Spring 2015 in Modern World Politics
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Deep Springs College Alumni Newsletter • Spring 2015 in modern world politics. Tom Miller DS04 returns for his Academic Update second semester in the valley as a by Thomas Thongmee 14DS Jenny’s second offering is “Logic,” visiting professor for the seminar an introductory course in which “Classic French Thinkers.” The n her second semester as the students study formal symbolic writing-intensive class focuses IHerbert Reich Chair of the logic and analyze its application in on canonical authors of multiple Natural Sciences, Michele Lanan a variety of disciplines. genres. Students meditate on works offers “The Chemistry of Food.” by Montaigne, Descartes, Molière, The course introduces students to Caroline Schaumann is visiting Racine, Pascal, and others. organic chemistry with lectures for a semester from the German and labs relating to food. Each stu- Studies department at Emory to James Clayson, professor emeri- dent will create his own recipe, us- teach two courses in the humani- tus at The American University of ing scientific principles. ties. Her course on “The Age of Paris, is visiting for a semester to of- Goethe” treads carefully through fer the experimental course “Visual In addition, Michele has paired the German poet’s catalog. The Modeling, Visual Thinking.” Using up with previous Reich Chair and course will progress from shorter James’ own textbook written spe- current dean Amity Wilczek for works like The Sorrows of Young cifically for this class, students the field course “Vertebrates of the Werther and Wilhelm Meister’s learn the programming language Valley.” Students study the biology Apprenticeship to his epic Faust I Python as a gateway to explora- of the fauna around the ranch and and II. tions within visual science and vi- valley through hands-on fieldwork sual modeling. with animals in their habitats. An avid climber and mountaineer, Caroline will also teach “Mountains Finally, Director of Operations Social Sciences professor Jennifer of the Mind,” an exploration of the Padriac MacLeish DS99 Smith leads two classes this spring. role of mountains within the col - will teach his perennial “Auto The first is an upper-level political lective psyche. The course follows Mechanics” class, in which stu- science course in her research area the historical development of con- dents combine theory and practice – “Comparative Democracies in cepts such as the wilderness and to learn the basics of vehicle main- the Modern World.” This course the sublime before culminating in a tenance and repair. combines Jenny’s expertise in her reading of The Magic Mountain. field with day-to-day developments Michele Lanan and students from “Vertebrates of the Valley” study the gait of Utah, the horse. A Long Journey to Coeducation at Deep Springs by Dave Hitz DS80, Chairman of the Trustees of Deep Springs n December, I shared the good the last few months, the college has news that we won our case in reached out to the opposition by of- Ilower court, but I warned that we fering to discuss possible paths to could be delayed by several years a negotiated resolution. So far we if the opposition appealed. It looks have received no response. like delay is our fate. Unfortunately, In late March, the opposi- the Court of Appeal in Riverside, tion filed a motion, (posted under where our case will be heard, has a the coeducation tab on our website), backlog of several years. The most asking that the court order Deep hopeful estimate is one year, but Springs to pay over $1.3 million for three years is more realistic. We legal services that have been pro- have no choice but to be patient. vided without charge to the oppos- In Hamlet, Shakespeare listed “the ing trustees. Trust law does allow law’s delays” as one of the ills of life a trustee to spend money on legal that one must simply bear. Perhaps services “to benefit the trust”, but there is consolation in knowing we do not believe that losing an ex- that generations before us have pensive legal battle against the ma- shared this same frustration. jority of trustees is a benefit to the Many people have asked trust. Once again, the court will whether the two sides could come decide. to some kind of agreement that In the end, I remain opti- would allow the college to move mistic. In the lower court, we won forward peacefully to its second on three of our five legal argu - century of operations. To be hon - ments. It only takes one, so we are Nathan Wheeler DS13 harvests est, I don’t know, but I would love well positioned for the appeal. arugula from the garden’s main hoop that outcome if it’s possible. Over house. News from the Farm and the Library: Introducing Noah Beyeler and Gwen Von Klan by Lewis Ho DS13 Gwen joins us after work- ing with an organic food distributor and managing a retail co-op. She and Noah met while both attend- ing Berkeley. She has quickly set- tled into life at Deep Springs, and can often be found at Community Game Night or making ice cream in the BH basement. She shares Noah’s passion for environmental sustainability, commuting by bike from Henderson Station. As librarian, she has been leading her own mini-revolu- tion. In addition to integrating the Wolin Collection (donated last year by political philosopher his Fall, the Deep Springs Since arriving, Noah and Sheldon S. Wolin), Gwen and the community welcomed Noah his student labor crew (nicknamed student librarians have embarked BeyelerT DS03 and Gwen von “Noah’s Ark”) have begun rebuild- upon an inventory overhaul and Klan into their roles as farm/ ing the small-animal livestock relabeling project. The daunting maintainence manager and librar- operation. His long-term goal is stacks of unsorted material have ian/registrar respectively. to raise all the eggs and meat con- now mostly found their proper After graduating from sumed by the community. Early place on the shelves. Gwen has Deep Springs, Noah made a steps toward this goal include also worked to find the best outlet four-year stop in Antarctica to doubling the size of the laying hen for culled books in order to gen- do construction. There, he helped flock and preparing to raise broil- erate extra revenue for the college. erect radio telescopes designed to er chickens. He has built a new Much appreciated technical advice map the galaxy. Later, he earned hoop house to replace the chicken has been periodically provided by his Bachelors from University of coop in the winter and a portable Nancy Willard, a library consul- California-Berkeley. Noah was in- shelter for grazing the fields in the tant based in June Lake. spired to return to Deep Springs summer. Additionally, the acquisi- As registrar, Gwen has after his experiences at Polyface tion of a boar named Caesar has helped relieve much of the stress Farms in Virginia. Noah felt that allowed for the impregnation of caused by transfer applications, Polyface’s innovative and sustain- two sows. One has already far- thanks to her organizational acu- able methods – exalted by Michael rowed her piglets and the other is men. You may have also seen her Pollan in The Omnivore’s Dilemma expecting later in the spring. Eight work in the monthly “News from – were worth bringing back to piglets acquired separately have the Valley” updates. Deep Springs. Noah says that not meanwhile grown prodigiously. In Gwen will be leaving in much has changed since he was a between, Noah has found time to August to pursue a Masters in city student here ten years ago, which rebuild the BH porch, re-roof the planning at University of Southern is a “testament to the staff who are dairy, and construct a vegetable California. here.” wash-station at the garden. A Word with the Professors by Thomas Thongmee 14DS r. Jennifer Smith and D r . tended college in California, and Michele Lanan – professors have most recently been living in Dof social sciences and natural sci - Tucson, Arizona. I didn’t know ences respectively – have been set- much about Deep Springs until I tling into life at Deep Springs over read a job advertisement, did some the course of this year. By train- background research, and thought ing, Jennifer is a political scientist, it sounded too good to be true. having extensively researched the role of political parties in Europe; Imagine you had been dispatched by Michele is a biologist specializing a committee of your professional col- in the study of ant societies. When leagues to conduct research at Deep not leading challenging classes or Springs. What would you study? lip-syncing to Katy Perry, the two are also serving on ApCom. We JS: My grant proposal would J e n n i f e r S m i t h ( a b o v e ) a n d asked them both a few questions be titled “Participatory Michele Lanan(below) to learn more about them and their Democracy Under Conditions experience with the college so far. of Geographic Isolation and Gender Exclusivity: A Field Where are you from, and how did you Experiment”. I’ll need to divide come to Deep Springs? the SB into two randomly-as- signed groups to actually conduct JS: I grew up in Lexington, the field experiment, so certain Kentucky, though it felt impor- practical barriers remain to initiat- tant at the time that my family ing the first stage of the investiga- wasn’t “from” there (my mother tion. My efforts to locate a princi- is from Berkeley; my dad is from pal informant for the ethnographic Scotland).