Category Archives: Campus News

Extras: How Do You Define Yourself?

How do you define yourself?

That was the simple—and surprisingly complex—question at the heart of the 2015 Diversity Symposium.

Keynote speaker and advocate Thomas Smith viewed the issue as a matter of triumph through adversity, while University of Massachusetts faculty member Dr. Kerrita Mayfield saw it as a problem of integrity.

In their student addresses, which began a day of workshops, Maranie Harris-Kuiper ’15, Verdi Degbey ’16, Anthony Leung ’15, and Cameron Stanley ’16 strove to answer the question through the multifaceted lenses of race, culture, sexual orientation, and religion.
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Extras: The Campus as My Backyard by Phil Stevens, Jr.

Phil Stevens, Jr., is an anthropologist  at the State University of New York at Buffalo. An excerpt of the following letter appeared in the fall Bulletin Vol 101, Number 2.

I was inspired by Victoria Brett’s article in the Winter Bulletin to set down some of my reflections on growing up on campus in the early 1950s. The life skills and breadth of knowledge I gained were extraordinary.

Phil and Sarah Stevens moved from New Haven in 1949, with four kids; in birth order: Phil, Jr. (called Flip), Peter, David, and Jonathan. Two more, Ruth and Timothy, would be born at Cooley-Dickinson Hospital in Northampton. My siblings will have somewhat different memories, but they share many of mine. For me, of course, “growing up on campus” meant also the status of Son of the Headmaster; and that experience was complex and fraught and must be a separate story! I will discuss here the opportunities the campus provided for a boy in the world.

I was 7 when we arrived and settled into The Homestead. That majestic building was really the face of the school, and its front rooms were to be maintained as a welcoming, comfortable, and stately space. Even the kitchen, with its fireplace with black iron kettle on a swinging hook, and Dutch oven, projected hospitality. To accommodate our expanding family, the floor above the kitchen and garage was subdivided into three bedrooms and a spacious playroom, where we spent many hours; and where Mrs. Donais’ Cub Scout Pack 22 met weekly! The basement was a delightful place for kids; with dark hidden spaces and a stairway to nowhere, a wood room and a coal room with chute, dust and cobwebs, the smell of age and neglect – it invited modification into a Halloween chamber of horrors, which we tried over a couple of seasons, charging skeptical friends 5c. for admission.

I should also say that in those days parents were far less fearful of letting their kids roam freely, which was a good thing, because the roles of Headmaster and Headmaster’s Wife were extremely demanding of time. [Mom always had live-in housekeepers of various ages and levels of tolerance, including a middle-aged Russian refugee (Displaced Person, or “DP” as that sad role was called then), a succession of female students at Northampton Commercial College, and a widow, Mrs. Marie Stillman, who lived with us until obliged to retire to an assisted-living facility. Part of those persons’ duties was to serve us suppers on the many evenings when Mom accompanied Dad at the Headmaster’s Table in the school dining hall – on the Main Street campus in the early years, then in Ford Hall.]

I attended Center St. School through the 4th grade, Junior School through the 8th, then left for Deerfield in the fall of 1955. I should note that the Main Street Campus, with its striking Old Gym Tower modeled after the tower in Siena’s town square, was extant for a few years, but was not part of my world.

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Getting Results: Extras

WNF14-7455Emily Grussing ’15 was in AP Calculus when she learned the news: a scientific paper she researched and co-authored had just been accepted for publication.

“It was the greatest thing. I didn’t expect to get published,” Ms. Grussing said. “It wasn’t something I even believed was possible.”

Ms. Grussing had spent the summer interning at Dartmouth College’s Geisel School of Medicine where she was charged with researching links between chemicals and cancers. To do so, Ms. Grussing learned coding basics, dove into online research, and analyzed and constructed scientific networks.

“I loved being in the environment of the lab,” Ms. Grussing said, adding, “I never had to do such self-learning in my life before.”

The resulting paper, which Ms. Grussing helped write, was accepted by the Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing, where it was presented on January 8. The paper will also be published on PubMed Central, an archive of scientific publications.

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Mixing It Up In The Arts: Extras

Photo by Matthew CavanaughSome things just cry out for collaboration. Take art classes, for example. With only so much time in the day, it can be hard for budding artists to pick only one area of concentration: Photography or ceramics? Drawing or sculpture? Painting or film?

Now, thanks to an innovative class taught by three Fine and Performing Arts teachers, 12 students are using one class to explore a wide range of mediums. Over two trimesters, they will draw, paint, sculpt, take photographs, make films, and create ceramics. They will visit off-campus museums and studios and also learn from visiting guest artists and speakers.

This new Advanced Studio Arts class is made possible by a department collaboration; the class is being team taught by Ed Hing (photography and film), Natania Hume (ceramics, design, and drawing), and Susanna White (painting and sculpture).

“We each bring different areas of expertise and a variety of feedback for each student,” Ms. Hume said. “This way students benefit from multiple suggestions, demonstrations, and sources of guidance.”

In alternating weeks, students design their own independent projects around themes they choose and explore different techniques. Students also chart their progress and reflect on their work in a daily class journal.

“We have group critiques in which we all communicate with each other about the strengths and challenges in each person’s work and process,” Ms. Hume said. “This cultivates the class community and provides a vibrant artistic learning environment.”

The new format has been so successful that Ms. Hume has decided to explore collaborations with other departments. In the spring, she’ll work with History and Global Studies teacher Tom Johnson on a unit called “Ethics and Objects.”

“There is a movement in the design world toward ‘design for social impact’ which looks at how designers can help with social and environmental problems,” she explained. “Our students will collaborate on designing projects that address social or environmental ills and which are—hopefully—successful both ethically and in terms of design.”

Editor’s note: The following are some of the art works from the class that didn’t make it onto the page.