On the Hill

Trustee Receives National Philanthropy Award

Marvin Suomi (right) is presented with the Council of Independent Colleges 2007 Award for Philanthropy by CIC Board Chair Antoine Garibaldi, president of Gannon University.

Allegheny trustee Marvin J. Suomi received the Council of Independent Colleges 2007 Award for Philanthropy in January. The award was presented at CIC's Awards Banquet during the annual Presidents Institute.

The award recognizes the generosity of Suomi and his wife, Mariclare, who provide scholarships and direct support to the humanities at several institutions. They are major benefactors to the Vukovich Center for Communication Arts, currently under construction at Allegheny.

Noted for his experience in fundraising organization and strategy, Marvin Suomi has served on capital campaign advisory boards for several colleges and universities and has generously supported a range of organizations.

An Allegheny trustee since 2002, Suomi is president and CEO of KUD International, a major construction services firm. He is an alumnus of the University of Michigan and Princeton University and is a trustee and visiting fellow of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation.

Forty-Nine States Represented in Record Applicant Pool

For the fourth consecutive year, Allegheny College has received a record- breaking number of admissions applications, with more than 4,300 students applying for the 2007-2008 class. This is the first time in College history that the number of applications has exceeded 4,000.

The College received applications from every state except North Dakota, with nearly two-thirds of applicants coming from outside Pennsylvania.

"We couldn't be happier with the increasing interest in Allegheny by top-notch students from around the country," says Director of Admissions Jenn Winge '96. "Surpassing the 4,000 applicant mark is not about reaching an arbitrary number—it's a tangible acknowledgment of the value that prospective students and their parents assign to Allegheny as an institution."

Since 2003, the number of students applying to Allegheny has nearly doubled, while total enrollment has remained level at 2,100.

Alumna Elected Board of Trustees Chair

The Allegheny College Board of Trustees elected Christine Scott Nelson '73 as its chair at its October 2006 meeting. Nelson has been an Allegheny trustee for nearly a decade and was most recently the board's vice chair.

A longtime volunteer for the College, she has chaired the Timothy Alden Executive Committee, served on the Alumni Council, represented Allegheny at college fairs, and hosted internships for students.

Nelson, who is managing director of Cornerstone Research in Boston, received a Gold Citation from the College in 2000 in recognition of her professional achievements.

Two Join Board of Trustees

The Allegheny College Board of Trustees welcomed two new members into its ranks at its October 2006 meeting. Joining the board were Gladys Mullenix Black '54 and William MacArthur.

Black retired as acting president of Valley Forge Group, which provided the automotive, capital equipment, and energy industries with services including technical writing, engineering, marketing, design, and training. Black co-founded the company and for many years was its executive vice president. She has served on the College's Alumni Council and participated in the Volunteers in Support of Admissions program and the former Alumni Advising Program. She is also a major donor for the new theatre and communication arts center.

MacArthur is founder and president of Brooksville Development Corporation, which develops real estate in the U.S. and S.E. Asia for residential, tourist, commercial, and retail uses. A graduate of Yale University, MacArthur has served on the boards of a variety of nonprofit organizations and, along with his wife, Luz Thoron- MacArthur, is active with social development and philanthropic activities in the Philippines, Madagascar, India, and Tibet.

Two Alumnae Among Pittsburgh's "Forty Under Forty"

Two Allegheny alumnae were included in Pittsburgh magazine's eighth annual list of forty people under the age of forty making the Pittsburgh region a better place in which to live.

Adrienne Aul '00 is a program manager with the Vacant Property Working Group of the Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group. She works with government officials and community leaders to encourage new development in vacant lots and abandoned structures.

Katy Wright Everett '88, an account executive with Ariba Inc., was a key contributor to the growth of FreeMarkets, one of Pittsburgh's first technology firms. She is also involved with several local nonprofit organizations that advance causes related to women, children, and the arts.

Pair of Professors Win Prestigious Literature Awards

Allegheny College English faculty Kerry Neville Bakken and Kirk Nesset have both received prestigious awards for their literary works.

Bakken, an assistant professor, won the Fiction & Literature: Short Story category of the Best Books 2006 Awards for her work Necessary Lies. Bakken's first collection of short stories, Necessary Lies has also been awarded the G.S. Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction. Bakken teaches fiction writing, environmental writing, and American literature at the College.

Nesset, an associate professor, received the Drue Heinz Literature Prize for 2007. The prize acknowledges outstanding writers of short fiction and helps to make their work available to a world-wide readership. Nesset teaches fiction, poetry writing, and American and English literature at the College. He serves alternate years as Writer-in- Residence at the Writer's Center at the Chautauqua Institution.

Marjorie Klein Appointed VP of Development

Following the completion of a highly successful capital campaign, John Mc- Candless announced his retirement as vice president for development and alumni affairs at Allegheny. Succeeding McCandless in the position is Marjorie Klein, formerly the associate vice president for development and alumni affairs.

McCandless, vice president for development and alumni affairs since 1998, served the College through its most recent fundraising campaign, "Tradition and Transformation," which raised a record-setting $115.2 million.

Klein began her service to Allegheny in 2000 as director of development and major gifts. Preceding her time at the College she was director of market development with Stargate Industries. Prior to that she held a variety of posts at Gannon University, including executive director of development and alumni relations and director of alumni relations.

Klein holds a bachelor of arts in theatre and communication arts from Gannon University. She also completed the Management Development Program with Harvard University's Institute for Higher Education.

Student and Alumna Spearhead Effort to Help Prevent Malaria's Spread

Allegheny is one of the first colleges in the country to join Nothing But Nets, a global grassroots campaign to save lives by preventing malaria, a leading killer of children in Africa. Nothing But Nets was inspired by Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly, who challenged each of his readers to donate at least $10 for the purchase of an anti-malaria bed net.

Molly McGravey '08 and Sarah Roncolato '80, pastor of Grace United Methodist Church in Meadville, worked with the United Nations to establish a Nothing But Nets chapter at the College. The chapter has a strong educational component, with students working to educate their peers and the wider community about the malaria epidemic in Africa—and to educate themselves on how to conduct an effective fund-raising campaign.

McGravey and Roncolato have mobilized campus clubs, sororities, fraternities, and sports teams in an effort to raise $25,000 for Nothing But Nets within the next year.

In March, the chapter held a fundraiser in which two basketball teams, made up of Allegheny faculty, coaches, and staff, took to the court for a contest in which the higher the score, the more money was raised to buy mosquito nets. Fans at the game were able to come down from the stands and put money into their team's bin to raise the score.

New Text Takes Aim at Political Apathy Among Youths

Living Democracy, a new text released by Pearson Prentice Hall, attempts to reverse the apathy and ignorance of young adults in relation to U.S. politics and government. The lead author of the book is Daniel M. Shea, professor of political science and director of the Center for Political Participation at Allegheny.

"Colleges and universities can do a great deal more to provide effective civic education to America's youth," says Shea. "A recent study titled 'The Coming Crisis in Citizenship' found that America's institutions of higher education for the most part fail to increase their students' knowledge of American government. In fact, seniors at some of the institutions surveyed actually knew less when they graduated than when they entered the institution as freshmen. My co-authors and I hope that Living Democracy helps to reverse that perilous trend."

Shea teamed up with co-authors Joanne Connor Green of Texas Christian University and Christopher E. Smith of Michigan State to develop an introductory text to American government that utilizes a unique style of writing and presentation, including vivid photos and graphics, activities, examples, and action items to encourage students to actively participate in their learning.

College Celebrates Entrepreneurial Spirit

This winter members of the Allegheny community celebrated Entrepreneurship Week USA (E-Week), a national initiative to educate students about the role that innovation and entrepreneurial endeavors play in our society.

Throughout E-Week, students and other members of the College community displayed posters on a variety of entrepreneurial projects, including the College's student-run Grounds for Change coffeehouse, the We Love Meadville project, Gnosh.com, and a number of entrepreneurial programs related to the college's Center for Economic and Environmental Development.

Students also competed in the first annual Gator Innovation Challenge in two categories: Business Plan and Social Entrepreneurship. In addition, a community meeting focused on "Meadville, PA: Not Your Run of the Mill Community Project," an ongoing collaboration among numerous community stakeholders that aims to re-create Meadville as an economically, ecologically, and socially sustainable community.

E-Week was sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation in collaboration with the New York Times and Inc. magazine.

Vice President for Enrollment Scott Friedhoff (left) is pictured with three veterans of the Allegheny admissions office at the 2007 National Association for College Admissions Counseling conference in Pittsburgh. Pictured with Friedhoff are, from left: Megan Murphy '88, former dean of admissions; Gayle Pollock, former director of admissions; and Dick Stewart '56, former director of admissions and director of alumni affairs. Collectively the four have admitted thousands of students who went on to become Allegheny alumni.