Campus Connections

Issue Date: January 17, 2005

News and Notices

Who’s where? Departments move to new Howard Hall

Faculty and staff moved into the three-story, 50,000-square-foot John R. Howard Hall—not to be confused with the Howard residence hall—over winter break. The building is named in honor of John Howard, who served as president of Lewis & Clark from 1960 to 1981.

Although J.R. Howard Hall has a smaller footprint than the structures it replaced—the Faculty Offices building and the Thaxter, Throckmorton, and Edmonds classroom and office complex—it brings a net gain of 25 offices and 14 classrooms to the campus.

The building’s green features are an example of the College’s commitment to sustainable building. The structure is expected to consume 40 percent less energy than a typical building of the same size, thanks in large part to raised-floor displacement ventilation and night cooling systems. The elevator operates with 40 percent less electricity than standard elevators and does not use hydraulic fluid. And, the building’s storm-water filtration, storage, and reuse system has already won accolades from the Oregon Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Howard Hall will be officially dedicated on Earth Day, Friday, April 22.

So, who’s where following the move?

Howard Hall, third floor: Communication, Economics, Environmental Studies, Gender Studies, International Affairs, Political Science, Social Sciences Division, and Sociology and Anthropology.

Howard Hall, second floor: Classical Studies, Philosophy, and Religious Studies.

Several departments will move into spaces in Albany Hall vacated by moves to Howard: Academic Advising, Career Advising, the Student Success and Wellness Program, Student Support Services, and the Writing Center.

The Howard residence hall (C. Howard Hall for clarity), completed in 1960, is named for Charles Howard, dean of the College from 1944 to 1958 and vice president from 1958 to 1963.

Artwork in Howard Hall focuses on campus community

A campus art celebration takes place on Wednesday, January 26, from 4:30 to 7 p.m. The occasion marks the formal unveiling of artwork that Mark R. Smith created for John R. Howard Hall. The works are titled Mediating Boxes, Honeycombed News: Forty Local Blooms, and An Intimate City.

Smith created the three works for Howard Hall to reflect what he saw as a common thread in the social sciences: “the idea of community in the broadest possible sense: as a collective, cooperative entity composed of unique and disparate voices.”

Mediating Boxes: Located in the north and south lobbies, these installations are shadow boxes filled with small objects backed by recycled fabric. The objects and fabrics were contributed by Lewis & Clark faculty, students, and staff.

Honeycombed News: Located along the inner corridors connecting the north and south lobbies, these 40 stencil paintings use newspapers from around the world and silhouettes of honeycombs and botanical specimens to symbolize communication and cultural exchange.

An Intimate City: Located in the second-floor stair landing, this acrylic painting portrays culture as “a very complex and unwieldy organism” and signifies collective survival.

New copy center in Howard Hall

The College entered into a new partnership with IKON Office Solutions to overhaul the campus copy machine fleet and to bring back an old favorite to campus—a campus-based copy center. Marlene Daabs and Pati Walker manage the new center, located in Howard Hall 112.

The center’s regular hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; pickup and delivery times are 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. at the Mail Room, second floor of Rogers Hall, and fourth floor of Miller Center.

A future copy center service will be Web-based, electronic copy job submission. A pilot group of high-volume users are testing the process before the service is available campuswide. Information on the full launch of this Web-based feature is forthcoming.

Wendy Washburn, administrative assistant to the vice president and provost, provided leadership on the copy center project over the past two years. She worked closely with IKON’s Joe Erbin ’84 and with staff across campus to develop a workable and cost-effective plan for improving the College’s copy services.

Contact the copy center at ext.7768 or copyit@lclark.edu or visit the center's Web site.

Admissions early action update

The College of Arts and Sciences sent out early action letters of acceptance to approximately 600 applicants last week, according to Mike Sexton, dean of admissions. The next step will be follow-up contact from student and alumni volunteers, as well as coaches and academic departments. Sexton says the early action students will begin visiting campus this semester. Overall, Sexton reports, applications are running ahead of last year’s record number. Regular decision applicants will be notified beginning in mid-March.

Graduate school discussion on tsunami relief

In the aftermath of the tsunami that devastated vast parts of Asia last month, the graduate school formed the Tsunami Response Initiative. The program will first focus on what can be done to help those in affected regions deal with the tragedy and will then work to build sustainable programs and partnerships with local organizations in Asia. In addition, the initiative will develop resources for those affected by trauma or those who work in trauma counseling outside or inside of the tsunami stricken areas.

The graduate school community has already put its resolve to work. A group of 16 faculty, staff, and students recently volunteered during two telethons to raise funds for Northwest Medical Teams. One of the telethons raised more than $650,000 toward tsunami relief.

The graduate school will host a two-hour forum to discuss tsunami relief efforts. The forum on Monday, January 17, beginning at noon, is coordinated by the school’s Oregon Center for Inquiry and Social Innovation. The forum will also address possible humanitarian relief activities and projects for students, faculty, staff, and alumni. The event takes place in the South Campus Conference Center. For more information, contact Allen Hall at ahall@lclark.edu or call the center at ext. 6099.

It’s snow problem!

Portland rang in the new year without the snow and only a little bit of the ice that paralyzed the city one year ago. The College’s inclement weather policy states that Lewis & Clark “will remain open unless conditions are so severe as to require closure. This policy applies to day, evening, weekday and Saturday classes of the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Law, and the Graduate School of Education. Individuals are advised to take all necessary precautions and to avoid dangerous conditions traveling to, from and around the campus.”

In the event of a school closure or schedule change due to inclement weather, updated information will be available on local radio and television stations, the College’s Web site, and the College’s campus events line (ext. 7669 or 503-768-SNOW). The school closure policy is available online.

Weight Watchers group meets

Weight Watchers is looking for 15 people to keep true to new year’s resolutions. Beginning Friday, January 28, at 12:30 p.m. and continuing Fridays through April 29, a Weight Watchers group will meet on South Campus. The program offers the flexibility of meeting with the campus group or with another local Weight Watchers session. The group’s first campus meeting was originally scheduled for January 14.

Cost for the spring semester session is $142.35. Payment—made in full or in three installments of $47.45—must be received by Wednesday, January 26. Make checks payable to Weight Watchers and send them via campus mail to MSC 37. Contact Molly Miles for more information at miles@lclark.edu or ext. 7200.

Retirement planning session set

Representatives from TIAA-CREF will be on campus January 19–22 to provide employees with financial education and individual sessions about the College’s 403(b) retirement plans.

An educational workshop titled “Planning Ahead for Retirement” takes place on Wednesday, January 19, at noon in Albany 218.

Individual planning sessions can be scheduled with Sheri Zimmerman, TIAA-CREF’s individual consultant. To schedule an appointment, log onto www.tiaa-cref.org and click on Meetings and Counseling or call 877-209-3142, ext. 2615.

IT offers spring classes

Information Technology offers ongoing computer training courses. During the next two weeks, these classes are available: Introduction to Mac OSX, and WebMail. For more information, contact IT at ext. 7020, or sign up online.

Historical snapshot

In 1891, Albany Collegiate Institute students select orange and black as school colors to honor President Elbert Condit’s alma mater, Princeton. The following year, Albany adopts its first school song, “The Orange and the Black.”

More College milestones are available online.

People News

Campus mourns loss of Associate Dean Ray Warren

A memorial service to celebrate the life of G. Ray Warren, associate dean of students and director of ethnic services, will be held on Sunday, January 30, at 3 p.m. in Agnes Flanagan Chapel. Warren died on December 19 of cancer that had metastasized to his liver.

Born in Pleasant Hill, Texas, Warren relocated as a teenager with his family to Portland and graduated from Jefferson High School. At Lewis & Clark, he was a standout baseball player and earned his bachelor’s degree in health and physical education in 1965. In a 2002 interview, Warren recalled that as an undergraduate he felt “like a little speck in a sea of whiteness,” since very few African American students were on campus in the 1960s. Following graduation, he served for two years in the Army, including a tour in Vietnam. In 1971, he earned his master of arts in teaching from Lewis & Clark and accepted a position as associate dean of admissions at Whitman College. He also worked at Reed College. Warren came to Lewis & Clark in 1987 as associate dean of admissions. In 1992 he was named associate dean of students and director of the Office of Ethnic Student Services. In 2002, the College’s Sports Hall of Fame inducted Warren for his skills on the baseball diamond.

He is survived by his wife, Sheryl; daughter, Mindy, and son, Derek; mother, Elizabeth; three sisters, Ann, Regena, and Sandra; and three brothers, Gary ’73, Jerry ’75, and Will. The family suggests remembrances to the College’s H. Adunni Warren Scholarship Fund.

New faces at L&C

Mary F. Jackson is a departmental specialist in the College of Arts and Sciences admissions office. Prior to joining Lewis & Clark, she worked as a financial specialist in the engineering department at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She worked in various departments at the university for a dozen years. Jackson moved to Portland to be with her daughters and grandchild. Reach her at jackson@lclark.edu.

Other new faces on campus include Quynh Tien Lu, computer lab technician in mathematical sciences; Diane Heintz, legal assistant in the National Crime Victim Law Institute; Jennifer Crowder, Copeland Hall resident director; and Sherlive Swanson, Platt-Howard resident director.

Published, presented, honors and achievements

Faculty and staff serve as ambassadors for the College through their publications, presentations, awards, grants, and other accomplishments. Recent highlights include:

Debra Beers, senior lecturer in art and program head of drawing, has a solo exhibition of 24 large drawings and paintings at the Mark Woolley Gallery in Portland. The three-month exhibit concludes on January 29.

On January 7, Jon Eldridge, dean of students, and John Schneider, director of the Counseling Center, presented “The Comprehensive Health & Disability Report Form: A Key to a Comprehensive Approach to Mental Health Issues on Campus” at the Effective Interventions for Student Mental Health on Campus conference in Rhode Island.

Barbra Fletcher-Stephens, assistant professor of counseling psychology, published an article in the Journal of Systemic Therapy, an international journal for family therapy. The article is titled “Twin Legacies of African American Families.”

Phil Howe, visiting assistant professor of political science, received the 2004 Austrian Cultural Forum dissertation prize. The biennial honor is for “the best doctoral dissertation in the field of Austrian Studies” among dissertations defended between January 1, 2002, and December 31, 2003. Howe’s dissertation is titled “Well-Tempered Discontent: Nationalism, Ethnic Group Politics, Electoral Institutions and Parliamentary Behavior in the Western Half of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, 1867-1914.”

In December, Molly Robinson Kelly, assistant professor of French, presented a paper titled “Technology, Manuscripts, and the Renewal of Philology” at the Modern Languages Association Conference in Philadelphia.

Oren Kosansky, assistant professor of anthropology, received a 2004 Malcolm H. Kerr Dissertation Award, social sciences honorable mention, from the Middle Eastern Studies Association. His dissertation is titled “All Dear Under God: Saints, Pilgrimage, and Textual Practice in Jewish Morocco.”

Deborah Lycan, associate professor of biology, published an article on the assembly of the complex machine responsible for protein synthesis in cells in the journal Genetics (December 2004). The article is titled “Genetic and biochemical interactions between Yar1, Ltv1 and RpS3 define novel links between environmental stress and ribosome biogenesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.” Lycan’s coauthors are Jesse W. Loar ’03, Robert M. Seiser, Alexandra E. Sundberg ’04, Holly J. Sagerson ’99, Nasreen Ilias ’01, Pamela Zobel-Thropp, visiting assistant professor of biology, and Elizabeth A. Craig.

More listings of faculty and staff achievements can be found in our online pressroom.

L&C in the news

College faculty and staff are in the news on a regular basis. Recent mentions include:

The Oregonian: Kim Stafford, director of the Northwest Writing Institute, comments on the continuing legacy of his father, William, professor emeritus of English and Oregon poet laureate. “William Stafford belongs to his readers now, and there seem to be many of them. I keep thinking this phenomenon is going to fade away, but it seems to be growing,” Kim Stafford said. January 13, 2005.

The Oregonian: Robert Eisinger, associate professor and chair of political science, comments on the opening session of the 2005 Oregon Legislature. He says “the Legislature’s problem might be one of leadership, not image … leaders of both parties must get together, decide on the two or three top actions, and make sure they happen.” January 10, 2005.

MSNBC “Countdown with Keith Olbermann:” Kellar Autumn, associate professor of biology, discusses his newly published research on self-cleaning adhesives. The structure of a gecko's foot holds the key to developing new technology. January 4, 2005.

New York Times: Kellar Autumn, associate professor of biology, comments on his newly published research about the self-cleaning adhesive quality of a gecko’s foot. “We showed that you can dip a gecko’s feet into some of the nastiest dirt ever, and after five steps, the dirt just falls off.” January 4, 2005.

Portland Tribune: Jeff Leonard, visiting instructor in music, comments on the changing nature of music education in an electronic age. Leonard sits on the board of the Old Library Studio, which combines music with technology. December 28, 2004.

Daily Journal of Commerce (Portland, Ore.): Susan Mandiberg, professor of law, is mentioned in a news brief about the law school’s Loan Repayment Assistance Program. December 17, 2004.

Oregon Public Broadcasting (television): Diana Meyer, assistant director for student financial services, answered phone calls during a live Oregon Public Broadcasting television program titled “Financial Aid for College.” The program sought to help parents, students, and teachers understand financial aid options. December 14 and December 19, 2004.

The Oregonian: Steve Kanter, professor of law, comments on a death penalty appeal that could force the resentencing of 29 people on Oregon’s Death Row. “I think the time is more than ripe in the federal courts for this.” December 11, 2004.

Portland Tribune: Profile of Martha Gies, Northwest Writing Institute writing instructor, and the Writers in Danger workshop she teaches. The class opens students up “to what price writers pay for their vocation in other cultures,” Gies said. “This is a huge eye-opener about what people pay (for) truth-telling.” Kim Stafford, institute director, comments on the distinctive characteristics of the course. December 10, 2004.

The Oregonian: Melanie Quinn, instructor in education, discusses how parents can encourage children to read. December 9, 2004.

For a sampling of how and where Lewis & Clark is mentioned by media outlets across the nation and around the globe, visit the online pressroom.

Events

Focusing on the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. visited Lewis & Clark in November 1961 and talked about the future of integration. More than four decades later, the campus will reflect on, discuss, and celebrate the civil rights leader’s life and legacy in observation of Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, January 17.

The events include a series of workshops, a keynote address, panel discussions, and music. The commemoration is titled “It Takes Every Voice to Create Community.” All events are free and open to the public.

“Our goal is to keep Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy alive,” says David B. Rosengard, resident director and commemoration adviser. “That legacy includes a commitment to respect civil rights, and nonviolence. This is particularly critical for a liberal arts college where we embrace Dr. King’s ideals of respect, justice, determination, and a celebration of diversity.”

Jaiya John, founder and executive director of Soul Water Rising, will give the keynote address at 4 p.m. in Council Chamber. John’s organization is devoted to improving human relations, combating prejudice, and fostering spiritual growth. John has appeared on CNN and National Public Radio. He is the author of “Black Baby White Hands: A View from the Crib” (Soul Water, 2002). He earned his doctorate from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

For more information, call ext. 7051 or look for a complete schedule of events online.

Exhibit explores blankets that define the stages of life

Artist Marie Watt explores social and cultural histories found in everyday objects, like reclaimed blankets. Nearly two dozen of Watt’s blanket-based works, including sculptures, wall hangings, lithographs, and sepia photographs, will be on view in the Ronna and Eric Hoffman Gallery of Contemporary Art from January 20 to March 13. The exhibition is titled Blanket Stories: Receiving.

“Imagine the metaphoric quality of blankets in the hands of a gifted artist like Marie Watt,” says Linda Tesner, gallery director. “She uses found blankets to weave personal stories with great impact. With her fabric pieces she is a powerful voice in contemporary art.” Watt seeks out blankets from family, friends, and secondhand stores, and arranges them in symbolic towers that are reminiscent of different standings, such as memorials or Native Northwest totem poles.

“We are received in blankets, and we leave in blankets,” says Watt. “[These works are] inspired by the stories of those beginnings and endings, and the life in between. I am interested in human stories and rituals implicit in everyday objects. I find myself attracted to the blanket’s two- and three-dimensional qualities. On a wall, a blanket functions as a tapestry, but on a body it functions as a robe and living art object.”

Watt will give a gallery talk on Thursday, January 20, at 5 p.m. An opening reception continues until 7 p.m.

Graduate school hosts Stafford symposium

Writers, teachers, and William Stafford readers will gather on Saturday, January 22, for a morning of conversations on the life and writings of the late William Stafford, National Book Award winner and former professor of English at Lewis & Clark. The symposium, in Albany’s Smith Hall, is free and open to the public, but space is limited.

Opening remarks at the fourth annual William Stafford Symposium will be made by Kim Stafford, director of the Northwest Writing Institute and author of “Early Morning: Remembering My Father, William Stafford” (Graywolf Press 2002).

The symposium focuses on William Stafford’s writing and editing process, offers the opportunity to write poetry in response to his poems, and includes writing and discussion in the spirit of his works.

Participants include Mary Szybist, assistant professor of English; Peter Cookson, dean of the graduate school; Paul Merchant, director of the William Stafford Archive; Kim Stafford; and Anne Staley, adjunct faculty member at the Northwest Writing Institute.

More information is available from Patty Brooks at ext. 6161 or pbrooks@lclark.edu.

Upcoming

Visit the campus Web calendar for events coming up in January.