Effervescent Esther

Published May 24 at 3 p.m. by Peter Bekisz.

Esther Yoder, a 1960 Keuka College graduate and former chair of the Board of Trustees, will deliver the commencement address and receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree at the College’s 105th commencement May 26.

Yoder, owner of Subway EAY Stores Inc. in Gainesville, Fla., was a member of Keuka’s governing board for the better part of the last 20 years, serving as chair in 2006-07 and vice chair from 2001 to 2006. She is now an emeritus member of the Board.

She chaired the Shaping the Future: One Graduate at a Time campaign, the most prolific fundraising campaign in Keuka history. She is one of only six people in Keuka history to receive the Norton-Blyley Presidential Medallion, which recognizes service to the College “above and beyond an extraordinary high standard,” and is a recipient of the Alumni Association’s Eleanor Judd Wilkes Service to Keuka Award.

In this interview with Executive Director of Communications Doug Lippincott, Yoder discusses a number of topics, such as what it means to her to speak at commencement and receive an honorary degree, what campus life was like in the mid- and late-1950s, why she gives back to her alma mater in myriad ways, and how a Chrristian education major became a successful businesswoman.

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Syria: Is the Devil You Know Better than the One You Do Not?

Published May 24 at 9:34 a.m. by Doug Lippincott.

By Dr. Sander A. Diamond, professor of history

The Middle East has long been the epicenter of complex problems that wash like waves into other regions. No different than his predecessors as far back as Truman, President Obama is faced with a complex nexus of interrelated problems and hard choices.

The Arab Spring has brought with it change, much of it unwelcomed in Washington. Under the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood, the future of Egypt is uncertain. An Iran armed with atomic weapons is a dismal prospect. Yemen is in disarray, al-Qaeda doing its usual destructiveness. The prospect of an independent Palestinian State on the West Bank has moved to the back burner. The Sinai has fallen into total disorder. Hamas and Hezbollah will surely take advantage of the region’s problems, each being fed by Iran.

And then there is Syria, which presents an unimaginable host of problems that can destabilize the region even further. Much of Syria is in ruins, its ancient cities along the coastline demolished by the Bashar al-Assad regime’s air force, tanks, and fighting between paramilitary units and the regular army. Syria is sinking as a nation and the ability of its leader to rule over what was Syria two years ago is limited. But al-Assad still has a monopoly of power. He is being resupplied by the Russians and the Iranians, using Hezbollah fighters to put down the Opposition in the most brutal way.

Barring a bolt out of the blue, Syria is shaping up as the greatest foreign policy challenge of Obama’s presidency. One suspects his humanitarian instincts push him in one direction, his geo-political instincts in another.

After two wars in the region, he is mindful of the perils of getting involved in a civil war. In the words of The New York Times’ Tom Friedman, “If you torch it, you own it.” After a decade in Iraq and Afghanistan, this is the last thing Obama wants. However, if the U.S. continues to stand on the sidelines and wait to see how the crisis unfolds, Obama will be accused of being heartless or too tepid.

Like many, Obama would like to see al-Assad pack and leave, but if he falls, the gates of hell will open in a region not known for moderation. There is the fear that once al-Assad is gone, Syria could be dismembered, further collapsing into chaos with Hezbollah moving into its western and southern sections, which Israel would not tolerate. Given the prospect of Syria falling into total chaos, dismembered, or worse, one has to question if some of Obama’s advisers want al-Assad  to leave anytime soon.

Obama may be taking a leaf out of the Israeli handbook on the region: better the devil you know that the one you do not. If al-Assad emerges relatively intact and manages to reassert control, it will take years to rebuild a broken Syria. From a humanitarian point of view, this is hard to swallow. But it just may be a very hard reality, a bitter pill. As one Israeli said, the choice is between plague and cholera, both horrific but at least we know al-Assad, so-to-speak.

Letting the situation play itself out, standing on the sidelines may be the best choice, however distasteful. But al-Assad has to be put on notice: opening your arsenal of weapons of mass destruction and committing genocide on an unimaginable scale would be a game changer.

Spotlight Shines on Class of 2013

Published May 21 at 12:27 p.m. by Doug Lippincott.

Keuka College’s Class of 2013 will receive degrees at the College’s 105th commencement Sunday, May 26.

The ceremony is scheduled to begin at 12:30 p.m. on the Norton Chapel lawn.

Esther Yoder, a 1960 Keuka College graduate and former chair of the Board of Trustees, will deliver the commencement address and receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

Yoder, owner of Subway EAY Stores Inc. in Gainesville, Fla., was a member of Keuka’s governing board for the better part of the last 20 years, serving as chair in 2006-07 and vice chair from 2001 to 2006. She is now an emeritus member of the Board.

She chaired the Shaping the Future: One Graduate at a Time campaign, the most prolific fundraising campaign in Keuka history. She is one of only six people in Keuka history to receive the Norton-Blyley Presidential Medallion, which recognizes service to the College “above and beyond an extraordinary high standard,” and is a recipient of the Alumni Association’s Eleanor Judd Wilkes Service to Keuka Award.

Other commencement highlights include talks by Class of 2013 members Reis Cunningham and Martha Walker, and the presentation of the Professor of the Year Award.

In addition, six students from the DRIVE (Diversity, Responsibility, Inclusion, Vision, and Experiential learning) program will receive an Award of Higher Education.

In the program, Keuka College students serve as peer mentors to young adults with intellectual disabilities as they assimilate into the college environment and explore their personal goals.

DRIVE is a collaboration between Keuka College, Penn Yan Central School District, and Yates County ARC.

Commencement day activities will kick off with the baccalaureate service at 9:30 a.m. in Norton Chapel. Sophia Veffer, past president of the Holocaust Resource Center of Buffalo Board of Directors and current executive board member, will deliver the address.

Have You Seen It?

Published May 17 at 11:26 a.m. by Rachel E. Dewey.

Check out the talented works of students in the spring Sculpture class, taught by Melissa Newcomb.

 

Honoring Hands-on Learning

Published May 16 at 1:45 p.m. by Gretchen Parsells.

A semester spent a traveling the Atlantic Ocean while visiting countries in Europe and South America, and daily observations of veterinary work garnered the top awards in experiential learning for senior Erica Rusio and freshman Lydia Watkins at the annual Honors Convocation ceremony May 4 at Keuka College.

During the fall semester,  Ruscio sailed around the Atlantic Ocean on the MV Explorer, an 836-passenger floating classroom, as part of the Semester at Sea program.

“I went to 12 countries, took classes, attended seminars, navigated through unfamiliar cities and new experiences, and discovered new understandings of what it means to be human. It was the coolest thing I have ever done,” said Ruscio.

It also earned Ruscio, an English major from Rushville, the Upperclass Experiential Learner of the Year Award, which recognizes learning from Field Period, co-curricular involvement, and community service.

Nominated by Allison Schultz, international student adviser in the Center for Global Education, Rusico said she has taken learning far beyond the traditional four-walled classroom.

“As an English major, I love books, but they only tell half of the story,” she said. “The concrete experiences can’t be replicated, and can’t be doubled in a book.”

Ruscio said Keuka College and the Semester at Sea program share the same philosophy when it comes to learning: you learn more by doing.

For example, Ruscio said she didn’t just read in a book what South Africa was like, “I explored it myself and made friends there. I didn’t just see a picture of the native people of the Amazon; I spent the night in the jungle with them. I didn’t just read a statistic about poverty in Latin America; I played with the kids in the Argentine slums.”

Ruscio said that she now has more faith in the opportunity to try, take chances, make mistakes, and try again.

“Experiential learning, which embraces the whole person, is what I received from Keuka College and the Semester at Sea program,” she said. “I haven’t just ‘done’ this experience, I’ve become it.”

An active participant in the College’s Arion Players Drama Club and the Women’s Center Advocacy Club, Ruscio also serves as a TeamWorks! facilitator, editor of Red Jacket, and is a writing tutor. She also lends her time and talents to the Literacy Volunteers of Ontario and Yates Counties.

Watkins’ January Field Period at Southtown Veterinary Hospital in Montrose, Pa., solidified her career choice.

The Field Period also helped earn Watkins, a biomedical major from Springville, Pa., the Freshman Experiential Learner of the Year Award. The award recognizes learning from Field Period, co-curricular involvement, and community service.

Watkins, who has known since she was 10 that she wanted to be a large animal veterinarian, was nominated for the award by Andy Robak, assistant professor of chemistry.

“I nominated Lydia because she had a great first Field Period,” said Robak. “She had her first experience working in a small animal veterinary clinic, and built relationships with the people with whom she was working.”

And while the vets at Southtown Veterinary Hospital care for small animals, Watkins still “learned a lot of information about the veterinary field, and I cannot wait to have the V.M.D. in front of my name. By watching the vets, I expanded my knowledge and fine tuned my interests.”

Watkins was able to watch several procedures, including spays, neuters, ACL repair, bone surgery, and a splenectomy. Shortly after her Field Period ended, she was hired as a veterinary assistant. Watkins will work weekends, summers, and other times when classes are not in session.

Watkins said she “loved my Field Period, and now my job, but I still want to work with cows.”

Said Robak: “A lot of students will do similar Field Periods in vet offices, but rarely does it end up in a great relationship like she found. Lydia is also an excellent student, excelling in sophomore chemistry as a freshman, and is well on her way to veterinary school when she graduates.”

Painting with the (Periodic) Elements

Published May 16 at 1:40 p.m. by Rachel E. Dewey.

Junior Kat Andonucci helped put Keuka on the scientific map last fall after her year-long independent study, a photographic portfolio of various chemical elements and experiments, became an art show in Lightner Gallery, was presented to regional chemists, and landed in a national scientific magazine.

Now, Andonucci has reteamed with Dr. Andrew Robak, associate professor of chemistry, to conduct a new artistic study of some 11 elements of the Periodic Table, creating the letter code for each scientific element with a paint created from the element itself.

“The overall image is an abstract kind of 3-D Periodic Table and we want it to serve as a permanent reference source in a classroom or lab—it will be a huge art piece,” said the junior visual and verbal art major from Chestertown (near Lake George).

Using stand-alone 12×12 canvas squares painted with each element, Andonucci will arrange them to hang so that some of the squares appear to be raised and some depressed, creating a more dynamic artwork.

While some elements, such as arsenic or mercury, would be dangerous to paint with, others, such as barium sulfate, iron oxide, and cadmium have been created already and painted, she said. For example, titanium has been mixed with linseed oil to create the scientific code letters (Ti) for that element  on the table.

According to Robak, all of the pigments Andonucci used to paint the periodic table symbols contain the elements, but are not made from the pure elements. For example, the cadmium pigment utilized a cadmium compound, while the titanium pigment was made from titanium oxide, which is used to make all modern white paints

Granted, Andonucci has run into a few challenges, such as the three attempts to create the synthetic pigment Egyptian blue, which will be used to represent copper in the table. Historically, pigments were derived from naturally occurring minerals and/or plants. While Egyptian blue was one of the first synthetic pigments made in history, the age of the product and process made it hard to track down anything resembling a specific recipe over the Internet.

“It was on Wikipedia and it wasn’t exact measurements, just percentages, so it was hard to get it exactly right,” she explained. Directions suggested a mixture of sand, natron and copper oxide be baked in an 800 to 900-degree kiln over three to four days. “The first time we [tried,] the oven got above 900 degrees and fried it and it came out black and actually charred. It was a lot of trial and error. We’re up to our third try, but I may try again because it’s not as blue as I wanted it to be.”

To support her creative work, Andonucci received a $500 Academic Excellence Initiatives grant from the Office of Academic Affairs. Last year, her Art of Chemistry project was also funded $560 from the same competitive grant process.

In September, the Art of Chemistry exhibit was formally presented to members of the Corning Section of the American Chemical Society (ACS) by Robak, who commissioned Andonucci for the project. In addition to the American Chemical Society, Andonucci and Robak’s work drew the attention of Chemical & Engineering News in Washington, D.C., which published a story on the exhibit in its Oct. 1 issue and website.

 

ASAP Students Develop Marketing Plan for Oneida Non-Profit

Published May 16 at 10:24 a.m. by Doug Lippincott.

By Brie Deacon

The former Oneida Area Arts Council (OAAC) recently adopted a marketing plan developed by Keuka College’s Utica-area graduate students that included, among other things, a name change to Oneida Performing Arts (OPA).

The students spent the six-week course researching, developing, and strategizing a new look for OPA. They worked in teams and used local resources, historical documents, and current market trends to devise a new logo, ideas for performance offerings, and different forms of communication—all geared toward expanding its patron base. Throughout the process, the class urged OPA board members to get out of their comfort zone and look for new venues and ideas that would bring the organization into the future.

The non-profit organization was contacted last year by Kim Deruby, adjunct instructor of marketing, who hoped it would serve as a live case study for her class.

Brian M. Carroll, president of OPA, said the organization had been struggling over the years to transition its brand to a more relevant, sustainable market.

“We decided that we could use some help from young professionals who could look at our 50-year history and make suggestions on how to keep the base we have but attract younger people as well. The suggestions we’ve gotten [correspond to] what other bigger organizations who have full-time marketing employees [receive],” he said.

Deruby said the course curriculum calls for students “to understand a current marketing issue or deficiency, to create a marketing strategy, produce tangible results, and provide insight, guidance, and expertise to the organization,” so the OPA project was an excellent fit and provided students with invaluable real-world experience.

As part of this in-depth, hands-on assignment, the class came up with rebranding ideas that included a new logo, a hand-rendered design by local advertising consultant and Keuka adjunct instructor Cookie Caloia, who conceptualized the students’ rebranding vision.

Other initiatives introduced by the students were performances that would appeal to a younger crowd, electronic press releases, new flyers and print materials, and a summer dinner theater experience at a local restaurant, scheduled Aug. 8. The class also recommended OPA offer  a Mother’s Day matinee, which debuted May 12, and no longer offer shows during the winter months when many of their patrons are away.

In terms of the name change, Carroll said Oneida Performing Arts “is much easier for the consumer to understand.”

“We truly hope these ideas will not only help to get their name out there in the community, but also help to create a general interest from a wider range of age groups,” said student Ryan Blehar, who resides in Verona.

“I am very impressed with all of our accomplishments within our cohort and I have no doubt that everyone is more effective professionally and personally as a result of this project,” said John Prendergast, cohort representative and resident of Utica.

Keuka’s 18-month Master of Science in management degree program is part of the Accelerated Studies for Adults Program (ASAP). Classes meet weekly at Mohawk Valley Community College.

State Takes Center Stage in Lit Class

Published May 9 at 9:36 a.m. by Rachel E. Dewey.

Students who enrolled in Assistant Professor of English Jennie Joiner’s Traditions of Literature course this spring expected to delve into a collection of works set in New York state.

What they didn’t expect was an Empire State history lesson.

The running joke in class is that maps are now a regular part of Joiner’s routine, as students traverse a literary route from east to west across the state, exploring different regions of New York in works that include Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, James Fenimore Cooper’s The Pioneers, the Erie Canal Reader, 1790-1950, and Walter Edmonds’ Rome Haul.

Joiner acknowledged that her dependence on maps has been to emphasize that New York was the only state with geography sufficient for construction of the Erie Canal, and with the canal, linked the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, bringing commerce and other boons of civilization further west.

“You think the biggest thing that happened to the state was New York City, or you’d think New York City was the heart of the state, but it’s not. The Erie Canal was. I’m not from here so it’s interesting to know,” said junior Annie Smith, a New Jersey native. “I never heard of the Erie Canal, so to see how much went on during the Erie Canal [era] and now in the 21st century … We wouldn’t have Auburn, Geneva, and all those places if it wasn’t for the canal. It played a major part in what’s 20 miles north of us and east or west.”

Sophomore Marie Cozzi calls Long Island home, and said she never realized how much history was prevalent in Upstate and Western New York.

“Reading through the stuff, it’s cool to see how the history is [represented] in the novels. I never thought there would be a history of Upstate New York in the books. One thing leads to the next. They all relate to the other.” (more…)

Tsarnaev Brothers: Much in Common with Terrorists Who Came Before

Published May 8 at 12:49 p.m. by Doug Lippincott.

By Dr. Sander A. Diamond, Professor of History

At approximately 8:50 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, the first of two planes slammed into the World Trade Center. The Age of Terrorism had arrived on our shores.  On April 15, we were once again reminded that despite our best efforts to insulate ourselves from terrorism, we live in an age where our safety is conditional.

The perpetrators of the Boston attack, brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, were born in Chechnya, which is located in the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation. Exactly when and why the older brother, Tamerlan, became a terrorist is a key element in the investigation.  What we do know is Chechnya and Dagestan are the epicenters of Islamic Jihadism in the region. Their geography places them closer to Tehran than Moscow to the far north. During the Second World War, when the fate of Russia was conditional and the Battle of Stalingrad was raging in the winter of 1942-43, Moscow alleged that some in Chechnya were on the wrong side. Their punishment was collective. Stalin uprooted them and shipped them to Siberia only to return in the 1950s. Decades later, when the USSR imploded, Chechnya attempted to leave the Russian Federation and an insurrection was put down with the full might of the Russian military. Chechnya terrorists responded by blowing up a subway train in Moscow while the so-called Black Widows seized a theater with 800 people in it and threatened to blow it up.

Meanwhile, in the years that followed, some of the people of Chechnya and Dagestan have turned to Islamic extremism. Perhaps Tamerlan was predisposed to the Jihadist mindset before he arrived on our shores, concluding that however different Russia and the United States are, they share a common hatred of Muslims. Others suspect he was in contact with the Islamic extremists and was, in the words of the FBI, radicalized during a six- or seven-month stay in the region not long ago. We also know that his computer is filled with materials downloaded from radical Islamic sites, so perhaps he and his brother were radicalized on the web. Whatever the case, one does not become a terrorist overnight.

By the same token, terrorist acts are not spur-of-the-moment decisions. In the case of the Boston bombers, they bought fireworks, dismantled them and used the black powder to build bombs.  They also planned to use pipe bombs in Times Square. For seasoned terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda with its numerous so-called franchises, leaders place a high value on bleeding their victims in the financial sense. For bin Laden and his cohorts, Sept. 11 was a nickel-and-dime operation. What we have spent repairing the damage and trying to protect ourselves for future attacks is beyond comprehension. The Tsarnaev brothers spent perhaps $200 building the bombs.  When the cost of finding them, the commerce lost in Boston for several days, and the hospital bills are finally added, the total will be staggering. Given the cost of health care, the $20 million fund that has been established to help cover hospital expenses for those injured may be peanuts, barely making a dent in the final tally. For many of the survivors, the costs of restoring their health over a lifetime will also be staggering. As for the coming trial of the younger brother, the cost will be in the millions.

What appears to link all terrorists is a deep hatred of their perceived enemies and what they represent. For them, killing is a perfectly rational act in keeping with their religious or ideological beliefs. Their victims, not them, are the incarnation of evil.

 

ASAP Student Garners Social Work Award

Published May 7 at 5:40 p.m. by Rachel E. Dewey.

Bridgett Rosato is a busy mother of three, a mediator for the 10-county Center for Dispute Settlement, and a volunteer with the Ontario County Jail.

She’s also an award-winning social work student in the Accelerated Studies for Adults Program (ASAP) at Keuka College.

The Canandaigua resident was named one of six student Social Workers of the Year at a regional chapter event for the National Association of Social Workers. The NASW award recognizes social work students in the New York State Chapter’s Genesee Valley Division who have made significant contributions in the field.

Stephanie Craig, associate professor and chair of the Division of Social Work, said  Rosato “is an amazing student and person. She represents the profession very well.”

A desire to help people is what drives Rosato to work toward prevention of some of the personal experiences she went through as a child. (more…)