Press Releases

Category: Press Releases

“An American Place:” Noted Environmental Historian Closes Lawrence University 2003-04 Convocation Series

Lawrence University will recognize award-winning author and historian William Cronon with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree Tuesday May 25 during the annual Honors Convocation, which closes the 2003-04 series.

Cronon, whose scholarship combines the disciplines of history, geography and environmental studies, will deliver the address “The Portage: History and Memory in the Making of an American Place” at 11:10 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. He also will conduct a question-and-answer session at 2 p.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Union. Both events are free and open to the public.

The author of two books and editor several others, Cronon, 49, has earned critical acclaim for his writing and research on the ways human communities modify the landscapes in which they live and how people in turn are affected by changing geological, climatological and ecological conditions.

His first book, “Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England,” which explored the changes the New England landscape underwent as control of the region shifted from Native Americans to European colonists, was awarded 1984’s Francis Parkman Prize of the Society of American Historians.

His second book, 1991’s “Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West,” an examination of Chicago’s relationship to its rural hinterland during the latter half of the 19th century, earned Cronon the Chicago Tribune’s Heartland Prize for the best literary work of non-fiction, the Bancroft Prize for the best work of American history and was one of three nominees for the Pulitzer Prize in history.

In addition, “Nature’s Metropolis” was recognized with the George Perkins Marsh Prize from the American Society for Environmental History and the Charles A. Weyerhaeuser Award from the Forest History Society for the best book of environmental and conservation history.

The Frederick Jackson Turner and Vilas Research Professor of History, Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Cronon is currently working on a local history of Frederick Turner’s hometown, Portage, Wis., in which he is exploring ways to integrate environmental and social historical methods with non-traditional narrative literary forms. He is also completing an anthology of first person accounts of past landscapes of the United States and the lives people have lived on them entitled “Working on Life on the American Land: A Commonplace Book.”

Cronon joined the UW-Madison faculty in 1992 after spending more than a decade teaching at Yale University in his hometown of New Haven, Conn. Among numerous academic awards he’s received, Cronon was named a Rhodes Scholar and a Danforth Fellow in 1976, received a $500,000 “genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation in 1985 and was named the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1995. In addition to UW-Madison, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in history and English, Cronon holds advanced degrees Oxford University in Britith urban and economic history and from Yale in American history.

His professional affiliations include serving on the Board of Curators for the Wisconsin Historical Society, the Governing Council of The Wilderness Society and the editorial boards of Environmental History and the Journal of Historical Geography.

Art History Lecture Examines Famous German Church and its Importance to the Nazi SS

Annie Krieg, a 2001 Lawrence University graduate and former Fulbright Fellowship recipient, returns to campus to discuss in recent research on the appropriation of medieval architecture by the Nazi SS.

Krieg presents “‘As the Blood Speaks, So the People Build’: King Heinrich I, Heinrich Himmler and the Construction of the 1,000-Year Reich in Quedlinburg,” Thursday, May 20 at 4:30 p.m. in the Wriston Art Center auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

Krieg, who spent 10 months teaching English in Germany on her Fulbright Fellowship, will discuss the 12th-century collegiate church of St. Servatius in Quedlinburg, Germany, a small town 125 miles west of Berlin, and its importance to Adolph Hitler’s Third Reich.

St. Servatius Church houses the tomb of King Heinrich I, the first medieval German king who unified the Saxon, Bavarian and Swabian groups, among others, into the first German Reich in the 10th century. Heinrich Himmler, leader of Hitler’s infamous SS troops, took great personal interest in King Heinrich and fashioned himself the modern reincarnation of the medieval ruler.

The 1000th anniversary of Heinrich I’s death in 1936 became an official Nazi party celebration and extensive renovations were made to the structure of the church to better accommodate Himmler’s notion of medieval history and national heritage.

Krieg will address questions raised by the SS-led renovations of St. Servatius, including concepts of the modern and the reactionary and the looming shadow of the Third Reich over Western civilization.

A German and art history major at Lawrence, Krieg recently completed her master’s degree in art history from the University of Pittsburgh.

Former Lawrence University President Thomas Smith Dies, Served from 1969-79

Thomas Smith, who served as president of Lawrence University from 1969-79, died Wednesday (5/12) at his home in Pine Lake after a battle with cancer. He was 83.

Smith came to Lawrence from Ohio University, where he had spent two years as provost, assuming the president’s office on July 1, 1969. He presided over the college until his retirement on August 31, 1979.

He led the college during one of the more difficult periods in its recent history. Student unrest over Vietnam and civil rights activism, as well as pressure from the student body for more of a voice in matters of academic and student life required delicate but decisive leadership. When Smith arrived on campus in 1969, his first faculty meeting was disrupted by students protesting U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

During the 1970s, the college, along with American higher education in general, faced an extended period of fiscal austerity, necessitating difficult decisions and the retrenchment of faculty, staff, and administration.

Among the milestones of his presidency were the completion of a major capital campaign; the opening of the Seeley G. Mudd Library in 1975; the strengthening of the university endowment; an extensive administrative reorganization involving academic affairs, admissions, development and student life; improvements in the curriculum and the renovations of Sage and Ormsby Halls.

“Tom was a quiet and unassuming man, yet forceful and straightforward in his dealings and interactions with others,” recalled Richard Warch, who succeeded Smith as Lawrence president in 1979. “I had the privilege of serving with him for the last two years of his tenure (as vice president of academic affairs) and counted him a friend and mentor and admired him as a man of principle and honor.”

In 1972, President Richard Nixon appointed Smith to the President’s Committee on the National Medal of Science, the selection committee for the prestigious awards for distinguished contributions in physical, biological, mathematics, or engineering sciences. The following year, Wisconsin Governor Patrick Lucey appointed Smith chairman of the newly created State Ethics Board, a position he still held when he left Lawrence.

Smith also served on the boards of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities and Independent College Funds of America, Inc.

After leaving Lawrence, Smith served as executive director of the Lakeshore Consortium in Support of the Arts, an organization promoting increased awareness of, participation in, and contributions to an enhanced environment for arts activities in the Fox River Valley. He maintained a commitment to liberal education in retirement remaining active with the Waupaca-based Winchester Academy, encouraging it to foster its historic focus on the liberal arts and sciences and music.

Born Feb. 8, 1921, Smith was one of 10 children — five of whom survived infancy — born to a Hubbard, Ohio steelworker and his wife. He attended Kenyon College on a full tuition scholarship and graduated magna cum laude in 1947, earning a bachelor of arts degree in physics. He earned a Ph.D. in physics at Ohio State University in 1952.

Later that same year, Smith began his academic career as an assistant professor of physics at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. In 1961, he was appointed an assistant to the president of Ohio University. From 1962 to 1967, he served as vice president for academic affairs and was named provost in 1967.

Smith is survived by his wife, Lillyan Beaver Smith, and their three children, Lizbeth, Steven, and David.

Conservative Author Dinesh D’Souza Celebrates America’s Greatness in Lawrence University Appearance

Noted conservative author Dinesh D’Souza takes on the critics and defends America’s unique standing as the “freest and most decent society in existence” in an address Thursday, May 20 at Lawrence University.

Based on his 2002 book of the same name, D’Souza presents “What’s So Great About America” at 7:30 p.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. The event is free and open to the public.

Written in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, “What’s So Great About America” celebrates the United States, in D’Souza’s view as, “the best life our world has to offer” while taking on those who hate America, including radical Muslims.

Born and raised in India, D’Souza, 43, immigrated to the United States in 1978. After earning a degree from Dartmouth University, he served as the editor of Prospect magazine and spent a year as managing editor of the conservative magazine Policy Review. In 1987, D’Souza joined the Reagan administration as a senior domestic policy analyst.

In addition to “What’s So Great About America,” D’Souza is the author of six other books, including 1991’s best seller “Illiberal Education,” in which he casts a critical eye on the state of contemporary American higher education. He has also written a biography of Jerry Falwell, “Falwell: Before the Millennium,” provided a controversial view of the role of race in American society in “The End of Racism” and argues the case why Ronald Reagan should be considered among the nation’s greatest presidents in his 1997 book “Ronald Reagan: How an Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary Leader.”

Hailed by Investor’s Business Daily as one of the “top young public-policy makers in the country,” D’Souza’s writing also has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Vanity Fair, Forbes, Harper’s and the Atlantic Monthly.

He currently serves as the Robert and Karen Rishwain Research Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, specializing in issues of social and individual responsibility, civil rights and affirmative action, economics and society and higher education.

D’Souza is speaking at the invitation of the Lawrence College Republicans and his appearance is sponsored by the Class of ’65 Student Activity Fund, the Young America’s Foundation and the Outagamie County Republican Party.

Lawrence Main Hall Green Transformed for Third Annual “Shack-a-thon”

More than 200 students will join forces to transform the Lawrence University Main Hall Green into a temporary shantytown May 15-16 for the college’s third annual “Shack-a-thon” for Habitat for Humanity.

Sponsored by the Lawrence Volunteer and Community Service Center, Shack-a-thon will test the design moxie and construction skills of more than 20 teams of students who will assemble living quarters from donated materials on 10-foot-square plots near Main Hall beginning early Saturday afternoon. The shacks will remain up until mid-morning Sunday.

Teams will be soliciting pledges for having at least one member remain in the shack overnight to simulate the plight of the homelessness. “Change jars” will be placed in front of each shack with cash donations serving as votes for a “Best Shack” contest. A host tent on site will provide information on issues related to homelessness and the need for affordable housing.

Jill Wiles, Habitat for Humanity’s Campus Chapters Coordinator for the Midwest out of Chicago, will deliver the address, “Low Income Housing and the Mission of Habitat for Humanity” at 7 p.m. Saturday. In addition, live entertainment provided by some of Lawrence’s best student bands will be performed throughout the evening beginning at 5 p.m.

Shack-a-thon organizers are hoping to raise $5,000 at this year’s event. Since Shack-a-thon was launched in 2002, the event has raised $9,000. All event proceeds will be used for the eventual construction of a Habitat for Humanity home in the Fox Cities. For more information, contact the Lawrence VCSC at 920-832-6644.

Lawrence University’s Jon Horne Elected Chair of the Wisconsin College Republicans

Lawrence University’s Jon Horne was elected state chair of the Wisconsin College Republicans at the organization’s recent annual convention held in Appleton. A sophomore from La Crosse, Horne will serve a one-year term until April, 2005, assisting with state fund-raising events as well as coordinating volunteer and training opportunities for the 46 campus chapters in Wisconsin.

Horne is the former chair of the Lawrence College Republicans and currently serves as a member of the executive committee of the Outagamie County Republican Party. As state chair of the College Republicans, he will be participate in a leadership training workshop in Washington, D.C. in June.

Gustavo Fares Awarded Fulbright Grant to Teach Graduate Course in Argentina

Gustavo Fares, associate professor and chair of the Lawrence University Spanish department, will return to his native homeland of Argentina this summer courtesy of a $10,000 Fulbright Scholar Program grant. Fares is the second Lawrence faculty member this spring to be awarded a Fulbright Fellowship.

Beginning in mid-July, Fares will spend 10 weeks teaching the graduate level course “Hispanic Identities in the United States” at the National University of Cuyo in Mendoza, Argentina.

Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Fares spent the first 27 years of his life in Argentina, before coming to the United States in 1985 to pursue graduate studies.

“As soon as I entered the United States, I was classified as a ‘minority’ and as a ‘Hispanic,'” said Fares. “I have always been interested in those labels. They did not characterize me in my native Argentina but were applied to me here precisely because of my origin.”

In his course, Fares will examine the identities of Hispanic communities in the United States and the understanding of those identities outside of the U.S. borders, focusing on their history, the ways in which they are depicted in films, literature and the visual arts as well as the role those representations play in the political arena.

“The changes brought about by globalization have had profound effects on the identity of nations and peoples throughout the world,” said Fares. “As a result, what it means to be Hispanic in the United States has come into question as this sector of society struggles to become part of the mainstream while still retaining the traits and characteristics that define them.

“I expect that Lawrence students in particular will benefit from my experience teaching abroad given the updated perspective from Argentina I will be able to provide,” Fares added. “In my role as a student advisor, I will be able to better explain to those who are interested in studying in Argentina that country’s educational system and the best ways to benefit from it. During my stay, I expect to establish relationships with the host institution that will develop into long-term projects for exchanging information, students and faculty in the years to come.”

A scholar of Argentinean literature and Latin American art, Fares joined the Lawrence faculty in 2000 after teaching for 11 years at Lynchburg College in Virginia. He earned a law degree at the University of Buenos Aires and spent two years in private practice before pursuing a graduate degree in painting, drawing and art history at the Ernesto de la Cárcova Superior School of Fine Arts in Argentina.

After coming to the United States, Fares earned a master’s degree in foreign language and literature and a master of fine arts in painting and printmaking from West Virginia University. He earned his Ph.D. in Latin American literature and cultural studies from the University of Pittsburgh.

Established in 1946, the Fulbright Scholar Program provides grants for teaching and research positions in more than 150 countries worldwide and is administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES). Fares was selected from research proposals submitted in disciplines ranging from the sciences to the fine arts.

East Asian Scholar Discusses Hong Kong’s Transformation in Lawrence Lecture

Ming Chan, a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, discusses Hong Kong’s transformative experience from British colonial rule to special administration region of China in a Lawrence University address.

Chan presents “The Making of China’s Hong Kong: Post-Colonial Crisis and Transformation” Thursday, May 13 at 4:30 p.m. in Main Hall, Room 201. The event is free and open to the public.

A former member of the University of Hong Kong history department, Chan will focus on two major problems that have plagued Hong Kong since it returned to China’s jurisdiction on July 1, 1997: a prolonged economic downturn and problematic governance.

Economically, Hong Kong is experiencing high unemployment (7.2%), deflation that has dragged on for 60 straight months and rising budget deficits that aren’t expected to be balanced until at least 2009.

Politically, C.H. Tung, the chief executive Beijing hand-picked to oversee Hong Kong, has been criticized for his too-much, too-soon, all-at-once approach to reform. His attempt to enact a Beijing-desired national security law resulted in a protest march by more than half a million people last July and produced widespread calls for direct elections. Last month, Beijing preemptively vetoed any meaningful electoral reforms for Hong Kong until at least 2012, signaling a drastic departure from its previous non-interference stance to uphold Hong Kong’s autonomy.

Chan, the coordinator of the Hong Kong Documentary Archives at the Hoover Institution, is the author or editor of 10 books, including 2002’s “Crisis and Transformation in China’s Hong Kong” and “The Challenge of Hong Kong’s Reintegration with China.” He earned his Ph.D. in East Asian history from Stanford.

Chan’s appearance is sponsored by the Henry M. Luce Foundation and the government and economic departments at Lawrence.

Astronomical Society President Discusses Solar System Origins in Lawrence Science Hall Colloquium

Catherine Pilachowski, president of the American Astronomical Society (ASA), discusses the latest research on the origins of our solar system and the Milky Way in a Lawrence University Science Hall Colloquium.

Pilachowski, the Daniel Kirkwood Professor of Astronomy at Indiana University, presents “Giant Telescopes, Heavy Metal and Ancient Superstars” Thursday, May 13 at 8 p.m. in Youngchild Hall, Room 121. The event is free and open to the public.

With the aid of giant telescopes and high-resolution spectroscopy, Pilachowski studies changes in the chemical composition of stars and star clusters. Those changes provide scientists with a glimpse to the evolution of the first stars that formed from primordial hydrogen and helium at the birth of the universe some 10 billion years ago. Pilachowski will discuss the chemical elements present in the Milky Way galaxy today and the clues they provide on the origins of our own solar system, which was created from the debris of both ancient and modern supernovas.

A member of the scientific staff of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, Ariz., for more than 20 years, Pilachowski joined the faculty of Indiana University in 2001 as the first recipient of the Kirkwood chair in astronomy. A specialist in the chemical composition of stars, she also conducts research on light pollution, astronomical instrumentation and large telescope design. She earned her Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Hawaii.

Pilachowski’s appearance is supported by the ASA’s Harlow Shapley Visiting Lectureships in Astronomy, which provides scholars and professional astronomers to colleges and universities for public lectures and classroom instruction.

Lawrence University Political Scientist Awarded Fulbright Grant to Study Pension Reforms in China

Lawrence University political scientist Mark Frazier has been awarded a $59,500 grant by the Fulbright Scholar Program to conduct research on pension reform initiatives in China.

Beginning in October, Frazier will spend six months in China investigating different strategies that local government officials are implementing to deal with the financial and political obstacles created by recently enacted pension reforms.

First established in 1951 under Mao Tse-Tung and covering a mere 20,000 retirees who met all the necessary requirements at the time, China’s pension program underwent its first major overhaul in 40 years in the early 1990s. The long-standing practice of retired state workers receiving pensions from their place of employment was reformed into a program where the costs of retirement benefits was shifted from the government to individual employers and workers.

“Chinese officials are finding themselves caught between competing forces,” said Frazier, assistant professor of government and the Luce Assistant Professor of East Asian Political Economy at Lawrence. “They are attempting to establish the country’s first viable social safety net, while at the same time, they face pressure from international organizations like the World Bank to reduce the government’s provision of pension benefits by encouraging people to save for their own retirements.”

Local governments are now facing the financial realities of collecting less in payroll taxes than is necessary to cover the payments to current pension recipients, much less future retirees. In less than 15 years, the number of Chinese retirees eligible for pension benefits has quadrupled, growing from 10 million in 1990 to 40 million today. The problem is further compounded by the fact there are no pension laws in China, only a series of regulations which create considerable latitude among provincial and municipal authorities in how pensions are administered.

Working with the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Frazier will focus his research on four provincial capitals, including Beijing. Through interviews with officials from the social insurance and pension departments of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, enterprise managers and individual pensioners, as well as published government documents, Frazier will study the different strategies administrators are using to manage pension regulations and whether pension recipients are in fact receiving their legally entitled benefits.

“When any government makes changes to what it once promised as benefits to retirees, it is a very risky political move. This is why social security reform here is considered the proverbial ‘third rail of American politics,'” said Frazier. “In China, it’s true that the leadership doesn’t have to worry about a voter backlash, but the stakes in pension reform are arguably higher. How the government handles the financial tasks of supporting a rapidly growing elderly population will heavily influence what the Chinese economy looks like in the future, and even what Chinese people demand of their government.

“This is an exceptional and exciting opportunity to conduct research at a crucial stage in China’s economic reforms,” Frazier added. “I owe a great deal of thanks to many colleagues at Lawrence who supported my grant application and who have made it possible for me carry out the research. I’m looking forward to sharing the results with my classes and encouraging students to pursue their own research abroad.”

Frazier, who speaks and reads Mandarin Chinese, joined the Lawrence government department in 2001 in a new faculty position created under a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation. He is the author of the 2002 book, “The Making of the Chinese Industrial Workplace: State, Revolution and Labor Management,” which traces the origins of the “iron rice bowl” of comprehensive cradle-to-grave benefits and lifetime employment in Chinese factories.

A visitor to China a dozen times in the past 10 years, Frazier serves as a senior advisor for the Seattle-based National Bureau of Asian Research. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and his Ph.D. in political science from the University of California-Berkeley.