乐播传媒

Spare Change

After calling Pettigrew Hall home for much of his faculty career, Sanford Freedman and his English faculty colleagues are now in Hathorn Hall.

鈥淔ifty-six boxes,鈥� Freedman says, explaining how much stuff he, with help from his children and a moving company, lugged the 350 feet from Pettigrew to Hathorn.

The reopening of renovated Hedge and Roger Williams halls (see page 12) started the domino effect of academic and administrative moves this summer:

From Bardwell Street, the environmental studies faculty are now in Hedge, along with philosophy and religious studies, who moved from Campus Avenue.

From Hathorn and Lane, respectively, the foreign language programs and the Off-Campus Study office have joined forces in Roger Williams.

From Campus Avenue鈥檚 Alumni House, being demolished due to structural problems, the Office of Alumni and Parent Engagement is in Hathorn.

From Schaeffer Theatre and Coram Library, the dance faculty have stepped into Pettigrew, joining the 乐播传媒 Dance Festival, which moved from Frye Street.

I鈥檝e always thought that 乐播传媒 is pretty good at not allowing stuff, whether buildings or history, to halt the occasional regathering of faculty in different places as academic needs change.

As this issue shows, the concept of regathering resources isn鈥檛 limited to the academic realm. Starting on page 22, we explain how 乐播传媒 made great and sometimes painful changes to improve the college鈥檚 career-development program.

Elaine Tuttle Hansen, in her final interview as 乐播传媒鈥� seventh president (page 16), says that 鈥渢he very nature of a liberal arts college is that we are always embracing change.鈥� New students and new faculty bring with them new approaches to teaching and learning.

Of course, each change takes something from our shared 乐播传媒 language. Many alums now hitting middle age will recall, or try to recall, that Roger Williams was the dorm that once hit High Times鈥� 鈥淧ot 100鈥� list. The Bill was also known as the 鈥淒ome of the Hopers鈥� -鈥� just switch the first letters of 鈥淒ome鈥� and 鈥淗opers鈥� to get the joke.

Yet today, because the building has been out of commission for a few years, younger students don鈥檛 even know what building 鈥渢he Bill鈥� refers to.

Still, there are threads that speak to both past and present. In Hedge more than a half-century ago, Bert Knight 鈥�46 worked with chemistry professor Walter Lawrance. As the state-appointed 鈥淩ivermaster,鈥� Lawrance tried to get paper companies along the Androscoggin River to limit their pollution.

This fall, the environmental studies faculty and seniors are working on a community project, again based in Hedge, that asks a bold question: What will it take, politically, economically, environmentally, and personally, to make the most of the Androscoggin River?

This fall, Sanford Freedman is teaching familiar courses like Shakespeare and 18th-century British literature. But the forces of change ensure that 鈥渆very course is different every year,鈥� he says. Each year, preparing a course is like 鈥渃limbing a familiar mountain and taking a different route to the top.鈥�

See you at the summit, Sanford.

H. Jay Burns, Editor