Whose Line Is It Anyway? TV Comedy Trio To Perform At Washington College April 13

Chestertown, MD, March 28, 2003 — If you enjoy ABC's Whose Line Is It Anyway? , then you will not want to miss “A Night of Improv”—featuring the comedy talents of Colin Mochrie, Brad Sherwood and Chip Esten—Sunday, April 13 at Washington College's Lifetime Fitness Center, 300 Washington Ave., Chestertown. Doors open at 7 p.m. General admission tickets are $20 per person and can be purchased through all TICKETMASTER locations, by calling TICKETMASTER at 800-551-SEAT, or at the door on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Comedian Colin Mochrie is an alumnus of Toronto's famous Second City and spent a great part of his early career in improvisational theater. He later went on to star in such popular stage productions as She Stoops to Conquer and The Brady Bunch. Mochrie continues his 11-year association with the long-running British improvisational comedy series, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, in addition to its American counterpart, and has been featured in numerous other Canadian and British television series and telefilms including John Woo's Once a Thief; Love, Sex and Other Natural Disasters, and The Outer Limits. In addition to his work in television and theater, Mochrie has been featured in the films Numbers, starring John Travolta, The Real Blonde, January Man, and Foolish Heart.

Viewers may best remember Brad Sherwood from the sketch comedy series The Newz or as a love-struck nanny on LA Law. Sherwood has appeared on numerous variety programs, such as The Tonight Show, The Big Moment, It's Garry Shandling's Show,Guess TV, and The Dave Thomas Show. Most recently, he hosted a season of The Dating Game. His motion picture credits include That Darn Cat, Night Caller and Attack of the 5'2" Woman.

Another veteran of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Chip Esten has also been seen on television's Party of Five,The Trouble With Normal, Providence, Star Trek Voyager and Married with Children. Esten's film credits include The Postman and 13 Days.

This comedy concert has been organized by the Washington College Student Events Board and Student Government Association. For more information about concerts and events at Washington College, visit the College website at www.washcoll.edu for regularly posted information and updates.

Voyage Of Discovery: Author Nathaniel Philbrick To Discuss First U.S. Scientific Sailing Expedition April 15

Chestertown, MD, March 28, 2003 — Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, the Center for the Environment and Society, and Sultana Projects, Inc., present Nathaniel Philbrick, author of the bestseller In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, speaking on his forthcoming book, Sea of Glory: The United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842, on Tuesday, April 15 at 7:30 p.m. in the College's Tawes Theatre. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

Philbrick's talk will present his research on the historic United States Exploring Expedition, an unprecedented voyage of discovery by the American Navy that would do for the Pacific Ocean what Lewis and Clark had done for the American West. Led by the colorful and controversial Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, the man who likely served as the prototype for Herman Melville's Captain Ahab, the expedition charted the South and Central Pacific and Antarctica, and artists on board provided Americans with early glimpses of the flora and fauna of the Pacific islands and American Northwest. The maps produced during the expedition were so accurate that some were still used by Allied forces during World War II. The estimated 40 tons of artifacts and specimens brought back by the expedition became part of the Smithsonian Institution.

Philbrick is Director of the Egan Institute of Maritime Studies on Nantucket Island. His bestselling history, In the Heart of the Sea, was winner of the 2000 National Book Award. His recently released Revenge of the Whale, an account of the Essex disaster for young readers, was named a Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association. A former intercollegiate All-American sailor and North American Sunfish champion, Philbrick has also written extensively about sailing, including The Passionate Sailor (1986), Yachting, A Parody (1984), for which he was editor-in-chief; and Second Wind: A Sunfish Sailor's Odyssey (1999). His other books include Away Off Shore: Nantucket Island and Its People (1994) andAbram's Eyes: The Native American Legacy of Nantucket Island (1998). He has begun work on a new book about the voyage of the Mayflower and the settlement of Plymouth Colony. Philbrick's writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, New York Times Book Review, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and Boston Globe. He has been on NBC Dateline, the Today Show, Today Weekend, The Early Show, The Lehrer News Hour, C-SPAN, the History Channel, A&E's “Biography” series, and National Public Radio. In 2002 he was named the Nathaniel Bowditch Maritime Scholar of the Year by the American Merchant Marine Museum. He has lived on Nantucket with his wife and two children since 1986.

Philbrick's lecture is sponsored by Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, the Center for the Environment, and Sultana Projects, Inc., an organization that provides unique, hands-on educational experiences in colonial history and environmental science on board Chestertown's reproduction 18th century schooner Sultana.

For more information about C. V. Starr Center events and programs, visit the Center online athttp://starrcenter.washcoll.edu, or call 410-810-7156.

Speaker To Discuss Choices And Challenges Faced By Minority Business Women

Chestertown, MD, March 28, 2003 — Washington College presents “CHOICES AND CHALLENGES OF A MINORITY BUSINESS WOMAN,” a lecture by Dr. Adrienne McCollum, President and CEO of Research Assessment Management, Inc., on Wednesday, April 2, at 4:30 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

Dr. McCollum has operated her management consulting firm for 20 years, doing business with the private sector and performing contractual work for a variety of government agencies and organizations, including the Agency for International Development, Department of Transportation, National Institute of Mental Health, Bureau of Education for the Handicapped, the Office of Child Abuse and Neglect, the While House Conference on Aging, the Head Start Bureau, and the United States Postal Service Office of the Inspector General. With a doctorate in education from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and as a minority business woman managing a full-time staff of 45, in addition to numerous contractual consultants, Dr. McCollum understands the importance of teamwork and diversity in modern business and has developed and implemented workshops on “Working In A Diverse Work Force.”

In addition to her other activities, Dr. McCollum teaches at the University of Phoenix and has made presentations at American University, the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority and Benedict College. She has received honors and awards from the Bureau of Education for the Handicapped, the National Council of Negro Women, and the White House Conference on Aging, and she has served on the Board of Trustees of Benedict College for 10 years and on the Board of Directors of the William L Clay Research and Education Scholarship Fund. Dr. McCollum's other business experiences include the ownership of Burger King franchises, and presently, with her spouse Dr. R. Dale McCollum, four gas and convenience stores, and she is currently in the process of patenting a new invention.

Dr. McCollum's talk is sponsored by Washington College's Department of Business Management, the Goldstein Program in Public Affairs, the Campus Events & Visitors Committee, the Black Student Union and Cleopatra's Daughters.

Second Annual Chester River Film Festival April 3-5

Festival Features Experimental Art Films to Local Documentaries

Chestertown, MD, March 21, 2003 — The Kent County Arts Council and the Washington College Friends of the Arts present the Second Annual CHESTER RIVER FILM FESTIVAL, Thursday, April 3 through Saturday, April 5, 2003. This year's festival will feature 26 films showing during the weekend in Washington College's Norman James Theatre and at the Prince Theater in Chestertown. For venue information and viewing times, call the Kent County Arts Council at 410-778-3831. Admission is free and all are invited to attend.

Launched in Spring 2002, the Chester River Film Festival was created to present an eclectic exhibition of independent film and video in all genres—narrative, experimental, documentary and animation—in the enriching historic and cultural atmosphere of Chestertown. Film artists, from established national independent filmmakers to local students, have submitted for this year's festival and some of the films to be featured are:

• “Silver Cities of the Yucatan, the Mason Spinden Expedition.” Footage of an exploration of the Yucatan in the 1920s, creating a narrative that won the 2002 award at the New York Explorers Club.
• “The Prizefight of 1849.” A docudrama about the famous fight at the mouth of Still Pond Creek in Kent County that was the birth of modern boxing in America.
• “Urban Hiker.” A three-minute art-film exploring wildlife in the city.
• “Gift of the Game.” A documentary about a group who revive little league baseball in present day Cuba.
• “Books under Fire.” A look at book-banning in Texas public schools.
• “C-Town Girl.” A narrative produced and directed by Washington College senior Shane Brill featuring a surprise twist and a soundtrack by Chestertown's musical experimentalists, Astralyte.
• “A Chronicle of Corpses.” A lushly detailed early 19th century period piece, concerning the last days of a family of once wealthy aristocrats.

The Chester River Film Festival is made possible by the support of Washington College's Friends of the Arts and the Kent County Arts Council. Founded in 1988, Friends of the Arts is a group of Washington College alumni, faculty, staff, parents and community members working to fund and promote visual and performing arts activities at the College. For additional information about the Friends of the Arts, please contact Ellen Wise at 410-778-7295.

The Kent County Arts Council (KCAC) is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the arts in Kent County, Maryland. Sponsoring dozens of diverse programs annually, it seeks to cultivate a thriving culture for the arts in Upper Shore region. Contact Leslie Prince Raimond at 410-778-3831 for information on KCAC events and programs.

Primate Planet: Conservationist To Discuss The World Of The Orangutan April 24

Chestertown, MD, March 21, 2003 — The Washington College Department of Sociology and Anthropology and the McLain Program in Environmental Studies present “ORANGUTANS IN BORNEO: THE STATE OF THEIR WORLD 2003,” a lecture by Dr. Biruté M. F. Galdikas, president of the Orangutan Foundation International. The talk will be held Thursday, April 24 at 5 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

A world-renowned conservationist and orangutan researcher, Dr. Galdikas left the comforts of modern civilization in 1971 to venture into one of the earth's last wild places, the Tanjung Putting Reserve in Borneo, Indonesia, to study and help save orangutans and their endangered habitat. Through the support of her mentor, the famed anthropologist Dr. Louis Leakey, Dr. Galdikas undertook the first comprehensive study of the wild orangutan, and, by giving 30 years of her life to research and conservation, has helped create one of the last safe havens for orangutans in Borneo.

Featured twice on the cover of National Geographic and author of two books and over 50 scientific articles, Dr. Galdikas is recognized as one of the most important conservation and field researchers of this century. She has been featured in Life magazine, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post and on numerous television documentaries. Her autobiography, Reflections of Eden: My Years with the Orangutans of Borneo, was published in 1995.

In 1986, Dr. Galdikas co-founded the Orangutan Foundation International (OFI) in order to support her research and work in Borneo. Based in Los Angeles, OFI has established chapters in Australia, Indonesia, and the United Kingdom. Since 1971, she has lectured around the world, disseminating information and educational materials about the orangutan and its rainforest environment. Dr. Galdikas is extremely devoted to the Indonesian people and their culture, as well as to the protection of the rainforest and the welfare of orangutans everywhere, and she serves as the director of the Orangutan Care Center and Quarantine Facility in Borneo.

Dr. Galdikas holds a Ph.D. from the University of California and has received numerous honors and awards for her work, including the prestigious “Kalpataru” award, the highest honor given by the Republic of Indonesia for outstanding environmental leadership and activity, as well as the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, the United Nations Global 500 Environmental Award, the Sierra Club Chico Mendes Award, and the PETA Humanitarian Award.

Take Three! Concert Series Brings Chris Brubeck's Triple Play To Washington College May 1

Chestertown, MD, March 20, 2003 — The 51st season of the Washington College Concert Series concludes with a performance by the dynamic musical versatility of Triple Play, Thursday, May 1, at 8 p.m. in the College's Tawes Theatre, Gibson Performing Arts Center. Single tickets at the door are $15.00 for adults and $5.00 for youth and students.

Triple Play is the name given to three outstanding and versatile musicians, Peter “Madcat” Ruth (on harmonica, guitar, jaw harp, percussion and vocals), Joel Brown (folk and classical acoustic guitar and vocals) and Chris Brubeck (electric bass, bass trombone, piano and vocals). Collectively, they bring a rare level of joy, virtuosity, and American spirit to the folk, blues, jazz, funk and classical music they perform.

Although Triple Play is a relatively new group, its musical roots go back to each member's history. Chris and Madcat have toured and recorded together in different settings since 1969, first as young rock musicians and then as jazz musicians touring the world with Dave Brubeck. Chris went on to become co-leader of the group Crofut & Brubeck with the uniquely talented banjo player and folk singer the late Bill Crofut. Joined by Joel Brown, Crofut & Brubeck recorded an astonishing CD called Bach to Brubeck at Abbey Road Studios with the London Symphony Orchestra. This adventurous recording—spanning Bach to Joplin, the blues to Dave Brubeck's jazz—showcased the group's versatility and orchestral arranging skills. When Bill Crofut was diagnosed with cancer in 1998, Madcat—one of the acknowledged masters of the harmonica—filled in and from this eclectic and exciting musical journey Triple Play began.

For ticket information or to be put on the mailing list for information on the upcoming season's performances, call the Washington College Concert Series 410-778-7839.

Political Analyst Kevin Phillips Explores Wealth, Politics And American Democracy April 1

Chestertown, MD, March 17, 2003 — Washington College's Goldstein Program in Public Affairs presents “WEALTH AND DEMOCRACY: POLITICAL CHANGE IN AMERICA,” a lecture by Kevin Phillips, political analyst and author of the New York Times bestseller Wealth and Democracy, Tuesday, April 1, at 7 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge, 7 p.m. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

For more than 30 years, Kevin Phillips' insight into American politics and economics has helped to make history as well as record it. His best-selling books, including The Politics of Rich and Poor (1990), have influenced presidential campaigns and changed the way America sees itself. Now, in Wealth and Democracy, Phillips turns his attention to the United States' history of great wealth and power. Critics have called him a “modern Thomas Paine,” as he explores the ongoing saga of how great wealth is accumulated and how wealth and political power have frequently worked together to create or perpetuate privilege and define national interests and policy. His analysis of present-day America illuminates a politics and corruption with excessive concentration of wealth he sees evident by tax favoritism and selective bailouts in the name of free enterprise, economic stimulus and national security.

Phillips' reputation as America's leading political analyst dates from the success and prophecy of his book The Emerging Republican Majority which was written in 1967, used in the 1968 GOP presidential campaign and published in 1969. The New York Times Book Review noted in 1993 that “through more than 25 years of analysis and prediction, nobody has been as transcendentally right about the outlines of American political change” than Phillips. Philips is the former editor-publisher of The American Political Report, a contributing columnist for the Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal, and a regular commentator for National Public Radio. He was a commentator for CBS TV News at the 1984, 1988, and 1992 Democratic and Republican National conventions. Phillips' other books include, The Cousins Wars and Arrogant Capital.

The talk is sponsored by Washington College's Goldstein Program in Public Affairs, established in honor of the late Louis L. Goldstein, 1935 alumnus and Maryland's longest serving elected official. The Goldstein Program sponsors lectures, symposia, visiting fellows, travel and other projects that bring students and faculty together with leaders in public policy and the media.

College Announces Tuition Increase For 2003-2004 Academic Year

Chestertown, MD, March 13, 2003 — Washington College has announced a $1,500 rise in the cost of tuition for full-time students for the 2003-2004 academic year. The increase brings the total cost of tuition to $24,240 per year, or 5% over total charges for the current year. The new tuition rate will be affective for the 2003-2004 academic year beginning this fall.

The College's Board of Visitors and Governors approved the tuition increase at its February meeting. All of the increase has been applied to the cost of tuition ($24,240) with basic charges for Room ($2,600) and Board ($3,140), and the Student Fee ($560), being held constant.

"Recent months have brought much news in the regional and national media regarding public colleges and universities instituting increases in tuition charges," said Dr. John S. Toll, President of Washington College. "Like those institutions, the same economic pressures affect us, but we anticipate that our percentage increase in total charges will be considerably lower than that at many institutions. In fact, the University System of Maryland was forced to institute a mid-year increase in tuition of 5% at most campuses, with more likely to come, and many independent colleges and universities have already announced plans to increase charges by 7% or more for the coming year. Although our 5% increase is hardly welcome news, we hope that in the larger context it will be viewed as a determination on our part to keep increases as low as possible without forcing the institution to cut core programs and the quality of the education offered to our students."

Although college tuition costs can appear daunting, President Toll noted, he assures prospective students and their parents that Washington College's Office of Student Financial Aid stands ready to counsel students and their families on opportunities for scholarships and loans.

Strings Attached: Tea & Talk Series Welcomes Poet & Harpist Meredith Hadaway March 18

Chestertown, MD, March 13, 2003 — Washington College's O'Neill Literary House Tea & Talk Series continues its spring lecture series on Tuesday, March 18 at 4 p.m. with “Strings Attached,” a poetry reading and Celtic harp performance by Meredith Davies Hadaway, Vice President for College Relations at Washington College. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

Hadaway has played the harp in local and regional venues, and has traveled to Ireland as a guest artist for the Clifden (Connemara) Community Arts festival. She is currently a candidate for a Master of Fine Arts degree in poetry from Vermont College.

On April 22, the spring Tea & Talk Series will conclude with a talk by equity actress Polly Kuulei Sommerfeld, a lecturer in drama at Washington College, speaking about “What's Equity Got to Do With It?”, a Q&A focusing on the challenges faced by professional actors.

The Tea & Talk Series provides opportunities for college faculty and staff to share their areas of expertise with the college and with the surrounding community. All talks are held at the O'Neill Literary House on Washington Avenue in Chestertown. Tea is served at 4 p.m.; talks begin at 4:30 p.m. Admission is free.

Speaker Explores The Political And Cultural Symbolism In American Mapmaking

Chestertown, MD, March 12, 2003 — Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience presents “THE GEOGRAPHIC IMAGINATION IN AMERICA: 1880-1950,” a lecture by Susan Schulten, assistant professor of history at the University of Denver. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

The author of the book The Geographical Imagination in America, 1880-1950 (University of Chicago Press, 2001), Schulten will explore how politics, history and culture influenced the study and presentation of geography in America from 1880, when maps first became widely available, to 1950, the beginning of the Cold War. Her research tells the story of Americans beginning to see the world around them, how maps of the historical period represented U.S. attitudes toward the world, and how four influential institutions—publicly available maps and atlases, the National Geographic Society, the American university, and the public school system—conveyed through mapmaking and the teaching of geography the political and cultural ideology of our nation. Publishers Weekly described Schulten's book as “a well-documented account of how politics, history and culture influenced the study and presentation of geography… Theory is wisely balanced by a hodgepodge of odd and interesting facts about maps, politics and American cultural trends.”

For more information about C. V. Starr Center events and programs, visit the Center online at http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu, or call 410-810-7156.

New College Guide Lauds Washington College

Chestertown, MD, March 11, 2003 — Washington College has been ranked 9th among “100 Colleges That Are Better Than You Think” in the new college guide, Harvard Schmarvard: Getting Beyond the Ivy League to the College That Is Best for You, authored by Washington Post columnist and education reporter Jay Mathews and just released by Prima Publishing.

Mathews compiled his list of 100 colleges that deserve a closer look by America's college-bound students based on interviews and a survey of high school guidance counselors and teachers around the country.

“I have spent much of this book deriding the notion that successful marketing equals academic excellence and reminding readers that they should choose colleges based not on fame, but whether the schools fulfill their personal desires and dreams,” writes Mathews. He conducted his survey, he explains, by asking “counselors and teachers to tell me what their graduates, dropping by for a visit, had told them about under-appreciated schools. Each was asked to name as many as ten schools that had proven to be much better than their small reputations would suggest.”

With the results of this survey, Mathews compiled his list of “100 schools that deserve more attention than they are getting.” Ranking Washington College 9th in the national survey, Harvard Schmarvard found noteworthy the College's pre-med program and its ability to place its students in medical schools; its popular Washington Scholars program guaranteeing $10,000 annual tuition scholarships for National Honor Society students; and its “solid liberal arts education” on “an elegant and petite campus.”

“We are very proud to be recognized in this new college guide,” said Dr. John S. Toll, President of Washington College. “It validates the unique, engaged-learning experience that we offer our students, exemplified in the close student-teacher interaction and research that we maintain across the curriculum.”

Recent months also have seen Washington College move from Tier III to Tier II in the national liberal arts and sciences colleges rankings in the 2003 U.S. News and World Report America's Best Colleges guide.

Sophie Kerr Weekend March 21-22: Novelist Tim O'Brien To Speak March 21

In the spirit of the writer and her gift that established the nation's largest undergraduate literary prize, the Sophie Kerr Weekend at Washington College welcomes award-winning author Tim O'Brien to the College's Norman James Theatre, Friday, March 21, at 4 p.m.

Known for his gripping novels about the Vietnam War experience, O'Brien will read from his works with a book-signing to follow.

This a free event and the public is invited to attend. Learn more about the Sophie Kerr Legacyat Washington College.

Author Chris Bolgiano To Speak On Appalachian Forests March 19, Read From Her Works March 20

Chestertown, MD, March 7, 2003 — Washington College's Center for the Environment and Society announces the next event in the popular Journeys Home Lecture Series. Author and environmentalist Chris Bolgiano will speak on “The Appalachian Forest: A Search for Sustainability,” Wednesday, March 19, 2003, at 7:30 p.m. in Easton's historic Avalon Theatre. On Thursday, March 20, she will also give a 12:30 p.m. luncheon reading from her works, titled “A Field Guide to Home,” at Washington College's O'Neill Literary House. Tickets are required for the Avalon Theatre lecture. The Washington College event is free and open to the public, and a complimentary lunch is included, but seating is limited. Please call 410-810-7151 by March 13 to reserve a place.

Bolgiano has spent years studying the globally unique Appalachian Forest. Through slides and readings, she will tell the stories of people and places that illuminate what “sustainable” really means in our postindustrial woodlands. Born in Germany, Bolgiano grew up in the Washington, D.C. suburbs and received an undergraduate degree in history and a graduate degree in library science from the University of Maryland. She currently serves as adjunct professor for rare books and manuscripts at James Madison University while pursuing her freelance writing. She has written travel articles for the New York Times and The Washington Post, investigative reports for a wide variety of environmental magazines, and nature essays for various anthologies. Her first book, Mountain Lion: An Unnatural History of Pumas and People (1995), examined the interactions between cougars and people across North America. Her second book, The Appalachian Forest: A Search for Roots and Renewal (1998), recounts the natural and cultural histories of the southern Appalachian region, and garnered a prize from the Southern Environmental Law Center. Bolgiano continues to explore how modern society can achieve harmony with the natural world and has just finished a book on sustainable forestry called Living In The Appalachian Forest.

Journeys Home is collaboration between the Center for the Environment and Society, Adkins Arboretum, Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, and Maryland Center for Agro-Ecology, Inc. Tickets to the Avalon lecture may be purchased at the door or by contacting the Adkins Arboretum at 410-634-2847.

To learn more about educational events and program sponsored by the Washington College Center for the Environment and Society, visit the center online at http://ces.washcoll.edu or call 410-810-7151.

Washington College Hosts Alternative Futures Weekend April 4-5

Forum to Focus on Scenario Planning for a Delmarva Conservation Corridor

Chestertown, MD, March 7, 2003 — Washington College will sponsor and host its first Alternatives Futures Weekend Forum titled “CHOOSING FUTURE LANDSCAPES FOR THE DELMARVA PENINSULA: THE ROLE OF A CONSERVATION CORRIDOR,” Friday and Saturday, April 4-5, 2003, on its campus in Chestertown. Delmarva farmers, environmentalists, business people, community planners and concerned citizens are encouraged to attend the weekend forums, on one or both days, and participate in a scenario planning process to examine land use alternatives for the region that can help preserve its unique character, environment and sense of place.

Registration is required to participate. Interested individuals and organizations can learn more about the Alternative Futures Weekend, and complete the online questionnaire and registration form, by visiting http://ces.washcoll.edu.

As a result of an initiative led by U. S. Representative Wayne Gilchrest, a provision of the recently enacted federal Farm Bill establishes a demonstration program under which the U.S. Department of Agriculture may approve Conservation Corridor Plans designed and submitted by state and local governments on the Delmarva Peninsula. This program provides an opportunity to improve land conservation on the peninsula while, at the same time, increasing the economic viability and sustainability of agriculture and fostering orderly and responsible development.

Washington College believes that its new Alternative Futures Forum is an appropriate initiative to facilitate the design and planning of a Conservation Corridor. “The College's role will be limited to that of a facilitator and host, and will not advocate any particular outcome or means of reaching an outcome,” said Dr. John Toll, President of the College. “Rather, Washington College's role will be to assist concerned and interested citizens of the Delmarva Peninsula in systematically examining alternative futures and the role that a Conservation Corridor can play in achieving a desirable future for the unique environmental and cultural region that we share.”

“There is no doubt that the landscape of the Delmarva Peninsula is changing,” said David Shaw, visiting scholar of environmental studies and project coordinator of the College's Alternatives Futures Forum. “The traditional working landscape of agriculture, forestry and Chesapeake Bay watershed supporting small towns and rural communities is increasingly under pressure from low farm commodity prices and from residential development. The people of the peninsula can influence the future, but only if we carefully consider our alternatives and work together toward reaching and implementing consensus goals for that future.” The Alternative Futures Forum will employ the well-developed scenarios planning technique, explained Shaw, to create “visions” of possible futures for Delmarva.

“Scenarios are powerful ways of mapping out probable pathways to the future, but they are not predictions,” he said. “They are stories of how the future might play out. While scenarios do not predict the future, a well-constructed group of scenarios will contain most, if not all, of the probable aspects of the future and will highlight the key variables that will push the actual future toward or away from elements of the various scenarios.”

Each day of the Alternative Futures Weekend will begin with welcoming remarks and an introduction scenario planning. Then, the participants will divide into three groups to explore separately the consequences of the three scenarios and to consider for each scenario how best to design and to implement a Conservation Corridor to support a vision for the future of the Delmarva Peninsula. At the end of each day all participants will gather to share their results and findings. The scenarios will then be shared with Congressman Gilchrest and other leaders to optimize Federal support for the future development of the Eastern Shore.

For more information and registration information, visit http://ces.washcoll.edu/af, or call Jean Sucharewicz at Washington College's Custom House, 410-810-7161.

Alexander Stille, Acclaimed New Yorker Writer, To Speak On “The Future Of The Past” March 31

Chestertown, MD, March 4, 2003 — On Monday, March 31, at 7:30 p.m., Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience presents “The Future of the Past,” a lecture by Alexander Stille, author of the recent book of that title and frequent contributor to New Yorker magazine. Stille will discuss the provocative thesis of his latest book, in which he ranged across the globe to portray how cultures worldwide are losing touch with their own history. The event will be held in the College's Hynson Lounge. It is free and open to the public. A book-signing will follow the lecture.

“Our society is in the midst of a fundamental rupture with the past,” Stille says. Although modern technology – such as carbon-dating and genetic research – makes it easier to recover some historical data than ever before, he observes, technology and its byproducts also “threaten to destroy in a few generations monuments and works of art that have survived thousands of years of war, revolution, famine, and pestilence.” His research for his book – which began as a series of New Yorkerarticles – took him to places as far-flung as Egypt (where fast food franchises share the desert vista with the Great Pyramid), New Guinea (where natives are trading in their traditional carved canoes for power boats), and the Vatican (where a lone monk from Milwaukee fights a one-man crusade to revive the Latin language). In his lecture, he will describe what he found on his travels, and how it fits together into a global cultural phenomenon.

The Future of the Past, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, is Stille's third book of history and reportage, and has been widely praised. Publisher's Weekly called it “a must-read for anyone interested in the preservation of our world's decaying treasures.” The Future of the Past was preceded by Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic (1995) and Benevolence & Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families Under Fascism(1991), which won the Los Angeles Times Book Award and Italy's Premio Acqui. Besides his work for the New Yorker, Stille is a frequent contributor to the New York Times “Arts and Ideas” page, the New York Review of Books, and the leading Italian daily La Repubblica. He holds degrees from Yale University and the Columbia School of Journalism, and taught at Vassar College as Distinguished Gladys Delmas Professor. He lives in New York City.

For more information about C. V. Starr Center events and programs, visit the Center online athttp://starrcenter.washcoll.edu, or call 410-810-7156.

Photo Exhibition At Custom House Features Works By Students From Washington College, Corcoran College Of Art And Design, And University Of Delaware

Chestertown, MD, March 4, 2003 — The Washington College Department of Art, Art History Club, and C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience present the first Student Invitational Art Exhibition, featuring photographic works by students at Washington College, the Corcoran College of Art and Design, and the University of Delaware.

Organized by Jennifer O'Neill, visiting assistant professor of art, this unique three-way art exhibit consists of color, black and white, and digital photography, as well as alternative processes such as Cyanotypes (a non-silver photographic printing process invented in 1842), and Van Dyke Browns (a process that utilizes the action of light on ferric salts to create prints on regular paper). Entries were juried by Donald McColl, Chair of the Department of Art at Washington College; Muriel Hasbun, Program Coordinator of Fine Art Photography at the Corcoran College of Art and Design; and Priscilla A. Smith, Program Chair of Photography at the University of Delaware.

The free exhibition will be open from Monday through Thursday, March 10 to March 27, 1-4 p.m., at The Custom House, 101 S. Water Street, Chestertown. For information call (410) 810-7156, or visit http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu online.

Photography Exhibit Explores The Living Character And Personality Of The Inanimate

Chestertown, MD, March 4, 2003 — Washington College's Department of Art is proud to host an exhibit of photography by Jennifer O'Neill, visiting assistant professor of studio arts. Titled “PHOTOGRAMS”, the exhibit is free and will be open to the public daily, 12 noon to 4 p.m., from Monday, March 17 to Saturday, March 22, in the College's Tawes Gallery, Gibson Performing Arts Center.

O'Neill received her BFA in photography from the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington, DC, and her MFA in photography from the University of Delaware. She has taught numerous courses at the University of Delaware and is currently teaching photography and graphic design at Washington College. Her photography has garnered awards and been well received in both regional and national exhibitions. Her work has also been published in The Photo Review.

According to O'Neill, the photographs comprising “PHOTOGRAMS” explore the fine line that separates fantasy from reality, and the manner in which inanimate objects can be perceived to have a life, character and personality all their own. “I use miniature clothing as photographic subjects to suggest a series of characters free from particular human personages,” says O'Neill. “In a sense, I am attempting to free these inanimate objects from human subjects so that their own individuality can come through.”

A closing reception for the exhibit will held Thursday, March 20, at 4 p.m. in the Tawes Gallery, and the public is invited to attend.