'It Was Meant to be Happened,' 39"x 47", 2007. Acrylic on canvas, collage, fluorescent Plexiglas; David Feinberg, with drawing contributions from Tibetan Survivor Dorjay Sakya and artists Caroline Kent, Malorie Binn, Veronica Williams, Lauren Haberly, and Jamie Winter Dawson

Clark University will host David Feinberg’s “Voice to Vision,” an expansive mixed media exhibition that narrates the experiences of genocide survivors from around the world, in multiple sites on campus beginning Thursday, Feb. 16. A gallery talk with Holocaust survivor Fred Arman will mark the opening of this exhibition, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. in the Schiltkamp Gallery, Traina Center for the Arts, 92 Downing Street.

A film screening and conversation with project director and documentary film creator, David Feinberg, is planned for Thursday, February, 23, at 4.30 p.m. in the second floor lounge of Dana Commons.  Feinberg will explain the project, and how survivors share their experiences verbally and collaborate with teams of artists to produce works of art (including sculpture, painting, collage and mixed media) that communicate their stories.

"We like to start them out without having any idea which direction it's going to go - very much like the survivors' experience. The survivors didn't know the destiny; the artwork doesn't know its destiny. It happens as it happens.
You make decisions based on what's in front of you,”
said Feinberg.

The exhibition will be on display on the Clark University campus in three venues: Feb. 16 - March 1 in Dana Commons; Feb. 16 - April 8 in the Traina Center;  Feb. 16 - April 16 in the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

Feinberg is an associate professor of art at the University of Minnesota. He earned an MFA degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He created the Voice to Vision project in 2002, and since that time he has made seven video documentaries with survivors and/or descendants from the Holocaust, Rwanda, Sudan, Cambodia, Tibet, Armenia, Bosnia, Laos (Hmong), and Native American atrocities. The Voice to Vision artworks’ and documentaries have been exhibited in colleges, universities, and art and
community centers throughout the United States.

The exhibit is free and open to the public. It is co-sponsored by the Higgins School of Humanities, the Department of Visual and Performing Arts, and the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. For more information, email Lisa Gillingham or call her at 508-793-7479.

This exhibit is part of the Difficult Dialogues Spring 2012 Symposium on “Agency: authenticity, power and action.” The series of events place emphasis on the power of the arts — film, narrative, visual arts, place-making, design — to provoke, educate, enlighten, re-envision, inspire, heal, and transform.

It is also sponsored by the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark, a program that trains students, educators, and activists to develop a sophisticated understanding of genocide. Offering the nation’s sole doctoral program in Holocaust History and Genocide Studies in conjunction with Clark’s history department, a new doctoral program in Psychology of Genocide in conjunction with the psychology department, and a rich undergraduate program, the Strassler Center’s program is interdisciplinary in nature.

Clark is the only school in Central Massachusetts to offer an MSA program that prepares students to take on increasingly complex responsibilities in the current global economy while satisfying the 150 credit-hour requirement to take the CPA examination in Massachusetts and many other states. Accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International) — a designation shared by fewer than 5 percent of business schools worldwide—graduates of this program will be ready to take on major responsibilities in the business world.

“The MSA is a natural progression for our graduate programs here at GSOM and Clark,” said Joseph Sarkis, GSOM interim dean.  “We already have world class Master of Business Administration and Master of Science in Finance programs. The new MSA program allows serious professionals and high quality students seeking CPA licensure a focused road to achieve their career objectives.”

Opportunities in the accounting profession are expanding “as the needs of firms and businesses grow ever more complex and global,” according to a recent survey conducted by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. The Occupational Outlook Handbook estimates 22 percent growth in accounting and auditing jobs through 2018. Despite the current economic conditions, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that number of accountants will grow faster than the national average for job growth. The increased demand for accountants is attributed to growing numbers of businesses, changing financial laws and regulations, and greater scrutiny of company finances. Job candidates with professional designations, particularly CPAs, and graduates with masters degrees have the brightest outlook.

Clark’s Graduate School of Management, founded in 1982, is located at the main campus of the University and has a satellite facility in Southborough. The business school, which serves approximately 500 students, has been consistently ranked as a Best Business School by The Princeton Review.

For additional information on the MSA program at Clark University, please visit online at www.clarku.edu/gsom, or call 508-793-7406.

]]> http://news.clarku.edu/news/2012/02/06/gsom-to-launch-new-masters-in-accounting-program-in-fall-2012/feed/ 0 http://news.clarku.edu/news/2012/01/30/leir%e2%80%99s-legacy-at-clark-resonates-through-luxembourg-program/ http://news.clarku.edu/news/2012/01/30/leir%e2%80%99s-legacy-at-clark-resonates-through-luxembourg-program/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:21:45 +0000 Melissa Hoffmann http://news.clarku.edu/news/?p=4697

Students enrolled in Clark's May Term in Luxembourg are treated to views like this.

Henry J. Leir made his fortune in metals and mining, but he never forgot that his wealth was earned, not inherited. His work ethic was so prodigious that he went to the office the day before he died at the age of 98.

Over the course of his long, colorful life, Mr. Leir held an abiding affection for many things. One of them was the The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg; in 1933, he fled to Luxembourg soon after the Nazis gained absolute political power in Germany. After enjoying success there, Mr. Leir left for the United States in 1938 and continued to build a global business, yet he remained grateful to Luxembourg for the safe haven it provided his family.

He also appreciated the enduring worth of a humanistic education. Though Mr. Leir, at age 11, was forced to take on the role of pater familias for his mother and siblings after his father died, he remained a gifted student who mastered several languages and cultivated a love of the arts and literature. Only a mining apprenticeship kept him from attending university.

Henry J. Leir

It wasn’t until Mr. Leir was in his 80s that these twin passions came together to benefit Clark University. According to Walter Schatzberg, professor emeritus of German, Mr. Leir learned about Clark through Steve Dune ’53, former chair of the University’s board of trustees, whose law firm did work for him. Trustee Alice Higgins — who, like Mr. Leir, channeled her wealth into a wide range of philanthropies — developed a relationship with him, and extolled the virtues of Clark.

Prof. Schatzberg tells of his first meeting with Mr. Leir in Switzerland, where the famed industrialist-turned-philanthropist sent a Bentley to pick up the professor and deposit him at his place in the mountains. “He was a fascinating man — lively, intelligent. He liked things done a certain way and always done on time,” Schatzberg says.

The two men became fast friends, and, beginning in 1980, the groundwork was set for Clark’s relationships with the Grand Duchy, which led to the creation in 1985 of the Henry J. Leir Luxembourg Program at Clark University.

Funded through the Leir Charitable Foundations, the program comprises an impressive array of active learning opportunities, international conferences, internships and scholarships that have benefited hundreds of Clark students over the years.

The program’s crown jewel is the May Term, begun in 1986, which at the conclusion of the spring semester sends about 40 undergraduates — typically divided equally among Clark and Holy Cross students (students from other colleges have also attended) — to Mondorf-les-Bains in Luxembourg from mid-May to mid-June. The Leir Charitable Foundations subsidize part of the cost for the Clark and Holy Cross students.

Students take one of three course offerings in a palate of disciplines. Recent courses have included “Beyond Armageddon: Enmity to Amity in Europe” (history); “Cultural Psychology of Urban Living” (psychology); “Seeing the Light: At the Crossroads of Art and Science” (physics), “Comparative Courts and Law” (government); “Nutrition, Aging and Health in the U.S. and Europe” (biology) and “From the Euro to a New Superpower?” (economics).

The learning is intimate and intense, with classroom work complemented by field trips that send students to locales in Luxembourg, Germany, France, Belgium, and sometimes Holland.

“When I taught medieval life and culture, the Middle Ages weren’t just about memorizing dates,” says SunHee Kim Gertz, professor of English at Clark and co-director with Walter Schatzberg of the Henry J. Leir Luxembourg Program. “We’d go see the cathedral where events had occurred, or visit monasteries. These trips were the textbook coming to life.”

Henry J. Leir and Prof. Walter Schatzberg speak with students during a Luxembourg luncheon.

Uwe Gertz, the longtime coordinator of the Leir Program, says that depending on the course, students might view the Parliament in Strasburg, visit battlefields in France, or spend an afternoon at the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. Physics students studying the technical properties and artistic virtues of light have visited museums to study how the Dutch masters employed light in their paintings.

Admittance to the May Term is a competitive application process, with the three professors who are teaching that year’s courses selecting the students who will make the trip to Luxembourg. In some respects the accommodations are light years from dorm life — the students and professors reside in the Klouschter, a former nunnery renovated into a luxury hotel and conference center — yet there exists a deep measure of collegiality bred from living and working together.

As SunHee Kim Gertz notes, group work is an essential component of the May Term. “Sometimes you have to step back and let the students do the teaching of each other,” she says. “That’s a hard thing for a professor to do, but the value of it has been confirmed to me in spades during the May Term.” She adds with a laugh, “Uwe warns the faculty that the experience has a bit of the camp counselor aspect to it, and I kind of like that.”

Clark students enjoy themselves away from the classroom during May Term.

Clark senior Benjamin Gardner, an Environmental Science & Policy major, learned about the economics of the European Union during the 2011 May Term. “I was curious to understand how the fundamental differences between the EU and the U.S. explained the differences between their respective environmental and social policies,” Gardner says. “While my main area of interest was only addressed explicitly during one class period, the class exceeded my expectations. We not only learned about these differences in our classroom, we lived them. During class trips, personal weekend travel, and even in Mondorf, the European setting made our discussions tangible.”

The Leir program boasts other elements as well. Its internship component has placed students for summer internships at Citibank-Luxembourg, The U.S. Embassy in Luxembourg, the international research institute CRP-Gabriel Lippmann, and the European headquarters of iTunes in Luxembourg City. The Henry J. Leir Ph.D. Research Scholarship, a prestigious yearlong internship with the Banque Centrale du Luxembourg, has led to job offers with Central Banks in Europe for Clark students, including one from the Luxembourg bank itself.

'My time in Luxembourg was challenging, enlightening, and rewarding; I learned so much both from the internship and from living abroad in this wonderful country.'

Madeline DeDe-Panken '12

Madeline DeDe-Panken ’12 was employed this past summer at the National Museum of History and Art in Luxembourg City, working on a variety of projects. Most of her internship involved researching and cataloging nearly 200 photographs by Edward Steichen, the prominent Luxembourg-born photographer who worked in America throughout the mid-20th century and was chief photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair. “I honed my research skills, delving into a variety of databases and internet resources to discover who each photograph was of and why it was taken,” DeDe-Panken says.

Also among the Leir programs are conferences and workshops in Luxembourg, run by Clark faculty, that bring together scholars and professionals for intensive discussion and analysis. Closer to home, the Henry J. Leir Lectures attract prominent Luxembourg citizens to Clark’s campus to lecture in their areas of expertise. Last October, Jean-Paul Senninger, Luxembourg’s ambassador to the United States, detailed how his nation’s economy has remained robust even as some of its European partners stagger beneath historic debt and struggle to weather the global recession. (Read about Senninger's visit here.)

SunHee Kim Gertz tells the story of how Henry J. Leir regularly attended the luncheon marking the conclusion of another May Term (the luncheon is a tradition that upon Mr. Leir’s death was continued in his honor). When he thought the time was right, Mr. Leir would tap Uwe Gertz, and the two would rise and approach the students gathered at a nearby table. Henry Leir would then address the students in German, not in English, despite his fluency in the language, and Uwe would translate.

The choice of language buttressed Mr. Leir’s underlying message to the students, Uwe says. “Learn as much as you can from an international perspective, and always be there for other people,” he says. “We think that makes Clark a perfect context for this mission.”

To learn more about the Henry J. Leir Luxembourg Program at Clark University, visit clarku.edu/offices/leir/.

— Jim Keogh, Director of News and Editorial Services

Clark University alumni are serving as volunteers in Armenia, Benin, Cameroon, Dominican Republic, Eastern Caribbean, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Romania, Uganda, Ukraine and Zambia.

“Peace Corps volunteers are changing the world,” said Clark University President David Angel. “It is gratifying to see our alumni carrying forward the values of Clark’s own mission in their dedication to promoting education, engagement, and understanding.”

Since 1961, 211 Clark alumni have served as Peace Corps volunteers. Today, Peace Corps volunteers work in dozens of countries in the areas of education, youth and community development, health and HIV/AIDS, business information and communication technology, agriculture and environment.

The rankings are calculated based on fiscal year 2011 data as of September 30, 2011, as self-reported by Peace Corps volunteers. A complete rankings list is available online. The number in parenthesis represents the number of alumni currently serving as Peace Corps volunteers.

In 2010, Clark University’s Graduate School of Management (GSOM) became a partner with the Peace Corps’ Fellows/USA program. Through GSOM, returned Peace Corps volunteers can work toward an MBA degree in a variety of concentrations, including social change. The social change track comprises courses in social entrepreneurship, environmental policy and community development. Participating Fellows receive at least a 50 percent reduction in tuition with the possibility for further merit aid.

About the Peace Corps: President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps on March 1, 1961, by executive order, to promote peace and friendship around the world. Historically, more than 200,000 Americans have served with the Peace Corps to promote a better understanding between Americans and the people of 139 host countries. Today, 8,655 volunteers are working with local communities in 77 host countries. Peace Corps volunteers must be U.S. citizens and at least 18 years of age. Peace Corps service is a 27-month commitment.

Since its founding in 1887, Clark University in Worcester, Mass., has a history of challenging convention. As an innovative liberal arts college and research university, Clark’s world-class faculty lead a community of creative thinkers and passionate doers and offer a range of expertise, particularly in the areas of psychology, geography, urban education, Holocaust and genocide studies, environmental studies, and international development and social change. Clark’s students, faculty and alumni embody the Clark motto: Challenge convention. Change our world. www.clarku.edu

Melissa Harris-Perry will deliver the President's Lecture, 'Black Is... Complicated,' on Feb. 13

The following events will take place during the month of February as part of Clark University’s Black History Month Celebration. The theme for the month’s programs — “Black is” — is both a statement and a question. It is designed to explore the complexities, challenges and opportunities of African American identity today.

These events are free and open to the public.

Tuesday, Feb. 7 at 7:30 p.m.
National Black HIV AIDS Awareness Day
Jefferson Academic Center, Room 320
This event is sponsored by Black Student Union. For more information, contact Dan Pologe.

President’s Lecture and contribution to Clark’s African American Intellectual Culture Series
Monday, Feb. 13 at 7 p.m.
“Black Is…Complicated”
Daniels Theater, Atwood Hall
Melissa Harris-Perry is Professor of Political Science at Tulane University, where she is founding director of the Anna Julia Cooper Project on Gender, Race, and Politics in the South. She is a columnist for the Nation, and appears regularly on MSNBC and will host her own show on MSNBC in February. Harris-Perry investigates the challenges facing contemporary black Americans. She works to understand the multiple creative ways that African Americans find agency in response to these challenges. Her latest book, “Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America” (Yale 2011), argues that persistent harmful stereotypes — invisible to many but painfully familiar to black women — profoundly shape black women’s politics, contribute to policies that treat them unfairly, and make it difficult for black women to assert their rights in the political arena.

The Clark Concert Choir will perform the Carter arrangement of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” (often called the “Negro National Anthem”) at this event, with guest tenor soloist and Clark MBA graduate student Paris Prince.

This event is sponsored by the Higgins School of Humanities, the Office of the President, the Black Student Union, Dean of the College, the Office of Intercultural Affairs, Residential Life & Housing, Political Science Department, the Mosakowski Institute, and the Martin Luther King and Black History Month Program Committee.

Presentation
Thursday, Feb. 16 at 7:30 p.m.
“Black since 1912”
John and Kay Bassett Admissions Center
This event celebrates Louis Clarkson Tyree (Class of 1912), the first black student to attend Clark. This event is sponsored by Black Student Union. For more information, contact Dan Pologe.

Performance
Friday, Feb. 24, 8 to 10 p.m.
“Black Monologues”
The Grind, basement, Higgins University Center
Students will express themselves through the spoken word, poetry, stand-up comedy, or simply talking about being black, and will share lessons they have learned, or a black experience they have had. This event is sponsored by Clark’s Black Student Union. For more information contact Bry’onna Mention.

James McGovern

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s recent assertion that “corporations are people” helped renew discussion about the role of corporations in public life, and their ability to influence elections.

The topic will be addressed in the panel discussion “Corporations are Not People: People’s Rights, Corporate Money, and What Comes Next,” to be held at 6 p.m., Monday, Jan. 30, in Tilton Hall.

The discussion will be led by Congressman James McGovern (D-Worcester), who has sponsored the People’s Rights Amendment, a constitutional amendment that would overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. FEC that grants personhood to corporations. The decision has led to unencumbered corporation spending in the current presidential election cycle.

♦ “Corporations are Not People: People’s Rights, Corporate Money, and What Comes Next,” will begin at 6 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 30, in Tilton Hall ♦

“Corporations are not people,” McGovern contends. “They are artificial entities that we the people create under state laws. They do not breathe. They do not have children. They do not go to war. Yet they now have far more say than ‘we the people.’ I'm honored to be on this distinguished panel, and I look forward to
discussing the ongoing journey to end corporate personhood.”

Joining McGovern will be Jeff Clements, co-founder of Free Speech for People and author of “Corporations Are Not People”; John Bonifaz, co-founder of Free Speech for People and a longtime national voting rights leader; and Massachusetts state Sen. Jamie Eldridge, a legislative leader for Massachusetts voting rights.

Kevin Powell

Clark's 27th Annual MLK Celebration will feature a talk by author/activist Kevin Powell.  Powell will deliver “From Rosa Parks to Barack Obama: Civil Rights in America,” at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 24, in Tilton Hall, 2nd floor of the Higgins University Center.

An acclaimed community activist and award-winning writer, Powell is the author or editor of 11 books, including his newest title “Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, and The Ghost of Dr. King: And Other Blogs and Essays,” a collection examining American leadership, politics, and social issues including gender violence, immigration, and equality for all Americans, due out this month.  Powell’s essays have appeared in many leading magazines, including Newsweek, Essence, Ebony, Esquire, and Rolling Stone.

Powell has engaged with a wide variety of concerns, including voter registration, Hurricane Katrina relief, education, the environment, eradicating poverty, and support for post-earthquake Haiti.  Powell has appeared on many television and radio programs including Oprah — 0where he was a part of the national conversation on domestic violence and how men can help end the assault on women and girls.

Powell is not only a writer and activist, but also a business owner with interests and ventures in entertainment, sports, and community development. A proud, longtime resident of Brooklyn, Kevin Powell was a 2008 and 2010 Democratic candidate for Congress in his district. This year,  Powell is co-founding a new national organization, BK Nation, which will focus on four major projects for the next several years: education, job creation and small business development, civic engagement, and health and wellness.

Powell appeared in the first season of MTV's reality television series, The Real World: New York in 1992. He was the oldest member of “The Real World” cast. From 1992 to 1996, he was a senior writer for Vibe magazine.

This event is free and open to the public.  It is sponsored by the Office of the President, the Martin Luther King Celebration/Black History Month Committee, the Dean of the College, and the Office of Intercultural Affairs.  For more information, call (508) 793-7320.

Students enrolled in The Sustainable University course pause for a photo with Jenny Isler, Clark Campus Sustainability Coordinator (front row, second from left), and IDCE Prof. Jennie Stephens (third from left).

Rain gardens, e-transcripts, faculty transportation – even making the most of a severe October blizzard – were discussed in a public presentation by students who completed the course, The Sustainable University. Their research projects delved into issues and proposed solutions related to Clark’s role in sustainable practices on campus and beyond.

The Sustainable University, which is taught by assistant professor Jennie Stephens, is a graduate-level course for undergraduates and graduate students together. Subtitled “Sustainability and the Role of Higher Education,” it is part of Clark’s Environmental Science & Policy program within the International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE) Department.

In addition to reading and writing about the challenges of sustainability and the role of the university in promoting sustainable practices in society, Stephens’ students met with several challenges associated with promoting sustainable behavior and fostering institutional and social change. The semester-long team projects focused on advancing specific initiatives in the Clark and Worcester communities.

Clark’s Sustainability Coordinator, Jenny Isler, was integrally involved in advising and assisting the student researchers. Senior Katy Cleminson, who majors in International Development and Social Change, served as the course peer learning assistant.

An estimated 50 students, administrators, staff and community members attended the Dec. 9 presentations. A final report detailing each of the team projects is available online at the Sustainable Clark website.

“Students have been exposed to and engaged with ideas about university policies and community priorities, as well as buildings and campus operations, and how these multiple dimensions all play a role in the education of students, and have a broad impact on society,” Stephens writes in the report introduction. “We have explored how institutions of higher education have unique potential to catalyze and/or accelerate the transition to sustainability.”

Students present research projects before an audience in the Fuller Music Room, Estabrook Hall, Dec. 9.

Following are the projects and student team members:

Campus Initiatives, Inventory and Outreach

 Ray Beauregard (ES&P graduate student), Sharon Bort ’14, Jordan Formichelli ’14, and Nate Lapides ’15

The students worked from an inventory of campus initiatives, researched the bike-share program, calculated carbon savings, and examined sustainable practices at Clark Admissions. The team reported several positive findings for Admissions, including structural aspects of the Bassett Admissions Center, the switch to electronic transcript review and other online, paperless strategies. Admissions tours with a focus on campus sustainability activities are also in the works, the team reported, adding that student tour guides and others in Admissions are “really into sustainability.” Strategies of engagement with alumni were considered, but logistical hurdles prompted the students to refocus.

“Our successful review of three specific sustainability initiatives (Clark Bike Share, e-Billing, and the actions by the Office of Admissions) demonstrate the strength and breadth of sustainability activities at Clark,” the group reported.

The Rain Garden Initiative

Samantha Boyle ’15, Kerry Burke ’15, Will Maxwell ’15, Samantha Sandella ’15

The team developed a local storm water runoff project focused on implementing a rain garden outside of the Admissions building to control water runoff. Informative, educational signage is planned to accompany the garden, slated to be prepared before the end of spring semester. The rain garden will also serve as one of the in Worcester, contributing toward a goal of 25 rain gardens proposed by city Mayor Joe O’Brien.

The Rain Garden Initiative team wrote: “This class has given our group such a great insight to how Clark, our home for the next three years, works. Through all the networking we achieved, we have developed a strong relationship with many key members within our community.”

The Clark Arboretum

Jixian He (IDSC graduate student), Olivia Bourque ’15, Phong Bui (ES&P graduate student)

The team focused on increasing awareness of the Hadwen Arboretum, a six-acre, century-old woodland unknown to many people on campus or in the city. The team used social media and Facebook, direct outreach, and Sustainable Clark website. A key project was marketing and organizing a public walk through the unspoiled landscape. More than 28 people joined the walk. Plans are in place to organize future walks, dedicate a link to the Arboretum website at the University’s own Sustainable Clark website, create informative slides to appear on the screens in the Academic Commons, and to encourage faculty to involve students and coursework at the site.

“Maintaining green areas in our world’s cities is extremely important as our climate changes due to an increase in carbon dioxide emissions,” the students reported. “Our team recognized the key role Clark’s arboretum plays in these scenarios and decided to work on raising awareness for the arboretum across Clark’s campus.”

Campus Garden and Food Systems

Ginny Cooke ’14, Corinne Jachelski ’15, Zach McArthur ’13, Emily Smela ’15, Ruth Vizard ’13

The group supported the “Herban Gardeners” in becoming an official student organization for gardeners and applied for Student Council budget funding for the spring semester.  Collaborating with Clark’s Eco Reps, the team helped to harvest a bumper crop of tomatoes and co-hosted an awareness-raising sustainable dinner party. The team also “recycled” logs from branches downed in a serious October snowstorm, transforming the debris into a garden seating area. 

From the team’s report: “Growing plants can foster a community’s collaboration, a key element of a sustainable system. As the Herban Gardeners learn basic farming, solid teamwork skills will help efficiently maintain the beds.”

Transportation within Clark’s Climate Action Plan

Ethan Forauer ’15, Toai Nguyen (ES&P graduate student), Anna Stern (ES&P graduate student)

These students investigated the mitigation strategies of Clark's comprehensive Climate Action Plan and decided to focus on transportation, distributing a survey that garnered impressive response rates (278 responses, comprising 36 percent participation). Efforts also were under way to calculate carbon emissions resulting from faculty and staff travel.

“Moving forward, we hope that our survey can be modified and used by the Sustainability Task Force and the Climate Action Plan sub-committee to continue monitoring staff and faculty commuting patterns,” the group reported. “This will be essential for keeping up with the climate action plan’s emissions targets.”

Li-Young Lee is one of six poets profiled in the film 'Poetry of Resistence.' He took part in the Dec. 1 discussion on 'Creativity and Resilience.'

“People have been trying to kill me since I was born.”

The line opens “Immigrant Blues,” the autobiographical poem by Li-Young Lee that illuminates his family’s history of traumatization, assimilation and survival. China’s Cultural Revolution led to the torture and murder of Lee family members, and Li-Young’s father, once a personal physician to Mao Zedong, relocated his wife and children to Indonesia, and from there they fled to the United States.

“Without a vision, people perish,” Li-Young told a Clark audience that gathered in Dana Commons on Dec. 1. “Members of my family who did not have a vision didn’t do very well. The ones who had a vision, or a piece of a vision, or a glimpse of a vision, could make it. [This was] a vision of a future, a vision of what a human is supposed to be; a vision of a human mission where suffering isn’t meaningless.

“Without an image of what a human being is supposed to be we’re lost.”

Click here to watch the “Creativity and Resilience” program.

 

Li-Young Lee was joined by filmmaker Katja Esson and film producer Alison Granucci for the Difficult Dialogues seminar “Creativity and Resilience,” the culminating event of the fall series “Educating … for what?” The series supported Clark’s Liberal Education and Effective Practice initiative, as well as the work of the Higgins School and humanities faculty in a Mellon planning proposal.

The springboard for the Dec. 1 session was a screening of Esson’s film, “Poetry of Resilience,” which traced the stories of six poets who survived Hiroshima, the Holocaust, China’s Cultural Revolution, the Kurdish Genocide in Iraq, the Rwandan Genocide and the Iranian Revolution. The documentary, much of it shot at a poetry conference in Great Barrington, teems with heartbreaking recollections of how entire families were decimated by violence, but relates how the poets have fought off despair through their writings and emerged to celebrate the gift of survival.

Esson described herself as “a very positive person who believes in the human race,” yet said that core belief was challenged by the stories covered in her film. She recounted seeing “mountains” of bones and skulls in Rwanda, some with visible bullet holes and ax marks. At a memorial to the slain in Rwanda, she was shaken to read the statement of a survivor: “When they said ‘never again’ after World War II, was that just meant for some people and not for others?”

Young-Li recalled attending a conference featuring many of the poets featured in Esson’s film (Young-Li is also profiled in the movie).

“When I heard their poems I thought, ‘These were meant to be heard,’” he said. “We need to account for human suffering.”

Young-Li compared the artistic process, including writing poetry, to a form of yoga that must be practiced and honed. Addressing the seminar’s central question of “Educating … for what?” he noted that the majority of people are trapped in their own narrow existences and are essentially “unconscious” to the world around them. “Maybe we educate for consciousness,” he speculated.

“We have a public self, a private self, a secret self, and art is a way to get in touch with all of that,” he said. “We project onto reality. Have we projected things onto reality that aren’t there; are seeing things in reality that aren’t there? There’s a profound alchemy that happens when we read poetry deeply; we disentangle our projections on the world.”

Alison Granucci related the story of a Vietnamese poet who was imprisoned for 27 years. In that time, he composed 700 poems in his mind — the process helped him survive, he said. Upon his release the poet immediately set about writing down all 700 poems, and when the last one was completed, he never felt compelled to write another.

In their remarks, the Difficult Dialogues audience returned to the theme of resiliency. Parminder Bhachu, professor of sociology, described cracked teapots that are soldered back together, with the adhesive material making the pot even stronger than it was in its original form. “People who are damaged are also the people who can survive,” she said.

Fern Johnson, professor of English, noted the scene in the Esson’s film when an Iranian poet breaks down while reading his poem about the injustices that were wrought on his family. He regains his composure and follows up with a smile and a quip: “I ruined the poem.”

“He has this balance somehow,” Johnson said, asking Esson if the other poets profiled in the movie were equally composed.

“When I went to the conference and looked at these people, I did not see victims, I saw artists, I saw poets,” Esson said. “That is why the scene so important in the film, because he sees himself as poet first. … The poems were an act of courage, of hope.”

~ Jim Keogh, Director of News and Editorial Services

That’s so old-school.

Clark’s new admitted-students website offers students, including the newest Clarkies, a far more timely, not to mention interactive, experience. Created through a software program called Slate, the site not only notifies members of the Class of 2016 that they’ve been accepted, but it links them to a student-produced video bearing the congratulatory message: “You got in!” An accepted student can also create electronic “postcards” to send to family and friends informing them of the happy news.

The Admissions Office began processing applications using Slate in October and students had access to a page where they could track their application process. In December, admitted students were also given access to an admitted-student community site, which allows students to create social media profiles, participate in discussion boards, and begin connecting with fellow members of their class well before they arrive on campus.

The new system was much needed, according to Director of Admissions Theresa Malone, especially with regard to its ease of use. Admissions staff update students about the status of their submissions, and will contact a student if he or she has left something out of the application packet — a teacher reference, for instance.

The Slate technology not only enhances the accepted-student experience, it also allows the entire process to be conducted electronically. Everything from reviewing applications to making admit decisions to sending follow-up communications is handled online.

“Most schools take 12 to 18 months to go paperless. We made the decision to go paperless in August and started reviewing applications online in early November,” Malone said. She estimates more than 1,000 pounds of paper a year will be saved by conducting the admissions process with clicks rather than print.

Malone said the new site is also a valuable tool for data collection as well as for prospecting students who express an interest in Clark.

On Dec. 16, admission decisions were sent out to just over 1,000 students who applied under the Early Action deadline. An additional 3,000-plus applicants are expected to apply for regular decision and will receive their decisions in March.

“We could track when people opened the email, and within 45 minutes of sending, more than half had been opened,” Malone said. “The first deposit came in 20 minutes later. It was the fastest deposit we’ve ever had.

“I stayed in the office until 8 that night watching the numbers in real time. Seeing the immediacy of the replies was definitely different than putting an acceptance letter in the mail and waiting for a response.”

Malone described the process of choosing Slate as “exhaustive.” She said planning and launching the new site was a collaboration among the Admissions Office, Information Technology Services and the Marketing and Communications Department.