We write to express our serious concern about today’s Supreme Court decision in 303 Creative, LLC v. Elenis and to offer support to our LGBTQ+ community in light of this ruling. The Court invokes the First Amendment to shield businesses from liability when they discriminate based on sexual orientation. The case involved a private business that intends to design wedding websites and objects to serving same-sex couples, claiming that its right to object should be protected by the First Amendment. In finding merit in the private business’s claim, the Court departs from its own long-standing position that “unique evils” follow from discrimination in public commerce.

It is not lost on us that this decision comes during the month of Pride, a celebration of LGBTQ+ activism and culture. While we are heartened by the growth in and popularity of Pride events in recent years, the struggle for equal rights continues. Since 2022, over 500 anti-LGBTQ+ pieces of legislation have been introduced in various states, and more than 80 have passed, as part of a deliberate and multi-pronged strategy to eliminate or reduce the public policy progress that has been made in the past 20 years to advance the inclusion of LGBTQ+ people across the nation.   

We are committed to ensuring that LGBTQ+ community members find a sense of safety, dignity, and belonging on campus. Given the increasingly challenging external environment, we will look for ways to strengthen our support of the LGBTQ+ community at ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝, and we welcome your feedback and participation in this endeavor. We will also offer opportunities for our community to better understand the Court’s decision and its implications. In the meantime, if you would like to learn more about the topic, please see these resources.

Education is one of the most powerful means available for individuals to pursue their interests and life goals, but this is true only if all persons are supported to do so in authentic ways. We work hard at ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ to foster a culture that engages the transformative power of our differences in our classrooms, in our curriculum, and in our campus community. And now we must all work even harder.

Sincerely,

We are deeply disappointed by today’s decision by the Supreme Court, a ruling that turns back the clock on 45 years of established constitutional principle and significantly restricts the admissions practices used at many colleges and universities, including ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝. 

The Court fails to acknowledge the role of race in American history and contemporary social structures. It also undervalues the crucial role that higher education plays in building a healthy and informed democracy and providing individuals of all backgrounds with the opportunity to fulfill their human potential. ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ will comply with the law. Yet, the Court’s ruling does not change who we are and what we value. 

ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ was founded in 1855 as a college with a core commitment to educational opportunity, far ahead of the norms of its time. We were the first coeducational college in New England, and we educated Black and white students together. ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ understood from the beginning that if it limited the opportunity for a college education to white men only, as was the custom of the day, it would be complicit in further entrenching our nation’s historic systems of oppression. We also learned, over time, that opening one’s doors is not sufficient to ensure equity in education. Despite admitting students of color, it still took almost 20 years for ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ to graduate its first Black student. Put simply, progress requires firm commitment and sustained effort. 

When we highlight in our mission statement the “emancipating potential of the liberal arts,” we speak not only of what we teach and how we teach, but also of whom we teach and from whom we learn. We understand that a diverse faculty and curriculum are essential to shaping thoughtful citizens and leaders of a globally interconnected world. We also recognize that students learn beyond the classroom. They learn from one another by sharing ideas and navigating differences to build community. A learning environment populated by students who are diverse across many dimensions—including racially diverse—is essential to an education that develops students ready to embrace the opportunities and tackle the challenges of the complex and fast-changing world they will inherit. These are our values and they will remain our touchstone as we move forward under changed circumstances.  

We will not allow the Court’s decision to diminish our commitment to our current students or the students we will continue to seek out. We will take this opportunity to do what we do best: think creatively and experiment with new strategies consistent with the law that will allow us to continue to craft a class with diverse identities, life experiences, interests, and perspectives. Now, as before, we will meet students where they are—at their high schools, in their college-access programs, and in their local communities. We will also make clear how hard we work to create a welcoming and inclusive environment on campus so that all students are supported to do their best work and thrive in the classroom and beyond. 

We know that many of you will have questions and concerns about what the Court’s decision means for ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ and how we will move forward. The college has been working with legal counsel in preparation for this decision, and we will continue to do so. We are committed to keeping you informed as our thinking evolves. 

To this end, over the next several months, we will offer opportunities for our community to better understand the decision and how it will affect ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝â€™ practices. In the meantime, if you would like to learn more about the topic, please see these resources.

We appreciate your support and commitment as we continue to work together on this fundamental aspect of our mission.

Sincerely,

George Colby Chase was the second president of ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝, serving for 25 years, from 1894 to 1919. He graduated from the college in 1869 and before becoming president, he was a professor of English here for 22 years.

According to college lore, Chase was known as “the great builder.” He oversaw the construction of 11 new buildings, including Coram Library, the Chapel, Carnegie Science Hall, and Chase Hall, posthumously named for him in 1919. I should add that President Chase tripled the number of students and faculty, and he managed tomanaged to quadruple the college’s endowment from $259,000 to $1,135,000.

This is an impressive legacy by any standard. But I love George Colby Chase not because of the buildings he built or the “things” he accomplished, but rather because of his vision of what a ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ education should be about. In his inaugural address, Chase wrote that the aim of the college should be to produce graduates whose “education shall have prepared them to live in every chamber of their being, to be at home in the world as the world presents itself today, and to master…the opportunities that the many-sided life of our age may offer.”

This vision of the liberal arts as a deeply humanistic, yet powerfully adaptive and pragmatic, model of education is one of the things that inspired me when I dug in to learn about ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ as I prepared to come here as president in 2012.

The commitment to educate the whole person, head and heart, and in “every chamber of their being,” and to prepare our students to engage the world as it “presents itself today” spoke to me. This is noble and earnest work, and we all have benefited from the distinctive way we do this work at ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝.

Working with students to figure out who they are, what they want to focus on, and how they wish to make a difference in the world, is certainly rewarding work, but it is also hard work. Especially when the “many-sided life of our age” gets up a head of steam and delivers a global pandemic that upends the world as we know it for the better part of three years. Or stokes a politics of fear and division that is magnified so destructively on college campuses.

Precisely the generation we are meant to be educating is left to wonder what those of us who are supposedly in charge are doing to our planet, why we seem ready to tolerate the injustice and violence tearing at the fabric of our society, and how we have been so careless with resources and structures of opportunity that many of our students aren’t sure that they can figure out a path to afford the basic elements of a good and stable life.

But here’s the good news. Our students are still curious. They are idealistic. They care about the world, they are developing their agency, and they want to gain the knowledge and tools to solve the world’s hardest problems. They are generous and kind and open. And they are very funny.

I still remember a trustee event where the ManOps — the all-male a cappella group, who were particularly good that year — were asked to provide the entertainment at a pre-dinner reception. When they got to their third song, they made an elaborate gesture of dedicating it to me and then proceeded to sing “It’s Raining Men,” with, I must say, very witty choreography. I was touched, of course, that the students were concerned about the tragic social life of the single lady president living one block behind “party central” on Frye Street.

It is pretty cool to have the opportunity to end this phase of my life as I began it — living on a liberal arts campus among a bunch of 18- to 22-year-olds at such an intense and dynamic time in their own development. The first time, I was a child living in the Davidson president’s house in the ’60s, with my brother’s rock band, complete with scraggly hair and ratty jeans, practicing in the garage behind the dorms. I was taking it all in.

The second time I was a student myself, at Williams, loving the intensity of the academic experience and taking the most arcane and theoretical courses I could find. Much more important, as it turns out, I was also making wonderful friends who Zoom together once a month to this day, 40-plus years later.

This time I have been at ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝, rattling around a bit in the giant president’s house, once again situated among brilliant, intense, and funny students — and the beer pong table permanently set up in the yard of the student house steps from my back door.

My role has been different this time, and it has been rewarding even when it has been hard. But I love intensity, and some of the gnarlier problems that the “many-sided life of our age” have batted up in these past few years have called forth a level of solidarity and trust among colleagues across campus that has made this period for me, and for many others I think, a deeply rewarding experience at the level of shared purpose and human connection.

When I was growing up, I thought that the world was cleanly divided into “kids” and “grownups.” I have a feeling that many of us might have seen the world this way. Anyway, you were a kid when you still lived in your house with your parents, the archetypal grownups; then you went to college and stuff happened during your four years there; and then you emerged, voila, fully adult and ready for the rest of your life. You can imagine my surprise when I was working at Harvard, years ago now, and I met a professor who couldn’t wait to tell me about her course on adult development. “Adult development,” I said, is that actually a field?

I am fond of quoting e.e. cummings’ line that “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” What I hadn’t realized, of course, before my bifurcated world of human development came crashing down, is that “growing up to become who you really are” is a lifelong project. And where better to carry out this project than a setting where preparing human beings for this journey is exactly the work at hand.

I have heard college presidencies described as soul-sucking experiences, and I am sure some of them are. But my time at ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ has been a gift beyond price.

I recently heard an interview on NPR with Jason Segel, one of the creators and stars of the show Shrinking, which has now finished its first season. It’s about three psychiatrists in practice together whose dilemmas in their personal lives far outweigh the issues unfolding on the couches in their offices. When Segel was asked in the interview why he thought the show had gained such a following, he said something along the following lines: “We’re not afraid of earnestness and we laugh our way through the really hard parts.”

This strikes me as a great description of ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝, and it makes me proud and grateful to be associated with this fabulous college that you guys are lucky enough to claim as your own. If I’ve learned one thing over the past eleven years, it is this: “It’s always a great day to be a Bobcat.”

I write to provide an update on the union election conducted by the Regional Office of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Boston in January 2022. There were 440 valid ballots cast from the designated bargaining unit, and all verified ballots have been counted. A majority of those voting have voted against union representation at ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝, with 254 against and 186 in favor.

I recognize that this process has been long and challenging, and individuals will likely have strong — and differing — reactions to this news. ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ aims to provide all employees with competitive wages, strong benefits, and the opportunity to participate in a vibrant campus community. These fundamental values will continue to shape our work together to serve our students and provide a transformative undergraduate education.

Additionally, during the union organizing campaign, colleagues raised many important issues that merit our attention and action to enhance the employee experience at ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝. Work on these issues has already begun, and I look forward to continuing our progress as a community.

Thank you for your patience and commitment to our students, fellow colleagues, and the mission of the college. The work ahead is to make ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ a community where everyone is seen, heard, respected, and valued.

Sincerely,

Clayton

I write with an important update about the college’s continued response to the COVID-19 situation. Beginning immediately, ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ will transition to a remote working model for any employees whose physical presence on campus is not required to carry out their duties. This arrangement will continue through Friday, April 10, or longer, as necessary, unless external events or public health guidance require us to make changes.

For those employees transitioning to remote work, please discuss with your supervisor specific work plans and determine what materials and equipment you may need to carry out your work. The transition will begin tomorrow, March 18, and be completed by the end of the week. Information and Library Services (ILS) has prepared a list of helpful resources to support remote employees.

We are moving to remote work, to the extent possible, because public health guidance tells us that decreasing the number of people on campus, combined with other social distancing practices, is crucial to slowing the spread of COVID-19. This guidance led to our decisions to send our students home, close certain campus facilities, and limit outside visitors and large gatherings. Moving to a remote working model will reduce the number of individuals on campus on a daily basis, mitigating health and safety risks for those who continue to work on campus.

Employees Required to Work On Campus

Some employees will need to continue to work on campus to support the students who remain in residence, assist with the delivery of the academic program for all students, or allow us to maintain facilities and perform critical business and other functions that cannot be accomplished remotely. Managers have determined which staff members will be required to work on campus. If you are among this group of staff, you will hear directly from your department head or the senior staff member in your area.

Potential Changes to Scheduling and Duties

Operating the college under these changed conditions will undoubtedly affect daily workflows for all of us, and there will continue to be new work generated by the COVID-19 situation. We ask that all staff, whether working on campus or remotely, be flexible in accepting new assignments or adjustments to schedules to accommodate this new reality. Should your department have staff with extra capacity on one hand, or on the other hand, require additional staffing support, please contact the senior staff member in your area.

Facilities Access

Administrative and academic buildings will be card-access only during this period. Employees working remotely may access their individual work space on campus to retrieve needed materials or to perform specific duties. However, they should limit their time to a minimum. Following public health guidance, buildings that are used for large gathering spaces will be closed and only accessible to those employees who work within those spaces. This applies to Commons, Ladd Library, Olin Arts Center, and all athletics facilities. Other facilities, such as Post & Print, will continue to provide service, and we will provide updated schedules as needed.

Guidance for Sick Leave or Dependent Care Responsibilities

We recognize that this public health situation creates a number of significant challenges for staff and their families. Many day care centers and schools in Maine have announced closures for a period of time, which presents dependent care responsibilities for a number of our employees. Additionally, both our employees and members of their immediate families may become ill and unable to work. Employees with accrued sick time balances should use their sick time to cover hours not worked. Any employee who does not have accrued sick time or who exhausts their balance during this period will receive their full pay and benefits and will not be required to use vacation days or take unpaid leave. Employees in this situation should continue to record their leave and consult with Jay Phillips if they are in Facilities Services Operations, Christine Schwartz if they are in DCCE, or their senior staff member.

Taking Care of Yourself

As COVID-19 continues to evolve, we urge all members of the ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ community to be mindful of their health and any. If you are required to continue your work on campus for the remainder of the semester and feel ill, please do not report to work and contact your healthcare provider for guidance.

Regardless of your work environment, please keep in mind the following as you interact with others:

·  Avoid physical contact (handshakes, hugs, kisses hello, etc.)

·  Maintain physical distance between yourself and others

·  Wash your hands frequently (especially after being around others)

·  Avoid passing shared communal objects between people

·  Do not share food or beverages

For employees experiencing difficulties in any area of their lives, our Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is a free service for all ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ employees and their dependents. You can reach EAP at (888) 238-6232 or online. The EAP site has a webinar with information on how to protect you and your family from the coronavirus as well as a list of resources for information on coping with coronavirus fears.

Our Commitment  

These are unsettling times, with anxiety running high about personal health, loved ones, and finances, and uncertainty about the scope and duration of the crisis adds an extra layer of stress. Under the circumstances, I so appreciate your patience and flexibility as you continue to approach your work at ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ with energy and dedication. Our commitment to you, in return, is to do our best to support you, in practical and intangible ways, through this challenging period.


Sincerely, Clayton

I write to ask that you respond with a greater sense of urgency to the public health crisis that confronts us and depart campus as soon as possible. We know from meal counts in Commons and residence hall key returns, that too many students remain on campus.

With each passing day, we learn more about the extreme contagiousness of the COVID-19 virus and the threat it poses to vulnerable populations. This is why we made the difficult decision to send students home and complete the winter semester remotely. When we wrote to announce this news yesterday, we specified that any student who is within driving distance to home needs to leave campus this weekend. If you have not already departed, please plan to leave tomorrow.

Students who require flights or other transportation also need to move swiftly, as reports from Washington today suggest that there may soon be restrictions imposed on domestic travel. Please know that we are providing free transportation to airports, train stations, and buses. Information on these services can be found here. Only those students with complex travel arrangements are permitted to stay through 6:00 p.m. Tuesday, March 17.

Public health officials and our on-campus medical partners have reinforced this sense of urgency. One need look only to the NBA, Broadway, the Smithsonian, and public schools across the country to understand that any location that gathers large numbers of people in close quarters needs to take swift and decisive action.

As I wrote to you yesterday morning, I fully understand your deep disappointment at having your academic year – and for some, your ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ experience – end so abruptly. And, I truly sympathize with your desire to stay with your friends as long as possible. At this point, however, time is of the essence.

Out of respect for our campus community and concern about overwhelming the capacity of local hospitals to handle a sudden surge in COVID-19 cases, I implore all of you to move quickly to clear out your rooms and make arrangements to travel home. If you have questions or issues making arrangements, we have staff in Chase Hall who can help in any way.

Thank you for understanding – and for acting!

Sincerely, Clayton

I write to share important news about ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝â€™ response to the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation. As I wrote to you earlier this week, because of our unique academic calendar, with our winter semester well-advanced and February break travel three weeks behind us, I had hoped that we could complete the semester in our regular classes and in-person community.

For reasons that are increasingly apparent to all, I am very sorry to say that this course of action is no longer possible. Based on the best available information from the public health community, we are at a pivotal moment with respect to both the spread of the COVID-19 virus and our ability as a college to take proactive, rather than reactive, steps.

Although healthy populations below the age of 30—like most of our students—do not typically contract severe cases of COVID-19, young people are highly efficient transmitters of the disease, especially when they live and learn in close proximity on a college campus. This poses a danger to anyone with compromised health, and especially to the significant numbers of faculty and staff on our campus in higher risk categories because of age or underlying conditions. I am also mindful that many students, faculty, and staff have expressed concern and anxiety about remaining on campus and in close quarters.

Because we are not in a position to manage a serious outbreak on campus, we must ask that our students return home, and that our faculty prepare to teach remotely. This will ensure that our students are able to complete their winter semester, while also safeguarding the health and safety of the entire ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ community.

Calendar Adjustments

We will suspend classes at the end of the day today and resume classes, through remote learning, on Monday, March 23.

Students will be free to leave campus when their classes end today, and all students within driving distance to home should leave campus this weekend. Others who need to make flight arrangements, or who have complex travel plans, must leave campus by Tuesday, March 17 at 6:00 p.m.

During next week—Monday, March 16, through Friday, March 20—when classes will be suspended, the Dean of Faculty’s office and Information and Library Services will work with faculty seeking assistance in adapting their courses to accommodate remote learning. Information regarding training sessions and other assistance may be found here. Likewise, students will be able to use the week without classes to make preparations for remote learning. We will work with students who may need assistance with either hardware or connectivity issues.

Classes will resume on Monday, March 23, and continue through Friday, April 17 (originally exam week, now the last week of classes). Spring vacation will occur, as scheduled, from Saturday, April 18, through Sunday, April 26. Exams will be scheduled during the week of April 27 through May 2.

Because of the ongoing uncertainty regarding the duration and further progression of the COVID-19 virus, we do not plan to reconvene the college for an on-campus Short Term in May. We will work individually, through remote learning, with the small number of seniors needing to complete degree requirements during Short Term. Other students will have the opportunity to complete their required Short Terms in future years.

Information for Students and Families

I understand that this transition is abrupt for all students, and may pose particular logistical and other challenges for some students. A comprehensive website of practical information has been created here, and I encourage students and families to review it, as the answers to the most common questions should be covered.

Additionally, for students who receive financial aid and may qualify for travel assistance, we will have staff available in Chase Hall to assist with making arrangements, from noon to 6:00 p.m. today and during additional hours through March 17.

For students who are not able to leave campus by March 17, because of travel restrictions in home countries or significant extenuating personal, family, or other circumstances, we have established a that will allow students to request the ability to stay on campus for the remainder of the winter semester.

A Difficult Situation

We find ourselves in a situation that is, quite literally, beyond our control. I understand that the solutions we are offering are necessarily imperfect and place extra demands on all members of our community.

I have heard from many students over the past week. Some have expressed their anxiety about staying on campus under current circumstances, and others have described to me how devastated they feel at the prospect of having to leave campus and their ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ world mid-semester. My heart goes out to all of our students, as these are genuinely stressful and difficult times. But this is an unprecedented situation, and we have no choice but to take this course of action.

Seniors, I know that it is particularly painful for you, as we enter a period meant to be marked by celebration, to learn that you will not be able to end your ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ experience in the ways that you expected and looked forward to. Please know that we are explicitly deferring any decisions regarding Commencement at this point. I very much hope that it will be possible by the end of May to welcome you and your families back to celebrate your accomplishments and receive your diplomas in person. We will keep you posted.

For faculty, adapting your teaching for these different circumstances poses unique challenges in the middle of the semester. I recognize the disruption to your teaching that this represents, and the transition will require significant work and flexibility from everyone. Your willingness to work to maintain high levels of student engagement under these circumstances speaks volumes about your professional values and your investment in ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝. The Dean of Faculty will be in touch this morning with more detailed follow-up information.

For staff, our work on behalf of the college will continue. ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ remains open, and we have much important work to accomplish over the course of the spring. Our daily rhythms will doubtless change, and I am grateful, as ever, for your flexibility and good will as we navigate this challenging chapter in the life of the college.

The members of this community share a seriousness of purpose, a generosity of spirit, and a commitment to educating students who will be ethical and effective actors in the world. This moment of challenge and uncertainty calls on all of these qualities and more. I appreciate your patience and solidarity as we work through the many complexities that lie ahead.

All my best, Clayton

Because ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ has a different academic calendar, which does not include a spring break between now and the end of the semester on April 18, we do not have plans at this time to suspend our winter semester on campus. That said, we have been actively monitoring the evolving situation with COVID-19 for a number of weeks, undertaking contingency planning, and considering the implications, in particular, for travel and large group convenings on campus.

Please consult the college’s website for current guidance, which will be updated on an ongoing basis.

Thank you for your patience as we work through this challenging situation.

All my best,
Clayton

Professor of Neuroscience Nancy S. Koven appointed to the John E. Kelsey Professorship in Neuroscience

Endowed by Michael J. Bonney ’80, P’09, P’12, P’15 and Alison Grott Bonney ’80, P’09, P’12, P’15, this new chair honors Professor Emeritus of Psychology John Kelsey’s foundational contributions to the Program in Neuroscience during his 37 years on the faculty, and it recognizes a faculty member who exemplifies the supportive, innovative, and learning-by-doing approach to neuroscience teaching and research at ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝.

Professor of Neuroscience Nancy Koven, who chairs the Program in Neuroscience, teaches core and advanced courses as well as a First-Year Seminar on the intersection of neuroscience and literature. Koven’s research in neuropsychiatry examines brain structure and function in the context of adult mental health, focusing on the complex interplay between the roles of cognition and emotion in human behavior.

A past recipient of the Kroepsch Award for Excellence in Teaching, she routinely includes student collaborators in her research, which has been funded through grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Maine Institute for Human Genetics and Health.

During a cognitive neuroscience class in September 2015, Professor of Psychology Nancy Koven works with Jason DeFelice ’17 and Julia Rice ’16 to analyze brain images. (Josh Kuckens/ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ College)

Associate Professor of Digital and Computational Studies Matthew C. Jadud appointed to the Colony Family Professorship in Digital and Computational Studies

Endowed by George and Ann Colony P’12, P’17, this new chair supports the college’s Program in Digital and Computational Studies, which is designed to bring computational practices and theory to the full breadth of the curriculum and to guide all students, regardless of background and experience, in learning and questioning the practices, values, and cultures of the digital world.

Associate Professor of Digital and Computational Studies Matt Jadud joined the faculty in September 2017 as the inaugural chair of the college’s emerging Program in Digital and Computational Studies. He comes to ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ from Berea College, where he was a member of the faculty in computer science, and has held teaching positions at Allegheny College and Olin College.

In his research, Jadud examines the behavior and thinking of novice programmers; he also engages students in research regarding languages and hardware for environmental sensing, such as indoor air-quality monitoring or recording the ocean temperature along the Maine coast. Particularly interested in inclusion and equity in the digital age, he aims to create a DCS program that both serves and engages the liberal arts, writ large — a program that “thinks hard about the human condition behind the technological condition.”

Following a Back to ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ weekend discussion about teaching, Associate Professor of Digital and Computational Studies Matt Jadud speaks with ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ parent Victoria Mills P’21 and ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ grandmother Inga-Britta Mills GP’21. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ College)

Professor of Asian Studies Brian D. Ruppert appointed to the Kazushige Hirasawa Professorship in Japanese Studies

Endowed by Asako Hirasawa P’65, L.H.D. ’88, the widow of Kazushige Hirasawa ’36, Litt.D. ’61, and mother of the late Yoko Hirasawa Munakata ’65, this chair seeks to strengthen teaching and learning in Japanese and East Asian studies, and to recognize a faculty member whose teaching and research perpetuate the cross-cultural understanding that was the focus of journalist Kazushige Hirasawa’s life and work.

Professor of Asian Studies Brian Ruppert, who chairs the Program in Asian Studies, joined the ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ faculty in September 2017. He comes to ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where he chaired the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures and, in 2016–17, directed the university’s Year in Japan program.

A scholar of Japanese Buddhism and other premodern Japanese religions, Ruppert has conducted research stays in Japan totaling seven years, and he is known particularly for archival research in the Buddhist temples there. At ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝, he teaches courses on the cultural history of Japan and Japanese religions as well as Japanese language. He is dedicated to helping students explore Japan and its place within East Asia and encouraging students to study abroad in Japan.

Professor of Asian Studies Brian Ruppert confers with colleague Keiko Konoeda, lecturer in Japanese. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ College)

Professor of Environmental Studies Holly A. Ewing appointed to the Christian A. Johnson Professorship in Interdisciplinary Studies

Endowed by the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation, now the Endeavor Foundation, this chair celebrates the central role of interdisciplinary studies in the liberal arts and recognizes a faculty member who has made transformative contributions to interdisciplinary teaching, learning, and scholarship.

Professor of Environmental Studies Holly Ewing uses the college’s Maine location to great advantage in her research and field courses. Her courses provide the natural science core of the Program in Environmental Studies, the college’s most interdisciplinary major. Her research, often with student collaborators, investigates the interconnections among atmospheric, terrestrial, and aquatic ecosystems — such as how ecosystems in Acadia National Park respond to air pollution or the processes of algae growth in Lake Auburn, the area’s source of drinking water.

In partnership with faculty colleague Rebecca Herzig, she has worked to improve faculty procedures for tenure and promotion reviews, which now recognize the role and contributions of interdisciplinary work. The recent chair of the Program in Environmental Studies, Ewing also is a member of the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies.

Professor of Environmental Studies Holly Ewing holds an old sign during fieldwork near Lake Auburn last summer. At left is history major Sophia Thayer ’18, who was working with Associate Professor of History Joe Hall to find evidence of old grist and saw mills. In background is Ronni Mak ’20, a student researcher working with Ewing on water-quality research. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ College)

Professor of Rhetoric Charles I. Nero appointed to the Benjamin E. Mays, Class of 1920, Distinguished Professorship

Endowed by James F. Orr II P’94 and Ann L. Orr P’94, this chair honors the civil rights leader, theologian, and educator Benjamin E. Mays, ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ Class of 1920, and recognizes a faculty member who has advanced our understanding in matters of diversity and who affirms the ideals personified by the Rev. Dr. Mays.

A founding member of the programs in African American and American Cultural Studies, Professor of Rhetoric Charles Nero is a specialist in film, literary, and cultural studies. He teaches courses that interrogate film through the lenses of race, sexuality, gender, and class, and his research offers intersectional analyses of such topics as the African American writers W. E. B. Du Bois, Claude McKay, and Langston Hughes; filmmakers in independent and mainstream cinema; black queer studies; and sexuality in the Black Arts Movement.

An inspiring leader of campus programming on race and diversity, he served as chair of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Planning Committee for nearly a decade, during which time MLK Day deepened its reputation as a signature date in the academic calendar: a rigorous, multifaceted learning, reflection, and arts opportunity for the campus and the broader community.

Professor of Rhetoric Charles Nero talks with Alex Bolden ’15 in December 2012 during Bolden’s preparations for Sankofa, which explores the history and experiences of the African diaspora through performance. Bolden directed the 2013 Sankofa production, held during the college’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day observance. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ College)

Professor of Geology J. Dykstra Eusden Jr. ’80 appointed to the Whitehouse Professorship

Established by David C. Whitehouse ’36 and Constance T. Whitehouse in honor of their families, this professorship celebrates freedom of expression and inquiry; respect for human dignity; and exceptional teaching, scholarship, and service.

A past recipient of the Kroepsch Award for Excellence in Teaching, Professor of Geology Dyk Eusden ’80 is an intrepid field scientist who brings his students into the world so they can see, discover, learn from, and record geologic history, whether on Maine coastal islands or in the U.S. West. An expert on regional geologic history and ancient tectonics of the Appalachians and active tectonics in the South Island of New Zealand, he involves students as co-authors of papers, research posters, and mapping projects.

A leader in the sciences at ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝, he has served as department chair, division chair, and most recently, as co-chair of the STEM Facilities Review Committee that has developed options to meet the needs of current science programs as well as anticipated program growth. In 2017, Eusden and the Department of Geology hosted the New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference.

Professor of Geology Dykstra Eusden ’80 (standing, third from right) poses with students in his field geology course during their kayaking trip to Maine’s Yarmouth Island in fall 2017.

To single out and punish this group of engaged and talented young people, who seek the opportunity to learn and grow into productive members of our society, is a self-defeating action opposed by political leaders of both parties and by a majority of the American public.

We are communicating our concerns to Maine’s congressional delegation and urging them to act quickly to approve legislation that restores the protections of DACA in a meaningful and durable manner.

Meanwhile, ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ remains committed to admitting students without regard to their immigration status and to ensuring the safety and support of all students while on campus. All admitted students, regardless of their status, are eligible to apply for institutional, need-based financial aid, and we meet the full, demonstrated financial need of any admitted student.