LORI WOOD KNAPP tingent of volunteers serving in the most countries stitutions including NYU ’s Tisch School of the Arts Lori Wood Knapp of Rockford, Michigan, is the in the agency’s history, a fact that should make every and Tisch Hospital, and Duke University’s Preston founder and president of Warm Hearts Foundation, graduate proud since the Peace Corps was estab - Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Research Center. an organization dedicated to “providing a loving lished on the steps of the Union by John F. Kennedy LSA alumni in New York likely will have walked hand to lift those less fortunate out of poverty and in . Vaughn worked in Bolivia, Costa Rica, the Tisch Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of into self-sufficiency by providing clean water sources, Panama, Guatemala, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Art, or benefited from her work as a trustee at the safe shelter, nourishment, and educational opportu - Guinea, Haiti, Iran, and Colombia, and he went on Museum of Modern Art. Residents in the city will nities.” Knapp’s work with her husband Mike, in to serve as an ambassador to Colombia and Panama. also have experienced her support at the nd (Clockwise from top) Lori Wood Knapp in Malawi, working to bring clean water and educa - partnership with dedicated local volunteers in Kenya In the private sector, Vaughn was the first Interna - Street YMCA or through Citymeals-on-Wheels, tion to the people there; Jack Hood Vaughn meets natives in Micronesia through the and Malawi, has brought safe, reliable water to tional Director of Sesame Street , Dean of Interna - Peace Corps; Vaughn dances the cumbia in Colombia, circa 1970, as the U.S. Ambassador where she volunteers. villages and more than , people in Eastern tional Studies at Florida International University, to Colombia; Joan H. Tisch (second from left) with family members (left to right) Jamie Howard Bragman (’ ), of Los Angeles, California Tisch, Carolyn Tisch, Laurie Tisch, and Emily Tisch at The Museum of Modern Art’s 38th Africa. She also opened an orphanage and safe house. and served on boards at several Central American nominated Tisch for this award because of the afore - Annual Party in the Garden, where Joan Tisch was honored for her philanthropic work; In Malawi alone, Knapp’s foundation has built universities. Vaughn also worked to promote Lori Wood Knapp at a school that the Warm Hearts Foundation helped build in Kenya. mentioned contributions to society, as well as her The School of Hope, and has drilled wells. No women’s reproductive rights as the President of work to support AIDS -related charities. Bragman longer do the villages have problems with water- Planned Parenthood. Each accomplishment is im - wrote that Tisch’s volunteer work and support of the borne diseases, and women and children do not pressive in itself but collectively they are awe-inspir - Gay Men’s Health Crisis were pivotal to the organi - spend all day walking to find water. In addition to ing, especially for a man who began his career as the zation’s growth as one of the world’s most compre - f
improved health, villagers are now able to grow head boxing coach at UM . o y
s hensive providers of information for men, women, e crops to feed their families. Vaughn’s wife, Margaret Vaughn, says, “Jack has t s r e u and children affected by AIDS . g o c Knapp also helped build a primary and a second - always been extremely proud of his Michigan ties . . . . a s m I
o Tisch’s volunteerism and generosity are far-reach - t y o ary school in one of the poorest areas of Nairobi, It was at Michigan that his interest in foreign lan - t t h e
p ing and have helped to feed the hungry, to preserve G a /
Kenya. The schools have an enrollment of more than guages was developed and thrived. i c i n r i and enhance our exposure to the arts, to educate f t A , students, none of whom would be able to at - “Jack has often described his years as a Michigan s ; o g n those thirsty for knowledge, and to heal the sick. h A
Fiji fraternity member, especially the day all the g
tend school in the city because they are either or - n u a
a Tisch is worthy of recognition and symbolic of how v V phaned or destitute, and cannot afford the fees, uni - brothers descended on the recruiting station in Ann E d y o b LSA alumni make a difference. o e
Arbor to join the Marines during World War II . H
forms, books, or supplies. Each classroom has more g a k c m a i
than students, and Knapp’s latest goal is to build After the armistice, he was sent to China, where he J f A o M y
more classrooms to reduce class size. On the out - taught English when his Marine Corps duties al - O s e M t r h u
skirts of Nairobi, construction was completed in De - lowed. After the war, he returned to Michigan to get c o s THE AWARDS i c T s
cember for a new Warm Hearts orphanage. his M.A. in Spanish. His Michigan education and n Compiled by Jeanine Ger - o t a o o J h rafo Smith, LSA’s Director Knapp’s sister, Lisa Wood Vreede (’ ), says, “Lori proficiency in foreign languages were crucial to his ; The LSA Alumni Humanitarian Service Awards are Nominations for the 2008 Humanitarian Service p p e p of External Relations and t i a presented annually to living alumni of the Univer - Award should be mailed by December 31, 2007 to:
career in international affairs.” h believes the path to change lies in providing educa - n K Annual Giving, who also w d d sity of Michigan College of Literature, Science, LSA Humanitarian Service Award, College of Litera -
Vaughn continues to advocate for women, the o coordinated the LSA Hu - tion and opportunity to the children of the world. n o a W k and the Arts, whose lives embody the Michigan ture, Science, and the Arts, University of Michigan, c manitarian Service Award. Through providing safe water, she has brought the environment, and the Peace Corps. He remains a i r a l o B opportunity for health and nourishment. Through prolific writer and speaker. L Difference. The award recognizes noble character 500 S. State Street, Suite 5000, Ann Arbor, MI and citizenship and celebrates service to human - 48109-1382. Entries should be limited to one typed ity that promotes greater understanding. page and include contact information.
52 LSA fall 2007 fall 2007 LSA 53 A LU MNI
Now, Clark hopes to inspire other young UM graduates to make the same decision to stick around. As an art enthusiast and one of the owners of a local commercial real estate firm, Clark wants fellow alumni to see the advantages of staying in the state, especially the vibrant art and philanthropic commu - nity in Ann Arbor. “A community like Ann Arbor is a great place to start your professional life,” he says. “The ability to advance professionally is so much more accelerated in Michigan, where there is easy access to decision- makers such as the mayor, presidents of local univer - sities, and local CEO s. We’re all in this together.” It’s a collective spirit that’s resulted from constant news of layoffs, the struggling auto industry, and the State budget deficit. But Clark believes Michigan is just in a period of transition. “There’s always another side to the story,” he says. “You hear how companies like Delphi have laid off thousands of workers, but those layoffs have created thousands of potential entrepreneurs. We’re not op - posed to hard work. Our state has been defined by innovation and hard work.” So, Clark has gone to work to improve his commu - nity. Through his day job at Bluestone Realty Advi - sors, Clark is working to bring the right commercial Newcombe Clark’s companies to Ann Arbor —and provide jobs for area residents. When he’s not at work, he’s serving on the board of a local charity, the UM Museum of Art, or Sticking Around. the Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce. He also hosts local art exhibits at the three-story downtown Should You? apartment he shares with another UM graduate. The results, including Ann Arbor’s continual de - > by Rebekah Murray velopment, give him hope. “There are always construction cranes here,” he AFTER GRADUATING FROM UM with bachelor’s says. “Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan degrees in Japanese (’ ) and Mechanical Engineer - continue to put up great buildings and offer great pro - ing ( ENG ’ ), Newcombe Clark felt he could have grams. That’s a direct result of the success of our alum - gone anywhere. Many of his friends left the state. ni,” —a base he hopes to tap for Michigan’s future. Yet he chose to stay in Michigan, despite the eco - nomic hardships that have emerged in recent years. Rebekah Murray is the Assistant Editor of LSAmagazine . k r a l C
Who Else is Sticking Around? TOP THREE OCCUPATIONS OF GRADUATES WHO e b
FROM THE UM CLASSES OF 2001 –2005 : STAYED IN MICHIGAN & 1995 –2000 ': m o c w
BACCALAUREATE IN -STATE OUT -OF -STATE INTERNATIONAL e
Males: Females: N
GRADUATES GRADUATES STUDENTS STUDENTS f o
Mechanical Engineers Elementary and Middle y s e
School Teachers t Elementary and Middle r u o 53% 77% 10% 15% School Teachers Registered Nurses C Managers Accountants and Auditors
Source: A July 2006 study by Elaine Fielding, UM’s Office of Budget and Planning, and Albert Anderson retired from UM’s Population Studies Center. Source: Data from 2000, 5% Public Use Microdata Sample
54 LSA fall 2007 A LU MNI
Worldly Studies TWO GRADS HELP MAKE “I am pleased to see an increasing focus on global education at Michigan,” says EXPERIENCES ABROAD PART Hamilton, “and I am pleased to help con - OF AN LSA EDUCATION tinue making those changes possible.” by Julie Sparkman and Lara Zielin AMY ROSE SILVERMAN BEVERLY HAMILTON In Amy Rose Silverman’s (’ ) collection of photos is an image in which she’s standing After graduating with an LSA political science de - in East Germany, next to the Berlin Wall. gree, Beverly Lannquist Hamilton (’ ) entered the “It was , in the midst of the Cold work force, putting in long hours as an investment War,” Silverman explains. “As an under - manager and trying to save up enough money to grad experiencing this, I was incredibly travel overseas —a trip she had planned since she changed. You become aware of what you was years old. have, as an American citizen, and it makes Hamilton, who had never been abroad before, you different. You realize how different it finally embarked on her hard-earned trip in . is in other places.” “Visiting Europe was a lifelong goal,” she says, adding While Silverman often had the chance that she executed the trip on a “shoestring budget.” to travel abroad —with her family initially
d The different faces, ways of living, and economic and later as an undergrad —many of her n f a o s values abroad were an eye-opener for Hamilton, who UM
y friends at didn’t. “I was very fortu - e s g e a t r u later pondered what more she might have been able to nate,” she says, “but I knew others who u g o n c a ;
L learn if the opportunity to travel had presented itself weren’t able to travel.” e Through the Office of Inter - n g a e i l
l while she was still a student at UM . s That’s part of the reason why Silverman now helps national Programs, LSA o A C f l o “It was a life-changing event that every UM stu - students are able to study
a fund global opportunities for undergraduates. “For i y t s internationally with experi - n e t e dent should be able to explore,” she says. “Our r our students to be competitive in today’s environ - d i u ences that include (left to s o e c world is becoming more and more integrated every ment, there has to be a global component [to their ed - R ; right, top row): checking e e g h the potential well water e t l day, so we need to learn as much about other cul - ucation],” she says. “Commerce is global, technology l f o o level in Chiapas, Mexico; C y l
s tures as we possibly can.” is global, and unless students are trained in that con - a e i making pottery at a ceram - t t r n u To help students do just that, Hamilton has do - e text, we can’t produce great leaders and thinkers.” ic museum in Nagoya, o d c i ; s Japan; visiting Japan’s s e nated more than , to LSA ’s Office of Inter - Silverman supports LSA ’s Global Strategic Fund, e n R r a e
u Nagoya Castle; and touring t m h l OIP
r national Programs ( ), which will help fund over t which offers a number of programs. “A student u e f the great square, called the C v o l i d y class-related international visits. Many students could go abroad for a class, a job, an internship,” S Zocalo, in Mexico City. n s a e e t s s r o
e might not have thought studying abroad possible, u she says. The point, though, is always to fund some - R g o a C y (Right, top) Beverly Hamil - u ) m t but courses that integrate travel into the curriculum one who otherwise might not have the opportunity g f A
n ton and husband Lyman in e f l a o L p provide a way. to travel overseas. the Dubai Desert Preserve y n o t s a i e t
s during a recent trip abroad. m
r “This gift enables us to enrich UM courses by “No matter what you’re studying at UM , if you go A o u r f f o o c g adding on an international component in a way that
y UM ; abroad and see what you learned at in another n s i n (Right, bottom) Amy Rose t e o r t t r l a is relatively affordable to all students,” says OIP Di - i country —it’s incredible. To be able to help give that t Silverman at the Notre Dame u s o m c e a Cathedral in Paris, 1998. s ;
H rector Carol Dickerman.
i opportunity is very wonderful, very gratifying.” s y w e l r k r u c e Hamilton always wanted to assist other students t o v l l e u
C Julie Sparkman is a staff member in LSA Development, ( C B with their academic careers because she had finan - Marketing, and Communications. Lara Zielin is Editor of cial help while attending UM . LSAmagazine .
fall 2007 LSA 55 A LU MNI A LU MNI
wanted in, and soon convinced the owner to let him of examples where I lost money, but I have very few and another friend, Cody Engle (’ , J.D.’ ), examples where I suffered a surprising loss. If you manage the building in exchange for free housing. It worked —thus beginning Zell’s career in real estate. Zell had no doubts that his gambit would be suc - My head does not do a cessful. “I don’t think there was ever a time I had 180-degree turn; therefore I do not any doubt that I could do what I set out to do.” look back. The ability to throw IGNORING THE CROWD “ Zell still felt compelled to “test his limits” and re - away mistakes, instead of making turn to Chicago to see if he could make it in the big city. He quickly decided that practicing law was too them worse, is very, very regimented for him, and dived into business, start - relevant to our success. ing a firm with Bob Lurie ( UM ’ , M.S. ’ ). They made their names —and their fortunes —by would ask my staff to size up Sam’s attitude in a viewing risk differently than their competition did. nutshell, they’d probably say, ‘No surprises.’” Contrary to their public image, they were not river - Regret, worry, and drudgery are not part of the ” boat gamblers throwing their money around with Zell lexicon. —explains why he is known as “the grave dancer.” reckless abandon. Rather, they invested in compa - “In one of my first interviews, for the Wall Street How does he do it? And —of equal importance nies and industries that merely seemed excessively Journal , I said, ‘If it ain’t fun, we’re not going to do to a man who, along with his wife, Helen, has risky because others simply didn’t recognize the un - it.’ And the next day the office boys came to work given Michigan millions to help develop the next derlying situation. wearing t-shirts saying, ‘If it ain’t fun, we’re not generation, from entrepreneurs to poets —can it “One thing I know for sure: The assessment of op - gonna do it.’ I loved it!” be taught? portunity is an art. There have been many examples Sam Zell has not only amassed a fortune —which he has generously shared with UM , including the re - “Number one,” Zell says, “I give speeches on in my career where the information was available to During a recent on-campus that. Number two, everybody has asked about everybody. But why was I able to see that opportuni - cently endowed Samuel Zell Professorship in the visit, Zell spoke with aspir - The Grave Dancer that since the beginning of time. And number ty —and the rest of the world didn’t —I don’t know. Economics of Risk —he’s had a ball doing it. ing entrepreneurs. three, no one knows the answer.” And by the way, the rest of the world didn’t see it “When I graduated from Michigan in SAM ZELL DIGS UP What he knows they need, however, is what he until long after we were up and running.” , I looked at the world as this great op - needed —the opportunity to try —and that’s Example: Barges. In , the federal government portunity, and I set out to discover how I OPPORTUNITIES THAT what he’s sought to provide. passed an investment tax relief to encourage the con - could make the most of it. So if I were to OTHERS DON’T struction of barges with a -year lifespan. “Well, as give any advice to Michigan students today, > IT STARTED ON DIVISION STREET you might expect,” Zell explains, “this resulted in too I’d tell them, whether you’re studying micro - by John U. Bacon Zell himself seemed to have the entrepreneurial many -year barges being built, glutting the market. biology or economics or poetry, jump in!” NO RISK , NO REWARD . knack at a young age. When he was just a - So for the next years the business was just horri - The water’s warm. d d n
n ble. But we figured that plus was , when
It’s a cliché for a reason, conveniently ignoring the year-old boy living in Chicago’s Highland Park, e e
d John U. Bacon (’86, M.A. ’94) is an award-win - i d i v i v that huge glut of barges was going to be taken out of fact that if it’s risky, there’s a good chance you’ll fail he had to take the train each day into the city for i ning sports writer and a lecturer in the Pro - D D e e
h gram in American Culture in the College of LSA.
h commission. So if you could get control of that in -
and lose whatever you invested in the bargain. Hebrew school. En route, he noticed the news - T T m m o dustry before that original supply finally shrank, o So it begs the question: What risks should we stands doing brisk business with the very first r r f f n n o i avoid, and which should we snap up? issue of a magazine called . Sensing an op - o you’d do pretty well. So we got into the business Playboy i s s s i s i Probably no one in American business has an - portunity, Zell bought up all the copies he could, m when everyone else was getting out, and when m r r e e p J D p came around, we were looking pretty good.” swered that question better than Sam Zell (’ , . . at cents each, then sold them to his friends h h t i t i w ’ ), an alumnus who has amassed millions by look - back home for three dollars a piece, turning a w d d e e Sam Zell co-founded Equity t t n i ing at the same data everyone else has, and seeing tidy -percent profit. n DON’T LOOK BACK i r
Group Investments in 1968. r p p e e r
what others don’t. He has invested in everything In the mid- s, when Zell was a UM law stu - r Of course, if you take as many chances as Zell has, Now, the Chicago-based , , s a n firm controls a multi- billion i m
from radio stations to sports franchises to newspa - dent, a friend told him his landlord planned to k no matter how calculated they may be, you’re going z n u dollar mix of private, pub - e J K e pers to cruise ships. His practice of bypassing the knock down his house on Division, near Hoover, d to lose some. But it turns out there’s an art to losing i lic, domestic, and foreign v v e a t D businesses. blue chips for undervalued opportunities —often - and the one next to it to build a -unit apartment S money, too. “I have always focused on quantifying times businesses on their backs, even in bankruptcy complex. Instead of bemoaning the changes, Zell the potential downside of an investment. I have lots
56 LSA fall 2007 fall 2007 LSA 57 A LU MNI A LU MNI
[ Gift STories ] [ Gift STories ]
contributed . million to the University to estab - learning experiences for undergraduates through The College has lish the Louis Evans Professorship in the Depart - international fellowships, internships in organiza - received many ment of History. tions that have a global reach, and research that ex - As Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of amines organizations and leadership worldwide. generous gifts Leoville Holdings, LLC , a billion global manager A portion of the gift, . million, will be matched to the Michigan of private equity assets, David Evans is among the with an additional , from the UM President’s Difference Cam - best in his field. Donor Challenge to endow a professorship in Or - But it wasn’t just an ability to read the numbers ganizational Studies. Remaining funds will establish paign. Each gift that helped launch David’s career. It was also his a Visiting Leader Program to bring newsworthy carries its own grandfather’s love of history, which David and Joan leaders from business, government, and philanthro - story. Here are a Evans share, and which they honor with their gift. py to campus to engage undergraduates in active “Grandpa Lou was a voracious reader of history — leadership experiences that address real-world orga - few recent ones. of ancient Rome and Greece, all the way to World nizational challenges. War II ,” says David. “He had a great mind for solv - “What’s exciting to me about this program,” says ing tough problems, and he often used the past to Barger, “is that it is directed at undergraduates. figure out a solution for the present. He always told Leadership usually is wrapped into a program well me you could learn a great deal from the past.” down the career path in graduate school. The Insti - David takes that lesson to work, every day. “I think tute will give undergraduates the ability to grab to be a really solid investor, history is critical. You onto leadership concepts early. They will have expe - have to understand economic panic and crises, you rience painting the picture.” have to look at the great economic powers through - Barger is certainly the right man to spearhead the out time, and, like any good historian, you don’t take program. From the time he was young, he had a vi - things as they seem; nothing is ever black or white.” sion for his career, which never faltered. The son of a David’s training in history and economics as part flight attendant and an airline pilot, Barger says he of his course of studies in the College of LSA crys - “never wanted to do anything else except work for tallized these lessons. His liberal arts degree, he says, an airline.” He studied economics and political sci - “made me test things, be critical, and be intellectu - ence at UM and put those lessons into good use in (Left) Louis Evans holds ally curious.” when he went to work for New York Air during David Barger gives two his grandson, David. Historical Ties Visionary thumbs up to supporting The Evans’ . million gift will be added to by the turbulence of government deregulation. He later student leadership (Right) David Evans on by Lara Zielin the University of Michigan’s Presidential Donor went to Continental Airlines and in , he joined opportunities.
UM’s campus. s
Challenge for a total of million. The gift will e David Neeleman to start JetBlue Airways.
c Leadership i v
LOUIS EVANS , a Russian immigrant, put himself r
ensure that an outstanding historian will have the e “We are tremendously grateful for this transfor - S by Gail Flynn
through Yale University and Yale Law School by o resources he or she needs to pursue ambitious re - t mational . million gift to Organizational Stud - o h carrying steamer trunks up six flights of dormitory search. In addition, David and Joan Evans also P ies,” says LSA Dean Terrence J. McDonald. “The
M THE NEW CEO OF JET BLUE AIRWAYS , David U stairs for New Haven’s wealthier families. made a leadership gift of million to the Mott f Barger Leadership Institute will prepare undergrad - o Barger, knows a thing or two about management t
After graduation, Louis applied his ambition and e o Children’s Hospital at UM , to establish the Autism l and leadership. uates early in their academic experience to become V n
work ethic to reorganize railroads in New England, i
Center at the new hospital. t the strategic leaders of tomorrow in an increasingly
r “There is a big difference between management — a
to serve as General Council to the War Frauds For David, there is no better way to honor his M global, technologically driven, and innovation- ) the ability to get something done —and leadership t h
Commission of the U.S. Congress during World g
grandfather than this gift to the University. “Grand - i hungry society.” r — the vision for how something should be done,” ( ; War II , to become a financial reorganization spe - pa Lou was my hero,” David says of the man who s Barger is a dedicated supporter of the Organiza - n Barger says. “Leadership is front-line connectivity. a v r
cialist in complex business transactions, and to be - E
made his own breakfast the morning of his passing. e tional Studies Program, providing a million gift
d It’s about being plugged in to the customer, the cul - g i r v a
come a leading light of the Connecticut Bar. a
“He was a great human being, a great thinker, and it B in to establish the Barger Family Professorship D ture, the government, and being visionary.” f d i o
He also became an expert at reading companies’ v
y , was important to him to give back to his communi - a Barger’s recent gift of . million to endow the and to create the JetBlue Airways London s D e f financial statements and investing, a skill he passed t r ty. He was well known for helping others who were o School of Economics Summer Program. u Barger Leadership Institute in LSA ’s Organizational y o s C along to his grandson. e t less fortunate, and he would be very proud of this.” ) r t Studies Program showcases his commitment to vi - f u
e Gail Flynn is the Development Communications o
That grandson is UM alumnus David Evans L ( C sionary leadership. His gift will fund leadership- (’ ), who together with his wife Joan (’ ) recently Lara Zielin is Editor of LSAmagazine . Manager for the College of LSA.
58 LSA fall 2007 fall 2007 LSA 59 A LU MNI A LU MNI
[ Gift STories ] [ Gift STories ]
The College has received many generous gifts to the Michigan Difference Cam - paign. Each gift carries its own story. Here are a few recent ones. Propelling Korean Studies Parlaying Success A Bright IDEA A Keen(e) Theater
(Left) Elder Sang-Yong Nam ELDER SANG -Y ONG NAM (UM ’ ), President and SUSAN SMITH GRADUATED from the University ONE -THIRD OF U.S. fourth and eighth graders LSA ’S RESIDENTIAL COLLEGE (RC ) is years (This page, left) Robert (bottom row, fourth from CEO of Nam Building Management Company in Ann of Michigan in with a B.S. in math and to and less than percent of th graders reached pro - old this year and has reason to celebrate. Horwitz and Catherine right), celebrates his gift to Arbor, has a lifelong mission to build recognition and her name. Having majored in actuarial science, she ficiency in math and science in , according to Kenneth Keene ( M.A.’ ), a retired senior vice Redlich. LSA with his wife, children, and grandchildren as well respect for the history and culture of his homeland. went to work for Towers Perrin in Philadelphia as a the National Science Foundation. The National president of the benefits consulting group Johnson & (This page, right) Janet and as UM Vice President for “When I came to the University of Michigan as a “support staff person.” Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching Higgins (now Marsh & McLennan), and his wife, Kenneth Keene. Development Jerry May graduate student in , I found , books on She worked her way up in the organization, even - found that percent of all new jobs will require Janet, have given LSA a gift of million to renovate (bottom row, right), Associ - ate Dean for Social Sci - Asia in the library. Most were about China and tually becoming an actuarial and benefits consult - skills possessed by only percent of the population. the auditorium that was “retrofitted” into the East ences Meredith Jung-En Japan —less than were about Korea,” says Elder ant, principal, assistant to the chief actuary, and Robert Horwitz (’ ) and Catherine Redlich (’ ) Quadrangle Residence Hall in , when the RC liv - Woo (bottom row, second Nam. “In the University Museum of Art, there were then a vice president. have responded to this crisis in math and science edu - ing-learning community was established. The updat - from right), and LSA Dean Terrence J. McDonald (bot - , items in the Chinese collection and , in Now, she is giving . million to UM to establish cation with a . million gift to the Instructional De - ed facility will be named The Keene Theater, in tom row, third from right). the Japanese, but only in the Korean collection. the Susan Meredith Smith Professorship in Actuar - velopment & Education Assessment ( IDEA ) Institute, recognition of their generosity. The UM Center for Chinese Studies and the Center ial Science in the Department of Mathematics to to launch LSA and the School of Education ( SOE ) on The renovations to the auditorium will include (Right) Susan Smith at her home in Ann Arbor. for Japanese Studies were highly regarded, but Kore - help other students achieve the financial success an innovative joint venture to bring together faculty updating the Kennedy-era lighting system and light - n
an language and culture were not studied at all. I she attained. o and students from science, math, and education to ing control booth, as well as installing state-of-the- s b i
wanted to correct this disparity and upgrade the sta - “I wanted to give something back to the College G design, implement, and assess new teaching methods art projection and sound equipment. Upgrades will h e t i n a tus of my country in the intellectual landscape of that prepared me for the career that enabled me to m and materials to advance learning in science and math make the front entrance more accessible, and will J S . n M a
Asian studies.” parlay my into the financial assets to make this ) —from kindergarten through graduate school. address the cramped backstage area. New seating, s t u h g S i f
Elder Nam has overcome many obstacles in his gift possible,” Smith says. r “Cathy and I have a deep interest in making math carpeting, curtains, and other interior remodeling ( o ; y h s
life, so he was ready to take on this challenge. As a The Actuarial Science program in the College is c and science curriculums more engaging and accessi - will complete the theater’s much-needed facelift. i e l t r d u e o
high school student during the Korean War, he wit - the oldest in the nation and prepares students to R ble to young people,” says Horwitz, “with the dual Keene, who earned a master’s in actuarial science, c e ) t n i h
nessed his father’s abduction, which left him and his enter a field that the Wall Street Journal ranks as one r goal of encouraging more students to major in these supports the RC because he believes his liberal arts g e i r h ( t ; older brother to provide for their six siblings. Even - of today’s best career choices in terms of job securi - a areas once they reach college, and to attract more education was essential to his success. “No matter s C e d c i n
tually he graduated with a degree in Architectural ty and lucrative salaries. v math and science teachers. The United States is on how technical your profession may be, you deal a r e z t S Engineering from Seoul National University, and Although she had originally planned to fund the i the brink of losing its international competitiveness with a wide spectrum of people,” he says. “I have o w t o o r h then worked for the United States Operations Mis - professorship through a bequest gift, when Smith o due to a lack of these skills in the workforce.” worked with bright people who have been trained P H t r M e sion to Korea, which eventually led him to Michigan. learned that the UM President’s Donor Challenge U The IDEA Institute will enable undergraduates with such a narrow professional focus that they All four gift stories by Gail b f o o R t Flynn, the Development
Nam’s recent gift of . million to the Korean would match her . million gift with an addition - f in LSA and SOE to work with faculty on research can’t see the broader picture. The liberal arts pre - e o o l
y Communications Manager V Studies Program, combined with his earlier gifts al , , she decided the opportunity was too s and teaching teams, will bring distinguished lectur - pared me to anticipate and respond to a wide vari - e n i t for the College of LSA. t r r u a
of , and . million, will provide the re - good to miss. “I decided if I was going to do it, I o ers to campus, and will sponsor annual regional ety of people and environments.” M C ) ) t t f sources to upgrade the Program to a Center for should do it now,” she says. “I come from a long f workshops to provide opportunities for UM faculty e e L L ( Korean Studies in the College of LSA and propel it line of UM graduates, and I wanted to do some - ( and K– teachers to discuss new ways of thinking to national prominence. thing good for Michigan.” and teaching.
60 LSA fall 2007 fall 2007 LSA 61 CAM P US CAMPUS take advantage of generous federal and The policies content corrodes fuel tanks and pumps, state subsidies for ethanol. About , so gas stations selling E85 are paying gas stations nationwide are selling a blend we have now thousands of dollars to install specialized of percent ethanol and percent gaso - equipment. Flex-fuel vehicles that can line, called E , to customers with flex- “primarily benefit burn ethanol must be manufactured fuel vehicles that can run on both types with corrosion-resistant material lining of fuel. ethanol producers the inside of the fuel tank and fuel lines. Production of corn-based ethanol is and corn farmers. Studies indicate that ethanol benefits now a lucrative part of the Midwest econ - the environment by reducing petroleum omy. Corn prices have sky-rocketed and If these govern- consumption and greenhouse gas emis - farmers are planting more and more corn sions, but Anderson says these studies to meet the growing demand. On the ment supports don’t take into account the negative en - surface, it seems that ethanol could be the vironmental impact of growing more solution to our transportation fuel crisis. weren’t in place, corn —which requires lots of water, But Soren Anderson, a UM Ph. D. can - ethanol wouldn’t pesticides, and fertilizer —and the ef - didate in the Department of Economics fect on food prices when corn is used to who studies the economics of ethanol, be as profitable make ethanol, instead of feeding live - UM experts caution that the transition from fos - has his doubts. Anderson acknowledges stock and people. sil fuels to cleaner, renewable sources of energy many of ethanol’s potential benefits, but and there would Ethanol’s real contribution as a viable won’t be easy and won’t be cheap. he says that all the money be a significant alternative fuel could come Running “I would characterize this as one of those grand being made from corn-based in the future, when scientists challenges we face [as a society],” says Levi ethanol is blinding people to decrease in figure out how to make it Thompson, the Richard E. Balzhiser Collegiate some major disadvantages. from corn stalks, grasses, Professor of Chemical Engineering. “If we are seri - “The ethanol market de - its use. plant waste, or even munici - ous about developing a sustainable energy infra - pends on support from gov - pal garbage. According to a onby SallyEPobojewmski pty structure, we need to put adequate resources on ernment regulations and U.S. Department of Energy the table. It’s going to cost us. But in the long ONE THING YOU CAN SAY about Americans: We federal and state subsidies,” study, this type of fuel, called term, we’ll be better off than just continuing along love to drive. Whether it’s a car, pickup truck, SUV , Anderson says. “The policies ” cellulosic ethanol, has the the path we’re on now.” or minivan, the ability to go whenever and wherev - we have now primarily bene - potential to replace per - er we want is part of the American way of life. fit ethanol producers and cent of the petroleum used THE TROUBLE WITH ETHANOL corn farmers. If these gov - for transportation today. (Top) Corn grows in Lena, In , there were more than million cars Illinois, near Adkins En - and light trucks registered in the United States — In , Congress passed the U.S. Energy Policy ernment supports weren’t in Breaking down cellulose ergy, a corn-to-ethanol nearly one for every man, woman, and child in Act, which required that . billion gallons of the place, ethanol wouldn’t be as from plant fibers is much facility that processes nation’s transportation fuel must come, by , profitable and there would more difficult than breaking approximately 15 million the country. bushels of corn annual - All those cars and trucks are sucking up much from renewable biofuels like ethanol or biodiesel. be a significant decrease in down starch from corn ker - ly. An average bushel of of the country’s dwindling and increasingly ex - Responding to generous tax breaks and subsidies its use.” nels, however. So far, no one corn produces 2.7 gal - included in the legislation, Midwest agribusinesses, One problem is that has found the secret to pro - lons of ethanol. Current - pensive petroleum supply. They burn billions of ly, the United States pro - gallons of gasoline every year and account for politicians, and corn farmers immediately jumped ethanol has lower energy ducing large quantities of duces 3.3 billion gallons about one-third of the carbon dioxide and other on the ethanol bandwagon to produce nearly five content than gasoline, which cellulosic ethanol, although of ethanol per year. By billion gallons of corn-based ethanol in . New translates into about per - scientists at many companies 2012, estimated annual greenhouse gases that contribute to air pollution production will exceed and global warming. plants in development could nearly double ethanol cent lower fuel economy for and universities, including
five billion gallons. s production by . e E . So, E has to sell for UM ’s College of Engineering,
For environmental and economic reasons, experts g a m agree we need to break our national addiction to Made from cooked, fermented corn kernels, I much less than gasoline be - are working on the problem. (Right) Ph.D. student y t t
Soren Anderson at an ethanol is blended with gasoline to increase the e fore consumers will buy it.
oil. But what’s the alternative? G / f Ann Arbor gas station oxygen content of the fuel, which makes it burn f (When small amounts of a HYDROGEN AND
UM researchers in the College of Engineering and t y where E85 is available. S / cleaner with lower greenhouse gas emissions. e n ethanol are blended with
m FUEL CELLS
the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Energy Institute o a s l R
t Blending percent ethanol with gasoline, a for - O gasoline, the effects on fuel r If Levi Thompson were a are working to develop new fuel technologies and t e t b o c mulation called E , allows Midwest fuel suppliers o economy are minimal.)
to improve the reliability and performance of alter - S R gambling man, he’d place his native fuels like ethanol and hydrogen. to meet federal fuel economy requirements and Ethanol’s higher alcohol bet on hydrogen. Thompson
62 LSA fall 2007 fall 2007 LSA 63 CAM P US CAM P US
If we are serious about directs the Hydrogen Energy Technology developing a sus- rently much too expensive for consumer in UM ’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, Laboratory in the UM College of Engi - “ use. “Right now, if you wanted to buy a and a research scientist in UM ’s Transportation Re - neering, where researchers are studying tainable energy fuel cell, we’re looking at , a kilo - search Institute, emphasized that the future of alter - how to produce hydrogen and harness its watt,” Thompson says. “You need native fuel vehicles will be determined by market energy in devices like fuel cells to power infrastructure, we something like to kilowatts to economics and customer demand. automobiles. power just the power train of an auto - Consumers say they want fuel economy with Hydrogen is never found in the envi - need to put ade- mobile. That’s two orders of magnitude lower greenhouse gas emissions, but the fastest- ronment by itself. It’s always part of an - quate resources more than what you’d be willing to pay growing segment of the new vehicle automotive other material like methane, natural gas, for the car.” market are the crossover vehicles that are hybrids be - or water. So Thompson says the first on the table. It’s Researchers in Thompson’s laboratory tween a car and an SUV . While they are consider - challenge is separating the hydrogen from are using the same advanced microma - ably more fuel-efficient than SUV s, they still use whatever it’s attached to. The second going to cost us. chining and photolithography tech - more gasoline than passenger cars. challenge is finding ways to store it. Hy - niques used to manufacture microchips Are Americans ready to pay higher prices for cars drogen is a light gas that will diffuse and But in the long for cell phones and computers to try and and trucks that cost more because of advanced power leak out of tanks used to store gasoline. term, we’ll be develop low-cost, more durable fuel cell trains and more expensive light-weight materials? Will Researchers in Thompson’s lab are also components. they buy vehicles that can run on alternative biofuels? working on extracting hydrogen from better off than Thompson believes research to devel - Cole and other forum participants agreed that a va - existing biofuels, like ethanol and op hydrogen as an alternative fuel de - riety of vehicle power trains —including hybrids, $ biodiesel. The project Thompson finds just continuing serves more support from the federal diesels, and advanced spark-ignition systems —will be Want to get most “scientifically interest - government. He says only available to consumers in the near future. Diesel-pow - ing,” however, is one that along the path about billion in federal re - ered vehicles will use diesel fuels that can be based on better gas uses the energy in sunlight to we’re on now. search and development petroleum or biomaterials. Most gasoline-powered split water molecules into hy - funds have been invested in cars will also run on a mix of biofuels, such as E . mileage? drogen and oxygen. hydrogen fuel cell technology “The most efficient systems are going to be hy - Sources for this story include: The U.S. TRY THE FOLLOWING : “The challenge is that the —much less than federal brids where, if I’m accelerating, I use one type of Federal Highway Administration manu - al, Highway Statistics; the U.S. Census Stay within the speed limit. The faster you process is not very efficient, so funding agencies have invest - power supply. If I’m cruising, I use another. If I’m Bureau population estimate for 2004; ” “Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas drive, the more fuel you use. we’re working to develop new ed in infrastructure and R&D idling, I use a different power supply,” says Thomp - Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2005,” a re - port by the Environmental Protection materials to dramatically en - for ethanol. son. “We need to bring all these technologies into Agency; Farrell et al, “Ethanol Can Con - Use overdrive gears. Your car’s engine speed tribute to Energy and Environmental hance the efficiency,” he says. “The government should one system to have the greatest efficiency.” Goals,” Science, Vol. 311, p. 506, Janu - decreases when you use overdrive —reducing ary 27, 2006; the Renewable Fuels As - Once hydrogen is produced, invest in the riskiest technolo - For the long term, automotive manufacturers are sociation (www. ethanolrfa.org/indus - both fuel consumption and engine wear. fuel cells convert the chemical try/statistics/#A); “From Biomass to gies,” Thompson says. investing billions of dollars to develop experimen - Biofuels” by the National Renewable Use cruise control to maintain a constant Energy Laboratory. energy in hydrogen into elec - “Ethanol is not a high-risk tal plug-in and fuel cell hybrids, like the Sequel, speed. trical energy to power an elec - area. Industry already seems GM ’s hydrogen fuel cell-powered SUV , which can Anticipate driving situations to avoid unneces - tric engine in a vehicle. Fuel committed and there’s poten - go miles on one tank of hydrogen. But if con - sary braking and acceleration, and improve cell technology has come a tial for mass-market commer - sumers won’t buy them, auto manufacturers won’t your fuel economy by 5 to 10 percent. In city long way, but Thompson says cialization. The government is make them. driving, nearly 50 percent of the energy needed they still aren’t durable enough where you make bets that “We don’t have enough knowledge now to pick to power your car goes to acceleration. to power a car for the equiva - have the potential to be trans - winners,” Cole said at the forum. “Government in - Avoid unnecessary idling —it wastes fuel, costs lent of , miles. formative. Hydrogen deserves centives will be required to encourage private invest - you money, and pollutes the air. “Their performance tends a significant bet. It’s the ulti - ment to develop a variety of sustainable technologies.” to degrade over time,” mate energy carrier.” One key to success, according to Cole, will be Combine errands. Several short trips taken Thompson explains. “You higher prices for gasoline. from a cold start can use twice as much fuel as start out going miles on WHAT DO CONSUMERS “The federal government needs to put a floor one trip covering the same distance when the one fill. Then it drops to REALLY WANT? under gasoline prices,” he says, “because if petrole - engine is warm. miles, then . After a certain At a forum on alternative fuel um prices drop, private investment in alternative Remove excess weight from the trunk —an extra y point, it’s not acceptable to e fuel technologies will stop.” 100 pounds in the trunk reduces a typical car’s cars held on UM ’s campus in m a
R fuel economy by one to two percent.
the consumer.” t (Left) Levi Thompson in
June, David E. Cole, Chair of r e Sally Pobojewski is a freelance science writer who lives
b his lab where he con -
In addition to their lack of o
the Center for Automotive R near Chelsea, Michigan. ducts fuel cell research. Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: durability, fuel cells are cur - Research, a former professor www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/autos/aut10.shtm
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provide that level of education for all students, and there was no precedent for doing this. We had no effective models.” Bass took this deficiency personally. “The math teachers were products of university mathematics departments and if they had a poor understanding of math, we [university professors] had a responsi - bility for this and could work to improve things.” Bass chaired the Mathematical Sciences Education Board at the National Research Council, a group of scientists, educators, and business people who devel - op policy studies for improving math education. But finding solutions wasn’t easy. “The problems were difficult and complex and in - tellectually challenging,” he says, “but it was differ - ent from my work as a scholar and mathematician. At first I didn’t see a way to use my mathematical skills until I met Deborah Ball, now Dean of UM ’s School of Education, who was brought in as a con - sultant to the board. She had been a classroom teacher for many years, and she had a grounded and analytical view of the problem. She believed that you must understand the way children think and Highest Honors how math is taught to improve the state of math ed - >As a mathematician for more than 40 years, ucation. She was my bridge to the classroom.” has researched and developed Ball enlisted Bass to examine the day-to-day Hyman Bass mathematical work that teachers do. With a mathe - numerous mathematical theories. He has also matical eye, Bass reviewed extensive footage of in- worked to improve math and science educa - class teaching. He found that teachers need to learn tion. In recognition of his achievements, Bass methods often absent in academic math courses, was recently awarded the National Medal of such as how to (mathematically) diagnose student errors, how to evaluate correct solutions obtained by Science, the nation’s highest science honor. non-standard means, and how to visually represent by Maryanne George mathematical concepts. In recognition of his work, including his collabora - YEARS AGO , Hyman Bass —LSA ’s Roger Lyndon tion with Ball’s research groups as well as his creation Collegiate Professor of Mathematics and a professor of algebraic K-theory, (a branch of algebra inspired of mathematics education in the School of Educa - by topology), Bass was presented the National Medal tion —realized elementary school teachers needed of Science by President George W. Bush at a July , better mathematical understanding to teach stu - White House ceremony. dents basic math skills and concepts. “I was especially pleased that educational research He says a report by the U.S. Department of Edu - was recognized by the citation. Both aspects of my cation in the early s, titled A Nation at Risk , work, math research and math education, very documented the poor state of math and science edu - rarely get up on that stage,” Bass says, seated among cation. The globalization of the world’s economy stacks of books in his office at the School of Educa - n y e e created a crisis that demanded that the nation over - tion. “ UM is privileged to have a superb Mathemat - t o m a D R haul how these critical subjects were taught. a ics Department and an outstanding School of Edu - t n r i t e s b i r “It was a revolutionary call,” Bass says. “We had cation. I am very happy to be working here.” o always provided good math and science education R K to a select group of students. But now, we had to Maryanne George is the public information specialist for the College of LSA.
66 LSA fall 2007 (campus CnAM PeUS w s)
New Pigskin Practice Facility > A new football building will be built adjacent to Schembechler Hall along State Street just south of
Yost Ice Arena, after the schematic design was ap - > proved in July by the UM Board of Regents. The HAPPINESS new building, approximately 104,000 gross square AND KIDS? feet, will be built on an existing outdoor practice Are mothers happier than field and is expected to include a full-size football childless women later in field, lobby, restrooms, and storage space. Athlet - life? A new study examin - ics resources and gifts will fund the $26.1 million ing nearly 6,000 women project, to be completed in the fall of 2009. says it's not so much whether you have children as when you have them. Researchers analyzed data Dads on women ages 51 –61. Islam Exhibition on Tour They found that “early” Influence mothers (before age 19) A new project supported by UM ’s Islamic Studies Initiative, were the least satisfied and Daughters’ “Building Islam in Detroit: Foundations, Forms, Futures,” is most depressed of all four about to begin a world tour. The multimedia exhibition, pro - groups, while “delayed” or Interest duced by a team of seven UM students and faculty, explores the “late mothers” (age 25 and older) were the most satis - in Math history of Detroit’s Muslim communities through photography, fied with their lives and the oral and archival history, and an architectural study of more than happiest. All other things It figures: Dads have a ma - of the city’s mosques. The tour will begin at Harvard Univer - being equal, the childless jor impact on the degree of sity in late and then head to the Middle East and Africa. women were about as sat - interest their daughters isfied and happy with their develop in math. That’s lives as the “on-time” one of the findings of a (ages 19 –24) mothers. Yet long-term UM study that what is even more impor - has traced the sources of A Safety Coating tant, says UM sociologist the continuing gender gap freedom isn’t always for Bridges Amy Pienta, “is whether or in math and science per - healthy for men A new “skin” for not a woman has a hus - formance. According to the bridges, buildings, and band, a significant other, or study, parents provided Economic freedom could be bad for your airplanes could be a close social relationships more math-supportive en - health if you’re a man caught in the fervor sixth sense for inspec - in her life as she ages.” vironments for their sons of competing for status, wealth, and power. tors looking for cracks than for their daughters, A new UM study examined mortality pat - and corrosion that could including buying more terns in 14 Eastern European countries be - lead to a catastrophic math and science toys for fore, during, and after the transition from failure like the recent > the boys. As a result, girls’ centrally planned to market economies in Minneapolis bridge col - interest in math decreased the 1990s. Researchers found that the dif - lapse. Researchers at as their fathers’ gender UM’s College of Engi - ference in mortality rates between men and stereotypes increased. neering developed a > women increased greatly during the tran - coating that could be sition to a market economy and remained painted or spray ed on relatively higher afterwards. The findings structures to sense their give us insight into the kind of social and stability over time. It economic policies that may be good for would allow inspectors our health, says Daniel Kruger, a research to check for damage scientist in the School of Public Health. without physically ex - amining a structure.
fall 2007 LSA 67 LSA perspectives ESSAYS AND Q&A S FROM LSA’ S LEADERS AND BEST
The United States is arguably the richest country in the world. But who owns the wealth? In this LSA Perspective , IRASEMA GARZA (’79, J.D. ’83), the National Political Direc - tor of Working America AFL-CIO, argues that while the rich are getting richer, working class Americans are left holding the (very empty) bag and that this dangerous trend threat - ens to erode the foundations of U.S. democracy. Waging The plight of America’s working class
but for less pay. A typ - Half of all U.S. manufacturing is now located in social trust are on the decline. Americans spend Auto workers change shifts ical middle class fami - foreign countries. These were industries that gave percent less time visiting family and friends than at a Chrysler assembly ly with children, for rise to a solid middle class in the United States in years ago. Also, Americans eat dinner together only plant in Belvidere, Illinois, where the Dodge Caliber example, works the years following World War II . two-thirds as often as they did a generation ago. and several Jeep vehicles a Living hours per week more In the last half century, American workers, unlike In a March visit to Latin America, President are built. by Irasema Garza than they did in . their European or Latin American counterparts, George W. Bush argued that “social justice” —allevi - What’s more, the median household income in the were unlikely to protest in the streets when jobs ating poverty and providing medical care, among IN EARLY MAY , the Dow industrials ended at a United States dropped by almost three percent since were threatened or commodity prices increased. other needs —is a key factor for maintaining a demo c- record high on Wall Street. Around the same time, the . In Michigan, a state that has seen its manufac - Even today, with record high gas prices, worker lay - racy. Abroad, our government certainly puts its U.S. Department of Labor reported lower unemploy - turing base erode, the decrease in median household offs, tax cuts to the top one percent of the wealthi - money where its mouth is: The U.S. State Depart - ment, and the U.S. Department of Commerce report - income was dramatic: it dropped percent from est Americans, an unpopular war, and political ment earmarks millions of dollars a year in promot - ed a growth in the gross domestic product ( GDP ). , in to , in .2 scandals and corruption, the majority of Americans ing civil society in the Middle East, and organiza - Meanwhile, experts tell us that, during the past People of varying political persuasions will differ still want to believe in the American Dream. tions from the World Bank to George Soros’ Open years, the United States has experienced “phe - on why the wealthiest tenth of one percent of But the dream is fading. Society Institute view such funding as a priority. nomenal growth” and that, from to , the Americans reaped astronomical economic gains: a Yet, in our own country, the vast economic in - GDP has grown by percent. 1 percent increase between and . This LOSING FAITH equality, global competition and outsourcing, stag - If so much is right about the economy, shouldn’t compared to a . percent increase during the same A Case Foundation study found that Ameri - nant wages, low paying jobs, longer work days, lack that translate to U.S. workers having great jobs period for the working poor and a . percent in - cans have lost faith in political and civic institutions of access to health care, lack of civic engagement, with great pay? crease for middle Americans. 3 because they feel their efforts do not much matter. and plain political apathy are ills that are slowly suf - Sadly, it doesn’t. Republicans might say the Democrats are too fo - focating the American Dream. Irasema Garza has been Americans feel that their political leaders are out of a strong advocate of em - cused on social programs that help only a few tar - touch and do not understand the realities of average As such, our political leaders have a responsibility ployment opportunities THE INCOME GAP geted groups; Democrats might say the Republicans people’s lives. This is evidenced in low voting to redefine priorities and act swiftly. Americans need for working people. In give tax cuts that only benefit the wealthy. But jobs with better wages, universal health care, better 1993, she joined the Clin - The old adage “the rich are getting richer” has never turnout rates, which have been decreasing since ton Administration as the s
1 while Washington pundits debate the details and e balance of work and family, affordable housing, and The Motley Fool, May 16, been more true in the United States than it is today. g , with only a few minor exceptions. On average, Secretary of the National a m a
2007. “Searching for I Administrative Office z In , the average corporate CEO earned economists flesh out the numbers, what is certain is only percent of Americans voted in presidential more connected communities. They also need to be - r y t a 40,000% Returns” by John t Bureau of International G e times what the average worker earned, compared to that many American workers are no longer able to lieve that their elected representatives serve and advo - a G and Congressional elections between and .
Reeves. / Labor Affairs (1993 –1999) m f f e a earn wages that afford them a middle class standard s cate on behalf of average Americans. If the United 2 times more in , according to a report by the t Additionally, because working people are working and was later confirmed a S U.S. Census Bureau: Me - r I /
f Economic Policy Institute. The flipside is that the of living, even though the economy generates more n States is to remain a world economic power and the by the U.S. Senate as the o longer hours, they have less time to spend with fami - o dian Household Income by s y l
s 14th Director of the O e State, 1984-2005. working class and middle America —those who than trillion a year in income. strongest democracy in the world, working and mid - t ly and less time to do volunteer and charitable work. t r t Women’s Bureau, U.S. u o c 3 make between , and , per year —are The other certainty is that in the context of glob - o dle class Americans have to believe in —and have to “The State of Working C S The Civic Health Index found that Americans’ Department of Labor America” published by the working harder and longer hours than ever before alization and increased trade, the economic policies level of community participation —meaning Ameri - be able to realize —the American Dream. (1999 –2001). Economic Policy Institute. of the past years have failed working people. cans’ willingness to join organizations —and levels of
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