Message from the President

by Richard Cook

We know that an atmosphere of mutual respect and caring among students and faculty members enhances learning. It is this atmosphere—an Allegheny hallmark—that has such a profound influence on students. Alumni tell us that much of what they have been able to accomplish in their lives is a direct result of the education they received on this campus—an education that builds on the basic dynamic between student and teacher.

For example, Q. Todd Dickinson ’74 credits Professor Emeritus of Chemistry Harold State’s guidance as a major factor in setting him on the path that led to his becoming under secretary of commerce for intellectual property and director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office under President Clinton. Many of you have similar stories to tell—stories of how one professor, one caring and committed mentor, made a significant difference in your career path or your life.

One of our goals with Tradition & Transformation, the campaign for Allegheny College, is to enhance the unique contributions that our faculty make to the life of the College. A successful campaign will allow us to recognize faculty achievement and foster teaching excellence by creating additional endowed professorships and opportunities for professional development and curricular innovation. It will enable us to further support the countless investments that our faculty make every day in our mission and our students.

You, better than anyone, appreciate the fact that our faculty invest themselves in our students to an extraordinary degree. What you may not know is that many of our faculty also contribute to Tradition & Transformation, giving back to the College a portion of their own hard-earned salaries to ensure that Allegheny students continue to receive the kind of education of which our alumni are such proud examples.

By giving unstintingly of their time, their expertise, and their talents, our faculty create an atmosphere for learning that serves students for a lifetime. With Tradition & Transformation, we honor their commitment and their service.

Cosmetic Surgery?

by Martin Pfinsgraff ’77, Chairman of the Board of Trustees

It’s hard to escape the metaphors on campus these days. The baby boom generation is aging, some more gracefully than others with the help of modern science. While I prefer the naturally wrinkled look, trustees generally don’t have the luxury of choice when it comes to deciding whether a little cosmetic surgery is needed around our beautiful campus. Buildings need updating both because of age and the changing needs of a vibrant Allegheny community. As trustees met in October, we could already see the benefits of ongoing “surgery”—not just cosmetic, but highly functional and necessary—on the George M. Henderson Campus Center.

Carpenters, masons, welders, electricians—all are hard at work transforming the Campus Center into a building that truly will be a center for the College, a dynamic place where students can grab a bite to eat and socialize, pick up the eagerly anticipated package from home, and get that biology text they need for the next day’s class. With updated facilities for student organizations, and new and expanded facilities for the post office and bookstore, the Campus Center will become a hub of activity for the entire college community.

Renovations to the Henderson Campus Center are only the most visible illustration of how Tradition & Transformation, the campaign for Allegheny College, is improving our ability to meet the needs of current and future generations of students, faculty, and alumni. The funds that we give as loyal alumni and friends are investments not only in Allegheny’s infrastructure but also in the programs and people that are vital to the life of the College.

Your support is essential to help us attain our campaign goal of supporting the College in these six critical areas: student support, including funds for scholarships and internships; faculty support, with increased funding for professional development; academic programs, such as our innovative managerial economics and civic engagement initiatives; the residential college, including renovations to our residence halls and residential life programs; the Campus of the Future, which will enhance our current facilities as well as create new ones; and the Annual Fund, which supports every program—and every student—on campus. If you have not yet made a gift or pledge, please consider making one now.

The years ahead are full of challenges and opportunities for Allegheny College. Thanks in part to the leadership of the prior chairman of the board of trustees, John Wheeler ’61, and his predecessors, we have an outstanding administration led by Richard Cook, gifted faculty, and resourceful alumni and friends as assets to draw upon. With the help of the men and women who make up these dedicated groups—and with your personal support—I am confident that we can fulfill the same promise for future generations of Alleghenians that has been fulfilled for so many over the past 188 years.

Jane Barnhart Kolson ’69

For Jane Barnhart Kolson ’69, establishing an endowed fund at the College was a way not only of honoring her family’s long association with Allegheny but also of acknowledging the encouragement and support she and her husband, Ken ’67, received from faculty during their years on campus.

“We’re delighted to be able to support Allegheny’s faculty through this fund,” Jane Kolson says. “Ken and I studied under so many wonderful professors—notably John Kessel, George Cole, Bob Seddig, Giles Wayland-Smith, and the late Wayne Merrick. And I recall my parents extolling the teaching virtues of English professor Julian Ross.”
Jane Kolson is gift planning officer for the Washington National Cathedral, and her husband, Ken, is a deputy director with the National Endowment for the Humanities. Both were political science majors at Allegheny.

The Barnhart-Fishel Endowment Fund, which the Kolsons continue to support through annual gifts and the Tradition & Transformation campaign, provides annual discretionary income to Allegheny’s academic dean. In the last few years, the fund has helped to purchase equipment for the environmental science, biology, and chemistry departments; assisted students in preparing to take the Medical College Admission Tests; and helped enable students in a first-year seminar on “The Immigrant Experience” to travel to New York City to visit Ellis Island and other important cultural sites.

Jane Kolson’s family connections to Allegheny go back almost a hundred years. “I am proud to be a third-generation Alleghenian,” she says, “having followed in the footsteps of my maternal grandparents, Harry and Clara Fishel, both Class of 1909, and my parents, William and Eleanor Barnhart, both Class of 1940.” Kolson’s aunt and uncle, Allyn ’39 and Barbara ’42 White, and a cousin, Sarah Wells ’95, also attended Allegheny.

For Kolson, Allegheny was not only about academic rigor—she calls her Senior Comp “a singular intellectual challenge and an ambitious undertaking that I’m still proud of today”—but also about a full and engaging college experience. During her four years at the College, she sang with the choir (“sometimes with the tenors!” she notes), was active in Alpha Chi Omega, served as a resident advisor, and was part of a folk music group that included classmates Bill Bly and Bob Helmer.

Weddings Unlock the History of Women

by Professor of History Paula A. Treckel

Twice a year, for the last two decades, I have assisted the Crawford County Women’s Center staff in training volunteers to counsel the frightened families seeking refuge there. My job is to help the volunteers understand their own, and their clients’, deeply embedded assumptions about sex and gender. But how? It has often been a struggle for me to get these volunteers to discuss their own beliefs and experiences. Spanning a wide range of ages and backgrounds—teenagers and senior citizens, college students and farmers’ wives—they have little in common. What shared experience can they talk about? Finally, it came to me. Weddings! As I lead these volunteers down the aisle of the traditional wedding celebration, discussing dresses, flowers, food, and vows, they reveal their own beliefs about women’s and men’s roles.

Weddings. Who would have thought that they could be a key to unlock the history of America’s women?

I carried my experience at the Women’s Center up the hill to share with my students at the College. Here, in my American Women’s History class, students learn how customs identified with the traditional “white” wedding originated in the nineteenth century when a “cult of true womanhood” emerged in the United States—and that, despite the birth and rebirth of feminism, American women of the twenty-first century still embrace these traditions as they plan their weddings. Why?

This question has led me deep into the archives of the New York Public Library and the galleries of the Museum of the City of New York. As I dig through boxes of wedding photographs from days gone by, or lose myself in a tangle of microfilmed magazine articles, I appreciate the generosity of Jonathan E. and Nancy L. Helmreich, whose History Research and Book Fund has supported my work. Former Pelletier Library director Connie Thorson’s gift establishing the Pelletier Library Lecture Series has allowed me to share the fruits of my research with the college community.

As I complete my manuscript “Dearly Beloved …”: The Romance and Ritual of American Weddings, I am grateful for the support I have received from my students, my colleagues in the Department of History, and the generous donors who have made my work possible at Allegheny College. Thank you!

How Does Allegheny’s Endowment Stack Up?

Although an Allegheny education is as good as—or even better than—the education offered at our peer schools, there is one area in which we fall short: our endowment. Here’s how we stacked up against some of our peers in 2002:

Hamilton College $400,374,000
Bucknell University $364,634,000
Union College $238,923,000
Gettysburg College $165,567,000
Bates College $156,696,000
Dickinson College $145,670,000
Connecticut College $131,806,000
Kenyon College $126,771,000
Ohio Wesleyan University $116,127,000
Allegheny College $105,025,000
Hope College $104,202,000
Washington and Jefferson $ 75,164,000
Muhlenberg College $ 70,604,000
Hiram College $ 60,400,000

Our endowment represents the College’s permanently invested capital. The income generated by the endowment each year provides permanent support for the College’s operating expenses, including academic programs, scholarships, and our physical plant. By making a gift to the endowment, you can supplement the funds that make a critical difference to the education of every Allegheny student.

Skattum Challenge

Get ready! The next time your phone rings it may be one of the Annual Fund’s friendly student callers. Allegheny’s Gator 2 Gator phonathon program connects you to Allegheny and the Annual Fund. Our dedicated student callers are eager to share information with you about the campus and the second year of the Skattum Challenge. Dag ’84 and Julie Grosjean ’85 Skattum continue to challenge alumni, parents, and friends to support the Annual Fund. Your gifts will be matched in the following ways:

· If you gave to the Annual Fund last year and you increase your gift this year, the increased portion of your Annual Fund gift will receive a 1:1 match from the Skattums.

· If you did not give to the Annual Fund last year and you give this year, your Annual Fund gift will receive a 2:1 match from the Skattums. Additionally, if you pay your gift online or pay with a credit card, your Annual Fund gift will be matched one more time by the Skattums!

· If you have never given to the Annual Fund and you give a gift this year, your Annual Fund gift will receive a 3:1 match from the Skattums. Additionally, if you pay your gift online or pay with a credit card, your Annual Fund gift will be matched one more time by the Skattums!

The rewards of giving are great. Your contributions help promote the College’s mission in many ways, such as providing financial aid to students, adding books and journals to the library, supporting special programs, and enhancing Allegheny’s curriculum. Multi-year pledges and matching gifts apply to the challenge as well. In short, your support makes the difference between an average college experience and the top-notch education offered at Allegheny College.

We look forward to speaking with you!