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UVM
In Brief
Class
of 2001's Day in the Sun
Edwin Colodny, native son and CEO, brings new leadership
perspective
Agriculture Dean Bramley named interim provost
Future farmers of Vermont
New program linking volunteer, academic experience
will serve as national model
Academy honors alum for Gladiator work
Fighting on Joe Camel's turf
Michele Forman named National Teacher of the Year
His pay, her pay
Attic treasures
New book gets raves
Faculty vote to unionize
Building on a foundation of excellence
Tour de Burlington
Class
of 2001's Day in the Sun
Blue skies and a message from Gerald Levin, CEO of AOL
Time Warner, to live guided by love and compassion saw more than two thousand
new grads on their way May 20. Approximately ten thousand were on hand
at Centennial Field for UVMs 197th Commencement ceremony. The Class of
2001 was joined by honorary graduates Levin; his wife, Barbara Riley Levin;
and Charles R. Jordan, director of parks and recreation for the city of
Portland, Oregon. There was an international flavor to the day, as students
who participated in a study abroad program wore a specially designed world-globe
pin and ribbons symbolizing the flag of their host country. The senior
class gift to the university, in fact, is a scholarship fund to help future
generations of UVM students who wish to study abroad. Levin, who joins
his daughter Anna, a Class of 1997 alumna, in having received a UVM degree,
urged UVMs newest alumni to see the common humanity that binds together
all the people of this planet. By meeting all UVMs academic criteria,
youve already shown how smart you are, and now youll even have a diploma
to prove it, Levin said. The real question is, along with the gift of
reason, and the added advantage of a first-class education, do you have
that other capacity that distinguishes us from all other forms of life.
Can you love? Can you love not just your family or your spouse or your
friends, but the people outside your reach? he said. The poor, the hungry,
the homeless, the oppressed, the millions for whom life is little more
than a day-to-day struggle against starvation, exhaustion and despair?
Graduates could take inspiration not only from Gerald Levins words, but
from the past actions of the corporate leader who is known for his philanthropic
commitment. The Levins have supported a wide variety of causes, often
addressing racial and economic inequality. At UVM, the couple recently
established the Jonathan Levin Scholarship Fund in their sons honor. It
assists metropolitan New York public school students who could not attend
the university without financial aid. Fellow graduates, Levin concluded
in his speech, this sometimes cruel, often callous, always imperfect world
of ours needs you very badly. It needs the knowledge and expertise youve
gained here at UVM. It needs your ambition and hard work. Even more, it
needs your love, your compassion and your commitment to shine forth to
us how to live as well as survive.
Edwin
Colodny, native son and CEO, brings new leadership perspective
UVM Interim President Edwin Colodny subscribes to the belief that healthy
leadership requires regular doses of roaming around. During his long career
at US Airways, sixteen years as president and chief executive officer,
Colodny made time to drop in at the crew rooms or visit with the mechanics
working the third shift. Its important to have the word out that youre
interested in what is going on. I like to feel free to just stop in, introduce
myself, and ask how things are going, Colodny says. Its a habit he plans
to continue at UVM. Its going to be important for me to know what the
campus feels like and what faculty, staff, and students are thinking,
he adds. You dont get that by sitting in your office. In February, when
the UVM Board of Trustees mounted a swift search for an interim president,
they emphasized that strong and proven leadership skills were a top priority.
When Colodnys appointment was announced in April, Trustee Chair Bruce
Lisman 69 made it clear that he believed the board had found just what
they had sought. In early May, Colodny is yet to assume the official interim
president mantle, but is already getting down to business in a bare-walled
presidents office meeting his staff, speaking with local media, reading
up on the initial and most pressing issues he will tackle during his interim
presidency, and juggling a calendar that is filling rapidly. There is
no magic to being a good leader, Colodny says. You treat people fairly.
If they respect the fact that youre honest with them, then youve established
the basis on which you will be seen as a leader. It isnt a matter of announcing
yourself as the leader and saying, Here I am now follow. You earn it.
The not-so-simple arts of listening and communicating are also key to
Colodnys management philosophy. You have to make the effort to listen
to what your associates are telling you whether its employees in the ranks
or the people sitting across the table from you at meetings. Youve got
to be able to hear what they say and translate that in a meaningful way
to the organization as a whole. One senses, though, that there is some
magic in Ed Colodnys leadership style, and it is made up of equal parts
of humor and humility. Quick to joke, fairly often he is the butt of his
own quip. Hell tell you that he is fortunate not to take himself too seriously
and thinks that is fundamental to working well with others. If you can
approach your job with a sense that your relative importance is only as
good as the people that youre working with, you make out pretty well.
Throughout his career, Colodny has made out very well as a leader, as
have the operations under his leadership. He joined US Airways as assistant
to the president in 1957 and, during an era when the airline grew from
a small regional player to a major national carrier with $6.5 billion
in revenues, rose through the ranks to become president and chief executive
officer from 1975 to 1991. Colodny also served as chairman of the board
of Comsat Corp., a leading provider of global satellite and digital networking
services, from 1997 until the corporations merger with Lockheed Martin
in 2000. Throughout his years in the corporate world, Colodny also has
made time to take a significant role in higher education leadership, in
particular, for his alma mater, the University of Rochester. During Colodnys
tenure as chair of the Board of Trustees at Rochester, 1985 to 1988, he
helped guide the university through issues that are not unlike those faced
by UVM strategic change, financial challenges, and an effort to improve
the universitys image and marketing. He also chaired a successful $350
million capital campaign for Rochester. Colodnys involvement with UVM
hasnt been as deep, but he has served as a member of the School of Business
Administrations Board of Advisors, and has kept in touch with the university
through the years simply because he is a native son of Burlington. When
Colodny and his wife, Nancy, moved into Englesby House this summer it
was a homecoming for the man who grew up on Burlingtons South Winooski
Avenue, just a mile from campus. Asked if he would have been interested
in an interim presidency at another New England university, Colodny considers
for a moment and says, The substance of whats involved in the administration
of a university is what is truly appealing about it. The fact that it
is Burlington, Vermont, my hometown, is icing on the cake.
Agriculture
Dean Bramley named interim provost
Dean John Bramley, a top researcher and faculty leader from the College
of Agriculture and Life Sciences, will join Edwin Colodny as part of the
new leadership team at UVM. Shortly after Colodny was introduced as the
universitys interim president, he announced his intention to appoint Bramley
as interim provost. John is a respected intellectual leader who has dedicated
himself to students and scientific achievement, Colodny said. His passion
for learning and his commitment to Vermont and UVM are attributes that
will make him a very strong chief academic officer. Bramley, a native
of Wales who studied and built his academic career in England before coming
to UVM in 1990, is an expert and pioneering researcher in animal sciences,
with a particular focus on bovine mastitis. Most recently, he headed a
team of researchers in cloning a gene that has led to the worlds first
mastitis-resistant animals. Administrative leadership has been another
fundamental focus for Bramley. In addition to his two-years as dean of
his college, Bramley has chaired the Department of Animal Sciences, directed
the Agricultural Experiment Station, and chaired the Faculty Senate. I
believe that we can overcome our many challenges through clear decision
making, informed by data and open communication, Bramley said. Uppermost
among those challenges are creating sustainable budgets, further developing
the strategic plan, enhancing diversity and building a strong and common
sense of identity and purpose. I am confident that working together we
can return UVM to the position of respect and reputation that it deserves
in the state and beyond.
Future
Farmers of Vermont
David Kennett is hoping his first job out of college will be his last.
Even as he rattles off the job description (long hours, low pay, no vacation,
must be willing to work with stubborn animals), he wears a grin and a
glint in his eye. Life isnt supposed to be easy or fair, he says. Besides,
Im an eternal optimist. Hes also the future of dairy farming in Vermont.
In May, Kennett, and classmate Daniel LaCoss, became the first graduates
of the FARMS program. The FARMS program was born out of the 1994 legislature
when members of the Vermont House and Senate agriculture committees set
out to study issues in farming. They found some troubling trends: the
number of dairy farms was dwindling as the average age of a Vermont farmer
was climbing past sixty; there were fewer young people who wanted to go
into farming and those who did the very best students were going outside
Vermont for a college education and never coming back. So lawmakers turned
to UVM and Vermont Technical College. Basically they said, Do something
about this, says Don Maynard 74, UVM/VTC coordinator of the FARMS program.
The result is a revolving $112,000 scholarship program funded by the state,
a rigorous academic partnership in agriculture between UVM and VTC, and
a growing crop of top Vermont students. FARMS incorporates the core competencies
of animal science and dairy management and production with a total immersion
semester at the Miner Institute in Chazy, New York, a privately funded
agriculture research center. Before students reach their senior projects,
they also will have interned with a financial institution (the average
farm loan today is $1.1 million) and visited and critiqued more than thirty
Vermont farming operations. Its clearly hard work, but FARMS is attracting
plenty of interest from young Vermonters. VTCs agriculture program, which
saw student enrollment drop to two students in 1995, now stands at thirty-four.
The full tuition scholarships are for Vermont residents who begin the
program at VTC and maintain at least a 3.0 grade point average each year.
The first crop of students Kennett and LaCoss are taking their education
back to their familys farms. The job description (work outside, self-employed,
marginal profitability), Kennett says, wouldnt be complete without mentioning,
I get to work with my family. Its the only job hes ever wanted. For additional
information contact Maynard at 802-656-1397 or email <dmaynard@zoo.uvm.edu>.
New
program linking volunteer, academic experience will serve as national
model
UVM
will be the first academic institution in the nation to offer college
credit to members of Ameri-Corps*VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America)
through a national pilot program announced in March. The three-year program
which AmeriCorps*VISTA plans to replicate throughout the nation will offer
VISTA members the opportunity to support the needs of Vermont communities
while linking their volunteer experiences with their future education
and career goals. The program, known as Academic Learning Integrated with
Volunteer Experience (ALIVE) will begin with the opening of the fall semester.
VISTA members participating can earn up to nine undergraduate or graduate
credits in a variety of disciplines for structured reflection of their
service experience. VISTA scholars will attend workshops, create portfolios,
and work with faculty advisors during residency weekends on campus designed
to avoid conflict with their service in communities. UVM will award six
scholarships annually to Vermont VISTA scholars who participate in ALIVE.
This is a natural yet revolutionary step in the evolution of the service
movement in the United States, said Matt Dunne, director of AmeriCorps*VISTA,
in announcing the program. Dunne said UVM was a natural fit for the private
program, given the universitys long-standing commitment to academic service
learning, which combines rigorous curricula with community-based projects
that allow students to learn about and practice the skills of civic engagement.
Academy
honors alum for Gladiator work
A
dream year for David Franzoni 71, center, was capped in March with a trip
to the stage of the Shrine Auditorium to accept the Academy Award for
Best Picture awarded to Gladiator. Franzoni and fellow producers Douglas
Wick and Branko Lustig accepted the nights top honor for bringing the
story to the screen. Overall, Gladiator took five Oscars, including the
top honors for actor (Russell Crowe), costume design, sound, and visual
effects. Franzoni also was nominated for his original screenplay for the
film.
Fighting
on Joe Camels Turf
Gruesome images of blackened lungs to chilling cancer statistics, health
professionals have tried many tactics to communicate the dangers of cigarette
smoking. Yet, given the response, they could be forgiven for feeling as
if they are speaking to the proverbial wall. Consider that the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention reports that, despite pervasive publicity
about the dangers of cigarettes, youth smoking rates are up significantly
from a decade ago. A 1999 survey indicated that more than thirty percent
of youth had smoked within the thirty previous days. The vitalness of
the anti-smoking message and the challenge of communicating it recently
inspired one of the largest grants ever received at UVM $16 million over
five years from the National Cancer Institute. The grant will fund a multidisciplinary
team of researchers seeking to establish successful approaches for using
mass media to deter adolescents from smoking. Leading the study is John
Kim Worden, research professor of family practice and a member of the
UVM College of Medicines Office of Health Promotion Research. Worden,
who with his colleagues received a C. Everett Koop National Health Award
in 1996, is a pioneer in researching how best to reduce teen smoking using
anti-smoking media campaigns. Brian Flynn, study team member and director
of the Ofce of Health Pro-motion Research notes, There are a number of
states designing media campaigns to prevent youth smoking and they dont
have much to go on. Well provide much sounder guidance to people developing
these programs than they have now. Since the U.S. leads the world in tobacco
control programs, our research, as well at that of others in the country,
will influence policy in many other countries. Looking to their audience
for guidance with effective messages, the scientists interviewed youth
in San Antonio, Miami, and Philadelphia last fall to generate ideas and
tailor messages for various groups ranging from fourth graders to high
school seniors. A variety of television and radio spots in different styles
with different messages will be developed and aired in four geographically
dispersed states. Extensive surveys of the target audiences will create
the quantifiable groundwork on which future campaigns may be developed.
Worden and his fellow researchers are optimistic about what their findings
could mean for the future. Our job is to find out what works and let the
world know so that we can put the information in the hands of national
organizations that have command over the resources and responsibility
of large-scale campaigns, Worden says. We hope that one day there will
be a scientifically based national media campaign to tackle the youth
smoking problem.
Michele
Forman G83 named National Teacher of the Year
National
Teacher of the Year for 2001 Michele Forman, a faculty member at Middlebury
Union High School, honed her teaching skills while earning her masters
degree at UVM. The education I received from UVM is directly connected
to my teaching in the classroom today, Forman said just prior to a White
House ceremony in which she was named the National Teacher of the Year
by President George W. Bush. In particular, Forman lauded UVMs emphasis
on interdisciplinary learning and outreach programs, which, she noted,
did a lot to energize her as a young teacher. Forman, who teaches history
and social studies, is the first Vermont recipient of this top teaching
honor. The winner is chosen by a committee of representatives from fifteen
national education organizations, who selected Forman for broadening students
world views, encouraging them to take on new challenges and helping students
learn from each other.
His
Pay, Her Pay
A
study by Economics Professor Susan Solnick indicates that women are paid
less than men because they are perceived as being willing to accept less.
Published in the April issue of the journal Economic Inquiry, Solnicks
study sparked media buzz from the likes of BusinessWeek and the London
Times. The study involved 89 pairs of students competing to win the ultimatum
game by getting a partner to accept a share of a $10 prize. If the offer
was accepted, both players won; if the offer was rejected, both went away
empty-handed. Solnick found that men and especially women made lower offers
to women, and both genders insisted on a higher amount when an offer came
from a woman. Solnick surmised that while the evidence did not show that
women are content with less, both sexes seem to expect that women would
be satisfied with a smaller share, and it is therefore possible that part
of the pay gap is due to bargaining differences. To read the BusinessWeek
article on the Web, go to www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/01_19/B3731magazine.htm
and click on Shes a Woman, Offer Her Less.
Attic
Treasures
A
scabbard crafted from a baby alligator; a piece of Civil War hardtack
framed and inscribed by a soldier to his parents; a Coptic headache charm
of leather allegedly taken from the forehead of an Egyptian woman for
fans of the quirky and Vermont history buffs, the Fleming Museum has an
exhibit for you. Re/Collections: Rarely Seen Curiosities From the Collections
of the Fleming Museum, a collaborative effort among the Fleming, White
River Junctions Main Street Museum, and Burlingtons Firehouse Center for
the Visual Arts, brings together objects collected for their cultural
and historic significance, but largely in storage since the Flemings refocus
on fine arts in the 1950s. Re/Collections runs through September 16.
New
Profs Book Gets Raves
One
of the newest additions to the UVM faculty is quickly gaining national
attention for her work. Emily Bernards first book, Remember Me to Harlem:
The Letters of Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten, 1925-1964, received
a glowing New York Times review and landed her an interview on C-SPANs
Booknotes program in April. Remember Me to Harlem chronicles what the
Times called the textured, ironic, ribald and frequently poignant interracial
friendship between poet Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten, music critic
and author of novels about the Jazz Age. Bernard, who formerly taught
African-American studies at Smith College, received her doctorate in American
studies from Yale. She has been the recipient of a Ford Foundation Fellowship,
a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, and a W.E.B. DuBois
Resident Fellowship at Harvard. This fall, she will teach courses at UVM
on race and ethnicity in literary studies, the Harlem Renaissance, and
African-American literature. Bernards C-SPAN interview can be viewed on
the Web at http://www.booknotes.org/ archive/bn042201.asp.
Faculty
vote to unionize
By
a close margin, 301-266, UVM faculty voted in April to unionize under
the banner of United Academics-AAUP/ AFT. A voter turnout of 93 percent
of eligible faculty, a record for research universities, was driven by
passionate debate on the issue in the final weeks before the vote. Mark
Stoler, professor of history and a leading proponent of faculty unionization,
said he was elated by both the victory and the turnout. He urged his 612
eligible faculty colleagues to take the step of joining the bargaining
unit and becoming active in it. Well be healthier for it if we have broad-based
involvement, he said. The bargaining unit comprises all full-time faculty,
except those in the College of Medicine, and deans, directors, and department
chairs. Currently, membership in the union is voluntary. Typically, unions
request that an agency fee clause be put into the collective bargaining
agreement. Under such a clause, every member of the unit must either join
the union or must pay an agency fee to join the union as a condition of
employment. Regardless of that clause, a contract, once negotiated, will
apply to everyone in the unit regardless of union membership status. While
the UVM administration had urged faculty not to vote for unionization,
Acting President Rebecca Martin sent faculty and staff an e-mail message
accepting the decision immediately after the count was released. The Universitys
Board of Trustees and Administration remain firmly committed to act in
the best interest of the institution and to work constructively under
this new and different relationship, Martin said. We intend to negotiate
with union representatives in good faith and look forward to respectful
and productive contract negotiations.
Building
on a Foundation of Excellence
Celebrate
the first 50 years of the UVM Morgan Horse Farm by making a gift to fortify
its future. The University of Vermont announces a $2 million fund drive
for immediate improvements to the historic facilities and for a newly
established endowment fund named in honor of founding director, Donald
J. Balch. Visit the UVM Morgan Horse Farm and see where the story of Americas
first breed of horse continues to be told with pride and honor. View the
UVM Morgan Horse Farm website <http://ctr.uvm.edu/cals/ farms/mhfarm.htm>
or contact Howard Lincoln, (802) 656-2509 or email howard.lincoln@uvm.edu
to make a gift in support of the UVM Morgan Horse Farms 50th Anniversary
Campaign.
Tour
de Burlington
Best
kept secrets dont stay that way when theyre riding a bike at more than
thirty miles per hour through the streets of downtown Burlington and are
dressed in green and gold lycra. In a sense, the UVM Cycling Clubs hosting
of the Eastern Collegiate Cycling Championships in April was an unveiling
and a moment of arrival for the team, a rapidly emerging power in the
region. Though UVM cycling is nearly one hundred students strong and the
club uniform is a familiar site on the rural roads south of Burlington,
the Catamount cyclists have pedaled in relative obscurity despite the
fact that they won the 2000 Eastern collegiate road and mountain bike
championships. The former earned them the right and the considerable challenge
of hosting the 2001 championships. In addition to getting ready to ride
the championships, UVM club members were working since November to organize
the event that would draw more than thirty teams and hundreds of racers
for team time trials, road races, and criterium format events. Like all
of UVMs spring sports, cycling struggled with the Burlington winter that
was reluctant to leave. But by late April the roads were clear, and a
sunny weekend greeted the riders. UVM cyclists came up just short of repeating
as champions, finishing close behind Penn State in overall point totals.
Particular standouts among the many riders who contributed to UVMs strong
showing were Katheryn Curi, Kevin Bouchard-Hall, and John Van Vranken.
2001 Hall of Famers selected A five-time NHL All-Star, a first-team soccer
All-American, a mens basketball conference player of the year and three
All-American skiers, two of whom represented the United States in the
Olympic Games, are among eleven former UVM student-athletes who will be
inducted into the universitys Athletic Hall of Fame on October 5, 2001.
The Class of 2001 includes: John LeClair 91, the St. Albans, Vermont native
who is one of the top American-born hockey players; Kevin Wylie 91, a
first-team All-American in mens soccer; Laura Wilson 91, a four-time NCAA
ski champion and two-time U.S. Olympian; Brenda White 90, a three-time
skiing All-American and one-time Olympian who also was a two-sport standout;
Hanne Krogstad 89, a consistent All-American skier who won 15 of 18 carnival
races in her career as well as an individual NCAA championship; Matt Johnson
91, another St. Albans native who was the North Atlantic Conference Player
of the Year in mens basketball in 1991; track and field athlete Sarah
Dahl 91 of Essex Junction, a New England champion who held four school
records when she graduated; Celeste Leon 87, a three-time New England
track and field champion; former baseball standout Eddie Sheehan 84; and
former Yankee Conference tennis champion and two-sport athlete Chuck Davis
72. In addition, former womens soccer standout Katree Hodgdon 90 will
be inducted. Hodgdon was voted in last year but was unable to attend the
dinner. For tickets to the Hall of Fame Dinner, contact Ann Domingue at
(802)656-4410.
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