November, 1983 Nonprofit Organiz. College of the Atlantic U.S. Postage Paid Bar Harbor, ME 04609 Bar Harbor, Me. Permit #47 COA News Phoenix Fund Takes Flight In the wake of the fire that destroyed Kaelber Hall on July 25, the college has launched a $5,000,000 capital campaign to plan, build and equip new library, classroom, laboratory, dining and auditorium facilities. The three-year Phoenix Fund campaign will also provide an initial endowment for the upkeep of these facilities and provide assistance to faculty whose offices were destroyed. COA president, Judith Swazey, launched the campaign in early October with the announcement that Mrs. Amos Eno and Mr. Lawrence Hadley would serve as co-chairs of the fund drive. A group of trustees, island residents, alumni and parents will also serve on the fund committee. Planning is already underway for the new facilities. Mr. Dan Scully, principal architect with Equinox, Inc., will work in collaboration with nationally recognized campus planner, Denise Scott-Brown to develop drawings for the new buildings and their sites. The two architects will also recommend needed relocations of roads and services and related aspects of the college's rebuilding. Included in the plans are: - an expanded Thorndike Library to house a 50,000 volume collection of books relating to COA's human ecology theme as well as classroom space, an audio-visual room and a library-related computer facility; - a new Kaelber Hall complex to provide classrooms, kitchen and dining facilities, science laboratories and a new Natural History Museum; - The Thomas S. Gates, Jr., Auditorium, named after the college's late Board Chairman and designed to include a 300-seat auditorium, a dance exercise area and supporting facilities. Developed for use by both the college and the island community, the Gates Auditorium will fill long-standing needs for a conference and performance center. A total of $580,000 is already in hand from insurance, gifts and pledges leaving $4,420,000 to be lpture by Priscilla Pattison. raised during the next three years. Carpenter recalled the history of Kaelber Hall, a Through the generosity of a well-known Maine summer cottage built in the late 19th century. "Ironically, it survived the fire of 1947 that burned so much of Mt. sculptress, COA now has a three-dimensional symbol for its Phoenix Fund Campaign. Priscilla Pattison of Desert Island," he said. "Later it became a Catholic Lincolnville presented COA with a 10' black steel Seminary, an appropriate predecessor to a school of sculpture of a Phoenix to mark the site of the fire and Human Ecology. For in the sense that Human Ecology spirit of rebirth. The Phoenix, a legendary bird of tries to include the totality of life and the relations of living Egyptian mythology, was consumed in fire and rose things in its view, it is religious." renewed from its own ashes. "Now the building is gone," he concluded. "The The Phoenix sculpture won first prize in the challenge before us is to create out of the destruction. To Eastern State Exposition in Springfield, Mass. and has the ordinary person, destruction is an annoyance, and been exhibited in Bryant Park in New York City. replacement is the answer. But to the creative person, you Pattison, a graduate of Wellesley College, also don't just replace what was destroyed, you transform it into presented her alma mater with a Phoenix sculpture to something wholly new, something unimagined before. We commemorate the 1914 fire that burned that college's now have the opportunity not just for a new piece of main building. architecture, but also for a new vision of the college." Fall Term Convenes On Optimistic Note "In Eastern mythology, creation and destruction are two faces of the same goddess," faculty member William Carpenter observed at COA's September 12 Convocation. "We have seen destruction in its purest form, a building destroyed by fire. But this is an institution of learning and our job now is to learn from this as from all of our experiences." Carpenter addressed the 125 students and assembled faculty and staff at the traditional opening ceremony of the college's fall term. The Convocation was held in the auditorium exactly seven weeks after an early morning fire destroyed the school's main building, Kaelber Hall, and the adjacent library. The fire was stopped just short of the auditorium which received extensive smoke and water damage. Crews worked around the clock to restore the facility for the opening of the fall term and as COA's president, Judith Swazey, said, "It is nothing short of a miracle that we are all assembled here today." Convocation, 1983. COA Library Is Reborn sorted and stored for a book sale. Numerous volunteers from the community have come forward to help with this With the help of a remarkable network of individuals job. One resident of Bar Harbor's housing for the elderly and library resources across the country, a restored comes regularly, twice a week, to process books; she is Thorndike Library opened on September 12 with 5,000 frequently joined by a retired librarian from the Smith- volumes on the shelves. The library is housed in an unused sonian Museum Library. Several former work/study secondary school industrial arts building leased to the students at the college have also donated time to the college for one year by the town of Bar Harbor. project. To assist in the cataloging process, the library has News of the fire carried in the Chronical of Higher hired a computer cataloguer and the OCLC/NELINET Education, American Libraries, Library Journal, library computer network has donated one year of free Science Magazine and countless other newsletters, computer time, a value estimated at $10,000. brought offers of assistance and gift books in from as far COA librarian Marcia Dworak feels that the library away as South Dakota. will be able to rebuild a "decent collection" entirely from Closer to home the Maine library community the gift books she has and will be receiving. "Judging from responded with unprecedented generosity. Colby College the response to date," she said, "the proposed Thorndike weeded out 3,000 duplicate books for shipment to the Library building may be filled even before the ground is college. In addition, they donated unused shelving, heavy broken for the facility." library tables and study carels. The library of the University of Southern Maine instituted a policy under which the COA library could take out books on semester loan to be set on reserve for student and faculty use. The Maine State Library also gathered duplicate books from libraries throughout the state and donated the services of four professional library personnel to help sort gift books. The library has received a number of gifts from distinguished individuals including copies of publications by Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith, by noted children's book illustrator Trina Schart-Hyman, and by writer/ecologist John McPhee. Numerous faculty members from other colleges have offered their personal libraries and Philip Darling of Harvard shipped his entire 3,000-volume evolution collection to the college. A local law firm also donated up-to-date collections of Corpus Juris Secundum and Laws of the U.S. giving COA a far better law library than it had previously. Finally, publishers, particularly Rodale Press, have offered free replacement copies of some books the college had purchased. Sorting and cataloging the gift books has been a Herculean task. Out of the gift books, less than 1/3 relate Temporary library office in Bar Harbor industrial arts directly to COA's curriculum. The unusable books must be building. Designing A House To Pay Tuition Bills A group of students in the design program have land purchased by four other COA students. The entire found a creative way to put their skills to work and pay project was supervised by faculty member Robin de Jong. college tuition bills at the same time. During the past year, Robin praised the project as a perfect example of they designed and built a super-insulated house which they combining classroom and hands-on learning. "In order to plan to sell after graduation in order to pay off college build the house, these students took courses in environ- loans. mental design, architecture, structural engineering Jonathan Korman designed the house as his senior and carpentry," he explains. "The house has been a project. A combination of solar and traditional saltbox laboratory for testing the skills they learned." The design, it was constructed over the summer on Bar Harbor students will move into the house in early November. Governance and Curriculum HELP US KEEP IN TOUCH Task Forces Report If you change your address, clip this coupon On Summer Research and return to the PR office/COA/Bar Harbor, Me. 04609. Proposals for streamlining COA's governance system Name and developing a core curriculum in human ecology went Old Address to the All College Meeting for approval this fall following a New Address summer task force review of academic and governance policies. Composed of trustees, faculty, staff and students, Date Effective the task force committees met weekly during the summer months. The most significant change proposed by the task force on governance was the establishment of a Steering Committee to guide the ACM. The new committee would County Residents set agendas, prepare for meetings, evaluate the ACM and Get Tuition Break provide an educational workshop for studying democratic institutions. The committee also recommended that the ACM consider meeting less frequently, possibly once or COA has adopted a new policy giving special student twice a term as opposed to bi-monthly. Other task force status to residents of Hancock County. Under the new proposals included the formation of a Resources and arrangement, all COA credit courses (including summer Planning Committee for long-range planning, the appoint- sessions) will be offered on a space available basis to local ment of a Dean of the Faculty and the establishment citizens at a rate of $175 per course. The rate for regular of seminars to help members of the staff and interested students is $725 per course. The policy is part of an faculty improve their administrative skills. ongoing effort to provide more services to local residents, The academic task force recommended the adoption enhance public relations, increase enrollment in classes in of a core program in Human Ecology. At least one core which space is available and add to the diversity of course would be a graduation requirement. Additionally, all perspectives in the classroom. four-year students would have to take at least two courses In order to qualify for special status, a one-year in each of the resource areas, one of which would be from Hancock County residency requirement must be met in a list of selected foundation courses for that area. These addition to COA admission requirements. The rate also requirements would replace the previous graduation applies to MDI and Ellsworth High School students who requirements of one course in each resource area and a are academically qualified and to students who are degree laboratory or field course. candidates at UMO under the UMO/COA exchange. The academic task force also recommended: adopting, on a trial basis, a different weekly class meeting Special students may enroll in no more than four schedule that would facilitate exchanges between COA and courses per year and no more than two courses in one the University of Maine at Orono; changing the residency term. They may apply to be a degree candidate and, if requirement to a minimum of six academic-year terms on admitted, have up to three special credits recorded toward campus; and reviewing the faculty teaching load. residence degree requirements. Market Survey Shows COA Briefly Well Liked But Little Known Gifts to the college The college has just received a First Market Research Corporation of Boston $10,000 grant from the Cabot Family Charitable Trust to conducted a marketing survey for COA between August support the Natural History Museum program. The Cabot 26 and September 30 to collect data on curriculum Family Trust, a private Boston-based foundation, supports preferences of student-aged populations and assess the activities and issues of world concern, particularly in the future market of a college dedicated to Human Ecology. areas of the environment, population and hunger. Their results affirm that there is a small but definite market Mt. Desert architect Joseph B. Thomas and his wife for COA as a four-year undergraduate college but stress Etel have given their 40' sloop, Sea Shadow, to the that a way must be found to efficiently and economically college. Designed by Dick Carter and built in 1971, the familiarize more of public with the school. fiberglass and mahogany boat sleeps 7. The boat will be A total of 450 people were interviewed in person and stored and maintained at the Eastport Marine Trade by phone including prospective students, parents of Center and made available to the college for research, prospective students, non-matriculants, high school outdoor orientation trips and charter. guidance counselors, prospective employers, present Departures After two years as Director of Public students, recent graduates, prospective supporters, staff Relations, Marion Kane will leave the college at the end and faculty. of October to help former COA president, Ed Kaelber, Among the specific findings of the survey were: start a community foundation for Maine. Based in - that 90% of a random sampling of people stopped Ellsworth, the foundation will raise funds for a permanent at the entrance of the Boston Aquarium had never heard endowment to support nonprofit enterprises within the of COA; state. that those unfamiliar with COA generally reacted favorably, when read a brief description of the college; Conferences and symposiums COA was one of the - that prospective students and particularly their sponsors of the New England Environmental Education parents need more and better information about the Alliance Conference held in Southwest Harbor on October college, as well as reassurance that students will receive 13-16. The conference brought environmental educators adequate guidance and career couseling; from all over New England to Mt. Desert Island for three - that because of their enthusiasm and commitment to days of field trips, films, workshops and special sessions. A the college, recent graduates and present students are number of COA faculty, students and graduates among the most important resources available to the participated in the conference: faculty member Susan college; Mehrtens offered sailing trips aboard her boat, The Spray; - that the idea of converting COA from its present faculty associate Walter Litten introduced novices to the four-year undergraduate program to a senior college or mushrooms of the area; and Peter Corcoran conducted a graduate school would create as many problems as it tour of the college. Students and graduates put on a would solve; demonstration of the museum outreach program Whales - and finally, that those familiar with the college see on Wheels and David Rosenmiller conducted a workshop improved physical facilities, more classroom and office on exploring the landscape through movement. Finally, space, and a larger faculty and student body as the most COA graduates Garrett and Alexandra Conover led a pressing needs of the college. workshop on basic skills of the North Woods such as The survey will be used as a guide for recruitment and basketweaving and using a crooked knife. Garrett and public relations strategies. Alexandra have just opened a school in northern Maine to On October 19, the college and the Bar Harbor Repeat on Peat Garden Club co-sponsored a one-day symposium on aesthetics and the environment - The Eye and the Land. The program brought together six scholars from the COA graduates who remember the Peat Industry humanities and the natural sciences to discuss how humans Workshop may be interested to know that the college is make aesthetic choices about land use. Made possible by a still involved with issues relating to peat resources in grant from the Maine Humanities Council and the National Maine. Endowment for the Humanities, the symposium drew a Faculty member Bill Drury was a key member of the capacity crowd of 100 people. Peat Preservation Study Committee, a consulting group assembled by the Governor's Cabinet to consider resource A whale of a carcass The COA whale stranding management of the state's peat bogs. network was called into action in September to autopsy and remove the carcass of a 60-foot finback whale washed Between 1980-83, he worked with field researchers ashore in Corea on Gouldsboro Bay. Missing a portion of from UMO to inventory and identify bogs in the state that either should be saved from development or could be its tail, the whale was believed to have been struck by the propeller of a ship. A team of COA students and faculty commercially mined. As a result of the committee's work, spent two days dissecting the whale and preparing it for the state has recommended that the Great Heath, Maine's transport to the college. Loading the skeleton onto the largest bog, be spared from future development. flatbed of a truck required the services of a log picker, Identifying bogs that should be preserved involves a generously provided by Reed Harding of Trenton. The careful inventory of rare plants within the heath and skeleton is now being cleaned and will join the growing recognition of unusual bog formations that may have museum and teaching collection. some international significance. Several bogs in this category include the blanket bogs on Great Wass Island, Faculty dean By a unanimous decision of the faculty, kettle-hole bogs and coalesced-dome bogs with evidence Bill Carpenter has been appointed Dean of the Faculty of glacial expanse. for a period of one year. Bill will serve as a liason between Because of Maine's classic glaciated surface and the faculty and administration on academic matters. His cool, wet summers, it has extensive peat lands. Most of appointment was made at the annual fall faculty retreat at the bogs in eastern Maine remain in their natural state Tanglewood Camp in the Camden Hills. although three small peat-harvesting operations currently mine peat for agricultural use. At least one major Faculty activities. Faculty members Bill Carpenter and company, Wheelebrator-Frye, however, is interested in Peter Corcoran led a writers' workshop on Monhegan large-scale peat extraction for processing into fuel. In Island this fall. Sponsored by the Maine Audubon Society, addition to recommending that the Great Heath be the workshop was the third in a series of similar workshops held in some of Maine's most beautiful natural areas. The preserved, the committee identified several bogs that would be appropriate for such large-scale development. two previous workshops were held at Mt. Kathadin last fall and the Camden Hills during the spring. No newcomer to bogs, Bill did his Ph.D thesis on the subject and has studied bogs in Finland. After 30 years Rich Borden has just been invited to serve as the associate out of the field, he used the opportunity to serve on the editor of Eco-Philosophy News. He will also participate in a Peat Preservation Committee as a good excuse to catch workshop on Eco-Philosophy at the University of Michigan in up on current bog research. the summer of 1984.