SHERIDAN ROAD  |  What’s new at Lake Forest College

Mellon Foundation Awards $725,000 for Environmental Studies Program

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded Lake Forest College a $725,000 three-year grant to strengthen its Environmental Studies Program. The grant will enable the College to hire a faculty member with expertise in environmental issues who will develop new courses and team-teach new seminars with other faculty.

The College also will use grant funds to establish a student research program and enrich students’ experiences with field trips, guest speakers, and internship opportunities in and around Chicago.
“This generous grant from the Mellon Foundation will allow the College to offer innovative new courses in environmental studies, and it will better position the College and our students to contribute to environmental efforts in the Chicago region and around the world,” says President Stephen D. Schutt.
The grant will enhance the strong connections with Chicago that Lake Forest has developed through its Center for Chicago Programs, also made possible by previous grant support from the Mellon Foundation.
 
The College’s Environmental Studies Program was first established in 1972 and has evolved over four decades to offer a variety of interdisciplinary courses. In 1987 the College established an ES major. Today, the College offers such classes as Environmental Ethics, U.S. Energy and Environmental Policy, Conservation Biology, and the Future of Nuclear Power in the U.S. 
 
Over the past two decades ES students have worked with scientists and public policy experts from the Chicago Botanic Garden, the Brookfield Zoo, the Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum of Natural History, the Nature Conservancy of Illinois, and other notable local environmental institutions and agencies.
 
Recent ES graduates have gone on to do graduate work in law, wildlife biology, herpetology, and environmental studies at such institutions as Vermont Law School, University of Wisconsin, and Columbia University.


Conference on the Future of Nuclear Power

Nuclear power generation is experiencing what is frequently called a “rebirth” in the United States in the face of growing concerns about our heavy reliance on fossil fuels.
 
The Deane Conference on the Future of Nuclear Power, scheduled to be held at Lake Forest College March 27-28, will bring together speakers from different backgrounds to discuss a broad range of issues surrounding nuclear power. Conference attendees will represent a mix of undergraduate students, interested citizens, and professionals.
 
Sessions will address a variety of issues, including climate change, the potential for new nuclear facilities, long-term waste management, the nuclear fuel cycle, a comparison of nuclear power in Europe and the United States, local community reactions, and more.
 
Academic experts slated to speak at the conference come from various institutions, including the Environmental Defense Fund, Union of Concerned Scientists, Argonne National Laboratory, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and Exelon Corporation, among others.
 
Lake Forest students will also present posters on related topics, such as conservation and alternative energy. Students from liberal arts colleges around the country have been invited to attend.
 
The Deane Conference is sponsored by the Lake Forest College Environmental Studies Program and generously supported by Carol Gram Deane ’74 and Disque Deane.
 
Conference materials, including texts of prepared remarks and videotapes of the proceedings, and a summary report will be available to the public following the conference. For details, visit
www.lakeforest.edu/academics/deane/.


GA Speaker Series Launches

Student groups who requested funding from the General Assembly (GA) for speakers would often get the same answer — that there was little or no money left in the budget.
 
To change this and bring in more speakers with wider student appeal, GA decided to reallocate the budget, more than doubling the amount for speakers from $8,000 to $22,000.
 
With the new infusion of funds, GA President Rocky Linder ’08 and Executive Board Member Patrick Casten ’09 have teamed up with the Gates Center for Leadership and Personal Growth to create the first student-organized GA Speaker Series, which kicked off in March.
 
The idea is to reach out to as many students as possible with interesting speakers and far-reaching topics.
 
“The speakers will expand our classroom beyond the traditional sense and offer insight into real world issues,” Linder says.
 
The Speaker Series began on March 4 with Bay Buchanan, a CNN political analyst who served as treasurer under former President Ronald Reagan.
 
On March 19, Jonathan Waterman, author of a book about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, will discuss global warming issues.
 
Lieutenant Colonel Scott Rutter, an Iraq War veteran, will discuss U.S.-Middle East policy on April 10. At press time, they were still working to secure a final speaker before the end of the year.
 
“Our goal is both to have something to offer students and to educate them,” Casten says. “I think that adds to the flavor of it.”
 
Assistant Dean of Students Christopher Waugh, who is working with Linder and Casten, is impressed with the variety of topics, including the environment, politics, and the Iraq War.
 
“These are issues that are important to students,” Waugh says. “I think who better to identify that than the students themselves. I think it’s a great opportunity for students to have a say in who they want to see. It’s great for students to own this and run with it.”
 
Linder and Casten are tapping their connections to find speakers. Linder reached out to a friend who works for a company that represents speakers. Casten used contacts he has made as president of College Republicans (he brought Fred Barnes of the Fox News show Beltway Boys to campus to deliver the Edward H. Oppenheimer Lecture February 21).
 
While the Speaker Series started spring semester, the plan next year is to schedule speakers throughout the entire year.
 
Linder hopes it will turn into a tradition at the College. “It’s not an athletic tradition but an academic tradition that we hope will become lasting each year,” he says.


Election Season

Throughout the presidential primary season, Lake Forest College students, faculty, and staff have planned numerous activities to involve the College community in the election.

•   A November 15 debate between the College Democrats and College Republicans addressed such issues as tax reform, health care reform, and the futures of Iraq and Iran.

•   In a January 28 faculty panel discussion moderated by Professor of Politics Siobhan Moroney, Assistant Professor of Communication Linda Horwitz discussed the role of gender, ethnicity, and race; Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology Holly Swyers talked about the roles of the media; Assistant Professor of Politics Carrie Nordlund commented on religion; while Assistant Professor of Politics James Marquardt addressed foreign policy.

•   The College held a mock primary election in which students could vote for their preferred candidate. Out of 192 votes cast — or approximately 18 percent of the students — Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain won their respective primary contests.

•   On February 11-12, the College welcomed two former members of the U.S. House of Representatives, Gil Gutknecht (R-Minnesota) and Andy Jacobs (D-Indiana), as part of the Congress to Campus Program, which provides an opportunity for students to interact with a bipartisan pair of former members of Congress to encourage students to consider careers in government and public service.

•   On February 21, Fred Barnes, journalist and Fox News political commentator, delivered a talk called “A Closer Look at the ’08 Election.” The event was an Edward H. Oppenheimer Lecture and was co-sponsored by the Young America’s Foundation, College Republicans, and the Office of Intercultural Relations. Bay Buchanan, CNN commentator and former treasurer under Ronald Reagan, was also slated to talk on March 4 in an event sponsored by the GA Speaker Series.

 

NIU Aftermath

After a gunman opened fire in a Northern Illinois University classroom February 14, killing five victims and wounding 16 others before committing suicide, Lake Forest College joined the outpouring of support for the nearby school.
 
Eleven Lake Forest resident assistants and Residence Director Patrick Doggett traveled to NIU to help relieve university RAs who had worked around the clock since the tragedy occurred. “It was an emotional experience for all involved,” Doggett tells the Stentor, which, like several college papers around Illinois, ran the front page of NIU’s student newspaper the Northern Star. “We got to see firsthand the nightmare that took place there and provided support to staff and students.”
 
Associate Dean of Students and Director of Health and Wellness William Divane and social worker Lisa Alcala volunteered with more than 500 licensed clinicians to be available at the school’s February 24 memorial service. Divane and Alcala were assigned to visit classes the following day — the first day back since the shooting. “We were there to provide support and facilitate classroom conversations and provide psychological first aid for students who have a need and connect them with additional resources,” Divane says.
 
Since concerns have heightened nationally about security on college campuses following Virginia Tech, the College purchased emergency notification software last summer called Connect-ED that is designed to send e-mails, automatic phone messages, and text messages to the campus community during an emergency. The idea is to improve the College’s ability to react and respond to potential crises or emergencies.
 
“We needed another way to contact our campus community at a moment’s notice,” says Director of Communications and Marketing Liz Libby, a member of the College’s Crisis Management Team. “The service adds to several other tools already in place to inform the College community in case of emergency, including our campus phone system, Department of Security, our residence advisors, and old-fashioned bullhorns.”
 
The College held a campuswide test on December 6 and plans to hold another test during the spring semester.


Biking for a Cause

“We saw news stories about wounded soldiers coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan and felt that we had to do something to help them out. Here were heroes who served their country with honor and now needed a little help getting their lives back to normal. We think that riding bikes across the country is a great way to raise awareness for their cause: Four guys, five states, 1,800 miles.”

— Rocky Linder ’08, Bobby Chappius ’08, Dana Goheen ’07, and Jim Kersten ’07 will bike from El Paso, Texas, to Jacksonville, Florida, to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project, which assists wounded or disabled soldiers.
Visit www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/freedomtour for more information.


Scoring Hitchcock

While growing up in Chicago, Margaret Golembiewski ’10 developed a love for film music in movies that ranged from Disney musicals to The Untouchables. “There was something magical about it,” she recalls. “You could feel what the characters in the film were feeling in the story.”
 
Golembiewski never expected to get the opportunity to compose an original film score with two music professors last summer. But as a Richter Scholar — a program that allows certain students to work with a professor the summer after their first year at Lake Forest College — she did.
 
She was slated to work with Professor of Music Don Meyer on a research project at the same time Lecturer in Music David Amrein was searching for a movie score for the College’s chamber orchestra to perform for an audience as they would watch the film — a follow up to last year’s Phantom of the Opera.
 
The orchestra has several nontraditional instruments, like a guitar, saxophone, and electric base, which prompted the idea to compose an original score custom-made for each musician.
 
Now all they needed was the movie.
 
When Amrein, a longtime Alfred Hitchcock fan, learned the director had made a silent film early in his career, he rented the DVD.
 
The Lodger, a suspenseful thriller released in 1927 that unravels the mystery of a murderer who kills blond women on Tuesday nights, foreshadowed Hitchcock’s distinct directorial style. But the music on the DVD matched up poorly with the scenes. “There are a lot of elements that don’t make sense on an emotional level,” Meyer says. “The music misleads you. There isn’t a clear relationship between the music and the narrative.”
 
The 90-minute film became a natural, but ambitious, choice for the scheduled October 30 performance in the Mohr Student Center. Amrein, trained as a music arranger, had never composed music before. Nor had Golembiewski, although she had sung in a choir since high school and taken a few music theory classes. Meyer was an experienced composer but was going on a College-sponsored trip to China in early summer.
 
With their work cut out for them, Golembiewski and Amrein began to analyze the movie and interpret what mood Hitchcock wanted viewers to feel in each scene. After countless viewings, they started to compose themes called leitmotifs to represent different emotions, like jealousy, romance, chaos, and suspicion, portrayed throughout the movie (for a famous leitmotif, think Jaws). After Meyer returned they divvied up the scenes equally.
 
In the beginning Golembiewski says she often faced “composer’s block” and found herself a little stuck writing in a similar “pastoral, romantic” style for each leitmotif. A turning point came when she had to write for a pivotal scene in the film. Daisy, the blond heroine, has fallen for the suspicious lodger who is renting a room in her family’s house. After they leave together on a Tuesday night, her parents begin to suspect he is the murderer. As panic builds, Golembiewski wrote music that intensifies that emotion on screen. “It was very atonal and created a very different feeling,” she says. “I finally figured out how to compose!”
 
In all they composed more than two dozen leitmotifs, often mixing and layering them together using the computer software programs Finale and Sibelus, which allowed them to compose for several different instruments. “We were able to tailor this piece to fit exactly what we have in the orchestra,” Amrein says.
 
On the night of the performance, the group faced some new challenges. Golembiewski, set to play the marimba, had never performed with an orchestra. Amrein, the conductor, had to ensure the orchestra kept up with the action on the screen. “It had to be exactly paced,” he says. “We had no leeway in tempo so I had to force the orchestra to keep up with the energy.”
 
But the standing ovation confirmed their success. “It gives the orchestra pride and ownership over the piece because we aren’t trying to live up to a recording,” Meyer says. “It’s never been performed better!”
 
The chamber orchestra performed The Lodger again to an audience of more than 800 for the Silent Film Society in Chicago on February 17.


Speaker Soundoff

DEBRA MUBASHSHIR MAJEED, associate professor of philosophy and religious studies at Beloit College, delivered the keynote address at Lake Forest College’s 14th annual Martin Luther King Jr. holiday program on January 21.
 
While speaking about the lessons learned from Dr. King’s life and work and her own self-discovery, she urged students in the audience to take advantage of every opportunity to educate themselves and think critically about what they learn.
 
Other speakers commemorated the life and legacy of Dr. King, including President Stephen D. Schutt and Dean of Students Beth Tyler. They each recalled their feelings after learning of his assassination, which occurred 40 years ago in April.
 
The program also featured songs from the Voices of Inner Peace gospel choir and the annual lighting of the Unity Candle by three students (see back cover for more about the Unity Candle). As the candle was lit, three more students read a story written by Jason Neal ’99, which described the candle’s significance and meaning in commemoration of Dr. King.
 
“Do not let the Dream die,” it says. “Don’t let the candle in your heart go out. Don’t forget how far you’ve come, and how far we still have to go. Hope will never die.”

JOHN PRENDERGAST, human rights activist and former White House and International Crisis Group Adviser, spoke about genocide in Darfur on October 28.

Field Museum biologist JOHN BATES delivered a lecture called, “Natural History Museums: Their Role in Understanding Evolution in the Tropics and How to Conserve Biodiversity” on November 5.

VIRGINIA MARTINEZ, legislative staff attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, spoke about current immigration laws and their impact on Latinos on November 15.

U.S. Representative MARK KIRK, congressman for Illinois 10th Congressional District, spoke on November 26.

JOHN BRYAN, chairman of Millennium Park, Inc., delivered the Oppenheimer Family Foundation lecture called “Chicago’s Millennium Park” on November 29.

Photographer ART SHAY, who has freelanced for Life, Time, Sports Illustrated, and Fortune, spoke about his collaboration with Chicago writer Nelson Algren for a book titled Chicago’s Nelson Algren on December 3.

Goatsilk, an art exhibition of video and interactive media, ran January 17–February 1 in the Sonnenschein Gallery. On the final two days, Goatsilk collaborative member BEN BLOCH conducted a workshop that culminated in a Web-based multimedia performance on February 1.

GARY PAVELA, past president of the National Center for Academic Integrity, spoke to students about academic integrity and honor codes on January 28.

TERRI HEMMERT, DJ and host of the long-running WXRT radio show “Breakfast with the Beatles,” delivered the Ruth Winter Lecture on February 13 on “How the Beatles Changed the World.”


By the Numbers

$206,346 
Grant from the National Science Foundation to support Foster G. and Mary W. McGaw Professor in the Life Sciences Anne Houde’s research: Behavioral and Genetic Mechanisms for Frequency-Dependent Survival and Mating Advantage in Guppies

$5,000
Grant awarded by the Negaunee Foundation to Lecturer in Music Kathleen Van De Graaff to perform chamber operas for several inner city schools in Chicago

192
Students who voted in the mock primary election. Barack Obama won with 118 votes. John McCain received the most Republican votes with 16

$21.99
Price of new reusable water bottle on sale at Boomer’s Café in the Mohr Student Center in an effort to reduce the use of plastic water bottles on campus

100
Year anniversary celebrated for Harlan and Blackstone residence halls on Middle Campus

20
Maps featured in the exhibit “Twenty Lake Forest Maps,” which was included on the Web site (www.tclf.org) of the Cultural Landscape Foundation, in Washington, D.C.

 

In the News

Chicago Public Radio’s “Eight Forty-Eight” featured Lecturer in Music DAVID AMREIN and MARGARET GOLEMBIEWSKI ’10 in a February 14 segment about the original score they composed with Professor of Music DON MEYER for Hitchcock’s The Lodger. Information about the project also appeared in a February 15 Chicago Tribune column.

Rain Taxi, a book review publication, featured an interview with Associate Professor of English DAVIS SCHNEIDERMAN about his work in the experimental fiction scene.

NPR’s “All Things Considered” featured a segment about the closing of the Macy’s (formerly Marshall Field’s) store in Lake Forest and quoted College Archivist ARTHUR MILLER.

JONATHAN IGLESIAS ’08 was quoted in a January 3 Queens Tribune article about the benefits of playing handball in a Brooklyn, New York, neighborhood park.

The Chicago Tribune featured Assistant Professor of Biology CALEB GORDON’s Shaw Woods Avian Monitoring Project (SWAMP) in its “Best of 2007” list on December 27.

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Tom McNamee wrote a column about legendary folk singer Steve Goodman, who attended Lake Forest College in the 1960s, to promote a tribute to be held at the College on November 19.

The Lake Forester published an article about the College’s $100 million campaign launch in the October 11 issue.

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman referenced his October 4 visit to Lake Forest College in his October 10 column about this generation of college students.


Q&A with Associate Professor of Politics Paul Orogun

On December 27 Kenya’s incumbent president Mwai Kibaki, a member of the Kikuyu tribe, defeated opposition party leader Raila Odinga, a Luo, in the presidential election. After charges of vote rigging, ethnic violence erupted in a conflict that has left over 1,000 dead and an estimated 300,000 refugees in a country considered to be one of the most stable in Africa.

As Spectrum went to press, Kibaki and Odinga had signed a power-sharing agreement that calls for a constitutional amendment to create a prime minister position for Odinga and divide cabinet positions. We spoke with Associate Professor of Politics Paul Orogun, who teaches the class African Politics, to get more historical context about the conflict and his thoughts on the future of Kenya.

Spectrum: What are the origins of the conflict between the Kikuyus and the Luos?

Orogon: When the question is posed in terms of ethnic identities, you are dealing with the history of British colonialism, the struggle for independent Kenya, and the politics of group entitlement. After the British left, the Kikuyus became the predominant ethnic group in post-colonial Kenya. When Jomo Kenyatta (a Kikuyu) became the head of state, there was, and still is, the growing perception among the multiple ethnic groups that some groups are hegemonic. Many groups feel like they are junior partners in the post-colonial state.

Spectrum: What was the state of politics when Kibaki was elected president in 2002, after running as a reformer against the incumbent Daniel arap Moi?

Orogun: Kenya has only had three presidents since independence. One of them, Mr. Kenyatta, died in office. Moi had governed for 10 years, if not more, and when he became too draconian, there was talk about a reformist movement. Kibaki emerged as the next person who would be able to save Kenya from itself.

But Kenya already had a history of a one-party system. After the Cold War the pressure for democratization and pluralism necessitated an opposition party that Kibaki benefited from. Once he became the ruling party, and if you follow the checkered history of “leader for life syndrome” or “this is my turn and I’m not leaving,” that’s the real issue — when executives don’t want to leave office. They’re not accountable and they can bend the rule of law.

Spectrum: Had there been a history of political instability in Kenya?

Orogun: No, if you mean overt political conflict like civil wars or ethnic cleansing. But the events that have happened since December 27 mean that the old image of Kenya as the bastion of stability in East Africa, and Africa’s most potent example of liberal democratic dispensation, that image is now shattered.

Spectrum: What are your thoughts on the power-sharing agreement?

Orogun: Like most analysts and interested observers, I am delighted that a political settlement has been signed. The implementation of the power-sharing arrangement and the creation of the position of a prime minister in an executive presidential democracy is not uncommon. That is the critical cornerstone of the Government of National Unity (GNU).
 
The French system of “cohabitation,”  which refers to the practice of having a president and a prime minister from opposing political parties serving in government concurrently, seems to be the essence of the Kenyan formula. Whether it will last or lead to gridlock and immobilism is something that only time can illuminate. 
 
The structural and deep-seated issues of ethnic favoritism, corruption, cronyism, the land distribution problem, as well as political patronage that has reinforced Kikuyu hegemony in the post-colonial Kenyan political system, have to be more aggressively tackled and meaningfully redressed if this post-conflict peaceful resolution initiative is to endure on a much more permanent basis. 
 
Clearly, the protracted issues of constitutional reform, an independent commission on electoral malfeasance, and problems of human rights violations that were perpetrated following the rigged elections have to be dealt with in the near future.


Steve Goodman Tribute Show

What if you turned 20 and were handed a death sentence?” author Clay Eals asked a roomful of 18- and 19-year-olds in a Roots in American Music class at Lake Forest College in November. “That’s what happened to Steve Goodman.”
 
Goodman, a folksinger and songwriter best known for penning the Arlo Guthrie hit, “City of New Orleans,” was diagnosed with leukemia as a Lake Forest College student in 1968. Faced with a terminal illness, he dropped out to follow his dream of becoming a professional musician. But against the odds, Goodman lived almost 16 more years and achieved a successful music career. He is often remembered for his personable stage presence and talent for songwriting.
 
Eals chronicles Goodman’s life, including his brief time at the College, in an 800-page biography called Steve Goodman: Facing the Music (ECW Press, 2007, available at www.clayeals.com). The author visited campus to meet with students and emcee a standing-room-only Steve Goodman tribute concert held in Lily Reid Holt Memorial Chapel on November 19.
 
With Goodman’s mother, Minette, in the audience, the show included several folksingers who knew and played with Goodman, including Kat Eggleston, Jim Post, Don Stiernberg, Al Day, Harry Waller, and Norm Siegel. Lake Forest College faculty folk and bluegrass band Fast and Cheap also performed.    

Throughout the concert, Eals, a Seattle-based journalist and longtime Goodman fan, read passages from the book and shared stories he learned through more than 1,050 interviews. “The lesson of this book is how do we live life and not take it for granted,” he told the audience.
 
Eals paints Goodman as a passionate and engaged student who enjoyed his time at the College. The Chicago native was pre-med at the University of Illinois when he decided to transfer in 1967.
 
Goodman’s admissions application states an interest in becoming a professional musician and explains his decision to transfer by describing the University of Illinois as “a machine for turning out careers,” Goodman writes. “It’s a great machine, but not a good school. I am hoping to find a small college program to be more suited to academic endeavor in the liberal arts.”
 
Goodman found that at the College after enrolling in the fall of 1967. As anti-Vietnam war sentiment built on campus and around the country, he became a political science major, balancing classes like Political Philosophy, Urban Political Administration, and Comparative Totalitarian Government with several theater courses. Eals writes that Goodman fit in well with a progressive learning environment that emphasized faculty accessibility and nontraditional grades during the politically charged era. Remembered as charismatic, articulate, mature, and funny, he was well-liked and often seen strumming his guitar around campus. 
 
During this time, Goodman also performed around the Chicago area. He earned a regular gig at the famous folk music spot the Earl of Old Town, where he played with the likes of Bob Gibson and Bonnie Koloc. But as he went to class in the day and performed at night, his health started to decline. Diagnosed with leukemia in late 1968, Goodman faced medical statistics that gave him a small chance of surviving another year. He formally withdrew from the College on January 17, 1969, after deciding to pursue a music career and make the most of his time left.
 
Before passing away in 1984, he led the writing of the song popularized by Jimmy Buffett, “Banana Republics,” and performed with several prominent musicians, including Kris Kristofferson, Bonnie Raitt, Emmylou Harris, and John Prine. The lifelong Chicago Cubs fan also wrote “Go Cubs Go” and “A Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request.”