Covering The Governator: L.A. Times Reporter Discusses Schwarzenegger at Washington College

Chestertown, MD — Washington College's Rose O'Neill Literary House will host "Reporting on Governor Schwarzenegger," a talk by Los Angeles Times reporter Joe Mathews, author ofThe People's Machine: Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Rise of Blockbuster Democracy, on Monday, February 18, at 4:30 p.m.

Publisher's Weekly hailed The People's Machine as "an exciting jaunt into the la-la land of big-state direct democracy." The book is an incisive account of Governor Schwarzenegger and his tenure in California politics, by the political reporter whose unique access and insight into "Ah-nuld" led to newsbreaking revelations.

California voters passed Proposition 13 in 1978. At the same time, a champion bodybuilder named Arnold Schwarzenegger was becoming a movie star. Over the past quarter-century, the twin arts of direct democracy (through ballot initiatives designed to push the public to the polls on election day) and blockbuster moviemaking (through movies designed to push the public to the theaters on opening weekend) grew up together, at home in California. With the state's recall election in 2003, direct democracy and blockbuster movies officially merged. The result: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In The People's Machine, Joe Mathews, who covered Schwarzenegger's gubernatorial campaign for the Los Angeles Times and who has subsequently broken many front-page stories about him, traces the roots of both movie and political populism, how Schwarzenegger used these twin forces to win election and, especially, how he has used them to govern.

Mathews, a fourth-generation Californian, graduated from Harvard College and worked at theBaltimore Sun and Wall Street Journal before joining the Times. When The People's Machinewas published in 2006 by PublicAffairs, Booklist enthused, "Mathews delivers a completely engrossing look at Schwarzenegger's long and calculated strategy to run for political office...a thoroughly fascinating book."

Admission to "Reporting on Governor Schwarzenegger" is free and open to the public.

February 6, 2008

Freedom Summer '64 Remembered at Washington College

Chestertown, MD — It was a season that made history. In the flashpoint state of Mississippi and throughout the segregated South, the downtrodden put their lives on the line for the cause of racial equality. It was 1964, and they called it Freedom Summer.

A participant in those epochal events will visit Washington College to describe them firsthand and to ponder their meaning to society. Dr. Jo Ann O. Robinson, professor of history at Morgan State University, will present "Freedom Summer, 1964: Personal Memories and Historical Reflections" at Hynson Lounge on Thursday, February 14, at 7:30 p.m. Dr. Robinson's appearance at Washington College is being presented by the Center for the Study of Black Culture.

Dr. Robinson is the author and co-author of a number of books, including Abraham Went Out: A Biography of A.J. Muste and Education as My Agenda: Gertrude Williams, Race, and the Baltimore Public Schools. She also is the editor of Affirmative Action: A Documentary History.

Admission to "Freedom Summer, 1964: Personal Memories and Historical Reflections" is free and open to the public.

February 6, 2008

Allender Gift Brings More State-of-the-Art Scientific Equipment to Washington College

Chestertown, MD — Patrick Allender, former Executive Vice President of Danaher Corporation—a Washington, D.C.-based global company specializing in industrial, scientific and professional instrumentation—has donated nearly $40,000 worth of new scientific equipment to Washington College's John S. Toll Science Center. The equipment will be used for research in physics and environmental studies.

The donation by the Allender family—Patrick, wife Deborah and son John—comes on the heels of a similar act of generosity in 2006, when the Allenders donated $30,000 worth of scientific equipment to the College.

The latest Allender gift is making possible the acquisition of a FLUKE Ti-30 Thermal Imager, a Leica Differential Interference Contrast Microscope with fluorescence microscopy capability, and other scientific equipment.

The state-of-the-art Leica microscope can single out disease-carrying parasites in water and sediment analysis. "It's a significant and much-appreciated addition to our scientific tool chest," said Donald Munson, Joseph H. McLain Professor of Environmental Studies, Professor of Biology, and Director of the College's Environmental Studies Program. "The microscope will be used to identify both free-living (non-disease causing) organisms and pathogenic protozoa in water and sediments from both the Chesapeake Bay region and international areas."

The Ti-30 Thermal Imager is a handheld device that generates images of infrared (IR) light emitted by objects. Pointed at any object—a face, a circuit board, a heating duct—the Ti-30 produces a false color image showing IR emission from the object. The colors of the image are calibrated to show temperature, typically with bluer hues showing cooler temperatures (dim IR emission) and yellow to white colors showing higher temperatures (bright IR emission).

"We are very grateful for the Allender family's generosity and we look forward to using the Ti-30 in a number of interesting applications in physics, astronomy and earth science," said Karl Kehm, Assistant Professor of Physics and Earth and Planetary Science at Washington College. "The concept that the physical world around us is glowing in wavelengths that our eyes cannot detect is sometimes difficult for students to accept. The Ti-30 gives us a way to demonstrate this concept directly."

"The Allenders, FLUKE and Leica are enriching the academic experience for students who learn and faculty who perform cutting-edge research in our state-of-the-art John S. Toll Science Center," said Washington College President Baird Tipson. "We are very appreciative."

Washington College is a private, independent liberal arts and sciences college located in historic Chestertown on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Founded in 1782 under the patronage of George Washington, it was the first college chartered in the new nation.

February 4, 2008

Snow Trust Donates $50,000 to Washington College Arts Center Project

Chestertown, MD — Allen Malcolm, Chestertown resident and trustee of the New York-based John Ben Snow Memorial Trust, has presented Washington College with $25,000, the first installment of a $50,000 grant for the renovation of the College's Gibson Performing Arts Center.

The grant will help the College meet its $8 million goal for private fund-raising for the $24 million project; to date $4.8 million has been secured from private sources. The necessary remaining funds will come from a $3 million State of Maryland grant and from College reserves.

Scheduled for completion in spring 2009, the new performing arts center will house three performance venues—the main proscenium theater, a 200-seat recital hall and an experimental "black box" theater. Also included in the new building will be climate-controlled gallery space, the Kohl Art Gallery, three classrooms, a music library, keyboard laboratory, music and drama rehearsal halls, and nine practice rooms.

"We are very grateful to the John Ben Snow Memorial Trust for its support of this important project," said Washington College President Baird Tipson. "With their help, we are replacing the old forbidding exterior of Gibson Hall with a dramatic, welcoming new face that will lighten up Martha Washington Square in the evening and draw students and faculty in during the day."

When work is completed, the center will have improved parking and a covered rear entrance allowing protected access to the theater.

"While the construction site is noisy and unsightly right now," Tipson said, "we look forward to the day when this beautiful new facility will enhance life not only for our students, but for the entire Upper Eastern Shore community."

For information on making a tax-deductible donation to the Gibson Performing Arts Center project, call the Washington College Advancement Office at 410/778-7801.

February 1, 2008

Starr Center Donates 78 New Washington-Era History Books to Miller Library

Chestertown, MD — Miller Library is awash in the latest books about George Washington and the Revolutionary era, thanks to a gift from the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience of 78 volumes being considered for this year's George Washington Book Prize.

Books about everything from the men and women who founded the new nation to the Native Americans who were displaced in the process will be on display at the library until the winner of the $50,000 award is announced at Mount Vernon on May 29.

Now in its fourth year, the George Washington Book Prize honors work that contributes to a greater public understanding of the life and career of George Washington and/or America's founding era. Conceived and administered at the Starr Center (in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and George Washington's Mount Vernon), the prize is awarded annually by a panel of distinguished historians. It is one of the largest literary awards in the nation.

Every year, publishers are asked to submit five copies of each book they enter—three are forwarded directly to the jurors, one is kept at the Starr Center, and one is set aside for Miller Library. As a result, nearly every major book published about the founding period over the past four years is now part of the College's collection.

The number of George Washington Prize entrants continues to grow—this year, the total retail value of the donated books is about $2,700, a 50 percent increase over last year's cache.

"It certainly strengthens our collection on George Washington, the Founders, and the whole founding era," says an appreciative Dr. Ruth Shoge, Director of Miller Library. "I'm impressed with the wide variety of subjects on the era ... the financial aspects, slavery, gender ... I think the scholarship is really opening up on that period, beyond the Founders to other issues we still grapple with."

Publishers have been showing an increased interest in the period, and the result is more diversity—books that go beyond Washington and other household-name heroes of early America, and even beyond the borders of the United States, reflecting on how our own country's revolution has affected the rest of the world. "These are not just a bunch of biographies of dead white males," said Adam Goodheart, the Starr Center's Hodson Trust-Griswold Director. "Collectively, they provide a vivid and broad portrait of an entire period of history, as well as address many questions that still confront the 21st century."

Meanwhile, this year's panel of jurors is reading and discussing each of those 78 books—not a job for the faint-hearted—and narrowing the field. Washington College President Baird Tipson will announce the three finalists at Convocation on George Washington's Birthday.

Books Donated

• Allison, Robert J. New England Remembers: The Boston Tea Party (Commonwealth Editions)
• Armitage, David. The Declaration of Independence: A Global History (Harvard)
• Axelrod, Alan. Blooding at Great Meadows: Young George Washington and the Battle that Shaped the Man (Running Press)
• Axelrod, Alan. The Real History of the American Revolution: A New Look at the Past(Sterling)
• Berg, Scott W. Grand Avenues: The Story of the French Visionary Who Designed Washington, D.C. (Pantheon)
• Bober, Natalie S. Thomas Jefferson: Draftsman of a Nation (Virginia)
• Bouton, Terry. Taming Democracy: 'The People,' the Founders, and the Troubled Ending of the American Revolution (Oxford)
• Broadwater, Robert P. American Generals: A Biographical Dictionary of the Revolutionary War (McFarland)
• Burian, A. Ward. George Washington's Legacy of Leadership (Morgan James)
• Burke, James. American Connections. The Founding Fathers. Networked. (Simon & Schuster)
• Burns, Eric. Virtue, Valor, & Vanity: The Founding Fathers and the Pursuit of Fame(Arcade)
• Calloway, Colin G. The Shawnees and the War for America (Penguin)
• Carp, Benjamin. Rebels Rising: Cities and the American Revolution (Oxford)
• Chadwick, Bruce. The General and Mrs. Washington: The Untold Story of a Marriage and a Revolution (Sourcebooks, Inc.)
• Church, Forrest. So Help Me God: The Founding Fathers and the First Great Battle Over Church and State (Harcourt)
• Clary, David A. Adopted Son: Washington, Lafayette, and the Friendship that Saved the Revolution (Bantam)
• Cumfer, Cynthia. Separate Peoples, One Land: The Minds of Cherokees, Blacks, and Whites on the Tennessee Frontier (North Carolina)
• Dershowitz, Alan. Finding Jefferson: A Lost Letter, A Remarkable Discovery, and the First Amendment in an Age of Terrorism (Wiley)
• Dunkerly, Robert M. The Battle of Kings Mountain (History Press)
• Dunn, Susan. Dominion of Memories: Jefferson, Madison & the Decline of Virginia(Basic Books)
• Dunn, Jr., Walter S. Choosing Sides on the Frontier in the American Revolution(Praeger)
• Ellis, Joseph J. American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic (Knopf)
• Ellis, Joseph J. The Founding Fathers: The Essential Guide to the Men Who Made America (Wiley)
• Faherty, Duncan. Remodeling the Nation: The Architecture of American Identity, 1776-1858 (New Hampshire)
• Farris, Michael. From Tyndale to Madison: How the Death of an English Martyr Led to the American Bill of Rights (B&H)
• Ferling, John. Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence(Oxford)
• Fleming, Thomas. The Perils of Peace: America's Struggle for Survival after Yorktown(HarperCollins/Smithsonian)
• Gaines, James R. For Liberty and Glory: Washington, Lafayette, and Their Revolutions(Norton)
• Gibson, Alan. Understanding the Founding: The Crucial Questions (Kansas)
• Glover, Lorri. Southern Sons: Becoming Men in the New Nation (Johns Hopkins)
• Goodfellow, Anne Marie. Textual Evidence of the Life of Simon Girty, American Revolutionary Turncoat: An Historian's Guide to the Draper Manuscript Collection of the Wisconsin Historical Society (The Edwin Mellen Press)
• Gray, Edward G. The Making of John Ledyard: Empire and Ambition in the life of an Early American Traveler (Yale)
• Griffin, Patrick. American Leviathan: Empire, Nation, and Revolutionary Frontier (Hill and Wang)
• Hagger, Nicholas. The Secret Founding of America: The Real Story of Freemasons, Puritans & the Battle for the New World (Sterling/Watkins)
• Hartman, Saidiya. Lose Your Mother: A Journey along the Atlantic Slave Route (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• Hitchens, Christopher. Thomas Paine's Rights of Man (Atlantic Monthly)
• Hogan, Margaret A., C., et al. The Adams Papers: Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 8, March 1787-December 1789 (Harvard)
• Hogan, Margaret A. and Taylor, James C. My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams (Belknap)
• Holland, Matthew S. Bonds of Affection: Civic Charity and the Making of America—Winthrop, Jefferson, and Lincoln (Georgetown)
• Holton, Woody. Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution (Hill and Wang)
• Hormats, Robert D. The Price of Liberty: Paying for America's Wars (Holt)
• Howard, Hugh and Roger Straus III. Houses of the Founding Fathers: The Men Who Made America and the Way They Lived (Artisan)
• Hyland, Matthew G. Montpelier and the Madisons: House, Home and American Heritage (History Press)
• Isenberg, Nancy. Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr (Viking)
• Kierner, Cynthia A. The Contrast: Manners, Morals and Authority in the Early American Republic (NYU)
• Koschnik, Albrecht. Let a Common Interest Bind Us Together: Associations, Partisanship, and Culture in Philadelphia, 1775-1840. (Virginia)
• Kukla, Jon. Mr. Jefferson's Women (Knopf)
• Lane, Eric, and Oreskes, Michael. The Genius of America: How the Constitution Saved Our Country and Why It Can Again (Bloomsbury) Larson, Edward J. A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign (Free Press)
• Latimer, Jon. 1812: War with America (Belknap/)
• Linklater, Andro. The Fabric of America: How Our Borders and Boundaries Shaped the Country and Forged our National Identity (Walker)
• Loughran, Trish. The Republic in Print: Print Culture in the Age of U.S. Nation Building, 1770-1870 (Columbia)
• Marcus, Maeva, editor. The Documentary History of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1789-1800, Volume Eight, Cases: 1798-1800 (Columbia)
• McDonnell, Michael A. The Politics of War: Race, Class & Conflict in Revolutionary Virginia (North Carolina)
• McGuire, Thomas J. The Philadelphia Campaign (Volume II): Germantown and the Roads to Valley Forge (Stackpole)
• McKenna, George. The Puritan Origins of American Patriotism (Yale) Miller, Amelia F. and Riggs, A. R.. Romances, Remedies and Revolution: The Journal of Dr. Elihu Ashley of Deerfield, Massachusetts, 1773-1775 (Massachusetts)
• Moore, Peter N. World of Toil and Strife: Community Transformation in Backcountry South Carolina, 1750-1805 (South Carolina)
• Moyer, Paul B. Wild Yankees: The Struggle for Independence Along Pennsylvania's Revolutionary Frontier (Cornell)
• Neimeyer, Charles P. The Revolutionary War: American Soldiers' Lives (Greenwood)
• Onuf, Peter S. The Mind of Thomas Jefferson (Virginia)
• Pangle, Lorraine Smith. The Political Philosophy of Benjamin Franklin (Johns Hopkins)
• Pasles, Paul C. Benjamin Franklin's Numbers: An Unsung Mathematical Odyssey(Princeton)
• Rediker, Marcus. The Slave Ship: A Human History (Viking)
• Riordan, Liam. Many Identities, One Nation: The Revolution and its Legacy in the Mid-Atlantic (Penn)
• Ryan, D. Michael. Concord and the Dawn of Revolution: The Hidden Truths (History Press)
• Shaffer, Jason. Performing Patriotism: National Identity in the Colonial and Revolutionary Theater (Penn)
• Shain, Barry Alan. The Nature of Rights at the American Founding and Beyond(Virginia)
• Sidbury, James. Becoming African in America: Race and Nation in the Early Black Atlantic (Oxford)
• Stephenson, Michael. Patriot Battles: How the War of Independence Was Fought(HarperCollins)
• Stewart, David O. The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution(Simon & Schuster)
• Stockdale, Eric and Holland, Randy J. Middle Temple Lawyers and the American Revolution (Thomson)
• Unger, Harlow Giles. America's Second Revolution: How George Washington Defeated Patrick Henry and Saved the Nation (Wiley)
• Urban, Mark. Fusiliers: The Saga of a British Redcoat Regiment in the American Revolution (Walker)
• Waterman, Bryan. Republic of Intellect: The Friendly Club of New York City and the Making of American Literature (Johns Hopkins)
• Wilbanks, Charles, editor. The American Revolution and Righteous Community: Selected Sermons of Bishop Robert Smith (South Carolina)
• Winik, Jay. The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World: 1788-1800 (HarperCollins)
• Zagarri, Rosemarie. Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in the Early American Republic (Penn)

January 21, 2008

Baird Tipson Elected to the Board of Directors of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities

Washington, D.C. — The membership of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) has selected Baird Tipson, president of Washington College, to the NAICU Board of Directors.

NAICU is the leading national association representing private higher education, serving as the unified voice of nearly 1,000 independent college and university presidents, and specialized, state, and regional association executives. NAICU member institutions enroll nine of every 10 students attending a private college or university in the United States.

Members of NAICU's board of directors set the association's agenda on federal higher education policy; actively encourage support of NAICU priorities and initiatives; and oversee the association's financial administration. Members serve three-year terms.

"Baird Tipson was selected by his peers because of his expertise in the field, proven leadership, and commitment to America's college students," said NAICU President David L. Warren. "He assumes his responsibilities at a time of great challenge and transformation for American higher education."

"The federal budget deficit, growing student financial need, increasingly competitive global economy, and today's culture of accountability are among the dynamics affecting higher education" Warren said.

Tipson has been president of Washington College since 2004. Prior to joining the university he served as president of Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio. He served as President of the North Coast Athletic Conference and as president of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra Board. He also is past president of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Ohio.

Tipson is currently Chairman of the Centennial Athletic Conference, and is a member of the board of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, the Mid-Shore Community Foundation, the Independent College Fund of Maryland, and Maryland Independent College and University Assocation.

In addition to serving as President, Tipson also is a professor of religion at Washington College. He and his wife Sarah have two grown children.

January 29, 2008

Writer + Artist = Husband + Wife: 'He Said/She Saw' at Washington College

Chestertown, MD — The husband-wife team of writer Matthew Swanson and illustrator Robbi Behr will present "He Said/She Saw," a discussion of the collaborative creative experience, at Washington College's Rose O'Neill Literary House on Thursday, February 7, at 4:30 p.m.

Swanson and Behr are the creators and producers of Idiots'Books, a subscription-based series of volumes on a wide-ranging diversity of subject matter. Innovative, insightful, often whimsical, the books provide a showcase for Swanson's witty, deceptively simple writing style and Behr's distinctive and memorable artwork.

While Swanson and Behr have been spending January co-teaching a class on artistic collaboration at their alma mater, Williams College in Williamsport, Mass., the two normally reside in Chestertown, where Robbi is a visiting lecturer in art at Washington College.

Admission to "He Said/She Saw" is free and open to the public.

January 27, 2008