ALUMNAE/I

Undergraduate
Focus on
Mark Kmetzko, B.A. 2003

Doctoral Program
Focus on
Gloria Smith, Ph.D. 1979

Vermont College
Focus on
Laurie Kuntz, M.F.A. 1992

LEARNERS
Focus on
Billy Elliott, doctoral learner

FACULTY
Focus on
Dick Hathaway, Vermont College

STAFF/
ADMINISTRATION

IN MEMORIAM
Focus on
Frank Reissman, Vermont College

CROSS CURRENTS WINTER 2004-2005

NOTES ON FACULTY

Union Institute & University Awards
Doctor of Humane Letters to Dick Hathaway

The Board of Trustees of Union Institute & University conferred their highest honor, the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters/ Honoris Causa, to Richard O. Hathaway on April 14, 2004 during a ceremony at College Hall Chapel in front of a standing-room-only crowd at the university’s Vermont College campus in Montpelier.

A gifted lecturer, noted historian, and “public intellectual,” Hathaway has served as a professor of history for 44 years, the latter half on the faculty of the Adult Degree Program at Goddard College, Vermont College of Norwich University, and now with the Vermont College Undergraduate Program of Union Institute & University. Known for nurturing a spirit of cooperation among faculty, students, and administration, he earned the respect and admiration of alumni and students as a teacher who inspires citizenship, social responsibility, and leadership.

“Dick Hathaway’s love for teaching comes from his heart as well as his mind,” said UI&U President Roger H. Sublett. “He is an accomplished and distinguished teacher, scholar, lecturer, mentor, and civic leader. We are honored to have Dr. Hathaway as a member of our UI&U academic family.”

Hathaway’s many awards for excellence in teaching and scholarship include a 1958 W.R. Hearst Fellowship from Northwestern University and the 2003 Faculty of the Year Award from the Vermont College Alumni Association. He has authored more than 300 articles, essays, book reviews, and commentaries. He has served as a humanities scholar with the Vermont Humanities Council, president of the Vermont Labor History Society, trustee of the Vermont Historical Society, and member of the American Historical Print Collector’s Society. A graduate of Bates College in Lewiston, ME, Hathaway earned an M.A. in history from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, where he also worked toward a doctorate of history.

A licensed auctioneer who conducted hundreds of benefit auctions over the past three decades, he was cited for his community service in the October 2, 1984 Congressional Record. It is conservatively estimated that his fundraising work has resulted in more than $1 million for a wide variety of nonprofit groups in more than 20 states.

Friends and colleagues have created the Richard O. Hathaway Fund to commemorate and honor his lifelong service; to organize and evaluate his extensive collection of books, periodicals, illustrations, and other materials; and to categorize his collection for easy access by learners, colleagues, peers, and scholars at Union Institute & University and others throughout Vermont who might benefit greatly from use of the material. To contribute to the fund or for more information, please contact Union's vice president of university relations and development at 800-336-6794.

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Tobin Anderson, M.F.A. (right), and Phyllis Root, M.A. faculty members in MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults, were named 2003 Boston Globe-Horn Book winners. Root was awarded first prize in the Picture Book category for Big Momma Makes the World (Candlewick, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury). Anderson received Honors in Fiction and Poetry for his book Feed (Candlewick).

Rose Duhon-Sells, Ph.D., Graduate College core faculty, co-edited Educators Leading the Challenge to Alleviate School Violence and International Perspectives on Methods of Improving Education: Focusing on the Quality of Diversity (Edwin Mellen Press, 2003).

Bethe Hagens, Ph.D., Graduate College core faculty, installed a labyrinth at UI&U’s Vermont College Montpelier campus to celebrate the Spring Equinox, March 2004. Hagens, an anthropologist and professional violinist, designed the labyrinth to honor the ancient Greek story of the “Minotaur,” a half-man/half-bull figure caught in an ambiguous time and space. Hagens’ labyrinth is a classic seven-path design, 45 feet in diameter, created from two strings of rope lights, each nearly 300 feet in length. Her first major labyrinth, installed in her hometown of Kennebunkport, ME, was constructed with cobblestones that were unloaded on September 11, 2001 as the second World Trade Tower fell. Each successive day as she worked on the project, Hagens was joined by the town’s children, who spontaneously developed their own healing rituals.

Robert Hill, Ed.D. and Paul Baldauf, Ph.D., professor/faculty advisors at the Florida Academic Center, co-presented preliminary results from their research funded by their UI&U 2003 Faculty Research Grant at the annual conference of the Florida Association of Teacher Educators (FATE) in Fort Lauderdale, October 2003. Their 50-minute presentation on “Improving the Teaching of Science for Our Future Elementary School Teachers” appears in FATE e-Journal at http://www.fate1.org/index.htm. In November 2003, Hill and Baldauf co-presented a poster session titled “The Consolation of Philosophy? Using Geosciences to Illustrate Scientific Principles in a Teacher-Education Program” at the national Geological Society of America (GSA) annual conference in Seattle, Washington.

E. Ethelbert Miller, Ph.D., Graduate College adjunct faculty, recently published a collection of poems, How We Sleep on the Nights We Don’t Make Love (Curbstone Press 2004), and is included on the Jazz Poetry Kafe: The BlackWords compilation compact disc. Miller is director of the African-American Resource Center at Howard University, Washington, D.C.

Carla R. Payne, Ph.D., professor of graduate studies, Vermont College, authored “Design for Success: Applying Progressive Educational Principles Online,” a chapter in Current Perspectives on Applied Information Technologies: Online Professional Development of Teachers (Information Age Publishing, 2004), in collaboration with the Center for the Application of Information Technologies (CAIT) at Western Illinois University. (see http://www.infoagepub.com)

M. Daniel Price, Ph.D., professor/faculty advisor, Cincinnati Gantz Center, along with Judith Blackburn, Ed.D., professor emerita at Northern Kentucky University, presented a standing-room-only seminar at UI&U, April 17, 2004, exploring the religious, historical, and literary aspects of Dan Brown's best seller, The Da Vinci Code.

Mark Rosenman, Ph.D. 1977 and Graduate College distinguished public-service professor, published an opinion piece in the February 19, 2004 issue of Chronicle of Philanthropy titled “Nonprofit Groups Should Help Get Out the Vote,” in which he states that vibrant and informed electoral participation is crucial to the mission of nonprofits and the people they serve, and that nonpartisan voter mobilization is a legal activity encouraged by the federal government. He also authored “The Wrong Debate,” published in Foundation News & Commentary, May/June 2004, which questions the merits of wondering whether or not there are too many nonprofit organizations instead of concentrating on why the nation’s public and private resources are becoming less available for charitable sector.

Kevin Sharpe, Ph.D., Graduate College core faculty, reports his recent publications include “Frogs and God” on Metanexus: The Online Forum on Religion and Science, August 2003 (www.metanexus.net); “Nudging John Polkinghorne,” in Quodlibet Online Journal of Christian Theology and Philosophy, July 2003 (www.quodlibet.net/sharpe-polkinghorne.shtml); “The Emergent Order” (with Jonathan Walgate) in Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science (June 2003); “Learning from Creationism’s Success” in Faith and Freedom (Spring-Summer 2003); and “Religion and Science: Evolving toward Enlightenment” (with Jonathan Walgate) in Bridges: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Theology, Philosophy, History, and Science (Spring-Summer 2003). Sharpe’s recent presentations include “Severines in Rouffignac Cave, France: Implications for Paleolithic Ideas of Ultimate Reality and Meaning” (with Graduate College alumna Leslie Van Gelder, Ph.D. 2002), at the 12th biennial meeting of the International Society for the Study of Human Ideas on Ultimate Reality and Meaning, University of Toronto, Canada, August 2003, where Sharpe also gave three responses to other presenters; “Place, Story, and the Minds of Our Ancestors,” part of the panel discussion, “Placing the Spirit in ‘The Spirit of Place,’” at the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment conference on Creativity, Culture, and Environment, Boston, MA, June 2003.

John Tallmadge, Ph.D., Graduate College core faculty member, gave the closing keynote speech at the State University College at Oneonta conference, "Sharp Eyes III: John Burroughs and His Contemporaries, Near and Far,” held June 6-10, 2004. A professor of literature and environmental studies, Tallmadge’s latest book, The Cincinnati Arch: Learning from Nature in the City, was published by the University of Georgia Press in October 2004. His other publications include Reading Under the Sign of Nature: New Essays in Ecocriticism (co-editor, University of Utah Press, 2000) and Meeting the Tree of Life: A Teacher's Path (University of Utah Press, 1997).

Brian Webb, D. Mus., assistant vice president for academic affairs/director of Vermont College’s Master of Arts programs, conducted the Vermont Philharmonic and chorus in two performances of Handel's "Messiah" December 5 at St. Augustine's Catholic Church and December 21 at the Barre Opera House. Webb was the music director for the Central Vermont community orchestra for more than 20 years, and had served as guest conductor five years ago. A New Zealand native, Webb was long-time head of the music department at Norwich University, and later at Vermont College. Webb continues as organist and choirmaster at Christ Church, occasionally conducts the Onion River Chorus in Montpelier, and provides musical accompaniment at UI&U’s Vermont College campus, playing the 1884 pipe organ and grand piano in College Hall for commencements and other events.

William H. A. Williams III, Ph.D., professor/faculty advisor of the Cincinnati Academic Center, College of Undergraduate Studies, appeared on Cincinnati’s PBS-affiliate WCET during the March 17, 2004 St. Patrick’s Day fundraising program, assisting in the introduction of the CD, VHS and DVD versions of Three Irish Tenors: Live from Belfast. In October 2003, he addressed the plenary session of the Midwest American Conference for Irish Studies meeting, Normal, IL; presented a paper on music and Irish-American identity at “West Along the Road: Music and Identity Symposium” at New York University; and was a presenter at the Re-Inventing Ireland conference at Charlottesville, VA, May 2003. Williams also edited and published his late wife Leslie Williams' book, Daniel O’Connell, the British Press and the Irish Famine: Killing Remarks (Ashgate, Aldershot, UK, 2003).

Xu Xi, M.F.A., Vermont College M.F.A. in Writing faculty member, read her signature story, "Jazz Wife," which she has performed across the country, at the Cincinnati Contemporary Dance Theater's Performance & Time Arts series, October 17 and 18, 2003. A Hong Kong-born fiction writer, Xi is now an American citizen, but also has permanent resident status in Hong Kong. She divides her time between New York, Hong Kong, and New Zealand. She has published several novels and story collections with an English-language publisher in Hong Kong. Her books include The Unwalled City (2001), History's Fiction (2001), Hong Kong Rose (1997), Daughters of Hui (1996), and Chinese Walls (1994).