Omnibus Collegis s. d.
Greetings one and all. If the persona of this year's newsletter strikes you as faintly unfamilar, it's because Phil Ambrose, magister memoriae optimus, has, in his new capacity as Chair of the Department, delegated this annual missive to me (Mark Usher). Though I am new to the department, I am a UVM alumnus, so I know some of you already, and I look forward to getting to know vos omnes in the years to come.
This year's VCLA Meeting was held, October 19, 2001, at Rice Memorial High School. Hearty thanks to Co-Program Chairs Judith Miles and Mary Ann Redmond for a truly wonderful meeting!
Present at this Annual Meeting of the VCLA were Z. Philip Ambrose (UVM), Jacques Bailly (UVM), Noralee Cartier (BHS), Martha Dalton (St. Albans), Elaine Dates (BHS emerita), Stephen Dates, Jessica Evans (UVM), Leanne Goulette (CVU), Rosie Hill (BFA, St. Albans), Erik Kenyon (UVM), Donna Merriam (Lamoille Union), Barbara Mieder (Milton), Judith Miles (Rice), Mary Ann Redmond (Montpelier), Robert Rodgers (UVM), Barbara Saylor Rodgers (UVM), Priscilla Throop, Cliff Timpson (BFA, St. Albans), Mark Usher (UVM).
New faces among the above: Jessica Evans and Erik Kenyon, both students at UVM.
Program: Jacques Bailly and Leanne Goulette together demonstrated how their students have written commentaries on the grammar, syntax, and content of their readings in Latin authors. Since too often students neglect to use the commentaries provided them, this looks like an excellent way to get students to do the close analysis of texts. Elaine Dates, armed with a selection of over 900 slides she and her husband Stephen have made of things Etruscan, presented the debt owed by the Romans to the Etruscans. Her elaborate handouts treated influences on the political life of Rome, metalworking, jewelry, pottery, public and private architecture, clothing, furniture, religion, and engineering---from surveying to bridges to the Cloaca Maxima!
Business Meeting: The following officers were elected:
Financial Report: Treasurer Donna Merriam reported a healthy balance in the VCLA fiscus and urged payment of dues (merely $5.00). If you have not paid your dues for the current year, please send them to: Donna Merriam, Lamoille Union High School, 736 VT 15 West, Hyde Park, VT 05655-0304
The VCLA Directory of Members is now available online at
http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/VCLA/directory.html
Myriad thanks to Jacques Bailly for putting this information up on the UVM Classics webpage. Please send any changes, corrections or additions (email addresses would be very helpful to have on file) to Jacques at jbailly@zoo.uvm.edu. If anyone especially needs a hardcopy, one is available by request from the Department of Classics, 802-656-3210, or email to jpvalley@zoo.uvm.edu
Note: Susan Brown (Thetford Academy), who had been the VCLA's Acting Representative to CANE, is being succeeded by Noralee Cartier.
The 20th Annual CANE Summer Institute will be held at Dartmouth College, July 5 Ð 8, 2002. Allen Ward (UConn) will direct this year's Institute and Susan Brown will serve as on-site coordinator. More information will become available in January.
The 96th Annual Meeting of CANE will be held March 22-23, 2002, at Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts. Watch for further details in the New England Classical Journal or go directly to the CANE webpage at:
http://www.wellesley.edu/ClassicalStudies/cane/
The CANE Student Writing Contest: The topic for 2001-02 is to write a personal essay on the value of studying Latin, Greek, and the Classics. See the August issue of the NECJ or the CANE webpage for guidelines. Note: Cash prizes of $50, $30, and $20 are awarded by the VCLA to the best three submissions from Vermont. The deadline for submission of entries is December 15. Please send submissions not to Susan Brown, but to Noralee Cartier. Her address is Burlington High School, 52 Institute Road, Burlington VT 05401.
The Vermont Sight Translation Contest, generously sponsored by Professors Robert Rodgers and Barbara Saylor Rodgers, is open to all Vermont students of Latin from public or private schools. The Contest pays cash prizes for sight translation of Latin texts at two levels: the Junior Level, for students with one or two years of Latin, and the Senior Level, for students with three or four years of Latin. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prizes may be awarded at each Level, of $100, $75, and $50 respectively. Teachers should let the Rodgers know by mid-January if anyone in their school is interested in taking these exams. Packets with texts and instructions will be sent out to participating schools by February 1st. Exams are to be completed and returned by the first week in March. Winners will be honored at Latin Day on April 12th.
The latest breaking news is that our own Robert Rodgers has been invited to deliver the University's Dean's Lecture. He will speak on "Poetry, Politics, and Public Works: A Watchful Context for Liberal Change" on Thursday, 29 November, at 5 o'clock in the Waterman Manor (5th floor of the Waterman Building). All are welcome to attend.
The Department is pleased to welcome Brian Walsh (PhD Fordham), who is filling in this year for Barbara Saylor Rodgers who is on sabbatical leave. Brian recently completed a dissertation on the representation of the Dictator in Livy, and is teaching an armada of courses for us this year in addition to commuting all the way from Montreal. Barbara herself is working diligently in the garden and on a book-length study of humanitas in the works of Cicero. She is also finishing up a commentary on the Pro Roscio Amerino. Jacques Bailly has recently completed a student commentary on Plato's Euthyphro and Cleitophon for Focus Publishing, and a book review for Gnomon. At the Arizona Colloquium for Ancient Philosophy in February he will be a respondent to a paper on Plato's Laws. Phil Ambrose, in addition to taking on the Herculean task of being Chair of the Department, is busy preparing a translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses (also for Focus Publishing) and will present a paper at a conference on the Greek Satyr Play to be held in Cincinnati in Spring 2003. Robert Rodgers is putting the final touches on a critical edition and commentary of Frontinus, On Aqueducts, for Cambridge University Press. Volume 2 (1660-1670) of his edition of all probate records of Middlesex County Massachusetts also appeared this year. Next year he will be on sabbatical, where he will begin work on a study of the judicial system under Charles the Great. Mark Usher is writing a commentary on Homer, also for Focus, and has recently completed an article on Plato's Symposium (forthcoming in the American Journal of Philology). He also will be presenting a paper at the APA Meeting in January for the "Classics and Opera" panel.
Prof. Emeritus Brady B. Gilleland: Get-well cards would be appreciated, sent to 3530 North St., Burlington, VT 05401. Prof. Emerita Jean M. Davison plans to attend the APA/AIA Meeting in Philadelphia in the first week of January, 2002. Prof. Emeritus Robin Schlunk plans to attend the APA/AIA Meeting as well. Prof. Emeritus Francis Bliss and his wife Franny continue their faithful attendance at the Annual Meetings of CANE, where Francis has become a mainstay with his session of recitation of Greek and Latin verse. Francis received the Barlow-Beach Award from CANE two years ago for his service to CANE and to the Maine Classical Association.
News from Students at UVM:
Richard Spaulding, B.A. (UVM 1999), successfully defended his M.A. thesis on the Octavia and is now teaching Latin in Foxcroft, Maine. Congratulations, Richard! A warm welcome to our new M.A. student, Rozenn Bailleul-LeSuer. Rozenn is teaching introductory Greek and Latin, and has a special interest in Egyptology. Senior undergraduates Jessica Evans and Erik Kenyon are both writing commentaries for their College Honors Theses, Jessica on the pseudepigraphic correspondence between St. Paul and Seneca, Erik on a theological tractate by Pseudo-Dionysius.
Here follows a list of the undergraduate students enrolled in courses in Greek and Latin. Some of them were yours, and for them we thank you: