When Bill Tucker ’67 and Monica Drozd decided to renew their wedding vows, more than three decades after getting married before strangers in the Black Forest of Germany, they knew exactly where they wanted to be, and who they wanted to share the special moment with.

“We wanted to renew our vows in a context that, while still small and intimate, took place in a more personally meaningful location,â€� says Tucker. “ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ and Bill Hiss immediately came to mind.â€�

Hiss, a 1966 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ graduate, was Tucker’s college roommate back in the day. They’ve been friends ever since. And besides a long career heading ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½â€™ admission program, Hiss is also a licensed minister in the United Church of Christ.

“With one of my oldest, dearest friends to officiate — he kind of pulled the arc of our lives together,� Tucker says.

So it happened that Tucker and Drozd re-dedicated their union next to Lake Andrews last Friday morning, with Hiss officiating. His wife, Colleen Quint ’85, joined the gathering, along with two official witnesses, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ leadership gifts officers Cary Gemmer ’07 and Rebecca Lazure.

Tucker wore a suit with his father’s cufflinks and tie clip, which held sentimental value. Drozd held a bouquet of fresh flowers cut from Gemmer’s garden. The more casual — but special — event reflected the first time they exchanged vows: in a remote German chapel, witnessed by a handful of tourists and travelers.

Drozd did not attend ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, but she and Tucker share a love for the school, and Drozd teared up as she explained how much having the ceremony at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ meant to her. “I can’t even express in words — my tears are probably sufficient,â€� Drozd says. “Bill loves ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, I love ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ and I love Bill.â€�

Hiss and Tucker met during Hiss’ senior year and Tucker’s junior year. Tucker was 26 years old at that point, older than a typical ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ junior. After spending the better part of a decade in and out of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ including service in the U.S. Army with the Military Police Corps in Korea, he was finally ready to finish his degree.

“We didn’t meet until we both moved into apartments on the top floor of what’s now Turner House,� Hiss recalls. They were studying two very different things: Hiss was studying English, and Tucker was majoring in psychology. They both found the other’s studies to be interesting, and this set the stage for their lives to complement each other for the next 57 years.

“Fresh out of the military and filled with anxiety over returning to college after a five-year hiatus, I found in Bill not only a good friend,� Tucker says, “but a role model of academic engagement combined with social conscience.�

“He didn’t really ‘get’ what the intellectual life was all about,� Hiss says of Tucker. “And he sort of learned that, he said, from watching me write an honors thesis, in the English department, on a topic nobody would want to read about.�

The friends left ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ and became leaders in their fields. Hiss became a national expert on the gatekeeping effect of standardized tests like the SAT, while Tucker, a professor emeritus of psychology at Rutgers University, used his academic career to focus on how social science has been used to advance oppressive and racist social policies.

“To say that Bill Tucker has a lifelong commitment to racial and social justice is a big understatement,â€� says Hiss.

During the ceremony, Hiss, dressed for the occasion in his academic robe and hood, reflecting his Tufts Ph.D., and a minister’s stole, spoke about the love Tucker and Drozd share. He told them that “caring for each other and caring for other people is what you two do.â€� 

Like any group of old friends, they recognize that every moment spent together is more special as the years march on. Tucker and Drozd clasped each other’s hands while Hiss talked about the couple and their love.

He told the small gathering that Tucker and Drozd met at a dance competition, and “the two of these folks are spectacular dancers, among other things. Lucky Bill,� Hiss said, “and yes, lucky Monica, too. And I have to say, at this moment, lucky me, too.�

An English soldier does battle with a Viking invader as the Battle of Maldon re-enactment on May 26 at the Keigwin Amphitheater begins. (Josh Kuckens/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

That famed Anglo-Saxon comedy troupe could’ve been talking the Anglo-Saxon battle re-enactment staged during Short Term: “And now for something completely different.”

Staged on May 26 at the Keigwin Amphitheater, of the Battle of Maldon was a 10th-century clash in Essex, England, between Anglo-Saxons and invading Vikings.

The well-attended event culminated a Short Term course taught by Sylvia Federico, professor of English and medieval studies scholar.

Economics major Will Barstow ’17 of Amherst, Mass., gave the class high marks. Where else, he said, could you “work in the classroom for an hour each day and then go out and battle for another hour. It was great.”

Here are 11 moments from the re-enactment, including a few speeches, which the students adapted from the

1. Norse landing, first-person style

From the perspective of doomed Norse warrior Beghel (Bella Miller ’18 of New York City), the Vikings travel the ocean (Lake Andrews) and land at Essex, England (Keigwin Amphitheater) to fight the English.

2. Someone will pay

It’s August in the year A.D. 991, and the leader of the English warriors, Earl Byrhtnoth (Hannah Goldberg ’16 of Bronxville, N.Y.), states the Anglo-Saxon case: The Vikings have encroached too far onto English land and must pay with their lives.

(Who pays whom gets mixed up, to humorous effect.)

3. You cockeyed crabs!

The Vikings landed on a small island along the River Blackwater where, initially, three English soldiers blocked a few Vikings from crossing over a causeway to the mainland.

The English taunt the Vikings. “You cockeyed crabs!” yells an English soldier. “Do you fear we will cleave your codpiece?”

The Viking band is ordered to fall back.

4. The battle begins

After a parley, the English allow the Viking forces to cross so that a formal battle can occur. The Vikings show their trademark aggression; the English their defensive style.

5. Spear me the details

An English soldier kills a Viking foe with a knife, catches an incoming spear in mid-flight (a common medieval maneuver) and hands it off to a fellow fighter, who then kills a foe.

6. Gore alert!

An English soldier (Sally Ryerson ’16 of Vail, Colo.) suffers what might be a laceration of the femoral artery. If that’s not bad enough, the soldier gets run through by a Viking sword.

7. Mead goggles

An Anglo-Saxon soldier (Graham Leathers ’16 of Rochester, N.Y.) challenges his comrades: “Remember the noble speeches that we made in the mead hall as we drank the mead? Were you as brave as you said, or were drunk upon the mead? Glory and mead!”

8. Glory in battle

Invoking heaven as a reward for death in battle, an English soldier (Hugh Gorman ’19 of Hingham, Mass.) cries out: “Warriors, fear not death! For the kingdom of heaven is ours!”

9. Bringing a shield to a knife fight

As the fighting gets desperate, an English warrior throws his shield at his foe. Hand-to-hand combat ensues, and another Anglo-Saxon bites the Essex dust.

10. ‘Hewed and hacked’

Here’s another desperate speech by an English soldier (James Pardo ’18 of South Salem, N.Y.).

“Our companions have been hewed and hacked,” he yells, while others have retreated and still others have had their heads removed. Yet he is old, “so my death will bring you no doom!”

11. The victors’ cry: ‘None will resist!’

The Viking leader, Olaf Trigvason (Will Barstow ’17 of Amherst, Mass.), takes a trophy from a dead Anglo-Saxon, then decides to break the fourth wall and take out the narrator.

“No more to stand against us, now push forward to the village!” he cries. “Take what is ours by right, none will resist, none can stop us!â€�

Then end!

Sangai Asia, a student organization celebrating Asian culture, presents a celebration capped with a fireworks display on campus on Saturday, May 15.

Thai food and live music will be offered starting at 7:30 p.m. in the Florence Keigwin Amphitheater, adjacent to the Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St. The fireworks over Lake Andrews are scheduled to start around 9 p.m.. The event is open to the public at no cost, but the supply of refreshments is limited and will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis.

Hallowell-based Central Maine Pyrotechnics will provide the fireworks display.

For more information, please contact this jrice2@bates.edu.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ President Donald W. Harward; Ann Scott, Dana Professor of Music and acting dean of the faculty; and Carrie Delmore, a junior from Wolfeboro Falls, N.H., and president of the student-run Representative Assembly, also will speak.

In the event of rain, convocation will be held in Alumni Gymnasium. Returning students will see several campus improvements as a result of summer construction projects. The $18-million new Academic Building, slated for opening in fall 1999, has been entirely framed and structural masonry has been completed. The Lake Andrews restoration project, including water and shoreline improvements, as well as a new amphitheater near the Olin Arts Center, is nearly finished. The George and Helen Ladd Library, closed since May 26, 1998, for renovations, now features a new current periodicals and microforms area, new study-group rooms, new carpet and paint, expanded seating capacity and new stairway access to the library terrace.

Schneider’s early studies of religious and political dissent in the early modern period, with special emphasis on transatlantic Puritanism, have evolved into her current interests in cultural and democratic pluralism and the intersection of cultural idea s and values with social and political developments. She is co-author with Robert Schoenberg of “Contemporary Understandings of Liberal Education,” the first discussion paper in a new AACU series on “The Academy in Transition.”

Schneider graduated magna cum laude from Mount Holyoke College with a bachelor’s degree in history and membership in Phi Beta Kappa. She studied at the University of London’s Institute for Historical Research and earned a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University, were she had a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, a Kent Fellowship and a Harvard Prize Fellowship. In 1982, she was named a Mina Shaughnessy Fellow of the U.S. Department of Education.

While serving as executive vice president of AACU in 1997, Schneider directed “Engaging Cultural Legacies,” a collaboration of 65 colleges and universities to incorporate global and intercultural perspectives into curriculums, supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities. She also has directed the AACU’s American Commitments initiative, focusing on the core connections among liberal education, engagement with societal and intellectual diversity and a commitment to democratic principles.

Schneider has worked closely with President Clinton’s Race Relations Initiative, encouraging campuses to support the national conversation on race through local diversity projects. She has taught in interdisciplinary programs at Boston University, DePaul University and the University of Chicago. She also has contributed to curriculum transformation efforts in South Africa and recently served as a distinguished visiting scholar at the American University in Cairo.

The college expects approximately 1,660 undergraduates for the 1998 fall semester, including an estimated 451 new students. In spite of growing competition among colleges for a shrinking pool of students, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College, ranked among the top 20 national liberal arts colleges by a recent U.S. News and World Report, continues to attract an increasing number of candidates. Approximately 3,615 high school students applied for a place in the college’s class of 2002, which features students from 37 states and 1 7 countries. Scholastically, 32.5 percent of the class ranked within the top five percent of their high school graduating class, and 55 percent ranked in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating class.

July 18, Casco Bay Concert Band, light classics and marches
July 25, Pacto Andino, Andean music
Aug. 1, Scott Steinberg, jazz and pop piano and vocals
Aug. 8, Suzanne & The Guys With Ties, a cappella jazz and pop
Aug. 15, Scrod Pudding, traditional dance music from New England, French Canada and Appalachia