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SHERIDAN ROAD  |  What's New at Lake Forest College

From YouTube to Aristotle

What do YouTube and Aristotle have in common? They both figured prominently in the 11th Annual Steven Galovich Memorial Student Symposium, which took place on campus April 7-8. More than 260 students shared research on a variety of topics in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences through presentations, panel discussions, demonstrations, art exhibits, performances, poster sessions, and more.
 
The two-day symposium kicked off with a new opening event — a YouTube debate on the value of a liberal arts education. The debate followed in the spirit of the CNN/YouTube presidential debates held last summer in which candidates responded to individuals from around the country who posted their questions on the popular video Web site.
 
To prepare for it, College faculty and administrators, including President Stephen D. Schutt, recorded videos that addressed different issues related to the liberal arts, such as the importance of diversity, the value of internships, and the benefits of a residential campus. The videos were posted on the College's Web site (www.lakeforest.edu/youtubedebate). Students watched these and then posed their own questions in videos that aired at the event where a student and faculty panel responded in front of a live audience.
 
The following day, students presented on research topics that spanned from questionable practices in breast-cancer fundraising and healthcare in Ghana to new media's effect on journalism and international water rights. There was an international dance presentation, a three-dimensional model of a brain reconstruction, a jazz concert, and more.
 
The closing event, called "Symposium: A Convivial Gathering of the Educated," was hosted by none other than the Greek philosopher Aristotle (a.k.a. Michael Knish '09). He introduced presentations by four students who were selected by a committee based on their outstanding research and presentation skills.
 
The talks included: Kathleen Austin '08, "Crossing the Border of Reality: Folk Monsters in the Everyday Lives of Mexican Immigrants in the United States"; Ben Simpson '08, "Shake It Up, Pat It Down: The Science of Granular Compaction under Pressure"; Sara Woodbury '08, "Father Nature: Authority, Obedience, and the Animal Stories in the Saint Francis Altar"; and Mithaq Vahedi '08, "All Chromosomes Come Down to the Ends: Measuring Telomere Length in the Fungus Aspergillus Nidulans."


Grants Roundup

The following Lake Forest College students and a faculty member have been awarded a prestigious grant from the Fulbright Program.

Ana Constantinescu '08 will research modernist Romanian art of the first half of the twentieth century in Bucharest.

Elizabeth Carroll '08 was awarded an English Teaching Assistantship in Paris, France, but decided instead to focus on a doctorate degree in French history at the University of Iowa.

Assistant Professor of Music Kirk-Evan Billet will travel to Syria, where he will explore the ways he can contribute to a Syrian music curriculum as a visiting teacher from the United States.

Amanda Pogatschnik '08 was named an alternate for the English Teaching Assistantship grant at the Hong Kong Institute of Education.

Andrew Myers '08 received a $10,000 grant from The Kathryn Wasserman Davis Projects for Peace Program to help establish a self-sustainable chicken farm in rural Bolivia.

Starting spring 2009, the College will host an emerging writer of national promise for a two-month residency thanks to funding from a local philanthropist. The Madeleine P. Plonsker Emerging Writer's Residency Prize is a $15,000 award given for the next three years. A major factor in the donor's choice for the residency was the recently established Lake Forest College Press, which will allow students to take courses in how to publish a manuscript and will publish works of poetry and prose.

The College received a one-year, $50,000 grant from the James S. Kemper Foundation, which will continue to support the Alumni Mentor Program. Last year, the program reached 475 students.


China as a Classroom

Every May, a group travels to China for three weeks to learn about its history, culture, religion, politics, and society for an Asian Studies Program course. Led by Associate Professor of History Shiwei Chen, the group visited May 11-June 2. They went from Beijing to temples in Xi'an, ethnic villages in Kunming, and yak riding just outside Lijiang (pictured are Professor Chen, Chris Janjigian '10, and Ashlee Norton '10). The group also visited the Great Wall of China and Shanghai. Read more about their adventures on their blog at www.lakeforest.edu/academics/studyabroad/asia/may2008.asp.


150th Anniversary Campaign Update

To date, we have raised $65 million of our overall $100 million goal.

We have generous alumni, parents, and friends! So far, we have received 24 gifts of $1 million or more. Three of these are gifts of $5 million.

The Fund for Lake Forest College (Annual Fund) raised a record $2 million in the 2007-08 fiscal year with contributions from 29% of our alumni!

Fundraising for the expansion of the College's Sports and Recreation Center on South Campus is progressing with $9.3 million raised to date.

A dedicated committee of men's and women's Forester hockey alumni are working hard to raise $4.5 million to renovate the rink. Nearly $900,000 has been pledged for this project.

Alumni in cities such as Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Minneapolis, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C. are organizing regional networks to connect themselves with the College and each other.

Learn more about the campaign at www.lakeforest.edu/alumni/150campaign.asp. The Honor Roll of Donors is also online at www.lakeforest.edu/honorroll.


Burnham in 3-D

Several members of the Lake Forest College faculty and staff will lead an initiative of area experts and educators that will develop a three-dimensional, virtual Chicago based on, and honoring the centennial of, Daniel H. Burnham and Edward H. Bennett's Plan of Chicago.
 
The project, titled "The Virtual Burnham Initiative (VBI)," will combine historical research, 3-D models, curriculum development, and philosophical debate to capitalize on new technology and community networking to facilitate an open, ongoing discussion of the area's development among educational, cultural, and civic audiences.
 
"It's a project that helps demonstrate the academic and social value Lake Forest College has to offer the community both locally and throughout Chicagoland," says the project's co-director Academic Technology Specialist Donnie Sendelbach. "It breaks down the ivory tower, and we hope it will get high school students thinking about their ability to contribute to Chicago's present and future."
 
Specific structures from the Plan will be created in Sketchup, Google software used to create, modify, and share 3-D models, and placed into Google Earth's Chicago along with overlays of maps. The 3-D environment will be accessible through a project Web site and will enable students and other audiences to experience the Plan in a new way.
 
"As the Chicago region thinks about its bid to win the 2016 Olympics, as well as the broader directions of its own future, the VBI will stand as a public partner in what we hope will continue to be a very public discussion," says the project's other co-director, Chair of American Studies and Associate Professor of English Davis Schneiderman.
 
The project emanated from Schneiderman's plan to model the College, or at least part of it, in Second Life, the online, 3-D virtual world in which users interact as though it were real life. "But, through the input of many wonderful partners," he adds, "the current broad-based humanities project developed."
 
Project leaders also include Assistant Professor of Education Rachel Ragland and Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology Holly Swyers. Director of the Center for Chicago Programs Rami Levin, and Professor Emeritus of History Michael Ebner will serve in planning and advisory roles. Student participants include Erik Wingo '09, Michael Ojdana '08, Liz Birnbaum '08, Michelle Seabury '10, and Clarissa Thiesen '10.
 
The project is supported by a $25,000 Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. It includes participants from Columbia College of Chicago, The Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development at DePaul University, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, the Chicago History Museum, and schools in Highland Park, Deerfield, Lake Forest, and Waukegan.


Recommended Summer Reads

Faculty and staff share their book recommendations. This list contains additional books not found in the magazine.

The City Visible: Chicago Poetry for the New Century, edited by Raymond Bianchi and William Allegrezza
There's been a poetry renaissance in Chicago, and this book captures much of what's been in the air.
— Robert Archambeau, associate professor of English

A Woman Unknown: Voices from a Spanish Life, by Lucia Graves
Graves writes about straddling the world of her English-speaking family and Spanish-speaking Catholic schools during the Franco dictatorship in Mallorca and includes other women who influenced her life.
— Lois Barr, associate professor of Spanish            

Sweetness in the Belly, by Camilla Gibb
Tells the story of a young Irish girl abandoned in Morocco when her parents are murdered.
— Catherine Benton, lecturer in religion             

Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors, by Lizzie Collingham
This food history details not only how people change food, but how food can change people.
— Heather Brown, director of grants and scholarships

The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan
Pollan brings the discussion of food-related environmental issues to a whole new level.
— Kathryn Dohrmann, senior lecturer in psychology

A Free Life, by Ha Jin
The experiences of a Chinese graduate student at an American university, where inner conflicts reveal his disillusionment with academic pursuits, his quest for material success in his adopted land, and his pursuit of fulfillment as a published poet.
— Michael Ebner, professor emeritus of history

Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness, by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein
Economists explore why and how people get caught in intuition errors when making investments and in other situations.
— Robert Glassman, professor of psychology

Poppy from the Massacre, by Evelyne Accad
During the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), multiple female narrators weave together a story that promotes peace and explores the complexity of human relationships.
— Cynthia Hahn, professor of French (who translated the book into English)

Disgrace, by J. M. Coetzee
A very dark story examines the consequences of entitlement set in South Africa.
— Margaret Hawkins, lecturer in English

The Idiot, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
This extraordinary writing teachesus more today about the human condition than any contemporary psychology or sociology textbook can.
— Abba Lessing, professor of philosophy

Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare, by Stephen Greenblatt
The book provides a detailed understanding of how the playwright's life may be inferred from the plays and their historical context.
— Richard Mallette, professor of English

The Post-American World, by Fareed Zakaria
The U.S. faces great challenges in a 21st century world in which it is no longer the dominant global power.
— Jim Marquardt, associate professor of politics

The Ground Beneath Her Feet, by Salman Rushdie
A magical realist adventure through Greek myth and 20th century rock and roll.
— D Ohlandt, director of theater programs

Shakespeare's Wife, by Germaine Greer
Greer evaluates both William Shakespeare and his wife as if they were like anyone else of their class in Elizabethan England.
— Ann Roberts, professor of art

The Brain That Changes Itself, by Norman Doidge
By exploring the new neuroscientific understanding of the brain's plasticity, the book illustrates how we can change the structure of our brains and change how we live.
— Fern Schumer, lecturer in English

The Gulag Archipelago, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Solzhenitsyn recounts his imprisonment in the Russian gulag in an indictment of communism and its atrocities, which may also be read as a quest to find salvation among the ruins.
— Christopher Whidden, lecturer in politics

Bantam Book anthology, Stories by Anton Chekhov, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Pevear/Volokhonsky translation)
This writing teaches us more today about the human condition than any contemporary psychology/sociology text book can. They are to be read slowly, savored, and taken into the depths of our souls.
— Abba Lessing, professor of philosophy

Understanding Place: GIS and Mapping across the Curriculum, by Diana Stuart Sinton and Jennifer J. Lund
This book is important because it addresses the undergraduate college faculty and it is multi-disciplinary. This anthology is a great starting point for faculty who are considering integrating GIS into their courses.
— Connie Corso, academic technology specialist

Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet, by Jeffrey Sach
— Carolyn Tuttle, Betty Jane Schultz Hollender Professor of Economics and Business

Making Globalization Work, by Joseph Stiglitz
— Carolyn Tuttle, Betty Jane Schultz Hollender Professor of Economics and Business

Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the Front Line of the Globalization Debate, by Naomi Klein
— Carolyn Tuttle, Betty Jane Schultz Hollender Professor of Economics and Business

Pocahontas: Medicine Woman, Spy, Entrepreneur, Diplomat, by Paula Gunn Allen
This work is a metaphysical, mystical biography of an amazing and deeply spiritual young woman whose story is often romanticized and, therefore, dismissed. Don’t expect this work to read like any other biography you have ever read, however. Allen has attempted to read within the empty space of what is know and what is unknown, what is history, what is legend, and what was the deeper spiritual reality for all the participants of what she calls “world change time.”
— Heather Brown, director of grants and scholarships

On Beauty, by Zadie Smith
— Margaret Hawkins, English department

The Center Cannot Hold, by Elyn Saks and Divided Minds, by Pamela Spiro Wagner and Carolyn Spiro
These books provide a humane view on mental illness.
— Margaret Hawkins, English department

Gardening at the Dragon’s Gate, by Wendy Johnson
— Kathryn Dohrmann, senior lecturer in psychology

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, by Oliver Sacks
— Robert Glassman, professor of psychology

The Deptford Trilogy, by Robertson Davies
— Robert Glassman, professor of psychology

1599:  A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare, by James Shapiro
Columbia professor James Shapiro’s work of popular scholarship also engages both the general reader and the serious scholar. His book focuses on a single watershed year in which Shakespeare wrote Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and a version of Hamlet.  So one year, Shapiro argues, took Shakespeare from splendid accomplishment to unexcelled creativity. That  accomplishment, he contends, was decisively shaped by contemporary events, including the building of the Globe Playhouse. Shapiro’s enthralling recreation of the career of Shakespeare set in the life of his times has earned wide praise and many honors, both in Britain and America.
— Richard Mallette, Distinguished Service Professor of English

The Return of History, by Robert Kagan
Kagan says the optimism about the prospects for peace that followed the end of the Cold War are flawed in theory and have not been born out in practice. He sees a 21st century world of fault lines that will divide old allies and spur new rivalries among the world’s great powers.
— Jim Marquardt, associate professor of politics        


Daily Click

Each weekday now brings a new chance to view a scene or activity from Lake Forest College. The Daily Click is a new feature on the College Web siteÕs home page that shows a new photograph each day, providing a small slice of Forester life. At press time, the Daily Click had received more than 7,700 hits since it went live March 18.

See the Daily Click at www.lakeforest.edu.


Speakers Sound Off

JOE O'CONNOR, a senior manager at an industry-leading firm in green energy, delivered the annual A.B. Dick Lecture on Entrepreneurship on April 2. His lecture, titled "Increasing Our Business Opportunities by Reducing Our Climate Impacts," chronicled the environmental efforts of his company, Mohawk Fine Papers.

Mohawk won the Environmental Protection Agency's "Green Power Partner of the Year" award in 2007 and has been a leader in the support of emission-free, renewable energy for five years.

In addition to voluntarily capping emissions and making investments to reduce energy and emissions, Mohawk is one of the largest purchasers of wind-generated electricity among manufacturing companies in the United States. According to its Web site, Mohawk will begin to offer paper products made "carbon neutral" within their production processes.

O'Connor, who has been with Mohawk for almost 20 years, has served in multiple managerial positions. He currently focuses on the growing environmental-related sales opportunities with the company's business development team.

The annual Albert Blake Dick Lecture is provided through the generosity of the A. B. Dick Endowment. The lecture was inaugurated in 1985 by Ted Turner, chairman and president of Turner Broadcasting. Other speakers have included: Jeff Bezos, Gary Comer, Brian Lamb, Stanley Marcus, Gordon Segal, Dempsey Travis, and John Rogers.

Author and poet KATE GREENSTREET spoke as part of the English department's On the Run Lecture Series on March 4.

ALINA FERNANDEZ, Fidel Castro's daughter and author of the book Castro's Daughter: An ExileÕs Memoir of Cuba, delivered a lecture on March 20.

On March 25-27, the English department held its fourth annual Lake Forest Literary Festival, featuring keynote speaker award-winning novelist and poet RAYMOND FEDERMAN.

Iraq War veteran and Fox News contributor Lieutenant Colonel SCOTT RUTTER delivered the talk "The Iraq War: Where Do We Go from Here?" on April 12.

On April 11, the AFRIKANIA SOUTH KETU TRADITIONAL CULTURAL TROUPE of Ghana, West Africa, which aims to preserve the ritual music and dance of the Ewe-Anlo speaking people of Ghana, Africa, held a workshop and performance in the Mohr Student Center.

As part of the Current Advances in Psychology (CAP) Colloquia Series JONATHAN KANTER from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee delivered the talk, "Understanding Depression: What is It and How Should We Talk About It?" on April 16.

Chicago Blues artist CARL WEATHERSBY, who was Albert King's rhythm guitarist from 1979-1982, performed at the Center for Chicago Programs on April 17.

THOMAS MUIR, a PhD student at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Bristol, presented on the educational reforms that have taken place under the government of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela on April 21.

On April 22, LOUIS E. PEREGO MORENO showed and led a discussion about the documentary he produced and directed. Latina Confessions is a film that explores what it means to be Latina in the United States and the development of Latina sexuality.


By the Numbers

1,925
Total number of birds (including 64 species) captured during the Shaw Woods Avian Monitoring Project in 2008. The annual month-long event in May, which ended after seven years, monitors bird population trends and stopover ecology of woodland migrant landbirds during spring migration.

325
Students who voted to adopt an honor code (258 voted no) during student government elections in April. With the student endorsement, proponents will work to get faculty and administrative support during the coming academic year.

47
Senior theses awarded distinction

38
Students inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, the largest and oldest academic honor society in the nation, on April 3

4
Newly tenured faculty, including Associate Professor of English Carla Arnell, Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology David Boden, Associate Professor of Psychology Matthew Kelley, and Associate Professor of Politics James Marquardt


In the News

The Lake County News-Sun published a story on May 29 that highlighted a grant awarded by Lake Forest College to a Waukegan elementary school to enhance literacy efforts.

Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology Holly Swyers appeared on ESPN's Outside the Lines where she appeared on a panel about politics and athletics.

NBC5 cited Lake Forest College in a story about an increase in Chicago Public Schools students going to college next year.

The Associated Press profiled the efforts of Phil Miatkowski '10 to build support for civil union legislation on Facebook on May 9.

The Lake Forester published an article and photos from the 11th Annual Steven Galovich Memorial Student Symposium on April 17.

IPS News quoted Islamic World Studies Program Director and Professor of Sociology and Anthropology Ahmad Sadri in an April 9 article about the elections in Iran.

Several news outlets, including The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, and Associated Press, covered the death of Richard Widmark '36, an actor who graduated from and taught for two years in the College's drama department.

The March 10 Chicago Sun-Times featured an article about a Chicago teenager who was coached by Lake Forest College women's hockey coach Carisa Zaban for MTV's Made.


Q&A with Environmental Studies Program Chair Kathry Dohrmann

Senior Lecturer in Psychology Kathryn Dohrmann is the new chair of the Environmental Studies Program, but her interest in environmental issues is lifelong. As the program prepares to grow following a $725,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Spectrum spoke with Dohrmann about how she has lived her own life to the greenest and what the future holds for environmental studies at the College.

Spectrum: How did you become interested in environmental issues?

Dohrmann: Here's a partial list: 40 years of gardening, formal training in public health, and time in Berkeley where there was an amazing bookstore called Gaia and an equally amazing place called Green Gulch Farm. Looking back, though, I think my interest in environmental issues crystallized when I became a mother.

Spectrum: You founded the Lake Forest Co-op in 1985 and an eco-friendly Lake Forest shop, Simple Things for a Better Environment, in 1990. What are some other ways you have practiced environmental stewardship in your life?

Dohrmann: I am, at heart, a domestic environmentalist interested in the health and environmental impacts of ordinary living — of the small daily activities that most of us are up to, most of the time. The Lake Forest Co-op came about because I wanted to eat organically and humanely, now I would say sustainably, raised food. Simple Things was an effort to make environmental products more widely available — as much environmental education as retail.  

Most recently I've helped to organize a neighborhood group around the issue of preserving and protecting a remnant woodland near my home. That turned out to be an educational activity as well.

Spectrum: How does your personal interest in the environment translate into the work you do at Lake Forest?

Dohrmann: Teaching environmental psychology allows exploration of topics that are important to me: human relationships with nature, effects of environments on behavior and vice-versa, impacts of environments on health, to name but a few. I also have an underlying aesthetic goal: that my students will come to appreciate the landscape in which they find themselves — the spirit of this beautiful place, this "home ground." 

Spectrum: What are some of the environmental activities that you have been involved in on campus?

Dohrmann: I led the Environmental Studies Program annual field trip this year — hiking and canoeing in the Shawnee National Forest. Nothing makes me happier than tramping around in the woods, especially after dark, with a flashlight and adventurous companions. I also brought the Field Museum's Renewable Energy Vehicle and bio-diesel go-kart to campus in April.

Spectrum: The College recently received a grant for $725,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. As chair, how do you see the future for the Environmental Studies Program at Lake Forest College?

Dohrmann: We've had a strong, interdisciplinary program for many years, one that cultivates a systems-oriented perspective, broad analytic abilities, and practical skills. The Mellon grant, symbolically, reflects the College's commitment to environmental studies, to environmental literacy, and to the need to create environmental leaders and policy makers. More tangibly, it offers funds for student research and expanded programming. Above all, it will bring our first, full-time environmental studies faculty member. Metaphorically, it's as if we'll be hiring an official program gardener — watch us grow!

Read Dohrmann's piece about eco-friendly chairs at the Mohr Student Center at the College's Green Forester Web site, which is continuously updated with information about the College's green initiatives.


"Let Life Change You"
National Public Radio Morning Edition host Scott Simon delivers the Commencement address to Class of 2008.

Staying true to his storytelling roots, journalist and author Scott Simon told the Class of 2008 about one of his earliest jobs Ñ working in a home for the mentally disabled and the life lessons he learned from them.
 
There was Raymond, the 27-year-old man who asked Simon every day to teach him how to tie his shoelaces. Raymond never learned, but Simon recognized his persistence and hope as qualities that he has seen in successful individuals throughout his career. He recalled Conrad, the cook who put the residents to work in the kitchen. By giving them tasks and making them feel useful, Simon said, Conrad saw them as human beings rather than as mentally challenged individuals. Simon also recalled meeting Chicago Cubs radio announcer Ron Santo, who was gracious and welcoming during a visit to Wrigley Field.
 
"But not a week goes by that I don't think of my time in that home and the people that I met there," says Simon, who has reported from all 50 states and every continent and interviewed personalities like Mother Teresa and Ariel Sharon in his career at NPR. "Not a week goes by that I don't steer something in my own life by what they taught me."
 
With this in mind, he offered some advice to the graduating seniors. "Do what comes up," he says. "You can learn from anything that you do over these next few years. Worry less about getting experience that is pertinent and more about doing something interesting, fun, useful, or utterly irrelevant to the rest of your life. Now's the time to try it." 

Simon spoke before the graduates and their families on May 10 at Ravinia in Highland Park. Before the seniors received their diplomas, the College awarded honorary degrees to Maria Velez de Berliner '87, president of Latin Intelligence Corporation; Danielle Allen, UPS Foundation Professor of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University; and Janet D. Rowley, Blum-Riese Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine, Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology, and Human Genetics, Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago.  
 
Click here to hear Scott Simon's speech and view more pictures.