Campus Connections

Issue Date: January 31, 2005

News and Notices

President Hochstettler’s first trip abroad

Tom Hochstettler and his wife Marcia Glas started the new year on an international note: the couple visited with College alumni in Japan, Korea, and China. The two-week trip was a prelude for the extensive travels Hochstettler has scheduled following his inaugural in March.

“Marcia and I were graciously received at every stop and we were most pleased to have the opportunity to introduce ourselves in person to alumni and friends of the College in Asia,” says Hochstettler. “The trip reinforced for me the notion that Lewis & Clark is highly respected as an international institution.”

John Wright B.S. ’83, a trustee who lives in Hong Kong, and Greg Caldwell, director of international student services, worked tirelessly to ensure the visit’s success. Many other staff members across campus contributed to planning and preparation for the trip.

Hochstettler and his wife will continue meeting with alumni in the States during the spring and fall. They plan a trip to Europe over the summer.

Roberts Hall earns prestigious LEED silver rating

Roberts Residence Hall has been awarded a LEED v2 Silver certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. Lewis & Clark uses LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, as a guide to pursuing the most cost-effective, environmentally friendly building strategies. The certification commends the campus for following the council’s national standards of sustainable building practices.

Roberts Hall, designed by SERA Architects, is one of three apartment-style halls the College completed in 2003 to encourage juniors and seniors to live on campus; it is the first building to be LEED-certified at Lewis & Clark. East and West Halls, which flank Roberts, were designed to the same specifications but were not entered separately into consideration for certification.

The new residence halls were completed with extensive student involvement in the programming and design phases to create a close fit between the campus's forested site and the student community. Sustainable design strategies include careful attention to site planning, energy efficiency, material conservation, and indoor air quality.

It’s easy being green: College joins green power partnership

Lewis & Clark has joined the Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partnership program. Membership in the program acknowledges the College’s “efforts to reduce the emissions associated with power generation in the United States through the procurement of green power,” according to Kathleen Hogan, director of the agency’s climate protection partnerships division. The College—which purchases 1.2 million kilowatt hours of green power annually— is one of more than 540 organizations in the program that have replaced significant portions of the electricity they use with green power.

“Lewis & Clark College’s actions … are reducing the emissions associated with conventional electricity generation—the nation’s single largest industrial source of air pollution,” says the EPA’s Anthony Amato. “Your commitment to green power also sends an important message to the market that you value the benefits of renewable energy and want to see it made more easily accessible to all electricity customers.”

“By joining this organization, Lewis & Clark’s students, faculty, and staff acknowledge their commitment to necessary power use generated by sustainable methods, resulting in a more healthy environment for the present and for the future,” says Richard Bettega, associate vice president for facilities.

The College’s green power efforts have been commended in other ways. Last fall, Lewis & Clark received Portland General Electric’s Green Power Leadership award, recognizing efforts to purchase, use, and promote alternative energy choices such as wind power.

Heard from alumni lately?

Class notes is one of the more popular sections of the College’s magazine, the Chronicle. The magazine, published semiannually, is distributed to more than 35,000 alumni and friends of Lewis & Clark.

Class notes help keep alumni engaged with the College and with each other, and alumni engagement is key to building donor support for Lewis & Clark. “Faculty and staff often have ongoing contact with alumni, so that’s why we are asking the campus community to encourage alumni to contact us,” says Liz Fisher, senior associate director of alumni and parent programs. The notes include life updates, weddings, accomplishments, and other news.

In addition to class notes, the alumni office is looking for nominations for the Outstanding Young Alumni award, the Distinguished Alumni award, and the Donald G. Balmer Citation for Service, which are announced and presented each fall.

The deadline for submitting alumni information is March 1. For more details, contact the alumni office at ext. 7950 or by e-mail alumni@lclark.edu.

Rutsala and Peterson give poetry readings

Poets Paulann Peterson and Vern Rutsala will read from their works in the Hoffman Gallery on Thursday, February 10, at 7 p.m. The free readings are part of a series sponsored by the Watzek Library special collections department.

Peterson’s poems have appeared in numerous periodicals including Poetry, The New Republic, Prairie Schooner, and Wilderness Magazine. She has published two collections of poetry, “Blood-Silk” (Quiet Lion Press, 2004) and “The Wild Awake” (Confluence Press, 2002). Her forthcoming book of poems is titled “A Bride of Narrow Escape” (Cloudbank Book, 2005).

Rutsala, professor emeritus of English, is the author of numerous poetry books and has been a regular contributor to periodicals including Atlantic Monthly, Times Literary Supplement, Paris Review, Nation, Midland, Poetry, New Yorker, Harper’s, American Poetry Review, Chicago Review, Mississippi Review, Nebraska Review, Seneca Review, and New Letters.

A keepsake broadside from each poet will be available for purchase at the readings. For more information, call ext. 7254. Three other readings are scheduled for the series, which continues through May.

Give the gift of life

Spend an hour, visit with some friendly folks, and help the Red Cross meet the demand for whole blood from area hospitals. Appointments for blood donations are available on Thursday, February 3, between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. in Stamm. Not sure if you can donate? The Red Cross Web site contains information on donor eligibility.

For further details or to schedule a donation time, contact Kelly Hoover at ext. 7076 or hoover@lclark.edu.

Let's chat in Spanish

Want to brush up on those conversational Spanish skills? The graduate school is offering a Spanish-language gathering in the commons area of the South Campus Conference Center every Wednesday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. The conversation topics vary. “All levels of Spanish are welcome and we’ll help each other out,” says Tod Sloan, professor and chair of counseling psychology, who coordinates the conversation series. For more information, contact him at sloan@lclark.edu or ext. 6066.

It’s never too early to plan for retirement

Nathan Bell, AIG Advisor Group, will lead a retirement planning workshop on campus in February. The two-part course, titled Retirement Choices, is open to Lewis & Clark employees, spouses, or guests.

Cost for the class is $20 per family unit or individual, payable upon registration, and includes five hours of classroom instruction, workbook, study materials, and an individual retirement plan. The classes meet on two consecutive Thursdays, February 10 and February 17, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Registration forms have been sent to employees via campus mail. For more information, contact Cindy Wray, benefits and HRIS manager, at cwray@lclark.edu or ext. 7837.

IT offers spring classes

Information Technology offers ongoing computer training courses. During the next two weeks, these classes are available: WebCT Overview, Scanning, Managing Your E-mail, MeetingMaking, WebCT Tools: Discussions, and InDesign (three-part course). For more information, contact IT at ext. 7020, or sign up online.

Historical snapshot

In 1902, Albany Collegiate Institute publishes its first yearbook. Three years later, in 1905, the institute officially becomes Albany College.

More College milestones are available online.

People News

New faces, changing places

Allison LaPlante J.D. ’02 joined the law school’s Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center as a staff attorney. La Plante's responsibilities include increasing the center’s capacity to serve the growing demand for clinical experience in environmental law. As a law student, LaPlante was a member of one of the school’s national championship environmental moot court teams. For the past two years she has served as a clerk to Federal District Court Judge Garr King J.D. ’63 in Portland. Contact LaPlante at ext. 6894 or laplante@lclark.edu.

Mei-Yen Hui B.A. ’04 is the civic engagement coordinator for the Office of Student Leadership and Service. She is the first Northwest Service Academy AmeriCorps member to be placed at Lewis & Clark and the only AmeriCorps worker to be placed at a college or university in the region. She will work with faculty to develop and incorporate curriculum components that encourage lifelong citizenship and civic engagement. Hui majored in foreign languages, spent a semester in China, and was a member of the women’s cross country team. Reach her at ext. 7762 or shui@lclark.edu.

Another new face on campus is Danny Ecker, general maintenance staff in Facilities Services. Robyn Ward, Watzek Library, has changed places through promotion from technical services assistant to serials acquisitions specialist.

Remembering life trustee John H. Geiger

A memorial service for John H. Geiger will be held at St. John’s Presbyterian Church in Camas, Washington, on Saturday, February 5, at 2 p.m. He passed away on January 27, surrounded by family.

Born in Portland, Geiger graduated from Beaverton High School in 1946. He married Flora B. LaRue in 1950 and earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from Lewis & Clark in 1958. In 1990, Geiger was named a Distinguished Alumnus. He was named a trustee of the College in 1984 and a life trustee in 1993.

Geiger served as chief financial officer and executive vice president for PacifCorp and retired after 42 years of service to the company. He was president of Flight Dynamics, EyeDentify, and Cardkey. He served as a board member of AmNet, FarWest Federal Savings and Loan, Keller Enterprises, and the Portland Hearing & Speech Center. He was an elder of the Presbyterian Church.

He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Flora; brothers Robert of Gig Harbor, Washington; Phillip of Newberg, Oregon; and David of Beaverton, Oregon; sister Edith Goritsan of Gresham, Oregon; his children, Richard of Trumansburg, New York; Phyllis Danielson of Irrigon, Oregon; Deanna, of Portland, Oregon; and Thomas of Camas, Washington; and six grandchildren. Remembrances in lieu of flowers may be made to St. John’s Presbyterian Church in Camas, Washington.

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:

Margo Ballantyne, visual resources curator, steps down in April from her two-year appointment to the executive board for the Visual Resources Association. During her tenure she participated in the creation of conference programs and registration in Houston and Miami Beach and moderated a workshop on “Negotiating and Licensing Electronic Content for Visual Resources Collections.”

In January, Doug Erickson, head of special collections and College archivist, gave a presentation titled “Finding Middle Ground: Archives, Libraries, Business and Government Consortiums.” The talk, at a meeting of the Oregon chapter of the Association of Records Managers and Administrators, focused on issues and ideas that bridge the challenges faced by professionals in library science, records, and archival management.

In January, Eban Goodstein, professor of economics, gave a keynote address titled “Global Warming and the Meaning of Life” at Vermont’s Middlebury College. Goodstein’s presentation was part of a global warming conference titled “What Works? New Strategies for a Melting Planet.”

In January, Robert Miller J.D. ’91, associate professor of law, led a workshop for the Clark County (Washington) Historical Society. Miller’s workshop, titled “Lewis and Clark and the Doctrine of Discovery,” covered topics including “tribal contributions to the expedition’s success; the Doctrine of Discovery (the Corps of Discovery’s legal foundation); and subsequent Northwest Indian-U.S. treaties and the law regarding treaty interpretation today.”

In December, Liz Safran, assistant professor of geological science, gave a presentation at the annual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Safran coauthored the paper titled “Erosion rates, landscape morphology, and hillslope processes in the Upper Beni River region, Bolivian Andes.”

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:

Portland Tribune: Feature article profiling Kellar Autumn, associate professor of biology. The article discusses Autumn’s recently published research paper about the self-cleaning adhesive quality of geckos’ feet and how he became interested in geckos. January 18, 2005.

Chosun Ilbo (Seoul, Korea): Tom Hochstettler, president, discusses the College’s international affairs department and the benefits of an education received at smaller institutions of higher learning. January 19, 2005.

Register-Guard (Eugene, Ore.): Article previews the fourth annual William Stafford Symposium at Lewis & Clark. Mentions participants including Kim Stafford, associate professor and director of the Northwest Writing Institute; Mary Szybist, assistant professor of English; Peter Cookson, dean of the graduate school; Paul Merchant, director of the William Stafford Archive; and Anne Staley, adjunct faculty member, Northwest Writing Institute. January 16, 2005.

The Oregonian: Michael Blumm, professor of law, comments on a legal challenge to Oregon’s new property rights measure—Measure 37—in light of a lawsuit brought by environmentalists and farm advocates. January 14, 2005.

The Columbian (Vancouver, Wash.): Steve Kanter, professor of law, comments on the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that federal judges cannot find reasons to increase penalties for particularly violent or offensive crimes. January 13, 2005.

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

Beyond shrill arguments and banal sound bites: lecture series explores civility in politics

Six of the nation’s top political scientists and observers will examine the public’s involvement in and understanding of American politics during a lecture series on civility in politics during February and March. All lectures are free and are held in the Council Chamber.

“The goal of the Civility in Politics lecture series is to focus on true political discourse with these premier political scientists and journalists, all of whom have a reputation for analytic depth and rigorous research,” says Robert Eisinger, associate professor and chair of political science.

Thursday, February 3, 6:30 p.m.

Peter J. Katzenstein: “Anti-Americanism in the American Imperium.”

Katzenstein, Walter S. Carpenter Jr. Professor of International Studies at Cornell University, is the author, coauthor, editor, and coeditor of 18 books. His areas of interest are in the fields of international relations and comparative politics. He also focuses on issues of political economy, security, and culture in both Europe and Asia. Katzenstein’s current research focuses on the role of regionalism in world politics.

Friday, February 4, 10:30 a.m.

Mary Fainsod Katzenstein: “Rights without Citizenship: The Politics of Incarceration in the U.S.”

Katzenstein, professor of government and women’s studies at Cornell University, has written on feminist activism, focusing particularly on the United States, Europe, and India. Her recent research on feminism in the U.S. Catholic Church and in the U.S. military resulted in two books: “Faithful and Fearless: Moving Feminist Protest Inside the Church and Military” (Princeton University Press, 1998) and “Beyond Zero Tolerance: Discrimination in Military Culture,” coedited with Judith Reppy (Rowman & Littlefield, 1999). Her current research project concerns social movement reform and U.S. incarceration policies.

Thursday, February 10, 6:30 p.m.

Benjamin Highton: “Information, Public Discourse and the Evolution of Health Care Opinion.”

Highton, assistant professor of political science at the University of California at Davis, centers his research on voting behavior and public opinion. His research has been published in numerous journals including “Policy Voting in Senate Elections: The Case of Abortion,” published in Political Behavior (June 2004), and “Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich and the 1998 House Elections,” published in Public Opinion Quarterly (Spring 2002). Highton is a former Carnegie fellow. His current Ford Foundation-funded research examines how registration laws affect the turnout of Black and Latino voters.

The series continues with syndicated political columnist David Broder on February 17, political scientist Morris P. Fiorina on February 24, and political sociologist Max Kaase on March 3.

The Civility in Politics lecture series is presented by Lewis & Clark’s political science department and sponsored, in part, by a generous grant from the Arkay Foundation. For more information, call ext. 7640.

Upcoming

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