On the Hill

Allegheny and Columbia Join in Pioneering Partnership

Allegheny College is the nation's first college to enter into a pioneering teacher preparation partnership with Columbia University Teachers College.

Teachers College will give special consideration to Allegheny students who apply for admission: guaranteed interviews to any students that Allegheny recommends for Columbia's highly competitive graduate programs in teacher education. The program responds to America's pressing need for teachers who are thoroughly educated in the sciences, arts, and humanities, followed by specialized teaching certification at the graduate level.

"Allegheny's focus on providing undergraduates with strong preparation in a major and cognate courses in preparation for graduate study in teacher education is a model for our nation," according to Teachers College President Arthur Levine. "I applaud Allegheny College for its leadership in the area of teacher education."

Aspiring teachers attend Allegheny to major in one of its many nationally ranked liberal arts disciplines, such as biology, economics, environmental science, English, or psychology. Students then pursue a master's degree and state certification at one of Allegheny's partner institutions, including the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Cincinnati, as well as Columbia.

In an interview with the Meadville Tribune, Levine noted that Allegheny was chosen for the partnership in part because of its reputation. "The reason Allegheny is appropriate [for this partnership] is that it is selective," he said. "It is a distinguished institution. Had it taken this step and not been the quality it has been, we could not have made this arrangement."

Allegheny College President Richard Cook believes that traditional undergraduate teacher education programs can no longer keep up with the demands of both teacher certification and education in subject areas. "For too long teacher education programs have been less effective than they should be," he says. "This innovative approach will ensure that teachers have the best possible preparation for entering our nation's classrooms."

Watkins Named Associate Dean

Professor Beth Watkins has accepted a four-year appointment as associate dean of the College, beginning September 1. A member of the communication arts and theatre department since 1986, Watkins has served as chair of her department and as a member of the Faculty Review Committee. She is also a member of Faculty Council.

"Beth is an excellent teacher, a productive scholar, and a campus leader," says Dean of the College Linda DeMeritt. "She is well known for her innovative and creative work in theatre and has directed numerous plays, serves as the artistic director of the Playshop Theatre, and has been a member of the Board of the Academy Theatre in Meadville. Her scholarship has earned her a reputation off campus as well, and she is well respected for her contributions to community-based theatre."

Watkins received the Thoburn Foundation's Award for Innovative Teaching in 1998.

Rick Holmgren is leaving the associate dean post to take new responsibilities as the director of the College's Learning Commons, an academic initiative that will provide students with ready access to research, communication, tutorial, and technology assistance.

Pallant Helps Forge Historic Partnership

Professor of Environmental Science Eric Pallant joined a delegation of eighteen environmental leaders from across the United States and Canada that traveled to Israel in November to meet with their Israeli counterparts in a first-of-its-kind fact-finding mission.

The summit focused on bringing to light for the Jewish and environmental communities in North America the significant environmental challenges facing the State of Israel. It was sponsored by the Jewish Global Environmental Network (JGEN), the Jewish Agency, COEJL (the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life), and the Heschel Center for Environmental Learning and Leadership.

Pallant and his colleagues met with directors of nongovernmental organizations and government policy-makers to examine a broad range of environmental problems prevalent in Israel - issues ranging from air pollution and the loss of open space to polluted rivers, a growing water shortage, and the dramatic shrinking of the Dead Sea.

The delegation met with representatives of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, the Israeli Union for Environmental Defense, the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, Transport: Today and Tomorrow, the Jewish National Fund, and several other of the more than one hundred environmental NGOs in Israel today. They also met with high-ranking government officials including the director-general of the Ministry of the Environment.

As a Fulbright Scholar, Pallant has spent much of the past two years working to help Jewish and Arab Israelis become more aware of environmental issues facing their nation. He is writing a book, The Red Line, about his experiences. In the 2001 - 2002 academic year and again this past May, Pallant taught environmental studies at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in Kibbutz Ketura, Israel.

"While regional security is certainly the most critical issue facing the Middle East today, environmental issues have to be judged a close second," says Pallant. "I'm eager to bring the important information we gathered in Israel back to my students and colleagues in the United States. When cooperation and information flow across political and cultural boundaries as easily as pollutants do, we will be well on our way to solving even the most complex environmental problems."

Student Honored As Local Hero

Elizabeth Gilliland '05 was honored last year by President George Bush, Governor Ed Rendell and other Pennsylvania politicians, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Mercer County Federation of Sportsman Clubs for her efforts in saving two boys from drowning.

Last summer Gilliland - a double major in neuroscience and psychology - was working with more than fifty children ranging in age from eleven to sixteen at a Youth Conservation Camp in Mercer County, Pennsylvania. The area's overabundance of rain had caused the Shenango River to rise just six inches below flood level.

The canoeists were making their way down the river when two canoes collided, sending two fourteen-year-olds into the turbulent river. The undertow pulled the boys under. Gilliland and another counselor immediately set off in a canoe as another adult supervisor and the camp administrator followed. The four then pulled the two boys to safety.

Gilliland was prepared. A camp director for two years and a camp counselor for five, she regularly underwent water and boating safety courses.

"My safety wasn't my first priority," she admits. "This was a moment where I had to put others before myself."

Gilliland is no stranger to helping those in need. She works with children as the AmeriCorps Bonner Leader for the America Reads program. When asked how her classmates and other Allegheny friends react to her now that she's an official "hero," she says, "I just don't want people to make a big deal about it. I'm sure others would have done the same if they were in a similar position."

-- Erin Brady '04

Front Street Review Publishes James May '04

Senior James May's poem "1951" has been published in the online Front Street Review. For their first all-college issue, the Review chose two poets and two fiction writers from more than two hundred submissions from colleges and university students in Pennsylvania.

A creative writing major, May compiled a book-length manuscript of his poetry for his Senior Comprehensive Project. His advisor, Christopher Bakken, approached him about entering the contest. Along with Bakken's help with the fine-tuning of "1951," May took his work to the Chenango Valley Writer's Conference at Colgate University last summer. At the conference, May had the rare opportunity to study with poets Kelly Cherry, Peter Balakian, and Bruce Smith. Along with their insight, May received criticism from a workshop group made up of other students.

"Every poem I've written has begun with inspiration from someone else's poem - usually a few months after reading the other poet's poem ... a line or a strand of that voice will come back to me and resonate with something in my own thoughts," May said when interviewed by the Front Street Review. "Thus far, many of the poems have gone down the same road as '1951' in the narrative sense, but as I write more and more, I am hoping to experiment with different voices and styles."

May plans to continue his education after his graduation from Allegheny and has applied to MFA programs in creative writing.

--Maria Vietto '04

College's Habitat Chapter Builds First House

Habitat for Humanity usually works from the top - that is, the county chapter usually develops before the college chapter does. At Allegheny, however, the system went into reverse. Long before they organized as a Habitat chapter, Allegheny students were busy helping the community as "GatorAid." This year those same groundbreakers broke ground on what is possibly their greatest project - a house.

The house in question is the first house built by the Allegheny College Habitat chapter. It is an undertaking five years in the making and costing more than $36,000. The Crawford County Habitat chapter is lending a hand, as are numerous student groups and community leaders.

"Community interaction isn't as rare as people think," says Andrea McMillen '04, president of the College's Habitat chapter. Kandy Davis, the president of Crawford County Habitat, agrees, noting that much of the money for the project was raised from the Meadville community, further cementing the bonds between College and community.

The project began five years ago when Professor Emeritus of Art Dick Kleeman approached the College with a request that Allegheny donate three parcels of land on which a Habitat house could be built. The chapter managed to secure a grant from the national Habitat office for nearly 40 percent of the house's construction costs.

The next step was to find a family. Applicants have to do more than run a gamut of interviews and paperwork; they not only have to show a need for housing, but they also have to help build their new home and have the means to purchase and maintain it.

The Seekins family from Franklin was chosen. Their children suffer from lead poisoning due to their deteriorating house. The house had termites as well, and Charlotte Seekins even saw the house next door collapse.

On August 6 the campus chapter and affiliate broke ground for the new house, and completion is scheduled for the end of the spring semester. "We wanted these students to see a finished product," Davis says, referring to Habitat's graduating seniors. "Students involved at this stage should see the end."

Even with this massive undertaking, the house is just one project in Habitat's year. Habitat also takes the initiative in social education, advocating for affordable housing and a living wage.

But as busy as the College's Habitat chapter is, motivation is never a problem. If they ever doubt the importance of their hard work, they have only to talk to Charlotte Seekins. "They don't know what they've done for us," she says. "I don't think they'll ever know. I don't think any words will ever truly express how we feel."

-- Jason Peck '05

Robert Woodworth '69, president and chief executive officer of Pulitzer Inc. - and a trustee of Allegheny College - rings the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange on December 8, 2003. The occasion was the 125th anniversary of the company and its flagship newspaper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. When Pulitzer began publishing the Post-Dispatch in 1878, it contained four pages and was trundled by a wheelbarrow to various distribution points for a circulation of just under 1,000. Today, the company publishes the Post-Dispatch and the Suburban Journals in the St. Louis metropolitan area, owns leading dailies surrounded by weekly and niche publications in twelve other U.S. markets, publishes the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson in a joint operating agreement, and operates market-leading online sites integrated with its print publications in all fourteen of its markets.

Among other notable speakers on campus in fall 2003, William Schmidt, associate managing editor at the New York Times, gave a lecture on journalism in November. Schmidt has been with the Times since 1981. His prior experience includes serving as associate managing editor for personnel and newsroom administration and eight years of working as a foreign correspondent for Newsweek, where he ran bureaus in Moscow, the Middle East, and Miami. In 1977 he won an award from the Overseas Press Club for his reporting on the war in Lebanon. Schmidt is a member of the newly formed advisory board of Allegheny's Center for Economic and Environmental Development (CEED).