COA Volume 4 Number 2 Fall 2008 The College of the Atlantic Magazine COA VISION Letter from the Editor The faculty, students, trustees, staff and alumni of College of As I write this, I'm on a train from New York the Atlantic envision a world to Boston, from there to take a bus home to where people value creativ- Maine. Outside, the Atlantic Ocean laps at ity, intellectual achievement the shores of Mystic, Connecticut. An egret and diversity of nature and stalks the shoals, its long neck leading the way. Somewhere in the train, a phone rings. human cultures. With respect and compassion, individuals A phone. How difficult it is for us to be alone. How nearly scary it is to be construct meaningful lives for separate from the familiar. themselves, gain appreciation And I think of the excerpts from the senior project of Carmen Phillips '08, of the relationships among all who spent seven weeks in the Virginia woods, having learned over the years to read the environment, forge new understandings-and survive on forms of life and safeguard the her own. heritage of future generations. Carmen faced many difficulties in her journey, not the least of which was being truly alone. As phones ring around me, and passengers huddle- like me-over computers, I realize that the ability to be alone, to learn for ourselves, is something we are daily losing through constant access to COVER: familiar voices over the phone, familiar sounds on iPods, and familiar facts embryo, from sabertooth, 2008, through the Internet. a video by Colin Capers, BA '95, MPhil '08, lecturer in writing and COA surely celebrates connectivity. But one of our lesser-heralded film studies. (S-VHS/MiniDV) teachings-perhaps because it is just SO basic-is self-reliance. Our students are expected to observe and learn from the world that is around and within This still from sabertooth, Capers' us. Whether researching birds out on Great Duck Island, whales on Mount videoart evocation, was created Desert Rock or the flora of Acadia National Park, whether combining through intensive manipulation of Greek drama and contemporary dance as student Dan Mahler '11 did last up to eighty layers of video and year in his production of The Bacchae, or pursuing any number of artistic, audio. Using both ambiguous scientific, literary and human studies endeavors-including planning their and recognizable images, Capers own course trajectory-our students learn to rely on themselves. encourages viewers to find their own meaning within this In this way, innovative possibilities emerge, such as those featured in these tightly controlled aesthetic pages: understanding a child's special awareness of the moment, launching environment-a window into his a school curriculum linking children with local farms, promoting legislation human ecological vision of the to make biking safer and carbon emissions more costly. These visions keep world. us caring as individuals, as a community and as a college. As the world negotiates the crashing waves of financial instability, I am BACK COVER: taken by how solidly the feet of our alumni are planted in what matters, and by how the greater COA community is truly focused on moving ourselves Danielle Kristi-Ann Meier, '08 and the world toward more rational, sustainable lifeways. I am taken by from her senior project, A Study our students, who within two weeks of moving into the new Kathryn W. of Friendship & Thyroid Cancer Davis Student Residence Village strung delightful spiderweb clotheslines, Through Vector Graphics making these buildings even more sustainable. Or by the many alumni who Having faced thyroid cancer sent in photos of themselves on a bicycle-as if the bike were the natural while a junior at COA, Meier transportation of the COA graduate. Or by the class notes, which more decided to focus her senior than anything else prove that COA attracts creative thinkers who leave the project on raising thyroid cancer college ready to fashion amazing, fascinating and unusually independent awareness and honoring those lives for themselves that also make the world better for others. who helped see her through the treatments. The images on the Donna Gold back cover are a reconfiguration Editor, COA of a life-size portrait exhibit containing digital prints of some of the many friends who supported her. features COA The College of the Atlantic Magazine Volume 4 Number 2 Fall 2008 Letter from the President p. 2 EDITOR Donna Gold COA's firm financial footing EDITORIAL GUIDANCE Nancy Andrews COA launches new programs Geena Berry '10 p. 5 Richard Borden Green & Socially Responsible Business is here, Heather Candon '99 Trans-Atlantic Food Systems program coming Ken Cline Naveed Davoodian '10 Fungi Funded p. 7 Jennifer Hughes Student Naveed Davoodian '10 receives EPA fellowship EDITORIAL CONSULTANT Bill Carpenter Big Shoes Filled p. 8 ALUMNI CONSULTANTS Jill Barlow-Kelley Karen Waldron passes faculty dean torch to Ken Cline Dianne Clendaniel PROOFING Jennifer Hughes Summertime, Summertime p. 10 DESIGN Rebecca Hope Woods Working the summer on MDI by Naveed Davoodian '10 PRINTING JS McCarthy Printers Augusta, Maine Phoebe: Living from the Inside Out p. 11 An essay by Lisa Hammer '90 COA ADMINISTRATION David Hales Andrew Griffiths Wilderness Ways p. 12 President Administrative Dean Sarah Baker Kenneth Hill By Carmen Phillips '08 Dean of Admission Academic Dean COA Alumnae Win National and State Offices p. 14 Lynn Boulger Sarah Luke Dean of Development Associate Dean of Student Life Ken Cline Bill Foulke: Beaming with Pride p. 15 Associate Dean Sean Todd A donor profile of COA's new board chair for Faculty Associate Dean for Advanced Studies Reports from the Sustainable Edge p. 17 BOARD OF TRUSTEES COA alumni raising the bar on balanced living William G. Foulke, Jr., Ronald E. Beard, By Amanda Witherell '00 Chairman Secretary Elizabeth D. Hodder, Leslie C. Brewer, sabertooth p. 27 Vice Chair Treasurer Casey Mallinckrodt, Images from a video by Colin Capers, BA '95, MPhil '08 Vice Chair With an appreciation by Abby Balmer '10 Edward McC. Blair, Stephen G. Milliken Life Trustee Out on Rounds: Exploration with Large Animals p. 30 Philip S. J. Moriarty T. A. Cox Selections from a senior project by Amanda Spector '08 Phyllis Anina Moriarty David H. Fischer William V. P. Newlin, M. Wing Goodale, Life Trustee departments MPhil '01 Elizabeth Nitze James M. Gower, Helen Porter Life Trustee George B. E. Hambleton Cathy L. Ramsdell '78, Class Notes page 41 Trustee Emeritus Samuel M. Hamill, Jr. John Reeves, Charles E. Hewett Life Trustee Faculty & Community Notes page 46 Sherry F. Huber Hamilton Robinson, Jr. John N. Kelly, Henry L.P. Schmelzer Annual Report page 50 Trustee Emeritus Henry D. Sharpe, Jr., Philip B. Kunhardt III '77 Life Trustee Susan Storey Lyman, Clyde E. Shorey, Jr., Life Trustee Life Trustee Poetry p. 36 Suzanne Folds William N. Thorndike, Jr. McCullagh Cody van Heerden By Stefan Calabria '08 and Melody Brimmer '08 Sarah A. McDaniel '93 John Wilmerding, Trustee Emeritus Jay McNally '84 Present at the Creation p. 38 Excerpts from an oral history with Steven Katona COA is published twice each year for and Susan Lerner the College of the Atlantic community. Please direct correspondence to: Speaking Facts to Power p. 64 COA Magazine Wing Goodale, MPhil '01 College of the Atlantic 105 Eden Street, Bar Harbor, ME 04609 Human Ecology Essay Revisited p. 65 (207) 288-5015, dgold@coa.edu Radical Human Ecology in an Ordinary Life www.coa.edu By Nikki Grimes '96 This publication is printed on recycled paper using vegetable-based inks.