Lelia Hynson Pavilion Suffers Extensive Damage After Fire

Chestertown, MD, September 30, 2002 — The Lelia Hynson Pavilion, part of the College's waterfront facilities, suffered extensive damage in a fire early Sunday morning, September 29th. At approximately 3 a.m. a passing motorist reported seeing flames. The Chestertown Fire Department arrived on the scene at 3:10 and battled the blaze until it was extinguished at approximately 4:30 a.m. The damage to the facility is very significant.
Washington College Public Safety officers had been on the scene earlier at 11 p.m. Saturday evening after the conclusion of a student gathering. The officers returned to the Pavilion at 1:20 a.m. making routine rounds, and did not observe anything out of the ordinary during those visits. Preliminary reports suggest the fire may have been electrical in origin but investigation is ongoing. The Pavilion will be closed for the foreseeable future.
No one was injured as a result of the fire.

The Race To Save The Monitor: A Maritime History Lecture At Washington College October 10th

Chestertown, MD, September 27, 2002 — Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience and Sultana Projects, Inc., present THE RACE TO SAVE THE MONITOR, a maritime history lecture by John Broadwater, Ph.D., Manager of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. The lecture will be held Thursday, October 10, 2002, at 7:30 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

The Civil War brought many advances in weaponry, including naval technology, and the U.S.S. Monitor represented a radical departure from traditional warship design. Powered by steam alone and constructed almost exclusively of iron, the ship's novel low-profile design, heavy armor and revolving gun turret set the stage for modern naval warfare. With the exception of her famous engagement with the Confederate ironclad Virginia at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, the Monitor's brief career was uneventful, and shortly after midnight on December 31, 1862, the Monitor sank in a gale off Cape Hatteras, lost at sea less than a year after her launch. But the Monitor did not fail to impress ship designers and naval personnel around the world: the U.S. Navy built more than 60 Monitor-type vessels during the Civil War, and similar ships were built in other countries.

Dr. Broadwater is the Chief Scientist of the Monitor Expedition 2002 and has been the Manager of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary since 1992. A diver since 1969, Dr. Broadwater has participated in shipwreck dives and investigations throughout the United States and in more than a dozen countries. He also volunteered his services as an archaeologist for expeditions to the Monitor in 1974, 1979 and 1983. Between 1978 and 1989, as Senior Underwater Archaeologist of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, he directed the Yorktown Shipwreck Archaeological Project, which culminated with the complete excavation of a British ship sunk during the last major battle of the American Revolution. A well-known author and lecturer, Dr. Broadwater wrote “Secrets of a Yorktown Shipwreck” for the June 1988 issue of National Geographic, and the book Kwajalein, Lagoon of Found Ships, which chronicles shipwreck investigations in the Marshall Islands. On August 5 of this year, under his direction, the Monitor Expedition successfully raised the ship's unique 160-ton turret from 240 feet of water off of Cape Hatteras. The turret is now submerged in a special tank at The Mariners' Museum in Newport News, VA, in order to slow its decay and to allow special research and preservation measures. Dr. Broadwater's lecture will describe the efforts being taken and what remains to be done to save and to preserve the historic Monitor.

Dr. Broadwater's lecture is the third in a four-part Maritime Lecture Series sponsored by the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience in partnership with Sultana Projects, an organization that provides unique, hands-on educational experiences in colonial history and environmental science on board Chestertown's reproduction 18th Century Schooner Sultana. The series will conclude November 7, 2002, with a lecture by Lisa Norling, author of Captain Ahab Had a Wife: New England Women and the Whalefishery, 1720-1870, discussing the role of women in the American whaling industry. Look for coming announcements or contact Kees deMooy, Program Manager for the C.V. Starr Center, at 410-810-7156, or visit http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu for a complete program of events.

Novelist John Vernon To Read From His Works September 26th

Chestertown, MD, September 24, 2002 — Washington College's O'Neill Literary House and Sophie Kerr Committee welcome American novelist John Vernon, author of, among other books, LaSalle, Peter Doyle, A Book of Reasons, and, most recently, The Last Canyon. Vernon will read from his works Thursday, September 26, 2002, at 4:30 p.m. in the Sophie Kerr Room, Miller Library. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

Born in Cambridge, MA, Vernon attended Boston College and received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis. Currently, he teaches creative writing, modern literature and literature of the American West at the State University of New York, Binghamton. His latest novel, The Last Canyon a novel set in 1869 that follows the ill-fated journey of a Civil War veteran and nine companions who explore the length of the Colorado River from Wyoming to the Grand Canyon has garnered critical praise in the genre of historical fiction.

Expert To Discuss Abstract Expressionism In The Art World And The Civil Rights Movement October 9

Chestertown, MD, September 24, 2002 — Washington College's Department of Art, the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience and the Goldstein Program in Public Affairs present COMPETING INTERPRETATIONS OF ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM IN THE ART WORLD AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, a lecture by author, art historian and activist David L. Craven, Ph.D., Wednesday, October 9, 2002, at 4:30 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

A professor of art history at the University of New Mexico and a member of the Interdisciplinary Board of the university's Latin American Institute, Dr. Craven is an expert in Critical Theory, as well as in 19th- and 20th-century art and culture of Latin America, the United States and Europe. He has written catalog essays for several museums both in the United States and abroad. These include Mythmaking in the McCarthy Period for the Tate Gallery in England (1992); an essay for the Norman Lewis exhibition at the Studio Museum in Harlem, NY (1998); and an essay for the show La Rebelión Informalista: 1939-1968 at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía of Madrid (1999). In addition, he has written over 100 articles and reviews and, at present, serves on the international advisory board of the journals ArtefFacto and Third Text. His recent books include Abstract Expressionism and the Cultural Logic of Romantic Anti-Capitalism: Dissent during the McCarthy Period (Cambridge University Press, 1999) and Art and Revolution in Latin America, 1910-1990 (Yale University Press, 2002).

Pianist Scott Beard To Open Concert Series October 9

Chestertown, MD, September 24, 2002 — The 51st season of the Washington College Concert Series will open Wednesday, October 9, 2002, with a performance by pianist Scott Beard. The concert begins at 8 p.m. in the Tawes Theatre, Daniel Z. Gibson Performing Arts Center, on the campus of Washington College.

Scott Beard is coordinator of Keyboard Studies at Shepard College in Shepherdstown, WV, and holds a degree in piano performance from Peabody Conservatory and the University of Maryland. Beard has performed to critical acclaim as a recital and orchestral soloist throughout the United States, Canada, England, Ireland and France. He specializes in the music of famed nineteenth-century pedagogue Theodor Leschetizky and has released a CD recording, Leschetizky: Piano Treasures. His second recording is an all-Chopin CD titled Chopin: Poet of the Piano.

A champion of French music, Beard has participated for many years in the France Piano Internationale Festival and Competition held at the Schola Cantorum. At the 1994 Festival he received the Rousell Foundation prize for the best performance of that composer's works. In July 1998 and in 2000 he was awarded the jury prize for the best performance of a work by a French composer as well as the jury prize for Baroque music.

For ticket information and a 2002-2003 Washington College Concert Series season brochure, call 410-778-7839 or 800-422-1782, ext. 7839. Season tickets are available for $50.00 per person, and individual tax-deductible patron sponsorships begin at $75.00. Single tickets at the door are $15.00 for adults and $5.00 for youth and students. Season tickets can be purchased by check or money order through the mail from the Washington College Concert Series, 300 Washington Avenue, Chestertown, MD 21620-1197.

Everclear To Perform At Washington College's Lifetime Fitness Center October 5

Chestertown, MD, September 18, 2002 — Everclear, the Portland-based alternarockers, will perform Saturday, October 5, 2002, at 8 pm. in Washington College's Lifetime Fitness Center. Doors open at 7 p.m. Special guest to be announced. Tickets are $25 for general admission and are on sale now through all TICKETMASTER locations, or by calling TICKETMASTER at 800-551-SEAT.

Everclear—fronted by the irrepressible Art Alexakis—debuted in 1993 with the release of World of Noise. Widespread popular success followed when the band signed with Capitol Records and released Sparkle and Fade in 199), kick starting the band's career. In 1997 So Much for the Afterglow rocketed the band into stratospheric heights and sold over two million copies in the United States alone. Afterglow put them in the Top Five of Billboard magazine's Modern Rock Tracks chart three times for the songs “Everything to Anyone,” “I Will Buy You a New Life” and “Father of Mine.”

In 1998, the band was chosen “Alternative Artist of the Year” and won Billboard's “Modern Rock Artist of the Year” award. The year 1999 brought them a Grammy nomination in the Rock Instrumental category for “El Distorto de Melodica.” Their remake of Thin Lizzy's1970's black-t-shirt-mall-rat classic, “The Boys Are Back in Town,” was featured on the soundtrack to Detroit Rock City. In 2000, the Portland-based trio released the pop-inflected Songs From An American Movie, Vol. 1: Learning How To Smile (earning platinum) followed later that year by a harder-rocking companion, Songs From An American Movie, Vol. 2: Good Time For A Bad Attitude. Washington College is their first stop on a fall 2002 tour.

The concert has been organized by the Washington College Student Events Board and the Student Government Association.

Washington College's Center For The Environment And Society To Develop Rural Communities Leadership Program 2002-2003

Pilot Program Will Support Sustainable Rural Economy, Character for the Shore

Chestertown, MD, September 17, 2002 — The W. K. Kellogg Foundation has awarded Washington College a grant of $100,000 to develop a Rural Communities Leadership Program for the Eastern Shore of Maryland. To be conducted by the College's Center for the Environment and Society in collaboration with the University of Maryland's Institute for Governmental Service, the pilot program, beginning this fall, will become a model for creating and sustaining local leadership in order to encourage and to maintain the rural character, resource-economy and heritage of the Shore.

Widely recognized as a unique environmental and cultural region, the Eastern Shore has been a major agricultural area since Colonial times (the landscape is currently comprised of 53 percent productive farmland), but its proximity to the growing sprawl of the Washington-Baltimore-Philadelphia corridor has brought related pressures to covert its rural land for development.

“Our region faces the prospect of losing its rural economy and its abundant natural resources due to developmental pressures,” said Dr. Wayne Bell, who is overseeing the project as the Director of the Center for the Environment and Society at Washington College. “The hope is that through the Rural Communities Leadership Program, we can promote the smartest of the smart growth for our region through a network of leaders who represent and are stakeholders of the Eastern Shore's communities.” This network will be grassroots, explained Bell, comprising people from various sectors of the Eastern Shore region—farmers, watermen, community planners, environmentalists, developers and builders, and business people—who understand the region's special sense of place and can coordinate their activities on a regional and local level.

A Community Forum scheduled for November 23, 2002, will launch the pilot program, by identifying and recommending the participants for the initial leadership program council. Beginning in January 2003, participants will meet monthly to deliberate on issues such as economics, community character, the environment and natural resources. In addition, participants will make at least one field trip to see first-hand how other communities have confronted and resolved similar challenges to those facing the Shore. As a pilot study, the participants will assist in evaluating the individual classes and overall program.

“There are two beneficial, long-term results from these leaderships programs,” said Dr. Philip Favero of the Institute for Governmental Service, who will serve at the Program's day-to-day coordinator. “First, individuals' skills and knowledge in the various issues affecting rural communities, from development to the environment, will be increased and enhanced. Secondly, and equally important, are the trusting, cooperative relationships developed between the participants that carry beyond the classes into the communities and their professional positions. This is a longer-term outcome, but one that is absolutely essential so that the knowledge gained will be the basis of region-wide action, policy and planning.”

Washington College students, joined by selected registrants from the Washington College Academy for Lifelong Learning—the college-affiliated adult education program—will participate in the Rural Communities Leadership Program through a special course, “Sustaining Rural Communities,” during the spring 2003 semester. The course and project will be integrated in several ways, but the key will be having the class meet with the program council once a month.

“This project is an example of expanded community engagement of Washington College,” said Bell. “It is a two-way endeavor that creates a professional academic resource for the Eastern Shore and enables students to learn first-hand about outside issues that will challenge them after their graduation.”

The $100,000 grant for this pilot program was W. K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, MI. Established in 1930 by W.K. Kellogg, the cereal industry pioneer, the Foundation has continuously focused on building the capacity of and enabling individuals, communities, and institutions to solve their own problems.

Of Piracy And Privateers: A Maritime History Lecture At Washington College September 19

Chestertown, MD, September 10, 2002 — The C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College presents "The Pirate and the Gallows; or, A Tale of Two Terrors," a lecture by Marcus Rediker, Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh, Thursday, September 19, 2002 at 7.30 p.m. in Washington College's Hynson Lounge. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

Rediker is the author of Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Merchant Seamen, Pirates, and the Anglo-American Maritime World, 1700-1750, and, with Peter Linebaugh, The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic. He is the recipient of the American Studies Association's John Hope Franklin Prize, the Organization of American Historians' Merle Curti Social History Award, and most recently, the International Labor History Award.

Rediker's lecture is the second in a four-part Maritime Lecture Series sponsored by the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience in partnership with Sultana Projects, an organization that provides unique, hands-on educational experiences in colonial history and environmental science on board Chestertown's reproduction 18th Century Schooner Sultana. The series will continue this fall with a lecture October 10, 2002, by John Broadwater, internationally known underwater archaeologist and manager of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, established to preserve the sunken ironclad U.S.S. Monitor; and a lecture November 7, 2002, by Lisa Norling, author of Captain Ahab Had a Wife: New England Women and the Whalefishery, 1720-1870, discussing the role of women in the American whaling industry.

Look for coming announcements or contact Kees deMooy, Program Manager for the C.V. Starr Center, at 410-810-7156, or visit online at http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu for a complete program of events and times.

Need To Get A "Life After Liberal Arts"? Here's How

Chestertown, MD, September 3, 2002 — The Washington College Alumni Council will host its Fall LIFE AFTER LIBERAL ARTS (LALA) symposium on Saturday, September 14, 2002, at 2:00 p.m. in the Hodson Hall Study Lounge. LALA programs are designed to bring to current Washington College students and graduates a panel of successful alumni who share their experience and relate the factors that influenced their career paths and goals. This Fall's LALA panel will feature alumni in the fields of environmental education, lobbying, and estate and financial planning. The public is invited to this free event.

Erin O'Neal '91 is Director of Education for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Working from the Foundation's Philip Merrill Environmental Center in Annapolis, MD, O'Neal is responsible for training field staff educators and planning summer courses for teachers on the Chesapeake Bay. An American Studies major, O'Neal's first job after graduation was as assistant field hockey and lacrosse coach at Towson State University. She currently serves on the College's Visiting Committee.

Alumna Brigid Kolish '98 is a legislative assistant for Van Scoyoc Associates, Inc., where she supports clients in healthcare and biomedical research and their related funding issues. Before joining VSA, Kolish served as a legislative assistant for appropriations in the office of Representative Alan B. Mollohan, a senior Democratic member of the House Appropriations Committee from West Virginia. During her three years with Rep. Mollohan, Kolish managed his work on the Commerce, Justice, State and the Judiciary; and District of Columbia Subcommittees while tracking the Agriculture and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Bills. Before joining Mollohan's staff, Kolish, a native of Baltimore, interned for Maryland State Senator Perry Sfikas during the 1998 Maryland General Assembly. She earned a bachelor's degree in business management from Washington College, where she served as president of the Student Government Association. She is currently a member of the College's Alumni Council.

Geoffrey M. Rogers '80 earned his bachelor's in political science and served as a class president and member of the SGA while at Washington College. He is currently executive vice president and director of Delaware operations for The Glenmede Trust Company, N.A., where he oversees the day-to-day operations of Glenmede's Delaware office, which he launched in June 1999. Rogers brings more than 18 years of estate planning and financial services experience to this position, and prior to joining Glenmede, he served as vice president for Scudder Private Investment Counsel, responsible for new business development. Rogers has also served as a vice president with the Wilmington Trust Company, and Delaware Trust Company. In addition to serving on a number of professional organizations, he is President of the Board of Trustees for Sanford School, Chairman of the National Foundation of Open Space and Facade Preservation, and Director of the Delaware Council on Economic Education. He and his wife, Sheryl, are the parents of freshman Geoffrey Rogers, a member of the Class of 2006.