{"id":50326,"date":"2011-10-31T18:26:30","date_gmt":"2011-10-31T18:26:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=50326"},"modified":"2021-02-09T17:11:26","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T22:11:26","slug":"ottw-dedication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2011\/10\/31\/ottw-dedication\/","title":{"rendered":"Open to the World: Paul Marks &#8217;83 headlines Hedge, Roger Williams dedication"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_50338\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2011\/10\/111027_dedication_rm_3755.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-50338\" class=\"wp-image-50338\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2011\/10\/111027_dedication_rm_3755.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"590\" height=\"393\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2011\/10\/111027_dedication_rm_3755.jpg 590w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2011\/10\/111027_dedication_rm_3755-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 590px) 100vw, 590px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-50338\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Professor of Philosophy Mark Okrent gets a close look as board chairman Mike Bonney &#8217;80 (left) and President Nancy Cable do the ribbon cutting. Photograph by Rene Minnis.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The journey of Paul Marks &#8217;83 from ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ to China, and from being &#8220;a fairly unengaged student&#8221; to an international business leader, made an ideal narrative for the ceremonial reopening of Roger Williams and Hedge halls, facilities newly repurposed for the academic exploration of border crossings &#8212; borders national, cultural, philosophical, spiritual, disciplinary.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=50459\">Video: Paul Marks &#8217;83 and fellow speakers at the dedication<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now based in Shanghai and CEO of the global aerospace technology firm Argosy Inc., Marks was one of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½&#8217; first students to graduate with a China-focused history major. His address at the dedication ceremony recounted how a Short Term trip to China in 1981, 30 years ago this year, was the challenge that set him on his life&#8217;s path.<\/p>\n<p>Remarks by ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ board chair Michael Bonney &#8217;80, college President Nancy Cable and Student Government President Cosmin Ghita &#8217;12 were also on the program for the dedication late Thursday afternoon. Two symbolic acts completed the ceremony, as the faculty and staff who are the buildings&#8217; stakeholders received honorary keys to Hedge and the Bill, and a ribbon-cutting made their reopening official.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_50343\" style=\"width: 209px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2011\/10\/111027_dedication_rm_3685.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-50343\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-50343\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2011\/10\/111027_dedication_rm_3685-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2011\/10\/111027_dedication_rm_3685-199x300.jpg 199w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2011\/10\/111027_dedication_rm_3685.jpg 393w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-50343\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Paul Marks &#8217;83 speaks to the dedication audience about his defining experience in China in 1981. Photograph by Rene Minnis.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>As Marks recalled, his parents were not thrilled about the notion of his going to China. It took the persuasive powers of Professor of Sociology George Fetter, who had arranged ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½&#8217; first-ever Short Term expedition to China two years previous, to bring them around.<\/p>\n<p>Fetter had promised Marks that the trip would &#8220;change his life.&#8221; That prediction came true. During five weeks in China, Marks told his listeners, &#8220;I became hooked on China. I wanted to understand this chaotic, totally different world.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Part of the attraction was a spur to his competitive spirit from the group&#8217;s Chinese guide, who insisted that the foreigners couldn&#8217;t learn the language. Marks rose to the challenge, betting the guide five bucks that he could indeed learn Mandarin. With his first instructor at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ an adjunct faculty member who was the wife of a local Taiwanese dentist, Marks became ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½&#8217; first student of the Chinese language, and continued his studies as a postgraduate.<\/p>\n<p>In his welcome, Bonney, CEO of the pharmaceuticals firm Cubist, stated the theme for this celebration of two new academic buildings. &#8220;Faculty at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ are helping students [prepare] to live, to work, to think, to lead and ultimately to solve problems in the global society. These two buildings are spaces that foster that kind of learning.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The decision to renovate these buildings was not an easy decision, Bonney said, owing to their age and condition after years of hard use as residence halls. &#8220;And yet we stand here today with two remarkable buildings that do honor to our history, but also position us beautifully for the future.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Bonney was the right person to situate the buildings&#8217; symbolic role in the context of time, as his family has been associated with ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ for nearly a century, roughly the same amount of time that the Bill and Hedge have been here. (And he and Marks, who were both students during Roger Bill&#8217;s heyday as a meeting place for, let&#8217;s say, joie de vivre, took the opportunity to point out that a benefit of the renovation was the elimination of the spilled-beer smell.)<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_50344\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2011\/10\/111027_dedication_rm_3722.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-50344\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-50344\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2011\/10\/111027_dedication_rm_3722-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2011\/10\/111027_dedication_rm_3722-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2011\/10\/111027_dedication_rm_3722.jpg 590w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-50344\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Board chair Mike Bonney presents a symbolic key to Roger Williams Hall to Spanish professor Claudia Aburto Guzm\u00e1n. Photograph by Rene Minnis.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;These two academic buildings, and the campus at large, are powered by ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ faculty,&#8221; Cable told the 175 or so listeners gathered in a tent on Alumni Walk, near the Bill and Hedge. &#8220;It is the faculty&#8217;s attention to the individual that makes the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ experience so vitally special and distinctive academically.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Paul&#8217;s stories inform our sense of what lasts over time, from the simple connection of a faculty member to a student, the heart of what we do.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The ceremony began with international students Mustafa Basij-Rasikh &#8217;12 of Kabul, Afghanistan, and Romina Istratii &#8217;12 of Athens, Greece, welcoming the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ community in their native languages (Istratii, anticipating Marks&#8217; subject, also offered a greeting in Chinese, which she is studying at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½).<\/p>\n<p>Ghita, of Bucharest, Romania, touched on the chilly dampness of the day in his remarks, bringing the thought neatly around to the ceremony&#8217;s theme of global citizenship. &#8220;Cultures around the world perceive rain as an omen of good fortune,&#8221; he pointed out. &#8220;I never would have known that had I not immersed myself in the study of another language.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Open to the World: Hedge, Bill dedicated\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/31268424?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The journey of Paul Marks &#8217;83 from ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ to China, and from&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":50338,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"bates_author_byline_override":"","_estimated-read-time":"","_post-template":"","_header-color":"#000000","_photo-credit":"","_header-effect":"parallax","override_related_with_tag":"","_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[7,11009],"tags":[8840,1523,121,11013,11057,4123,5903,6201,6650,6827,7591],"class_list":["post-50326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-the-college","tag-bates-board-of-trustees","tag-bates-unbounded","tag-chinese","tag-facilities","tag-hedge-and-roger-williams-renovations","tag-hedge-hall","tag-michael-bonney","tag-nancy-j-cable","tag-open-to-the-world","tag-paul-marks","tag-roger-williams-hall"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50326"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118905,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50326\/revisions\/118905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}