Spring 2010 News and views for the Colgate community scene The Illusion of Sameness Snapshots A Few Minutes with the Rooneys Spring 2010 26 The Illusion of Sameness Retiring professor Jerry Balmuth’s parting parable on our confrontations with difference 30 Snapshots A class documents life at Colgate around the clock scene 36 A Few Minutes with the Rooneys A conversation with America’s “curmudgeon-in-chief” Andy Rooney ’42 and his son, Brian ’74 DEPARTMENTS 3 Message from Interim President Lyle D. Roelofs 4 Letters 6 Work & Play 13 Colgate history, tradition, and spirit 14 Life of the Mind 18 Arts & Culture 20 Go ’gate 24 New, Noted & Quoted 42 The Big Picture 44 Stay Connected 45 Class News 72 Marriages & Unions 73 Births & Adoptions 73 In Memoriam 76 Salmagundi: Puzzle, Rewind, and Slices contest On the cover: Bold brush strokes. Theodora “Teddi” Hofmann ’10 in painting class with Lynette Stephenson, associate professor of art and art history. Photo by Andrew Daddio. Facing page photo by Timothy D. Sofranko. News and views for the Colgate community 1 Contributors Volume XXXIX Number 3 The Scene is published by Colgate University four times a year — in autumn, winter, spring, and summer. The Scene is circulated without charge to alumni, parents, friends, and students. Vice President for Public Relations and Communications Charles Melichar Managing Editor Kate Preziosi ’10 Jerome Balmuth, Award-winning ABC Known for depicting Rebecca Costello (“Back on campus,” pg. Harry Emerson Fosdick News Correspondent many celebrities’ vis- Associate Editor 9, “Broadcasting new Professor of philoso- Brian Rooney ’74 (“A ages, illustrator Mike Aleta Mayne perspectives,” pg. 18) phy and religion (“The Few Minutes with the Thompson (“A Few Min- Director of Publications is majoring in English Illusion of Sameness,” Rooneys,” pg. 36) has utes with the Rooneys,” Gerald Gall literature; her honors pg. 26), has taught at reported on everything pg. 36) has applied his Coordinator of Photographic Services thesis focuses on Jane Colgate since 1954. from the Persian Gulf super-realistic style for Andrew Daddio Austen’s Mansfield His legendary teaching War, 2004 Indian Ocean clients including Coca- Production Assistant Park. Her studies have has covered the core, tsunami, and the Iraqi Cola and Infiniti Motors, Kathy Bridge also included a concen- logic, philosophy of law insurgency to the 1992 contemporary record- Contributing writers and designers: tration in Spanish lit- and aesthetics, and the Los Angeles riots, ing artists such as Jay- Director of Web Content erature, culminating in history of modern phi- Southern California Z, Kanye West, Linkin Timothy O’Keeffe study abroad in Madrid losophy, as well as his wildfires, and the Okla- Park, and P. Diddy, and Art Director last spring. A senior own specialty, which he homa City bombing. He clothing designers Karen Luciani writer for the Maroon- introduced to Colgate: has received several like Marc Ecko. Video Assistant Director of Athletic Communications News, she hopes to the yearly seminar on Emmys and is a two- game packaging, books, John Gilger work in broadcast jour- Wittgenstein and the time Edward R. Murrow albums, and magazines Director of Marketing and Public Relations nalism after graduating philosophy of language. Award recipient. have also featured his Barbara Brooks in May. artwork. Senior Advancement Writer Mark Walden Manager of Media Communications Anthony Adornato Design assistance provided by scene online Will Cook and Summer Parker, 8 Sametz Blackstone Associates scene team Contact: [email protected] 315-228-7417 Listen Look www.colgatealumni.org/scene Undergraduate Voices: Photo Galleries: www.colgate.edu/photos http://www.colgate.edu/podcasts Take a look back at “the winter that was” in the Printed and mailed from Lane Press Students taking a bioethics course created podcasts Chenango Valley. Thirteen (of course!) images from in South Burlington, Vt. that reflect different viewpoints about reform of around campus capture the beauty of the season. the American health care system. If you’re moving... 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The following person has Online Scene subscription: The Hill at Home: been designated to handle inquiries regarding the university’s www.colgatealumni.org/hillathome [email protected] non-discrimination policies: Keenan Grenell, Vice President The Hill at Home puts Colgate at your fingertips with To stop receiving the printed Scene, e-mail us your and Dean for Diversity, 13 Oak Drive, Hamilton, NY 13346; webcasts, classes, presentations, event information, name, class year, address, and e-mail address and 315-228-6161. and more — visit today. put Online Mailing List in the subject. We’ll send you an e-mail when we post new online editions (www. colgatealumni.org/scene). 10% Cert no. SW-COC-002556 2 scene: Spring 2010 Message from Interim President Lyle D. Roelofs Colgate is one of nearly 700 colleges that have signed the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, aimed at broad achievement of carbon neutrality. This effort will be significant, not only in the steps we will take to reduce and offset greenhouse gas emissions, but also in terms of the educational opportunities those initiatives will provide. The issue of sustainability has received a great deal of attention, but the pus Sustainability Fund, supported by the 2008 and 2010 senior class gifts, discussion of how to address it is challenged by three factors. First, we do not and matching gifts from Colgate trustees. know enough to respond capably. This lack of understanding prevents us How we address sustainability as an educational issue is even richer. We from reaching agreement on the consequences we face, and their magnitude. bring important speakers to campus. We offer formal courses, including sev- So, it is not surprising that a second factor is the heated disagreement that eral focused around questions that go beyond discrete disciplines and extend surrounds sustainability. Most thinking persons have reached some positions to real-world applications. For example, Sustainability in Theory and Practice on this challenge, and some are inclined to denigrate opposing views as “un- is the senior capstone course for environmental studies majors, being taught informed.” But truly, because we really don’t know enough yet, all positions by Bob Turner, professor of economics and environmental studies, and John are to considerable extent “uninformed.” The stakes are high, and the debates Pumilio, sustainability coordinator. This course culminates with students will continue. Finally, even when we come to a better understanding and identifying and working on sustainability initiatives on campus or in the sur- consensus on what responses will be necessary, we do not yet have a global rounding community. structure strong enough to take on shared problems of this magnitude. The challenge of sustainability reaches nearly every academic discipline, This is the point at which Colgate, as an institution dedicated to the gen- including my own — physics. Physicists and engineers understand energy, eration and sharing of knowledge, is poised to lead informed discussion, at work, the second law of thermodynamics, electronics, materials, efficiency, the same time that we take steps to address the issue. etc. We have done a lot in the service of lowering the impact of humans and Colgate’s administrative approach to sustainability is to minimize our their lifestyle on the planet. In other areas, political scientists have to study impact on the environment while benefiting our budget. Perhaps the best ex- the global dimensions of both the problem and the solution. We don’t yet ample is our 20-year-old wood-fired boiler, which generates 76 percent of the have sufficiently robust entities of global governance to really take on world- campus’s heat and domestic hot water. Burning woodchips is far more envi- wide issues; the international summits that have taken place so far are a ronmentally friendly and cost effective than burning oil. We have extended good start, but humanity has actually made very little progress on that basis this effort through an experimental planting of a local willow biomass crop in the absence of viable enforcement mechanisms. The philosophers