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Vol. 5, No. 2 - November 4, 2005
| Trustees Honor David H. Porter During the fall meeting, Skidmore's Board of Trustees awarded the 2005 Denis B. Kemball-Cook award to President Emeritus David H. Porter, in recognition of "his extraordinary leadership, his passionate commitment to the liberal arts, and his warm and highly effective partnership with the trustees and all members of the Skidmore family." The award, named for a former trustee, honors a Skidmore leader "whose personal qualities and extraordinary commitment have contributed to the life of the College and who...has given sacrificially of wisdom, time, and talent." The trustees cited Porter's skill "at the full range of presidential responsibilities - from christening new buildings and running faculty meetings to fundraising and public relations - and brought to all of them the compelling discourse of a gifted teacher and the impish humor of an inveterate punster." The citation concluded, "David left the College far better than he found it and repaid in a thousand ways the board's confidence that he was 'our man'." As Skidmore's fifth president, Porter served from 1987 to 1998. Although he now holds the title of Harry C. Payne Visiting Professor of Liberal Arts at Williams College, he remains a familiar presence on the Skidmore campus, through performances and visits. Porter's wife, Helen Luebke Porter, received the Kemball-Cook Award in 1997.
Dale Standifer, executive director of the Metropolitan Battered Women's Shelter (MBWS) of Jefferson Parish, La., will discuss "Living Through Katrina" at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 16, in Gannett Auditorium, Palamountain Hall. Admission is free and open to the public. Standifer has been involved in the field of family violence and victim services for the past 15 years. In addition to working at the MBWS she also is an adjunct professor at Tulane University Graduate School of Social Work and a part-time licensed private investigator for the Louisiana State Board of Social Work Examiners and Speech Language Pathologists. Hurricane Katrina affected her personally and professionally. Standifer is unable to return to her home and is facing the challenges of getting one shelter habitable while "band-aiding" another for use. She will discuss her experience and daily struggles both as a resident and agency head. In connection with Standifer's visit to Skidmore, the Women's Studies Senior Seminar practicum, titled "Feminism, Politics, and Globalization," operating under the theme of "think globally, act locally," has coordinated educational and fund-raising projects to benefit the MBWS. Practicum students have developed an art/media installation titled "First World/Third World?" blending images and quotes from news reports of the August hurricane to showcase coverage of Katrina and its aftermath. The installation will be exhibited in Case Center in the area outside the Faculty/Staff Club during the week of Nov. 14. Also during that week, there will be a raffle with proceeds to benefit the Metropolitan Battered Women's Shelter. Prizes will include gift certificates to local restaurants and movies, a book autographed by Eve Ensler, author of the Vagina Monologues, along with a V-Day T-shirt. Tickets are $2 each, or 6 for $10 and will be available that week at Case desk. Practicum students also have arranged a special benefit evening Nov. 17 at the Payne Room of the Tang Museum. In addition to live music and refreshments, the event will feature a silent auction showcasing art work by Skidmore's own Regis Brodie, Kate Leavitt, and Margo Mensing, as well as an assortment of "get-away packages" at the Gideon Putnam Hotel, a Vermont bed and breakfast, and a summer week in Steamboat, Colo. In addition, there will be tickets to an array of special events, including a performance of the New York City Ballet in New York City, and a box at Saratoga Race Course. General admission tickets to the evening at the Tang are $40, $20 for students. All proceeds will benefit the Metropolitan Battered Women's Shelter. Reservations are suggested for the Tang event and may be made by contacting Mary Stange, associate professor of women's studies and religion, at ext. 5408 or email mstange@skidmore.edu.
Fitz Gibbon is an author and a specialist on Central Asian textiles and cultural heritage issues. Her talk will consider the ways that textiles and the woman's world became the battleground for building Soviet identity in Central Asia. She will show slides of vintage photographs and unusual textiles and carpets. A resident of Santa Fe, N.M., Fitz Gibbon specialized in Islamic studies while at the University of California at Berkeley. She is the recipient of several awards, including the George Wittenborn Memorial Award from the Art Libraries Society of North America for the best art book of 1997 for Ikat Silks of Central Asia. She has conducted field research in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. She is a founding member and former president of the Textile Museum Associates of Southern California and was appointed in 2000 by then-President Bill Clinton to the President's Cultural Property Advisory Committee. Art, Music, Sex, and Politics Coming Up in Nov. 9 "Dada Soiré"
Admission is free; seating is first-come, first-served. For more information, call 580-5320. The evening will be presented in the form of the "dada soiré" popular after World War I with avant-garde artists, musicians, and writers who embraced Dada ism for its post-war cynicism and playful, unconventional style. Performed in the spirit of a living "time capsule," the event is designed to bring "the significance of the Dada movement into today's political, social, and cultural landscape and to explore music's potential as a powerful tool of resistance and expression," said Ludwig. A five-piece musical ensemble will perform a selection of Dadaist musical works including Erwin Schulhoff's One-Step, Blues, In Futurum, Kitten on the Keys, Ten Themes, Sonata Erotica, and Symphonia Germanica. Also on the program will be Paul Hindemith's Mini-Max Musik and a work titled Overture to the Flying Dutchman as performed by a second rate band at 7 a.m. by the village well. The musicians will include Ludwig on viola; guest pianist Virginia Eskin; violinist Michael Emery and cellist Ann Alton, both of the Skidmore faculty; and violinist Josh Rodriguez, who performs with the Skidmore College Orchestra and several area symphony orchestras. Projected images of Dada artworks will range from the cleverly unsettling, such as Raoul Hausman's Mechanical Head (Spirit of Our Age), to the openly sexual. Dadaist readings and dramatic sketches will be performed by guest actors Paul Finnegan and Robert Jaffe; Skidmore students A.J. Paul and Sasha Haworth; and Lary Opitz, a professor in the Skidmore theater department. Among the selections will be Kurt Schwitters's "Ursonate" and "What a b what a b what a beauty b"; Tristan Tzara's "How to Make a Dadaist Poem"; and Hugo Ball's "DADAyama Song 1919." A member of the viola section of Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1982, Ludwig also performs with the Hawthorne String Quartet. He is the founding director of the Terezin Chamber Music Foundation, a nonprofit organization Ludwig describes as "dedicated to documenting, preserving, and advancing the resilience of the human spirit as expressed in and inspired by the music and art created in the Terezin [Theresienstadt] concentration camp." A Fulbright scholar of Holocaust music, Ludwig is an adjunct professor at Boston College, where he teaches a course on art and music in the Third Reich and the Holocaust. Brodie, Needham Earn Statewide Honor Professor of Art Regis Brodie and Marianne Needham, administrative coordinator in Summer Six, will receive a Special Citation for Non-Members from the New York State Art Teachers Association, at its 57th annual conference, Nov. 18-20 in Saratoga Springs. This year's conference, expected to draw approximately 400 NYSATA members from throughout the state, is titled "Metamorphosis," and is designed to showcase high standards in curriculum development, instruction, assessment, student achievement, advocacy, and artistic pursuits. The Special Citation for Non-Members recognizes individuals or institutions that have made a significant contribution to art education. Brodie and Needham were nominated for consideration by Hilda Green Demsky, an alumna of Summer Six and the High School Art Teachers Fellowship Program. During its 21 years, the fellowship program has drawn approximately 300 art teachers from nearly every state and as far as Egypt and Wales. In her nominating letter, Demsky explains, "I have been a participant in this program for numerous years and know well the benefits. I always returned to the classroom with renewed energy and enthusiasm after five or six weeks at Skidmore. Because of the leadership of Regis and Marianne, there are 300 art teachers that have had their morale and talents boosted at Skidmore's Summer Six Art Program." Paulette Lowe and Pat Beary, awards chairs, told Brodie and Needham, "Your work has benefited the creative renewal of countless art educators and students. We commend you for your hard work and thank you for your contributions to the arts." The award will be presented at a Nov. 19 banquet at the Saratoga Hotel (formerly known as the Prime Hotel). American Studies Association Honors Zangrando Established in 1993 and named for the co-founder and chair of the American Studies Program at the University of Minnesota, the Mary C. Turpie Award recognizes outstanding abilities and achievement in American Studies teaching, advising, and program development at the local or regional level. Zangrando was nominated by Linda Borish '83, associate professor in the Department of History at Western Michigan University. In his award citation, ASA Executive Director John Stephens notes, "Joanna has been in the forefront of the American Studies movement for the past 30 years. She was a pioneer in the areas of material culture, museum studies, and women's studies, bringing her expertise in these areas into the national arena through her continuing work with the Advanced Placement Program in American History, where she served as chief reader, as well as through her department at Skidmore College." He cited her teaching, collegiality and willingness to collaborate, and called her "a dynamic and indefatigable faculty member at a small liberal arts college where teaching can make such an important difference." Zangrando joined Skidmore's American Studies faculty in 1976 and served as department chair for a decade starting in 1987. In addition, she chaired the Liberal Studies program for 20 years. Greg Pfitzer, current chair of the department, said the Turpie Award "celebrates achievements in precisely those areas that Joanna values most and has worked so hard to promote over the years. Our program is a model of what a small, liberal arts program should be, and we owe much of our success to Joanna." 2006 Benefits Enrollment Period to Start Employees in the Flexible Benefits Program will soon receive information designed to help with making benefit elections for calendar year 2006. Open Enrollment is Wednesday, Nov. 9, through Wednesday, Nov. 30. This is when employees make benefit elections that will be in effect during calendar year 2006. This year, for the first time, employees will be able to make benefit changes via the new Online Benefits Enrollment System, which replaces the packet of information and forms sent through campus mail in the past. An Oct. 10 email from Nancy Bruno in Human Resources introduced My Employment Information - the online system where employees can look up personal information, view or change direct deposit information, and view pay slip information. If you have already registered for this system, you are all set to log in to My Benefits, the new feature under My Employment Information. More detailed information will be emailed Monday, Nov. 7, on how to register and login to this account (if you haven't already done so) and view and make changes to your benefits during Open Enrollment. Plan information and costs for 2006 will also be available at that time. For assistance in making these selections, all employees are encouraged to visit the Employee Benefits Fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 8, in the Sports and Recreation Center. Vendors associated with all benefit plans will attend and be available to answer your benefit questions. There will also be healthy snacks, a blood pressure clinic by Health Services, and safety tips from Campus Safety, as well as three massage therapists and nutritional information provided by the Saratoga Hospital, to name a few. Raffle prizes also will be available.
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An evening of Dadaist music, poetry, and visual art will begin at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 9, in Filene Recital Hall. The Dada Soiré de Filene: Sex, Art, Poetry, and Politics will be produced and directed by Mark Ludwig, the College's 2005-06 Sterne Virtuoso Series artist-in-residence. Ludwig is a Boston Symphony Orchestra violist and a renowned scholar of Holocaust music. 