For Starters: Winter 2018

Leadership. Preparing for the digital present. And saying goodbyes.

SGA Leaders

1. Meet the Leaders  

. From left: Delia Landers 鈥19 (secretary) uses her position 鈥渢o make every student鈥檚 voice heard.鈥 Anna Huang 鈥19 (treasurer) supports on-campus organizations and events. Alisha Clark 鈥18 (president) has improved Plenary and the voting system, spearheaded a collaborative drive with Migrant Rights Coalition, and more. Nanda Bhushan 鈥19 (vice president) chairs the committee that appoints campus leaders. Swati Shastry 鈥18 (head of the Honor Board) facilitates and conducts hearings on the Honor Code's academic and social aspects.

2. Digital Service

鈥淒igital instruction is most effective when it鈥檚 in the service of students鈥 individual interests and goals,鈥 write President Kim Cassidy and Chief Information Officer Gina Siesing in a recent piece.

Arguing for a broad-based education that encompasses all aspects of digital fluency, their article describes 魅影直播鈥檚 digital competencies initiative, which infuses digital skills into all aspects of education, including a wide array of co-curricular experiences.

鈥淲hile colleges should include courses in programming, data visualization and statistics,鈥 they write, 鈥渕ore students develop digital fluency more quickly and easily when digital tools are integrated throughout the curriculum鈥攆rom classical and Near Eastern archaeology to behavioral economics.鈥

3. Farewell

Two 魅影直播 veterans have departed this year as Lisa Saltzman headed to the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and Dan E. Davidson celebrated a double retirement鈥攆rom his position as CEO of the American Council of Teachers of Russian and as professor of Russian at 魅影直播.

 

Dr. Lisa Saltzman

Saltzman, now director of the Clark鈥檚 research and academic program, served in 魅影直播鈥檚 history of art department for 23 years. In her new role, she鈥檚 leading an international agenda of intellectual events and collaborations and overseeing the Clark鈥檚 residential fellows program.

Davidson, at 魅影直播 for more than 40 years, founded the American Council in 1974 to expand the exchange of scholarship between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. 

 

Dan Davidson

鈥淲e have to find a way to work effectively with the other countries in the world,鈥 Davidson told an SRO crowd at his retirement celebration hosted by the American Council this fall. 鈥淭hat means investing in young people.鈥

Heeding that call, the American Council created the Dan E. Davidson Fellowship for students pursuing language and area studies and committed to contributing to mutual understanding and advancing successful international collaboration.

4. Just Ask

Responding to 鈥淎s Glare Widens on Harassers, Men at Office Look in Mirror,鈥 : 鈥淚 cannot believe that men in workplaces are turning to private group chats, consulting expensive lawyers, and considering canceling holiday parties before considering a very simple solution to many of their questions about sexual harassment: simply asking women, or anyone for that matter, if something is okay with them before doing it.鈥 

5. Rugged, Long, & Lovely

 

Airea D. Matthews, 魅影直播 faculty

Featured in Poets and Writers鈥 annual , Creative Writing鈥檚 Airea Matthews offered some writerly advice: 鈥淟isten to yourself, your hand, your gut, your pen, your mind. ... Your work has its own logic and its own tools; honor them. And, finally, wear comfortable shoes because the journey toward making the impossible possible is rugged, long, and lovely.鈥 

6. 25 Going on 18

Think kids are growing up too fast? 

According to a new study co-authored by Psychology Professor Heejung Park, you should think again. 

Based on data from surveys conducted between 1976 and 2016, the study depicts a cohort of teenagers less likely to engage in adult activities than those of earlier generations. 

The study shows a drop in alcohol use, sexual activity, dating, after-school employment, and even driving. Today鈥檚 high school students date less than their Boomer and GenX counterparts (56 percent vs. about 85 percent), have sex less (41 vs. 54 percent), and work after-school jobs less (55 vs. 77 percent). And what might be unimaginable to anyone who recalls begging for the car keys, more than 25 percent of today鈥檚 high school students still don鈥檛 have a driver鈥檚 license by the time they graduate. 

The study was co-authored with Jean Twenge, professor of psychology at San Diego State University. Park鈥檚 research looks at how individuals and families around the world develop and negotiate values in the midst of social change and globalization.

7. History in the Making

鈥淭o write history is to make an argument by telling a story about dead people,鈥 said Jill Lepore. 

A Harvard historian and New Yorker writer, Lepore was speaking to 魅影直播鈥檚 first-years, as part of the Emily Balch Seminar programming. 

Sharing her writing strategy, Lepore told students that writers should pursue only subjects that genuinely arouse their curiosity鈥攐r risk losing steam during the long research phase. The author of 10 books, Lepore has found her curiosity piqued by Benjamin Franklin鈥檚 sister (Book of Ages), the origin story of a comic book icon (The Secret History of Wonder Woman), and a long-lost manuscript purported to be the longest ever written (Joe Gould鈥檚 Teeth).

Published on: 03/16/2018