Outstanding job! As an enthusiastic alum (and a long, long-retired IBM manager of graphic design), I “happily pronounce� the new number intelligent, inviting and a joy to both read and behold. An encore may well present a challenge, but the timing for Clayton Spencer’s arrival is exquisite. Heartiest congratulations.

Jonas Klein ’54
Falmouth, Maine

We’re on the beach in Florida reading ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Magazine. It is fantastic.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Parent
By phone

I have mixed feelings about the new format for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Magazine. It doesn’t read easily from left to right, given all the marginal notes, boxes and extended captions. It reminds me of The One-Page Magazine feature in The New York Times magazine. The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ format is better, but not much. Overall, I think it’s trying too hard to be cute or different, but it’s always good to see if there’s a better way than “the way we’ve always done it.â€�

Lyn Whiston ’66
Glen Ellyn, Ill.

More redesign comments at bates.edu/magazine/redesign/reactions. — Editor

Lofty Perspective

The aerial campus photo (“From a Distance,â€� Spring 2012) vividly reminded me of what ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ has meant to me.

In 1994, I arrived with great intentions of becoming a physician. Two pivotal events that fall allowed that path to change — for the better.

First, President Donald Harward welcomed us by urging us to “pursue paths of ambiguity.â€� What I took from this speech was that ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ was ready for us to experience life in new ways we hadn’t even yet imagined.

Second was meeting Stuart Abelson ’97, president of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Aviators. Full of contagious energy and excitement, Stuart urged me and other flying enthusiasts not only to join the club, but also to try an introductory flight at the Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport.

I did, becoming enamored with flying that fall even as I discovered my shortcomings in chemistry. I considered leaving ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ to attend an aviation-specific college but stayed to pursue my own paths of ambiguity.

I majored in Spanish, spent a year abroad in Costa Rica (where I met my wife) and wrote a thesis in Spanish literature with the gracious guidance of Professor Baltasar Fra-Molinero.

After earning my private pilot’s license (and floatplane license at Twitchell’s Airport in Turner), I frequently took ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ies on aerial tours of campus and Maine, working at Security and Campus Safety and Twin Cities Air Service to support this new passion.

My post-ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ life found me pursuing my passion. After several years as a flight instructor and charter pilot in New England, life brought my wife and me to the paradisiac island of Vieques, Puerto Rico, where I flew a nine-passenger propeller plane on short flights between Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Now a Canadair Regional Jet captain for a Delta Connection carrier, Pinnacle Airlines, I still look back very fondly on those formative days as a pilot, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ student and citizen of the world.

Thanks for putting together a great magazine. Thanks to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ for encouraging students to be themselves and open their eyes to the world.

David Tzeutschler ’98
St. Paul, Minn.

In his letter, Rocky Query explains the misgivings about the GI Bill in 1944 that President Spencer alluded to in her inaugural address. While the union of excellence and opportunity embodied in GI Bill was old hat for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, the return of older servicemen and their families to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ did shake up the campus scene, as suggested by the cover photo of the May 1947 Bulletin, showing Joseph LaRochelle ’44 and his 1-year-old daughter, Mary Jo — now Mary Jo LaRochelle McBride-Beece ’68.

“Hobo Jungles� Explained

I read President Clayton Spencer’s inaugural address, “Questions Worth Asking,� with great interest and appreciation.

In her address, President Spencer comments on the importance of the GI Bill in expanding educational opportunities for a diverse pool of human talent. She contrasts that legacy with fears expressed by Robert Hutchins, president of the University of Chicago at the time of the GI Bill’s passage, who said that “colleges and universities will find themselves converted into educational hobo jungles� as a result of the act.

Some might take from this quotation that Hutchins did not share President Spencer’s belief in the importance of openness and opportunity in higher education.

On the contrary. In his 1944 essay in °ä´Ç±ô±ô¾±±ð°ù’s, from which the “hobo jungleâ€� language is taken, Hutchins notes that U.S. higher education has been the “preserve of the relatively rich,â€� and notes hopefully that the GI Bill seeks to incorporate “into our national policy the principle that there must be no relation between the education of a citizen and the income of parents.â€�

What, then, were the concerns Hutchins had with the GI Bill?

He explained that because “educational institutions, as the big-time football racket shows, cannot resist money,� they would be distracted from a commitment to their mission by the revenues to be gained from the GI Bill.

Colleges, he said, “will not want to keep out unqualified veterans; they will not want to expel those who fail.�

Further, Hutchins worried that the principle of educational opportunity embodied in the GI Bill would be discredited when educators faced students more concerned with vocational assistance than a liberal arts education. And he worried that such students might feel defrauded by receiving an education ill-suited to helping them find employment.

Today, some universities have indeed taken on aspects of Hutchins’ feared hobo jungle, as students seek educational credentials not out of intellectual curiosity or commitment to academia but because they need jobs. Today’s applicants to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ seek the benefits of the college’s commitment to an excellent liberal arts education, but they are also concerned with the price and affordability of the education they are paying for.

Hutchins’ concerns still seem valid, even as institutions like ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ have avoided the demoralization he feared. I suspect he would, in fact, be heartened by the optimism reflected in President Spencer’s approach to today’s important educational questions and by the enthusiastic response she has elicited so far from the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ community.
James “Rocky� Query
Philadelphia

President Spencer’s inaugural address is at bates.edu/inauguration. Read about Nate Boone ’52 and the GI Bill on page 52. — Editor

Blue Bobcats

Our statement that no Blue Devil from Lewiston High School “in recent memoryâ€� had played baseball for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ before Mekae Hyde ’15 and Alex Parker ’15 joined the team last year prompted a couple letters.

“Recent memory� probably is right, but my not-so-recent memory contains the following:

Larry Quimby ’52 was the son of Professor Brooks Quimby and Inez Robinson Quimby, both Class of 1918. He graduated from Lewiston High, and I played with him — he was an excellent pitcher. His senior thesis was on the history of baseball.

Dave Harkins ’53 was an excellent catcher on our team, and a Lewiston High graduate.

Fred Lebel ’53 was a good player who was at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ for a year or so, at a time when freshmen couldn’t play varsity sports.

Jim Moody ’53
Cape Elizabeth, Maine

The late Norm Parent ’50 was a legendary Lewiston High School football coach and Lewiston High grad who played on the 1946 Glass Bowl football team in addition to baseball.

Marc Levasseur ’84 was a LHS grad who played baseball when the baseball field was where the Village is now. And Matt Madden ’87 played baseball; his son Chris ’16 is now at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½.

Jim Taylor
Lewiston, Maine

Taylor is head athletics equipment manager. — Editor

Please Write

We love letters. Letters may be edited for length (300 words or fewer preferred), style, grammar, clarity and relevance to college issues and issues discussed in ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Magazine.

Email your letter to: magazine@bates.edu

Or post it to:
ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Magazine
ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Communications Office
141 Nichols St.
Lewiston ME 04240

Thank you, Elaine Tuttle Hansen, for a most informative final interview (“Alive to Change, Fall 2011) and for giving ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ your best as our seventh president. The college has come into the next century able to cope, adapt and adjust while staying firm for what matters most: love of learning, embrace of diversity and the ability to cope, and as an institution, adding majors when relevant.

The Fall issue was my favorite. Of course, it has Peter Gomes ’65 and Jim Carignan ’61 in it, but maybe it also has to do with my 50th Reunion this year. I sent the article “Career Intentions� to my grandson, a senior at Roger Williams University; he came with me to our 40th Reunion a decade ago. Maybe I’ll bring my 7-year-old granddaughter this year!

Sharon Fowler Kenrick ’62

South Sutton, N.H.

Living Proof

We’ve all heard tales of seeing one’s own obituary in the newspaper. Well, you’ve done it for me — almost.

Author and world traveler Dorothy Stetson Conlon ’50 has her face painted by a shaman in the Amazon jungle of Ecuador in 2009.

After traveling in the South Pacific for five-plus weeks (Cook Islands, Tahiti, Marquesas), I’m finally reading the accumulated mail, including the Fall 2011 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Magazine. At my age, 84, I usually check out the obits first. Sure enough, there’s an obituary for my brother-in-law Weston Attwood Cate ’43. The last sentence reads, “His sister-in-law was the late Dorothy Stetson Conlon ’50.â€�

Wow!

Perhaps someone would be good enough to send me the details of my death so I could run an obit in the local paper, tell my lawyer and notify my beneficiaries — including ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College. Then I could continue my life of travel and adventure and writing under a pseudonym.

I would like to applaud ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ on its route to multi-cultural engagement, as described in the Fall issue. As someone who has lived and traveled much of her life internationally, I can attest to the importance of exposing young people to a culture beyond their own. Keep it up, and expand the connection.

Dorothy Stetson Conlon ’50
Sarasota, Fla.

A lifelong traveler and the author of At Home in the World: Memoirs of a Traveling Woman, Dorothy has a new memoir, Born with Wings: Experiencing Life in Exotic Lands, available through Amazon. Her website is dorothyconlon.com. — Editor

Finished Well

Just finished reading thoroughly the Fall issue of the magazine. Very good job. Much improved and worth reading.

Rob Wilson ’51
Santa Fe, N.M.

We hope the redesign keeps the improvement going. — Editor

Nighty Night!

As mayor of Lewiston, I want to commend ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students Mikey Pasek ‘12 and Megan Murphy ‘13 for organizing “College Night in Townâ€� on May 9. Due to their positive interaction with the Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce, Lyceum Gallery and municipal departments, the event was an overwhelming success.

The Lewiston and Auburn downtowns were filled with hundreds of college students throughout the evening — visiting restaurants, enjoying more than 30 musical performances and networking. Indeed, students from ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, Kaplan University, University of Southern Maine Lewiston-Auburn College and Central Maine Community College seemed to have a very enjoyable time experiencing what Lewiston and Auburn have to offer.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ies and fellow Lewiston-Auburn college students gather at the Courthouse Plaza on Lisbon Street for an a cappella performance that concluded “College Night in Townâ€� in May. Photograph by event co-organizer Mikey Pasek ‘12.

It was a great event to strengthen the community-college connection, and it is my understanding that future events will occur. I certainly hope so, as “College Night in Town� stirred up great energy and enthusiasm about downtown hot spots in the Twin Cities.

In closing, I extend best wishes to all ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students and their families. I am very proud of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½â€™ presence here in the community, and it’s nice to know that students like Mikey and Megan are excited about interacting with the community at large.

Robert E. Macdonald
Lewiston

Word Up

Can you stick with real words in the magazine? “Embiggen� (“Meet Hedge and Roger Williams,� Fall 2011) is a made-up word that adds nothing to the language since the concept it represents already has numerous options. Don’t add to the linguistics confusion.

Dan Isaac ’77
Yarmouth, Maine

Danes Deserve No Disdain

I must take issue with Charles W. Radcliffe ’50’s letter in the Fall issue of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Magazine. Mr. Radcliffe’s characterization of the Danes during World War II is simplistic and unhistorical. While it is mostly correct to say that when the Nazis first occupied Denmark, in 1940, there was “only a murmur of resistance from the Danish population,â€� there was a sensible reason for this behavior. Geographically and militarily it would have been foolish to resist openly the German troops. Only needless bloodshed and death would have resulted. Believe it or not, there are times when “the better part of valor is discretion.â€�

However, almost from the start a resistance movement grew. Publication of illegal underground newspapers became among the most extensive in occupied Europe. Sabotage raids against industrial sites began in 1942; in the first three months alone of 1943 the Danish Resistance
carried out 120 raids.

But clearly the bravest, most heroic and humane Danish resistance to the Nazi rule was the rescue
of the Danish Jews in October 1943 after the Germans decided to arrest all the Jews the country. At first the Danes, at risk of their own arrests, provided safe houses for their Jewish neighbors. Later in October the Danes smuggled most of their Jewish countrymen and -women to neutral Sweden. Out of approximately 8,000 Danish Jews, 7,220 got to Sweden. This operation was the largest mass rescue action of the war.

While Mr. Radcliffe champions “America’s competitive spirit,� as especially manifested on Garcelon Field, he should also realize that competitiveness has many faces. During World War II, the Danes chose subtlety, subterfuge and, most important of all, humanity as their competitive face.

Long after the war, Adolf Eichmann lamented about Denmark, “That small country caused us more difficulties than anything else.� The Danes must have been doing something right.

Frederik L. Rusch ’62
New York, N.Y.

Farm Semester

I thoroughly enjoyed the Winter 2011 issue and the story “Good Eggs.â€� My love affair with chickens began on a bulletin board at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ in the spring of 1945. Because of the war and the draft, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students could graduate in two and a half years by attending summer sessions. I had been at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ for two summers, but that was enough. I wanted some other experience.

A small note on the bulletin board asked for volunteers for the Women’s Land Army. This meant working on a farm in Maine to help with the labor shortage. I landed on a family farm in Fairfield. For three months I took care of 1,500 chickens, helped in the fields, fed the bull, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

If I hadn’t been at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ it wouldn’t have happened. Were I at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ now, I would certainly be involved in social-justice issues. The students who are involved will be influenced for life, as I was by working on a farm.
Rohna Isaacson Shoul ’46
Newton, Mass.

Carignan’s Way

I wish to share a few lessons that I learned from a lifetime mentor and friend, Dean Emeritus of the College Jim Carignan ’61, who died Aug. 14, 2011.

I got to know Jim professionally in 1999, when he asked me to join a civic leadership institute in Lewiston-Auburn. During our work together, he talked about his own growth as a leader. In the trajectory of his story, which became a case study during my doctoral studies, I saw parallels to what leadership theorists have learned about good leadership: At its core, it is about people and relationships.

In his 33 years at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, Jim moved from a top-down, command-and-control leadership style to a collaborative and relational approach. As Colin Powell has said, “Leadership is not about organizations…. It is all about people — motivating people to get the job done.â€�

Jim learned that leadership sometimes means serving as an intermediary and a facilitator of process — a servant leader.

For example, I’m sure some alums recall when seniors, years ago, turned Wood Street into an out-of-control block party during Senior Week. The rowdiness attracted a great number of Lewiston police, and they were on the verge of arresting students when Jim showed up.

He asked the police for 10 minutes so he could work with the students to get them to take control of the situation. In the end, he got the street cleared and the stereos turned down, and the police were able to drive away without making arrests.

This is what Jim said about that event: “If you’re in a crisis situation, you’ve got to change from confrontation to something short of that, where two or three parties are able to fulfill their expectations while respecting the other groups.�

Jim had a reputation for taking risks and for solving problems face to face and in the moment. He once called an open forum in the Chapel on sexual harassment issues that turned explosive but, finally, productive. Afterward, the president told Jim that “one of these times you are going to roll those dice and it is not going to work — but I am glad it worked this time.�

Jim brought an incredible spirit, optimism, and integrity to his leadership. One of his toughest times was going through not one, but two heart transplants. He was on a heart-lung machine for two days before a second heart could be found. In fact, the doctors were reluctant to do a second transplant. But Jim basically said, “Look, we didn’t come this far to turn down a heart. You take me in there and do it. I’ll make it.�

Jim’s third heart was a woman’s heart — he joked that it was the reason he was able to see the relational side of leadership.

In his good humor, his strong and sincere relationships, and his ability to read people, Jim was the best of leaders. He was, and is, a remarkable model.
Joc Clark ’86
Paradise, Calif.

caption: In 2003, Jim Carignan ’61 stands next to an oak planted near the Chapel to honor his retirement as dean of the college.

Is Winning a Losing Proposition?

That was a beautiful photo in the Winter issue of refurbished Garcelon Field, iconic venue for fierce athletic competition. Ironically, a few pages beyond, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ sociology professor Francesco Duina maintains that we Americans are too competitive and “obsessedâ€� with winning. It makes us unhappy and disliked abroad. He says the Danish noncompetitive system is “more civilizedâ€� even though it “does deprive a lot of people of freedom.â€� He knows they are not the happiest people — “but they are content.â€�

Americans of my generation will recall that most Danes were “content� to be deprived of their freedom under Nazi occupation, which they endured with only a murmur of resistance. If Americans were like “contented� Danes, America today would be a British dominion fenced in east of the Mississippi by foreign powers who had divided up everything west of it. But, hey, Professor Duina is a sociologist, not a historian.

Neither is he a political scientist, but he thinks that Al Gore is viewed as a loser because he should have won the 2000 election because “his opponent was perceived as weaker.� Perceived by whom? Among those who have experienced American politics and politicians close up, I am not alone in perceiving Al Gore as a phony political windbag.

Professor Duina says that he was inspired to write his book in part because of “George Bush’s insistence on ‘winning the peace in Iraq,’â€� which he calls “an absurd concept.â€� Would he apply that label to Barack Obama’s insistence on spending trillions of borrowed dollars on “winning the futureâ€�? Probably not. ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ would consider that racist, and he would be shunned in the faculty lounge (assuming that after all the recent building ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ actually has a faculty lounge!).

Professor Duina seems an amiable young man who is probably not obsessed with winning. But he knows how to win in the competitive world of leftist, feminized academia: write a book denigrating America’s competitive spirit and throw in a few barbs at our 43rd president.
Charles W. Radcliffe ’50
Annapolis, Md.

Francesco Duina responds: Mr. Radcliffe, in his comments about my book, Winning, doubts whether I would be critical of President Obama’s recent fixation on “winning the future.� As it turns out, I have discussed our president’s language during town library meetings and in a number of interviews, including with David Phillippi for the blog New Books in Sociology and with Connecticut Public Radio’s Where We Live program. I’ve talked about President Obama’s language about the future, including wanting to be “No. 1� in the world, as “circuitous� and “terribly confusing and loose phrasing,� which is representative of our collective American tendency to view much of life in competitive terms, with serious consequences for how we live our lives, how we educate our children, and how we relate to others.

‘Friendliness Without Pretense’

Kudos for running the very interesting story “Family Affairâ€� (Winter 2011), about my classmates Erik Mercer, Rachel Segall, and Tony Hurley. The article, as well as Rachel and Tony’s uncommon generosity, was a vivid reminder of all of the characteristics that caused me to apply to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ 25 years ago and are ones that have kept me connected to it: its open and tolerant outlook, the firm commitment to diversity and egalitarian principles, and an enduring friendliness without pretense.

Rachel and Tony’s gift to Erik and Sandro is a very contemporary twist on those ideals. The fact that ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Magazine ran the story made me proud to be a Bobcat!
Steve Moore ’91
Boston

Passing Thoughts

The article “The Gay Resume� (Winter 2011), which reported on a Homecoming 2010 panel discussion about the intersection of careers and sexual orientation, failed to address the larger implications of identity masking during the job search.
The very notion of passing as straight presupposes an understanding of several nuanced conversations. The first is what potential employers might deem “queer,� whether through attire and body language or through a resume that includes certain club affiliations.

The second is procedural: How might one best succumb to hetero-normative stereotypes? And how would doing so merit a capacity for ethical decision making?

The third would be qualitative: How do we measure the emotional, physical, and even monetary sacrifices that one undoubtedly undertakes in order to pass? 
To this regard, what does the article’s implicit approval of sometimes hiding one’s sexual identity say about other marginalized groups facing issues of discrimination? For example, a black woman cannot with the same ease hide her perceived race or gender, though research abound tells us that both categories will also place her at a disadvantage in achieving the career goals espoused by panelist LK Gagnon, “to be paid and be comfortable.�

While this article does remind us that workplace politics are as complicated as ever, it surrenders to the ill-fated norms of present-day inequalities rather than offering a spirited advance toward the aspiration of our mission statement, where we “engage the transformative power of our differences� and cultivate the very noble notions of “informed civic action� and “responsible stewardship of the wider world.�

Here, at this “college for coming times,� I would’ve hoped for this to be normal practice.
Walter Garcia Fairfax ’12
Stonington, Maine

Please Write!

We love letters. Letters may be edited for length (300 words or fewer preferred), style, grammar, clarity, and relevance to College issues and issues discussed in ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Magazine. Email your letter to magazine@bates.edu or post it to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Magazine, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Communications Office, 141 Nichols St., Lewiston ME 04240.