On The Hill

Friedhoff Takes Admissions Helm

W. Scott Friedhoff has been appointed to the position of vice president of enrollment at the College. Friedhoff comes to Allegheny with twenty-five years of experience in higher education and a national reputation for using multidisciplinary, research-based techniques to increase institutional visibility, selectivity, and retention.

During his most recent tenure as associate provost for enrollment management at Bradley University, the university's application numbers grew, as did Bradley's ability to be selective.

Given Allegheny's many strengths, Friedhoff emphasizes that in order to contribute broadly to the College's success, he must resist the temptation to "sell" and choose instead to "teach."

"My job," he says, "is to be a great teacher, to understand as much as I can about the College and present that information effectively so that the students we attract are the students who will excel here-individuals who, as students and graduates, will continue to build Allegheny's national reputation."

Friedhoff earned his bachelor's degree from Cornell College and his master's and doctorate from the University of Iowa.

DeMeritt to Assume Dean's Post

Professor of Modern Languages Linda DeMeritt has accepted a four-year appointment as dean of the College, effective July 1, 2003.

Since joining Allegheny in 1982, DeMeritt has established herself as a highly capable and dedicated teacher, scholar, and campus leader. She has served as chair of the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and was the project director for a major grant from the A. W. Mellon Foundation.

She also has been a member of the Faculty Review Committee, the Faculty Council, and the Summer Working Group. In addition, DeMeritt is highly respected off campus for her scholarship and for her interest in pedagogy and international study.

She succeeds Lloyd Michaels, Frederick F. Seely Professor of English, who this summer will complete his fourth year as dean of the College.

Student Tapped to Serve On Advisory Board

Ben Munroe, a junior neuroscience/psychology major from Monaca, Pennsylvania, and president of Allegheny's GLEAM (Gators Leading, Educating, and Mentoring), has been elected to represent New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania on the BACCHUS and GAMMA Peer Education Network Advisory Board.

BACCHUS and GAMMA affiliate groups have been formed on more than a thousand campuses in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, and Hong Kong. Through these affiliates, students help their peers to develop responsible habits, attitudes, and lifestyles regarding alcohol and related issues.

Munroe's primary duty will be to help advise the board of directors on future directions for the organization. He will also communicate with peer education organizations throughout the three states to keep them informed about BACCHUS and GAMMA peer education activities.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude Lecture on Campus

Internationally renowned artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude traveled from their New York City studio to Meadville in November to give a public lecture and slideshow presentation in Shafer Auditorium. The lecture was the final event in Allegheny's celebration of International Education Week.

The presentation focused on Christo and Jeanne-Claude's approach to large-scale art projects, including two works currently in progress: The Gates, a project for New York City's Central Park, and Over the River, a project for the Arkansas River in Colorado.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude have produced some of the twentieth century's most unique works of art, including Running Fence 1972-76 in California. Their dramatic use of fabric in Surrounded Islands, Wrapped Reichstag, and The Pont Neuf Wrapped defies traditional approaches to materials and means of production.

"Their work encompasses and incorporates the landscape-urban or rural-and as such is environmental in nature," says Professor of Art Amara Geffen. "The process of creating temporary works within the public sphere requires collaborations with city governments, private land owners, and can even demand negotiations between different countries. These artists create a new context for seeing the environment with new eyes and a new consciousness."

"One of the goals of international education is to provoke students' imagination to see the world, people, and cultures from different perspectives-to be able to imagine new possibilities for our world," says Danuta Majchrowicz, director of the College's International Programs and Services. "The artwork of Christo and Jeanne-Claude reflects new ways of seeing and understanding our world, our environment, and our political and economic systems."

Environmental Programs Earn Kudos

The Pennsylvania Consortium for Interdisciplinary Environmental Policy-which comprises forty-three Pennsylvania colleges and universities, as well as the Pennsylvania Departments of Environmental Protection and Conservation and Natural Resources-has acknowledged the strength of Allegheny's environmental programs in its Report on Outstanding and Notable Programs.

The report recognizes the College for "its outstanding leadership programs on greening colleges and universities and sustainable development." Cited for particular recognition were the College's commitment to wind power, recycling and composting efforts, its energy partnership programs, the Center for Economic and Environmental Development (CEED), and its curricular and internship commitments to sustainable development.

Activist Sheds Light On Chinese Politics

Dai Qing - a journalist and activist whose life has been remarkably intertwined with major events in Chinese history over the last fifty years - spent a week at the College in November through the Diversity Studies Scholar-in-Residence program.

Dai visited classes on campus, presented a public lecture, and participated in a project coordinated with the College's new Center for Political Participation (CPP). "We kept her painfully busy," says Assistant Professor of Political Science Sharon Wesoky.

In cooperation with the CPP and Wesoky's Chinese Politics class, Dai worked on an outreach project to local high schools, kicking off the CPP's speaker's bureau program. The students in Wesoky's class - who had read Dai's work in advance of her arrival - prepared the ground by visiting political science and social studies classes to give students an overview of Chinese history, government, and culture. The following day Dai visited the same classes to give a more personal and in-depth presentation on the politics of her homeland, with an emphasis on human rights.

Perhaps best known as a journalist and a leading opponent of China's Three Gorges Dam project, Dai Qing has led a remarkable life. She was born the daughter of a famous revolutionary and adopted by a Red Army general, one of the founders of the People's Republic. She evolved from a passionate supporter of Mao Zedong - in her early years she worked as a missile technician and a military intelligence agent - to a fearless critic of her nation's policies. In 1989 the Chinese government imprisoned her for 10 months and banned her from publishing in China.

Wesoky first met Dai, "a friend of a friend," in China. When Wesoky led a group of Allegheny students on a study tour to China last year, she was able to arrange for the students to meet Dai in Beijing. Wesoky says that Dai was generous with her time, even meeting up with the students again the following day as they took a side tour. "She spent a lot of time chatting with students," says Wesoky. "She made a very strong impression on them."

Although Dai Qing traveled to the United States from her home in Beijing primarily for the residency at Allegheny, she also was invited to speak at several other institutions, including Harvard, MIT, and Pomona College.

The Diversity Studies Scholar-in-Residence program, which is made possible through funding from the Office of the Dean of the College, brings to campus two to four scholars a year. The program was the brainchild of Associate Professor of English Laura Quinn, who describes it as "an opportunity to bring into a class for an intensive residence somebody who both is and does diversity."

Maytum Family Acknowledged

At a reception held on campus in December, President Richard J. Cook presented Robert Maytum '34 with framed photos acknowledging the Maytum family's leadership in funding five "smart" classrooms on campus: a multimedia music classroom in Arnold Hall, a multimedia classroom and a specialty student technology lab in Murray Hall, and multimedia classrooms in Carnegie Hall and Quigley Hall. The classrooms and labs have been equipped through the generosity of Robert Maytum '34; his son, Robert A. Maytum '59; and daughter-in-law Marilyn Schweitzer Maytum '57.