Clark University - Clark News spring 2006
Newsbriefs (spring 2006)
Steinbrechers create fund for student research
Stephen ’55 and Phyllis Steinbrecher have established a permanent endowment in memory of their son, David C. Steinbrecher ’81, who passed away unexpectedly in fall 2004. The Steinbrecher Endowed Fellowships, modeled after the Anton Fellowships, will provide approximately $10,000 per year to support original ideas, creative research, public service or enrichment projects by Clark undergraduates. The fellowships range from $500 to $2,000.
Stephen Steinbrecher said that, after his son’s death, he and his wife wanted his legacy to continue at Clark.
“We wanted to do something that would benefit a student who otherwise wouldn’t get that chance,” he says.
The Steinbrechers, longtime friends of Barbara ’56 and Thomas ’56 Anton, were aware of the Anton Fellowship Program, which provides undergraduates with opportunities to explore their intellectual interests. Steinbrecher hopes David’s endowed fund will help ensure that these types of awards will be available to Clark students for years to come and that the program will have “broad appeal.”
David Steinbrecher’s interests at Clark were diverse. The history and government major’s activities included working on Professor John Blydenburgh’s political polling efforts, performing in the Clark University Players Society and playing soccer. Upon graduation, David postponed law school to intern in U.S. Senator Lowell Weicker’s office. He shortly became a full-time aide to Senator Weicker and spent many days on Capitol Hill.
After a stint as aide to Congressman Christopher Shay’s successful initial campaign, David entered law school. Upon graduation as a member of the Law Review, he clerked for Judge Alan Nevas of the Second Judicial Department. David then joined the New York City law firm with which his father was associated and spent more than eight years representing management in matters relating to collective bargaining and employment law.
In the late 1990s, David changed careers and became the chief labor negotiator for West Palm Beach, Fla., working with municipal unions and on labor relations issues. Simultaneously, he became involved with substance abuse prevention, which included working with groups in two prisons. The city honored David’s family by holding a memorial service for him shortly after his death, during which the various speakers, including the mayor of West Palm Beach, praised David for his interests and commitment to his job, his co-workers, and the people he shepherded through their fight with substance abuse, and his sense of humor.
The Steinbrechers are longtime members of the Jonas Clark Fellows, Clark’s leadership group of annual donors, and have supported many initiatives at Clark. An active alumnus, Stephen Steinbrecher served three terms as a Clark trustee from 1981-1995. He received Clark’s highest alumni award, the Distinguished Service Award, in 1998. The Steinbrechers have three children: David ’81, Marcy Puklin ’80, and Laura LiVigni, who attended Clark.
For more information on the Steinbrecher awards, or to make a contribution to the endowed fund, please call Bill Bennett M.P.A. ’97, alumni affairs director, at 508-793-7166.
$300,000 Keck grant supports biology education
Clark received $300,000 from the Science and Engineering Grant Program of the W.M. Keck Foundation to support a comprehensive and dynamic restructuring of Clark’s undergraduate biology curriculum.
The University is moving its undergraduate biology curriculum from a more traditional to an inquiry-based model that will bolster student preparation for upper-division courses and successful professional careers. The project is titled “Complementary Curricular Networks: Tools to Enhance Undergraduate Biology Education.” The grant will help fund personnel and equipment, as well as courses designed through complementary curricular networks (CCN), which link themes across the biology curriculum and integrate those themes with faculty research. The CCN approach will offer undergraduates new and varied pathways to scientific learning and research. A genetic analyzer, high-speed video cameras and specialized software are among planned equipment purchases. New courses such as Senior Research in Functional Morphology and Behavior, Biomechanics, and Comparative Genomics are to be offered. The redesigned curriculum will culminate in a senior-level research experience.
“We are extremely excited about the opportunity this award provides to the department,” says Biology Department Chair and project director Susan Foster. “It will enable us to incorporate novel elements into our curriculum that will provide common themes across courses and will help students integrate the diversity of approaches that comprise modern biology. The award also provides state-of-the-art equipment, enabling us to further enhance what we feel are already outstanding research opportunities for our undergraduate students.”
The CCN project will span four years. Upon achieving anticipated outcomes, Clark will consider how this curricular model might apply to other sciences at the University. Project co-directors at Clark include biologists Todd Livdahl, who is also the project coordinator, Deborah Robertson and David Hibbett.
McGadney named vice president for University Advancement
C. Andrew McGadney joined Clark on March 27 as vice president for University Advancement. McGadney comes to Clark from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., where he most recently served as director of development.
McGadney brings to Clark more than 10 years of development and management experience. He joined Wesleyan in 1994 as assistant director of the annual fund and has held a series of increasingly senior positions there, including director of major gifts, regional director, associate regional director and assistant director of the annual fund. As Wesleyan’s director of development, McGadney was responsible for all areas of fund development and postcampaign planning, while managing a development team of 17. He is a member of several boards and professional groups, including the Association of Fundraising Professionals and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. He is also earning a master’s degree in public administration at Columbia University.
As Clark’s vice president for University Advancement, McGadney will manage 40 staff members in University Advancement, the Alumni Affairs Office, the Clark Fund and the Public Affairs Office.
“Those of us who met Andy during the search were impressed by his vision, his broad understanding of the issues in his field, his energy and his personality,” says President John Bassett. “He is a great addition to the Clark community.”
In Memoriam: Mort Sigel '51
Morton Sigel ’51, a dedicated member of the Clark and Worcester communities, died on Feb. 2. Through his generosity of time and resources, Sigel has left a lasting legacy at the University.
“As a student of modest means, Mort was one of a generation of students from the Worcester area who were provided educational opportunities at Clark,” says President John Bassett. “Throughout his successful business career, Mort never forgot about the education he received at Clark and was deeply committed to the University for decades.”
Sigel earned a B.B.A. at Clark and became the founder, president, CEO and chairman emeritus of Millbrook Distribution Services in Leicester, Mass. In the 45 years after Sigel founded the company, Millbrook has become the nation’s largest wholesale distributor of health, beauty care and general merchandise products, as well as specialty, natural and ethnic foods. Most recently, Sigel served as chairman, president and CEO of Tekscan, Inc., in Boston, a manufacturer of pressure-sensitive systems. He retired in 2003.
A longtime, dedicated supporter of Clark, Sigel was a University Trustee for 22 years, serving as an Honorary Trustee for the past four years. He served on many Trustee committees, helping to shape the University. He was also co-chair of Clark’s Centennial Campaign and New Century Campaign, as well as a member of the former Board of Visitors. Sigel took particular interest in Clark’s Graduate School of Management (GSOM), where he and his wife Vivian Sigel established the Sigel Interactive Learning Center. He also generously contributed his time and expertise to GSOM as a member of its Visiting Committee and chair of the GSOM Advisory Council.
In addition, Sigel hosted Clark alumni events, served on his reunion committees, was a charter member of Clark’s Legacy Society for those who have included the University in their estate plans, and was a member of the Jonas Clark Fellows, the University’s leading group of annual donors. In 2001, Sigel received the Clark Alumni Association’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award.
Exemplifying the University’s commitment to creating positive change in the world, Sigel also volunteered for many community organizations in Worcester. He was chair of the Worcester County Music Association, local chair of the National Conference on Christians and Jews, president of the Worcester Jewish Community Center and of the Worcester Jewish Federation, a director of the Worcester Area Chamber of Commerce and chairman of the Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research. Sigel received many awards in recognition of his volunteer work, including the Person of the Year Award from Beth Israel Synagogue in Worcester, the National Leadership Award for Israel Bonds, the Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews, honorary membership in the Beta Gamma Sigma Business Honor Society and the Hudson Hoagland Award for his outstanding leadership of the Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research.
Sigel leaves his wife of 54 years, Vivian Sigel, who is also a friend of the University, their three children and 10 grandchildren. His brother, Irving Sigel ’43, D.Sc. (hon.) ’98, also died recently (see page 31).
Memorial contributions may be made to Clark’s Graduate School of Management, 950 Main St., Worcester, MA 01610.
Traina Fund brings Shakespeare Company to Clark
Performers from Actors from the London Stage (AFTLS) presented public performances of William Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” on Feb. 17 and 18 in Daniels Theater in Atwood Hall. The performances were part of a weeklong residency at Clark made possible by the Margaret W. and Richard P. Traina Endowed Fund for Shakespeare and the Arts.
Established in 2004, the Traina Endowed Fund will bring a Shakespeare performance group to campus every other year for performances, workshops and classroom discussion. During the week of Feb. 13, the five actors from AFTLS conducted workshops, on-stage demonstrations and informal meetings in Shakespeare, theater, literature and communications courses to help Clark students understand how Shakespeare’s texts become scripts, words become actions, and actions become meaning. The workshops and performances helped students come to a deeper understanding of the Shaskespeare play they had been studying, “The Merchant of Venice.”
“The Actors from the London Stage made Shakespeare accessible to a modern, young audience without completely rewriting it or modernizing it,” says Robin Barron ’09, whose appreciation for Shakespeare was comletely transformed by AFTLS. “They took Shakespeare off the pedestal of velvet tunics and regal British accents that his plays so often stand on and gave us something real, clear and wonderful.”
Although this is the first time a Shakespeare company has come to Clark through the Traina Endowed Fund, such residencies are not entirely new to Clark, according to Gino DiIorio, associate professor of theater. Similar residencies at Clark during the 1980s and 1990s and in 2001 helped inspire the Trainas to establish an endowed fund to make such Shakespeare weeks a biennial tradition. In addition to the public performances, AFTLS performed a special matinee for area elementary and secondary school students.
The public performances of “The Merchant of Venice” were also funded by the Theater Program, ClarkArts and the English Department. Admission was free with a Clark ID and only $5 for the general public.
Jonas Clark Fellows honored
More than 140 alumni, parents and friends were honored on Sept. 24, 2005, for their annual leadership support of Clark as part of the Jonas Clark Fellows. The group, which was joined by some of Clark’s student leaders, gathered at the Worcester Art Museum for a special tour of the exhibit “Hope and Healing: Painting in Italy in a Time of Plague, 1500-1800” with Clark art historian and co-curator Gauvin Bailey. The tour was followed by dinner at Worcester’s newly restored Tuckerman Hall.
Jonas Clark Fellows, those donors who make annual gifts of $2,000 or more, provide nearly 70 percent of the total gifts to the Clark Fund. For more information about joining the Jonas Clark Fellows, contact Rachel Larkin Jackson ’93 at rjackson@clarku.edu or 508-793-7513.
To the editor
I have the highest opinion of Clark University. Clark demonstrates exceptional integrity in its dedication to providing an honest and open intellectual community and seems truly committed to making a positive difference for mankind. My letter isn’t to complain, but only to see if any of the thoughts mentioned below are being explored at Clark.
When I read the recent article “Clark Talks about Iraq” (Clarknews, winter 2006), I was left wondering why the discussions at Clark have been focused on the negative aspects of the Iraq War instead of a broader focus on how best to preserve western civilization. It seems the United States and all western civilization is threatened by the emerging power in the Middle East. Should not some focus be on how best to preserve western civilization? The article raised questions for me such as, how can competing civilizations coexist when they have great differences? If the answer is that it will always likely be a power struggle and survival of the fittest, then why should a powerful civilization not use its power to its advantage?
Recent news describing the reaction to the Danish cartoonist demonstrates that the competing power is more than willing to use its power even when it kills and destroys innocent parties. The World Trade Center attack demonstrated the same thing. With respect to Iraq, I think there were no weapons of mass destruction. I think Saddam was a brutal dictator, was funding efforts to destroy western civilization, and would have participated directly given an opportunity. I think Iraq is strategically located with respect to the power that wants to destroy the West. It would seem to make sense that the United States is there. The death and destruction taking place in Iraq are high prices to pay, but is there an alternative which would allow us in the West to continue our way of life? Why should western civilization yield to the competing civilization when their practices are gravely unacceptable?
The Clark faculty bring many years of study and research to the topic of the Iraq War, but I sensed there was a bigger issue beyond Iraq that needs to be addressed. The same faculty and what I know to be an exceptional student body might be able to bring insights that can help solve this broader issue.
Randy Olsson
Clark parent
Clark launches revamped Web site
Alumni and friends are encouraged to visit www.clarku.edu and explore Clark’s new Web site. Designed by TMP Worldwide, a marketing firm enlisted by the University’s Admissions Office, the user-friendly site features a fresh new look and logical structure. You’ll easily find videos, articles and photographs that showcase Clark’s remarkable faculty, students and alumni.
A major goal of the redesign was to make it easy for visitors to find information. The new structure combats a common problem of Web users digging through never-ending layers of pages in an attempt to find the right information. The new site only has four page levels—Clark’s Home page, color-coded pages that introduce the seven main areas of the site, a third layer of pages that contain more specific information, and terminal pop-up pages. In addition, the color-coding of the seven main areas of the site promotes easier navigation. For example, the alumni pages are blue.
The Web site also refocuses and organizes information to better emphasize Clark’s best features—making a difference in our community and the world, active learning and research, our integrated intercultural focus, and of course the many students, faculty, alumni and staff who exemplify the Clark experience. The new site better showcases the important work and accomplishments of these community members.
To send feedback about the new Web site, please e-mail: webmaster@clarku.edu.
Two new majors enhance undergraduate curriculum
Beginning in fall 2006, undergraduates will have two more innovative majors to choose from at Clark: environmental science, and women’s and gender studies. The two majors were approved by the Undergraduate Academic Board this spring.
Students who major in environmental science will take a set of common core courses and then focus on one of three tracks: earth systems science; environmental and conservation biology; or environmental science and policy. In the earth systems science track, students examine the structure and function of the parts of the earth—the geosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere—and how they interact to create the biosphere, or zone of life. This track replaces and expands on the earth science track that was offered as part of the geography major. The environmental and conservation biology track is completely new and explores the ways in which organisms evolve and interact with one another and their environments. The environmental science and policy track is an interdisciplinary program that emphasizes policy questions about the environment and the use and misuse of technology. This track had been offered previously and was completely revised a year ago to tighten its focus.
In 1979, Clark launched its Women’s Studies Program, which included an interdisciplinary undergraduate concentration. The concentration was recently expanded to become the women’s and gender studies major. The major, administered by the Women’s Studies Program, provides students with a solid foundation in women’s studies and gender analysis, introduces them to a range of disciplinary approaches to women and gender, and helps them to develop an area of specialization within the field. Courses stress the importance of social ideas and relationships such as those shaped by gender, ethnicity, race and class to better understand individual and collective experiences, past and present. The major requires a minor in another field (and encourages a double major) in order to reinforce connections with existing majors.
Peapod Squad earns top improv honors
Clark’s student-run improv group, the Peapod Squad, placed first out of eight college improv comedy teams at Improv Boston’s Beanpot College Bowl Tournament, held in Cambridge on Feb. 25. The Peapod Squad beat Liquid Fun from Boston University in the finals.
The seven-members of the Peapod Squad are: co-captains Dave Haffner ’06 and Dan Braganca ’06, Melanie Hardy ’08, Danny Balel ’08, Emily Holland ’09, Dan Derks ’09 and Jason LaMountain ’06. This season the Peapods were well prepared for their first off-campus tournament. In addition to their usual rehearsals and performances, they have been reading major improvisation and comedy texts and participated in an on-campus workshop with Molly Hale ’00, a rising Chicago improv artist who helped the group focus on creating relationships in their scenes.
The Peapod’s Beanpot College Bowl trip was organized by Yvonne Conybeare, a part-time faculty member at Clark. With the enthusiastic support of Clark’s Theater Program Director Gino DiIorio ’83, the squad received a Michelson grant from the Visual and Performing Arts Department to help fund the trip.
The Beanpot College Bowl Tournament is an annual event organized by Boston’s leading improv company, Improv Boston. The tournament includes student comedy performances, workshops and networking opportunities for the college comedy improvisation community. Other teams competing this year were: The CCE, Boston College; Guerilla Improv, Worcester Polytechnic Institute; Seriously Bent, Suffolk University; Liquid Fun, Boston University; On Thin Ice, Harvard University; NU & Improv’d, Northeastern University; and Casual Thursday, Dartmouth College.
Clark student is first U.S. intern at Auschwitz museum
text
Research Centers
|
