The 2013 honorands with President Spencer. From left, Vivian Pinn, speaker Gary Hirshberg, Elaine Hansen, William Cronon and Spencer. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

In business, the environment and government, “the bottom line is that many of the so-called experts have been wrong and now need to be second-guessed,” the co-founder and chairman of organic yogurt maker Stonyfield Farm told the 乐播传媒 College Class of 2013.

“And that’s actually your job.”

Gary Hirshberg was the featured speaker at the May 26 ceremony, held in Merrill Gymnasium,聽 that started a new chapter in the lives of 436 乐播传媒 seniors. He also received an honorary degree, along with environmental historian William Cronon, 乐播传媒 President Emerita Elaine Tuttle Hansen and Dr. Vivian Pinn, inaugural director of the Office of Research on Women鈥檚 Health at the National Institutes of Health.

Class of 2013 by the numbers.

Professor of Sociology Sawyer Sylvester (left) and retiring Dean of the Faculty Pam Baker ’69 just prior to Commencement. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

The event was a milestone for at least three people besides the graduates and their families. It was Clayton Spencer’s first graduation as sitting president of the college. But it was the final commencement for Pamela Baker ’69, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty, and Multifaith Chaplain Bill Blaine-Wallace, both of whom are retiring from 乐播传媒.

The Sunday morning ceremony also presented a milestone in giving to the college. As reported to the gathering by Senior Gift chairs Nancy Weidner and Hank Geng, the Class of 2013 hit a new 乐播传媒 record for participation in the senior class gift, as 400 seniors, or 92 percent of the class, donated nearly $18,000.

If the weather fell short of ideal, warm feelings abounded within Merrill. Spencer’s welcoming remarks spread the good feelings around, drawing warm applause with a request that the graduates show some love for the people who supported them in all ways through their 乐播传媒 years — families and professors, for sure, but also members of the Lewiston-Auburn community, and the college staff “whose work on campus makes our lives possible, and whose work made this ceremony possible” (a reference to the need to move the ceremony indoors).

In still another milestone, a graduating senior spoke at Commencement for the first time in at least half a century. Tommy Holmberg, a history major and 乐播传媒 actor-director from Winnetka, Ill., was selected by a Commencement committee from a field of three finalists nominated by classmates.

An exuberant Zaihra Ahmed ’13 shows off a product of four years’ hard work at 乐播传媒. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

Holmberg offered a love letter to the college that celebrated, among other cherished aspects of the 乐播传媒 experience, the passing of knowledge and lore from one class to the next, and from the college to the world. “You see, it鈥檚 a beautiful cycle we’ve got here,” he said. “The goodness of 乐播传媒 is passed on out of admiration and gratitude for what was, and excitement and pride for what will be.”

After today, he said, “We will be intelligent, because of the ardor and devotion of the good people of this institution. We will be passionate, because 乐播传媒 allowed us to follow our passions and realize our dreams. We will be fun, because we’ve had fun here.

“We will be loving, because the 乐播传媒 community showed us so much love.”

Baker and Spencer presented the honorary degree recipients. Cronon, father of Jeremy Cronon ’13 and recipient of a Doctor of Letters degree, is an environmental historian whose “rigorous scholarship, imaginative arguments and elegant prose,” Baker said, “break new ground in our understanding of nature, wilderness and the American West.”

President of 乐播传媒 from 2002 to 2011 and now executive director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, Hansen also received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree. As 乐播传媒 president, she “helped us to dream well and take action on our good ideas,” Spencer said.

Another 乐播传媒 parent, the father of Ethan Hirshberg ’13 was honored with a Doctor of Humane Letters degree. Gary Hirshberg’s achievement with Stonyfield, Baker said, is “considered one of the great stories in the realm of sustainable and organic agribusiness.”

Stonyfield Farm Chairman Gary Hirshberg is shown during his Commencement speech. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

Recipient of a Doctor of Science degree, Pinn “has worked her entire life to open medicine鈥檚 portal to women and people of color,” said Baker, who quoted Pinn’s remark that, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think you鈥檙e truly a good doctor or a good researcher if you don鈥檛 reach back to help others coming along.鈥�

Drawing lessons for the graduates from his experiences getting Stonyfield off the ground, Hirshberg’s address was funny, folksy and plainspoken. But if the tone was light (speaking of milestones, this may have been the first-ever mention of camel dung in a 乐播传媒 Commencement address), the thrust of his message was anything but.

The world’s in trouble — social, medical, economic, environmental. “It is clear that we have brought the same short-sighted, greed-driven [sense of] entitlement that we’ve used to guide our economy,” he said, “to how we manage our planet and even our health.”

He said, “Simply put, the meltdown of traditional ground rules and a tough, albeit improving, jobs picture mean you have to think differently. There is a saying that the best way to predict the future is to invent it. And now the only person who can invent your future is you.”

Basia Braboy ’13 and a family member walk toward Alumni Gymnasium for a post-Commencement luncheon. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

Hirshberg held out four pieces of advice, illustrated with tales from the precarious early days of Stonyfield Farm — now a business topping $350 million in annual sales.

• • “Think on your own,” he said. “Much of the so-called conventional wisdom is instead a fabricated aura of inevitability bought and paid for by massive lobbying and campaign finance donations [by] special interests.””Challenging their conventional wisdom is key. Asking loudly and repeatedly, ‘Why not pursue an alternative?’ is your job.”
  • “You can only succeed if you love what you are doing. So do what you love.”
  • “Believe in yourself and be determined, even when others doubt you. Fear of failure gets you nowhere. … Winston Churchill summed up my career beautifully when he said, ‘Success is the ability to move from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.’ “
  • Finally, show up. “Never underestimate the value of performing service and doing good,” said Hirshberg, who previously had praised 乐播传媒’ efforts in community engagement and the senior class Pledge of Social Responsibility.

“The good news is that by attending to our social and environmental problems, there are endless opportunities. If you are creative, determined and opportunistic in putting your amazing 乐播传媒 experience to work, you and the world will benefit. Those who question conventional thinking will be in the best positions to seize the next wave of jobs and economic opportunities.”

He added, “I do know Gandhi was right when he said that anyone who feels they are too small to make a difference has never been in bed with a mosquito.”

In his closing benediction, Blaine-Wallace urged the graduates to shun complacency and stay in touch with the inner voices that urge something better. Quoting John Donohue’s Benedictus: A Book of Blessings, he said:

“May you have the courage to listen to the voice of desire / That disturbs you when you have settled for something safe.

“May you have the wisdom to enter generously into your own unease / To discover the new direction your longing wants you to take.”

Hansen Timeline

October 2002

President Elaine Tuttle Hansen, a scholar of Chaucer and feminist literary theory and former Haverford College provost, is inaugurated on Oct. 26.

January 2003

乐播传媒 hosts a major statewide diversity rally that fills and surrounds Merrill Gymnasium with more than 4,000 participants who show vigorous support for the local Somali community in the wake of anti-immigrant actions.

May 2003

乐播传媒 approves undertaking a Campus Facilities Master Plan to review campus facilities, infrastructure, and surroundings.

October 2004

In a 20-year study of its optional SAT policy, 乐播传媒 finds no differences in academic performance or graduation rates between submitters and non-submitters.

Phase I of the Campus Facilities Master Plan envisions New Commons, Alumni Walk, and a residence at 280 College Street, plus academic renovations to Hedge Hall and Roger Williams halls.

November 2004

The public phase begins for the $120 million Campaign for 乐播传媒: Endowing Our Values.

February 2005

Begun in 1997, the Edmund S. Muskie Oral History Project concludes with some 440 interviews with those who worked with, knew, or were directly affected by Ed Muskie 鈥�36.

September 2005

乐播传媒 announces that Maine students enrolled at New Orleans鈥揳rea colleges devastated by Hurricane Katrina are welcome to take classes at 乐播传媒, without charge. Eighteen Mainers take up the offer.

December 2005

乐播传媒 announces that it will purchase electricity from renewable energy sources such as biomass and small hydroelectric generating plants.

Spring 2006

乐播传媒 breaks ground for a 152-bed residence at 280 College Street.

July 2006

The Campaign for 乐播传媒: Endowing Our Values concludes by surpassing its $120 million goal.

February 2007

President Hansen is among the first to sign the American College & University Presidents鈥� Climate Commitment, pledging 乐播传媒 to become carbon neutral.

May 2007

President Hansen convenes her first Presidential Symposium, on diversity and demographics in U.S. higher education.

June 2007

President Hansen announces the innovative 鈥渟wing dean鈥� program, where a dean recruits students during one year then joins the Dean of Students office to mentor the new students in their first year. The program reflects broader diversity efforts at 乐播传媒.

September 2007

Focusing on writing, quantitative skills, and interdisciplinary thinking, revamped General Education requirements go into effect for members of the Class of 2011.

February 2008

乐播传媒 opens New Commons. Continuing the college tradition of all students dining together, the facility is an 鈥渁rchitectural symbol of what makes 乐播传媒 so special,鈥� says President Hansen.

September 2008

A gift of $2.5 million boosts the college鈥檚 already high use of local and organic food and inspires a yearlong food and sustainability initiative called Nourishing Body and Mind: 乐播传媒 Contemplates Food.

May 2009

Ben Stein 鈥�09 and Amrit Rupasinghe 鈥�10 defeat Bowdoin to win the NCAA Division III men鈥檚 doubles tennis championship.

September 2009

President Hansen announces Choices for 乐播传媒, a strategic plan that is the product of two years of campus discussions. Goals are identified around the arts, natural sciences and mathematics, and the 乐播传媒 learning experience.

October 2009

H1N1 influenza virus hits 乐播传媒 as 250-plus students report influenza-like illness. All students return to good health.

December 2009

乐播传媒 appoints Nancy J. Cable as vice president and dean of enrollment and external affairs. Her newly organized division brings together admission, student financial services, communications and media relations, and career services.

February 2010

Burning biomass for campus heat and some electricity will be key to the college鈥檚 newly announced Climate Action Plan, which anticipates college carbon neutrality by 2020.

March 2010

乐播传媒 begins the restoration and expansion of two historic buildings, Hedge Hall and Roger Williams Hall, as academic spaces.

August 2010

乐播传媒 announces creation of an Office of Intercultural Education to coordinate academic, social, and residential programs for underrepresented student populations.

September 2010

乐播传媒 redeploys and expands its career program: the 乐播传媒 Career Development Center.

October 2010

乐播传媒 dedicates a restored and improved Garcelon Field.

March 2011

The 乐播传媒 faculty announces approval of a major in dance.

April 2011

President Hansen accepts the position of executive director of the Center for Talented Youth at Johns Hopkins.

May 2011

乐播传媒 announces formation of a Presidential Search Committee co-chaired by trustees Michael Chu 鈥�80 and Valerie Smith 鈥�75.

Admission reports a triple crown of gains: record applications; a more selective acceptance rate; and a surge in 鈥測ield鈥� 鈥� the percentage of accepted students who choose 乐播传媒.

July 2011

On July 1, Nancy Cable, vice president and dean of enrollment and external affairs, begins her term as interim president of 乐播传媒, through June 30, 2012.

鈥楢live to Change鈥�

By H. Jay Burns
Photographs by Phyllis Graber Jensen

Nine years ago, Elaine Tuttle Hansen based her inaugural address on a line from Emily Dickinson: 鈥淚 dwell in possibility.鈥�

Those four words gave Hansen the opportunity to suggest what she believed was possible for 乐播传媒: that the college could meet the challenges of the era by cultivating its historic and distinctive capacity of being, as she said, 鈥渁live to change.鈥�

Hansen talks with Owen Harris 鈥�08 about his neuroscience research on therapies for Parkinson鈥檚 disease.

In her final 乐播传媒 interview before assuming duties as executive director of the Center for Talented Youth at The Johns Hopkins University, she spoke with 乐播传媒 Magazine editor Jay Burns about her 2002 inaugural vision and the realities that followed during her tenure as the seventh president of 乐播传媒 College.

The key line in your address comes early when you said, 鈥淥ur goal is to be alive to change.鈥� You then quote cultural theorist Gloria Anzaldua鈥檚 comment on personal identity: 鈥淭ransitions aren鈥檛 what we go through. Transitions are what we are.鈥�

The very identity of a college of the liberal arts and sciences is premised on the idea that we are always embracing change. A quarter of our students change each year. At a slower rate, we welcome new faculty and new staff.

A great college embraces new people and their new habits, needs, and expectations. The curricular, educational, and social frameworks of a liberal arts college are just that: frames that contain constant transition.

When I said this in 2002, I had no idea how dramatic the changes were going to be in my nine years at 乐播传媒. The economic upheaval beginning in 2008 demonstrates that the possibility of positive and negative change is always out there, and we have to expect it even when we can鈥檛 predict it.

Hansen takes part in an economics class in 2008, part of her annual President for a Day tradition in which she and a student traded places for one day. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

Early in my presidency we developed a 10-year financial model, which reflects the idea that you have to be proactive and keep adjusting your assumptions as part of the planning process. For example, before the recession, we assumed a 5-percent average annual increase in tuition, which went back to the 1970s. Now we鈥檝e significantly lowered that assumption.

We used to assume an 8-percent total return (taking into account spending) on our endowment; we鈥檝e since incorporated a lower assumption into our 10-year plan.

We had to change our assumptions about campus housing in 2002 because of code issues in our wood-frame houses, and through our Campus Facilities Master Plan, we developed a framework to build the 280 College Street residence, New Commons, and Alumni Walk, and to renovate Garcelon Field as well as Hedge and Roger Williams halls.

We had to learn to make plans. To design yourself as a planner is a little presumptuous 鈥� as Henry James wrote, 鈥淥ne鈥檚 plan, alas, is one thing and one鈥檚 result another.鈥� But I do feel our facilities planning and college planning have been effective.

So we run the college the way we ask students to run their lives. We ask them to develop fundamental skills and attitudes that should help them adapt, be flexible, and learn new things for the new jobs that don鈥檛 yet exist. 乐播传媒 has to do the same thing.

Setting aside the economic meltdown, it should have been clear to anyone in 2002 that liberal arts colleges needed to take steps to face disruptions. We knew the trends putting pressure on liberal arts colleges, such as the decline in the percentage and numbers of students earning liberal arts degrees.

So if we weren鈥檛 alive to change in 2002, we needed to be.

You opened your inaugural with a brief comment about rituals: 鈥淩ituals afford us prospective opportunities for expressing our hopes and aspirations, our desire for change, and our will to improve.鈥�

In one sense, rituals reassure people. They emphasize, again, the framework that will contain future change 鈥� that鈥檚 why they鈥檙e rituals. At the same time, they always mark change. They are interestingly complicated, almost oxymoronic moments.

Elaine Hansen laughs with Marcus Bruce 鈥�77, the Benjamin Mays Professor of Religious Studies, prior to Convocation 2010. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

In a similar way, I have found great pleasure in observing the construction on campus, something I hadn鈥檛 anticipated. Perhaps this is because new buildings and renovations create an image of stability yet they reflect great change. It鈥檚 a nice point-counterpoint.

Every 乐播传媒 president has wrestled in some way or another with the question of diversity and inclusion on this campus. In your inaugural, you described the challenge of creating and recreating a college that feels open both to those who never doubted attending college and to 鈥渢hose who have not been able to feel so confident about their destinies鈥� and who 鈥渂ring a wider variety of experience and perspective to the campus.鈥� What does it means today for 乐播传媒 to 鈥渋nvite those who have not been able to feel so confident about their destiny鈥�?

At our 2007 Presidential Symposium, 鈥淎 College for Coming Time: Diversity and the Changing Demographics of Higher Education,鈥� I noted how many colleges and universities today are able to tell of both aspirations and frustrations around diversity.

乐播传媒 is alive to this challenge. We know what it is to seek change while staying firm. Of all American colleges, 乐播传媒 was among the very few that radically put its stamp on diversity long before anyone used that term. It鈥檚 part of our sturdy framework.

But for a college founded by abolitionists, always open to women, and known for recruiting freed slaves 鈥� what does that foundation mean in the early 21st century, when the world has changed so much around us? The value and definition of diversity and inclusion is very different now than in 1855 or in 1945 with the return of students from World War II or in the 1970s when most of the baby boomers were going to college.

At the symposium, we focused on the changing demographics. We know that fostering diversity and inclusion is as tough as or tougher now than it used to be. The competition for students is tougher. The financial challenge of providing need-based aid for students is greater. Maine is still mostly a white state and located in a region of the U.S. where high school enrollments have been decreasing.

And yet, if I鈥檓 proud of anything during my presidency, I am proud that so many people took on the task of working harder to sustain our principles, and prepare all students for the future. 乐播传媒 is more diverse now than ever before, and our incoming Class of 2015 continues this trend: 103 U.S. multicultural students, up from 86 last year, a number that itself represented sustained improvement from prior years. Our increased diversity will continue to affect the culture of the college in ways we can anticipate and in ways we cannot.

Hansen sits for a WRBC student interview shortly after her arrival in February 2003. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

In 2002, you said that while society places value on a college education to an individual, 鈥渢here is no consensus about the social or civic value of higher education鈥� generally.

Society鈥檚 understanding of the purpose and value of higher education has only gotten even less clear.

As an example, recall that in February 2009 President Obama called for all Americans to commit to attending at least one year of college. The statement was met with praise by college leaders; ostensibly, the president鈥檚 speech expressed a consensus that American higher education represents a great public good.

But when you look at reaction to the president鈥檚 suggestions 鈥� one critic dismissed it as just another government subsidy 鈥� you realize there is even less alignment between our view of higher education, as both beneficial to the individual and to society, and society鈥檚 diminishing belief that higher education is a public good that fosters social and human progress.

The call for all Americans to commit to a year of college, while praiseworthy, does diffuse and make much more complex the whole concept of what going to college means in our country. If we have a country that is committed to going to college, yet no agreement on what that means, that pushes us further from a consensus of the public value of higher education.

This lack of consensus of the value of a college education is seen in the national discussion of three-year baccalaureate degree programs, a discussion I鈥檝e joined partly because 乐播传媒 has a three-year option created by President Phillips in the 1960s.

While I do understand that a three-year option is about money, an important consideration, the discussion suggests that a U.S. college education is something that can or should be made briefer. Walking to Gate 4 at LaGuardia Airport recently, I saw a sign in front of a telecom store: 鈥淎nything worth doing is worth doing faster.鈥�

Hansen greets a 乐播传媒 parent during first-year orientation. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

What I view as the purpose of a higher education is opposite from the idea of getting it over with as quickly as possible. If you attempt to measure our value by that idea, you will never believe in 乐播传媒. Among other things, we are trying to cultivate the ability to listen, focus, and slow down in a world of, as writer Linda Stone said, 鈥渃ontinuous partial attention.鈥�

President George Colby Chase, whom you quoted at length in your inaugural, said that 乐播传媒 must safeguard against existing 鈥渢o gratify the selfish instincts of the more fortunate.鈥� 乐播传媒 should develop citizens who are 鈥渇it exponents鈥� to increase the world鈥檚 鈥渟weetness and light.鈥� If 乐播传媒 long ago evolved from the teacher-preacher culture of alumni professions, how does 乐播传媒 prepare people to help society achieve greater 鈥渟weetness and light鈥�?

The teacher-preacher culture has been part of some enduring narratives among 乐播传媒 alumni. One particularly enduring 乐播传媒 story that alumni in finance and business tell with real emotion is their feeling that they somehow fell from the high aspirations of the preacher-teacher model by pursuing lucrative careers. This narrative seems quite strong among alums of the 1980s, though some felt it more than others.

Today, I believe we see absolutely no evidence for this narrative on campus. We see strength in the arts and encouragement for students to pursue great careers in the arts. And we have strength in the economics department and encouragement there.

Through both our heritage and distinctive current programs, like the Harward Center for Community Partnerships, 乐播传媒 will always have a culture of social engagement. We tend to seek and attract students who want to do good work, and our seniors desire to find work after graduation that aligns with their experience of having done meaningful and well-aligned academic work while at 乐播传媒. As President Chase said, our graduates seek work that 鈥渆xemplifies to the less favored the meaning and uses of life at its best.鈥�

At the same time, 乐播传媒 has taken great strides in better equipping students to discover and pursue careers that help them make full use of their new liberal arts habits and skills. This past year, we reorganized the 乐播传媒 career program and redeployed it as the 乐播传媒 Career Development Center. Again, this is part of 乐播传媒 being a place that looks forward, anticipates, plans.

Hansen and Director of Athletics Kevin McHugh cut the ribbon at the dedication of renovated Garcelon Field in 2010. Photograph by Janet Cuimmei P’12.

So, in terms of helping society achieve greater 鈥渟weetness and light,鈥� maybe your calling is to a profession directly connected to helping people. Or maybe your calling is to a lucrative profession. Either way, I hear our alumni talking passionately about how their 乐播传媒 education has helped them be principled, bold, and engaged leaders in their chosen field and in their communities. And I hear the impulse to do good work when alumni talk about helping students and young alumni. This is their expression of doing good work.

What I don鈥檛 see at 乐播传媒 is one prescription for how you do good work. And there shouldn鈥檛 be one prescription, in my view.

In 2002, you offered the idea that 乐播传媒 campus life should be about 鈥渆xperimentation and creativity,鈥� with room for 鈥渂oth disagreement and mistakes within a certain zone of temporary safety [and] provisional protection.鈥� What have been the challenges? The successes?

If we look at that statement through the lens of residential life, one challenge is no different than ever before. We have 2,000 students, 1,700 of whom are in residence, all age 18 to 22!

Still, I believe we have altered the atmosphere in our residence halls. This is not about casting aspersions on prior groups of students. It鈥檚 what 乐播传媒 has done to help students themselves take responsibility for improving the reality of their residential life.

It has helped that 乐播传媒 built a new residence hall at 280 College Street. Its flexible, welcoming, and interactive spaces help communicate the fact that a student鈥檚 residential life is fully connected to other parts of 乐播传媒 life.

We have improved the training of junior advisers and residence coordinators, and Dean of Students Tedd Goundie has the perspective that student leaders can and should be empowered to be more accountable for the actions, programs, and outcomes in the residences.

Of course, this is a lot to ask of our students. It can look like 乐播传媒 is abdicating our responsibilities as adults. But the successes, when they come, are proportional to the amount we are asking students to invest in their community. I mean, talk about building!

Being alive to change includes updating our understanding of generational perspectives. In your inauguration, you spoke of young people being highly able and having an extreme emphasis on 鈥渟elf鈥� and 鈥渟elfhood鈥� but not, ironically, possessing great self-awareness.

When I quoted author and child psychiatrist Robert Coles in that part of my inaugural, I was worried about children who grow up having cultivated perfection their whole lives. They have, as Coles said, 鈥渧ery definite notions鈥� of what should come to them. They are attuned to accomplishing tasks but not attuned to self-reflection. So when they fail, as we all do at some point, do they have the ability not only to start over but also to learn something important about themselves?

At our annual mid-May Senior鈥揟rustee Luncheon, over and over we hear seniors reflect on the incredible value of taking risks and achieving 鈥� and the value of not being the best. And these are our stars. They will have great successes in their lives. But what they appreciate, in addition to high-powered academic excellence, is that 乐播传媒 offered a path for them to try something new 鈥� join a club, sports team, or musical group 鈥� that requires them to stretch and risk not being the star.

Sometimes it is a challenge to convey this part of the 乐播传媒 culture and not make it sound like we encourage dabbling. It鈥檚 not that. When you listen to our seniors, they are very intense and serious about what they have pursued at 乐播传媒. Shot put All-American Liz Wanless 鈥�04 used to say that she worked hard at throwing after being inspired by how so many people seemed to have their own passion at 乐播传媒: 鈥淚鈥檓 just another person trying to achieve a goal,鈥� she鈥檇 say.

I can hear in my mind other variations of this 鈥� 鈥淚 learned that who I am includes this passion for doing something that no one else was going to expect me to do.鈥� America used to hold this concept up as something highly valuable: the amateur ideal. By trying many things, failing at some, you get a sense of who you are, particularly in relation to others, and what you really love.

This is 乐播传媒: broad-scale participation, passion, intensity 鈥� our Amore ac Studio.

Presidential party

As Friday evening’s tribute to outgoing President Elaine Tuttle Hansen got going, Nancy Cable, who will become interim president in July, offered one programming note, promising everyone that the tribute would conclude in time for the Bruins game. Big cheers.

Cable, who is vice president and dean of enrollment and external affairs, was joined by Chairman of the Board Mike Bonney ’80.

Bonney and Hansen share a certain kinship. Both became leaders of their institutions around the same time, Hansen at 乐播传媒 in 2002 and Bonney as CEO of Cubist in 2003. From that perspective, Bonney said that watching Hansen’s presidency made him a better CEO.

“I learned how to balance various constituencies,” he said. “I learned how to be persistent in a quiet and clear way. And I learned that an institution must take steps today to prepare for what happens tomorrow.”

Bonney specifically pointed to Hansen’s bold action early in her presidency, when she asked 乐播传媒 to pause its plan to build a full-scale campus center. Instead, she directed 乐播传媒 to undertake a Campus Facilities Master Plan, which yielded bountiful intelligence about 乐播传媒 facilities needs, including the stronger need for a new dining facility.

Hansen called the achievements during her presidency “a group project. This is not about one person. This is about what people do when they collaborate.”

Extending the kudos, she said that active engagement “is all about what 乐播传媒 people do. It’s what you do in your communities when you demonstrate the values you learned at 乐播传媒.”

Hansen, Bonney and Cable each wore a beanie, the kind that male freshmen had to wear each fall until about 1970.

乐播传媒ies being aware of historical accuracy, party attendee Mary-Jane Pugliese Robichaud ’67 not only suggested, nicely, that Hansen should have worn a bib (the women’s version of the beanie, onto which they embroidered their names) but she also proudly showed Hansen her own circa 1963 bib.

Kidnapping and bombings

“The work was good,” said retired FBI agent Dave Jellison ’61, recalling a stint in Steubenville, Ohio. “Organized crime, kidnapping, bombings and white slavery.”

Equating good work with a few heinous crime elicited laughs from Jellison’s audience, but also gave a bit of insight into the ebb and flow of a G-man’s life in the early 1960s.

Jellison was one of several 1961 alums who shared tales from careers, hobbies, and other pursuits as part of the traditional 50th Reunion Seminar program.

Before being assigned to Steubenville’s mean streets, Jellison worked in Miami, where he was assigned to the “barbecue squad,” doing surveillance of cookouts and other social gatherings involving the KKK or civil rights groups.

In Miami, Jellison worked with a criminal informant. The guy had burned down a couple jai alai frontons, among other things, and once used broom wire to tie a prison guard’s hands to the jail cell bars. He finally wore out his welcome among the bad guys and turned informant, helping Jellison and the feds get convictions in all 14 of the criminal cases in which he testified.

The informant later went into witness protection. In his new community, he so ingratiated himself with the town fathers that they asked him to become their chief of police. “So what do I do about my fingerprints?!” he asked Jellison.

Jellison started his career in military intelligence in Washington, D.C., where he often did debriefing interviews with political leaders. That’s how he met Sen. Edmund Muskie ’36, who immediately put him at ease. “Jellison?” said Muskie. “I went to 乐播传媒 with your father.” (That was Russell Jellison ’33.)

At the talk’s end, a classmate asked Jellison how he kept from becoming cynical. “You do learn that there are many nasty people in the world,” he answered. “But like one loan shark told me, if he didn’t grow up tough he wouldn’t have survived.”

Anticipation and awe

During its annual meeting Friday afternoon, the College Key gave its Distinguished Service Award to longtime Associate Dean of Students James Reese, an attentive, involved and principled member of the 乐播传媒 community since his appointment by Dean of the College Jim Carignan ’61 in 1977.

It was serendipity that Carignan, celebrating his 50th Reunion, got to introduce Reese at the club’s annual meeting Friday afternoon in Muskie Archives.

“There are many types of leaders,” Carignan said. “There are loud leaders. There are quiet leaders. I came to understand that James Reese is a quiet leader. He is a leader who keeps his hand on the student pulse.”

“Always right.”

You don’t get an accurate reading of the collective student pulse from the office, which is why Reese has always been omnipresent in student life, especially in the evening (and, as Carignan implied with a smile, omni-absent from early-morning meetings).

His first-hand insight into student life meant that Reese’s advice on student matters “was always right,” Carignan said, adding that “any history of 乐播传媒 that gets below the surface will reveal James Reese to be one of the college’s significant leaders.”

Reese told the audience that he’s still awed by the power of 乐播传媒 in the greater world, and described the April dedication of a new museum in Greenwood, S.C., dedicated to civil rights leader Benjamin E. Mays ’20.

Offering remarks that day was 乐播传媒 President Elaine Tuttle Hansen, who told the audience how 乐播传媒’ new mission statement echoes Mays’ own words.

“When she said that, you could see people lean forward in anticipation,” Reese said. And as Hansen recited the relevant part of the new mission statement, how 乐播传媒 is “dedicated to the emancipating potential of the liberal arts,” which plays off Mays’ statement that 乐播传媒 helped “emancipate myself,” the audience “sat back in awe,” Reese said.

Citizen Gonzalez

After his College Key induction and 乐播传媒 graduation this spring, Uriel Gonzalez ’11 of Von Ormy, Texas, copped another big honor: U.S. citizenship.

A resident alien since he was 14, Gonzalez shared his happy news at the annual College Key meeting on Friday afternoon. “And I aced the citizenship test. After 乐播传媒, it was easy,” he quipped.

Power to the students!

If 乐播传媒 student life in the ’50s and ’60s was heavy on the rules and light on student autonomy, what’s the situation today? Do students have any power?

The alum’s question cropped up during a student panel discussion about 乐播传媒 life sponsored by the Class of 1956.

Mackenzie Ross ’12 of North Yarmouth, Maine, took the question. She described how the an ad-hoc student group that advocated for a variety of reforms during the spring, effected a change in student employment regulations that makes it easier for students receiving financial aid to find campus employment. “That’s student power,” Ross said.

Theater’s ups and downs

Saturday afternoon’s gathering to mark Schaeffer Theatre’s 50th anniversary gave Reunion attendees a chance to reminisce about the theater’s namesake, Lavinia Schaeffer.

She was the moving force behind the theater’s construction and, more broadly, the emergence of 乐播传媒 theater as we know it today.

“She used to walk around the campus when she was doing a certain play,” recalled Garvey MacLean, former college chaplain and lecturer in religion. With a picture in mind of the types of people she wanted for particular roles, MacLean said, Schaeffer “would beckon students and say, ‘I would like you to come read.'”

Risking lives for Lavinia

Before the new theater, Schaeffer’s actors performed in Hathorn Hall, where “there was no way to cross over, unseen by the audience, from stage left to stage right because the stage was so shallow,” recalled Dana Professor of Theater Martin Andrucki. “So the actors had to go out a window and down a ladder, cross behind Hathorn, go up a ladder and through a window on the other side.”

He added, “That’s how dedicated 乐播传媒 people were to doing theater with Lavinia Schaeffer 鈥� they were willing to risk their lives.”

The centerpiece of the Reunion tribute was a staged reading of Moliere’s Tartuffe, the first play performed in the new space back in 1960. It’s about a family rent asunder by the title character, an arch hypocrite, whose ever-timely motto is “sinning in secret is not sinning at all.”The players included Ed London ’61; the father-daughter team of Mike Kastrinelis ’82 and Jackie Kastrinelis; and a current student, Travis Jones ’13 of Ithaca, N.Y.

Andrucki recalled arriving at 乐播传媒 and discovering a volume of Moli猫re that had been Schaeffer’s when she studied in Paris in the 1920s. “I have a feeling that Tartuffe was on her mind for a long time,” he said.

Under the big tent

After the Alumni Parade marched from Alumni Gym to the Historic Quad, went past Hathorn Hall, wound around Parker, and strode down Alumni Walk,聽 everyone gathered for the annual meeting of the Alumni Association and the awards ceremony.

Pianist Doris Neilson Whipple ’34, age 97, once again accompanied the singing of the Alma Mater, and few could argue when she happily exclaimed afterward that she can “still pound the piano!”

Winning this year’s Papaioanou Distinguished Service Award was former Trustee, current member of the Alumni Council, and stalwart leader in her Class of 1961.

Andy, not Andrew

“What I’m going to try to do is speak to you the way Andy would” 鈥� the present speaker being Victoria Browning Wyeth ’01, and “Andy” being Victoria’s grandfather, the famed artist Andrew Wyeth.

Besides her own 10th Reunion, Victoria’s visit to campus marked the opening of at the college Museum of Art. a refreshingly intimate exhibit of finished art, studies and personal correspondence among the three Wyeths.

“The most biased speaker you’re ever going to hear.”

Victoria’s hour-long introduction to the show was just as intimate, eschewing the art-historical tropes of dates, historical context and symbolism for, instead, a series of personal portraits — delivered with the energy dial set to “11.”

“I am the most biased speaker you’re ever going to hear,” Victoria said. She asked her audience to distinguish between Andrew Wyeth, the icon of American art, and Andy Wyeth 鈥� an earthy, loving and humorous man whose paintings include a portrait of himself as a skeleton and who loved costuming up for Halloween.

He was also a rigorous man who placed ultimate confidence in the notion of truth to self. If you want to make it as an artist, forget about schooling, he told her. “If you’re in school you’re not painting, and you should paint all the time.”

Wyeth “painted his life,” Victoria said, and her talk included thought-provoking portraits of people who inhabited the life and the paintings. People such as the ethereal Allan Messersmith, whose Wyeth likenesses include an astonishing late portrait in No. 2 pencil. And the moody Ann Call, whom Andrew and Betsy Wyeth hired to work for them because her favorite activity was late-night walks through cemeteries.

Victoria’s fast, fact-and-joke talk ended with a change of pace, a video interview she conducted with her very elderly grandfather for Japanese television. The devotion between the two is visible, she turning happily to him to ask questions he’s answered many times, and he just as sweetly, but with complete earnestness, giving the familiar answers.

What would he like to tell the Japanese people? “I hope they get my feeling of love for the objects I paint,” he replied.

‘Oh, wow’

As the next generation of 乐播传媒ies crawled on the floor, ran around babbling and tugged at their parents’ jackets, Assistant Dean of Students Keith Tannenbaum stood on a chair and told the crowd of some 100 young alums about “The Underground.”

Sponsored by the Class of 2001, Tannenbaum’s tour focused on new student-life spaces on campus, and it began in the basement of 280 College St. residence. Robustly equipped for fun management with heavy-duty soundproofing, floor drains and colorful student-painted murals brightening the concrete walls, this dedicated social space is a popular attraction.

The Underground elicited good vibes, which prompted an energized question-and-answer session that rambled from alcohol policies to theme houses (a mention of Roger Williams Hall’s becoming a chem-free house back in the day drew a big laugh) to the next phase of the campus facilities master plan will see new residences built next to Garcelon Field.

The tour moved eagerly above ground to the residential spaces in 280 鈥� through Frank’s Lounge, with its fireplace, and on to a spacious double room with huge windows and high ceiling. One after another, veterans of older 乐播传媒 housing wandered in, looked around and said, “Oh, wow.”

Goodbye to Gomes

The late Rev. Peter Gomes ’65 was an author, preacher, professor and son of 乐播传媒 who loved the college and its people dearly. He was also wickedly funny, and one of the best Gomes lines from Saturday afternoon’s tribute in the Olin Art Center Concert Hall, which included a was shared by Trustee Jamie Merisotis ’86.

After his son was born, Merisotis told Gomes, a fellow Trustee, how he and his wife had named the boy Benjamin, in honor of the great civil rights leader Benjamin Mays ’20. After a pregnant pause, Gomes said, “I trust that the second child will be named Peter?”

“Audacious and confounding freedom as a Christian man.”

Carl Straub, professor emeritus of religion and the Clark A. Griffith Professor Emeritus of Environmental Studies, asked the gathering to look beyond what many others have spoken about: Gomes’ seemingly contradictory existence as a gay Baptist preacher, a black Pilgrim Society president, and a self-described “Afro Saxon.”

Straub suggested that “Peter said what he said, did what he did, hoped what he hoped out of his audacious and confounding freedom as a Christian man.” Like anyone, Gomes “experienced the paradoxes and contradictions in living, and the ambivalences of being human. But he also experienced them being reconciled in him by a loving God. Out of this inner reconciliation 鈥� and because of it 鈥� he taught us.”

Gome’s close friend and 乐播传媒 contemporary Bill Hiss ’66 recalled how, as his first marriage was unraveling years ago, Gomes offered advice and guidance. After Hiss remarried, Gomes would occasionally see his friend, peer gently at him and ask, “Knots holding?”

It was a telling question, Hiss said. Although Gomes was famous for being a great author and great preacher, the love he gave to his many friends was as a “pastor, whose two-word question drove to the heart of things: ‘Knots holding?'”

Graduate Erin Kintzing of Rensselaer, N.Y. marvels at her sheepskin.

Carolyn Silva-Sanchez '11 of Lexington, Mass., shows off her new 乐播传媒 diploma to nephew David Francisco Andron-Silva, 15 months.

Physical Plant custodian Wayne Medlen poses for a Commencement photo with magna cum laude graduate Mohamed Masid Cader '11 of Lewiston.

After the Commencement ceremony, a graduate takes a moment to survey the scene -- and find his family -- from the steps of Hathorn Hall.

Ned Antell '11 of Sherborn, Mass., receives a hug from his father, Rick, as his mother, Susan, watches.

Always uplifting, the 2011 Commencement ceremony had a conversational, convivial spirit, as presenters on stage passed laughs around, friends and families jostled for camera angles and cheered on their graduates, and the clouds finally parted, allowing unfiltered sunshine to illuminate the 145th 乐播传媒 College Commencement. Photographs by Phyllis Graber Jensen.

Commencement, she adds, “honors you, 乐播传媒 graduates. It honors the skills and values you have fashioned during these years of self-construction, and it honors our enduring faith in your to lead us into the future.”

Said Young, “It all started right over here,” pointing to a humble wooden structure, Mays’ birthplace, part of the

Restating a theme that Young had invoked at 乐播传媒 during his 1995 Martin Luther King Jr. Day keynote address, Young stated that “if it hadn’t been for Benjamin Mays, there probably wouldn’t have been a Martin Luther King.” Mays has often been called “the father of the civil rights movement.”

President Hansen shared Mays’ history at 乐播传媒, including his reason for pursuing a Northern education. It was so he could compete academically with white students, to prove that what he had heard all his life, that whites were superior to blacks, was false.

In Born to Rebel, Mays wrote that his stellar academic career at 乐播传媒 helped him “dismiss from my mind for all time the myth of the inherent inferiority of all Negroes and to accept with dignity my own worth as a free man.”

That is Mays’ legacy at 乐播传媒, Hansen told the audience:聽 “Our college promises an intellectual rigorous education with great emancipatory power.” She noted that “the Mays legacy is alive at 乐播传媒 in our very mission statement…. The first line now reads, ‘Since 1855, 乐播传媒 College has been dedicated to the emancipating potential of the liberal arts.'”

Located about 75 miles of Columbia, the preservation site聽features Mays’ birth home, which was relocated from a pasture in the Greenwood County community of Epworth in 2004, as well as a 19th-century one-room schoolhouse and a museum and interpretive center.

Quiz: What institutional change in higher education was implemented quickly and sustained successfully?

An audience filling Chase Hall Lounge on April 28 ventured a few answers — Title IX, the G.I. Bill — to the question posed by Alma Clayton-Pedersen, keynote speaker at the college’s fourth presidential symposium. Good tries, said Clayton-Pedersen. But, she pointed out, the most comprehensive, durable and unquestioned change has been the adoption of information technology.

And that transformation should be a model for the effort to put diversity at the heart of the academic mission.

“We would be lost without technology. I want us to think of excellence, diversity and inclusiveness in the same way,” said , current senior scholar at the Association of American Colleges and Universities and the association’s former vice president for education and institutional renewal.

Clayton-Pedersen provided an energizing start to the symposium convened by President Elaine Tuttle Hansen to address issues of campus diversity and inclusiveness.

She said, in essence, that it’s time for academe to stop tinkering around the edges and, once and for all, effect thoroughgoing institutional change, both in the interest of human equity and because diversity is essential to an excellent education.

“The point of higher education, in my opinion, is to help students, and we hope faculty, to have fulfilling lives, a fulfilling vocation,” she said. “Something you will go to the ends of the Earth for, like I feel about this work.”

But in a climate where prejudice is still a reality, she asked, “how do we instill that passion if students are constantly struggling with what it means to be who they are?”

In addition, she noted, the skills and awareness that employers expect to find in college graduates include some that are nourished directly by an education rich in exposure to diverse people and cultures.

Higher ed has done a “fairly good job” of increasing diversity among students and faculty, and representing it in the curriculum, she allowed. But “fairly good” isn’t good enough. Though often effective on their own terms, diversity initiatives are typically scattershot and uncoordinated. And that reflects on the typical institutional structure itself — compartmentalized and uncollaborative.

Clayton-Pedersen said that academic institutions need to break down the silos and declare that learning and diversity are the common ground for the enterprise. For instance, in every search for new faculty or staff, she suggested, the candidate should be asked, “What has been your experience with communities of color?”

“If you never ask that question,” she said, “you continue to replicate yourself” instead of progressing.

She asked her listeners to consider a new understanding of diversity that transcends race and religion to encompass all manner of individual and group differences. We need, she said, to “value our differences in all their manifestations” — and to take personal responsibility for eliminating inequities based on those differences.

She concluded by asking her listeners what challenges they foresaw in implementing such a comprehensive change in the way colleges do business. The exchange gave her the opportunity to debunk a fundamental obstacle to the advancement of diversity: the belief that opening the gates to campus means lowering academic standards.

In fact, she said, “it raises the chances that students will be prepared for the 21st-century world.”

Introducing Clayton-Pedersen was Leslie Hill, a key organizer of the symposium, associate professor of politics and special assistant to President Hansen for issues of diversity. Nancy Cable, vice president for enrollment and external affairs, welcomed the gathering with an 1868 quote from 乐播传媒 second president, George Colby Chase:

“It was the aim of the founders [of 乐播传媒] to establish a community in which the rich and the poor, the highest and the humblest, mingle together on equal terms in a spirit of excellence and mutual helpfulness.”

Titled Recognizing Change, Preparing for the Future: Developing Partnerships for Academic Success, the afternoon symposium explored the advancement of diversity in higher ed. Panels following Clayton-Pedersen’s keynote address looked at the issue from angles including the role of staff, the impacts of extracurricular activities — and the impact of the college experience itself on students’ understanding of diversity.

On April 13, 乐播传媒 Board Chairman that Hansen planned to leave the 乐播传媒 presidency in July, after nine years in that role, to accept a leadership position at another educational institution that would be announced shortly.

The is an arm of Johns Hopkins that finds exceptionally able primary and secondary school students and supports them with challenging advanced courses and other programs, both in person and online. In 2010, CTY enrolled more than 26,000 students in summer residential classes and year-round online courses, bringing to more than 444,000 the number of talented second through 12th graders it has served since 1979.

Achievements at 乐播传媒 under Hansen’s leadership at include strengthened student diversity, expanded and improved facilities, greater financial strength through the largest fundraising campaign in 乐播传媒 history, and innovative strategic planning.

• .

President Hansen’s announcement of her Johns Hopkins appointment:

Dear Members of the 乐播传媒 Community,

Last week, Mike Bonney, chair of the 乐播传媒 Board of Trustees, and that I would step away from my current role in July, after nine years as the president, to accept a leadership position with another educational institution.

I write now to let you know that late Thursday the Johns Hopkins University announced my appointment as executive director of the Center for Talented Youth at Johns Hopkins, beginning Aug. 1, 2011.

The Johns Hopkins announcement is available online at

In my new role, I will oversee an organization dedicated to teaching, research, and service in the field of gifted education. Since 1979, CTY has spearheaded efforts to identify and educate exceptionally able pre-collegiate students in the United States and increasingly around the world by providing advanced courses and other programs, both in person and online.

So even as I am moving from 乐播传媒, I am staying focused on my commitment to this College鈥檚 fundamental mission: promoting academic achievement and offering transformative educational experiences to the most highly promising students, who in turn are motivated and prepared to use their talents for the common good.

I look forward in the weeks ahead to finding more time and ways to express my appreciation to all the members of the 乐播传媒 community 鈥� students, faculty, staff, alums, parents and families and friends of the College 鈥� who have helped me to understand and promote the value of our enterprise. I am also and most particularly grateful to our remarkable Board of Trustees, whose time and talent are among our most precious and peerless resources.

For a president, the working relationship with the chair of the Board is particularly critical, and I have been lucky enough to share this year of transition with our outstanding new chair, Mike Bonney. He succeeds two extraordinary leaders of the Board, Burton M. Harris and Joseph T. Willett, for whose support, guidance, and wisdom I will always be so very grateful.

As the next executive director of CTY, I will have the enviable task of drawing energy and innovation from the best programs and practitioners at Johns Hopkins and elsewhere to ensure that more talented young people are challenged to aspire and enabled to succeed.

I am convinced that this effort, effectively pursued in all its forms at places like 乐播传媒 and Johns Hopkins, is more important to our world than ever before. I owe the opportunity to carry on with this work in a new position to all I have learned in the course of the last nine years. It has been a privilege to be at 乐播传媒, and I look forward to staying close to the College as it evolves and flourishes in the years ahead.

With deepest thanks and warmest regards,
Elaine

Previously she served as provost of Haverford College in Pennsylvania, a liberal arts college of 1,100 students located in suburban Philadelphia. As a faculty member at Haverford beginning in 1980, she served as chair of the English Department and as coordinator of the Haverford/Bryn Mawr Concentration in Feminist and Gender Studies.

Before joining Haverford, she was an associate editor of the Middle English Dictionary at the University of Michigan and taught at Hamilton College.

Hansen has taught a wide variety of courses in Middle English literature and in contemporary women鈥檚 writing and feminist theory, as well as introductory linguistics and writing seminars.聽 At Haverford she was awarded the Lindbach Teaching Prize.

The recipient of research grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council of Learned Societies, and of Whitehead and Mellon Faculty Development funds, Hansen has published numerous literary critical articles and reviews and three books: Reading Wisdom in Old English Poetry (University of Toronto Press, 1988); Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender (University of California Press, 1992); and Mother Without Child: Contemporary Fiction and the Crisis of Motherhood (University of California Press, 1997).

In 2009, she received Mount Holyoke College’s Elizabeth Topham Kennan Award, presented periodically to an outstanding alumna educator.

Hansen has served on various non-profit boards, including the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the Maine Public Broadcasting Corporation, the University of Maine School of Law, and the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. She has served on several accreditation teams for regional accrediting agencies and various editorial boards.聽 As a member of the Modern Language Association, she previously served on the MLA Executive Committee of the Chaucer Division and the Delegate Assembly and chaired the Committee on Academic Freedom and Professional Rights and Responsibilities.聽 She is also a former President of the Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship.

Hansen earned her A.B. at Mount Holyoke College, her M.A. at the University of Minnesota and her Ph.D. at the University of Washington.

She lives in Lewiston, Maine, with her husband Stan Hansen, a speech pathologist. They have two daughters: Emma, an attorney currently practicing in Manhattan, and Isla, a recent graduate of Columbia University.