Contents Spring 2003

Features: The Search for God Compromise in the Classroom at Vanderbilt The Thrill of It All Virtuoso Performers

Arching into Space

Departments: 1,000 Words In Class DoreWays The Arts & Culture VJournal S.P.O.V. The Campus A.P.O.V. Sports The Classes Vanderbilt Holdings Southern Journal

Bright Ideas

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http://www.vanderbilt.edu/alumni/publications/contents_sp03.html8/17/2004 7:50:39 AM 1,000WoBefore the Ceremony r d s Year end at Vanderbilt offers groups across campus an occasion for gathering. For the Navy ROTC unit at Vanderbilt, its midshipmen image frozen in time celebrate the end of the academic year with

One One the Spring Parade and Change of Command Ceremony, during which the graduating com- mander of the midshipmen battalion turns over command to the unit’s new commander. During the year, activities for midshipmen include color guard, drill team, Semper Fi and Trident societies, as well as taking part in community service. Approximately 100 Vanderbilt students are NROTC midshipmen. Nearly 25 percent are female, and 15 percent are Marine Option students. Photo by Neil Brake.

4 DoreWays From the Editor From the Reader The meaning in the shadows Lawson Revisited I was a student in the Graduate Depart- ment of Religion during the days in which “the grew up in Tennessee—three and a half hours southwest Lawson affair” [Fall 2002 issue, “Days of Thun- of Vanderbilt via I-40. I lived my adolescence in the shadow of Graceland, with- der,”p. 34] was unfolding. The venomous tone of

in the sphere of influence of the Mississippi-delta blues, amid the river-town ideasA forum for exchanging one of the letters you published in the Winter 2003 ethos that was Memphis. So when I took on the editorship of Vanderbilt Mag- issue of the magazine has prompted me to write. azine and returned to the South after having lived in New England for nearly I knew Jim Lawson, of course, and some of the other persons who were involved in the protest 20 years, I anticipated a homecoming. I expected to be wrapped in the warm movement. Thank you for your fine story regard- blanket of familiar dialect, and to be reintroduced to cultural traditions and ing Jim and these important events in the histo- a way of life that would awaken memories. ry of Vanderbilt and the nation. What I found was a land sometimes familiar, but more often strange and always John C. English, PhD’65 multi-layered. Exploring this new land has been an adventure. I can’t say it’s been all Baldwin City, Kan. pleasant, but it’s often been surprising and sometimes delightful. One of the great I Compelling Images delights has been that as editor of Vanderbilt Magazine,I have been able to rediscov- er elements of southern culture, thereby gaining insight into people and institutions, Thank you so much for the inclusion of Carlton Wilkinson’s beautiful photographs [Win- through the stories of Tony Earley. His short story “Cross” appears on page 88 as ter issue,“Images of Man,”p. 44]. He is extreme- this issue’s “Southern Journal.” ly talented and owns the finest gallery in Nashville. A writer by education and trade, I enjoy imagery. I Please continue to include the work of Nashville can get lost in it. And the dogwood in Tony’s story is artists. rich, insightful, true to southern culture, and just plain Love the new format. fun to think about. I won’t try to unpack the image for Stephanie Thomas, BA’01 Atlanta you because, as a writer, I also believe that we all bring a history and set of values to the image, and that shapes To Be in France our understanding of it. I want to commend Katie Galbreath on Much of this holds true for the magazine you hold her recent contribution,“Reflections in the Foun- in your hands. I develop the contents for each issue of tain” [Winter issue, p. 66]. The article hit home Vanderbilt Magazine with the idea of offering the read- in revealing the beautiful essence of life in Provence. er rediscovering Vanderbilt an experience similar to Like the author, I, too, climbed to the top of Monte mine in rediscovering the South. Sainte Victoire and traveled to other local towns outside of Aix as part of my experience on Van- Vanderbilt, like the Middle Tennessee region it calls derbilt’s program. Reading her essay was deli- JIM HSIEH home, is multi-layered. Our dialect is the language of ciously painful in remembering the greatness of scholarly discourse. Our traditions: the rigors of scientific testing, the time-honored that experience as I took the metro train to work collaboration between faculty and students that we call mentoring. 11 years later. (Wow, am I really that old?) As you read Vanderbilt Magazine,I urge you to explore, to experience some of the Her essay reminded me of my favorite “French” elements that make up this University. Spend some time with the departments. Maybe lesson. I remember enjoying fresh fruit and cheese at a picnic held by a French World War II veter- “Vanderbilt Holdings” or “Bright Ideas.”Read about Bart Victor, our featured profes- an, Monsieur Aberlain, who was my host. After sor in the “In Class” department. Or invest a little more time and delve into a feature. devouring an apple, I started to walk into the Vanderbilt is, of course, much more than the sum of the parts you experience through kitchen to throw the core into the trash when my this magazine. It is the people, their ideas, and the debate, scholarship and research host stopped me in my tracks. He remarked,“Oh, that surround those ideas. I’ve heard this labeled “the shadows”—that intangible you Americans always want to throw nature’s creatures in the trash when they can be returned element of university life where ideas take shape and new knowledge is born. It’s a to nature.”He then took the core out of my hand place those of us who serve the University seek out and a place where we find mean- and walked over to the trunk of a small tree ing in our work. It’s the area into which I hope this magazine can shed some light. and dug a small hole near the roots where he Ken Schexnayder buried the core. He then said,“What comes from

V anderbilt Magazine 7 the tree should be returned home.” To me, that {Featured Letter} sion of the Mayan empire to S.A. a new discovery ence. Vanderbilt—to firmly entrench a richly Fugitives and Agrarians significantly racist—except Davidson, who was lesson demonstrated the essence of life in Provence. by [Ingram Professor of Anthropology Arthur] deserved national reputation—needs a better alum- explicitly prejudiced. I enjoyed Mr. Kingsbury’s piece on the A beautiful, yet simple reminder that the sym- In Tribute Demarest? Please cite a reference that discuss- ni outreach program, and you are directly con- After WWII, Red Warren came South on leave Fugitives [Winter issue,“Pride and Prejudice,”p. 30]. metry of nature is right in front of us if we just When Vanderbilt Magazine and es when and where the Mayan empire extended tributing to that accomplishment. Well done, and from Yale doing research for his long book, Segre- In 1962, Mr. Ransom was back on campus after open our eyes. the A&S Cornerstone came today, I learned to South America. thanks. gation. At Ole Miss, where I taught “race rela- retiring from Kenyon. He taught a modern poet- Scott Seder, BA’93 that Gisela Mosig had retired from Van- Robert C. Nabors, BS’54, MA’54 Brad Gericke, MA’96, PhD’02 tions” in the sociology department, we consumed ry class, which I audited. I found him a consum- Chicago derbilt last year and then Fort Washington, Md. Stockbridge, Ga. much of a night (and modest amounts of his Ken- mate gentlemen, a gentle soul, without an ounce died from cancer this Jan- tucky bourbon) exchanging information and opin- of hatred, and a person with no pretensions. uary [“In Memoriam,” [Editor’s note: Vanderbilt Magazine incorrectly Regarding the comments about the “new ions on the changing South. We continued this A Question of Gore The class dealt with the work of other poets, but Faculty and Staff, p. 84]. gave the Mayan empire a great deal more real estate look” and the content of Vanderbilt Magazine,I relationship via correspondence until his death. His I would like to respond to Christopher I had begun to read Mr. Ransom’s poems on my I am very sad to learn that they in fact possessed. Their empire did not suppose it is why I liked Vanderbilt: intelligent letters relating to Vanderbilt, the South and the Agrar- Talbert’s comments regarding the failure of Van- own. If, as professors Kreyling and Daniels seem of Professor Mosig’s death, extend into South America.] diversity of opinion. Some graduates may not agree ian movement, etc., I gave to the Vanderbilt Library; derbilt Magazine to recognize Al Gore as a distin- to indicate, his poetry is not currently being taught, since she was an inspira- with others, but at least the opinions are articu- those about his career generally, I gave to Yale. guished alumnus of Vanderbilt [Winter issue,“From it is a great tragedy. He is, I believe, one of the great- tion to me when I was a student. The story late and thoughtful, unlike most letters to the edi- To be even an undergraduate major in the after- the Reader,”p. 8]. While Talbert is unlikely to read Kudos est poets in history, not by virtue of a huge out- she told of her escape from East Germany tor in newspapers. glow of the Fugitives and heyday of the Agrarians this because he wants to be removed from the mail- I want to express my appreciation for put, but by virtue of the fact that his poems are made a lasting impression on me, for it Chris Schmidt, BA’70 was an experience I cherish. Both helped make ing list, I would like to remind him that Gore attend- the superb Winter 2003 edition of Vanderbilt Mag- each a taut thing of beauty. taught the importance of taking conscious Cincinnati our Vanderbilt the eminent and cherished insti- ed the Divinity School for only one year and the azine.I had noted the earlier excellent article on Professor Kreyling stated that I’ll Take My Stand responsibility for one’s own future, despite tution it is. Law School for just two years while working for the Lawson affair [in the Fall 2002 issue] but is a misogynistic book. Indeed, it was a product of the possible consequences. Also, I must I picked up the Winter 2003 edition of Morton King, BA’34, MA’36 the Tennessean. Although attending a university didn’t realize the sea change that has taken place a misogynistic and racist time. How long had women say that her teaching was exceptionally Vanderbilt Magazine, removed it from its plastic Georgetown, Texas is, by definition, enough to constitute alumni sta- at the magazine until thoroughly reading the win- in the U.S. had the right to vote at the time of its clear. She patiently coaxed the best out of armor, and began looking at the pictures. I receive tus, it’s not enough to even get you invited to your ter edition. her students, even those like myself who a lot of stuff from colleges and universities, prin- It would be a pity if the class reunion at Vanderbilt. The fact that Gore’s In particular, please convey my compliments were not yet sufficiently organized to prac- cipally because my three children are enrolled in article about the Fugitives and sister and mother graduated from Vanderbilt and to Paul Kingsbury for “Pride and Prejudice”—a tice effective scientific research. Along the one or the other of them. I seldom look at pub- Agrarians in the Winter 2003 issue his wife from Peabody is rather irrelevant. I believe great title, and an extremely informative article. way, with her assistance, I began to appre- lications like these anymore since I subscribe to of your magazine were allowed to that if Vanderbilt Magazine exploited Gore’s Van- Like many of my fellow alumni (I suspect), I ciate the necessity of discipline in exe- the Sunday edition of the New York Times and now stand unchallenged. It was written derbilt connection, the University would receive had the impression that there was a tradition of cuting my scientific endeavors. have little time to read anything else. For some out of ignorance of the history of criticism from the other side. excellence in the Vanderbilt English Department, At the last Vanderbilt reunion for my reason I decided this day to at least look at the pic- the group, and of the literature cre- Kelli Staples Burns, BA’92 and that it had something to do with Robert Penn class, I missed seeing Professor Mosig. tures. I’m glad I did. The editors did a great job in ated by them, and out of a profound Jamestown, N.C. Warren and the Fugitives. That’s about all I knew That event now has become a lost oppor- putting this issue together. I was impressed by the misunderstanding of their impor- or recalled, with my English career at Vanderbilt tunity to connect with her again. I must diversity of the contents. Carlton Wilkerson’s black tance to Vanderbilt and to the world Regarding the letter from reader confined to the single required course freshman now develop a keen resolve to be more and white photographs were especially artful. His at large. Most of what is said about Christopher Talbert in the Winter 2003 Vander- year (taught, as Mr. Kingsbury suggests, with assertive in taking opportunities to make photograph of Ansel Adams’s hands was classic. I them is prejudiced by a myopia so bilt Magazine, there is a simple reason why Al Gore the assistance of Understanding Poetry by Warren connections with people I knew in the have always admired Adams’s work, and Wilker- short-sighted that it regards the hasn’t been featured by the magazine as a proud and Brooks). Now, for the first time, I have a clear past whenever the opportunity arises. son obviously learned his lessons well. The pic- present dismissive attitude of Van- Vanderbilt son. He never graduated from Van- understanding of who these people are, and the John Cross, BA’69 ture of the three talented and attractive Vandy girls derbilt English professors as superior to the col- derbilt! He attended the Divinity School and the distinction between the Fugitives and the Agrar- publication in 1930? Already by 1962 the Agrarian Alexandria, Va. basketball players got my attention. I decided to lective wisdom contained in the writings of Ransom, Law School, but dropped out from both without ians. The illustrations for the article are superb, movement was considered at least irrelevant if look over the table of contents. The article on the Davidson, Tate, Warren, and their fellow Fugi- getting a degree. from the initial photo (famous to some perhaps, not an embarrassment, but that did not keep us Fugitives pulled me into the center of the maga- tives and Agrarians. Is that what is meant by the If the magazine wanted to do an article about but the first time I’ve seen it) to the individual from appreciating the poetry and fiction of Ran- It is axiomatic that students are against everything zine, and I read the article. Thank God for Walter title,“Pride and Prejudice”? Prejudice, yes, but not his mother being the first woman to graduate from photos and descriptions of each of the Fugitives som, Warren and Tate. Mr. Ransom’s poems are but having fun and parties. Sullivan. I flipped over to the letters from the read- pride: arrogance. The names of the principal Fugi- Vandy Law, that would be marvelous, but you and Agrarians. The article also gives me the infor- devoid of misogyny and racism. They should not Most disconcerting is the spineless conduct of ers, and there was diversity of thought there. tives will be remembered—and honored—long ought not claim or credit somebody falsely. mation I need to read further about this bit of be ignored because of his 1930 political views. university officials who let themselves be bullied I was about to toss the magazine on the “I’ll read after their detractors are forgotten. History is mer- Andrew Wagner, BS’98 southern and Vanderbilt literary history. Larry Mallette, BA’63, PhD’68, MD’70 by the diversity crowd and then attempt to ration- more later or throw it away” pile when I decided ciless to those who scorn it, more merciful to those Somerville, Mass. I also want to give my compliments to Katie Houston alize by using the “memorial” label. Said “officials” to look at the back cover one more time. And then who make it. And the Fugitives did make a differ- Galbreath, author of “Reflections in the Fountain” must now decide whether to remove and burn all I saw it. The short story by Tony Earley,“The Book ence in American cultural history. [p. 66], about her studies in Aix-en-Provence. This Your interesting article on the Agrar- What’s in a Name? books in the library relating to the Confederacy. of Ed.”I read it twice. I love Tony Earley’s prose Let me put the case as simply as I can. There have was a particular delight to read since I was a mem- ians stimulated a variety of memories and the fol- P.S. Good for Dr. Tarpley. and not because we are from the same county in been only three groups of writers who really mat- I am totally astonished at the Uni- ber of the very first Vanderbilt-in-France program lowing comments. Paul A. Tanksley, E’54 North Carolina, and not because I grew up know- ter in American literary history, and the Fugitives versity’s caving in to the liberal political correct- (also the first Vanderbilt overseas program) in Aix I was an undergraduate English major in 1930–34 Dallas, Ore. ing his mother-in-law, and not because I knew the are one of them. The others were the 19th Centu- ness agenda by renaming Confederate Hall [Winter in the fall semester of 1961. and rather immersed in its affairs. First, [contrary original Jim the Boy. It’s because Tony Earley is a ry New England Transcendentalists (Hawthorne, issue,“Residence Hall Name Change at Center of The photography for the edition was also very to what] you state on page 33, Warren was not on very gifted writer. And he wrote in the “Southern Emerson, Thoreau, et al.), and the 20th Century Controversy,”p. 16]. Also amazing is the fact that Mayan Mistake well chosen, in particular the frosty winter scenes its faculty from 1931 to 1934. In 1932–33 he replaced Journal” section of your magazine under “Reflec- International Imagists (Pound, Eliot, H.D., et al.). an institution with a law school would be an acces- on the front cover and back inside cover, and the Ransom, who was on leave. I experienced him, just In the winter issue of Vanderbilt tions on the South.”More diversity! The Fugitives were unique in being southern, and sory to grand theft (in effect) of stealing $50,000 Susan Gray School photo. back from [earning] an M.A. at Oxford, as rather Magazine, “Bright Ideas” #1 [“Hieroglyphs Expose Thank you for a good publication. I will look in coming together on an American university cam- (that’s about $3 million in today’s dollars!). In a I look forward to your next edition! self-conscious and excessively “Br-r-ritish.”(He Mayan Superpower Conflict,”p. 24], the follow- forward to the next issue and hopefully more of pus. The Transcendentalists were centered in Con- like manner, it is unclear how a university with a Morton Holbrook III, BA’64 recovered!) ing statement is made:“Their translation is help- Tony Earley from time to time. cord,a village west of Boston in a rural setting, and history department justifies itself by supporting Manila, Philippines I’ll Take My Stand left me ambivalent. As a rural ing to explain the fracture of the Mayan empire I still think our school has been too harsh on the Imagists were attracted to the metropolis of the rewriting of history! southerner, I hummed to some of its tune. At the into warring states and the eventual collapse of the Fugitive issue. They should at least hang the London, though many were Americans. Thus the It is profound that members of the Student Gov- Congratulations to you and your staff same time, the authors struck me as unreasonably a civilization that once ruled southern Mexico pictures back up. value of the Fugitives to Vanderbilt is crucial and ernment Association who, with 20 whole years of for a fine job with Vanderbilt Magazine.The nostalgic for a charmed past which never was quite as well as Central and South America.” W. Winston Hoy, BA’64 can never be discredited. They created highly orig- life experiences, have the nerve to push for a change new direction you are taking the publication has as they pictured it. Frankly, I was something of a My wife and I have never heard that the Mayan Myrtle Beach, S.C. inal poetry in an academic setting, giving a dis- about which they have hardly any understanding. empire extended to South America. Is the exten- already enhanced its professionalism and influ- New Deal liberal, but did not find any of them

8 Spring 2003 V anderbilt Magazine 9 tinction to the Vanderbilt campus which no other hundred dollars raise; it decided that Warren was social sciences and Medical School.”How well I American university enjoys. Paul Conkin was right: not worth the effort to keep, so he went to LSU and remember Mr. Beatty leaning on his arm on his “Nothing in Vanderbilt’s history has come anywhere founded the Southern Review. In the late 1940s it desk, talking about “those people downstairs,”the close to the Fugitives and Agrarians in giving it a lost Frank Owsley, one of the pioneering figures social science and business majors. However, Mr. national reputation. … It’s still by far the most sig- in southern antebellum statistical studies. Then, Beatty’s essay concluded that “the basic impetus nificant aspect of Vanderbilt history in the larger beginning with the Fugitive Reunion of 1956, it which brought forth The Fugitive and I’ll Take My university world.” seemed as if Vanderbilt was coming to terms with Stand is still lustily alive at Vanderbilt.”The Mis- Those words of praise from Vanderbilt’s prime them. It was a brief moment. By the late 1960s, cellany was delightfully illustrated by my former historian are almost enough to redeem the article. whatever good will had built up over the last decade professor of art, Marion Junkin. While Donald Sadly, the context surrounding them is derogato- was largely dissipated. Yes, Donald Davidson was Davidson was scrutinizing my writings, I was ry. The misrepresentation of Fugitive and Agrari- an embarrassment to the University’s efforts to taking every course that Mr. Beatty taught. Fortu- an writing in the article makes its message appear desegregate, but he was not responsible for the nately, however,Vanderbilt has moved beyond the to be entirely racist, anti-feminist, and out of key James Lawson incident or for the vote of the stu- Ivory Tower atmosphere of those days. with American culture as it is has evolved in recent dent body in 1963 against integration. Annette Rose Levy Ratkin, A’48 years. And to concentrate on the social and polit- Only in recent years has it become convenient Nashville ical arguments of the Agrarians instead of the lit- to blame the University’s attitude toward the Agrar- erary achievements of the Fugitives is to put the ians on their racial views. By the 1970s the rela- I confess I did not go to Vanderbilt as cart before the horse, since Fugitive poetry pre- tionship was finally and permanently poisoned. an undergraduate. I only went there to law school. ceded Agrarian essays. In their heyday at Vander- When Tate, needing money, offered to sell his But one of the reasons I chose Vanderbilt over bilt in the 1920s, before they espoused Agrarianism papers to the University, Vanderbilt refused, and some other distinguished law schools was its asso- in response to unfriendly attacks on southern cul- Tate sold them to Princeton. One of Joe B. Wyatt’s ciation with the Fugitives/Agrarians. I had read ture and the economic disaster of the Great Depres- first speeches as chancellor of the University paid their poetry and criticism in college and thought sion, the Fugitives created real literature, an art that tribute to the Fugitives and Agrarians—and it was wonderful. I’d also read I’ll Take My Stand encapsulates culture and transcends its place and factually garbled their story. From then on, mat- and recognized it as nonsense. time. Fugitive poetry was clear proof that the South ters got worse. As late as 1981, Lytle was scheduled I graduated from Vanderbilt Law School in 1953, was not the “Sahara of the Bozarts”that H.L. Menck- to teach a class at a writer’s symposium, only to and I’ve spent the intervening years practicing law en had contemptuously called it: It led the way in find the building locked. He vowed never to set in the South. Along the way I fought the con- what blossomed as the Southern Literary Renascence. foot on campus again, and did not for eight years temptible governor of Arkansas and worked for Its historical and literary merit are therefore per- until a memorial service for Warren that the Uni- the integration of our schools and other institu- manent and cannot be discounted by later gener- versity had to be shamed into holding. tions. I believe I am not a racist. ations, however different their perspectives may be. Were the Agrarians wrong in their racial beliefs? What I cannot understand is how the Vander- I regret that the Vanderbilt Magazine should show Of course. Does that make them any less a major bilt English Department can choose to ignore the M so little regard for the literary and intellectual tra- force in American letters? Of course not, and it is poetry and criticism of these men and extol the dition of the University as to make a mockery of its to Vanderbilt’s shame that it continues to down- literary products of Allen Ginsberg, rap musicians greatest writers. To call the famous photograph of play them, led by Professor Michael Kreyling, who and “deconstructionists.”What those English pro- five Fugitives at their reunion on the campus in was hired in 1985, to finally expunge them all togeth- fessors are doing is not political correctness. They 1956 “Vanderbilt’s Mount Rushmore” is not far er. That he has not succeeded yet is evidence that are depriving our children of access to fine liter- from the truth, even though it is cast as a satirical their individual and collective accomplishments ature and substituting drivel. exaggeration. They were not political leaders, but will outlast their critics. Ron May, LLB’53 they were intellectual leaders, and that is how a uni- Robert Holladay, BA’77 Little Rock, Ark. versity ought to be defined. Marjorie Holladay, BA’78 William Pratt, MA’51, PhD’57 Tallahassee, Fla. Undergraduates many times have a bet- Professor of English, emeritus ter grasp of things than you might imagine. In my Miami University (Ohio) Congratulations on the new freshman year of 1936, the feeling of Vanderbilt Vanderbilt Magazine. The for- undergraduates was pretty well that the Agrari- Both of us were at Vanderbilt in the mat and contents are splendid. One ans were kind of nutty, but, after all, they were 1970s and feel fortunate that we majored in Eng- criticism: the mezuzah on page professors, and that the Fugitives were kind of lish during the last vestiges of influence of the Fugi- 13 [“Details: Shalom Vanderbilt”] weird, but, after all, they were poets. tives and Agrarians. We met and, in some cases is upside down. My only personal acquaintance from the group, became friends with, those who were still living: Paul Kingsbury’s thoughtful arti- a really nice guy, was Donald Davidson, my Allen Tate, Andrew Lytle, Robert Penn Warren, Jesse cle,“Pride and Prejudice,”sent me back continued on page 83 Wills, Lyle Lanier, and others who became part of to my Vanderbilt Miscellany, published their circle such as Dorothy Bethurum Loomis, by Vanderbilt University Press in 1944. Letters are always welcome in Peter Taylor, Walker Percy and others. We consid- Richmond Croom Beatty (PhD, 1930), response to contents of the magazine. er ourselves equally blessed to have been instruct- my favorite professor, edited the Mis- We reserve the right to edit for length, ed by teachers who were their disciples: Thomas cellany. In his thoughtful introductory Daniel Young, Walter Sullivan, Herschel Gower, essay,“By Way of Background,”Mr. Beat- style and clarity. Send signed letters to Robert Hunter and Hal Weatherby, to name a few. ty pointed out that The Fugitive “never the Editor, Vanderbilt Magazine, One thing was evident then: Vanderbilt’s offi- had any formal or official or financial con- VU Station B 357703, 2301 Vanderbilt cial relationship with its most famous sons con- nection with the University, whose admin- Place, Nashville, TN 37235-7703, or tinued to be chilly at best.Vanderbilt had lost John istration was preoccupied with a building e-mail: [email protected]. Crowe Ransom in 1937 because it refused a few program attendant upon expansion in the

10 Spring 2003 VJournal ectives on campus life on campus ectives p rs Pe An Education in 404 Pages A recommended reading list for all Americans. By JAMES BACCHUS, BA’71

ore than 30 today. We need others, and we have obliga- years ago, as an tions to others. (4 pages) undergraduate Thucydides,“The Melian Dialogue,”from at Vanderbilt, I History of the Peloponnesian War.“The strong first learned the do what they can and the weak suffer what value of a good they must.”We may be stronger than others, liberal arts edu- but that does not make us right. All of histo- cation. In all the ry is an effort to prove that might does not years since, I have tried my best to keep learn- make right. (6 pages) ing—and living—the liberal arts. James Madison, Number 10 and Number If asked what America needs most today, I 51, The Federalist Papers. For government to M JIM HSIEH would reply that America needs a good liber- help make right into might for all of us, gov- al-arts education. But a good education is get- ernment must be founded on an understanding Plato, “The Cave,”from The Republic. We ting ever harder to find. Not everyone is fortunate of the reality of human nature. “If men were must doubt. The world may not be as it seems. enough to spend four years at Vanderbilt. And angels, no government would be necessary.” We live in shadows, and we must search for not everyone can find the time to get a good We are capable of both good and evil. We can the light of the truth. (9 pages) education by reading all the “great books.” always make progress. We can never achieve Michel de Montaigne,“Of Cannibals,”from With this is mind, I suggest the following perfection. (11 pages) The Essays. Local custom is not necessarily list for the consideration of all who feel in need Adam Smith, “Of the Division of Labor,” eternal truth. There are other ways to live and of a good liberal-arts education. This list can from The Wealth of Nations. Like government, think. There are other ways to search. We Amer- provide an education, not by reading a few all economics must begin with an awareness icans do not have a monopoly on wisdom, hundred books, but by reading only a few hun- of our unchanging human nature. We tend virtue or truth. (15 pages) dred pages. toward exchange, trade, and an ever-expand- John Stuart Mill,“Of the Liberty of Thought My recommended reading list for all Amer- ing and ever-deepening division of labor. It is and Discussion,”from On Liberty. Truth emerges icans is: in our nature. (21 pages) from free and open discussion among free Ralph Waldo Emerson,“Self-Reliance.”We Voltaire, Letter 15,“On the System of Grav- individuals in a society that cherishes the free- must be true to ourselves. Only by being itation,”from Letters on England. Unique to dom of thought. Truth welcomes debate. Truth true to ourselves as individuals will we be able human nature is human reason. Reason made welcomes criticism. (44 pages) to build a true society of individuals that science. Science made the modern world. Sci- Karl Popper, Chapter 10, The Open Society will be worth sharing. We must never be afraid ence can help us make an even better world. and Its Enemies. In the “closed society,”there to stand alone in the crowd. (36 pages) (9 pages) is no freedom of thought. In the “open socie- Alexis de Tocqueville, “The Principle of Richard Feynman,“The Uncertainty of Sci- ty,” the individual is free to think and to choose. Interest Rightly Understood,”from Democra- ence,”from The Meaning of It All. Science gives The freest society is the “open society” where cy in America. Our real self-interest, as indi- us our technology. Science does not give us the individual is free to make the most pos- viduals and as a society of individuals, is in our values. And science does not give us cer- sible personal decisions about how to live. (32 our broader as well as our narrower needs, and tainty. Science is a way of living with uncer- pages) in our needs tomorrow as well as our needs tainty and also with doubt. (26 pages) continued on page 84

V anderbilt Magazine 11 “ TheCampus“We share the hope that we can feed one person, then one day make a big dentSpring2003in the hunger problem. —DIVINITY STUDENT FREDDIE HADDOX

Seeds of Change The Next Best Thing they’re no longer reproductive- Stiff Competition Freddie Haddox came into to House Calls ly active, and that can be detri- Prompts Creative land in a most unusual way, so Vanderbilt School of mental to their health. They Entries it’s fitting that he has a most Nursing’s Faculty Practice Net- face serious risks, particularly Marking the continua- unusual dream for that land. work (VNFPN) has opened a from cancer. By providing tar- tion of a healthy upward trend, In the 1800s a farm near nurse-managed, community- geted GYN services, for exam- Vanderbilt has increased its Franklin, Tenn., was owned by based clinic. The new Senior ple, we’re making an important number of applicants by a man named Samuel Win- Health Center, which opened preventive health program approximately 11.4 percent stead who also owned nearly in February, offers family prac- readily available.” this year. These numbers shed 70 slaves. When Winstead tice, mental health and The Senior Health Center a hopeful light on an institu- died, he bequeathed the entire women’s health services. brings to nine the number of tional goal of increasing appli- farm to his former slaves The clinic is located in clinics run by nurse practition- cations from 10,000 to 15,000 instead of to his own family. Hermitage, a Nashville suburb, ers in the Vanderbilt School of over the next several years, {Details} The Winstead family contested at McKendree Village, a pro- Nursing’s Faculty Practice Net- and dramatically dropping the Mosaic in Marble the will, but the Tennessee gressive living community for work. However, two of its three acceptance rate. This academic Marble mosaic embellishes the entrance atrium of Cohen Supreme Court ruled in favor seniors with cottage homes, Jane McEvoy School-Based year the University admitted Memorial Building, given to Peabody College in 1926 by of the former slaves. apartment-style living quar- Health Centers, which serve 39.7 percent of those who Nashville art collector George Etta Brinkley Cohen, who Haddox, a 55-year-old Van- ters, and housing for residents neighborhoods with a high applied, a record low. occupied an apartment on the second floor until her death derbilt divinity student, is a in need of assisted living, reha- need for easily accessible health This year 10,945 prospective in 1930. Nowadays students enjoy studio art classes in the direct descendant of those bilitation and nursing-home care for children and families, students applied to Vanderbilt, stately columned building. slaves. His stepfather has facilities. The center will serve could be faced with closing breaking all previous records farmed the property for the last nearly 400 potential clients. soon unless additional support for total number of applicants, 50 years. Now, despite weekly McKendree Village has been is found to replace funding that Hispanic applicants, and arrive in a standard legal-sized “People under stress do all offers from land developers part of the Vanderbilt family of is expected to be gone by the African-American applicants. envelope, but there are always a sorts of stuff to try to give who claim Haddox is “hinder- related institutions for several end of the school year. Most application letters few applications, usually about them an edge,” says William M. ing progress,”the divinity stu- years. Recently, McKendree’s 200 or so, that come with more Shain, dean of undergraduate dent is using part of the land to ADAM COLLIN SAYLER physician services ended and Nurse practitioner Jack than what’s required. The admissions. “But I am con- launch the Just Crumbs instead of added fertilizers, embraced the Just Crumbs ini- the School of Nursing moved Hydrick examines a patient office has received necklaces, cerned with super students.” at the newly opened Senior hunger-relief initiative. Volun- pesticides and other “unnatu- tiative, raising funds for farm in to provide health care for Health Center. videotapes, slides, manuscripts Shain himself says he reads at teers from the Divinity School ral” growth stimulators, propo- equipment and other supplies. the facility’s senior residents. and countless other items that least a third of the applica- and elsewhere have planted nents of the method say a “We believe it’s a basic right to “Older people have a greater applicants include in hopes of tions — around 3,000 files — seeds, built fences, constructed small area can produce large have nutritional food,”he says. demand for health-care servic- setting themselves apart from and says he’s probably read at a new entrance to the farm, and amounts of produce. This April through October, es, but may not be able to get the rest by showing a real-life least 10,000 essays per year bottle-fed baby goats. Harvest from the Just Connelly is trading his urban out whenever they need to, so example of their talents and during his career at Vanderbilt, The initiative has started Crumbs initiative will be dis- existence for the life of a farm this is a huge convenience for interests. This year, what may which began in 1998. with just three acres, using an tributed through the Society of hand on the land. them,”says Bonnie Pilon, sen- be the most unusual “extra” “Every winter there are a organic method of cultivation Saint Andrew, an ecumenical “Will and I share this hope ior associate dean for practice included with an application reasonable number of essays called “nature farming” as a Christian ministry established that we can feed one person, management. “Senior women was a vial of red food coloring that really move me, that are model for feeding people who by United Methodist pastors. then one day make a big dent often don’t seek gynecological attached to a note indicating especially poignant, or are struggle with hunger. By focus- Twenty-four-year-old divinity in the hunger problem,”says or breast care perhaps because the applicant would “sweat intellectually on the cutting

ing on the nutrition of the soil student Will Connelly has Haddox. of embarrassment or because DANIEL DUBOIS blood” to come to Vanderbilt. edge.” >>

12 Spring 2003 V anderbilt Magazine 13 T HE C AMPUS

It Seemed Like {Inquiring Minds} a Good Idea at the Time Drug Improves Outlook for Suicidal Patients Vanderbilt’s spring The antipsychotic drug Clozaril has received the Food and Drug Administration’s first indication for reducing the risk jonquils weren’t the of recurrent suicidal behavior in people with schizophrenia only things popping up or schizoaffective disorder.The decision, all over campus the announced in December, was due in large week after spring break. part to an international clinical trial led Chancellor Gordon Gee by Vanderbilt’s Dr. Herbert Meltzer, direc- was all over the place, tor of the Division of Psychopharmacology, that compared Clozaril to the more com- resplendent in his trade- monly prescribed drug Zyprexa. mark bowtie, reassuring “Treatment with clozapine reduced students in the flesh suicidal events by up to a quarter over and that, contrary to the above an established and effective anti- front-page story in a psychotic,” said Meltzer.“There would be bogus issue of the Van-

10,000 fewer suicide attempts and 20,000 NEIL BRAKE PHILLIP DVORAK fewer hospitalizations annually, with greatly derbilt Hustler, he was reduced costs for treatment and, of course, suffering to the alive and well. edged responsibility for the individuals and their families.” “GEE DEAD” read the head- prank. “It was a bad idea, and The study could lead to clinical trials of Clozaril to pre- line in what first appeared to be we got wrapped up in it,”says vent suicide in people with bipolar disorder, a disease that the March 11 issue of Vander- sophomore Slant editor-in- affects as many people as schizophrenia but carries twice the rate of suicide deaths. It also has gained the attention of the bilt’s student newspaper, com- chief David Barzelay. Only the American Psychiatric Association, which will soon publish plete with advertisements. magazine’s senior staff mem- new guidelines for treating suicidal patients in all diagnoses. Front-page stories told of Gee’s bers were involved in the coun- death from a heart attack and terfeit issue, which was a year in The Kids Are All Right detailed his accomplishments as the planning and included a American children fare surprisingly well when their mili- couple of real advertisements tary parents are deployed halfway around the world, says chancellor. Some students were Claire Smrekar, associate professor of educational leader- in tears while others immedi- that they say helped foot the ship at Peabody College. ately saw through the hoax. For $350 cost of printing approxi- “It’s part of the culture at one thing, Hustler was mis- mately 3,000 copies. school for these kids,” she spelled in the masthead—delib- Following the prank, Barze- says. “The schools are well erately, it turns out. Gee’s office lay’s student peers on the board informed by military com- mand, and many teachers moved quickly to issue a good- of directors of Vanderbilt Stu- Stairway grew up in the military and humored press release and dent Communications—the understand what students campus-wide e-mail statement corporation that owns the Hus- to Heaven FRANK RENLIE are dealing with.” reassuring the Vanderbilt com- tler, the Slant, and other media Step out into the stairwell Smrekar, who has overseen a much-publicized study of munity that he was still around. outlets at Vanderbilt—voted to at McGill Hall and you enter why students in Department of Defense-run schools score remove him as Slant editor, but Dante’s Inferno, a three-story higher in reading and writing, recalls visiting a military base That afternoon staff mem- in Germany where school personnel were being fitted for bers of the Slant,a student-run he has continued as an active mural of images conjured up battle fatigues in preparation for a visit to Kosovo, an expe- humor magazine, acknowl- contributor to the magazine. by students who live there. rience they hoped would help them help their students cope. >> McGill students began painting the stairwell art in the early Pay Now or Pay Later 1990s. The mural, which How do you put a price tag on the cost of failing a high-risk youth? Mark Cohen, Owen associate professor of manage- evolves from year to year, ment and co-director of the Center for Environmental currently includes figures Management Studies, says the cost to society is between from ancient Egypt, fantastic $1.7 and $2.3 million. Cohen used multiple economic mod- mythological beasts, and this els to estimate the potential cost savings for three scenar- celestial creature. The gothic ios: when a youth is rescued from becoming a high-school collegiate dormitory is the site dropout, is a chronic substance abuser, or is a career crimi- nal. His models employ variables such as victim costs, lost of the McGill Project, a pro- earnings, rehabilitation expenses and medical costs. gram to encourage discussion between residents and depart- ment of philosophy faculty.

14 Spring 2003 NEIL BRAKE V anderbilt Magazine 15

T HE C AMPUS T HE C AMPUS “ around us are primary missions ate-level certificate recognizing The United States is a soft target. of research, a rewarding off- their concentrations. We are vulnerable, especially because shoot is the creation of thou- Student exchanges will begin of our freedom of mobility. sands of jobs. in the 2003–04 academic year, “ “The results of research of- and students who complete cer- ten take years to have an impact tain courses and study abroad —Republican political on society,”he adds. “But the will receive a certificate in inter- consultant Mary Matalin thousands of jobs that sustain national studies from Howard on the importance of homeland security this enterprise have a real and University or a certificate in

tangible effect on the local Latin American studies from economy.” Vanderbilt.

The AAU noted that a report “Vanderbilt has one of the published by a University of largest concentrations of spe- There are two kinds“ of people— those who make rain and those Pennsylvania professor in 1991 cialists on Brazil in the United who get rained on. It is a terrible concluded that the average an- NEIL BRAKE States and has a long and distin- “thing to go through life without nual rate of return to society Videographer Brandon Terrell films a segment of a Learning Channel guished history in Brazilian series that will provide a look at medical training through the eyes of passion. from academic research was 28 Vanderbilt residents and fellows like Julie Prudhomme. studies, dating to 1947 when percent. That means that socie- Chancellor (Harvie) Branscomb — Democratic political pundit ty gets back 28 cents every year hosted film crews for New York inequality in both the United established the Institute for James Carville on apathy from every dollar invested in Times TV on several other oc- States and Brazil. In addition to Brazilian Studies,”says Jane and the importance of voting academic research. casions. Several episodes of faculty and student exchanges Landers, principal investigator “Trauma: Life in the ER” and between the U.S. and Brazilian of the Vanderbilt effort and as-

NEIL BRAKE Power couple Carville and Matalin were featured speakers at Vanderbilt’s 39th annual IMPACT Symposium Feb. 17. Ready for Their “Maternity Ward,”both pro- universities, the program will sociate dean of the College of Close-Ups grams produced for the Learn- allow students to earn a gradu- Arts and Science. “ER.”“St. Elsewhere.” ing Channel, have been filmed Health-Care threats and optimize healing.” into the roofs. Pre-wiring facili- tionally, the number of jobs re- “Marcus Welby, M.D.”“Ben at Vanderbilt. Construction in a The new Vanderbilt program ties so they can be quickly con- sulting from academic research Casey.”America just can’t get {To p Picks} will incorporate latest develop- verted from public spaces to totaled more than 1.08 million, enough of TV docs. And now, Brave New World Consortium Kent D. Syverud, dean and Garner Anthony Professor of Vanderbilt School of ments in construction technolo- treatment areas allows improved according to data for 2000, the coming soon to a living room Exploits Vanderbilt’s Law at Vanderbilt University Law School, has been installed Engineering has developed a gies, advanced engineering de- emergency response. Manage- most recent year for which com- near you, is a program tenta- Brazilian Ties as president of the American Law Deans Association new construction project man- sign and management principles ment of the flow of hospital per- plete statistics are available. tively titled “Young Meds”— a Vanderbilt and Howard (ALDA). An organization of deans of law schools in the agement graduate program with other disciplines. Post-Sept. sonnel and patients is important The federal data, collected 13-episode series told through universities are joining with two United States, ALDA advocates on behalf of the deans on 11 construction considerations in dealing with highly conta- by the Association of American the eyes of Vanderbilt Universi- Brazilian institutions to help issues of accreditation, academics, admissions, and other including specialization in issues affecting legal education. Its membership includes include blast barriers that sepa- gious diseases and large numbers Universities, consider grant health-care construction. Cur- ty Medical Center residents and prepare their nations’ next gen- about 110 deans of American Bar Association-accredited rently, only a handful of civil rate public roadways from the of patients. Advanced ventilation money received at academic in- fellows. eration of scholars, government law schools from throughout the United States. hospital area, reinforced materi- systems are needed to reduce the stitutions. The expenditures Set to debut on the Learning officials and corporate execu- and environmental engineering Bill Frist, who founded and directed the Vanderbilt als, strong supportive baffles, spread of infection. come from all sources of fund- departments in the nation pro- Channel this fall, the series will tives for the challenges of a Transplant Center and retains a post as assistant professor vide graduate training in build- and overpressure releases built ing including federal, state and offer viewers a comprehensive global economy. of cardiac and thoracic surgery (on leave), was elected ing health-care environments. Research: Good local government, industry and look at what it takes to be a A grant of $430,000 from the Republican senate majority leader by the members of the Engineering graduates with the for the Economy institutional funds. physician in training in today’s U.S. Department of Education’s Republican caucus in January. First elected to the U.S. Senate in 1994, Frist was the only challenger to defeat a necessary expertise to build Research and development Vanderbilt’s research expen- highly specialized, highly com- Fund for the Improvement of full-term incumbent in 1994 and the first practicing physi- activities at Vanderbilt are re- ditures of $171.9 million in the petitive environment. A pro- Postsecondary Education and health-care environments capa- cian elected to the Senate since 1928. In 2000, Frist was ble of meeting these complex sponsible for more than 5,700 2000 fiscal year directly and in- duction crew from New York the Brazilian Ministry of Educa- elected to a second term in the U.S. Senate by the largest challenges are in short supply. jobs in Middle Tennessee, ac- directly supported an estimated Times Television, the electronic tion’s CAPES program will help margin ever received by a candidate for statewide election “Health-care facilities are cording to a report based on 5,759 jobs in Middle Tennessee. bureau of the New York Times, establish a consortium among in the history of Tennessee. challenged by new threats and statistics from the U.S. Depart- “University research is one began filming the series at Vanderbilt, Howard, the Univer- Lamar Alexander, BA’62, has been elected to the U.S. new public expectations,”says ment of Commerce. of the best investments we VUMC in January. sidade de São Paulo, and the Senate seat formerly held by Fred Thompson, JD’67. David S. Kosson, chair of Van- Those jobs constitute about make as a country,”says Chan- Vanderbilt’s medical center Universidade Federal da Bahia. Alexander is the first Tennessean to be popularly elected derbilt’s Department of Civil 43 percent of the more than cellor Gordon Gee. “While cre- was selected over several other Faculty from all four schools both governor (1979–87) and senator. He later served as 13,300 employment opportuni- ating new knowledge, develop- top academic medical centers will develop an interdisciplinary president of the University of Tennessee and was U.S. sec- and Environmental Engineer- retary of education during the administration of President ties supported by research and ing cures for diseases, inventing ing. “What is required is a new for the series based on strength, curriculum allowing students to George H.W. Bush. approach to design that will cre- development activities at colleges new technologies, and improv- size, and diversity of its gradu- explore themes of race, eco- and universities statewide. Na- ing understanding of the world ate environments that mitigate PAUL MANZ ate medical program. It has nomic development and social

16 Spring 2003 V anderbilt Magazine 17 Aleke Tsoubanos and Sarah Riske

A look at spring athletics at spring A look On the Double SportsSarah Riske and Aleke Tsoubanos Set ’Em Up and Knock ’Em Down. By NELSON BRYAN

hen opposing volley game with good ground strokes. No.1 doubles duo went into the champi- players stare across Tsoubanos has excellent hands and antici- onship tournament as the team to beat. the net at Sarah pation at the net.“It’s sort of like a setter and No one did. Riske and Aleke a spiker in volleyball,”Macdonald says. “Sarah and I worked together a lot last Tsoubanos, they “We’ll set up some plays together,”Riske fall,”says Tsoubanos.“We did a lot of indi- would be well says,“but for the most part we let each other vidual work with the coaches and just went advised to remember their Shakespeare — do what we do best. We really trust each other out there and did the best we could. It just so WMacbeth in particular: “Double, double toil in that. We know each other’s strengths and happens that we played four really good match- and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble.” weaknesses. Aleke has faster hands than I do, es and everything clicked. It was nice. I think Because in this Vanderbilt duo, women’s ten- quicker hands at the net. She puts the point a lot of people were speculating as to whether nis coach Geoff Macdonald has cooked up a away more. I more or less play straight up we were going to hold to the honor that they fiery mixture of power and speed. and make the other team play another ball. gave us in the preranking, and we did that.” Macdonald paired Tsoubanos and Riske Aleke will lob, she’ll drop shot, more touch. At the beginning of the spring 2003 sea- three years ago, when Kate Burson and Julie She does well off my serve. She moves across son, Vanderbilt beat top-ranked Florida in a Ditty were setting Vanderbilt records in dou- the court; she poaches very well.” dual match, 4-3. Riske won at the No. 1 sin- bles and singles competition. Early on, he “Sarah has a really big serve,”Tsoubanos gles spot, and Tsoubanos won at No. 3 sin- noticed a potent alchemy in the testifies.“She’s like the meat and gles. Together they won the No. 1 doubles combination of Riske’s and potatoes out there. She just 9-7. It was the first time in 23 years the Van- Tsoubanos’s styles of play. plays straight up. She’s derbilt women defeated the storied Florida “They seemed to be very solid from the program. clicking,”Macdonald baseline with solid “It was definitely special,”Riske says of the says of the early pair- volleys. I feel like victory over Florida. “It was one of the high ing.“They had a lot of sometimes Sarah points of my college career. When I came in chemistry, and their does a lot of the as a freshman, the seniors always said, ‘Let’s strengths comple- grunt work, where- beat Florida; we’ve never beaten them before,’ mented each other. as she frees me up and it’s been that way every year, with some Sarah and Aleke matched at the net to be more matches better than others. Last year we had up well. Aleke came in as proactive and creative two close ones with them, but we’ve always an outstanding doubles play- with volleys. She sets me come up short. That was such a big deal to er, and Sarah was an accom- up a lot. I have no com- us. It was so cool to see everyone come through.

plished singles player.” NEIL BRAKE plaints about that. I’ll let Sarah It felt like we were in the nationals. Everyone Riske is a senior psychology major from do that all day.” just fought so hard.” Pittsburgh. She is tall and composed. Tsoubanos Last fall Riske and Tsoubanos brought “I think we’ve gotten better,”Tsoubanos is a junior human and organizational devel- home a national title when they won the Riv- says matter-of-factly. “At the end of the sea- opment major from Chesterfield, Mo. She is iera/ITA Women’s All-American Champi- son, the NCAA individuals and doubles tour- strong and quick. Riske has a strong serve and onships in Pacific Palisades, Calif. Vandy’s nament could be really exciting for us.”

18 Spring 2003 DAVID JOHNSON S PORTS

Fred Russell and In Memory of Fred Russell Grantland Rice Freddie, one cup together, Fred Russell, L’27, sportswriter extraordi- And here is the final test. naire, died at his home Jan. 26 after a brief Through stormy or sunny weather, Through breaks at their worst or best, {Sports Roundup} illness. [See obituary on page 77 for more Untouched by the staining dollar, details.] He counted among his acquaintances Tennis: Men Win Basketball: Anderson Sets Track: Hahn Sets On through to the journey’s end, the finest sportswriters, coaches and athletes First SEC Title Scoring Record in Season Finale Pentathlon School Record A gentleman, sir—and a scholar, of their time. In 1953 legendary sports writer The eighth-ranked Vanderbilt men’s tennis team Senior center Chantelle Anderson set a new Josie Hahn, a sophomore from Clinton,Tenn., But better than all—a friend. and Vanderbilt alumnus Grantland Rice, BA won its first-ever Southeastern Conference Vanderbilt women’s basketball scoring record in established a Vanderbilt pentathlon record and 1901, wrote a tribute to his friend and fellow Tournament championship, defeating No. 2- the Commodores’ last game of the season, an finished fourth overall Commodore. Fifty years after it was penned, Quarles, Yoder Win ranked Florida April 20 in Oxford, Miss. Sec- 86–85 overtime loss to Boston College in the during the opening day the poem yet pays homage to Fred McFerrin World Championship ond-ranked Bobby Reynolds scored a 7-6, 6-3 second round of the NCAA Tournament. She of the Southeastern Russell and the days of yore. Former Commodores Shelton Quarles, BS’94, (2) victory over 18th-ranked Hamid Mirzadeh surpassed by one point the record of 2,602 Conference Indoor Track and Todd Yoder, BS’00, became world cham- at the No. 1 position. Reynolds, a junior, was points set by former All-American center Wendy and Field Champi- “To Fred Russell” pions when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won later named SEC Player of the Year, and Com- Scholtens. onships in March. Her By Grantland Rice Super Bowl XXXVII in January. At Vander- modore coach Ken Flach was named Coach of The team finished the season with a 22–10 3,892-point total is the the Year. Last year the team finished the SEC overall record, 9–5 in SEC play and ranked highest ever by a Van- Sept. 2, 1953 COURTESY OF FRED RUSSELL COLLECTION, VANDERBILT SPECIAL COLLECTIONS bilt they never won a championship. But after regular season with a 1-10 record and a first- 15th in the nation by the Associated Press. Hahn derbilt women’s track Tampa Bay’s victory over the Oakland Raiders, Freddie, the south wind’s calling For all that I’ll miss in grieving round exit at the SEC Tournament, making this athlete, easily surpassing her own mark of 3,598 they joined their former teammate, Corey From far and far away Where Charon’s boat may land, season a worst-to-first achievement within the Basketball: Freije Named points. She set career bests in the high jump and Harris, BS’92, and coach, Woody Widenhofer, I see the twilight falling Is the smile from a pal I’m leaving, conference. Second Team All-SEC long jump and matched her previous record in in the fraternity of Super Bowl ring own- On hills of yesterday. And the friendly grip of a hand. Junior forward Matt Freije has been named the shot put during the performance. ers. Harris earned a ring with the Baltimore I find an old, old yearning Cross Country: Brogan Second Team All-SEC by a vote of the league’s For twenty-five years or longer, Ravens in 2001. Widenhofer garnered four And when I turn to you, Named Marshall Scholar basketball coaches. He was a member of the Golf: Snedeker No. 1 Where time plays a leading part, rings with the Pittsburgh Steelers. I meet old pals returning David Brogan, a Vanderbilt biomedical engineer- SEC All-Freshman Team two years ago and in Golfstat Rankings I’ve found the link grows stronger, Quarles, a starting inside linebacker, was ing senior who combines his studies with cross- To find a dream come true. earned Third Team All-SEC honors after his Vanderbilt golfer Brandt Snedeker claimed the In the beating of heart and heart. one of Tampa Bay’s top defenders in the Super country competition and sophomore season. top spot in early spring Golfstat rankings with a Freddie, through joy and sorrow, I’ve found the friendship dearer Bowl game, making seven tackles. Yoder joined community involvement, Freije, who scored at least 20 points in eight 69.45 stroke average in 20 rounds.The rankings Where my fading footsteps fare, As the endless years roll by, the Buccaneers in 2000 as an undrafted tight has been chosen to of the final 12 games, finished the regular sea- came on the heels of Snedeker’s climb to No. 1 Where will I be tomorrow? And, as night draws nearer, end and was active on all Tampa Bay spe- receive a prestigious son as the Commodores’ leading scorer with in the nation in the Golfweek/Sagarin Poll. I neither know nor care. We wait for the light to die. cial teams. Marshall Scholarship. 17.9 points per game, and he finished second on In Vanderbilt’s first event of the spring, the He is one of 40 U.S. the team in rebounds with 4.3 rebounds per senior from Nashville finished in second place students selected this contest. He ranked among the SEC’s best in and just one shot out of the top spot at the Gator Ann Hutcheson, BA’71, MD’78, and Nancy Bargo, year to participate in scoring, field-goal percentage, free-throw per- Invitational in Gainesville, Fla., and was named {Where AreThey Now?} BA’72, brought Vanderbilt women’s tennis into national prominence the program. centage, three-point percentage, and three- SEC Golfer of the Week. Brogan before Title IX elevated the status of women’s collegiate sports. In Brogan plans to use point field goals made. On the strength of three first-place finishes, 1970 the doubles partners reigned as Tennessee intercollegiate cham- his scholarship to pursue a master of philosophy In the Vanderbilt record book, Freije is Snedeker was atop the SEC rankings since the pions and represented Vanderbilt in the National Intercollegiate at either Kings College of London or Oxford ranked 21st in career scoring (1,247), ninth in beginning of the fall season. In measuring stroke Championship in Las Cruces, N.M., for two years. Today Ann Hutche- University. He hopes to become a physician and career three-point field-goal attempts (326), averages from team tournaments, he had more son Price, former chief medical officer at Nashville’s St.Thomas to explore combining medical imaging tech- 10th in three-pointers made (118), and is only than a two-stroke lead over the SEC’s second- Hospital, is taking a hiatus from medicine and tennis to nurse an niques with surgical practice to develop innova- one block away from reaching the school’s top place golfer with his mark of 69.06 in 17 rounds. injury. She and her husband, Scott Todd Price, BA’71, have two chil- tive methods of treatment. 10 with 49 career blocks. Snedeker is one of 21 collegiate men’s dren. Their son, a wheelchair athlete, graduates from Lipscomb Uni- golfers who has been named to the watch list for versity this year, and their daughter is entering Princeton University the 2003 Ben Hogan Award.The Ben Hogan to play tennis. Nancy Bargo is now Nancy Bargo Anthony, executive Award is presented annually to the top men’s director of the Oklahoma City Community Foundation. She earned two NCAA Division I, II or III or NAIA golfer. master’s degrees from Yale and a doctorate from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences

BANNER Center. She and her husband, Robert, have four daughters, all athletes who play field hockey collegiately at Princeton,Yale Vanderbilt Crew and Duke. Thinking back on team training on their days at Vanderbilt, Anthony remarks,“It was fun to be on the Percy Priest Lake Hutcheson and bottom floor of emerging women’s athletics prior to Title IX.” OWEN CARTWRIGHT FOR THE NASHVILLE Bargo in 1970 PHOTOGRAPHS BY NEIL BRAKE

20 Spring 2003 V anderbilt Magazine 21 Every taped program displays both the need duplications of complete programs, will make the material available to researchers Va n d e rb i l t Holdings network identification and the date and time while others request specially created anthol- and students much more quickly. Patrons will (in Central Time). This running clock coor- ogy tapes of various stories on a particular merely have to find their item in the index, dinates the various aspects of the collection. issue. Vanderbilt itself doesn’t have a jour- click on it, and view a small version of it on Later, while writing a brief synopsis of each nalism department, but other University the computer screen, as easily as they might program, an indexer records the start and departments use the archive frequently — sample a movie preview on the Internet now. stop times of each news story, along with key especially English, American studies and his- To begin evaluating the magnitude of the task items of information that will aid a search of the database. “On the evening news,”says Lynch, “we

Collections and collectibles Collections describe down to the individual item — every Collective Memory single story — and every commercial, although on commercials all we do is list the product.” Va nderbilt’s Television News Archive keeps an eye on history. As with all research institutions, the TV News Archive wrestles with budget issues that By MICHAEL SIMS affect quality. For example, most programs are recorded on three-quarter-inch tape. ur planet is a chaotic world. The archive was founded by a time staff and a fluctuating number of stu- Twenty-four hours a day, however, there busy place. For one Vanderbilt alumnus, a Nashville insurance dent workers. They stay busy. Ever since 1968, are six-hour VHS tapes monitoring every- thing, it’s crawling executive named Paul C. Simpson, JD’33. the archive has been recording every evening thing on the three major networks, just in with billions of Working with Frank Gresham, director of news broadcast by ABC, CBS and NBC.“Night- case something comes up unexpectedly. These human beings — cit- what was then called the Joint University line” was covered sporadically from 1980 to backup tapes are recycled if nothing momen- izens struggling for Libraries, and with the chancellor’s office and 1988, and comprehensively ever since. In 1995 tous occurs during their watch. John Lynch humane treatment, the board of trust, Simpson built the initial CNN’s nightly updates were added. explains the difference with an example: “If politicians making archive with grants from various sources. “Our collection tends to be American cur- something like a big development in the war promises to their constituents, soldiers fight- Contributors ranged from the Ford Foun- rent events, sort of presidential-centered,” with Iraq comes, and the news stations and ing wars, and businesspeople wrangling for dation and Mobil Oil to local Nashvillians explains John Lynch, the archive’s director. networks go 24 hours a day for a while, we Oadvantage over their rivals. For more than such as Vanderbilt’s David K. Wilson, BA’41. One cyclical uproar the archive always doc- use two-hour VHS.”The larger tape costs half a century, television journalists have been Nowadays the archive, which is one of 10 divi- uments is presidential campaigns. In fact, many times as much per hour. Lynch explains pointing cameras at these frantic the troubled 1968 Republican con- that they simply cannot afford to run the tory.Lynch says with a smile, “We’re just of digitizing their materials, the archive has activities and bringing them into vention was one of the first events more expensive tape all day long. Around- getting old enough for history.” already completely digitized and indexed one living rooms across the country. recorded by the fledgling operation. the-clock coverage also requires more staff Eventually, like everything else in the world entire month. History is the collective mem- (Simpson’s new institution had yet time, particularly to catalog the resulting (for example, radiology departments, as dis- Now new copyright questions are being ory of the human race, and TV to purchase its own recording equip- backlog accurately.“The last Gulf War,”Lynch cussed in the winter 2003 issue of Vanderbilt addressed. Sometimes the relationship between news broadcasts are history in the ment and initially borrowed items sighs, “just about closed the archive, it cost Magazine), the TV News Archive will switch the networks and their independent collec- making. Yet, for many years after from Nicholson HiFi in Nashville.) us so much money.” completely to digital equipment. This change tive memory has had its stumbling blocks. they began broadcasting, the net- There is no particular emphasis on Copies of every evening news program or will take place slowly, but when completed it But no one denies the invaluable service works did not keep copies of their foreign news, but naturally many news special are available the archive performs. “If you go to the net- daily news programs. Each net- events wind up documented. They for loan, but copyright works for a broadcast,”says John Lynch,“they work jealously hoarded files of its range from the Watergate hearings restrictions do not allow will send you to us.”In fact, in 1991 CBS anchor own raw footage, but made no to the Iran hostage crisis, from the materials to be sold. Dan Rather declared that in his work he faces copies of the final edited product. Persian Gulf War to the terrorist Because of its unique col- two professional burdens — the viewer rat- This absence left a serious gap in attack on 9/11, not to mention the lection, the TV News ings and the Vanderbilt Television News society’s memory. The evening Clinton impeachment hearings and Archive is besieged with Archive. In the long run, the latter may be news broadcasts — appearing in interviews with Ayatollah Khomei- requests from many dif- more historically significant. Viewers can living rooms every evening at din- ni and Saddam Hussein. ferent kinds of patrons. defect to another channel, but the crew at the nertime, calmly surveyed by a familiar talk- sions within the Jean and Alexander Heard “In many ways,”observes Marshall Breed- One man is slowly work- TV News Archive is always watching. V ing head — not only document events but Library, receives donations from many other ing, library technology officer, “the collec- ing his way through the Michael Sims writes about science and cul- shape our opinion of them. universities. Vanderbilt covers the deficit that tion hasn’t changed. We have been using the Watergate coverage. Anoth- ture. He is the author of Darwin’s Orchestra This journalistic sin of omission was cor- usually remains after fees and donations have same criteria for collecting since the begin- er researcher wanted to and the forthcoming Adam’s Navel: A Natur- rected in August 1968, when the Vanderbilt been tabulated. ning. It has grown enormously in size, though, document the progression al and Cultural History of the Human Form Television News Archive began recording and Originally, Simpson was the only staff with a collection that spans 35 years totaling of public discussion of dia- (Viking, 2003). He is a frequent contributor to cataloging the networks’ daily updates on our member, and currently there are only five full- 30,000 hours of material.” betes over the years. Some Vanderbilt Magazine.

22 Spring 2003 V anderbilt Magazine 23 “ Bright Ideas“ With a coronavirus like SARS, there’s a lot of information in place that can be harnessed to develop treatments. —MARK DENISON

Old Virus, how viruses grow and spread. RNA is huge.”The range of dis- them promiscuous viruses. might suddenly mutate or min- tion, it’s risky,”he says. New Tricks Since March, however, the eases they can cause in animals They do everything big. Their gle with another virus, allowing Scientists are looking at work of the Denison lab has includes severe respiratory dis- genetic material is big, they it to jump to another type of more than one approach to In the last 30 been under an intense spotlight. ease, hepatitis, neurological make a lot more proteins than animal. attacking the SARS virus. The

Research and scholarship roundup and scholarship Research years, scientist Mark The SARS (severe acute respira- disease, and renal disease. They other viruses, and they mix and Denison speculates that one in which Denison and his Denison estimates, tory syndrome) virus, which have also been used as an ani- match their genetic material such a variance could have colleagues are most interested researchers have been has devastated parts of Asia and mal model for studying multi- during their normal life cycle. allowed SARS to jump from involves preventing the virus identifying something created a worldwide scare, is a ple sclerosis. So they can generate lots of dif- another as-yet unknown ani- from making proteins. When on the order of one new coronavirus. Suddenly, every- Coronaviruses are found in ferent variances.” mal species to humans. “Any the virus enters the host cell, it 1.humanly recognized or newly one is coming to Denison for many animal species. “They A virus that could live for time something new is intro- makes a polyprotein, a giant emerging human infectious information. He is collaborat- have some fairly novel charac- thousands of years in one host duced into a genetically and protein that contains a number Difficult to grow under laboratory conditions, coronaviruses are disease per year. Advances in ing with the National Institutes teristics,”Denison says. “I call animal species, for example, immunologically naïve popula- of substances, including three responsible for SARS and 30 percent of common colds. the science of microbiology are for Health (NIH) and the Cen- part of the reason. But Denison ters for Disease Control (CDC) enzymes called proteinases. Denison’s research with the says the rate of identification to understand the replication The proteinases chop up the mouse hepatitis virus has also reflects the fact that process of the SARS virus. polyprotein into smaller, func- already shown that, by produc- human beings make it so easy Speaking to Vanderbilt Mag- tional proteins. ing a mutation of that virus, it for viruses to thrive. azine on a recent day during “We’ve shown that if you is possible to stop the virus There are 6.3 billion of us which he had also given inter- can block this process, the virus from cutting the polyprotein dispersed over all parts of the views with CNN, Newsweek, can’t go on,”Denison says. into smaller individual pro- planet, often living in close and a Nashville television sta- “So we’re particularly interest- teins, making it harder for the quarters or jetting across conti- tion, Denison says that, as omi- ed in proteinase inhibitors— virus to grow. nents. And when we’re not nous as the threat from SARS enzymes or chemicals that keep “I’ve worked with coron- spreading viruses around may be, medical researchers are the virus from cutting its own aviruses for 18 years, and some among ourselves, we’re relocat- far ahead of where they were replication proteins.” of my colleagues have worked ing other species or planting when HIV first appeared two Proteinase inhibitors are with them even longer. We monocrops that make it easy decades ago. used in the treatment of HIV. know an awful lot,”he notes. for viruses to spread—as in the “When HIV first appeared, New ones would likely need to “SARS is like the kid down the case of the Irish potato famine. we didn’t know the virus. We be developed to treat SARS. street. We know everything Denison, associate professor didn’t know how it grew, or “We’re also interested in about him. We know his of pediatrics and associate pro- what kind of cells it grows in, working with the NIH and the actions and movements. We fessor of microbiology and or anything about the enzymes CDC to develop a SARS vac- just didn’t expect him to com- immunology, is an expert in or proteins.”However, with a cine,”Denison says. He is par- mit a crime. But we have a lot coronaviruses, which are coronavirus like SARS, Denison ticularly interested in live of places to start. And that’s a responsible for, among other says, “there’s a lot of informa- attenuated vaccines, which compelling argument for the things, 30 percent of common tion in place that can be har- have a reduced capacity to value of doing basic science. colds. For the past 11 years, nessed to develop treatments or grow—as in the case of the The research we’ve done over a Denison has quietly gone about prevention strategies. oral polio vaccine. “They can period of years is now paying his work in the Lamb Center “Coronaviruses live out on still grow and infect people, but huge dividends because with for Pediatric Research, studying the edge of the RNA world,”he because they grow poorly, the SARS, it’s allowed us to learn the mouse hepatitis virus to adds. “RNAs usually can’t be Dr. Mark Denison body has time to build up an so much very quickly.” increase our understanding of very big, but the coronavirus NEIL BRAKE immune response.” >>

24 Spring 2003 V anderbilt Magazine 25 Woo-kyoung Ahn Personal Theories Ahn. She and Kim hope data from sensors attached to For another, it turns out that and had come up with an extract and analyze the data and the Diagnosis their findings will have an the body in order to interpret researchers in different disci- intriguing idea. A specialist in quickly will also be applicable of Mental Disorders impact on future editions emotional state, treat it as plines speak slightly different cognitive studies at Peabody to many other psychology of the DSM. Funding for important information, and procedural and conceptual lan- College, the project interested research projects.” When your their work came from the respond to human needs guages, making cross-discipli- him. Learning about robot cog- In their research, the profes- therapist tells you National Science Founda- quickly and usefully. nary collaboration more nition might shed light on sors used heartbeat, facial-mus- you’re depressed or tion and the National Insti- “There is a lot of communi- challenging than either profes- human cognition. cle movement and hand-sweat bipolar or have a tute of Mental Health. cation that is implicit between sor expected. Pooling their academic sensors on human subjects and borderline personal- In their study, Ahn and two persons,”says Assistant Sarkar had read a great deal expertise and resources, the monitored these physiological ity disorder, you depend on that Kim had 35 clinicians and Professor of Mechanical Engi- about physiological responses two professors began to learn markers while the subjects 2.diagnosis to be based on facts. 25 clinical trainees per- neering Nilanjan Sarkar. “We to emotions and knew the some tricks of the other’s trade. played video games. The For 22 years the Diagnostic form four tasks. They study each other’s faces and robot would need to be able to “It was a little bit of a cul- research demonstrated some and Statistical Manual of Men- measured participants’ body language to see how the learn its individual human’s ture shock for both of us,” patterns of stress response tal Health Disorders,fourth theoretical views by having other person reacts.”Other response patterns. He also Smith says. “Engineering focus- when analyzed with wavelet edition (DSM-IV), with its 300 them draw relationships robotics researchers have used knew that he would need to es on getting something to analysis and fuzzy logic. They diagnoses has been the clinical- between the symptoms of cameras to capture visual clues find a collaborator in psycholo- work. Research in psychology liken their approach to that ly accepted therapist’s bible. It’s some disorders. Next, the to emotion, but Sarkar wanted gy to help him design the focuses on testing a hypothesis used by voice and handwriting routinely used to assess and subjects identified the rela- to focus on physiological mani- human-subject research. to infer causality.” recognition systems: gathering determine patient diagnosis in tive importance of symp- festations of emotion, such as Vanderbilt Associate Profes- “One of our biggest chal- baseline information about NEIL BRAKE the mental health field. Even so, toms associated with heartbeat. sor of Psychology Craig Smith lenges was to enable the robot each person and analyzing it to a recent study from two Van- disorders, and then they diag- symptoms. They observed the Robot Fridays Like most engineering prob- admits he was prepared to to extract data in real time so identify the responses associat- derbilt researchers has found nosed hypothetical cases. Sev- clinicians and students were lems, it turns out to be compli- reject Sarkar’s idea until he that it would not be lost forever ed with different mental states. therapists’ objectivity can be eral hours later they tested more likely to remember symp- “I sense that you cated. For one thing, individual realized the engineer had done in thought,”Smith says. “The The preliminary concepts clouded by personal beliefs. participants’ memories of the toms correctly if they judged are anxious. Is there human beings don’t have the his homework in psychology tools and techniques we used to and results of the research were And that clouding can impact symptoms of the patients they them to be central to a given anything I can do to same physical reactions to reported in the Robotica Jour- help?” the diagnosis they attach to you diagnosed. disorder. On the other hand, their emotions. There is a Graduate student nal, published by Cambridge and the kind of care you The researchers found the they were far more likely to for- No,it’s not your great deal of individual vari- Pramila Rani wears University Press. The article receive. test group held complicated get symptoms they considered therapist or your mother; it’s ation; some people make emotion sensors touched off a flurry of general 3.your robot asking the question. that provide data It’s a finding Woo-kyoung theories about various disor- peripheral. facial gestures while others’ to the robot about science and news media articles Ahn, associate professor of ders—ranging from schizo- Even more striking was how There’s no point in telling this heart rates skyrocket. Any her moods. and broadcasts on the profes- psychology at Vanderbilt, and phrenia, major depression and clinicians’ theories affected their robot “No, I’m fine,”because emotion-sensing robot must sors’ research. co-researcher Nancy Kim, a anorexia nervosa to a variety of memories of patients’ symp- your heart rate and sweaty be able to read the emotions Since then, the research visiting faculty member from personality disorders—and the toms. When they diagnosed palms have already given the of its particular human; team has taught the robot to Wesleyan University, have relative importance of various patients with a specific disorder game away. And your robot is universal patterns of emo- decide whether to protect itself, uncovered in their work. Their symptoms. Concurrently, the who did not have some of the right: Your anxiety could well tional response don’t exist. sound alarms, or move to assist results were published in individuals’ personal theories symptoms that the clinicians signal that something impor- the person. tant is going wrong, which December in the Journal of varied greatly. considered central, they were Nilanjan Future research will involve Experimental Psychology. In general, such theorizing likely to remember that the could be extremely crucial Sarkar and additional sensors such as elec- “Clinical psychologists have appears to be part of human patients had these key symp- information if you’re working Craig Smith troencephalogram (EEG) been told they should make nature and is not necessarily toms when, in fact, they did not. underwater or out in space. brainwave monitors and addi- their diagnoses based solely on bad, says Ahn. At the same Ahn predicts these problems Emotionally sensitive robots tional measures of cardiovascu- a checklist of symptoms. But time, because there is no basic will be even more pronounced that can interpret the body’s lar activity. One of the most our results [find that they] are understanding of the underly- when clinicians are dealing physiological signals would formidable challenges they face significantly more likely to ing causes of mental illness, the with real patients. “I think this enjoy obvious advantages in is to find a way to discriminate diagnose patients with a mental clinicians’ individual theories effect may actually be stronger being able to respond more between high levels of anxiety disorder when the person can be idiosyncratic and lead to because many more ambigui- rapidly and helpfully to situa- and engagement. These two exhibits symptoms that are cen- conflicting diagnoses. ties surface when working with tions that are confronting their states are accompanied by tral in the clinician’s own theo- And there’s more. Ahn and actual patients. For instance, human masters. This was the physiological responses that are ries. Similarly, they are far less Kim found individual theories clinicians’ theories may influ- motivation that inspired one of much closer to each other than likely to make the same diagno- held by clinicians about a given ence their interpretation of the robotics laboratories at the either of them are to low levels sis for a patient with symptoms disorder affected the diagnoses. patients’ symptoms or charac- Vanderbilt University School of of anxiety or engagement. Engineering to develop a robot they consider to be peripheral This, in turn, influenced the cli- teristics, such as mood or level PHOTOS BY DANIEL DUBOIS “This is the really big one,” [to their own theories],”says nicians’ recollection of patients’ of hygiene.” that can mine physiological Smith says.

26 Spring 2003 V anderbilt Magazine 27 infection or other problem in But isoprostanes are not the power plants of cells—use “Together the two of them pro- High-Intake Oxygen Oxygen bars Can Be Harmful have sprung up the lung?” he asks. perfect measures of free-radical oxygen in a complex series of vide a complete picture of oxi- in malls across Roberts and colleagues, processes. Because the forma- energy-generating chemical dant stress.” At health spas, the country. including Dr. Jeffrey Balser, the tion of these compounds reactions. They also generate The two also can serve as a mall kiosks and James Tayloe Gwathmey Profes- becomes disfavored when free radicals. When mitochon- sort of “oxygen sensor,”say Fes- “oxygen bars” across sor and Chair of Anesthesiolo- oxygen levels climb above 21 dria are not fully functional, sel and Roberts. The researchers the country, people gy,and Dr. Kenneth Smithson, percent, they do not provide oxygen levels inside the cell found that the ratio of isofuran are paying to breathe assistant professor of anesthesi- an accurate measure of free- theoretically climb. Roberts to isoprostane concentrations oxygen.For about a dollar a ology, are launching a clinical radical reactions that occur in and Fessel postulated that free- in normal tissues—the com- minute,4. enthusiasts inhale 95 study to evaluate how free- the presence of high oxygen radical activity under these pounds are produced by ongo- percent oxygen — air offers a radical processes might impact concentrations. The isofurans conditions might result in iso- ing free-radical processes— paltry 21 percent O2 — and lung function in surgery overcome this limitation. High furan production. provides an indication of tissue report that it relieves a variety patients. The study could sug- oxygen levels favor the chemical Indeed, they found that iso- oxygenation. In oxygen-rich of maladies from hangovers to gest that lower oxygen levels reactions that produce isofu- furan levels were elevated in tissues like the brain and kid- headaches. would be beneficial, say Roberts rans, making them useful indi- brain tissue samples from ney, isofuran levels were two to The practice may be a bad and Fessel, or that antioxidant cators of free-radical damage in Parkinson’s patients—Parkin- three times higher than iso- idea, according to Vanderbilt interventions should be tested high-oxygen settings like hyper- son’s disease is known to prostane levels. In the oxygen- University Medical Center sci- to prevent free-radical damage. oxia-induced lung injury, as the involve mitochondrial dysfunc- poor liver, isoprostanes entists who are studying the The newly identified isofu- investigators showed, and for tion—whereas isoprostane lev- predominated. damaging effects of free radi- rans are actually the second set other oxygen-associated disease els were unchanged. The “The isofuran/isoprostane cals—highly reactive molecules of compounds Roberts and states like retinopathy of pre- investigators will continue to ratio is really a measure of derived from oxygen. colleagues have linked to free- maturity. explore disease states where steady-state tissue oxygena- “We’re starting to think radical processes. The group’s The investigators also have mitochondrial dysfunction is tion,”says Fessel. The ratio that oxygen is not as benign as 1990 discovery of isoprostanes, measured isofurans to assess thought to play a role. should be useful for studying many believe it is,”said Dr. L. prostaglandin-like products of oxidative injury in disease “Measuring isofurans really disease states where oxygen Jackson Roberts II, professor of free-radical injury, made it pos- states involving mitochondrial complements measuring iso- supply is perturbed, like pharmacology and medicine. AP WIDEWORLD PHOTOS sible for researchers to detect dysfunction. Mitochondria— prostanes,”Roberts says. peripheral vascular disease, or Roberts and Joshua P.Fessel, an Academy of Sciences, demon- interventions like antioxidants, “Most physicians are cer- and monitor free-radical for assessing the effective- M.D./Ph.D. student, have dis- strate that free-radical processes the researchers report. tainly aware that extended peri- reactions in human beings ness of so-called “blood covered a new class of com- are at work in hyperoxia- “The question is, is there ods of exposure to 100 percent for the first time. Measur- substitutes”— com- pounds, called isofurans, which induced lung injury.“We sus- something we can do that oxygen is harmful, but three ing isoprostanes quickly pounds that carry oxygen form when free radicals attack pected this to be the case, but would allow clinicians to actu- hours would not be considered became the “gold standard to tissues, he says. cell membrane lipids. Isofu- we didn’t have the tools to show ally use higher concentrations an extended period of time,” in the field,”says Roberts, Other authors of the rans, whose production is it until now,”says Roberts. of oxygen safely, and therefore Fessel says. The short time and it has been used to PNAS study include Ned favored by high oxygen concen- Hyperoxia-induced lung better oxygenate patients who frame of free-radical damage implicate free radicals in A. Porter, Stevenson Pro- trations, are expected to be a injury is a key problem in are sick?” asks Roberts. “We opens questions about poten- disease processes ranging fessor of Chemistry; Dr. useful tool for assessing the role intensive care units. Patients on don’t know yet, but now we tial damage to the lungs of from atherosclerosis to James R. Sheller, associate of free radicals and oxidative ventilators can only breathe have a way to monitor that.” patients who breathe 100 per- neurodegeneration. professor of medicine; injury in disease and for evalu- oxygen concentrations up to 60 The fact that isofuran levels cent oxygen during surgical and Dr. Kevin P.Moore ating the effectiveness of percent for prolonged periods increased in the lung after only procedures and to the lungs of Dr. Jackson Roberts (left) of the Royal Free and and Joshua Fessel have antioxidant therapies. of time. Higher concentra- three hours of exposure to 100 those “oxygen bar” enthusiasts. discovered a new class of University College Med- Already, the investigators tions—though of potential percent oxygen—indicating For a healthy individual, compounds, called isofurans, ical School in London. have demonstrated that isofu- benefit to the body’s organs— that free-radical damage is a any damage that results from which form when free radi- The work was supported ran levels increase when ani- cals attack cell membrane lead to severe lung damage. very early event—surprised the breathing high concentrations lipids and whose production by the National Institutes mals breathe 100 percent The ability to measure iso- researchers. They also found of oxygen for a short time is is favored by high oxygen of Health and the oxygen for as little as three furan production will make it evidence for the release of a likely to be insignificant and concentrations. According PhRMA Foundation. hours. These findings, part of possible to study the oxygen- trigger for programmed cell spontaneously repaired, Fessel to Roberts, “we’re starting to think that oxygen is not the group’s work reported in induced damage and to evalu- death, cytochrome c, in the says. “But what about the per- as benign as many believe

the Proceedings of the National ate potential therapeutic lung at three hours. son who has some underlying it is.” NEIL BRAKE

For more information about stories in Bright Ideas, visit Vanderbilt’s online research journal, Exploration, at http://exploration.vanderbilt.edu.

28 Spring 2003 V anderbilt Magazine 29 InClass

What Doth It Profit a Man? Bart Victor teaches Vanderbilt business students how to do the right thing.

A spotlight on faculty and their work on faculty A spotlight By PAUL KINGSBURY, BA’80

t’s a Wednesday afternoon in meeting the company’s quarterly sales goals: sidered acceptable behavior in pursuit of busi- March. Spring is in the air, the cam- “Make the numbers, but don’t do anything ness goals. But as the session winds down, it’s pus is in bloom, and in Room 222 stupid.”As one of the student presenters notes, clear that “making the numbers”—and how of Management Hall, the class is it certainly looks like a rather transparent one does that—is the heart of the matter. wrestling with right and wrong. code for “Don’t get caught.” “You’re going to have the responsibility “So we’ve got lying, stealing, cheat- As the three students wrap up their pres- for sales targets,”Bart Victor reminds the twen- ing,”Professor Bart Victor says, sum- entation, a series of questions comes from a ty-something students. “You’re going to be ming up a host of ethical breakdowns classmate: But why is making your numbers responsible for people’s behavior, even when that plagued eye-care giant Bausch you can’t watch them.” & Lomb in the 1980s and ’90s, and Anyone put off by the pious ring Iwhich directly led to a slump in the of “professor of moral leadership” company’s fortunes. “Sounds like a would be immediately disarmed upon country song.”A beat.“Without ethics, meeting Bart Victor. On a spring you know, there would be no coun- morning in his third-floor Owen try music.”Big laugh. Welcome to the office, dressed casually in khakis, Ethics in Business course, spring 2003. loafers and black polo shirt, with his Bart Victor, the Cal Turner Pro- feet occasionally propped on a pulled- fessor of Moral Leadership at the out desk drawer, the 48-year-old busi- Owen Graduate School of Manage- ness professor seems nearly as ment, keeps the mood light, roam- unguarded and informal as the stu- ing around the cozy amphitheater-style dents he teaches. At the same time, classroom like a standup comic vis- though, his conversation crackles iting tables at a nightclub, tossing out continued on page 84 the occasional quip. But there’s seri- ous thinking going on here, too, as he asks tough questions and pushes JIM HSIEH {Suggested Reading} the class of about 40 MBA students to con- wrong? Isn’t that standard business practice? front the inevitable friction that comes from If you’re a company that disregards the num- 1. Defining Moments:The Discipline of the Golden Rule bumping up against the Prof- bers, are you going to be around very long?” Building Character, Joseph Badaracco it Motive. Hearing this, Bart Victor’s face lights up, (Harvard Business School Press, 2001) For about 20 minutes during the 90-minute and he says, “Now you’ve got something 2.God the Economist, M. Douglas Meeks session, Victor turns the class over to three there,”and he urges the students to grap- (Fortress Press, 1989) students, who assess where B&L went wrong ple with the issue. 3.Development as Freedom, Amartya Sen and how the company could have stayed on The student presenters do a creditable (Knopf, 2001) the straight and narrow. In their PowerPoint job of fielding these tough, fundamental 4.Crimes of Obedience, Herbert Kelman presentation, they display a bombshell of a questions and, challenged by the professor, and Lee Hamilton (Yale Press, 1989) directive from B&L CEO Daniel Gill about the class openly discusses just what is con- NEIL BRAKE Bart Victor

30 Spring 2003 By LABAN CARRICK HILL COM PRO MISEIN THE CLASS ROOM Do new standardized-testing policies limit a teacher’s ability to educate students properly?

Illustrations by WESLEY BEDROSIAN

32 Spring 2003 V anderbilt Magazine 33 e are a country obsessed with measuring. If we can’t quantify formance by poverty levels, race, ethnicities, qualified to teach, but he had to fill those Meigs Magnet School in Nashville, confirms disabilities, and limited English proficien- slots. He hired two teachers whom he never Myers’s conclusions about student achieve- it, then a value cannot be placed on it. In a market economy, something cies to ensure that no child—regardless of would have hired if he were not desperate.” ment. “If you were to grade my ability as a his or her background—is left behind. No amount of certification requirements teacher by standardized tests, you would without a specific value cannot be put up for sale and cannot be bought. In While on the surface this new act seems will help children learn if no teachers are have given me a failing grade at Jere Baxter not only admirable, but also badly needed, available to do the job. Myers suspects the Middle School and an ‘A’ at Meigs Magnet short, it cannot be a part of the economy. The way President Bush’s 2001 many education professionals already have tough new teacher standards are simply a School, even though I as a teacher did not questioned the innovation of its provisions. new way to avoid funding education at the change. At Baxter the biggest problem was “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) Act is designed seemed to be based on these W Charles B. Myers, emeritus professor of so- levels necessary to attract good teachers. getting the kids to school and getting them simple truths, which also suggests why it has received unprecedented sup- cial studies education at Peabody College, “Paying for testing is a lot cheaper than ac- to focus in the class. They had so many so- finds himself a bit cynical when he thinks tually spending the money needed to im- cial and economic issues outside school that port. The bill passed the House of Representatives by a 381 to 41 margin about the NCLB Act. “We’ve been develop- prove schools,” says Myers. If a school can- dominated their lives that whatever was ing standards of accountability for social not find a certified teacher because and the Senate 87 to 10. The No Child Left Behind Act became law Jan. 1, studies teachers and colleges and universities there are none, the best standards teaching social studies teachers for five in the world will do no good. 2002. At the core of the NCLB legislation is standardized testing in reading, years,”explains Myers.“This is nothing new.” “There have to be teachers to Myers also questions the effectiveness of hold accountable, and that is math and science to quantify the success or failure of America’s schools. This standards when, in many school districts, just not the case everywhere.” having a certified teacher in the classroom is The program at which My- kind of testing is meant not only to measure student progress, but is also an a luxury. In places like California and New ers levels his most withering incentive to change the culture of the nation’s schools. York City, where dramatic teacher shortages criticism is NCLB’s “Adequate have existed for years, sometimes the most a Yearly Progress” program, which district can hope for is a warm body in requires schools to give students The belief that our schools have failed in increase over 2000 levels. “These reforms every classroom. For the current 2002–03 achievement tests every year from teaching our kids what they need to know express my deep belief in our public schools school year, New York City has more than third through eighth grades. has been increasing in recent years. Accord- and their mission to build the mind and 8,000 teachers who are not certified in the “Testing isn’t going to make poor ing to the U.S. Department of Education, character of every child, from every back- classrooms. It is clearly unrealistic for the students better or make teachers 88 percent of the United States public sup- ground, in every part of America,”President New York City School Board to insist on full more effective. Yearly testing is just ports raising standards and requiring grad- Bush said during his first week in office in certification if the consequences are class- a bigger hammer to hit teachers uation exams, which suggests a real belief January 2001. rooms with no teachers. Myers recalls talk- with,”argues Myers. that schools are not performing. Beginning At the center of the law is a big stick ing to a school principal from a rural dis- Alecia Ford, MEd’97 (Peabody), who with the Nation at Risk report nearly 20 called “Adequate Yearly Progress” (AYP), an trict. “He had two openings in his school has taught sixth grade at Jere Baxter years ago, there has been a vigorous nation- ambitious program set up to hold school and advertised widely for teachers. None of Middle School, an inner-city al debate over how to improve our nation’s districts and schools accountable for their the applicants who applied for the job was school, and now teaches at schools and our children’s achievement. students’ performance in the core content The NCLB Act responds to these con- subjects of reading, math and science. cerns by attempting to give schools and dis- While AYP does not tell states what stan- tricts greater flexibility and control, to re- dards their students must meet, it does in- While “Adequate Yearly Progress” does not tell states quire only scientifically proven teaching sist that states create clear guideposts that methods, and to hold schools accountable students, teachers, parents and administra- what standards their students must meet, it does insist for results. NCLB is the largest education tors can measure for academic achieve- law passed in more than 35 years, when ment. The NCLB Act requires states to cre- that states create clear guideposts that students, Congress passed President Lyndon John- ate annual assessments that measure what teachers, parents and administrators son’s Elementary and Secondary Education children know and can do in reading and Act. The NCLB law increased education math in grades three through eight. One of can measure for academic achievement. spending to more than $22.1 billion—a 27 the innovations of this law is the insistence percent increase over 2001 and a 49 percent that states provide data on student per-

34 Spring 2003 V anderbilt Magazine 35 to keep hearing that what I need to be doing very hard for teachers,”explains Evertson. to distinguish between random variation in One of the other truths that standardized testing is teaching skills and essentially bore them She uses an example of a friend who had performance outcomes and real changes that to death.”Elkins is a proponent of the Accel- to integrate a new reading strategy mandate may occur. Second, always use performance does not address is that many students erated Reading Program in her school, into her classroom in the middle of the outcomes to understand and improve the which provides real incentives for reading. school year. “By the time the new policy system. Third, never use performance out- who fall behind do not catch up in She worries, however, that this successful came down, she already had each child on a comes simply to reward or punish individual program is being crowded out of the cur- reading level matching both where they employees.” They stress that management by high school. Instead, they drop out. riculum because it is not measured on a test. were and where they needed to go. She had fear encourages teachers to find ways to beat In fact, the pressure of these tests can help to She argues that a love for reading is a skill managed to individualize her whole class for the system, and they suggest that programs that will enrich students for their entire reading, which is extraordinary. The stu- like “Adequate Yearly Progress” are setting push these students out even faster. lives, rather than for a short-term goal like a dents were doing well and enjoyed reading, themselves up for disaster because they em- test. For her this is the kind of sacrifice edu- and they could move to more difficult phasize rewards and penalties without giving cation is making for higher test scores. books. Each child had his or her own plan. any real power to the teacher who is ulti- According to Myers, one of the other of success. “I’ve seen this happen so many Elkins explains that at the end of the Then the directive came down that each mately rewarded or punished. truths that standardized testing does not times that teachers can get overwhelmed by year, standardized test scores provide the ba- teacher must create three reading groups in “Consider the case in which the annual address is that many students who fall the sheer amount of work it takes to make sis of her evaluation as a teacher. Whether the classroom. This teacher just decided to bonus of a teacher is based on the perform- behind do not catch up in high learning a priority,” she explains. “These her students gained an enthusiasm for read- divide the kids up in three groups while still ance of students on standardized annual school. Instead, they drop out. new programs may last a couple of years ing that will carry them through life, utilizing their own plans so that when tests,”they write. “On the surface, the policy In fact, the pressure of these and then something new comes along. whether children read Greek mythology, is someone came to see if the directive was im- appears to be a good idea. But this policy vi- tests can help to push these stu- Some teachers manage to work new trends not important to the way she is measured. plemented, what he saw was three groups.” olates key rules of quality management. dents out even faster. Myers has found that into the classroom the best they can. Other Evertson tries to put the potential trou- Though the new mandate may have been That teacher has no control over the quality happening in the classroom could not com- it is not unusual for 75 percent of a class en- teachers just have to start from scratch and bles into perspective. “Suppose you’re a smart policy, to ask this teacher to abandon a and makeup of the incoming class, no con- pete. Most issues I dealt with in the class- tering an inner-city high school to test be- restructure, and still others may ignore it. ” teacher who has worked out a way for those strategy that was obviously working in order trol over whether the current year’s test is room were social, not academic. At Meigs, low level, and for this same class to have a “If we add a new element,”Evertson wor- who need more help in reading to get that to conform to the new mandate did not sim- similar to the previous year’s test, and no on the other hand, there have been no prob- graduation rate of 40 to 80 percent. On the ries,“the assumption of policymakers is that help, and the kids who need more help in ply mean more work for the teacher, but also control over random statistical variations.” lems like that. The parents are involved and surface it appears this class has made great it’s just additive, like beads on a string. math to get that help. And suppose you’ve potential harm to her students’ learning. It The consequence of this kind of quality focused on preparing their kids at home for strides to catch up. In reality, the majority of You’re just adding another bead. In reality it also put together groups of students work- categorically dismissed her classroom deci- management is a system that rewards school. The kids are ready and willing to failing students have dropped out because is much more complicated. A new mandate ing together to help each other, along with sions and attempted to impose a new order “teachers and administrators who divert learn without real-life distractions. The peer they have no chance of passing the stan- can add a geometrical complexity to teach- a whole-class situation in which there is that contradicted what was already working. their attention from other subjects to spend pressure at Meigs is focused on learning.” dardized graduation exam. In this case the ing, especially if teachers are trying to create some direct teaching. All of this is orches- Business management consultants John an inordinate amount of time teaching to Myers uses the example of his wife, who standardized test functions to discourage a classroom in which students have owner- trated throughout the day through a system Maleyeff, an associate professor at Rensse- the test.” Maleyeff and Kaminsky conclude taught first grade, to illustrate another prob- students from staying in school. Again, My- ship in what they do, or if some children of procedures that have become routine. laer Polytechnic Institute in the Lally School that relying on this system is no better than lem standardized testing cannot adequately ers sees a lack of funding beyond creating have different educational plans from other Then there’s a new mandate in which the of Management and Technology, and Frank rewarding teachers and schools on the basis measure. “When my wife taught first grade and administering the standardized tests. students. I’m thinking particularly of spe- focus is for all students to have high scores C. Kaminsky, professor emeritus in the Col- of a coin toss. in an inner-city elementary school in His fear is that preparing students to pass cial-needs kids as well as gifted kids. We’ve on achievement tests. This new emphasis lege of Engineering at the University of Peabody graduate and schoolteacher Ale- Nashville, she had 25 or 26 children in her these tests will become the primary educa- known for a long time that for all students doesn’t just add a bead to the string. It adds Massachusetts–Amherst, echoed Evertson’s cia Ford likes to make the distinction be- class. By the end of the year, at least 18 of tion goal, not the retention of those students to succeed, we have to differentiate so that a higher level of complexity that has to be concerns recently in an editorial in the tween constructive uses of statistics and those children who had begun the year in falling behind. children have access to learning in the ways sorted through in all those different ways in Hartfort Courant. Like Evertson and most punitive abuses. She cites a recent article in her class had moved away and had been re- When it comes to what happens in the they learn best.” which each class functions.” every other educator, they support the use the Tennessean newspaper that listed all the placed by new students. In addition, more classroom, Carolyn Evertson, professor of Anne Marie Elkins, MEd’95 (Peabody), a Evertson’s concern arises out of years of of standardized testing in schools. scores of local schools and broke down the than 20 of those children lived for some education in the Department of Teaching sixth-grade teacher at Isaac Young Middle working with and observing teachers in the Maleyeff and Kaminsky, however, “have schools into economic class and ethnicity of time during the year with an adult in the and Learning at Peabody College, has spent School in Hendersonville, Tenn., knows ex- classroom. She cannot overemphasize how serious concerns about the way tests are be- their students.“The problem I had with that home who was not a parent.” Myers makes her career working with teachers on class- actly what she has to sacrifice because of in- complex it is first to try to meet the needs of ing implemented and the way the results are article was that it made certain schools and this point because he says the two factors room management. Her work is concerned creased standardized testing. “I’m a litera- children who are much more diverse than in being interpreted.” They stress three impor- teachers appear bad. Statistics are helpful to that influence student achievement most are with creating conditions in which children ture teacher,” she says. “If a child is going to the past and then to do justice to a mandate tant rules of effective quality management informed educators because they can use the teacher in the classroom and the child’s can learn. Over the years she has seen new continue to love reading, the sixth grade is no matter how wise or how needed it is.“It’s that must be adhered to if the testing is to be the information to respond to those who are life at home. programs come and go with varying degrees the time to help solidify that. It gets a bit old just an organizational complexity that is effective.“First, always use statistical methods not doing well. But to simply label a school

36 Spring 2003 V anderbilt Magazine 37 or teacher bad is not helpful at all.” same stuff. That obviously didn’t work. All formation for,” she explains. “That can help He wrote that “a narrow curriculum clips Recent graduate Elizabeth Amy Bantly, The American Federation of Teachers … the act does at this point is test to see who’s school districts spend their money wisely, the wings of creative, enthusiastic teachers. BS’02 (Peabody), who teaches sixth grade at reading in fourth and fifth grade. What if both in purchasing materials and the money There is a way to maintain standardized H.G. Hill Middle School in Nashville, feels insists that teachers participate they’re not? Then what?” they spend in professional development. state testing … and to keep teachers reach- this public accounting is good for schools Myers suggests that teachers and schools Generally, I think the move to try to put into ing toward their ‘Mr. Chips’ potential, too. and communities. “We have to demonstrate in the creation, implementation and already know who is not performing and place evaluative criteria of educational prac- Use tests in combination with other evalua- quality to the outside world,” she explains. evaluation of standardized tests, that sufficient that standardized tests, therefore, provide re- tices that rely on scientific evidence is a tions. By having teachers assign a practical “The public is not there with us every day, dundant information. He sees the increased good thing, not a bad thing. If I had a child demonstration of student knowledge, like a and they don’t know what we’re teaching funding is provided for struggling students, and that the tests testing as an unnecessary and inadequate of school age, I would rather have my child term paper or oral presentation, we get a and how the students are learning, so [stan- effort to improve student learning. “These in a classroom for which the school district more complete understanding of a student’s dardized testing provides] an outside indi- are used only for the purposes for which they were designed. tests are really good at assigning blame, but has invested its dollars in methods for which skills, underscore the value of teaching sub- cator of these things.” In her first year of not particularly successful at solving the there is scientific evidence showing it pro- jects not measured on state tests, and keep teaching, she has not felt a lot of pressure to problem.”He would like to see more of these duces a good outcome.” teacher motivation high.” completely change the curriculum. She re- when the tests become high stakes that it be- to know for the next day’s lesson. So there funds diverted into solutions. Ironically, Reading First and Early Read- “I think one of the issues state education mains optimistic, saying, “I think they want comes a problem. Even the [college-level] are different needs of assessment across the One bright spot in the NCLB Act is the ing First hold the most promise for stu- leaders are struggling with,” cautions Fuchs, us to do what’s best for the kids.” GRE and SAT exams make allowances for educational endeavor. The concern I have is work that Lynn Fuchs, professor of special dents, teachers, schools and parents even “is what they use for their statewide assess- Still, Evertson worries because a stan- taking the tests orally; I haven’t heard about that the act doesn’t deal as much with teach- education at Peabody College, has done for though its emphasis is on preschoolers ment, what they can use for tracking annual- dardized test doesn’t measure everything a much of that kind of accommodation [in ing as it does with assessing. If we start put- the “Reading First” program. Reading First through third graders. The majority of the ly, and how those assessments align and don’t school teaches.“People who believe achieve- the AYP program]. The assumption is that ting a limited pie of resources into addition- is a $900 million state grant program that NCLB Act focuses primarily on third align. To some extent, the people in Washing- ment tests are valueless really miss the kids should be able to take these tests.” al assessment, then some of the good things promotes the use of scientifically based re- through eighth grades and does not provide ton are trying to figure that out, too.” point,” she explains. “It truly is important, Bantly concedes that Evertson’s concerns that could be happening in terms of instruc- search to provide high-quality reading in- the kind of support that the Reading First Finally, Fuchs tries to put the new act for example, that third graders have certain are valid. “For some students testing is a tion will go away.” Though Kinzer admits it struction for grades K–3. “I served on the and Early Reading First programs offer. into perspective as its first-year anniversary basic skills such as number sense, word good representation of their abilities, but is too early to tell if this will actually hap- reading assessment committee for develop- Recently, the American Federation of passes. “With any major initiative there are recognition and vocabulary, and testing can with others not so. I have some students who pen, he feels strongly that these issues must ing guidelines to examine the technical fea- Teachers (AFT) passed a resolution on stan- likely to be good things that come from it serve a purpose in determining this. But, have learning and attention difficulties, and I be raised early. tures of reading tests,”explains Fuchs of her dards-based assessment and accountability and unanticipated outcomes that are not conversely, not performing well on the test know they are a lot smarter than the tests. “So much of what you hear in the popu- work for the U.S. Department of Education. that attempts to provide guidance for the what you hoped for,” she says. “Who knows doesn’t necessarily mean that students are They might test on a third-grade level, but I lar press—and that’s where perceptions get “That process is one that states need to use AYP program. In the resolution the AFT on balance how this will go, but I think it’s not going to do well in school. Other things know they can read on a sixth-grade level.” formed on the part of parents—is that we’re as they incorporate assessments into their stated it supports “appropriate, high-quality worth trying to infuse the educational sys- come into play. Kids who don’t do well on Charles Kinzer, former professor of going to do state tests and we’re going to do Reading First applications [for grant mon- testing” but “continues to oppose the abuse, tem with standards that help school districts tests, but learn through different modalities, teaching and learning at Peabody College national tests and we’re going to make sure ey]. I was also on the assessment and in- misuse and overuse of standardized testing.” spend their money wisely. If you look at Ti- may not have the opportunity to use those and now at Columbia University, finds the that no child is left behind because we’ll be struction committees for Early Reading The organization also insists that teachers tle One, for example, there has been an modalities on the test. Let’s say I understand insistence on one kind of assessment trou- able to figure out who is not learning,”Kinz- First, a program for preschoolers. These participate in the creation, implementation enormous amount of money spent on a concept if I see it represented in pictures. If bling. “There are lots of ways to assess,” he er says.“But there is very little in the act that committees are shaping what states need to and evaluation of standardized tests, that things with no evidence that they work. As a I am tested with words, I may not do very says. “Teachers assess when they grade addresses what to do once we figure out do as they develop their applications for sufficient funding is provided for struggling taxpayer, I think people in this country want well even though I know the basic concept. I homework. Teachers assess when they see who’s not learning. We already know that in Reading First money.” students, and that the tests are used only for to feel that their money is being spent wise- won’t be able to show my understanding in people on the playground sitting by them- fourth grade, we have this tail-off. Some Fuchs, who is also a research-program the purposes for which they were designed. ly, even though there are not clear-cut an- a text-based mode. selves and not interacting with other kids. If children do really well in the second grade director in Vanderbilt’s John F. Kennedy Finally, the resolution asks that other kinds swers. We would like to know in the mean- “Tests are useful, but limited, tools for as- they’re not socialized into the classroom, and third grade, but when they hit the con- Center for Research on Human Develop- of student evaluation be used on an equal time that the best information we have is sessing what students know. They typically they’re not learning as well as they could. So tent areas, they don’t learn as well as they ment, is excited about the work she has basis. In short, the AFT supports standard- being used.” V cover a pretty narrow range of skills. And if there are lots of different kinds of assess- could. That transition from ‘learning to done because this program will give school ized testing as long as it is not the only eval- Laban Hill is currently working on a read- they are given the proper weight in the larg- ment going on, including standardized. read’ to ‘reading to learn’ gets stalled. They districts the kind of information they need uation tool. er’s guide to Jonathan Franzen’s Pulitzer er picture of student assessment, they pro- What people forget is that there are lots of have learned to read stories OK, but when to make good choices. “School districts can Marc Bernstein, president of Kaplan K12 Prize-winning novel, The Corrections, and is vide important information (when com- goals and needs for assessment, such as the they get hit with textbooks, they tail off. The look at the available methods out there that Services and a former math teacher and writing a cultural history of the Sixties. His bined with other things) to help teachers needs for a school board that is going to be NCLB Act is good at identifying effective they can invest their resources in, and have school superintendent, argued in a letter to cultural history of the Harlem Renaissance, understand what needs to be taught or re- ordering textbooks. The kinds of scores and early reading strategies, but when kids hit the information about which of those pro- the New York Times editorial page that Harlem Stomp!, was recently published by taught. But not all students are able to show information they need is different in some the fourth grade and fifth grade, the act pro- cedures produce which kinds of effects and “teachers are handicapped when too much Little, Brown. He lives in Vermont with his what they know through formal testing. It’s ways than what the classroom teacher needs vides no direction. It can’t be more of the which of those procedures there’s just no in- emphasis is placed on standardized testing.” wife and two daughters.

38 Spring 2003 V anderbilt Magazine 39 By LISA DUBOIS

ommy Frist Jr. loves to take calculated risks. And when he sets out to do Tsomething — anything — he hates to lose. Not that he spends a long time celebrating when he wins, because he’s never been one to gloat or brag. Victory is fun, sure, but it’s the pursuit THETHEPart pragmatist, of victory that truly gives him a thrill. Frist’s love of the chase, his ability to set and meet goals, and his driving competitive spirit define his personal- ity. These traits also help explain how THRILLTHRILLpart dreamer, he has managed, in 34 years, to build, salvage and rebuild the nation’s largest for-profit hospital network; to rescue and re-secure the United Way of Middle Tennessee; and to provide part risk-taker, OFOF ITIT the financial backing to convert an old post office into a sparkling down- town-Nashville art museum. He has a trophy list of broken bones from ski- ing too fast, turning a snowmobile To mmy Frist loves the competitive chase ALLALL too sharply, and biking too soon after hip-replacement surgery. And he’s relished every minute. Completely devoted to his parents, wife, children and friends, he wouldn’t want to live his life over, he says, because he’s afraid he might mess something up on the second go-round.

40 Spring 2003 NEIL BRAKE V anderbilt Magazine 41 Although he has net assets worth billions or 24 months, I ended up with $300,000.” was going to start a for-profit hospital com- friends with Frank Drowata, BA’60, JD’65 He also sold and spun off the under-perform- headlines Frist had spent his career trying to and has spearheaded numerous philan- Even so, Frist was naïve about the world of pany. He made me feel like a heathen.” (now chief justice of the Tennessee Supreme ing small, rural properties into HealthTrust avoid. On a tip that Columbia/HCA hospitals thropic endeavors in his hometown of business. In order to protect his investment, The risk paid off. By 1970 HCA was listed Court), and Steve Riven, BA’60 (now a man- Inc., an employee stock ownership plan. were engaging in Medicare fraud, in March of Nashville and across the nation, Tommy he says, he made his little children eat fried on the New York Stock Exchange, and in less aging partner of Avondale Partners, a securi- By 1989 the stock market was so unfavor- 1997, FBI agents raided the offices in El Paso, Frist, BA’61, has still managed to remain chicken at least three times a week. than a decade had reached $1 billion in sales. ties firm). For nearly 50 years, the three have able that Tommy Frist decided to gamble Texas. Other dragnets followed, spreading to largely out of the public eye. His father, After he completed his military require- By 1982 the company had expanded to more been running buddies—both in the figura- once again. He rolled 100 percent of his net sites in six other states. Scott and other top ex- Thomas Frist Sr., MD’33, was a renowned ments, he returned to Vanderbilt to continue than 350 hospitals in 41 states and five foreign tive and literal sense—often referring to worth into a leveraged buy-out of HCA to ecutives were forced to resign, and Frist was cardiologist and practicing internist. His his residency. But he was restless. The year was countries, generating revenues of nearly $2.5 themselves as Six Fast Feet. take it private, purchasing it for $5.1 billion. reinstated as CEO with the mandate to clean youngest brother, Bill, is a heart-lung trans- 1968 and he was 29 years old, a married father billion. Tommy Frist Jr. continued to rise “Tommy is a little bow-legged, a little pi- Within three years the health-care industry up any corruption, pay the governmental plant surgeon and a Republican senator with three young children. He knew that Ken- within the HCA ranks to president and COO geon-toed, and he’s not a speedy runner,” had again mutated, and Frist celebrated fines, and restore a culture of honesty and from Tennessee. By comparison, Tommy tucky Fried Chicken and Holiday Inns of in 1977, and to chairman, president and CEO Drowata says. “When his company was in its HCA’s 25th anniversary by returning it—in quality patient care to the organization he Frist II merely revolutionized the delivery of America—one having transformed the fast- 10 years later. early stages, he enjoyed running long dis- an $800 million offering—to the New York helped found. health care in America, for better or worse, tances. And I remember that he’d land his Stock Exchange. Several industry pundits seized the op- by applying the concept of the corporate plane, get home around 12:00 or 1:00 in the Although triumphant and enriched, Frist portunity to air simmering disputes with umbrella to medical institutions. The consummate southern gentleman, morning, and turn on his car headlights so he was worn out from the buy-out ordeal and Frist’s methods of operation. In a blistering The consummate southern gentleman could go running. Eventually, he got his time began looking for someone else to assume the article in 1997, the Wall Street Journal with his soft speech, gentle manners and self- Frist is, in fact, the reigning Evel Knieval of the down to around a seven-minute mile.” day-to-day oversight of the giant corporation. claimed, “Hundreds of pages of documents deprecating humor, Frist is, in fact, the reign- Frist was also an avid tennis player at that He thought he’d found that man in Rick in Tax Court involving Mr. Frist’s HCA sug- ing Evel Knieval of the hospital management hospital management industry. time and made use of the tennis court his Scott, the brash young CEO of Columbia gest his own management style was quite industry. Upon each new crisis in health care, parents had in their back yard. “Tommy used Healthcare. Frist approached Scott about a aggressive and marked by numerous acqui- his colleagues, family and Wall Street analysts food industry and the other, the leisure indus- Frist’s parents, Thomas Sr. and Dorothy sitions and a relentless focus on maximizing have learned to cover their eyes and peek try—weren’t flukes. While other doctors-in- Cate Frist, BS’32 (Peabody), a schoolteacher, profit, while he and his senior team enjoyed through their fingers—too fascinated not to training dreamed about patient reports and had instilled in their children the credo that Upon each new crisis in health care, his lucrative compensation.” watch what he’s going to attempt next. getting a good night’s sleep, Frist fantasized along with privilege comes responsibility. In During that same period BusinessWeek, Born in 1939, the oldest of five children, about ways to put his entrepreneurial skills to 1982 the Frists established the HCA Founda- colleagues, family and Wall Street analysts among other news outlets, lambasted Frist for Thomas Jr. stayed the course for the first use. He loved medicine, but he also loved to tion, a charitable organization that provides outwardly supporting Columbia/HCA’s prac- third of his life. He distinguished himself as fly, and he loved running the tricky gauntlet grants to support programs in the arts, educa- have learned to cover their eyes and peek tices and only criticizing Scott after he was an outstanding athlete at Nashville’s Mont- of the start-up business world. Surely, he tion and health care, primarily in the city of made to step down. Justifying his earlier si- gomery Bell Academy, a Civil War-era all- thought, he could devise a profession to sati- Nashville. Several years later, the foundation through their fingers—too fascinated not to lence, Frist told BusinessWeek,“There’s noth- male prep school. He graduated from Van- ate all his passions. became legally independent of HCA and ing worse than having a former CEO sitting derbilt University, married his childhood At that time Medicare was only a few elected its own board of directors. watch what he’s going to attempt next. there second-guessing. … Once a decision is sweetheart, Patricia Champion, BA’61, and years old, and the country’s population was During this same era, he also chaired the made, you go out and support the team.” attended medical school at Washington Uni- shifting from the Rust Belt states to the Sun campaign for the beleaguered United Way of to call me up and we’d play in the dead of merger agreement and by the end of 1993, “That was a really difficult time—that versity in St. Louis. After returning to Van- Belt, straining the infrastructure of the rural Middle Tennessee. Under his leadership, the winter,” Riven says. “It’d be freezing cold and Columbia and HCA had melded into a vora- first six to 12 months, not knowing what was derbilt for his residency, he was drafted into South and creating a demand for education, local chapter topped the nation with a 26- snowing, but we’d be outside playing tennis.” cious conglomerate, a darling of Wall Street, going to happen,” Frist says, looking back. the Air Force and served two years as a flight utilities and health care. Frist reasoned that percent increase in donations. Frist took on Some found this hard-driving quest for with CEO Scott, a 40-year-old lawyer pledg- “I didn’t know if I could turn the company surgeon in the Strategic Air Command Unit there must be a way to provide better servic- the mission of not only turning around the perfection hard to take. “The Frists are highly ing to “aggressively acquire 10 to 20 hospitals around. The government was coming down in Warner Robins, Ga. es more efficiently. local chapter, but in establishing a campaign regarded, but not without controversy,”com- a year.” Scott appeared to Frist to be bright on the company, the banks, the media, every- The Vietnam War changed young men of To that end, he formed a partnership that might be transformational around the mented family friend Edward G. Nelson in and savvy, someone unafraid to cross brave one. The company was so different when I the ’60s. Many felt disillusioned and re- with his father and businessman Jack Massey country. BusinessWeek (November 1997). “They are so new thresholds in the health-care industry— came back. They’d put a whole new manage- moved from society. Others, like Tommy to found Hospital Corporation of America, “At the time, United Way was a rather competitive and so self-confident that people someone with the chutzpah and enthusiasm ment team together and people didn’t even Frist, grew to adulthood lured by the possi- or HCA, the nation’s first and now its largest moribund organization,” says Ken Roberts, sometimes lose sight of their generosity. to meet the demands of the current climate. know me. My greatest fear was not the finan- bilities America offered. He had begun in- for-profit, investor-generated hospital man- BA’54, JD’59, president of the Frist Founda- There’s a saying: ‘There’s the right way, the Frist gratefully stepped into the role of cial risk as much as it was my family’s repu- vesting in the stock market, and he watched agement company. “I’m young and ener- tion. “Tommy came up with the idea that if wrong way, and the Frist way.’” chairman, and later vice chairman, of Colum- tation.” as people made their fortunes by practicing getic,” he told his father at the time. “I’ll fly you could get several individuals of means to By the mid-1980s, the hospital franchise bia/HCA. He considered himself in semi-re- To add to the family’s anguish, Thomas the fine art of the franchise. around the country and find the hospitals give at least $10,000 a year, it would cover the business began hitting some stones in the tirement and claimed to be enjoying a side of Frist Sr. and Dorothy Frist died in early Janu- “A friend of my father’s, a patient of his, [to buy]—and I’ll be full time.” overhead of the organization. Then all the road. HCA was a behemoth operation with life he’d never been able to have before, al- ary 1998, within two days of each other. was Jack Massey,” Frist recalls. “He had been The idea that a chain of hospitals could be other gifts would cover the needs of the spe- 50 psychiatric hospitals, 82 large general hos- though, Drowata recalls in hindsight, that as With fraud charges and audits mounting, in the surgical supply business for most of his handled like a chain of restaurants did not sit cific agencies. It was original, it was creative, pitals, 104 small hospitals, 225 management time passed, Frist seemed to feel like he was and despite overt skepticism by investment career, but he sold his business at 62 years of well with everybody. Frist says, “I went to my and it was a way of maximizing the gifts.” contracts, and 30 foreign properties. Earnings being left out of the executive loop. In his analysts questioning whether he was the age and ended up buying Kentucky Fried attending, Dr. Scott at Vanderbilt, and I still Yet, Frist required more in his life than the weren’t keeping pace. Just as determinedly as mid-50s, Thomas Frist Jr., champion athlete man for the job, Tommy Frist felt the fire in Chicken. When he took Kentucky Fried have nightmares when I think about telling parallel careers of industry mogul and philan- he had once purchased properties, chairman and revered health-care pioneer, was sudden- his belly reigniting. One of the first actions Chicken public, I borrowed one or two thou- that gray-haired old man that I wasn’t com- thropist. He sought physical challenges, too. and CEO Frist rolled up his sleeves and began ly relegated to riding the pine. taken during the restructuring was to re- sand dollars to buy stock and by the end of 18 ing back to his residency program because I Ever since elementary school he has been to cut back staff, overhead and management. What happened next made the kind of continued on page 86

42 Spring 2003 V anderbilt Magazine 43 Arching into Space Epiphytic plants adapt to life above the ground.

By JONATHAN ERTELT Illustrations by BONNIE ARANT ERTELT

ver the past year Epiphytes generally start life in the trees close to the trunk and low in the canopy or The ants may guard their vegetative home branch or in a loose-fiber basket. many in the Vander- the way most plants start life—as a seed. close to the ground, while others could al- from herbivores as well, and serve as dispersal The teaching collection is housed under bilt community have Some seeds are windborne, while others are most be desert growers, with extreme expo- agents for the seeds. the auspices of the Department of Biological noted a fellow, some- transported by ants or by various larger an- sure at branch tips at the tree top. Some plants have root systems that grow Sciences. The collection likely started before times pushing, usually imals (either stuck to fur or feather, or trav- Eighty-three families of vascular plants across and into the bark fissures, anchoring the first greenhouses were constructed back pulling a cart full of a eling through the digestive system of ani- have epiphytic species; of those families, the plant to its perch, but also roots that grow in the mid-1930s. Attached to the west side wide variety of plants mals that spend part of their lives in the nearly 25 are represented in our teaching col- straight up into the air. Why? The term of Buttrick Hall, those first greenhouses through the center of campus. That fellow trees). The seeds are rubbed off or deposited lection. Why does the Vanderbilt collection “trash-basket root system” has been applied served the Department of General Biology, was me, and for the last six months those onto bark or branch, anywhere from 5 to have such a large number of these ecological to these plants, which have negatively geo- then the Department of Biology when the Oplants on the cart have been part of what more than 150 feet off the ground. specialists? Aside from the fact that so many tropic roots sticking up, catching debris organismic and ecological disciplines split makes up Vanderbilt’s botanical teaching Assuming a seed germinates, the emerg- falling from branches and other plants above. from molecular biology in the early ’60s. collection. ing plant grows, using a variety of possible Once the debris is caught, every rain leaches When I first arrived seven years ago, proba- Shortly after I started working with the adaptations that enable it to capture mois- out nutrients that are then absorbed by the bly 40 families were represented, with possi- collection, I overheard a faculty member ture and nutrients without the benefit of the roots, allowing for strong growth and flower- bly 100 genera present. The collection now commenting on my love for hanging baskets. more “normal” soil substrate. Light levels ing far above the forest floor. boasts a representation of nearly 90 families It is true that I tend to use hanging baskets are likely much better up in the trees than Many bromeliads, members of the and 220 genera. extensively, for two reasons. First, baskets of- they would be on the densely shaded forest pineapple family, have leaves that grow in a With such a rich variety of plants, the col- fer more space for growing and displaying. floor. However, within the large group of epiphytes are spectacular to look at, especial- tight rosette, forming a vase that catches rain- lection offers much to inspire the imagina- Second, that is the way the majority of plants plants that grow as epiphytes, some are ly when they’re in bloom, it is precisely the water as well as debris, making a nutrient- tion. Sometimes it’s the flower, sometimes grow in the tropics—not in hanging baskets moisture-loving deep-shade plants, growing wide diversity of survival strategies that have rich solution. Not all of these vase-like the entire plant with a strange adaptation or as such, but arching out into space, often evolved across these families that makes them growths are small, either. The record meas- two, and sometimes what catches the eye is high above the ground, with roots anchoring so useful in a teaching collection. Consider urement so far is a plant holding upwards of simply the fact that these plants are growing onto bark or into an organic mix of debris the “ant plants” from tropical Asia. From the 30 liters of water—enough to fill a child’s on a branch hanging by a wire. But if the eye that has settled onto branches after falling time they have only four leaves, their stems wading pool. Then there are orchids, with a is caught, the next step can begin. That step is from branches higher still. Plants that grow are swelling, developing an interior catacomb number of survival adaptations of their own, teaching—helping students gain a better un- in this fashion are known as epiphytes, liter- of tunnels and chambers complete with en- but also with their own unique and spectacu- derstanding of the world. V ally translated as “upon plants.” Unlike para- try and exit doors, inviting ants to move into lar flowers. In several of the genera we have, Jonathan Ertelt is greenhouse manager for sites, these plants do not put their roots into a ready-made home. Of course, the ants pro- the flower spike comes out of the base of the Vanderbilt’s Department of Biological Sci- their host plants, nor derive any nutrition vide nutrients as well as increased carbon plant and grows straight down, which would ences. He has worked as a tropical plant spe- from them. dioxide levels, both good for plant growth. be a problem in a pot but not on a tree cialist for the past 26 years.

44 Spring 2003 V anderbilt Magazine 45 By RAY WADDLE, MA’81

he Wall at Rand is a reassuring “We’re not trying to preach, but we are trying to present a clear Tchaos of the latest campus announcements — picture of Islam.We’re competing a weathered smear of posters for lectures, piz- with other organizations, other entertainments and festivals. I’d za joints, war protests, concerts — the life of like to see more programs that the mind, the life of the senses, the life of Van- talk about the various religions. We should share experiences.” derbilt, a barometric shorthand of student

—Hamad Al-Rugaib, senior preoccupations, circa 2003.

It’s not all politics, music and food.

The Wall’s crowded kiosk pluralism yields

another 21st-century pursuit as well — a

renewed stress on news of the spirit. The Search for at Va n d e rb i l t

PHOTOS BY DAVID JOHNSON 46 Spring 2003 GOD V anderbilt Magazine 47 about it. So five people will attend an impor- Still, the impression remains strong among “It’s a way to connect my religious values tant program on religion when 2,000 ought some that this is a campus of “organization to the world in an active way,”she says.“We do to be there. Everybody’s overbooked.” kids” who are bent on fast-track success and their laundry, which reminds me of the Chris- The spiritual search at Vanderbilt is a executive-style workaholism, with matters of tian tradition of foot washing—humbling diffuse thing, a hands-on thing, a many-splin- religious practice languishing on the periph- yourself to serve others.” tered thing. Since the 9/11 terrorism, it has ery. “Such students might seek out religion Others on campus want to establish new become a more serious thing. when they suddenly need a base, or if they’re ways of intensifying religious esprit de corps — Some chaplains talk of pensive under- in a crisis,”says Associate University Chap- like starting a Christian fraternity. graduate inquiries into the details of theol- lain Gary White.“Otherwise, they are focused “What I want to do is try to fill a gap, ogy or the complexities of religious pluralism. on preparing for a career, and they’re over- create a deeper sense of Christian fellowship,” On a given night, two or three student-led worked, overscheduled.” says sophomore Dillon Barker, who has received Bible studies are likely under way in the dorms. Student attitudes themselves are mixed, permission to explore possible campus inter- Students sign up for service work — blood impossible to reconcile. Some complain there’s est in starting such a fraternity.“I’m definitely drives, tutoring, house building, feeding the not enough religion at career-driven Van- not anti-Greek. I don’t want to draw people “My faith accepts going at your homeless. Divinity students lead city march- derbilt. Or that there’s too much quick-fix away from that. We just want to create an es against war with Iraq. fundamentalism, too much arrogant disdain organization of men that will deepen their own pace and asking questions. “The students I see these days are less afraid for free-thinking non-believers. Or that it’s walk in faith.” I’m less a literalist about the to pray publicly or privately; they want to know too easy to keep one’s childhood faith in a The fraternity, Beta Upsilon Chi (BUC), the Bible better; they’re more interested in box, unchallenged by new questions, unboth- was started in 1985 in Texas, where most of Bible than some people. I do seminary,”says the Rev. Drew Henderson, the ered by a wildly hypocritical party life. its 10 university chapters are concentrated. At believe it is the inspired word Presbyterian (USA) chaplain on campus for The pluralism that students suddenly find Sarratt in February, 30 undergraduate males the last 10 years (he recently left Vanderbilt to when they arrive on campus is disorienting — committed to joining a prospective Vander- of God, and sometimes people take a church position in North Carolina). or invigorating. bilt chapter. get it wrong and apply it “In my generation, we wanted to walk our “I looked forward to coming to college to BUC (also called “Brothers Under Christ”) own way, choose and reject what we want- interact with the other side and test arguments would have some traditional fraternity ele- wrong. But just because people ed,”says Henderson, who is in his 30s.“With for the faith that I learned in earlier years,”says ments—rushing, pledging, secret rituals, semi- don’t get it right doesn’t mean this generation, there’s been a shift from Albonetti, who attended an Assemblies of God- formals, perhaps a house on campus some the question ‘Why be Christian?’ to ‘I’m Chris- oriented high school.“I knew non-Christians day. But its real aim, Barker says, is to glorify God doesn’t get it right.” tian: Tell me what it means,give us the tools before. But here, they’ll argue and defend their Jesus Christ by building Christian camaraderie to go deeper.’ … And when students have positions. It helps me understand the sincer- and encouraging moral accountability through —Erika Barry, junior experienced divorce or a major shift in care- ity of their beliefs. I used to believe other reli- small cell groups that meet weekly. giving or uncertainty about parental author- gions were inherently evil, just lies. But now I “We’d have parties, but there is a code of ity, they want to put their hearts down in realize there are quality teachings in other reli- conduct,”he says. Members would not be for- something that’s permanent and stable. They gions, and some overlap with my beliefs—like bidden from drinking, but BUC events would appreciate consistency, boundaries — the the Golden Rule. Nevertheless, I can still see be alcohol-free. The tone of the national organ- In recent weeks, a wanderer at the Wall a flyer about a new debating society. A traditionally conservative campus that is belief that God’s love will not fail, God’s love where they don’t overlap.” ization is evangelical Christian, but it’s open would have noticed a half dozen or more fliers Sophomore Phillip Albonetti, a Christian, home to one of the nation’s eminent liberal is unending and reliable.” Erika Barry, a junior from Tampa,Fla., and to a wide range of believers. Doctrines center of religious innovation contending for space started the Socratic Club this semester, based divinity schools.Vanderbilt: A southern school At Vanderbilt, there are two university chap- a Presbyterian, exhibits a faith that’s strong around basic Christian creeds. with a Cornel West lecture, a Sweet-T con- on the British university model associated steeped in fraternity and football and a busy lains, as well as chaplains for seven faiths, fund- on action. She is student director of the Room Barker admits that obtaining or build- cert, and a new student production of “Two with C.S. Lewis at Oxford. The idea is to defend Ivy League intellectualism, too.Vanderbilt: A ed by those organizations — United Methodist, in the Inn program, a citywide program that ing an actual house for a Christian fraterni- Gentlemen of Verona.” Christian belief with the intellectual rigors predominantly Protestant place where the sin- Baptist, Presbyterian (USA), Presbyterian shelters homeless people on winter nights. ty at Vanderbilt wouldn’t be plausible, for “A Christian Fraternity?” one poster teased. associated with a debating venue. gle largest religious group is Catholic, but Church of America, Episcopal, Catholic, Jew- “My faith accepts going at your own pace now. “We realize that a house isn’t a realis- “Find out more at www.geocities.com/vandy- “In college, people begin questioning their which also boasts a new high-profile Jewish ish — and at least 19 student-led religious and asking questions,”she says.“I’m less a lit- tic short-term goal,”he says.“There’s no land wantsbyx.” religious beliefs, and some people pull away,” student center on Greek Row and lately a stu- organizations, including the Baptist Colle- eralist about the Bible than some people. I do anywhere.” “Catholic and Don’t Remember Why? New says Albonetti, from Memphis, Tenn.“We need dent-body president who is Muslim. giate Ministry,Vanderbilt Meditation Group, believe it is the inspired word of God, and But he dreams of such a house fitting in 10 p.m. Mass! Contemporary music, new envi- more outlets for people to re-engage those “What I say is they didn’t elect me because Asian American Christian Fellowship, Voic- sometimes people get it wrong and apply it nicely with Vanderbilt’s characteristic “geo- ronment — It’s really cool — Come!” questions about God or pluralism or science.” I’m a Muslim, and they didn’t elect me because es of Praise, Christian Business Association, wrong. But just because people don’t get it graphical paradox,”where a Jewish student There were others: The search for God at Vanderbilt, for stu- I’m not a Muslim —they saw me as a human Christian Legal Society, Ozark Commodores, right doesn’t mean God doesn’t get it right.” center and an Episcopal church are fixtures “Worship and Bible Study every Thursday, dents who pursue it, takes place in a cam- being,”says Samar Ali of Waverly, Tenn., pres- Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Campus For the weekly Room in the Inn stint at St. on Greek Row, signals of an intriguing spir- 8:15 p.m.—Live Band—Free Food!” pus climate rich in paradox. ident of the Student Government Association Crusade for Christ, Victory Campus Min- Augustine’s Chapel, Barry helps rustle up stu- itual and cultural mix. “First meeting of the Vanderbilt Socratic Vanderbilt: A private university (original- this past year.“There’s religious interest here, istries, Commodores for Christ, Young Life, dent volunteers, cooks a big breakfast for the “Vanderbilt is special,”says Barker, raised Club: ‘Can atheists justify or explain the ly Methodist) committed to academic free- in pockets. There are lots of programs you Orthodox Christian Fellowship, and Lord homeless guests, and gets them back down- a Southern Baptist in Rogersville, Tenn.“There’s origin of their morals and ethics?’” announced dom in the heart of the Bible belt.Vanderbilt: can attend. But people don’t always know Jesus Christ Ministries. town by 6 a.m. an intersection of world views—the south-

48 Spring 2003 V anderbilt Magazine 49 ern character, the Ivy League character. Here (16.2 percent in 1972). What has changed is ton Chapel (attendance at each is 70–100 peo- I can be comfortable as a southerner and a the number of Catholics, which has doubled ple). On Wednesday nights, Stevens and 15 “I looked forward to coming to Christian meeting someone who is Jewish in 30 years. Catholic students now make up other committed Catholic students meet for from New England or someone who is agnos- 20.4 percent of the latest entering freshman dinner and a program of discussion, a gath- college to interact with the other tic from California.” class and represent the single largest religious ering called Nourishment of Soul and Body. side and test arguments for the The recent hopes for a Christian fraterni- denominational group on campus. The trend Recently, they met as usual at their desig- ty at Vanderbilt might be seen as a sign of the might be explained as the mainstreaming of nated Wednesday night gathering place for faith that I learned in earlier years. strength of evangelical Protestant energies on Catholics into non-Catholic university life, pizza and evening prayer. Where they meet I knew non-Christians before. But campus. There are about a dozen organiza- and the mainstreaming of Vanderbilt into might sound incongruous, but the Catholic tions on that side of the Christian spectrum, national life. kids like it just fine: The Ben Schulman Cen- here, they’ll argue and defend their and they attract hundreds of students week- “As Vanderbilt has moved from a southern ter for Jewish Life. positions. It helps me understand ly to study groups and worship. regional school to a national university, the pro- The Schulman Center opened in August Probably the biggest regular worship gath- portion of students is starting to reflect the 2002 at the corner of Vanderbilt Place and the sincerity of their beliefs.” ering on campus draws about 200 students spread of 18- to 22-year-olds nationally,”says 25th Avenue South, with notable fanfare (Van- —Phillip Albonetti, sophomore to Branscomb on Wednesday nights. It’s spon- Associate Catholic Chaplain Jim McKenzie. derbilt graduate Ben Schulman, class of 1938, sored by the Reformed University Fellowship, Some estimates put the number of Van- donated $1 million to launch the $2.2 mil- a ministry of the conservative-minded Pres- derbilt Catholic students at closer to 30 percent. lion construction). The Schulman Center has byterian Church of America. “I’m amazed at how spiritual they are, how quickly become a cross-cultural reference “I’m trying to encourage folks to engage they have a relationship with God that they’re point on campus. the culture from a vantage point,”says the willing to talk about,”says McKenzie, refer- “The center has made us more visible. It Rev. Brian Habig, the RUF campus chaplain. ring to the Catholic students he works with. makes it easier to find us,”says sophomore “I’m admittedly not neutral.” Perhaps it’s the swing of the pendulum, Hannah Bloom, vice president of Vanderbilt He counsels with two or three students a he suggests. Today’s students often appear to Hillel, the Jewish student organization. day and stays in regular contact with dozens be more pious, more service-oriented than It’s a place where Jewish students can attend of others. His assessment of student spiritu- the older Gen-X demographic, or more the- regular worship services and connect with ality: Lots of résumé-ready Vanderbilt under- ologically conservative than their parents. their religious identity as a tiny minority graduates inevitably feel a void in life if they Also, the shock of 9/11 terrorism cast a new on campus (they represent about 4 percent neglect the divine dimension. Habig’s task shadow of sobriety and fear over religious of enrollment). More Jews—a number fluc- is to give them biblical answers to life at a time life, a new search for the image of God in a tuating between 15 and 150—attend Friday when a predominant moral ideology and style, time of suffering. night Sabbath services now that the center customarily called postmodernism, an atti- “Students, like everyone else in the coun- has opened. tude of skeptical irony and relativism, is exhaust- try, started to look around and think hard- It’s also a place that welcomes non-Jew- ing itself, he says. er about their relationship with God, what ish students: Classes are conducted here, and “It seems that postmodernism has over- that relationship should be not only in times campus groups (like the Catholics) can reserve played its hand. When you just squint at every- of prosperity but in times of disaster,”says space to hold their own sacred or cultural thing and nuance everything and explain McKenzie. events. Grins Cafe, the city’s only kosher-cer- coming float (theme: the Ten Command- at Vanderbilt led Bloom to deepen her con- and Seventh-Day Adventist (.34 percent), and everything away—well, after a while human Freshman Victoria Stevens, in any case, tified restaurant, is now a lunch routine for ments). Miraculously or not, it won first place. nection with Judaism, she says.“Coming down non-Christian traditions, too —Hindus, Wic- beings can’t live that way.” was active in her parish back in high school hundreds of students. It’s part of the center’s “Who would ever have thought the Bap- here has made me appreciate more the pos- cans, Baha’is, atheists. According to the latest annual freshman in the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., area before she mission to educate a traditional southern tist and the Jewish students would work togeth- itive aspects of Judaism in my life and want “We’re not trying to preach, but we are survey, 56.9 percent of the incoming class in came to Vanderbilt last fall. Already she is campus about Judaism. er on a float?” Baer exclaims. to share them with others. A lot of people trying to present a clear picture of Islam,”says fall 2002 claimed a Protestant identity. Despite president of the Vanderbilt Catholic student “One of the biggest problems at Vander- Hannah Bloom, a New Jersey native, turned here identify themselves as Christian, and Hamad Al-Rugaib, a senior from Saudi Ara- turbulent shifts and declines in American reli- community. With her music background bilt is you have students who come out of a down other universities with sizable Jewish that influences me to learn more deeply what bia and an officer in the Muslim Student Asso- gious loyalties in the past generation, the (mezzo-soprano), she helped spice up the 10 vacuum, without contact with other groups,” enrollments to come to Vanderbilt because I believe, my own religious principles.” ciation. That means sponsoring Islamic Protestant religious spread at Vanderbilt p.m. Sunday Mass at Benton Chapel with con- says Shaiya Baer, executive director of the she wanted to be part of a re-energized Jew- Other religious minorities round out Van- information programs and panels and cul- hasn’t changed dramatically in 30 years: It temporary sounds (guitars, drums and singers). Schulman Center and Vanderbilt’s Jewish ish student community. “We’re a spanking derbilt’s student spiritual spectrum: Buddhist tural celebrations that dispel media miscon- was 60 percent Protestant in 1972. The largest Her attitude:“Live your faith out loud, and chaplain. “In the South, Jews are part of the new organization and can go in any direc- (.59 percent), Eastern Orthodox (.76 per- ceptions of the religion, especially after the Protestant groups on campus today are Bap- don’t be afraid to go for it,”she says. “We diversity equation. It’s up to us to engage the tion we want,”she says. cent), Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day terrorism of 2001. tist (11.8 percent), Presbyterian (11.3 percent), live in the Vanderbilt bubble, but there’s still majority, invite them to work with us. We Her goals for campus Jewish life: height- Saints (4 percent), United Church of Christ “We need to communicate better,”he said. Methodist (10.2 percent) and Episcopalian (7.76 a lot of religious support if you are looking want to build relationships.” ened religious observance among Jewish stu- (1.6 percent) and Muslim (.59 percent), among “We’re competing with other organizations, percent), according to the freshman survey. The for it. Being in a pluralistic setting, you scru- The center has given Jews a higher profile dents, more inter-community campus others, according to the freshman survey’s other entertainments and festivals. I’d like to category “other Christian” is 10.46 percent. tinize your faith in ways that don’t happen in on campus. New connections with non-Jew- discussion, and more programs so the Schul- religious preference data. see more programs that talk about the vari- Those declaring no religion (14.6 percent) high school.” ish groups are unfolding. Last fall Jewish and man Center is constantly in use. There are also small numbers of Christ- ous religions. We should share experiences.” hasn’t changed much in three decades, either There are three Masses per week at Ben- Baptist students collaborated on a home- Being surrounded by so many Christians ian traditions such as Quaker (.25 percent) The Muslim students’ meeting place for

50 Spring 2003 V anderbilt Magazine 51 In all sorts of weather, MarLu Scott, a Divinity School student, has ecumenical divinity school, we’re allowed and even encouraged by stood on the streets of Nashville to protest capital punishment and, our diversity to draw on the many sources of wisdom and spiritual most recently, war with Iraq, alongside kindred souls. practice,” explains Hudnut-Beumler. “What we have here is an She also helps organize the eclectic line-up of Wednesday wor- incredible range of students and viewpoints.” ship services at the school’s All Faith Chapel, a staging ground for Denominationally untethered as it is, the school’s statement of crosscurrents of the spirit and prayers for the healing of the world — commitments declares its active opposition to racism, sexism and a simple room of gray neutral colors adaptable to a Methodist serv- homophobia. This framework of progressivism, forged in the heart ice one week, or Catholic, Lutheran or Cherokee the next. of the Bible belt, gives the school a reputation for liberalism, at Both activities, outdoors and indoors, connect her to Divinity least locally. School values that have helped her clarify her vocation — the reli- “Some people might believe these values of diversity are lofty gious conviction to speak out for justice, and the consoling miracle and academic, but we see our preparations as extraordinarily real- of community. istic for the real world,” says Chris Sanders, director of development “This is what the Divinity School gives me: Even when it gets and alumni relations for the Divinity School. “More than 50 percent crazy out there, we have a faith and community that under girds of our students are women, and more than 50 percent of people us,” says Scott, a United Methodist who graduates this spring, on attending worship, whatever the tradition, are women. We have a track to be an ordained minister. “Activism stirs us to make the significant number of African Americans here. The issue of race isn’t world better. And it comes out of a going away in the world. Look at the “Coming down here has made me sense of ritual, a sense of sacrifice. It scandal that brought Trent Lott down. appreciate more the positive means giving something of yourself that And gay men and lesbians are winning you cannot express in another way.” rights in city after city in this nation, and aspects of Judaism in my life and The Divinity School is a mystery to SEEKING that issue isn’t going away, either.” want to share them with others. some on campus — a graduate school About 200 students are enrolled in where they study scripture and the wide the Divinity School (for the master of There are a lot of people here who world of faith. Is it a monastic Bible divinity degree or master of theological identify themselves as Christian, school? No. An academy of sainthood? studies degree). Another 100 or so are Not exactly. It’s a training ground for studying for a Ph.D. or master of arts and that influences me to learn ministers and others who have a sense GOD degree in the Graduate Department of more deeply what I believe, my of religious calling. It’s a multi-layered AGAINST Religion. place of serious theological study, pas- Graduates work as ministers or own religious principles.” sionate debate, critical inquiry, and chaplains, or in nonprofit ministries, diverse attitudes about God, politics, THE GRAIN social services or law, or in teaching —Hannah Bloom, sophomore sacred texts and congregational life. Va nderbilt Divinity School’s and academic research. Inside, religious tradition and plural- pluralistic approach to theology The single largest group of divinity ism co-exist, jostle, mutually probe — students is United Methodist, but 25 the way they do in the 21st-century glob- BY RAY WADDLE, MA’81 denominations are represented. Friday noontime prayers might sound as incon- Gee’s own identity as a Latter-Day Saint height- there’s an exam to study for?” Lee says. al world outside. Recently endowed faculty chairs in gruous as Catholics praying at the Jewish cen- ens curiosity about religious diversity. Meanwhile, the first meeting of the Van- “Our job is to help religious leaders prepare for lives of commit- Jewish studies and Catholic studies, as well as Methodist tradition, ter: The Muslims meet at Vanderbilt Divinity The Interfaith Council held a panel of world derbilt Socratic Club did indeed assemble ment and devotion — in a world where not everyone shares those commit the school to a future of built-in diversity. (There’s also a School, at least for now. The Muslim student religions in the fall, representing Catholic, one snowy February night. About 25 people same commitments,” says Divinity School Dean James Hudnut- Disciples of Christ concentration.) group is asking the University’s help to find Jewish, Protestant, Muslim, Hindu, Mormon, showed up. The organizers were pleased, per- Beumler. As a Unitarian-Universalist, student Jason Shelton, director of a more permanent space for gatherings and Baha’i, Wiccan and Buddhist perspectives. haps relieved, at the turnout. The Divinity School is ranked with the nation’s top graduate the Divinity School choir, could have pursued a Unitarian seminary prayer time. More and more people are turning out for “Someday, I’d love to see the Socratic schools of theological education, and it’s one of the few, along with but decided on Vanderbilt’s multi-faith climate as better preparation A lack of communication between reli- such events, in Lee’s view. This spring the Club debate twice a month,”says organizer the divinity schools at Harvard, Yale and Chicago, that have no offi- for his ministerial future. “Being here makes you realize there are gious groups frustrated student Frank Lee, a council was busy planning a music night, with Albonetti. cial denominational sponsorship. (The school was started as always perspectives different from yours,” he says. “It makes me Catholic, into joining the Interfaith Council, a wide range of expressions — Mormon, Mus- Consult the Wall at Rand for further devel- Vanderbilt’s Biblical Department in 1875 and was under the aus- more cautious about speaking in broad sweeping terms about what of which he was president this year.“We keep lim, contemporary Christian and others. opments, further signs of the times. V pices of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, until university and ‘everyone’ believes.” using the word ‘diversity,’but there was a lack The point is somehow to expose students The former religion editor at the Ten- Methodists dissolved ties in 1914. The Divinity School since has When he graduates this spring, he’ll officially have his master of of communication, a lack of expression between to fresh perspectives on the spiritual quest nessean, Ray Waddle is a freelance writer for been under the direction of the Vanderbilt Board of Trust. It was divinity diploma. But, he says, what he perhaps has truly mastered groups,”says Lee, a senior originally from amid the daily demands on one’s time and national newspapers, denominational maga- named the Divinity School in 1956.) in a school that endeavors to produce “ministers as theologians” is South Korea. talents, the stresses that plague 21st-century zines and Web sites. He has a journalism de- “An advantage to being ecumenical is that we live in an increas- the art of asking questions. He credits Chancellor Gordon Gee for stir- student life. gree from the University of Oklahoma and a ingly non-denominational world — that is, a majority of people don’t “We are constantly engaged in asking questions,” he says. “We ring new student interest in the many threads “A lot of students care, and they struggle master’s degree in religion from Vanderbilt. draw sustenance from a single religious tradition now, and so at an are prepared here to ask better questions.” of Vanderbilt life, the adventure of learning. with the issue—should you do service when He and his wife, Lisa, live in Nashville.

52 Spring 2003 V anderbilt Magazine 53 By LISA DUBOIS

Top students at the VIRTUOSO PERFORMERS Blair School of Music go note to note in the annual solo concerto auditions. ach year a few Vanderbilt students at the Blair between playing an unaccompanied solo and ence playing with an orchestra of 80 people playing a solo with a full orchestra is like the rather than with a piano,”he says.“That’s why School of Music willingly pit themselves against one another in difference between a black-and-white photo I decided to enter again.” and a color photo. There is so much more art He has been preparing Brahms Violin competition. They are violinists and cellists, pianists and tim- to be made with color. Most people don’t get Concerto, First Movement, for the competi- a chance to play those pieces as they were tion. It’s a piece he’s been practicing for months, panists, sopranos and tenors — for whom college life shifts back intended to be played with the colors that not only for this event but also for auditions to graduate-school programs. In fact, grad- and forth between the academic milieu of math, science, history and lan- come from combining cellos, French horns E and violas. The full range of instruments gives uate school, at the moment, is weighing much guage, and the rarified world of classical music and the art of performance. a more realistic interpretation of the true art more heavily on his mind than the competi- form. Orchestras are expensive, and it’s rare tion. Although he is double majoring in vio- For those few who are mentally and tech- formance opportunity, because it requires for a student to get this kind of opportunity.” lin and economics, he recently has decided nically ready and who are willing to subject virtuosity. We have the judges comment on to pursue music rather than business after he themselves to immense pressure, to long hours each student’s performance, and we make leaves Vanderbilt. Ultimately, he hopes to have of rehearsals for a 10-minute solo, and to the those comments available to the students’ The Performers a career as a violinist in a string quartet and scrutiny of outside judges, the ultimate prize professors.” Jonathan Chu, Senior, Niscayuna, N.Y. believes the Brahms concerto lets him prove is worth the trouble. Three winning partic- The four judges, all of whom come from If any student in this year’s competition under- his chops in both technique and musician- ipants are allowed to perform their solo con- outside the close-knit Blair community, rep- stands Bingham’s comments, it’s senior vio- ship. Throughout college he’s garnered numer- certos in a concert backed by a full symphony resent different musical persuasions — piano, linist Jonathan Chu. Two years ago during ous awards for his musical skills, and the buzz orchestra. strings, vocals and winds/percussion. Their his sophomore year, he won the competition among the students is that he’s the odds-on From a field of 27 competitors, Vander- charge is to determine the three best per- and was able to debut as a soloist with the favorite to win again. bilt Magazine selected four students of dif- formances on that particular day. They are Vanderbilt Orchestra.“It was a great experi- Jonathan admits,“I really feel like I’m well fering musical passions and followed them also allowed to bestow “honorable mention” prepared. I did lots of work before this year, “I got the concept of the piece back. I was Krystal Grant has been practicing the as they prepared for and performed in the honors on students with outstanding, but and I feel like now I’m reaping the fruits. Lots able to appreciate it in context again,”she says. work for months, and although she Jonathan Chu hopes to have a career With only a week left before the compe- 2002–03 Blair Collegiate Concerto Compe- not winning, performances. of people are cramming, and although I’m thinks it’s now “seasoned,” she began tition. All four of them put their musical Emelyne Bingham is senior lecturer in as a violinist in a string quartet, not taking anything for granted, I’m not too tition, she has become fiercely protective of her practice time. Rehearsing with her accom- to feel like she was losing touch with craftsmanship on the line. In the end, only aural studies at the Blair School and assistant and believes the Brahms concerto stressed.” He knows, however, how capricious such panist, Leah Bowes, Krystal focuses on her its message. So, a week ago she picked one of them would receive recognition. conductor of the Nashville Symphony. She lets him prove his chops in both will conduct Vanderbilt Orchestra’s spring competitions can be. “I also competed my pauses and stops, learning to cue her accom- up the original score and played it in technique and musicianship. … panist, who stands in for the orchestra. concert featuring one of the winners. Explain- freshman year,”he says.“I thought I’d nailed its entirety—all 42 pages. The Week Before ing the golden ring dangling before these He knows, however,how capricious my performance, and I didn’t win.” Bowes explains,“The big difference between The day of the competition is set for Satur- young artists’ eyes, she says, “The difference such competitions can be. preparing for a concerto competition as day, Feb. 1, 2003. The weather has been frigid Krystal Grant, Sophomore, opposed to one for solo work is keeping in Noelle Jacquez’s first opportunity to audition and gray, and Nashville is digging out from Birmingham, Ala. mind that you hopefully are going to be play- for the concerto competition. Her mentor, a snowstorm that has made traveling unusu- Sophomore Krystal Grant is searching for her ing with a symphony. You have to consider Amy Jarman, senior lecturer in voice, is care- ally treacherous. Melissa Rose, assistant pro- voice — not the one in her throat, the one the conductor. You have to cue me and let me ful about which students she will recommend fessor of piano and chair of the committee within the keys of a piano. Trained in clas- know your intentions. That’s a very big point for the competition, which is considered pres- that runs the concerto competition, has been sical music and a student of Craig Nies, asso- for the judges. They want you to get across tigious to enter, much less to win. Noelle is e-mailing music professors all week to deter- ciate professor of piano, she has selected a the beauty of the whole [orchestrated] piece.” fine-tuning a luscious aria from Antonin Dvo- mine which of their students have been 10-minute abridged version of George Gersh- Suddenly, the telephone in the office rings rak’s opera “Rusalka,”based on the story of approved for participating. She is trying to win’s “Rhapsody in Blue” for her concerto —once, twice, three times. An answering the Little Mermaid. Sung in Czech, this aria is get a head count. audition and is striving to be freer and loos- machine clicks on, and an unknown voice rarely performed by undergraduates. Typically, around 30 students audition, er with the bluesy jazz rhythms and cadences leaves a lengthy message for a missing pro- “This song requires somebody with a big she says, although the numbers are still trick- of this musical genre. fessor. Unfazed, Krystal does not stop play- instrument, who has a good top and a good ling in. This year the competition has some “Granted, it’s a technical challenge, but ing. Showtime is fast approaching, she has low,”says Jarman.“About a year ago I thought rule changes. A maximum of three students, it’s mainly an interpretive challenge,” she exactly 30 minutes with her accompanist this Noelle’s voice had matured and that this was rather than the usual four, will be named as says.“This is my voice, in a way.”She has been day, and she has no room in her schedule for a perfect piece for her. The challenges of this winners. And this is the last year that previ- practicing the work for months, and although interruptions. aria have made her sing better and have taken ous winners will be allowed to audition. she thinks it’s now “seasoned,” she recently her voice farther. That’s been really thrilling.” “The Blair Concerto Competition is not began to feel like she was losing touch with Noelle Jacquez, Senior, Ann Arbor, Mich. Sitting in the Blair lobby between rehearsals, as cutthroat competitive as those at other its message. So, a week ago she picked up the Because voice majors usually take several years Noelle comments,“I’m nervous because I know schools and conservatories,”says Rose. “We original score and played it in its entirety — to develop the vocal technique necessary to be how well I can do. I don’t want to have a freak- competitive in such an event, this is soprano prefer to treat this as a good learning and per- PHOTOS BY NEIL BRAKE all 42 pages. out and not do as well as I can. I feel like if I

56 Spring 2003 V anderbilt Magazine 57 do well, then it will be a triumph. This aria is excruciating pain and weakness in her right enlisted her friend, fellow sophomore Ralph Noelle Jacquez is fine-tuning a a technical breakthrough piece for me.” hand. She couldn’t grip a pencil, much less a Blanco, to play the orchestral portion of the luscious aria from Antonin Dvorak’s She adds that she enjoys the audition process marimba mallet. After months of rehabili- work. Ralph has not entered the concerto com- opera “Rusalka,” based on the story because it’s “a great adrenaline rush,”and that tative therapy, she slowly began to work her petition, but is busy with his own auditions she is looking forward to the experience. As way back to practicing her beloved instru- for a master class at Blair later in February of the Little Mermaid. Sung in Czech, Noelle prepares to go to her warm-up, she real- ment for a few minutes at a time. with internationally recognized pianist Eman- this aria is rarely performed by izes with chagrin that she has been speaking, By mid-January of this year, she finally was ual Ax. undergraduates. as they say in the business,“on the fry”— mean- able to return to a fairly normal practice sched- “I’m approaching this competition from ing she’s been using her lower vocal register, ule. On several occasions she has come close a different angle because of my injury, and orchestra in the midst of a concert. He made which is less healthy for her voice. to withdrawing from the competition, ulti- I’m just seeing it as a lot of fun,”Lin says.“For a professional decision to plow ahead — a mately deciding she would go through with me it’s not the winning, but the road I took choice that may or may not have cost him a Lin Ong, Sophomore, Ames, Iowa it as a tribute to her recovery. However, she to get to this point, that matters.” chance to win. For percussion major Lin Ong, the concerto has been rehearsing her concerto, Alan Hov- “Jonathan doesn’t fold under pressure,” competition represents not just a perform- haness’s “Fantasy on Japanese Woodprints,” says his mentor, Chris Teal, a violinist with ance but a comeback. A specialist on the marim- for only three and a half weeks. The other The Competition the Blair String Quartet and the Joseph Joachim ba, Lin suffered an over-use injury akin to entrants have spent months preparing theirs. On the day before the big event, the atmos- Professor of Violin at Blair. “Competitions carpal tunnel syndrome last spring that caused Explains her mentor, Assistant Professor phere at the Blair Music School is a dichoto- are fickle things. If you live to win competi- of Percussion William Wiggins, “She feels mous swirl of joviality and high tension. tions, in my estimation you don’t belong in Lin Ong suffered an over-use injury like she’s under some pressure to do this. Lin Krystal has picked up a virus that made its music, because you have to be motivated by is highly motivated and has a competitive way through the University, and she has been your love of the art and craft of music-mak- akin to carpal tunnel syndrome last nature — and she’s a talented player.” unable to practice for three days. ing. I admire him very much. He faced a lot spring and couldn’t grip a pencil, “I’m not going to win,”Lin says. “Maybe Lin has finally found time to rehearse with of choices at that point, and he chose to play much less a marimba mallet. She has I’ve overshot myself. It’s a daunting task to try Ralph, and they perform her piece before her through. As a teacher, I feel very fortunate to been rehearsing her concerto,Alan to learn a concerto in three and a half weeks. percussion studio class in front of her peers. have had Jonathan Chu as my student.” But given that it’s been three and a half weeks, After she completes the concerto on the marim- wooden keys, she creates the sound of rain- that sparkle as they catch the light, she sings Although Noelle was also disappointed Hovhaness’s “Fantasy on Japanese I’m really happy with it.” ba, Professor Wiggins explains that Hovhaness drops on water, playing beautifully on an an aria that Dvorak could have composed for by the results, she is taking some solace in the Woodprints,” for only three and a Finding an accompanist on such short originally wrote it for the xylophone, a small- instrument she first tested out the day before. her voice alone. Pleading to the moon with high praise and scores given her by the vocal half weeks. notice posed an additional problem, and she’s er, tighter instrument. With the understand- A few hours later Jonathan Chu stands heart-tugging emotion, she lets her full sopra- judge and in knowing she met the challenge ing that Lin has never practiced it this way, before the judges.“Excuse me,”he says apolo- no ring through the hall and ends her per- of singing an extremely difficult aria.“When he suggests she demonstrate how “Fantasy getically, when he realizes he must retune his formance with a slight curtsy. you build yourself up to performing the best on Japanese Woodprints” sounds on the xylo- violin on stage because it doesn’t match the Later that evening Professor Rose posts you possibly can,”she reasons,“you’re always phone. Lin and Ralph run through the con- key accompanist Leah Bowes gives him on the names of the concerto winners: freshman disappointed when you don’t win. Now I have certo again. Although the keyboards of the the piano. Rightly tuned, Jonathan launches Preetha Narayanan, violin; sophomore Mar- to move on and audition for other things. two instruments are similar, Lin’s body is into the Brahms concerto, his bow ripping tin-Patrick Eady, piano; and senior Jennifer It was a great performance for [accompanist] used to the larger, softer-toned marimba and through the dramatic, physical passages and Bernard, oboe. The judges also award three Daphne Nicar and me, and we accomplished she stumbles a few times. The students com- dancing across the light, lyrical phrases. All honorable mentions: junior Scott Seaton, sax- all we set out to accomplish. When it’s a pas- ment that they actually prefer the work played of a sudden, one of his strings slips, losing its ophone; junior Sarah Seelig, piano; and sen- sion and you love it so much, it’s really not on the xylophone because of its sharper musi- pitch. In an instantaneous decision, Jonathan ior Jonathan Chu, violin. hard to keep keeping on. You just have to get cal coloring. plays on without stopping, although by the over the little hurdles.” During the early hours of Feb. 1, 2003, the end of the concerto his E string has dropped With nothing to lose, Lin went for broke. world learns that the space shuttle Columbia to a G-sharp. His performance is stunning, The Aftermath The comments by the members of her stu- has blown apart while reentering earth’s albeit noticeably flawed. After he leaves the “I’m disappointed,”Jonathan says simply. dio class hit a nerve. Because they preferred atmosphere. Twenty-seven students have no stage, the judges stir and whisper among “Every competition is a snapshot of a play- the way the piece sounded on the xylophone, option but to set aside the tragedy temporarily themselves, clearly facing a dilemma. er, and that performance is a bad snapshot Lin decided to give it a shot — knowing she if they are to play well in the Blair Concer- Krystal follows immediately. She is wear- of me.”Three days have passed since the com- was coming down to the wire. “It was neat to Competition that same day. Lin Ong is ing a long gold skirt that shimmers under the petition, and the dramatic loosening of his to change to the xylophone at the last minute, slated to perform first. The Blair Recital Hall spotlight as she begins the famous Gershwin string still stings like a fresh wound. Because even if it was a little abrupt,”she says.“Although is empty, save for four judges and a timer. classic, teasing the melodies out of the piano the Brahms concerto moves quickly without it felt new and weird on that instrument Lin appears on stage, dressed in a flowing and, without distractions, perfectly cuing her any substantive breaks during which he could instead of on the larger marimba, I didn’t feel black and silver skirt, wheeling her instru- accompanist during the breaks and resump- have paused gracefully to retune, he knows like it was out of control. I felt like it was ment into the room. Ralph takes his seat, and tions in the music. he would have had to stop his accompanist, doable. Next year I’ll hopefully have a con- Lin begins to perform—on the xylophone. It is mid-afternoon when Noelle takes the retune, and pick up where he left off. In the certo that I’m more ready to play.”Lin was so Hands flying, mallets dropping gently on the stage. Dressed in a long red skirt and earrings real world, however, a soloist can’t halt an continued on page 85

58 Spring 2003 V anderbilt Magazine 59 “

TheArts“ To see my notes leap off the page into her feet,Culture hands, body and face—it has been unbelievable. —MICHAEL ALEC ROSE

The John F. Kennedy by the Ricco/Maresca Gallery in merging images of the human VISUAL ARTS: A CCOLADES Sarratt Art Gallery Center for Research on New York City. body with poetry by the 19th- Michael Aurbach, professor of showed work by mixed- Human Development century American poet Emily UPCOMING art, reprised his exhibit “The media artist Crimson recently added four Running from late March Dickinson literally drawn on VISUAL ARTS Administrator” in February at Rain McCaslin dur- works by Laura through June at the Fine Arts the figures themselves. Marking Time, an exhibit of Belmont University’s Leu ing February and McNellis to its Gallery are works by New York mixed-media pieces by Linda Gallery of Art. First seen in March. The exhibit, permanent art artist Lesley Dill. A Word Paranirvana (Self- Laino and handmade paper spring 2001 as the inaugural Full Circle, show- collection. McNellis, Made Flesh features large- Portrait) by San Francisco quilts by Zelda Tanenbaum, exhibit at the Frist Center for

cased what a Nashville native scale, photo-based tapestries, State University professor COURTESY OF MICHAEL AURBACH explores the layering of memory, the Visual Arts in Nashville, McCaslin refers to with developmental Lewis DeSoto reclined at the dream and experience at Sarratt Aurbach’s consummately crafted piece uses hidden sym- as “two-and-a- disabilities and Vanderbilt Fine Arts Gallery Art Gallery, June 16–Aug. 2. bols to poke fun at small-minded people in positions of half”-dimensional autism, was intro- during February and March. power. Professor of Art and Art History, Emeritus, Don work resembling duced to artists The 26-foot-long, air-filled, Evans celebrated his 64th birthday with an exhibit titled miniature diora- of the Riddle fan-inflated sculpture was Summer Reading: Artists’ “Be One of These” at Ruby Green Contemporary Arts mas in which she Institute in North inspired by a well-known stat- Books from Nashville From “Full Circle” Center in Nashville through March and April. Evans, who utilizes natural mate- Carolina five years ago ue of Buddha at Gal Vihara in Collections presents a num- is famous for his doodles, enlarged a number of these rials such as wax, seeds and when their show traveled to Sri Lanka, but in this sculp- ber of artist-made books, A Word drawings—some done during rust. McCaslin draws on muse- the Kennedy Center. That con- Made ture the artist replaced the some illustrating important “boring faculty meetings”— um displays of cultural arti- nection led her to move to Flesh face of Buddha with his own, works of literature, others that transferred them to plywood, facts, beetles, bones and med- North Carolina where she now thereby portraying both him- are distinct, independent cut them out, added color, ical oddities in jars to reflect works full time as a painter self and the reclining Buddha works of art at Vanderbilt Fine and hung them from the her preoccupation with record- and sculptor. Since 1992 at the moment of death and Arts Gallery, June 17–Aug. 16. Ruby Green ceiling suspended ing events in her life. McNellis has been represented supreme consciousness. by fishing line. For the opening, MUSIC he invited participants to come The Blair School of Music will host its second annual as their favorite doodle. International Fiddle School July 27–Aug. 2. Acclaimed artists such as Vassar Clements and Buddy Spicher will teach classes in Celtic, bluegrass, Texas swing, jazz, country, old-time and rock styles of playing.

THEATER Actors Bridge Ensemble, housed at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Chapel on campus, presents Rebecca Gilman’s “Boy Gets Girl,” a dark thriller about how a blind date sparks a man’s obses- sion, beginning July 18 and running weekends through Aug. 2 at Nashville’s Paranirvana (Self-Portrait) Darkhorse Theatre. NEIL BRAKE

60 Spring 2003 V anderbilt Magazine 61 T HE A RTS &CULTURE

The Blair String Quartet joined Class. Just a few days later, the Tennessee Williams short story posed entirely of students, the concert to perform Charles Baltimore Consort, a six- and choreographed by Nashville performed Rose’s and Link’s Ives’s First Quartet. member ensemble specializing Ballet artistic director Paul works for the performance, in popular music of the 16th to Vasterling, was rhythmically while Plohman performed her Early this semester, numerous 18th centuries, shared their complex, composed only after own arrangements of Irish Michael Alec Rose, & master classes brought some expertise, while internationally music onstage. associate professor Q of the nation’s best musicians to acclaimed pianist Emanuel Ax, of composition, A teach students and community in town to perform with the Nashville Symphony principal Blair School of Music members at the Blair School. Nashville Symphony, closed oboist and Blair School of In mid-March 2003, Michael In January, Paul Kantor, chair out the month. Music faculty member Bobby Rose witnessed his original of the string department at the Taylor gathered his musical classical score interpreted in Eos Orchestra University of Michigan and a Emergence!, a collaboration friends and neighbors April 5 a way few composers ever DANIEL DUBOIS member of the artist-faculty at between the Blair School of for an Appalachian experience—by a troupe of MUSIC: than two decades at the New Aspen, conducted a violin Music and the Nashville Ballet, Celebration at the Blair professional ballet dancers. The Nashville Ballet and the Eos Orchestra performed at England Conservatory of master class, and Roberto featured new music by Blair School’s Ingram Hall as the Blair School of Music joined the Blair School’s Ingram Hall Music, was featured along Diaz, principal violist of the faculty Michael Alec Rose and final concert for the Concert DANIEL DUBOIS in a first-time collaboration of what human beings suffer as part of the Great Performances with Michael Cedric Smith, Philadelphia Orchestra, con- Stan Link, and traditional Series season. Taylor, whose to present a program, “Emer- in their desire for other on faculty at the Conservatory Series in February. The pro- ducted a viola master class. In Celtic music newly arranged by Rose had seen the dancers Kentucky grandfather was a gence!,”in which Rose and human beings. of Music of Brooklyn College. gram included the complete February, Blair was visited by Crystal Plohman, director of rehearsing it in silence. Link’s mountain musician, enlisted choreographer Paul Vasterling Paul Vasterling has said ballet score of Aaron Copland’s They performed works by the trumpet/guitar duo Blair’s fiddle program. The music, entitled LAPseDANCE, the musical aid of fellow Blair emerged with a new take on Q: that when he first heard your Appalachian Spring and two Rodrigo, Schubert, Bach and Spanish Blue whose members, mid-March performances for Robert Philander-Valentine’s faculty members—master fid- Tennessee Williams’s short composition, it wasn’t at all works by the late Paul Bowles, Villa-Lobos, among others. trumpeter Richard Carson marked the most extensive abstract piece Premeditated, dler Crystal Plohman, Nashville story “Night of the Iguana.” what he was expecting. a former student of Copland Steuart and guitarist Christian collaboration yet between the was described by the composer Mandolin Ensemble leader Q: You’ve said that initially best known as author of the Robert Beaser, artistic director A: That’s OK; his choreogra- Reichert, taught for the Del Blair School and a local arts as “Stravinsky played on Butch Baldassari, and dulcimer you weren’t sure you were the of the American Composers phy wasn’t what I was expect- novel Sheltering Sky. Sawyer Endowment Guest group. Rose’s music for Night African drums.” The Vanderbilt master David Schnaufer—to right composer for this piece. Orchestra at Carnegie Hall ing, either. He was expecting Artist Concert and Master of the Iguana, based on the New Music Ensemble, com- help kick up the audience’s Why not? something more regional, The Blair and chair of the composition heels in a joyous celebration A: “Night of the Iguana” is a more southern, in sound. I Guitar Fest department at Juilliard, was of some of America’s deepest- Emergence! very neurotic short story. It’s was trying to capture some- took place featured as this spring’s BMI rooted musical traditions. very intense—filled with thing universal. This is a story Composer-in-Residence at the Feb. 6–7 in desire and rage and potential of mythic consequence. The Blair School during February. the Steve and Great Performances at love. I wasn’t sure I had the music seemed to me to be Judy Turner Blair faculty members Amy Vanderbilt ended the year with temperament to write this stretching beyond the Mason- Leisner Recital Hall Jarman, Melissa Rose and the Afro-Cuban All Stars, piece. It was not literature that Dixon Line. NEIL BRAKE at the Blair Carolyn Huebl, along with staff whose Latin rhythms had the I was familiar with or that I Q: What was your reaction School of Music. David Leisner, accompanist Leah Bowes, per- Langford Auditorium audience naturally gravitate towards. when you first saw the dancers currently teaching at Manhattan formed works by Beaser in a It’s “compulsive” literature. dancing in the aisles. Brought perform to your score? Feb. 17 concert at Blair’s Steve School of Music after more together by musical director Q: Why did you decide to go and Judy Turner Recital Hall. A: I was at rehearsal for three Juan de Marcos González for it despite these doubts? days, and I was just crying. (leader of the groups Sierra A: It gave me a sense of artis- These are all great dancers. Maestra and Buena Vista Social A CCOLADES tic excitement. And I felt that Jennifer McNamara [the lead Club) as a multi-generational President Bush intends to nominate John E. Buchanan if the choreographer believed ballerina] is a celestial being. big band to explore a broader Jr., MA’79, of Portland, Ore., to be a member of the in this story, it was my job as I’ve never seen anything like scope than the Buena Vista National Museum Services Board for the remainder of a a composer to embrace it what she does with my music projects, the All Stars paid five-year term expiring Dec. 6, 2006. Buchanan currently enthusiastically. I knew it and Paul’s choreography. It’s tribute to the diversity of would be a great ballet, and astonishing. To see my notes serves as executive director of the Portland Art Museum. Cuban music, marrying the I knew there was artistic gold leap off the page into her feet, Previously, he served as director of the Dixon Gallery past with the present. here to be mined—whatever hands, body and face—it has and Gardens, and as executive director of the Lakeview the style of writing. Tennessee been unbelievable. Museum of Arts and Sciences. Williams got to the very core —Lisa DuBois

62 Spring 2003 V anderbilt Magazine 63 NEIL BRAKE T HE A RTS &CULTURE

Two Gentlemen of Verona THEATER: HUMANITIES: Warren Center for the the Blair School of Music BOOKS & WRITERS: Two new books with ties to The promise of spring was As part of this year’s Brain Humanities. Makiya is an joined Nashville School of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Nashville’s country music celebrated in mid-February Awareness 2003 events on adviser for the Iraqi National Ballet choreographer Robert Philip Levine was honored on industry also have ties to Van- when Vanderbilt University campus, Robert Zatorre of the Congress, and his work has Philander-Valentine and his 75th birthday with a two- derbilt. This spring Chronicle Theatre presented “Two Montreal Neurological been featured in the New York Tennessean features writer day poetry colloquium at Van- Books published Vinyl Hayride: Gentlemen of Verona,” a Institute at McGill University Times Sunday Magazine. His Tasneem Grace Tewogbola for derbilt April 11–12, featuring Country Music Album Covers, musical adaptation of the presented a lecture on how the book Republic of Fear became a an exploration of African 10 poets whose works have 1947-1989 by Paul Kingsbury, Shakespeare play. The happy human brain perceives, under- bestseller after Saddam influences in contemporary been influenced by Levine. coming-of-age story celebrates stands, remembers and imag- Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. American choreography and Levine was writer-in-residence spring and its promise of love ines music in “Music and the composition. In March, David at Vanderbilt in the spring of with a satirical undercurrent Brain” at the Steve and Judy Building bridges to create Grapes, artistic producing 1995 when he was awarded the

involving the government’s DAVID CRENSHAW Turner Recital Hall. The event opportunities for both enter- director of the Tennessee Pulitzer Prize for poetry for his sometimes less-than-pure “A Letter to Harvey Milk,” a Brown’s vision of modern was co-sponsored by the tainment and education, Repertory Theatre, and Terr yl work The Simple Truth. Poets motives for war. With music by one-man show about a week in dance, theater and kinetic Vanderbilt Department of Vanderbilt and the Tennessee Hallquist, co-director of participating in the colloquium Galt MacDermot (“Hair”) and the life of Harry Weinberg, a storytelling. In April, Les Psychology, the Blair School of Performing Arts Center has Vanderbilt University Theatre, included former students, con- lyrics by playwright John widower and Holocaust sur- Ballets Trockadero de Music, and the Vanderbilt entered into a unique initiative presented “Shakespeare: In and temporaries and friends of Guare (“The House of Blue vivor living in San Francisco, Monte Carlo, an all-male Brain Institute. designed to benefit Vanderbilt Out of Love.” The season con- Levine: Vanderbilt faculty Leaves”), this adaptation of the was performed at the Ben comic ballet troupe, dazzled the and the Nashville community. cluded in April with Bill Ivey, members Kate Daniels and Shakespeare comedy won both Schulman Center for Jewish audience at Ingram Hall with In April, Kanan Makiya, The first programs spotlighted Branscomb Scholar and for- Mark Jarman, along with BA’80, former deputy director the Tony Award and the New Life at Vanderbilt in late March its unusual spin on such tradi- professor of near eastern studies the arts in new ways through a mer chair of the National Christopher Buckley, Peter Ever- of the Country Music Hall of York Drama Circle Award for by local actor Yaron Schweizer. tional masterpieces of classical at Brandeis University, presented lunchtime learning series at Endowment for the Arts, talk- wine, Charles Hanzlicek, Gal- Fame. The book, illustrated best musical of 1972. The humorous play, told ballet as “Swan Lake” and “The a lecture on the United States Nashville’s War Memorial ing about arts funding in way Kinnell, Dorianne Laux, with more than 250 examples through the voice of a 77-year- Dying Swan” by combining and Post-Saddam Iraq as part Auditorium called “InsideOut America. Ivey also now heads Paul Mariani, Sharon Olds and of covers, offers a glimpse into In April, VUT presented Lee old man, examines questions technical virtuosity, parody, of the “Understanding the of the (Lunch) Box.” In the University’s new Curb Gerald Stern. The celebration the history and evolution of Blessing’s drama “Two Rooms,” of personal identity for a young and the wearing Middle East” lecture series February, Dean Mark Wait and Center for Art, Enterprise and of Levine and his work was this country music. A sweeping in which rising Middle East woman trying to reconcile of women’s sponsored by the Robert Penn faculty member Stan Link of Public Policy. year’s annual colloquium of the kaleidoscope of rhinestones, tensions and self-centered being lesbian and Jewish. clothing. Gertrude and Harold S. Van- neon, flashy cars and guitars, government policies serve as a derbilt Visiting Writers Series. it surveys the album art of the backdrop. The drama places an DANCE: entire genre. Heartaches by the American hostage, held captive Two very different dance Philip Nel’s (MA’93, Number: Country in a featureless cell, beside his companies graced the stage in PhD’97) latest book, Music’s 500 Greatest wife, who has stripped a room Vanderbilt’s Great Performances The Avant-Garde Singles by David in their home of furnishings to Series this spring. Ronald K. and American Post- Cantwell and Bill better understand his deprivation. Brown/Evidence, perform- modernity: Small Inci- Friskics-Warren, ing in Langford sive Shocks, proposes published jointly Auditorium in that a series of small by Vanderbilt Uni- mid-February, but far-reaching versity Press and had as its mis- changes drew under- the Country Music sion to “focus standing from mod- Foundation Press, on developing ernism to postmodernism. is part encyclopedia, part histo- African con- He focuses on eight figures— ry, and part collection of record temporary Nathaniel West, Djuna Barnes, reviews. It argues for a way of dance and [to Dr. Seuss, Donald Barthelme, hearing using critical essays discuss] issues Don DeLillo, Chris Van Alls- that, when read in sequence, comment upon each other—

of race, class, BRAKE NEIL burg, Laurie Anderson and gender and Leonard Cohen—as represen- ultimately challenging what assimilation” tative of these changes, in this, country music is and what it Two Rooms through Les Ballets Trockadero the first book to analyze post- can mean. PHILLIP FRANCK de Monte Carlo modern children’s literature.

64 Spring 2003 V anderbilt Magazine 65 of information, and our readers are its con- increasingly sophisticated with every new dives. Next to the poster there’s a card whose sumers. And as in any business, sometimes it’s freshman class. Perhaps no other newspaper cover declares,“Some people are special.” difficult, if not impossible, to please everyone. in the country must navigate such a tenuous It’s a greeting card from Wymon Hayes, a One student, trying to defend his friend course through such an unforgiving and Vanderbilt Dining Services employee whose who had been arrested two days earlier while sophisticated readership. son was on board the USS Cole when it was allegedly attempting to break into the Fed- Making our job even more difficult is the attacked by Al-Qaida operatives in 2000. * eral Courthouse in downtown Nashville, schedule we work. I covered the story of Hayes’s family as S.P. O.V. made an interesting demand. they watched television news “Your reporter didn’t tell me broadcasts of the attacks, and I’d have to tell the truth once she wondered and prayed about the started asking me questions,”he safety of her son. I look at the card said.“So if you print the story, I’m and smile, every time, as I remem- To One Day Be Judged going to say that everything I told ber when I called Hayes, famous Student Point of View Student Point

* her was a lie.”His demand was among students for the hugs she LEX URKETT Musings from a mile above Nashville. By A B that since he hadn’t been truth- used to dispense at the entrance ful with our reporter, we must not to Rand Dining Hall at dinner use the interview in which he had time, shortly after she talked to mong my best without being the other. But in many ways, ly on a path toward its future size and shape, revealed some potentially damn- her son for the first time after the friends is a small the best reporter is a pilot. He ascends above preparing for residential colleges and align- ing information about his friend’s attack. Cessna, which pro- the fray to make sense of it all, getting the ing itself with the newest incarnation of night on the town. I remember how Hayes, char- vides the only venue helicopter view from overhead and simpli- the ever-changing paradigm of higher learn- Needless to say, he hadn’t lied. acteristically calm and spiritual, these days where I fying it for readers who can’t be there to see ing in the United States. But my conversation with him, seemed so utterly energized, entire- can watch the world it for themselves. Vanderbilt, historically the stiff, somewhat which lasted the better part of ly relieved. She was a story. She go by, and look upon As the editor of students’ primary source high-brow conservative institution of south- an hour, underscored the delica- was also a mother. Middle Tennessee of information on everything Vanderbilt, I ern legacy, has begun to shed its old skin and cy of our relationship with our “Oh, honey, I’m just so happy,” and ponder where we’ve come, where we’re think it’s my job to observe, to analyze, and force a new identity. Progressivism is the only readers. she told me, clearly fighting her going, and my role in chronicling it. We speak to know something before I begin even to ideology acceptable in any intellectual com- On the one hand, we all inhab- emotions. “I’ve been praying so Aour own language up there, a mile high, in report a single word. munity. it the same community. All of us hard, and I know everyone at Van- unspeakably tranquil refuge from the pres- The truths most vital to any member of Vanderbilt administrators’ decision last fall at the Hustler pay Vanderbilt tuition derbilt has been, too.”And then sures of putting out a a newspaper’s staff are that to delete the word “Confederate” from Con- each year, we all attend class, we I remember why I edit Vander- biweekly newspaper. he is insignificant, soon will federate Memorial Hall, a dormitory on the all go to weekend parties. And bilt’s student newspaper, why I I confess to the Cessna, be obsolete, was born long University’s Peabody campus, was a particu- despite its recent growth, Van- decided to write in the first place. as we slice through the win- after the newspaper’s lar high point of the Hustler’s reporting record. derbilt’s student body is still pret- A mile above the city, hurtling ter air together, that my nascence, and likely will die We broke the story, which spilled into local, ty small: One of our staff members through space at 120 miles per biggest, most consuming long before it prints its last regional and national headlines within days. estimated recently that students ROB FRANKLE hour, it’s easy to romanticize about fear is becoming irrelevant. page. That’s particularly In one sense, our reporting of the renam- here are separated by a scant two degrees. We are practitioners of a craft whose beau- the news business and collect my thoughts. I’m petrified of not mak- important for college news- ing of Confederate Memorial Hall was rou- Everyone knows everyone else through one ty takes shape in the witching hours. Ours is But nothing is easier to me than writing a ing a contribution — of paper editors to remem- tine: It told the story of yet another friend. a life of plenty of Coca-Cola, coffee, candy compelling article, than telling a good story. accomplishing mere deeds ber, particularly when they University-led initiative designed to refocus Unequivocally, it’s a small community. and sucrose. Like us, our office never sleeps. I imagine the Cessna and I will continue as editor-in-chief at the occupy their office for, at Vanderbilt’s image as a progressive, some- Almost every story in the Hustler affects at More often than not, I fantasize about join- to escape from the stresses of the daily grind Vanderbilt Hustler,but not most, a year’s time, and what urban, somewhat “hot” school that was least two people I know, so it’s important that ing the hordes of other Vanderbilt seniors as as often as possible. But I also imagine I’ll one leaving the campus in May enter their job knowing trying to delete the regional boundaries that the newspaper institutionalize a spirit of they trek to Hank Williams’s and Chet Atkins’s day be judged, in some way, for my work at with a lasting and mean- they’ll be replaced, trying have heretofore defined its student body. impartiality and a sense of detachment char- old haunts in downtown Nashville on week- Vanderbilt. I hope my contribution will prove ingful contribution. desperately until then to But in another sense, the Confederate cov- acteristic more of larger, metropolitan prod- day nights. to be as profound as Mama Hayes told me it

My friends whisper of NEIL BRAKE make a difference, to make erage was a reporter’s — and editor’s — dream. ucts than of newspapers serving markets I see them — all of them — reading our would be, as she prepared to welcome her son escapism when they talk about my exploits a contribution. But I can report only that It prompted fascinating dialogue about race Vanderbilt’s size. product bleary-eyed in the mornings after home. I pray I won’t become irrelevant, amid in the air, but I don’t see it that way. I write which happens. If nothing of note happens in America, and conjured memories of Amer- But we all live by the same rules, and it’s what I imagine to be long afternoons of golf the roar of the Cessna’s engine and the wind flying off as a part of my job, because the best during my tenure as editor-in-chief, I’ll sim- ica’s past racial sins from which we continue the newspaper’s responsibility to report on and tennis, looking tan even in January as racing around us. writer is he who has accrued the longest, most ply have to be satisfied with being reliable. to learn. Our coverage had a very real, almost those who don’t. they work their way through the paper from The way I figure it, irrelevant is the worst diverse life history, and I can’t conceive of a But I haven’t been so unlucky as to writhe visceral social value, something we don’t always It’s important I consider carefully what I the crossword on the back page. thing a man like me can be. better way to see the world — to observe it, in a drought of news. On a campus with 10,000 enjoy with reporting on a new greenhouse or write, and what the Vanderbilt Hustler reports. In those moments of self-doubt, I usually Alex Burkett, a senior American studies major to know it—than from an airplane. students and more staff members, there’s on scholarship winners. Vanderbilt’s students, an increasingly diverse, wander back into my office, where there’s a from Dalton, Ga., is editor of the biweekly Van- I fancy myself more an observer than a always news. Information, if it’s anything, is a business. Brobdingnagian bunch of scholars, academ- bulletin board on which, ever the escapist, I’ve derbilt Hustler student newspaper. He gradu- reporter. I guess it’s natural; I couldn’t be one The University has embarked ambitious- We are the distributor — the middle man — ics and future power-mongers, are growing tacked a poster of a tropical paradise in Mal- ates with his bachelor of arts degree in May.

66 Spring 2003 V anderbilt Magazine 67 ward with the wisdom and the vision to lead know we’ve all suffered.” the people cried out in disbelief, he told them us through the pain. But in the end, of course, Kennedy did suf- he understood how they felt. I don’t mean to idealize Kennedy. For some fer, and for a brief period of time — less than “In this difficult day,”he said,“in this diffi- time now, scholars have picked their way through five years, in fact, for that was all there was cult time for the United States, it is perhaps his record, revealing his contradictions and his between his brother’s death and his —Kennedy well to ask what kind of nation we are and what flaws. Even in the ’60s, some were unconvinced embodied an identification with pain. He spoke direction we want to move in. For those of you * by his urgency, seeing him as a cynical and ruth- at every campaign stop, including the one at who are black, you can be filled with bitterness, A.P. O.V. less politician. And even his admirers had to the Vanderbilt gymnasium, about the trou- with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can acknowledge that he could be ruth- move in that direction as a coun- int of View int less, or at least so driven that you try, in great polarization — black couldn’t tell the difference. But he people amongst black, white peo- was not cynical. ple amongst white, filled with A Wound Left Unhealed I remember the car ride from hatred toward one another. Alumni Po

* the airport to Vanderbilt—three “Or we can make an effort, as Looking back at another time of war and a leader silenced too soon. Tennessee politicians crowded into Martin Luther King did, to under- By FRYE GAILLARD, BA’68 the front seat, while Kennedy shared stand and to comprehend, and the back with John Glenn and one to replace that violence, that stain t was 35 years ago this He had come to Nashville on this partic- a number of celebrities to the campus — slightly awed student who was of bloodshed that has spread spring, and what I remember most ular occasion to deliver a speech at Vanderbilt William Buckley, Martin Luther King, Stoke- astonished by the frankness of it across our land, with an effort to is the crush of the crowd—how they University. More than 10,000 people waited ly Carmichael and Barry Goldwater, to name all as the politicians tried to tell understand. jammed together and filled up the for him there, but the people at the airport just a few. Kennedy’s speech was at least as Kennedy what to say and not to “My favorite poet was Aeschy- airport, and screamed and waved wanted a glimpse of him, too, and when he dis- memorable as any of the others. He spoke say. It’s a campus audience, they lus. He wrote: ‘In our sleep, pain signs and surged forward at the embarked from the railing and resumed his during a time of war and division, of urban told him, so talk about the Viet- which cannot forget falls drop sight of him, trying to shake his slow journey in the direction of the car, the riots and racial injustice, and against that nam War if you want. But this is by drop upon the heart until, in hand or just touch him. force of the crowd was nearly overwhelming. backdrop he talked about the patriotism of still the South, so go a little easy our own despair, against our will, He made it halfway from the plane to his I was in the middle of it, wide-eyed and dissent. It was, he thought, the duty of the on the issue of race. comes wisdom through the awful car, a step-at-a-time journey of maybe 15 min- trying to stay upright, shoving to keep up with people who loved their country to speak out Kennedy listened for a while, grace of God.’” Iutes. But finally he was surrounded, and there Kennedy, whom I was supposed to introduce. strongly against its imperfections. then turned to me and asked with- There were no riots in Indi- was nowhere to move; so they hoisted him When we finally squeezed through the doors “There are millions of Americans,”he out warning: “What do you think anapolis that night.“I guess the unsteadily to an escalator of the airport terminal, it declared,“living in hidden places, whose faces I ought to say tonight?” thing that kept us going,”said one railing, and as he balanced was raining outside — a and names we will never know. But I have seen I hesitated briefly, then told him of King’s aides,“was that maybe there precariously, looking cold and windy drizzle that children starving in Mississippi, idling their it was fine to talk about the war, but Bobby Kennedy would come up frail and very tired, he made would soon turn to ice. lives away in the ghetto, living without hope I also thought he should talk about with some answers.” a brief speech about the prob- I had an umbrella or future amid the despair on Indian reser- poverty and injustice at home. I For the next two months, a lot lems of the country. clutched tightly in my hand, vations, with no jobs and little hope. I have seen told him it was true those subjects of people held grimly to that hope, These were urgent times, but it was still closed, and proud men in the hills of Appalachia who wish were still sensitive in the South, but ROB FRANKLE especially as Kennedy did well in he said, full of war and injus- in the delirious surge of only to work in dignity — but the mines are that was all the more reason to address them bling things he had seen in the country —“the the primaries, and the thought began slowly tice and pointless human bodies there was no way closed, and the jobs are gone and no one, there — and that he might be surprised by the slow destruction of a child by hunger, and to form in our minds that despite all the tragedy pain. But they were not to open it, or even to lift neither industry or labor or government, has sympathy of the crowd. schools without books, and homes without and despair of the decade —the war and the impossible times, not an occa- my arm. It struck me then cared enough to help. Those conditions will “Thank you,”he said.“That’s what I’ll do.” any heat in the winter.” riots and the murder of good men —Robert sion for cynicism or despair. that the crowd, though change, those children will live, only if we dis- Then he sank into himself and rode along Despite his pleadings, the wounds of the Kennedy might be the next president. There was nothing revo- friendly, was edging toward sent. So I dissent, and I know you do, too.” in silence, brooding enigmatically as the politi- country only seemed to grow worse, culmi- He might find the policies to implement lutionary about the words he a mob, caught up in a kind For some of us at least, those words are cians in the front seat laughed and joked and nating on April 4, 1968, when Martin Luther his vision, and the country might find a way spoke; platitudes were as of Pied Piper blindness for haunting 35 years later, as we enter a new era exchanged old stories. I had no idea what King was murdered in Memphis. Kennedy through its pain. But then in the first week of abundant as startling insights. But somewhere which I feel no nostalgia. But for the slouched of national division — potentially, at least, a Kennedy was thinking, but there was certain- heard the news on a plane to Indianapolis, June he was gone, following unbelievably in imbedded in his Massachusetts twang, some- and slender man at the center of it, there are profound and agonizing disagreement about ly a great deal for him to brood about. He could where he was scheduled to appear that night the martyred path of Dr. King. In a way, it was where in the strange and enigmatic intensity those — and I suppose I am one — who still what kind of country we want to become in have reflected, as he did sometimes, about the at a campaign rally in a black neighborhood. the culmination of the ’60s, the death of a prom- of his icy blue stare, in the jab of his forefinger feel a nostalgia that borders on an ache. the wake of the terror of Sept. 11. There is no shabbier contradictions of his earlier career — All across the country the ghettos were burn- ise that had been so strong. and the tousle of his hair, in all the little com- When he died 74 days later, you knew with way to know, as this story goes to press, if the his time as attorney general in his brother’s ing, with looting and bombs and sniper fire Thirty-five years later, it seems clear enough ponents that made up his presence, there was a certainty beyond shock and grief that Amer- divisions will become a kind of tortured replay, administration when he permitted wiretaps from the high-rise apartments. But Kennedy that the wound to the country has never real- an urgency and a passion that were soon to dis- ican politics would never be the same. And or even an echo, of the 1960s. But what some on civil rights leaders and angered groups of insisted on keeping his appointment. ly healed. There is only the scar—the cynicism appear. For this was March 21, 1968, and the it isn’t. Kennedy came to Vanderbilt to serve of us fear is that there are no Robert Kennedys blacks who came to him regularly with horror Standing alone on a flatbed truck, hunched born on a California night when the most decent man was Robert Kennedy, newly announced as keynoter for the IMPACT symposium, a among us today — no political leaders, Repub- stories from the South, telling them abruptly against the cold in his black overcoat, he told politician of our time lay in a spreading pool candidate for president of the United States. student-run speakers program that had brought lican or Democrat, who have yet stepped for- and with no apparent sense of irony:“Well,you the crowd what had happened to King, and as continued on page 85

68 Spring 2003 V anderbilt Magazine 69 TheClasses

Please Note: Class Notes are only available in the print version of this publication.

Sheryl Rogers, BS’93, is searching for the owner of this Vanderbilt ring.

NEIL BRAKE Icelandic Saga Wanted: One Class of 1966 alumnus who likes to travel and is prone to losing things. The Alumni Relations Office has your Vanderbilt ring. “I found it in a bag of sheepskin scraps when we lived in Iceland,” writes Gayle Temple of Arlington, Texas. “We were stationed at the NATO base near Keflavik, Iceland, in 1971.” Having no affiliation with Vanderbilt and unsure of how to proceed, the Temples kept the ring in an old jewel- ry box. Years later, their son lost his Texas Aggie ring. “It put life and personality into that ring I still had from Iceland,” adds Gayle, who, more than 30 years after find- ing it, has sent the Vanderbilt ring to Sheryl Rogers, asso- ciate director of alumni relations at Vanderbilt. The unclaimed man’s ring is silver with a black stone and identifies the owner as BA’66. Inside, an inscription appears to read “B.R.F. Jr.” Alumni records do not list anyone in the Class of 1966 who matches those initials. If you can help solve the rid- dle of the ring, please contact the Alumni Relations Office at 615/322-1003.

70 Spring 2003 V anderbilt Magazine 71 T HE C LASSES

Bernard Machen, A’66 Alumni Association News

Beginning this fall, Alumni Recruitment Committees in three cities will take on a larger role in student recruit- ment. Alumni volunteers will interview students in Atlanta, Chicago and Houston. The interviewing program, which will help personalize the admissions process and expand Vanderbilt’s reputation in each of these cities, will be administered by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and the Office of Alumni Relations. Eventually, the program will expand to other cities. Training workshops will take place in all three pilot cities this summer. If you live in one of these areas and are interested in getting involved, con- tact Heathie Bagwell Cox in the Alumni Relations Office at 615/322-2929, or at [email protected].

Each year the Alumni Relations Office hosts tailgating parties prior to away games in a handful of cities. This year you can tailgate with fellow ’Dore fans before the Sept. 20

game at Texas Christian University or the Nov. 8 game at LAURA SEITZ, DESERET NEWS Florida. Other tailgating parties are still being planned. For information, contact the Alumni Relations Office. Riding High Call it a university exchange program. Three members of the Class of 2003 are candidates for In 2000, Utah native Gordon Gee, who earned his Young Alumni Trustee. They are Ashley Moore, a double undergraduate degree from the University of Utah, became major in English and psychology; Marissa Shrum, an Vanderbilt’s chancellor.Two year earlier, J. Bernard English and sociology double major; and Matthew Saul, an Machen, who was a student at Vanderbilt in the early economics major. Check your next Vanderbilt Magazine to 1960s, was installed as president of the University of find out which of these outstanding students will serve on Utah. the Vanderbilt Board of Trust. Like Gee, Machen likes to shake things up in the ossi- fied world of higher education. Utah’s president rides a Kudos to Nashville Vanderbilt Club organizers for their motorcycle and sometimes wears jeans to the office. popular “Murder, She Wrote” mystery evening. About 175 Machen didn’t set out to be a university president. The alumni and friends attended the March 2 event, which St. Louis native transferred from Vanderbilt to St. Louis included cocktails, dinner, high drama, and a program by University after his sophomore year to study dentistry. Martha Hailey DuBose, BA’68, author of Women of During the 12 years he was dean of the dental schools at Mystery: The Lives and Works of Notable Women Crime North Carolina and Michigan, he kept his private practice, Novelists, and armchair sleuth Margaret Caldwell Thomas. specializing in treating children with disabilities. He is the Special credit goes to Cathy Shull, BA’68; Sharon Hels, only university president in the country who is also a for- MA’82, PhD’87; and the Nashville Vanderbilt Club mer dentist—and only Utah’s second president who is not a Education Committee for planning this event. member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Update information on what you’re doing and where you When asked at his first news conference in Utah whether are at Dore2Dore, Vanderbilt’s online alumni connection. he was “LDS,” Machen thought the reporter was asking if Information is password-protected for your privacy. Check he had a learning disability. out Dore2Dore at www.dore2dore.net. Now, one of his pet causes at Utah is promoting diversi- ty among the student body of 28,000.

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Barbara Trenchi, Dudley Warner, BA’74 BA’65

KATHY SAUBER NEIL BRAKE 15 Minutes of Fame Easters on the Half-Shell You know it’s going to be a bad day when you look out the “I’ve loved oysters since I was a small boy and prefer them window in the morning and your car is missing. It hap- raw,” declares Dudley Warner, founder of Oyster Easter, a pened to Barbara Trenchi last September. She called the Nashville celebration that began 41 years ago. “My fresh- police, then caught a bus from her home in Everett, Wash., man year at Vanderbilt, some of us were looking for some- to her job at the Seattle Times. thing fun to do the Saturday before Easter. Somebody sug- “I was in the middle of an intersection near the office gested we get a keg of beer and oysters on the half-shell.” when three police cars with lights flashing came scream- The rest is bivalve history. Over the years, Oyster ing up the hill toward me,” she remembers. Easters have taken place in Nashville backyards, on a Trenchi jumped aside just in time to see a car whizzing Williamson County llama farm, and even in Boston and past. “I noticed the Vanderbilt sticker and realized, that’s Washington, D.C., when Warner lived there. my car,” she says. Her blue Honda Accord hit an elderly By the early ’90s Oyster Easter was drawing 600 peo- woman who flew seven feet into the air.“Then my car ple. Organizers turned it into a charity fund-raiser. Oyster smashed into two parked cars. Two kids got out of my car Easter is now the main fund-raiser for the Community and ran. A third was grabbed by policemen. I was sobbing Resource Center, which does most of the planning. hysterically because I was sure the woman had been What’s the attraction? “It’s a lot of foolishness after a killed.” long hard winter,”Warner laughs. “We’ve had some unusu- The uninsured teenaged driver, who’d stolen eight vehi- al door prizes—candlelit dinners for two at Truckstops of cles previously, is doing jail time. Trenchi befriended the America in Knoxville, and a 15-inch rope-chain macho elderly woman, who sustained numerous injuries but is necklace from a Dickson funeral home. I don’t have any now doing well. Her bizarre story was picked up by CNN, idea where they got it. NPR and Paul Harvey, among others. “Did you know oysters can change their sex?” Dudley Trenchi has a new car—and a new Vanderbilt sticker. adds. “Scientists will tell you it’s the iron that gives them their reputation as an aphrodisiac.”

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82 Spring 2003 From the Reader continued from page 10 Both Brooks and Warren went on to distinguished As a former student and teacher at instructor in freshman English composition, and professorships at Yale. Vanderbilt, I was proud of my Ph.D. and associa- a good one. About the proudest boast of my aca- Two of the younger members of the depart- tion with such fine men as Curry, Bennett, Beat- demic career is that he urged me to continue my ment were Rob Roy Purdy and Richmond Croom ty,Davidson, Ransom and Purdy. With the television studies by enrolling in his sophomore course in Beatty. With patience and a commendable ease, news reporting the prejudiced recruiting practices creative writing. There is no telling where this Purdy took generations of students through myr- of the University, along with the current article would have led me (I had the good sense to decline). iad Anglo-Saxon poets and the great epic Beowulf. “Pride and Prejudice” in your magazine, my respect James R. Tuck, A’40, L’47 He saw himself as less a linguist than as a new crit- for the current University has vanished. The report- Nashville ic who could examine the artifacts of our early ed prejudice of Kreyling and Daniels is appalling, heritage with the unencumbered delight of a young and I am ashamed to admit that my degrees are I have read Paul Kingsbury’s article in workman who had just uncovered a golden relic from Vanderbilt. the winter issue of Vanderbilt Magazine, and I am from the Sutton Hoo. Thus, the New Criticism Robert L. Welker, BA’48, MA’52, PhD’58 incredulous at the sophomoric vitriol of the two found its way into musty corners of academe and Huntsville, Ala. English department faculty members Kingsbury lit up the past for generations of students who quoted. Paul Conkin, a veteran member of the would cherish their time in antiquity. Paul Kingsbury’s provocative article Vanderbilt History Department, seemed far more Richmond Beatty co-edited two major text- “Pride and Prejudice” in the winter issue of your willing to examine the complex legacy of the Fugi- books that have also shaped our discipline and fine magazine caught my attention. It seems to me tive poets and Agrarians than either Michael continue to attract readers: The American Tradi- a bad idea to publish an article that undermines Kreyling or Kate Daniels. Sadly, these informants tion in Literature and The Literature of the South. the enormous reverence Vanderbilt alumni hold revealed strong personal biases rather than pro- He and his partners included women and black for the Fugitives and Agrarians. Paul Conkin was fessional objectivity in their disregard for the rich writers before it was “politically correct” to do so. right when he wrote,“Nothing in Vanderbilt’s his- literary history in which the subjects of the arti- So it is neither honest nor accurate to dismiss tory has come anywhere close to the Fugitives and cle played major parts. these Vanderbilt writers as superannuated relics Agrarians in giving it a national reputation.” As a member of the Vanderbilt English facul- from another age and time. Their achievements In the beginning of the article, Kingsbury ty for 30 years, with an M.A. and Ph.D. from the in creative letters pointed the way for younger correctly says that, of the five men shown in the department, I can speak responsibly of its histo- craftsmen who came under their influence either photograph taken at my father’s house in 1956, ry and the achievements of the writers it devel- in the classroom or in the volumes they published. four—Davidson, Ransom, Tate and Warren—were oped over half a century. Among them were major The many contributions of the Fugitive poets are both Fugitives and Agrarians. What he did not say poets, novelists and critics whose contributions, housed in the University Archives, where their was that there were 16 contributors to the Fugi- all told, were significant in American letters. Those reputations are secure in the books they wrote. tive magazine, 12 of whom, including my father, writers deepened our critical appreciation of imag- Like Proteus in the Odyssey, the Vanderbilt Fugi- Jesse Wills, and his first cousin, Ridley Wills, were inative literature and showed us the permanent tives and Agrarians were known to change shapes not Agrarians. One of the Fugitive poets happened gifts our generation had inherited not only from and positions over the years. Warren, as early as to be a woman, Laura Ridings. I feel that the 12 English and American writers but also from the the late ’30s, disavowed his “separate but equal” Fugitive poets who were not Agrarians were tar- classical tradition that shaped them. essay on race. John Crowe Ransom went north to nished with the charges of racism and sexism made As a teaching fellow with my first class of stu- Ohio and Kenyon College and modified some of in the article. This is painful because my father dents, I taught Donald Davidson’s American Com- the tenets of I’ll Take My Stand with its insistence disagreed with much of what the Agrarians wrote. position and Rhetoric, a comprehensive textbook on an Agrarian South. The sidebar on page 32 of the magazine links which stayed in print for decades. Davidson “de- The truth is that they were remarkably fluid the Fugitives and Agrarians together. It said,“There colonialized”American English by establishing its thinkers, and to understand them today’s students is a new generation of English professors at Van- usage and rhetorical structure as authoritative in must confront the entire spectrum of their thought derbilt who have no personal or professional loy- its own right. It was a privilege for me to work and thereby apprehend a revelation of a whole alty to the Fugitives and Agrarians, and whose with him in producing the third edition of his larger than any single manifestation. critical perspectives cause them to question Van- landmark textbook. I invite Kreyling and Daniels to put aside their derbilt’s long-held reverence for these writers.” We must not forget, in our age of specializa- prejudices for a spell and look upon this group of My father, who was a member of the Vander- tion, that Walter Clyde Curry’s books included dedicated teachers, writers and creative thinkers bilt Board of Trust, established the Fugitive-Agrar- scholarly volumes on Chaucer, Milton and Shake- doing their honest best to represent the world and ian Collection at Vanderbilt’s library, and took speare, the triumvirate of poets in the English lit- human nature as faithfully as they could. great pride in it. His name was Jesse E. Wills, not erary tradition. They earned him a broad reputation If the Fugitives and Agrarians manifested fail- Jesse W. Wills, as shown in the article. with other scholars in England and Europe, and ures in judgments in their political lives, their lit- W. Ridley Wills II, BA’56 they continue to be cited in scholarly essays— erary achievement will nonetheless weather the Vanderbilt Board of Trust proof positive that some critics survive all the pop- test of time and the ephemeral critical fads and Franklin, Tenn. ular “isms” because of their timeless relevance fetishes that have always encumbered academics to the literature itself. who like to keep up with them. I suspect the con- And, of course, Robert Penn Warren’s corpus demnations of two Vanderbilt English Depart- of poetry, criticism, fiction and social commen- ment members will go unnoticed in the large tary has made him a figure acknowledged not only scheme of literary history. in Europe but in cultures around the world. His Herschel Gower, MA’52, PhD’57 partnership with Cleanth Brooks in three text- Vanderbilt Professor of English, Emeritus books revolutionized the way poetry, fiction and Dallas rhetoric were taught in this country and abroad.

V anderbilt Magazine 83 VJournal continued from page 11 They will use words without meanings. They fickle. We must find contentment in life no son & Johnson and Chick-fil-A, and the writ- Leadership. The chair is part of an entire pro- Virtuoso Performers continued from page 59 Fyodor Dostoevsky, “The Grand Inquisi- will hide behind empty phrases. Make them matter what blows life deals us. Keep living. ings of contemporary Protestant theologian gram in moral leadership, endowed in 1994 content with her performance that she left tor,”from The Brothers Karamazov. In decid- accountable. (12 pages) (28 pages) Harvey Cox. Along the way, he mentions rel- by Vanderbilt trustee Cal Turner Jr., BA’62,the immediately afterwards for the W.O. Smith ing how to live, we have a choice as individuals. Edmund Burke, “Letter to the Sheriffs of Soren Kierkegaard, “The Story of Abra- evant areas of his research, such as examin- recently retired CEO of Dollar General Corp., Community School of Music to teach a per- We can choose to let others think for us, and Bristol.”The best leaders will help keep us free ham,”from Fear and Trembling. Reason alone ing the role of business leaders as public which brings together Vanderbilt’s professional cussion class to school-aged children. be slaves. Or we can choose to think for our- by telling us what we truly need to hear—and does not suffice for living. Reason can only theologians of a sort, and evaluating the “eth- schools (medicine, law, nursing, divinity After the competition Krystal derived selves, and be free. Choose. (24 pages) not just what we want to hear. We need their take us just so far toward understanding. Beyond ical climates” that determine the moral bound- and business) to explore topics that present some satisfaction in knowing she had played Martin Luther King Jr.,“Letter from Birm- judgment, and not just their echo. (35 pages) that, we must make the “leap to faith.”Keep aries in various companies and organizations. ethical issues for all, such as genetic research. “Rhapsody in Blue” very well—maybe even ingham Jail.”We all must be free to choose. Samuel Johnson, Number 21, The Ram- believing. (8 pages) This broad style of inquiry comes natural- Under the auspices of the Cal Turner Pro- well enough to win. A few weeks passed, how- Freedom belongs to everyone. Lest we forget. bler. We are none of us immune to the frail- William Hazlitt,“On the Feeling of Immor- ly to Victor, says colleague Bruce Barry, a one- gram,Victor leads an interdisciplinary course ever, before she truly understood why she (6 pages) ties of human nature. We each imagine that tality in Youth.”But believe in this world as time graduate student of Victor’s who is now in moral leadership offered through both had undergone so many hassles for an expe- Virginia Woolf, Chapter 6, A Room of One’s we are superior in some way to others. We are well as the next. When we are young, we all the Brownlee O. Currey Associate Professor of Owen and the Divinity School that is open rience she just as easily could have sidestepped. Own. And “everyone”includes women. Again, not. Be humble. (5 pages) think we will never die. We will. Life is short. Management at Owen.“A lot of business schools to students of all the University’s professional “On Wednesday night,”she says, “I played lest we forget. (20 pages) Immanuel Kant, “On Perpetual Peace.” Life is meant to be lived. So seize the day. (6 have an ‘ethics guy.’And you could look at Bart schools and is co-taught by Victor and fac- through “Rhapsody in Blue” for the first time Abraham Lincoln,“The Gettysburg Address.” Despite our nature, despite our frailties, we pages) and say we do, too. But I think what we have is ulty from the various schools. Similarly, his since the competition. An upright piano was A lot of good people have died so that we can can be better than we are. Thus, the world can This is my list. actually something unique, which is an ethics Turner Program connections have led him in the Ingram Performance Hall lobby, and be free to choose. A lot. Never forget. (1 page) be better than it is. Keep trying. (33 pages) Total: 404 pages. guy who first of all is well grounded in the to invite faculty from the other schools into I always like playing on pianos I find in ran- Suetonius, “Augustus, Afterward Dei- Henry David Thoreau,“On Seeing,”from Of course, much is missing here. Poetry. underlying moral philosophy of ethical rea- his Ethics in Business course to expand the dom places. I played through the whole piece, fied,”Sections 61-96, from The Twelve Cae- his Journal. Try to see. Seeing is understand- Fiction. Song. Scripture. Shakespeare. The Bill soning—and, sadly, you can’t say that about frame of reference. solo, without the cuts for the competition sars. Be skeptical of those you choose to entrust ing.“We cannot see anything until we are pos- of Rights. The Sermon on the Mount. And a all business-school ethics professors. Bringing together faculty and students excerpt. It was a joy just to be able to play this with your freedom. They, too, are human. Even sessed with the idea of it, and then we can whole library filled with a whole lot more. “But more important than that, we have from these other disciplines, says Victor,“allows particular piece of music. Even if I don’t Caesar Augustus, to seem taller, wore lifts in hardly see anything else.”Keep looking. (3 My list could go on, and your list would somebody who has core pieces of intellectu- us to deal with [ethical] problems in the way get to perform it with an orchestra, it’s a great his sandals. (20 pages) pages) surely be different. But try starting here. Start- ally focused experience that are grounded in they really are. The interesting problems don’t piece to have learned: an American concer- George Orwell, “Politics and the English Plutarch,“On Contentment.”Look not for ing with this list will give you—and every key areas outside of that—one of which is just fit here in the business school. They don’t to flavored with jazz, a piece with rhythmic Language.”Some of our leaders will lie to us. fame or fortune. Fame is hollow. Fortune is American—an education in 404 pages. V corporate strategy, which he has taught suc- just fit in the law school. Just as business isn’t vitality, a piece with melodies that one leaves cessfully here and at other places. And anoth- simply a concern of business.” the practice room singing.” er is this firm grounding in social science at Indeed, says Victor,“business is the single That’s why Gershwin called it a “rhap- In Class continued from page 30 day issue for everyone who works. “There stance of the course. Their way of thinking both micro and macro levels. What we have, most significant social defining force in the sody.”And, more than any other reward, the with good-natured intellectual energy. He aren’t many people who wake up in the morn- and understanding—not mine—is essential then, in Bart Victor is unique, in that he brings world today. It reaches everywhere. The world discovery of such rhapsody drives students tends to speak swiftly and passionately, some- ing and look in the mirror and see a bank to the course. I am catalyst, facilitator and crit- not just a focus on ethics but also a real ground- has never seen a social movement as signifi- at the Blair School of Music to keep per- times giving the impression that the ideas are robber,”he says.“Most people wake up in the ic, but I am not the source in a class like that. ing in other social sciences.” cant, as powerful, as pervasive as business.” forming. V accumulating in his head more quickly than morning and see a pretty good person. But “I can’t tell them what the right choices Victor’s work experience reflects his broad Which, come to think of it, makes the idea they can get out of his mouth. how do they bring that to action? How do are. Yesterday in class I went through the academic interests. Starting with an under- of teaching moral leadership in business seem Business ethics has long been a part of they bring that to life? That’s where I get Cook’s Tour of moral reasoning,”he says with graduate degree in sociology, he moved from all the more imperative. A.P.O.V. continued from page 69 business school curricula, but its importance focused in my teaching. I think business ethics a chuckle. “And the problem is that it’s a social work to service as executive director of Despite all the recent corporate news of of his blood and whispered to the people rush- has been underscored recently by the wave is all about recognizing that, in fact, our work cacophony of prescription: Think about this a system of 20 day-care centers, then on to accounting fraud and executive deceit, Bart ing to his side,“Is everybody all right?” of corporate scandals that has rocked Wall matters to others.” and you’ll come to the right answer. Whether management consulting on day-care issues. Victor remains upbeat about the possibilities The answer, of course, is that none of us Street. Firms like HealthSouth, WorldCom To help business students recognize eth- utilitarianism or deontology or social con- Drawn to graduate school in business (“I just for American business. He sees it not as some was. In the political life of our troubled young and Enron that not so long ago drew praise ical dilemmas buried in mundane day-to-day tract or virtues or moral rights—or any of needed to know more”), he earned a Ph.D. faceless, out-of-control juggernaut but as an country, there was simply no cure for that kind and investor dollars are now seen as synony- decisions, Victor combines three key ingre- these things. All of them have these strong in business administration at the Universi- engine that we all have some power to con- of loss. V mous with moral and—ultimately—finan- dients. First, he presents classic case studies and compelling prescriptions for making ty of North Carolina. After teaching at the trol.“I like business. I think business is a great, Frye Gaillard, BA’68, was chairman of the cial bankruptcy. of ethical crucibles, such as the case of Ford’s moral choices. All of them mutually exclu- universities of Nebraska and North Caroli- positive thing. I think it can do awful stuff, IMPACT program that brought Robert Kennedy But the trap in teaching ethics case stud- dangerously designed Pinto gas tanks or Union sive. And all of them full of bloody holes. And na, he took a plum position at the Institute like anything powerful. It is not simply good to the Vanderbilt campus. During his lengthy ies of companies like these or Bausch & Lomb, Carbide’s reaction to the 1984 chemical dis- so: What do I do? First we recognize that yes, for Management Development Internation- in and of itself. It is a human creation. We are career as a journalist, Gaillard has written about says Victor, is that it’s all too easy for such aster in Bhopal, India. Then he questions the I do have a choice. Now what? And that’s al (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland. (“It’s a business. We are the market. Not somebody that event in several places, including the Char- striking examples of corporate irresponsi- students and gets them talking about where where moral courage gets called upon and world-renowned place that’s kind of part else. So let’s take responsibility for it.” V lotte Observer, for which he served as southern bility to look like a rare and spectacular event. the ethical issues lie and how they come up where moral leadership really begins.” western business school and part executive An English major when at Vanderbilt and editor, and in his family memoir, Lessons from “When we make it into these big headlines, against business goals. Finally, he shares basic In even a brief conversation about busi- development laboratory,”says Barry.) Victor now a Nashville freelancer, Paul Kingsbury, the Big House: One Family’s Passage Through the students look at it, and it’s like watching principles of moral reasoning that have been ness ethics, Bart Victor can range far and wide, taught there three years and ran the IMD’s A’80, is the author of books on the Grand Ole the History of the South. an Arnold Schwartzenegger movie: ‘Wow! pondered by philosophers and theologians touching on the first 100 days of JFK’s pres- program for executive development. Opry and Nashville’s historic Hatch Show Print Whoa! Hope I don’t ever have to do that.’” since the dawn of civilization. idency, the moral philosophy of Andrew What drew him to Vanderbilt in 1999 was poster shop. His articles have appeared in Enter- What Victor tries to do in his ethics class- “It is a class in which their opinions, their Carnegie (“first we will do well, and then we the potential for interdisciplinary collabora- tainment Weekly, US, Nashville Life, and other es is to show students that ethics is an every- thinking is central,”he says. “That’s the sub- will do good”), the business credos of John- tion inherent in the Cal Turner Chair in Moral magazines.

84 Spring 2003 V anderbilt Magazine 85 The Thrill of It All continued from page 43 hours, Frist and his wife continued their pur- Cross continued from page 88 asm. I just ain’t got nothing against those peo- she paces from one side of the yard to the house and got a towel and put it down on the name the HCA Foundation the Frist Foun- suit of major philanthropic projects. All three said, “We ain’t never had a basement.”For ple. I’ve heard people around here say we other, wearing us out the whole time. Wilma grass in front of the tree, and then I carried dation. “When Tommy stepped back in as of their adult children moved back to some reason that got her tickled, and she ought to round up all the Arabs and send apparently can’t stand still and cuss. You ought Wilma across the yard and set her down on CEO, there was a collective sigh of relief,” Nashville and their sons, in particular, had started laughing. Just shook all over. And them back to where they came from, but to hear her. She goes from the gate all the way the towel so she wouldn’t get her shoes wet. says Peter Bird, the foundation’s CEO. taken an interest in the arts. The second- and then I started laughing because she was laugh- it’s the same bunch of numbnuts that used across the yard and circles around the dog- The old woman squatted down beside her, He brought his friend Jack Bovender out third-generation Frists recognized the city’s ing and neither one of us had our teeth in to say that about the blacks, and that ought wood tree and heads back the way she came. and they smiled at me and I took their pic- of retirement to help him right the sinking need for a downtown art center. In April and we must’ve been a sight and then the tor- to tell you something right there. Shoot, I see Back and forth. Back and forth. Like she’s in ture. Now, maybe it’s just an old man think- Columbia/HCA battleship and called upon 2001, after years of planning and negotia- nado went WHOOSH! and I thought, well, Arabs around here all the time, in the gro- a dogtrot or a zoo. Just wearing us out. Lan- ing, with too much time on his hands and other friends from the HCA glory days whom tions, the $45 million Frist Center for the Vi- this is it, here we go, but that was the end of cery store usually, women wearing long robes guage you wouldn’t believe. We used to call too many regrets, but I wonder now, looking he knew he could trust. The company quickly sual Arts opened in what had been the city’s it. Then the old woman said, “All right, you with their hair all covered up, or whatever, the police, but they won’t come anymore, back, if that might have been the moment reorganized, spinning off small hospitals into historic main post-office building, an Art- can get off of me now.” speaking Arab or whatever to the little kids they got so tired of it. Sometimes we see the when my life was as good as it was ever going a separate company, rewriting an ethics poli- Deco structure completed in 1934. The Frist And I said,“I don’t think I can,”which got they got in the buggy, and you know what neighbors come out in the yard to listen. We to be. I was young then and strong and had cy, and halting the practice of corporate Foundation and the family of Tommy Frist her going all over again. Of course, the old it looks like to me they’re doing? Buying gro- can see them laugh and shake their heads. just got promoted, I loved my wife, and I had branding for its hospitals. HCA also paid Jr. provided $25 million of the funding. woman is bad to get tickled. She got tickled ceries. That’s the God’s truth. They try not to look at her, though, because a beautiful little daughter in patent leather more than $1 billion in fines to settle the If anything, the birth of the Frist Center at her own mama’s funeral, and people thought Nobody on the street has cut their grass if she ever catches them looking at her, boy, shoes who thought I was the greatest thing claims by the federal government. During this exemplifies Tommy Frist’s approach to both she was crying. yet, either, and I’m afraid it’s because none she’ll wear them out, too. The other day the there had ever been. And at that moment, period, Frist drew a salary of one dollar a year. business and philanthropy, and his distaste After it stopped raining, we went out and of them have lawn mowers left. I don’t have old woman and I were sitting in the kitchen, who knows, maybe I was. Bovender comments, “My admiration for for failure. “I have almost a chess mentality,” had a look around the neighborhood, trees any proof, I ain’t never caught her, but I think not really paying attention to Wilma, when Looking at that old tree now makes me Tommy, which was always high, grew signifi- he says. “If something doesn’t work, I figure down everywhere, trees on top of houses, Wilma steals from people in the neighbor- somebody down the street must’ve caught wonder. It’s possible that from the second I cantly during that time because of the way he out what my fallbacks are and how I can re- houses gone, roofs laying in people’s yards, hood. I think she steals what she can out of her eye. We heard her yell, Why don’t you go snapped that picture everything went down- conducted himself through extremely diffi- vamp it and make it work.” This philosophy power lines hanging everywhere, some of people’s garages and sheds and uses the money on out to Clarksville and eat some of Doo- hill, even if it was so slow I never noticed until cult situations. He never lost his confidence has served Frist well, and in some measure them still hot and sparking. It was a sight. Of to buy drugs. Her and her “friends.”What- ley’s wife’s baloney which is what you’ve been just now. The reason I happen to remember or commitment to see this thing through.” helped earn him recognition at Vanderbilt course, most of those trees were hackberries, ever man she’s with that week. I see her some- craving anyway, you bastard. Wilma’s crazy that particular day is because the picture turned Last year, certain that his HCA wild-child with the Alumni Association’s 2002 Distin- trash trees, and their being gone is a good times, walking up and down the alleys, and as a bat and I doubt she even knows what out nice and we kept it on top of the TV for was back on track, Frist again stepped aside guished Alumnus Award. thing. People were walking around saying, It I know she ain’t doing it for the exercise. If she’s saying half the time, but something about a long time, and because later that day I spanked into the role of chairman and officially re- He originally pledged a few million to- looks like a war zone. It looks like a war zone, you were just out for a stroll, wouldn’t you that struck me as funny, I don’t know why, Wilma for getting ice cream down the front tired in January 2002. Reflecting on the expe- wards the creation of the arts center, then $11 like they knew what they were talking about. walk on the street where at least there’s some- and when I looked at the old woman, I saw of that dress after I had warned her not to. rience, he says,“The problem wasn’t that Co- million, and finally donated more than half Let me tell you, what it looked like was a place thing to look at? Dogwoods blooming or flow- she was trying not to laugh. Well, when I said, Now I wonder why I did that. To tell the truth, lumbia/HCA had gotten too big; the problem its cost. “The whole premise behind that was a tornado had hit. And that’s all. I’ve been in ers? No, she’s looking in the fences to see what “Who’s Dooley?” the old woman spit coffee I don’t have any idea. Back then you just was that it had been thrown together too Tommy’s feeling that we didn’t need another a war zone. I was in Germany in 1945. I know she can see. Wilma buys her drugs from a guy out all over the table. She felt bad about it whipped your kids and never thought any- quickly by Mr. Scott. He was a deal man. He art museum in Nashville —we needed an ed- what a war zone looks like. There toward the who drives a silver Camaro convertible. I see later, but I told her we might as well have a thing about it. But you can’t tell a little girl didn’t understand the humanistic aspect of a ucational center, because he believes the arts end, we were killing Germans by the hun- him around the neighborhood all the time. good laugh. What else are we going to do? not to get ice cream down the front of her service company. The people are your great- are a strong deciding factor in a child’s edu- dreds who weren’t even Germans, just boys Sometimes he pulls up right in front of the It’s my opinion that the dogwood in the dress any more than you can tell her not to est asset, and you have to treat them fairly. It cation,” says Frist Center President Ken from Czechoslovakia or Poland or wherev- house, and Wilma goes right up to the win- yard has got to be the biggest one in Nashville, fall down. I don’t know. was a culture issue. Roberts. “He really impressed me. The costs er, boys who shouldn’t have had a dog in that dow and pulls her money out of her pants although, obviously, I ain’t got no way to prove Every Easter our preacher tells the story “Now I can look back on it all and say that kept going up, and Tommy kept backing it.” fight, and for damn sure didn’t want to be in pocket plain as day. Sometimes she gets in that. I’m just sure of it. You ought to see it. about how ever since Christ was crucified, it was a fabulous four or five years. Now I Now that those obstacles have been over- that fight, but they had the SS behind them, the car with him and drives off. I hate to think When the kids were little, every Easter we God has made sure that the dogwood never think, gosh, what would I have done with my come and the downtown Frist Center for the killing them if they didn’t fight us or if they about where they go. What she must do to used to stand them in front of that tree and grew big enough to make a cross. Well, let me life from August 1997 up to this point if I Visual Arts is in full swing (you may visit its tried to run away. They caught it going and get a hold of money. I’ll tell you what. You take their picture. And it was a big tree then. tell you, the one in my yard is big enough hadn’t had that stimulating challenge?” Web site at www.fristcenter.org), Frist has no coming. It was pitiful, the way we chewed up want to go somewhere and fight some evil? I remember this one Easter when Wilma to make a cross out of, I’m sure of it. And He smiles slightly and adds, “So I’m say- desire to rest on his laurels. Although he’s those boys, and them not wanting to fight, There’s enough of that right here to go around. couldn’t have been more than 3 or 4 years every Easter, when I listen to that sermon, I ing thank you to the government for giving pleased about his contributions to the art mu- but they were shooting at us, so what could You want to drop a bomb and fly it through old. I don’t even know if any of the others want to bring the preacher out here and show me this opportunity.” seum, the recovery of HCA, his resurrection of we do? And I did my share, I won’t lie to you. somebody’s car window? How about that sil- had been born yet. Anyway, Wilma’s mama him that blooming dogwood and say,“Now The ultimate testament that HCA has the local United Way, and his myriad achieve- I did some things I ain’t proud of. So. I’m ver Camaro? Give me one one of them planes. had her dressed up in this pretty little dress look here, preacher. Look at that tree. Don’t reached the far side of the scandal may be in ments and good deeds, those are in the past sorry some people around here lost their Smart bombs. I’d push the button in a heart- and these shiny patent leather shoes. All our tell me it ain’t big enough to make a cross out its recent agreement to purchase Health Mid- and he’d rather talk about other things. After houses or got their roofs blew off, but I ain’t beat. You sell drugs? I’d drop the bomb. That’s girls wound up wearing those shoes, but they of. You can tell me a lot of things, and I’ll even west’s 14-hospital system. The deal would all, he’s a grandfather now and his passions are going to call a bunch of blowed-over hack- how I’d like to spend my “golden years.”Fly- were new then. She told Wilma to go stand believe some of them. But don’t you dare ever never have been approved had HCA not changing. Each day presents a new risk worth berry trees and a few smashed-up houses no ing over Nashville in a big old bomber, keep- in front of the tree so I could take her pic- tell me that again.” V proven itself a worthy, responsible player in taking, a new goal worth reaching. war zone. Ain’t no way. Then a year later the ing an eye on things. ture, but Wilma didn’t want to walk through Tony Earley, an assistant professor of Eng- the market. “The Health Midwest deal is “What I’m really excited about is the deadnettle came up. Wilma has got a path worn through the the grass because the dew would get her shoes lish at Vanderbilt, is the author of three books: symbolic that our company’s focus and repu- Nashville Zoo,” he says, a familiar light in his And this war I’ve been watching on tele- deadnettle and the grass, all the way down to wet. She always was the prissiest thing. Well, Here We Are in Paradise, Jim the Boy, and tation have recovered,”Bovender says. eye.“I just think a zoo is an important part of vision? I’ll tell you what, I just don’t know. the dirt. Whenever we won’t let her in the we didn’t want her to cry and get her face all Somehow Form a Family. Even when his company was in its darkest any community.” V I ain’t been able to work up much enthusi- house, which is every time she comes now, red before I took the picture, so I went in the

86 Spring 2003 V anderbilt Magazine 87 SouthernJournal Reflections on the South Cross

A short story by TONY EARLEY

ell, to start to say, but it’s true. Wilma’s with, I’m dead old. our oldest girl, 54 years Maybe more dead old, and she’s on drugs, than old, that’s if you can believe that, what my wife tells somebody that age. She me, I don’t know, never comes by the house but who is she to talk? She’s dead old, too. To unless she wants money Wbe honest, neither one of us has a tooth left or she’s already high. One in our head, and I don’t like looking at hers way she cusses at us any more than she likes looking at mine. because we won’t give her It’s springtime, that big dogwood out in any money, and the other the yard is blooming like a teenage girl, the way she just cusses at us JIM HSIEH hostas are coming up finally, and the grass and says all her problems needs cutting. Only this time of year it ain’t so are our fault. (And who knows, maybe they that a tornado sounded like a freight train, much the grass that needs cutting, but that are.) Wilma is crazy as a bat, and she broke but that’s not how this one sounded. This one purple stuff, the deadnettle or the chickweed, our hearts years ago. We don’t open the door just came through here with a great big I can’t ever remember what it’s called. I don’t anymore. That’s what a drug counselor told WHOOSH and then it was gone. The old lady mind it so much, I think it’s kind of pretty, but us to do. Don’t open the door, he said. So we and me were laying in the bed taking a nap, my wife is all over me about it. Why don’t you don’t. And she’s been messed up for so long, or trying to. It’d been bad all day, warnings do something about that? Why don’t you do and cussed at us so much, that we’ve hard- and the TV getting interrupted, bad wind and something about that? It looks disgraceful. She ened up like a couple of scabs. Wilma can be thunder and lightning and what not, but you sounds like a rusty hinge when she gets going going on out in the yard, calling us every vile can only watch that for so long and we decid- on about something. What I want to say is, name she can think of, and us in here watch- ed to take our nap anyway. Right before it hit, “Old woman, why don’t you do something ing television, and we won’t think no more the wind didn’t seem no worse or better than about it if it bothers you so much,”but you about it than if it was a dog barking. it had been all day, and it never got that dead don’t stay married coming up on 60 years going The deadnettle out in the yard is a new still like you always hear it does. (You hear all around saying whatever it is that happens to thing, just the last five or six years, however kinds of things about tornadoes, all of them swim up inside your head. So I tell her, “I’m long it’s been since the tornado came through. wrong, near as I can figure.) Anyway, I don’t retired. Emphasis on tired.”Well, that always That tornado blew it in here, I’ll swear by know how I knew it was coming, but I did. makes her snort, and she goes off in the kitchen it, and it’s taking over the place. I’ll take the Maybe the light changed. Or maybe I knew and bangs things around and makes a racket. deadnettle, though. Like I said, I think it’s the way a dog knows about an earthquake. It’s a wonder we got a pot left in this house. kind of pretty, and things could’ve been a But I knew.And when I knew, I just rolled Anyway, after while I’ll go on out to the shed whole lot worse. The funnel came through over on top of the old woman and she looked and see if the lawn mower will crank, and if it here less than a hundred yards away and tore up at me and said, “Lord God. What in the does I’ll cut the grass. Until then, I guess I’ll down several houses and ripped the roofs off world are you doing?” just watch the war on television. a whole bunch of others, but we didn’t lose And I said, “We ain’t got a basement.” It’s a nice day, and with any luck at all, a shingle. Not a shingle. Not a bush. Not a And she looked at me like I was crazy and Wilma won’t show up. That’s a terrible thing bloom off that dogwood. I’d always heard continued on page 86

88 Spring 2003