Faculty Elected to Emeritus Status

Four faculty members elected to emeritus status will be recognized at the 168th commencement Saturday.

HAROLD M. HOCHMAN, a leading authority and distinguished scholar in public sector economics, joined the Lafayette faculty in 1992 as William E. Simon Professor of Political Economy. His contributions to the theoretical discussion of distributive justice are widely cited and have had a lasting impact on the way the economics profession thinks about distributional issues. A prolific author and editor, Hochman has written extensively on public sector economics, interdependent preferences, fairness, urban public finance, charitable contributions, and theories of income redistribution.

A selection of his work, Economic Behavior and Distributional Choice: Selected Writings of Harold M. Hochman, was published this year by Edward Elgar Ltd. Topics include the relationship between distributional preference, income transfer policy, and economic justice, including the concept of Pareto Optimal Distribution, which involves the advantage gained by bettering one party without diminishing another. Hochman’s work has significantly advanced understanding of the ways in which economic analysis can inform income distribution policy. The collection includes innovative essays on fiscal design, urban policy, and the economic consequences of addictive behavior. Hochman is the editor of Redistribution through Public Choice (1974) and The Urban Economy (1976), and coeditor of Readings in Microeconomics (1986) and Economic Justice (1998).

A highly regarded consultant, Hochman currently works with Eurogest, Milan, Italy, on tax reform in the United States, and James A. Savarese and Associates, Washington, D.C. He has previously professor of economics at Baruch College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. At Baruch he was director of the Center for the Study of Business and Government from 1981-86 and senior research associate from 1986 to the present. Some of his other positions include assistant professor of economics, University of Virginia, and research director, International Center for Economic Policy Studies, New York, N.Y. He has been a visiting professor at University of California-Berkeley, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of Turin (Italy), Wesleyan University, and Williams College. He directed the Lafayette semester abroad at Vesalius College in Brussels in 1997.

Hochman received a doctorate in economics in 1965 from Yale University, where he also earned his master’s and bachelor of arts degrees in economics. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, he is listed in Who’s Who in Economics and was named the Gerard Swope Fellow by the General Electric Foundation and Boies Fellow by Yale Graduate School. He is a member of the National Bureau of Economic Research, Conference on Income and Wealth, and serves on the advisory board of The Manhattan Institute and Public Finance Quarterly. He was editor of The Eastern Economic Journal for five years and served on the board of the International Institute of Public Finance from 1972-75, serving one year as chair of the scientific committee.

RICHARD EDWARD SHARPLESS, professor of history, is a specialist in Latin American history and the process of industrialization in developing and developed countries. He has written and spoken extensively on the anthracite region of Pennsylvania as well as important political leaders and developments in Latin American and Caribbean history.

Sharpless, who came to Lafayette as an instructor in 1970, was promoted to assistant professor in 1975, associate professor in 1978, and professor in 1994. He has taught a wide variety of courses on American history and Latin American and Caribbean history, as well as American involvement in Vietnam. From 1994-97, he was assistant head of the department of history and was coordinator of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies minor from 2000-02.

For his book, The Kingdom of Coal: Work, Enterprise and Ethnic Communities in the Mine Fields, which he coauthored with Donald L. Miller, John Henry MacCracken Professor of History, Sharpless conducted extensive research in the anthracite coal areas of northeastern Pennsylvania. The book was recently reissued by the National Canal Museum Press, Easton. He is also the author of Gaitan of Colombia: A Political Biography (1978) and is working on Black Fridays: Visions and Voices, an expansion of the “Black Fridays: Faces from an American Dream” exhibit he created in 1992 with photographer Martin J. Desht that has traveled to the U.S. Senate, the American Labor Museum, Patterson, N.J., and other venues on the East Coast.

During his 33 years at Lafayette, Sharpless has been on most of the major faculty committees. He has been an adviser to the first-year student orientation program, International Students Association, Phi Alpa Theta honorary society, and International Affairs Club. He was president of the Pennsylvania division of the American Association of University Professors and president of the Lafayette chapter.

In 1978, Sharpless received the Thomas Roy and Lura Forrest Jones Lecture Award. He was a fellow in academic administration at the American Council on Education in 1981-82 and has received numerous grants for his research including ones from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Pennsyvlania Humanities Council.

In 1980, he led a group of students to Cuba for a January interim course on the revolution and transformation of the country and taught an interim course on the Spanish Civil War in Spain in 1980.

Sharpless received his bachelor of arts degree in English from Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, Pa., in 1959. He earned a master’s in history from Rutgers University in 1968 and a doctorate from Rutgers in 1975. He was a member of the U.S. Army 13th Special Group, XVIII Airborne Corps, STRIKE Command from 1961-63. Prior to coming to Lafayette, he was an instructor at Seton Hall University.

RALPH LAWRENCE SLAGHT, James Renwick Hogg Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy, joined the faculty in 1969. A philosopher whose areas of interest are logic and epistemology, he studies such questions as the difference between knowledge and belief.

Slaght has taught courses in logic, epistemology, philosophical analysis, and metaphysics. He is the author of “Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?: A Selective Critical Survey,” Philosophy Research Archives (1977) as well as other articles. He has given numerous presentations on the role of technology in higher education.

During his 34 years at Lafayette, Slaght has been intensively involved in the government and academic administration of the College through his service on many faculty committees and most notably as clerk of the faculty from 1983-97, during which time he was also an associate member of the Board of Trustees, and acting clerk of the faculty, 2002-03. He was chair of the Special Task Force for Computer Science (1982) and of Special Appointments, Promotions, and Tenure Committee (1993), and was co-administrator of the Lafayette Sloan Foundation Grant (1982-86). He has been a member of nearly all faculty committees including Academic Council, Athletics, Economic Status of the Faculty, Health Professions Advisory, and Institutional Review Board.

An early adopter of computer technology, Slaght taught himself computer programming in the late 1970s and has facility in BASIC, C, SPL, Pascal, FORTRAN, dBase, and others. From 1981-82, he directed the academic computing center. He and two other faculty members developed the proposal to create a computer science major, which was added to the curriculum in 1983.

In 1985, Slaght received the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award and in 1974 was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant. Promoted to assistant professor in 1972 and associate professor in 1977, Slaght became professor in 1994 and was named Hogg Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy in 2000. He was head of the philosophy department from 1977-91.

Ever inquisitive and adventurous, he has led January study-abroad courses in China, New Zealand, and Turkey, and studied Spanish in Mexico and taught English in Iceland. He was a visiting scholar at the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras from 1983-84. During his years as adviser to the Outing Club, Slaght led many groups of students on winter mountaineering trips to New Hampshire’s White Mountains.

Slaght received his bachelor of arts in mathematics from Eastern College in 1962 and his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania in 1972.

BARBARA H. YOUNG came to Lafayette in 1975 as instructor in physical education, coach of women’s basketball and tennis, and assistant coach of women’s field hockey. With the completion of her 28th season at the helm of the women’s tennis team, she has established herself as one of the winningest coaches in the history of Lafayette athletics. In her sixth year also serving as head coach of the men’s squad, she guided both teams to winning seasons.

Young became head of the women’s tennis program in 1976 in its second year as a varsity sport. She has had just two losing campaigns in 27 seasons. She has also guided three teams—the 1981 spring and fall squads and the 1983 fall club—to perfect records. Since joining the Patriot League in 1990, the women’s teams have posted winning league records in all but four seasons. Her teams are a combined 42-31-1 against league opposition.

Not only did Young lead the women’s team to its first Patriot League regular-season title in 1996-97, but she also guided the program to the 1986 East Coast Conference and 1991 Patriot League crowns. Twenty-four different women’s tennis student-athletes have won 32 individual conference titles (singles and/or doubles) during her tenure. Young’s combined record at Lafayette now stands at 389-168-2.

Young also coached the Lafayette volleyball team to a school-record 175 wins over 11 seasons and led the women’s basketball squad to a 59-26 mark during the five years that she held the post.

A former assistant coordinator of physical education, recreation, and intramurals, Young also served as assistant director of athletics and senior women’s administrator from 1999-2001. A member of the Campus Life Committee, she also taught tennis seminars, cross country skiing, and ran the recreational ski program for 20 years. She has been a member of the Intercollegiate Coaches Association and the U.S. Professional Tennis Association,and has held several positions with Lehigh Valley Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women.

Young received a bachelor of science degree in health, physical education, and recreation from the University of Delaware and a master’s in the same field from West Chester University. She has written a number of sports-related articles on topics ranging from the anthropology of sport to the international sensation of mini-volleyball. Before coming to Lafayette, Young held coaching positions at Northwestern University, Chatham College, and East Stroudsburg University.