Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Hodson Trust Awards $1.625 Million To Washington College

Baltimore, MD, November 30, 2004 — Washington College has been awarded $1.625 million from The Hodson Trust, officials of the College announced November 23. Since 1920, The Hodson Trust has given more than $155 million to fund academic merit scholarships as well as research grants, technology improvements, building construction, library expansion, athletic programs, faculty salaries and endowment funds at Johns Hopkins University, Hood, St. John's and Washington colleges. The charity was established by the family of Colonel Clarence Hodson, founder of the Beneficial Corporation financial services firm.

“The Hodson Trust has remained a loyal partner of Washington College for many years and has played a special role in our rapid growth and development during the past decade,” said Baird Tipson, President of the College.

The Hodson Trust recently boosted the efforts of the Campaign for Washington's College—the College's five-year capital fundraising campaign launched in September 1999—by designing a challenge program that matched gifts to endowments of $100,000 or more, doubling the value of the contributions. With the help of the Trust, the Campaign was able to top $103 million by its completion on January 1, 2004.

“The Trust's generosity has leveraged our success in academics, finances and student recruitment,” added Tipson. “We are very grateful for its special commitment to private independent higher education in Maryland.”

For information of The Hodson Trust, visit www.hodsontrust.com.

"Joy To The World, A Journey Of Wise Men": WC Gospel Choir To Hold Annual Holiday Concert

Chestertown, MD, November 30, 2004 — The Washington College Gospel Choir, under the direction of Reverend Eric Scott, will hold their annual holiday concert on Sunday, December 5, 2004. The concert will be held on campus in Tawes Theatre. The concert begins at 4:00 p.m. Admission for this concert is $3 per person; $1 for college students and anyone under 18.

This year's concert is themed with songs to celebrate the season of Christmas and is titled "A Journey of Wise Men." According to Gospel Choir Advisor, Sara Smith, this concert promises to be a very exciting one. This concert will feature traditional Christmas songs as well as the choir's usual repertoire of joyous Gospel songs. The concert will also include music and song provided by "Tapestry," a local Christian group whose members are Mrs. Jan Whalen, Mrs. Karen Clough and Mrs. Laurie Clark. This group is well known in the area for their heartwarming music. The college's own WC Campus Christian Church Praise Team will also provide music and song.

The choir, now in its seventh year at the college is made up of staff members, students from many states, as well as students from other countries.

"This is a marvelous way for families to begin the celebration of the holidays," says Smith. "If you have not had an opportunity to come out and hear this choir, please mark your calendar, and come join us for a wonderful time of praise and celebration. Be sure to bring your entire family. You will be very glad you came!"

If you would like more information about the Washington College Gospel Choir, please contact Sara Ann Smith at 410-778-7290, or e-mail: ssmith5@washcoll.edu.

Tuesday, November 23, 2004

Author Demitri Kornegay On The Challenges Of Being Black At A Predominately White College, December 2

Chestertown, MD, November 23, 2004 — Washington College's Black Student Union and W.E.B. Dubois Society welcome author and motivational speaker Demitri Kornegay, addressing the topic “Being Black at a Predominately White College Institution: Overcoming Challenges,” Thursday, December 2, at 7:30 p.m. in the College's Sophie Kerr Room, Miller Library. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

A gifted motivational speaker well known for his work with youth in the Washington, DC area, Kornegay has spent more than two decades in law enforcement and currently serves as a lieutenant in the Montgomery County Police Department. Kornegay attended the University of Richmond on a football scholarship and graduated in 1979 with majors in speech communications, theater arts and sociology. Nominated as one of the “Outstanding Teenagers of America” in 1974 and as one of the “Outstanding Young Men of America” in 1984, Kornegay has made it his vocation to motivate and inspire young people to take greater control over their lives and realize their true potential.

As a deacon at Galilee Baptist Church in Suitland, Maryland, Kornegay spearheaded the “Let's Celebrate Our Men Project” which established a “Proud Fathers Roll Call of Honor” in 1991, and in 1992 he developed an award-winning 12-week program for called “Men Under Construction.” The program, which has now been running for 12 years, teaches life skills for personal and professional success such as manners, public speaking, setting a personal budget and choosing right relationships.

Kornegay is also the author of Dear Rhonda: Life Lessons From a Father To His Daughterpublished by Random House. Realizing that his police work put his life on the line everyday, he began writing letters to his daughter so that if he were to die in the line of duty, he would leave a legacy of fatherly advice and life wisdom.

Monday, November 22, 2004

Oxford University Press To Publish WC Historian's Book On Lincoln's Moral Strategy

Chestertown, MD, November 22, 2004 — Oxford University Press—the world's leader in scholarly publishing—has announced the selection of Prof. Richard Striner's work, Father Abraham: Lincoln the Moral Strategist, for publication. In Father Abraham, Striner—a professor of American history at Washington College—examines what he calls the “stunning duality” and genius of President Lincoln's leadership: his ability to harmonize morality and cunning as he saved the nation by changing it. Release is set for early 2006.

According to Striner, Father Abraham challenges the conventional views of Lincoln in a number of ways. It challenges the notion of Lincoln as a “moderate” by demonstrating the strategic dynamism of his program. It puts the “unionism” of Lincoln in better perspective by showing how his fight to save the Union was always contingent on the ultimate phase-out of slavery—indeed, it was Lincoln's commitment to stop the spread of slavery that drove the South into secession. It also challenges the claim that Lincoln was a racist. To the contrary, Striner suggests, Lincoln's goal was to hold white supremacy at bay while he reduced the power of the slave states.

“Lincoln was driven by an ethical sense, but he was also driven by a Machiavellian understanding of politics,” Striner observes. “He was a genius at orchestrating power. Importantly, his strategic sense could lead him to some compromises with the truth. But these compromises were always ethical in intent. Lincoln was never a shortsighted idealist. Quite to the contrary. He would readily juxtapose truth and calculated deception if it served a higher good.”

In fact, Striner asks readers to use the case of Lincoln to reflect upon the problems of democratic leadership. By perfectionist standards, Lincoln's leadership was problematical. But Striner argues that Lincoln's willingness to balance lesser evils with greater led to a moral success of great magnitude.

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

WC English Professor's New Book Examines Scapegoating In Modernist Fiction

Chestertown, MD, November 16, 2004 — Thomas Cousineau, professor of English at Washington College, has just released his third book of literary criticism, Ritual Unbound: Reading Sacrifice in Modernist Fiction. Published by the University of Delaware Press, it discusses the echoes of primitive scapegoating rituals that emerge in such canonical modernist novels as Henry James's The Turn of the Screw, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier, F. Scott Fitzgerald'sThe Great Gatsby, and Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse.

“I examine the ways in which the narrators of these novels, although coming to the defense of certain unjustly persecuted victims, tend to replace them with scapegoats of their own making,” says Professor Cousineau. He cites as an example The Great Gatsby, in which Nick Carraway, its narrator, protests against the unjust treatment to which Gatsby has been subjected but then unleashes his judgmental wrath on Tom and Daisy Buchanan, to whom he wrongly attributes sole responsibility for the tragedy that befalls Gatsby.

“These modernist works reveal a familiar pattern, whereby primitive rituals are abandoned only to be subsequently restored,” he says. “In this way, they reflect a modern world in which we can neither believe convincingly in the guilt of our scapegoats nor imagine a society that has dispensed with them entirely.”

In addition to his research into English and American modernist literature, Professor Cousineau is currently completing a new book on the novels of Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard. His general introduction to Bernhard's work, originally written for The Review of Contemporary Fiction, is available online at www.thomasbernhard.org.

Ritual Unbound is available from the Washington College Bookstore by calling 410-778-7749, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, or online via the websitehttp://bookstore.washcoll.edu.

Reviews of Ritual Unbound:

"Cousineau's easy command of all the nuances of the major texts and a thorough, varied sense of the way those texts enact ritual sacrifice give Ritual Unbound the special magnitude of literary criticism at its best."
—Jesse Matz, Kenyon College

"This short and dense book has managed to dispel a prejudice I had harbored for a long time against Girardian readings of ritual and sacrifice in literature. . . . Cousineau has updated his earlier Lacanian approach (deployed in a book on Beckett's novels) and blends here precise, vivid, and informed close readings with a new mode of ethical criticism."
—Jean-Michel Rabaté, Princeton University

"Cousineau is a fine reader of texts, and from his discussion of The Turn of the Screw as a persecution narrative to his insightful comments on the two endings of To the Lighthouse, he has given us a series of strong revisionist readings that should intrigue modernist scholars and provoke further debate."
—Patrick McCarthy, Professor of English, University of Miami

"His research is solid. His discussion of the motif of the latecomer in James’s The Turn of the Screw is original. His presentation of the blurring of the frontier between living and dead inHeart of Darkness shows real distinction. Both his thoughts on Nick Carraway’s reference to Gatsby’s death as a ‘holocaust’ and his repudiation of Nick as a moral guide in Fitzgerald’s 1925 classic provide rare intellectual excitement."
—Peter Wolfe, Professor of English, University of Missouri-St. Louis

Friday, November 12, 2004

Countdown Update: College Meets Kresge Foundation Challenge

Chestertown, MD, December 23, 2004 — With eight days remaining to meet its fundraising goal, Washington College has raised 100 percent of the $2.8 million required to secure a $750,000 challenge grant from The Kresge Foundation of Troy, MI, announced last April. The gifts and pledges received will go toward the new 45,000-square-foot John S. Toll Science Center—to be completed by January 1—or for the renovations to the Dunning/Decker Science Complex beginning in early 2005.

“In my first six months as president, it has been my distinct pleasure to witness the generous outpouring of support for this institution, and the dedication of its leadership," said President Baird Tipson. "I look forward to continuing our work together in making Washington College a premier liberal arts college.”

Graduates who have made careers in the field of medicine were asked by trustee Ralph Snyderman '61, M.D., Emeritus Chancellor for Health Affairs at Duke University and President and CEO of Duke University Health System, to support the project. Alumni and friends of the late Joseph H. McLain—Washington College alumnus, chemistry professor and president—have already raised nearly $750,000 to name the atrium linking Dunning/Decker Hall to the new Science Center in his honor. In addition, friends of the late Ted Kurze '43, an eminent neurosurgeon credited with pioneering microscopy in surgery, are working to raise funds to name the psychology department's new neuroscience lab in his honor.

“The College is not only receiving major leadership commitments from those who are able to make sizeable gifts, but also contributions from many alumni, parents and friends at whatever level they can afford,” Dr. Tipson added. “This support has been gratifying, and we are very appreciative to all who have given. We thank everyone who has contributed to the effort with a gift, no matter the size, to help us meet this worthy—and urgent—goal.”

Designed to provide a lab-rich environment for supporting new and evolving models for teaching the sciences to undergraduates, the new John S. Toll Science Center and renovated Dunning/Decker Complex will double the size of the College's existing science teaching and research facilities and will be outfitted with state-of-the-art teaching and research laboratories for biology, chemistry, environmental studies, physics, psychology, and math and computer science, as well as a vivarium to support psychological research and a greenhouse.

The Kresge Foundation—an independent, private foundation unaffiliated with any corporation or organization—was created in 1924 by Sebastian S. Kresge “to promote the well-being of mankind.” In 2003, the Foundation awarded grants totaling more than $105 million to 145 charitable and nonprofit organizations operating in the areas of higher education, health and long-term care, arts and humanities, human services, science and the environment, and public affairs.

Thursday, November 11, 2004

International Week: November 15 - 19, 2004

Sponsored by the Office of International Programs

Sunday, Nov. 14

International students chalk the Martha Washington Square with the flag of their country

Monday, Nov. 15

11 a.m. - 3 p.m., CAC Gallery. Face painting, international music. Enjoy posters made by the East Hall students about their home countries. Meet international and exchange students and learn about the different countries and cultures around the world.

7:30 p.m., Norman James Theatre. The Washington College Film Series presents “Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself.” From the director of ‘Italian for Beginners' this bittersweet, marvelously macabre and darkly witty romantic comedy set in Glasgow, is a story of family, love and redemption. A preschool teacher, intent upon doing away with himself, finds a reason to live in his new sister-in-law and her young daughter. In English, 109 minutes.

8 p.m. - 9 p.m. Hynson Study Lounge. Cleopatra's Daughters and International Relations Club in a panel discussion on “Cultural Diversity in America.” Refreshments will be provided.

Tuesday, Nov. 16

7 p.m. - 9 p.m., Hynson Lounge. The Department of Anthropology presents a talk held by Bruno Frohlich, physical anthropologist and statistician: “Mummies, Mass Graves, Burial Mounds, digging Mongolia's Secret History.” A reception will follow the talk.

Wednesday, Nov. 17

5 p.m. - 7 p.m., Sophie Kerr room, Miller Library. Dr. Pamela Pears, Assistant Professor, Department of Foreign Languages, will present a talk entitled “Women in Algeria.”

8 p.m. - 10 p.m., Goldstein 100 Korean movie shown by Je Suk Lee, exchange student from Korea. Discussion to follow.

Thursday, Nov. 18

7 p.m. - 9 p.m., Hynson Lounge. The Department of Anthropology presents a talk held by archaeologist Bill Fitzhugh, chairman of the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian: “Mongolia and the Arctic, Exploring an Old Frontier Anew.” A reception will follow the talk.

9 p.m. - 10 p.m., International House Basement. The Spanish club will present a Spanish Dance session for experienced and beginning dancers.

Friday, Nov. 19

4 p.m. - 6 p.m., the CAC Commons Room. Traditional tea ceremony sponsored by the Japanese Club.

7:30 p.m., Norman James Theatre. The Washington College Film Series presents “The Door in the Floor,” adapted from John Irving's novel ‘A Widow for One Year,' this is an alternately tragic and comic film. Famous children's book author Ted Cole (Jeff Bridges) and his beautiful wife Marion (Kim Basinger), live in the idyllic East Hampton area but their lives are plagued by the death of their two sons and Ted's inexplicable infidelity. Love in all its forms is explored in this intense drama. In English, 111 minutes.

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Winning In Bad Times: How Did George Bush Do It? Wsj's John Harwood On The Election Fallout, November 22

Chestertown, MD, November 10, 2004 — Washington College's Harwood Lecture Series in American Journalism presents John Harwood, National Political Editor of The Wall Street Journal, on “Winning in Bad Times: How Did George Bush Do It?”—a political journalist's analysis of the 2004 presidential election results—Monday, November 22, at 7:30 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

John Harwood, son of the late Richard Harwood of The Washington Post for whom this lecture series is named, has served as The Wall Street Journal's National Political Editor since 1997. An astute political observer whose perspectives and analysis appear in the WSJ's column “Capital Journal,” Harwood also contributes regularly to the PBS television's political roundtable, Washington Week, and appears frequently on CNN, Fox, NBC and other television news outlets for expert political and election analysis.

Harwood began his journalism career in high school as a copy boy at the Washington Star. He studied history and economics at Duke University, graduating magna cum laude in 1978. After college, Harwood joined the St. Petersburg Times, reporting on police, investigative projects, local government and politics. Later he became state capital correspondent, Washington correspondent and political editor, covering assignments ranging from presidential campaigns to the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, which he visited three times during the 1980s. In 1989, Harwood was named a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, where he spent the 1989-90 academic year. He joined The Wall Street Journal in 1991 as White House correspondent. He subsequently covered Congress and national politics, and was appointed National Political Editor in 1997.

He has reported on each of the last five American presidential elections. Harwood lives in Silver Spring, MD, with his wife, Frankie Blackburn, and their three daughters.

Washington College's Harwood Lecture Series in American Journalism was established to honor the distinguished career of the late Washington Post columnist and ombudsman Richard Harwood, who served as a trustee and a lecturer in journalism at the College. Recent speakers in the series have included such political and media figures as Howard Dean, Robert Novak, John McCain, James Carville, Judy Woodruff, Al Hunt, Mark Shields and Paul Gigot.

Thursday, November 4, 2004

Compute This! WC's Collegiate Programmers Take On Region's Best In The 29th "Tech Olympics," November 13

Chestertown, MD, November 4, 2004 — For the third year in a row, Washington College's Department of Mathematics and Computer Science will host a Mid-Atlantic regional of the “Tech Olympics,” the 2004-2005 Association for Computing Machinery's International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC), sponsored by IBM. Under the direction of professors Louise Amick and Austin Lobo, student programmers from Washington College, Drexel University, Rowan University, Temple University, United States Naval Academy and the University of Delaware will go head-to-head, laptop-to-laptop on Saturday, November 13, from 1-6 p.m. in the College's Goldstein Hall.

Washington College's two teams, the Wolves and the Wildcats—coached by professors Michael McLendon and Shaun Ramsey—will be pitted against some of the Mid-Atlantic's best in a grueling six-hour competition that tests the limits of their logic, problem-solving ability and command of today's most advanced computer architecture. Entering its 29th year, the ACM competition has grown into the largest and most prestigious contest of its kind, bringing the world's brightest collegiate programmers together to tackle a semester's worth of real world programming tasks in one afternoon, while vying for a spot at the contest's World Finals. The entire competition is conducted electronically with submissions made to a central site for independent judging.

“The teams are given seven problems to solve is six hours, and one-quarter of the teams don't solve even one problem, let alone all seven—it's just that challenging,” said Austin Lobo, associate professor of computer science. “Solving one makes you pretty darn good, but over the last few years our Washington College teams have averaged three, which put us among the top 20 teams last year from the Mid-Atlantic, the largest region in the ACM competition.”

There are as many teams in the Mid-Atlantic regional as there are in all of Europe.

“It's clear that our best students are as good as the best from neighboring universities,” he added, “and our computing infrastructure is top-notch.”

What Archaeology Teaches Us About Christian History, Lecture November 10

Chestertown, MD, November 4, 2004 — Washington College's Conrad Wingate Memorial Lecture Series presents “History, Archaeology and Christianity,” a talk by Paul Maier, Professor of History, Western Michigan University, on Wednesday, November 10, at 4:30 p.m. in the Casey Academic Center Forum. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

Dr. Maier currently serves as the Russell H. Seibert Professor of Ancient History at Western Michigan University. He received a master of arts degree from Harvard University and a master of divinity from Concordia Seminary, and pursued post-graduate studies as a Fulbright scholar at the Universities of Heidelberg, Germany, and Basel, Switzerland. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Basel. Dr. Maier's historical research utilizes a variety of methodologies involved in manuscript and text analysis, archaeology and comparison of sacred and secular sources from the first century A.D.

He has published numerous articles and books on Christian history—both fiction and non-fiction—with several million in print in a dozen languages, and is frequently interviewed for national radio, television and newspapers. His first documentary novel, Pontius Pilate, received wide acclaim and has gone through numerous printings, editions and translations. His recent documentary novels concerning archaeology and the origins of Christianity include A Skeleton in God's Closet and More Than a Skeleton. In 1984, he was named “Professor of the Year,” recognized by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education as one of America's top 25 finest educators.

The Conrad M. Wingate Memorial Lecture in History is held in honor of the late Conrad Meade Wingate '23, brother of late Washington College Visitor Emeritus Phillip J. Wingate '33 and the late Carolyn Wingate Todd. He was principal of Henderson (MD) High School at the time of his death from cerebrospinal meningitis at age 27. At Washington College, he was president of the Dramatic Association, president of the Adelphia Literary Society and vice president of the Student Council in 1922-23.

Masters Of Early English Song, The Baltimore Consort, To Perform At Washington College, November 20

Chestertown, MD, November 4, 2004 — The Washington College Concert Series—now in its 53rd season—welcomes the Baltimore Consort to the College's Tawes Theatre, Saturday, November 20. Concert begins at 8 p.m. Single tickets can be purchased at the door, $15.00 for adults and $8.00 for youth 18 and under. Season tickets are available for $50.00 per person in advance or at the box office on performance nights.

Founded in 1980, the Baltimore Consort explores popular and traditional music from the 16th century onward, delighting audiences with songs both earnest and bawdy, folksy and artistic. Honored by Billboard Magazine as Top Classical Crossover Artists, the Baltimore Consort treads the line between folk and art while employing improvisation and arrangement to awaken the spirit of centuries past. The Consort's unique sound is derived from a variety of instruments—the lute, viol, flute, cittern, early guitar, rebec, recorder, crumhorn and bandora—accompanied by the unique singing of Custer La Rue.

The Consort's arrangements of early music from England, Scotland and France speak to the heart as well as to the mind, and their love for the early music of English and Scottish heritage has led them to delve into the rich trove of traditional balladry and dance tunes preserved in America, from Appalachia to Nova Scotia.

For ticket information and a 2004-2005 season brochure, call 800-422-1782, ext. 7839. Individual tax-deductible patron memberships begin at $75.00. Contributing patron memberships begin at $150.00, supporting at $250.00 and sustaining at $500.00. All membership packages include two tickets, and all donations over the price of the tickets are tax-deductible.

Season tickets and memberships can be purchased by check or money order through the mail from the Washington College Concert Series, 300 Washington Avenue, Chestertown, MD 21620-1197.

Monday, November 1, 2004

Columnist Scott Reeves Of Forbes.Com On Scandals, Scoundrels And Business Bubbles, November 10

Talk Celebrates 20th Anniversary of WC's Business Management Program

Chestertown, MD, November 1, 2004 — In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the College'sBusiness Management program, Washington College presents “Scandals, Scoundrels and Tales from the Bubble,” a conversation with veteran business journalist Scott Reeves of Forbes.com, Wednesday, November 10, at 7:30 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. The event is free and open to the public.

Reeves is a veteran business journalist whose career has taken him from following the Iditarod across the frozen tundra of Alaska to getting himself committed to a mental hospital as part of his coverage of a mass murderer's trial. A graduate of University of California-Berkley, Reeves has written for the Dow Jones Newswires, Barron's and Bridge News, and is now the personal finance columnist for Forbes.com. In his talk he will address the role and responsibilities of a business journalist while sharing war stories from the business beat.

“Scandals, Scoundrels, and Tales from the Bubble” is presented as part of the Washington College Business Management Department's 20th Anniversary Series and is co-sponsored by the English Department.