Layin' It Down Live: Hip-Hop Pioneers, The Roots, Play Washington College, November 6

Chestertown, MD, October 11, 2004 — Philadelphia's live hip-hop pioneers, The Roots, will perform Saturday, November 6, at 8 p.m. in Washington College's Lifetime Fitness Center. Doors open at 7 p.m.Tickets for students, faculty and staff, on sale through Friday, October 22, only, are $15 per person with a five ticket maximum, and may be purchased in the Student Affairs Office on the second floor of the Casey Academic Center between the hours of 12 noon and 4:30 p.m.

An underground sensation for the past decade, The Roots have recently broken through to worldwide acclaim for their live, instrumental rap, both in concert and in the studio, and critics consider The Roots' live shows among the best in the business. The Roots' focus on live hip-hop began in the late 1980s when rapper Black Thought (Tariq Trotter) and drummer ?uestlove (Ahmir Khalib Thompson) became friends at the Philadelphia High School for Creative Performing Arts. Since the duo had little money for the DJ essentials, they recreated hip-hop tracks instrumentally with ?uestlove's drum kit backing Black Thought's rhymes. Joined by bassist Hub (Leon Hubbard) and rapper Malik B., The Roots soon became a high-demand underground act in Philadelphia and New York. In 1993, they released their first CD to sell at shows.

Major-label status came with their second CD, Do You Want More?!!!??!, released in January 1995 and breaking stride with usual hip-hop protocol by forsaking the use of sampling. Peaking just outside the Top 100, the CD was ignored by most fans of hip-hop, but took off in alternative circles. In 1996, The Roots' second major-label CD, Illadelph Halflife, made it to 21 on the album charts. Undeniable commercial success finally arrived in 1999 with the release Things Fall Apart. Now, in 2004, The Roots have their own label, Okayplayer, and their seventh CD to date, Tipping Point, just released this summer.

Visit The Roots online at www.theroots.com.

For more information on upcoming concerts and events at Washington College, visit http://calendar.washcoll.edu. The concert is sponsored by Washington College's Student Events Committee.

Inauguration Of Baird Tipson As 26th President Of Washington College Set For October 22

Chestertown, MD, October 11, 2004 — Washington College's Board of Visitors and Governors announces the Inauguration of Baird Tipson as the 26th President of the College, to be held Friday, October 22, at 3 p.m. on the College Green. Delegates from more than 90 colleges and universities across the country will be on hand for the installation ceremonies. The public is invited to attend the Inauguration and a fireworks display on Kibler Field at 6:30 p.m. that will conclude the day's celebrations.

“Baird takes the reigns at an extraordinary time in our institution's history,” said Jay Griswold, Chairman of the College's Board of Visitors and Governors. “We've made great strides during the past decade—financially and academically—and we have every trust in Baird's resourcefulness and vision to bring a keener focus on the our strengths as a historic college of liberal arts and sciences and to enhance our position in today's competitive higher education market.”

Tipson, the former president of Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, succeeds John S. Toll, who stepped down as president of the 222-year-old college last summer. During his eight years as president of Wittenberg, Tipson is credited with ushering in new academic programs and endowed chairs, integrating information technology into the college classroom, doubling the institution's endowment, enhancing campus facilities, and building strong community relations. Prior to assuming the presidency of Wittenberg in 1995, Tipson served as Provost (1987-1995) and Acting President (1988) of Gettsyburg College and Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Central Michigan University for nine years. Throughout his career in college administration, Tipson has remained active in teaching and academic research as a professor of religion focusing on Puritanism, Pietism and Early English Protestantism.

Tipson earned his Ph.D. in religious studies at Yale University and as an undergraduate majored in religion and history at Princeton University, graduating summa cum laude as a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Tipson and his wife, Sarah, have two grown children.

“I am honored to be entrusted with the leadership of Washington College and look forward to working with the Board, faculty, staff, students, and alumni,” Tipson said. “Here there is a historical legacy of which to be proud, a unique location on the Chesapeake Bay unmatched by any other college, and a long and distinctive liberal arts tradition on which to build. I am both awed and energized by the responsibilities and the opportunities that Washington College is giving me through this position.”

Inaugural Celebration Series Features Art Exhibition, Lectures

Chestertown, MD, October 6, 2004 — In anticipation of the Inauguration of Baird Tipson as 26th President of Washington College, the College will host an Inaugural Celebration Series of events to commemorate the values and history of the nation's 10th oldest college. The public is invited to attend.

On Wednesday, October 20, the Washington College Department of Art opens the exhibition “Experienced Eyes: Recent Work by Department of Art Faculty and Alumni.” Featuring a variety of work and artistic media, the exhibition will be open daily to the public, 12 noon to 4 p.m., through November 9.

Also on October 20, the C. V. Starr Center for the American Experience will present “The Religion of the Founding Fathers,” a lecture by David Holmes, Ph.D., Professor of Religious Studies at The College of William and Mary, at 7:30 p.m. in the Hynson Lounge. Dr. Holmes has authored four books, including a history of the Episcopal Church and the recently published study, The Religion of the Founding Fathers. His talk will take a deeper look at the personal religious beliefs and public religious trends that influenced the Founding Fathers and the birth of our nation.

On Thursday, October 21, Dr. Holmes will connect the historic values of liberal education to the College's contemporary mission in the lecture “Five Truths about Washington College,” at 7:30 p.m. in the Hynson Lounge. Most American colleges exhibit certain abiding themes that define them or serve as models to emulate, observes Dr. Holmes. From the history of Washington College, he has identified five central themes that define the College and its historic mission to Maryland and to the nation. The talk will include a candid assessment of the state of contemporary undergraduate education.

“These lectures offer us a wider perspective on the origins and mission of a college whose legacy began with George Washington, the founder of our republic, and William Smith, the architect of American higher education,” Tipson said. “No doubt, Washington College has a long and inspiring tradition on which to build its future.”

Journalist Seymour Hersh Discusses American Foreign Policy In The Coming Election, October 13

Chestertown, MD, October 4, 2004 — Washington College's Goldstein Program in Public Affairs and C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience present Seymour Hersh, renowned investigative journalist and correspondent for The New Yorker, discussing “American Foreign Policy in the Coming Presidential Election,” Wednesday, October 13, at 7:30 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. The event is free and open to the public.

Known for breaking the story of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal earlier this year, Hersh first gained recognition for his investigative journalism in 1969 for exposing the My Lai massacre and its cover-up during the Vietnam War, for which he received the Pulitzer Prize. Hersh began his career as a police reporter for the City News Bureau in 1959 and later became a correspondent for United Press International. In 1963 he joined the Associated Press, and in 1972 was hired as a reporter for The New York Times' Washington Bureau.

The author of eight books, including the critically acclaimed The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House and the recently released Chain of Command : The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib (Harper Collins, 2004), Hersh currently reports for The New Yorker on military and security matters, doggedly pursuing the stories of the Iraq War—and of the steps and policies that led to the war—glossed over in press conferences and missed by America's mainstream media.

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, in conjunction with the C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience. Drawing on the special historical strengths of Washington College, the C. V. Starr Center explores the early republic, the rise of democracy, and the manifold ways in which the founding era continues to shape American culture.

Lecture Explores "Paris, Hollywood, And France's Memories Of World War II"

Chestertown, MD, October 1, 2004 — The Goldstein Program of Public Affairs, Campus Events and Visitors, and the Department of Foreign Languages, Literatures and Cultures present “Paris, Hollywood, and France's Memories of World War II," a lecture by Philip Watts, Professor of French and Chair of the Department of French and Italian at the University of Pittsburgh. The lecture will be held on Thursday, Nov. 4 at 4:30 pm in the CAC Forum. The event is free and open to the public.

Sixty years have passed since D-Day and the liberation of Europe, but France's role during World War II remains as contentious as ever. As the nation was divided in two, split between an occupied and a non-occupied zone, the French population found itself caught in a struggle between Charles De Gaulle and the Resistance and Philippe Petain's government of collaboration. Since 1945, films about the war in France have grappled with these divisions and ambivalences, from the epic "Is Paris Burning?" whose all-star cast celebrated the struggle of the Resistance to the documentary "The Sorrow and the Pity" which revealed how ordinary Frenchmen collaborated with the Nazis.

Dr. Watts will present some of the more significant films about World War II in France, beginning with the immediate postwar years, examining differences between how French filmmakers and Hollywood directors represented the war, and ending with a look at how more recent films, such as Jean-Paul Rappeneau's "Bon Voyage," reveal a continuing equivocation about this moment in history.

A preeminent scholar in French studies, Dr. Watts received the prestigious Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for French and Francophone Literary Studies in 2000 for his book Allegories of the Purge: How Literature Responded to the Postwar Trials of Writers and Intellectuals in France (Stanford University Press, 1998) and has published articles and reviews in "French Forum" "South Atlantic Quarterly" and "Esprit."

In conjunction with Dr. Watts' visit, there will be a free public screening of the film “Bon Voyage” by Jean-Paul Rappeneau (Cyrano de Bergerac, Le Hussard sur le toit) on Wednesday, Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. in the CAC Forum. The French Club will provide snacks. Contact Katherine Maynard at kmaynard2@washcoll.edu for more information.

A Message From President Baird Tipson

In Memoriam: Townsend Hoopes

Chestertown, MD, September 23, 2004 — It is my sad duty to inform the Washington College community that Townsend Hoopes, Senior Fellow of Washington College, died on September 20, 2004 from complications of melanoma.

Tim had a long and extraordinarily distinguished career in public service and the private sector. He graduated from Yale University in 1944 where he was captain of the football team and a member of Skull and Bones. During World War Two he served as a marine officer in the Pacific and fought on Iwo Jima. Following the war, he served in a number of positions at the heart of the newly organized national security apparatus of the United States. He was assistant to the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee from 1947-1948, and assistant to three Secretaries of Defense from 1948-1953, James Forrestal, George Marshall and Robert Lovett.

Tim followed that service with eleven years in the private sector, but was never far from influence in the government, and played a major role in the preparation of the 1958 Rockefeller Report on defense policy and strategy. In 1964, he returned to government as deputy assistant secretary of defense for international affairs. In 1965 he became Principal Deputy for International Security Affairs at the Pentagon, and from 1967 to 1969 he was Undersecretary of the Air Force.

Following his distinguished career in government, Tim turned to the writing of books, and here too he found great distinction. His first book, The Limits of Intervention (1969), brilliantly probed the series of miscalculations at the highest levels that had led to the escalation in Vietnam. The Devil and John Foster Dulles (1973) received the Bancroft Prize for its richly evocative portrait of President Eisenhower's Secretary of State. Driven Patriot: The Life and Times of James Forrestal (1992), co-written with Douglas Brinkley, won the Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt Naval History Prize. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Creation of the UN, also co-authored with Douglas Brinkley, appeared in 1997. In addition, Tim's novel, A Textured Web, appeared in 2002.

That same year, Tim and his wife Ann moved to Chestertown from Washington, and instantly embraced their new lives in the Washington College community. Tim found a particular home in the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, where visitors to the Custom House often found him chatting amiably with students and expressing his deeply informed opinions about U.S. foreign policy. Those opinions were given full expression in a series of lectures that Tim gave before the college, both in the Custom House and on the main campus. Tim also helped the Starr Center in countless other ways, from addressing the South Asian students of the American Studies Institute to organizing visits from other dignitaries, including last spring's talk by Ambassador Joseph Wilson. His clarity of vision, energy and devotion to Washington College and the C.V. Starr Center were a source of pride to all of us, and he will be greatly missed.

In Chestertown, Tim was active in a number of local causes, including the Church Hill Theatre and the Presbyterian Church. The memorial service will be held this Sunday, September 26, at 2 pm in the Presbyterian Church of Chestertown, 905 Gateway Drive, just off Route 213. Burial will be at Arlington National Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions to the Church Hill Theatre (P.O. Box 91, Church Hill MD 21623) or Yale University (New Haven CT 06520).

- Baird Tipson

Expert Discusses Democratization And Electoral Observation In Latin America, Sept. 27

Chestertown, MD, September 21, 2004 — Washington College's Goldstein Program in Public Affairs presents “Witness to Change: Democratization and Electoral Observation in Latin America,” a lecture by Thomas W. Walker, Professor of Political Science and former Director of Latin American Studies at Ohio University, Monday, September 27, at 7 p.m. in the Hynson Lounge. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

Professor Walker is one of the United States' leading authorities on Central American politics. His books include The Christian Democratic Movement in Nicaragua (1970); Nicaragua: The Land of Sandino (1991); Nicaragua in Revolution (1982); Nicaragua: The First Five Years (1985); Reagan Versus the Sandinistas: The Undeclared War on Nicaragua (1987); and, as co-author, Understanding Central America (1993), Revolution and Counterrevolution in Nicaragua (1991), and Nicaragua Without Illusions: Regime Transition and Structural Adjustment in the 1990s (1997).

In 1984, 1989, 1990 and 1996, Professor Walker served on international delegations that observed Nicaragua's national elections. In August 2004, he was a member of the Carter Center's electoral observation team on the presidential recall referendum in Venezuela.