Campus Connections

Issue Date: March 12, 2007

News and Notices

Student group sponsors display of the Iraq Body Count Memorial

The Portland chapter of Students for a Democratic Society has arranged to bring the Iraq Body Count Memorial to Lewis & Clark. Currently displayed on campus, the memorial contains 112,000 white flags, each symbolizing six Iraqis who have died during the U.S. occupation, as well as 3,000 red flags representing the U.S. soldiers killed during the war.

The student group hopes the display will encourage people to attend a Portland mass march against the war on March 18. A campus-wide discussion of the Iraq War will take place on Friday, March 16, at 4 p.m. in Council Chamber.

“SDS decided to bring up the Iraq Body Count Memorial to create awareness that will lead to mobilization,” said Lewis & Clark student and Students for a Democratic Society member Adam Sanchez. He said the memorial challenges media sources that claim the death toll ranges between 30,000 and 50,000—estimates that tend to take into account only combat deaths reported and confirmed by the media, according to Sanchez. He cited a recent study reporting that 655,000 more Iraqis have died since the beginning of the war than would have had the invasion never happened.

The memorial was initially organized by the Indigenous Support Network and was put on display at the University of Colorado in October 2006. In January 2007, the University of Oregon became the second school to display it, followed by Reed College. The memorial was installed on the Lewis & Clark campus on March 11.

SAAB celebrates 25 years

Since 1982, Lewis & Clark’s Student Academic Affairs Board (SAAB) has been helping students meet their academic goals. The organization has distributed over 850 grants totaling over $900,000 to undergraduate students, making it possible for them to attend conferences, conduct research, bring scholars to campus, and work on art projects. Current and former grant recipients and members of SAAB celebrate the organization’s success at a banquet on March 22.

SAAB’s 25th anniversary celebration will feature several keynote speakers instrumental in the organization’s development, including Shelby Uritz Pierson ’96, now a senior intelligence officer with the U.S. Department of Defense, and Serena Cruz Walsh ’89, former two-term Multnomah County Commissioner. The event will also include a silent auction of art by students who have applied for grants through SAAB. Proceeds from the auction will go to the SAAB endowment.

SAAB’s grant program, which distributes undergraduate student fees to undergraduate students through a formal application and review process, is unique to Lewis & Clark. The process mirrors the experience students would encounter were they to apply to a nonprofit organization for a grant. In addition to the grant program, SAAB also administers a tutoring program through a partnership with Lewis & Clark’s academic departments.

For more information, call extension 7149.

CAS admissions reports record number of applications

The College of Arts and Sciences has received a record 5,300 applications for admission, representing a 14-percent increase over last year’s numbers and a 28-percent improvement over two years ago. The application pool includes about 300 students who wish to transfer to Lewis & Clark from other colleges.

Michael Sexton, dean of undergraduate admissions, said that the application pool has improved in quality as well as size. The average SAT score of those accepted under the institution’s nonbinding Early Action program rose 20 points over last year, he reported. In total, the College expects to enroll about 500 first-year students and 60 transfers.

Continuing another recent trend at Lewis & Clark, the applicant pool reflects increased ethnic and geographic diversity. There were 24 percent more students of color admitted under the Early Action program this year than last. The College also saw more applications from international students, as well as from students in every region of the United States. The largest increases, according to Sexton, were in the number of applicants from Washington, the East Coast, and abroad. Approximately 82 percent of undergraduates currently enrolled at Lewis & Clark are from outside of Oregon.

Grant awarded for collaboration in math and computer science research

This summer at Lewis & Clark, two faculty members, four undergraduate students, and one teacher from the K-12 or community college level will explore emerging fields in math and computer science, thanks to a $108,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. The funding will support the creation of such a research team during each of the next three summers.

The grant is part of a $491,400 award the National Science Foundation gave to a consortium consisting of the math programs at Willamette University, Lewis & Clark, the University of Portland, and Linfield College. The consortium is led by professors at Willamette.

Students and teachers interested in applying to these programs or learning about other opportunities available through the consortium can find resources and application materials at http://www.willamette. edu/cla/math/REU- RET. Preference will be given to applications received by March 30, 2007. The final deadline for applications is April 6, 2007.

Introductions and strategic communications updates slated for staff brown bag

Hear about new hires, learn about the strategic communications initiative, and receive other important College news during a staff brown bag luncheon. Tom Hochstettler will host the gathering on Wednesday, March 21, at 11:30 a.m. in Stamm.

IT offers spring classes

Information Technology offers ongoing computer training courses. During the next two weeks, these classes are available: Photoshop Elements, Intermediate Photoshop, Beginning PowerPoint (a two-part course), and Intermediate PowerPoint. For more information, contact IT at extension 7020.

People News

New faces on campus

Several people have joined the Lewis & Clark community recently, including Chris Logan, student employment specialist, Student Financial Services; Powell Houser, carpenter, Facilities Services; Toni Holloway, administrative assistant, Institutional Advancement; and Daniel McClure, information specialist, National Crime Victim Law Institute.

Published, presented, honors, and achievements

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

Greta Binford, assistant professor of biology, received a two-year, $35,000 grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust for her project “A Phylogenetic Framework for Studying the Evolution of the Toxic Enzyme Sphingomyelinase D in Venom of Loxosceles and Sicarius Spiders.” This grant will also support two undergraduate research positions each year of the award.

In February, Doug Beloof presented a faculty workshop session at the University of Utah School of Law with Judge Paul Cassell on The Crime Victims' Rights Act in The Proposed Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. While at Utah, Doug also presented a session open to all on Should Domestic Violence Victims have Victims' Rights?

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

Events

Theatre production examines violence and morality

This semester, Lewis & Clark’s Department of Theatre explores the tragic sacrifice of innocent life in both ancient and contemporary contexts. The Department of Theatre presents Euripides’ Iphigeneia at Aulis and Neil Labute’s Bash on a double bill in five performances on March 9, 10, 15, 16, and 17 at 7:30 p.m. at Fir Acres Theatre.

Iphigeneia at Aulis, the last of Euripides’ surviving works, recounts the events leading to the sacrifice of Iphigeneia, daughter of the Greek leader Agamemnon, on the eve of the Trojan War. Bash, by Neil Labute, is a set of monologues that explore the decisions of contemporary individuals to participate in similar acts of destruction. Both plays pose difficult questions about violence, power, ambition, and the nature of moral decision-making.

The performances feature a cast of 22 Lewis & Clark students, including an a cappella chorus. The plays are directed by Stephen Weeks, associate professor of theatre. Michael Olich, associate professor of theatre, designed sets and costumes. Peter West, adjunct faculty member, designed lighting. Musical direction is by Chris Hubbard.

Tickets are $10 for general admission. Admission for Lewis & Clark employees and alumni, seniors, and non-Lewis & Clark students is $7. Admission for Lewis & Clark students is $5. Box office hours are Monday through Friday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and one hour before performances. Only non-Lewis & Clark ticket purchasers may purchase tickets by phone; extension 7495.

Global AIDS summit

Lewis & Clark’s first annual Global AIDS summit takes place from Monday, March 12, through Thursday, March 15. All events are free and open to the campus community.

Biology of Disease:

Senior Thesis Presentation

Creating a Cause, Creating Advocacy

HIV in Zimbabwe

Facing the Disease

The summit is sponsored by Lewis & Clark United Sexualities. For more information, call extension 8530.

Lecture explores ecology and apocalypse

Barbara R. Rossing, professor of New Testament at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, will give a presentation titled “Ecology and Apocalypse: Is This the End of the World?” Rossing is this year’s Robert B. Pamplin Jr. Society of Fellows Distinguished Visiting Scholar. Sponsored by the Dr. Robert B. Pamplin Jr. Society, the event will be held in Council Chamber on Tuesday, March 13, at 7:30 p.m. and is free and open to the campus community.

Rossing holds a Th.D. from Harvard Divinity School, an M.Div. from Yale Divinity School, and a B.A. in geology from Carleton College. She is the author of The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation (2004), featured on CBS’s Sixty Minutes as a critique of fundamentalist Left Behind theology. She is also the author of The Choice Between Two Cities: Whore, Bride, and Empire in the Apocalypse (1999) and a forthcoming book on ecology and apocalypse. Rossing has appeared on the National Geographic Channel, the History Channel, ABC World News Tonight With Peter Jennings, and several radio shows.

For more information, call extension 7960.

Law school group hosts conference on environmental justice

The impact of environmental degradation often hits low-income and minority populations hardest. The Environmental Justice Advocates is a law school student group that formed to draw attention to local environmental justice issues. The group is hosting its second annual conference, “Environmental Justice: Is It All Talk?” on Saturday, March 17, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. The conference is free.

“We started out with a mission to educate our members and the Lewis & Clark Law School community about the disparate impacts of environmental contamination and resulting health effects on low-income and minority communities,” said law student Jamie Magdovitz J.D. ’07, conference coordinator and member of Environmental Justice Advocates at Lewis & Clark Law School. “As the student interest, national interest, legal practice, and scholarship for environmental justice has grown, our mission has expanded to include working with the local communities to eliminate those disparities and to educate the Portland community.”

The conference will address tribal environmental justice issues, the legal framework for environmental justice, and environmental justice in the emerging green economy. Local environmental justice groups will provide updates on their work in the community. Conference presenters are scheduled to include local, regional, and national environmental justice practitioners such as Jeri Sundvall-Williams, Sylvia Evans, and Deb Abrahamson. The Environmental Justice Action Group and the Audubon Society of Portland cosponsor the conference.

Magdovitz cites data from a recent Multnomah County Health Department study identifying one of many local environmental justice issues. According to the study, the asthma rate in Northeast Portland is twice that of the national average. “It is important to us that we address how the law can solve problems for the community, discover the barriers to their using the law as a tool, and find ways—as lawyers and lawyers in training—to be better advocates,” she said.

For a complete schedule of events, visit www.lclark.edu/org/eja/conference.html. On-site registration begins at 8:30 a.m. at the Moore Street Community Center located at 5325 N. Williams Avenue in Portland.

William Stafford Center workshop explores the literature of Greece

This semester, William Stafford Center presents a series of workshops that will provide literary adventures for all travelers, actual and armchair. Participants will explore the cultures of England, Mexico, Greece, and Ireland through selected writers and their work. The third workshop, which focuses on Greece, takes place March 17 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Paul Merchant, who will lead the workshop, is director of the William Stafford Archives. Former Greek Government scholar at the University of Athens, he has published two volumes of translations from modern Greek. Merchant is the author of a study of epic literature, and has also edited books of Elizabethan drama.

The Greeks have one of the oldest continuous poetic traditions in the world, stretching from the birth of European poetry to the present. According to Merchant, contemporary Greek poets are deeply aware of this tradition and are always conscious of their predecessors. In the spirit of this tradition, workshop participants will spend the first half of the day reading and discussing samples of classics from ancient Greek literature. In the afternoon, the group will briefly consider medieval Greek folk lyrics. Participants will then concentrate on the giants of modern Greek poetry, including recent Nobel Prize–winners Giorgos Seferis and Odysseus Elytis.

This workshop, like the others in the series, is open to the public. The fee is $80. For more information, visit http://graduate. lclark.edu/dept/ wilstaff/readingcult. html or call extension 6160.

Richard Drayton gives Throckmorton lecture

Richard Drayton is a leading historian of European overseas expansion, imperialism, and the intersection of knowledge and power that shaped the modern world. He will deliver this year’s Throckmorton Lecture in History, “Hybrid Time: The Incomplete Victories of the Present Over the Past,” on Monday, March 19, at 3:15 p.m., in Council Chamber. The talk is free and open to the public.

Drayton is university senior lecturer in imperial and extra-European history at Cambridge University and a fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He specializes in the transnational histories of imperialism and anti-imperialism. In particular, he examines the political, economic, cultural, and environmental histories of British and French expansion as well as the regional experience of the Caribbean. Drayton earned his B.A. from Harvard University, his M.A. from Balliol College at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar, and his Ph.D. from Yale University. He has been awarded Britain’s prestigious Leverhulme Prize for history and is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

The Throckmorton lecture was established in 1963 to commemorate the life and work of Arthur L. Throckmorton, a professor of history at Lewis & Clark who died unexpectedly in 1962. Each year the series brings a distinguished historian to campus to lecture and to meet with faculty and students. For more information, call extension 7451.

Hawai’i Club hosts annual lu’au

The College’s Hawai’i Club hosts its annual lu’au on Saturday, April 7. This year’s event titled “Na wai ho`i ka `ole o ke akamai, he alanui i ma`a i ka hele `ia e o`u mau makua," meaning, "Who would not be wise on a path walked upon by my ancestors," features a night of Hawaiian food, music, and performances. The lu’au is in Pamplin Sports Center; dinner starts at 4:45 p.m. and the show begins at 6:30 p.m.

The event features a buffet-style Hawaiian feast, Hawaiian, Maori, Tahitian and Samoan dances, and a special performance by graduating seniors. The lu’au is chaired by Lauren Oshima ’07 and Koy Collier ’09.

General admission tickets are $18 at the door; $9 for the Lewis & Clark community; $5 for children age 6 to 12; and free for children age 5 and under. For more information, call extension 7122.

Upcoming

Visit the campus Web calendar for events coming up in March and April.

About Campus Connections

Campus Connections is published every other week on the Web for the faculty and staff of Lewis & Clark College during the academic year. Campus Connections is published monthly during the summer.

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