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TransylvaniaUNIVERSITY MAGAZINE SPRING 2012 Features 12 LOOKING TO THE FUTURE / Planning initiatives will have broad implications for Transylvania in the years ahead 16 SUSTAINABILITY / Pioneers from all over campus work together to revolutionize sustainability 22 TAKING HER TURN / Angela Ray ’86 garners awards, honors as Northwestern University communication professor Around Campus Students from physical education/exercise 2 Professors give Lexington “Good Morning” message science professor Sharon Brown’s course Nutrition and Energy Balance visit Berries 3 Richardson is Rhodes Scholarship finalist on Bryan Station Organic Farm, where 3 Covert is new associate vice president for advancement they worked in the fields digging sweet 4 Poet Maurice Manning joins Transylvania faculty potatoes, picking golden raspberries, and gathering eggs. From left, Tabitha Keown 5 Radio TLX “bringing fun back to radio” ’11, senior Charles Mayhem, senior Kennedy Barnes, and Corey Rogers ’11. Sports 8 Transylvania adds equestrian to varsity sports 9 Men’s soccer wins HCAC regular-season title 11 Women’s soccer rolls to high national ranking 11 Women’s tennis wins trip to NCAA championship Alumni News and Notes 24 Class Notes 26 Alumnus Profile: Jim Chambliss ’86 28 Alumna Profile: Ana Reyes ’96 29 Marriages, Births, Obituaries Associate Vice President of Communications and Public Relations: Sarah A. Emmons Director of Publications: Martha S. Baker Publications Writer/Editor: William A. Bowden Editorial Assistant: Tyler Young Publications Designer: Barbara Grinnell On the cover: Angela Dossett is Transylvania’s Transylvania is published three times a year. Volume sustainability coordinator. For an overview 29, No. 2, SPRING 2012. Produced by the Office of of the university’s sustainability initiatives, Publications, Transylvania University, Lexington, KY see article on page 16. 40508-1797. Send address changes and alumni news to Alumni Office, Transylvania University, 300 North Photo by Joseph Rey Au Broadway, Lexington, KY 40508-1797, fax to (859) 233-8797, or e-mail to [email protected]. Professors give Lexington residents ‘Good Morning’ message Perceptive eyes in Lexington may have a reach like a basketball player,” Gohde to visit. noticed a strange message slowly making said. Eventually, after a run-in with a suspi- its way across the sign of the now-demol- After making replica letters that were cious Lexington police officer, they realized ished American Inn on New Circle Road last missing, they went to work, returning each nobody was going to make a fuss if they summer. Some poignant, some cryptic, night to change the sign to a new line were caught, so they started going during new phrases appeared on the sign almost from the song. They spray painted marks in the day, getting photos of themselves every day for several weeks. the parking lot to show where to set up a changing the sign. They took all the photos The source can now be traced back to tripod and photographed the sign each and compiled them into a stop-motion Transylvania and the Creative Disruption day. video that was synced with the song and course that art professor Kurt Gohde and “Kurt originally wanted to just do it until sent it to Heidinger, who had no idea what English professor Kremena Todorova taught the end of the class, but we didn’t realize it they were up to. during May term 2011. would take so long to get the whole song “We sent him the video while they were For part of their credit, students had to up,” Todorova said. “It took us the whole on tour, and they saw it and really liked it,” do one creative disruption per day, pulling summer to do.” Gohde said. “They came to Lexington on stunts that shook up normalcy. Gohde and They had some fun with it as well, even their tour, and we thought it would be cool Todorova couldn’t just sit by while their stu- displaying the word “welcome” in Bulgarian for them to play it live with the video in the dents had all the fun; they decided to join when Todorova’s mother came to Lexington background. It’s a song they never play, so in as well. Gohde had been interested in it took them several tries to get it to sync the old sign, which advertised a motel that right, but they did it.” was torn down approximately eight years With a full-fledged multimedia project ago. The two debated what to do with it— on their hands, Gohde and Todorova Gohde wanted to write trick questions presented their work at the Little/Gaines about the United States to commemo- Collaborative Artist Series, spon- rate Todorova’s recent citizenship sored by the University of test, and she wanted to display the Kentucky Gaines Cen- first lines of great American novels. ter, in November. After They ultimately settled on the lyrics their talk, a man came to a song called “Good Morning” up to them who had by Vandaveer, an alternative rock suffered a flat tire while band fronted by Mark Charles riding his bicycle on that Heidinger ’00. section of New Circle “Vandaveer had recorded a song using Road. Frustrated, he had another project we did, and it worked happened to catch a out great,” Gohde said. “They gave glimpse of the sign, us a CD called A Minor Spell, and which at the time was dis- we liked the song and decided we playing a melancholy would put the lyrics on the sign phrase—Gohde and Todorova and change the letters every aren’t sure which one—and he said he felt day.” like he was almost being mocked by it. But The professors went to after riding past it several more times and the sign in the middle of seeing the new messages, he realized the the night, and Todorova sign wasn’t meant to be forlorn—but it managed to figure out was art, and he started to enjoy seeing how to get the let- what it would say next, not knowing at the ters out—“She has time that he was the recipient of a creative Kurt Gohde English professor Kremena Todorova and art professor Kurt Gohde put lyrics on the American Inn sign. To see the “Good Morning” video, go to http://bit.ly/goodmorningvandaveer. 2 TRANSYLVANIA Richardson is a Rhodes Scholarship finalist Senior Lee Richardson was very well pre- banner in such an exemplary manner.” pared for his Rhodes Scholarship finalist inter- Richardson gives a fair amount of credit to the Transylvania view, but that didn’t mean the Rhodes panel community for helping him get as far as he did. wasn’t capable of throwing him a curve ball “When it was learned that I had an interview, President Williams or two in the way it posed its questions. was on the phone to professors and people from the Lexington Lee Richardson “Probably the most difficult question that professional community, asking them to come in and help me pre- threw me off a bit at first involved a hypotheti- pare through mock interviews,” he said. “I also had one-on-one cal situation where I was dealing with a deficit reduction plan for interviews with my professors, trying to understand the process of the United States government,” Richardson said. “The committee reflecting on my past by reviewing what I had learned in their could cut $500 million from the budget of either Medicare or the courses. The Rhodes organization values that exercise very much.” National Endowment for the Arts. The experience also left him with lasting benefits. “I thought they would ask me to choose one and defend it, but “‘Believe in yourself’ is something very important that I got out they told me to make a case for cutting Medicare and saving the of this,” Richardson said. “It may sound trite, but I felt that, even arts. They did this, knowing full well that healthcare was my pas- though I didn’t get the scholarship, I was very competitive for it. sion and my future career.” Afterwards, several of the judges told me that I had held my own In his response, Richardson said he referenced the importance against the two winners, who were from Princeton and Harvard. of the arts and crafts heritages of places like Berea, Ky., and even They said, ‘If you’re like the other students at Transylvania, then threw in a James Joyce reference when he pictured the arts as we are very impressed with your institution.’” offering “portals of discovery” that can illuminate the past and Richardson is a biochemistry and Spanish double major from show us our mistakes as well as our triumphs. Nicholasville, Ky., and a recipient of a Transylvania Scholarship. He The experience of stretching his mind and fielding the interest- has a strong interest in Latin America, as shown by his extracurric- ing questions coming from the panel members was a highlight of ular activities. He has been to Ecuador as a medical intern, Costa what Richardson took away from his Rhodes application, prepara- Rica for storm relief, and Mexico to construct sustainable housing tion, and interview process. for homeless families. As one of 12 finalists in District IX, which includes Kentucky, As an aspiring physician, Richardson has been applying and Indiana, and Ohio, Richardson was invited to Indianapolis in interviewing at medical schools and is also applying for a Fulbright November for the interview that would determine the two winners research grant to study sexual health, education, and youth in from that group. Though he was not offered a Rhodes Scholar- Ecuador. ship, just being a finalist put him in an elite group of 830 finalists “Transylvania has given me this environment where I can suc- from 299 colleges and universities across the country.