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A L U MNI REVIEW September 2011 RELIEF FOR ANXIOUS PARENTS 17 22 26 12 16 ALUMNI REVIEW Volume No. 106, Issue No. 2 Editor Student Assistant Amy T. Lovett Lauren Shuffleton ’12 Assistant Editor Design & Production departments Jennifer E. Grow Jane Firor & Associates, LLC Editorial Offices P.O. Box 676, Williamstown, MA 01267-0676, tel: 413.597.4278, Opinions & Expressions fax: 413.597.4158, e-mail: [email protected], web: http://alumni.williams. edu/alumnireview President Adam Falk discusses Address Changes/Updates Bio Records, 75 Park St., Williamstown, MA 01267-2114, teaching and scholarship. … tel: 413.597.4399, fax: 413.458.9808, e-mail: [email protected], web: http://alumni.williams.edu/updatemyprofile Letters from readers. 4 Williams magazine (USPS No. 684-580) is published in August, September, December, January, March, April and June and distributed free of charge by Williams College for the Society of Alumni. Opinions expressed in this publication may not necessarily reflect those Scene & Herd of Williams College or of the Society of Alumni. Periodical postage paid at Williamstown, MA 01267 and additional mailing offices. News of Williams and beyond. 6 Postmaster: Send address changes to Williams magazine, 75 Park St., Williamstown, MA 01267-2114 Life of the Mind Bethany McLean ’92 on the fiscal WILLIAMS COLLEGE Board of Trustees Adam F. Falk, President • Gregory M. Avis ’80, Chairman of the Board • crisis. … Computer scientist Jeannie Keli Kaegi, Secretary to the Board Albrecht improves mobile networks. Barbara A. Austell ’75 • Thomas M. Balderston ’78 • Patrick F. Bassett ’70 • Eric L. Cochran ’82 • Michael R. Eisenson ’77 • O. Andreas Halvorsen ’86 • … Nine things Jay Pasachoff thinks Yvonne Hao ’95 • Stephen Harty ’73 • Joey Shaista Horn ’87 • Jonathan A. Kraft ’86 • Glenn D. Lowry ’76 • Robin Powell Mandjes ’82 • Fred Nathan Jr. ’83 you should know about the universe. 26 • Kate L. Queeney ’92 • Elizabeth Beshel Robinson ’90 • Robert G. Scott ’68 • William E. Simon Jr. ’73 • A. Clayton Spencer ’77 • Laurie J. Thomsen ’79 • Sarah Keohane Williamson ’84 • Gregory H. Woods ’91 • Christopher F. Giglio ’89, President, Society of Alumni, attends meetings by invitation of the Trustees 28 30 9 22 features SEPTEMBER 2011 Words of Wisdom Highlights from the college’s 222nd Commencement. 9 Red Flags or Red Herrings? Williams developmental psychologist Susan Engel offers On the cover an antidote to the anxiety that seems to pervade parenting. 12 Illustration by Robbi Behr ’97 In Their Own Words Go to back cover How 9/11 changed the life paths of psychiatrist Kevin Kelly ’72, teacher Erin Peaslee ’08 and poli sci professor James McAllister. 17 One More Huddle www.facebook.com/williamscollege Friends of football star Mike Reily ’64, who died of Hodgkin’s disease twitter.com/williamscollege just weeks after graduation, will honor his memory at Homecoming. 22 SEPTEMBER 2011 | WILLIAM S ALUMNI REVIE W | 3 >> Click here for text only Teaching and Scholarship by President Adam Falk highlight of my week in the summer involves each Tuesday Our students are fortunate in so many ways—with an abun- A at noon heading over to the Science Quad. There a couple dance of cultural, athletic and social opportunities—but in no hundred students and faculty partake of that well-known stimu- way more than in the intellectual stimulation that’s available to lant to intellectual thought—pizza—before piling into Wege them inside and outside the classroom. Auditorium for a research talk by a science faculty member. This is true primarily because our faculty are so involved in Few events say more about Williams. scholarship. I’m surprised when some commentators set teaching The room crackles: first with good humor (“The math and scholarship as mutually exclusive domains that make rival department [students] hereby challenge the physics department claims on faculty time. The implication is that the hours spent on to croquet Thursday at 6 on Chapin Lawn!”) and then with scholarship come at the cost of students. I can’t speak for all of intellect, as that week’s faculty member conveys the essence of higher education—maybe there’s an institution somewhere that his or her research, usually has this out of balance—but I know that at Williams the hours followed by insightful student devoted to scholarship result in benefits for students. questions. If education were simply a matter of filling students’ The students are partici- brains with material, then, yes, scholarship reduces the time pants in a variety of programs available to do that. But Williams has long understood that that engage them in faculty education involves instead the sparking of minds, and this can scholarship, especially in the only be done by another mind that’s fully charged—that is WATCH VIDEO OF THE INAUGURAL WILLIAMS THINKING AT WWW.WILLIAMS.EDU/WILLIAMstHINKING. summer. This happens in all itself curious, eager to learn and ready to engage new ideas three of the academic divisions. and methods. You’d be equally impressed Conversely, every Williams faculty member can tell you how catching a performance of the much they’ve learned from their students through a form of JUSTIN KNIGHT Summer Theatre Lab. mutual inquiry that is education at its most effective. This summer held an added This point is both told and shown in the first of the Williams pleasure. On two consecutive Monday evenings, we hosted a Thinking talks that you can now watch online. Psychologist series of faculty talks from which we actually had to turn people Susan Engel describes it in her investigation of how best to away. Fortunately neither they, nor you, need to miss them. encourage the natural curiosity of children. (See the article about These were the first installments of Williams Thinking, a new her work on p. 12 of this issue.) Others exhibit it in the tributes project designed to capture on video short presentations by our they give to specific contributions students have made to their faculty, based loosely on the popular TED talk series and focusing scholarly understanding. on big questions or ideas in their areas of scholarship. You can So it’s not teaching or scholarship but teaching and scholar- see the first offerings at www.williams.edu/williamsthinking. ship. And I’m convinced that no place does this better than If this is the level of intellectual vitality here in the summer, Williams. ■ you can imagine what it’s like the rest of the year. 4 | WILLIAMS ALUMNI REVIE W | SEPTEMBE R 2011 OPINIONS & EXPRESSIONS ■ LETTERS udos to Williams President Adam Falk passage of the Americans with Disabilities Kfor articulating the efforts to build Act in 1990. I believe the overwhelming community at Williams (“The Community reason is a lack of a “true celebration of We Aspire to Be,” June 2011). Too often the difference” that President Falk aspires to idea of diversity has betrayed itself. Instead at Williams. Only when American compa- of focusing on a true diversity of ideas, nies and organizations incorporate and The Williams Alumni Review welcomes background and culture, institu- embrace the many dimensions of community letters relating to articles or items that tions have settled for superficial disability in their talent manage- have appeared in recent issues of the diversity based on sex and race that masks ment initiatives will our country move magazine. Please e-mail comments to a stifling intellectual groupthink. Why closer to the lofty ideals established by our [email protected] or send assemble a group of people who may look founders over two centuries ago. them to the Alumni Review, P.O. Box 676, different but all think similarly? President —Adam Kaplan ’95, founder, Big Tent Jobs, Williamstown, MA 01267-0676. Letters Falk is correct to point out that diversity can Southfield, Mich. may be edited for clarity and space. backfire if certain groups of students remain separated on campus or fail to thrive. ne minor correction to the article Difference is a welcome starting point, O“Eph Cappella” (June 2011): The by faculty colleagues at three different but only if it fosters the central goals house octet contest did not “take a colleges. If the great Elizabethan composer of education: to study, think and speak hiatus” in the early ’50s, though the flood William Byrd had known the delights of well, interact with others respectfully and tide of rock and roll was building. I led Soprano Alto Tenor Bass singing, he’d have pursue the truth, which in some cases is the Beta house octet from 1951 to 1955, changed the charming little doggerel in his very hard on “diversity.” and we won the award twice in those book’s introduction to: “Since singing is so —Jay Haug ’73, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. years. We also expanded the repertoire good a thing/ I wish all folk would learn to beyond pop and show tunes to include the sing.” resident Falk’s editorial points out occasional Elizabethan madrigal or Purcell —Mac Nelson ’55, Brocton, N.Y. Psome of the many dimensions of part song. The competitions were not quite diversity too often left out in public dis- all inter-fraternity, either. We got beat by read with interest “Eph Cappella.” The course. Notably absent is disability. eight excellent freshmen in 1953 or 1954, I Overweight Eight, which produced a According to the World Health the first year that rushing was deferred till record circa 1957 with help from my late Organization’s first-ever report on dis- sophomore year. husband Peter D. Pelham ’55, was in song ability, roughly a billion people worldwide Rummaging through the Beta led by Dave Paresky ’60. Shortly (15 percent) qualify.