ISSUE 8: SEPTEMBER 2015 Carleton College 1966 50th Reunion Newsletter RATIONALE FOR FURTHER READING. 1. What was the cost to one of our classmates when he critiqued comments made by President Nason in the Carletonian? 2. The term ‘fatuous blather’ was made famous by Content this individual. 3. Like many of us, Joe DuBray, a long-time 1. An insight into the nature of President Nason’s com- contributor to Carleton, responded somewhat ments to the Carletonian regarding an issue that he felt was critical for the Carleton community. At least one of reluctantly to the request to make a more our classmates took him to task on that message. significant contribution. Read about his 2. Joe DuBray demonstrates how, with help from College thoughts and eventual outcomes regarding this staff, he was able to match his personal interests in indige- request. nous languages and their preservation and his giving to 4. Learn about Hinckley’s recent trip to China. Carleton. 5. Why is Sichuan food healthy? What is a nak? 3. Tom Hinckley spent three weeks in Sichuan Province in 6. Who or what is the Earth Liberation Front? China with a faculty colleague in Anthropology and two former students. This was his 10th trip to that part of 7. Go to the Reunion Web Page and Stories and China and is part of a long-term engagement with two mi- learn about the classmate who was an nority communities in the mountains of Sichuan. ambassador to Tanzania and Jordan! Carleton: Then then, still not an easy choice for my family. I was able to finish college During our time at Carleton, Jeffrey Long wrote a letter to the Carleto- debt free, thanks to supportive rela- nian regarding an announcement (or pronouncement) made by then tives, vacation employments and President Nason regarding pre-marital sex. It turns out that Mike work-study aid. Gordy saved a copy of Jeff’s letter. Jeff was quite passionate about the topic and found President Nason’s comments on the subject to have While I have regularly supported Car- given him “a bloody-awful bellyache.” This was one letter-writing ef- leton since our graduation, I was not fort that back-fired in that Jeff was forced to leave. Those interested in quick to respond positively to making reading this letter should email me ([email protected])–sneaky way on a special or larger contribution. My my part to get new input into the Newsletter (this revelation is not asso- career has been professional services ciated with the recent hacking of the AshleyMadison.com database). and other businesses, both for-profit and non-profit, all challenged by inflat- Carleton is making a positive difference, in many ways ing costs, and regularly exposed to ad- and places. Alumni gifts can help. vice and pressure, from boards of directors and consultants, to make Joe DuBray (’66) business plans and operating expense decisions to “match peer and business competition behavior.” It has been disappointing to not find Mail at our house in Utah regularly comes from several of ten different, from Carleton, or any of the other schools in our family experience, a widely geographically dispersed, public and private colleges and univer- commitment to deliver or sustain a quality experience while reducing sities, reflecting ties created by undergraduate, graduate or teaching- operating costs, rather than rationalizing annual inflations. Income in- related experiences of our three grown daughters and myself. All of flation has not been annual or regular for many families I know, par- that mail promotes the high quality and value of the experience pro- ticularly those who work for salaries or hourly wages. vided by each institution. Most of that mail solicits financial support. Carleton is among the most expensive of those schools for a student to Listening to my concerns about inflating costs and my interest in sup- attend today. So, no surprise when the request came from Carleton, porting a grounded educational experience, Carleton staffers have been and reunion classmates, to make a special contribution in honor of the patient, receptive and diligent in answering questions and offering help- Fifty Year class reunion. ful information. I learned of recent efforts to cultivate a broader cul- tural understanding for Carleton students, including internships and I grew up in a small town, population 1300, in the Midwest, and was faculty skill-sharing in civic engagement, with objectives such as deliv- among those in our Carleton class for whom college attendance repre- ering long-term benefit to Indigenous peoples, native to the geographic sented a new experience for almost the entire family. The only prior col- location of the College. I decided two activities were of special interest lege graduate in my family was an aunt, who graduated from William to me, an effort to save and facilitate broader access to an endangered and Mary in 1936. So I had little experience on which to draw, when I Indigenous language, supported by Carleton faculty, donation of arrived in Northfield and saw Carleton for the first time, on move-in needed technical skills, and a student internship at a reservation pre- day of our freshman year. The annual cost of Carleton was much less school that includes native language learning and culture preservation. 2 As gift communications from Carleton and others find your mailbox, I Reunion Information encourage you to ask questions and seek answers. I expect you will find, as I did, Carleton activity that both informs and inspires a gener- There are now 54 published stories: the new stories come from Jona- ous response. I’ll close with a favorite lodestar expression, Paying Do’s: than Kaufman, Robert Lee, Jim Rogers, Lawrence Rothstein, Shintaro do for, do with, do self, done, and a hope that you are doing well. Sasaki, William Stanley, and Emmett Terwilliger. Best regards, Joe DuBray Trip to China: Tom Hinckley History of Personal Engagement: From August 20th until Septem- ber 8th, I was in Sichuan Province, China (see Figure below). This was my 10th time in China–first initiated in September 1999 as a fact find- ing trip regarding a potential exchange program for rising juniors from Remember to check out our 50th Reunion Web Page for latest pho- tographs, stories, and news. Figure: location of Sichuan Province, Chengdu, the capital, and our three study Prefectures/Counties. Wenchuan County is the location of the 2008 Earth- quake. Map by Amanda H Schmidt. 3 the University of Washington (UW) and from Sichuan University (SCU). There were two interesting goals of the proposed year-long ex- change: (1) a meaningful, deep exposure to a different culture and (2) an immersion in an undergraduate research project. Faculty from both institutions and from five different parallel disciplines within UW and SCU were involved and these were: (1) anthropology-archaeology, (2) biology, (3) civil and environmental engineering, (4) forest ecology, and (5) material sciences and engineering. I self-selected to be the UW faculty person in forest ecology. For me, this fact finding trip was an endeavor both to see a country I only knew through courses (three from my Carleton years), reading and watching electronic media and, with my counterpart, to develop collaborative research projects in which undergraduate students could participate. On this trip, I met my counterpart at SCU, learned about SCU, Chengdu and its immedi- ate environs especially the Min Jiang (i.e., Min river) and the Minshan (i.e., mountains associated with the Min river), and visited Jiuzhaigou and Wolong National Nature Reserves and Huanglong National Scenic smaller group of anthropology, biology and ecology students and fac- Reserve (see Figure on top of next page) (naming is awkward as there ulty left for SW Sichuan and a relatively small, remote, largely subsis- is no official national park system in China; from here on for simplicity tence village that Professor Steve Harrell had been engaged with since sake they will be referred to as National Parks). The outcomes of this 1992. This trip required an overnight train to Xichang then buses to first trip seemed very promising. Yanyuan and Yangjuan, a community in Baiwu Township occupied by the Nuosu, a group within the Yi Minority. We camped in the elemen- In 2000, I returned with Arline and Katie and spent considerable time tary school that had been built in 2000 with funds raised by Professor with my counterpart from SCU, Professor Zeng Zongyong and his fam- Harrell and colleagues in Taiwan, Sichuan, Spain, France, and the U.S. ily learning more about the area and its interesting ecology and ecologi- (the principals provided the funding–the construction, staffing and cur- cal problems. In mid-June 2002, 28 exchange students and five fac- riculum were all determined by the community and local laws). Since ulty from the UW joined their counterparts in Chengdu for the official the founding of the school, a 501 (c) (3) organization, the Cool Moun- opening of the exchange program. Most of the UW students had had 6 tain Education Fund, was founded in order to provide continuing sup- quarters of Mandarin and all of the SCU students had had multi-years port for the school, teachers, and students. of English. All of us in three buses traversed the Min Jiang watershed from Chengdu to its headwaters and beyond; we were divided into dis- For over a week, with the help of local individuals, the area was ex- ciplinary groups to work on learning about and discussing local ecologi- plored (from 2400 to almost 3800 m). We established ecological cal and environmental issues together. We specifically spent time in plots; we measured tree ages, sizes and growth rates; we collected and Jiuzhaigou Nation Park (JNP), a park occupied by a Bon-Tibetan Mi- identified local plants; and we mapped households and their fields (see nority.