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The following is a selection of recent media coverage of Lafayette:
National Media
Architecture Week, Feb. 15
The article “Library Enlightened” states, “The expanded and renovated Skillman Libraryinvites you in through glassy new walls that wrap the original building and offer visitors a view out to the east, over the campus quadrangle upon which it sitsThe radical transformation of the library is a new spark of life in the Lafayette quadrangle. The glass walls that wrap the building on the east and north sides – the elevations that are most prominent in views from the quad – are visually open and welcoming. At night, Skillman glows with light and activityThe new Skillman Library captured two awards in 2005 from the Boston Society of Architects: an honor award and a higher education design award. More recently, the project won a 2006 AIA [American Institute of Architects] national honor award for interior architecture.”
Women’s Health & Fitness, February
The article “Addicted to Food” includes commentary by Susan Basow, Dana Professor of Psychology. “‘For some individuals, eating is self-sedating,’ she says. ‘One’s mind is preoccupied with what you are doing and so you don’t have to think about what else is going on in your life.’Basow agrees that binging doesn’t become an addiction until it begins to control your life. ‘The classic hallmark for addiction is whether it interferes with your relationships or in a work setting,’ she says. ‘If what you are doing is draining your finances and causing a hardship, or if you can’t pull yourself up from the table after a meal when everyone else is up and doing something, then this is something creating additional problems.’”
Architectural Record, Jan. 17
Skillman Library received the 2006 American Institute of Architects national honor award for interior architecture.
The Wall Street Journal Online, Jan. 9
Mark Crain, William E. Simon ’52 Professor of Political Economy, is author of a report entitled “The Impact of Regulatory Costs on Small Firms” that was funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Among his findings are the fact that on a per-employee basis, it costs small firms on average about $2,400, or 45%, more than larger companies to meet annual federal regulatory requirements.
Spotlight on Students in Their Hometown Newspapers
Mountaintop Eagle (Pa.), Feb. 15
For an honors thesis that brought her to Prague, Trustee Scholar Lori Weaver ’06 of White Haven is researching the 1993 dissolution of Czechoslovakia into the separate nations of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. “I think that the Czech-Slovak case is an extremely interesting one and a topic that has been given little analysis within American academia,” says Weaver, a double major in history and government & law. “Personally, I think that Central and Eastern European history tends to get pushed behind the history of Western Europe. It’s something so relevant, yet something we don’t talk about.” She traveled to Prague, the largest city in the Czech Republic and its capital, in June to interview several individuals affected by the split. Weaver’s faculty adviser, Ilan Peleg, Charles A. Dana Professor of Social Science, says that she is gaining exceptional knowledge from the research.
Sparta Independent (Sparta, N.J.), Feb. 9
Marquis Scholar David Greenberg ’06 (Sparta, N.J.) joined six other computer science majors in creating a specialized software application for Third Street Alliance for Women and Children, a nonprofit social services agency in Easton. The agency provides wellness and education programs for men, women, and children; childcare; shelter for homeless women and their children; and adult day services. “I was in constant communication with the Third Street Alliance throughout the semester, ensuring that our interpretation of the requirements of the program was what the user intended,” said Greenberg, who is pursuing a B.S. computer science degree and an A.B. with a major in mathematics-economics.
Wantagh-Seaford Citizen (Wantagh, N.Y.), Jan. 26
Tyler Cohn ’06 (Wantagh, N.Y.) is devoting much of his senior year to finding out how three actors can cram 37 Shakespeare plays into an hour-and-a-half-long performance and send audiences into fits of hysterical laughter. Cohn, an English major with a theater concentration and a minor in history, is reading piles of articles, reviews, and textbooks to determine how the Compleat Works of William Shakespeare “incorporates the basic tenets of postmodernism: parody, pastiche, irony, a melding of high and low culture, and a complete disregard for genre and convention.”
The Syosset-Jericho Tribune (N.Y.), Jan. 20
For two area residents, this year’s winter break from college classes will be anything but usual. Edward Aquilina ’07 of Brookville, who’s majoring in mechanical engineering, is planning to travel to Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands with 23 other students to take a special course called Medieval Architecture in Northern Europe during the interim session between regular semesters. Marquis Scholar Amanda Finkelstein ’07 of Syosset is planning to travel to Greece and Italy with 23 other students to take a special course called Back to the Roots of Western Civilization. She’s majoring in English.
The Valley Advantage (Olyphant, Pa.), Jan 19
Pursuing honors in philosophy at Lafayette, Trustee Scholar Scott Wisniewski ’06 (Olyphant, Pa.) questioned “whether what we can imagine can ever serve as a guide to what is physically possible.” A double major in philosophy and government and law, he is finishing an honors thesis on necessitarianism, the doctrine that events are inevitably determined by preceding causes, under the direction of Julie Yoo, assistant professor of philosophy. His inspiration for the project came when he studied Kant’s “Critique of Pure Reason” at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford, as a junior.
The Gazette (Md.), Jan. 18
Douglas Maryott ’07 of Rockville and Garland Millican ’07 of Brookeville are taking part in a special course entitled Turkey: Cradle of Civilizations. As part of the trip, which departed Dec. 27 and is scheduled to return Thursday, the two are studying Hellenistic, Byzantine, Ottoman, and modern Turkish civilizations to understand how they left lasting artistic and architectural impressions on the Western world. Millican is a graduate of St. Anselm’s Abbey School and Maryott is a graduate of Richard Montgomery High School. Maryott is a Marquis Scholar and history major. Millican is majoring in A.B. engineering with a second major in international affairs.
Rivereast News Bulletin (Glastonbury, Conn.), Jan. 13
The Journal of the American Chemical Society, the pre-eminent journal for chemistry research, has published a paper coauthored by Marquis Scholar Katie Thoren ’06(Hebron, Conn.) and her Lafayette mentors Yvonne Gindt and Tina Huang, assistant professors of chemistry. Thoren, a chemistry major who has presented her research at several national meetings of the American Chemical Society, also is conducting a yearlong honors thesis building on a collaboration with Gindt that could help develop methods of preventing diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Type II diabetes.
Jericho Syosset News Journal (N.Y.) and Syosset Advance (N.Y.), Jan. 13
For Marquis Scholar Amanda Finkelstein ’07 of Syosset, this year’s winter break from college classes will be anything but usual. She is planning to travel to Greece and Italy with 23 other students from Dec. 28 to Jan. 11 to take a special course called Back to the Roots of Western Civilization during the interim session between regular semesters. She’s majoring in English. She will pay nothing for program costs as a benefit of being a participant in the Marquis Scholars program. The course is taught by Howard Marblestone, Elliott Professor of Foreign Languages and Literatures, and Robert Cohn, BermanProfessor of Jewish Studies. She will study firsthand two great pillars of civilization that form the intellectual and spiritual foundations of the Western world and will encounter up close the enduring force of these cultures.
Daily Local (West Chester, Pa.), Jan. 12
Marquis Scholar and mathematics major Timothy Zirkel ’08 (Honey Brook, Pa.), and economics & business major Jeffery Lininger ’07 (Malvern, Pa.), along with 35 other Lafayette students, are in Spain and Portugal through Jan. 21 for an international concert tour of the college choirs during the interim sessions between regular semesters. The choir’s performances will be part of a special Lafayette course called “Choral Music: Window to Culture.”
The Winchester Star (Mass.), Jan. 12
When Kara Boodakian ’07of Winchester arrived at Lafayette, she was certain that she wanted to include music in her course of study. Through an internship at Boston-based radio station WGBH, she combined her anthropology and sociology major with her music minor and a bit of history by working with the station’s live jazz recordings. She worked with producer Jeffrey Nelson to create CDs from live jazz recordings taped in the early 1990s in the station’s studio. “The opportunity to listen to unique, live recordings of artists such as Herb Pomeroy, Carol Sloane, and Dave Brubeck was one I could not resist,” she says. She edited digital audiotapes by breaking performances into tracks and removing some applause so that individual songs can be played on the radio.
Prince George’s County Gazette (Md.), Jan. 12
Whitney Orbanac ’07, a graduate of DeMatha Catholic High School, is in Turkey until Jan. 19. He is taking the course entitled Turkey: Cradle of Civilizations that deals with the study of the Hellenistic, Byzantine, Ottoman, and modern Turkish civilizations and their impact on the art and architecture of the western world.
Stratford Star (Conn.), Jan. 12
Stephen Malloy ’06 of Stratford is spending several weeks this January in Southeast Asia to study various factors affecting economic development in that part of the world. Malloy, a graduate of Bunnell High School, is pursuing a double major in economics & business and government & law. He and his classmates will spend two weeks in Thailand and one week in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, to study why the two countries have developed differently, even though they have similar climate, natural resources, and religion. The studies will be directed by two college professors who will discuss imperialism, politics, and economic planning in those two Southeast Asian countries.
Main Line Life (Ardmore, Pa.), Jan. 11
Jessica Stake ’06 (Merion Station, Pa.) is in Hawaii from Jan. 2-20 to take a course called “The Geographic Evolution of the Hawaiian Islands.” She’s a double major in art and economics & business. Stake will learn how volcanic, geomorphic, and coastal processes have shaped and continue to shape the Hawaiian Islands.
Long Islander (N.Y.), Jan. 5
For Jeremy Fehrs ’06 of Huntington Station, this year’s winter break from college classes will be anything but usual. Fehrs, who’s majoring in English, is planning to travel to Austria and Germany with 20 other students from December 28 to January 18 to take a special Lafayette course called “The Colorful Sunset of the Habsburg Empire” during the interim session between semesters. The course is taught by Edward McDonald, professor of foreign languages and literatures, and Joseph Shieber, assistant professor of philosophy. Fehrs will be studying how the Habsburg monarchy united peoples of widely differing races and languages for centuries until World War I ended in its disintegration. In Vienna, Salzburg, and Munich, Fehrs will study the cultural upheaval in the last decades of the empire (from about 1870 to 1919), focusing on the culture, art, and intellectual work of the most famous luminaries of the period.
Bucks County Courier Times (Levittown, Pa.), Jan. 2
Laura Andrews’07 (Croydon, Pa.) has been selected to participate in an international concert tour for Lafayette College Choirs. The choir’s performances will be part of a special course called Choral Music: Window to Culture.
Glen Rock Gazette (N.J.), Dec. 30
Ryan Mulholland ’06 of Glen Rock will travel to Austria and Germany during the interim session, Dec. 28-Jan. 18, to study the last decades of the Habsburg Empire. As part of the course “The Colorful Sunset of the Habsburg Empire,” Mulholland will study the culture, art, and intellectual work of the period’s most famous luminaries. He is a graduate of Glen Rock High School.
Record Breeze (Blackwood, N.J.), Dec. 29
For a number of years, game theory has been widely used to shape economic and governmental policy, but through her honors thesis, Kristen Tull ’06(Sicklerville, N.J.) is breaking new ground by applying the model to environmental policy. A double major in international affairs and A.B. engineering, Tull is rooting her thesis in how wooden shipping pallets impact the environment compared to their plastic counterparts. Tull’s thesis adviser Sharon Jones, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, says using the case studies in the shipping pallet industry as a way to apply game theory could be useful for policy makers.
Journal News (White Plains, N.Y), Dec. 29
Lafayette College student Benjamin Cole Hauptfuhrer ’07(Bronxville, N.Y.) is writing a feature-length screenplay with the help of critically acclaimed novelist Alix Ohlin, assistant professor of English. “How often do you get the chance to have a critically acclaimed and published author work one-on-one with you on your terms for an entire semester?” Hauptfuherer states. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
The Coast Star (Manasquan, N.J.), Dec. 22
Marquis Scholar and biology major Colleen Walsh ’06 (Manasquan, N.J.) tested bacteria from the mercury-polluted Onondaga Lake in Syracuse, N.Y., for resistance to mercury and eight different antibiotics. Last summer, she spent 10 weeks working in a diabetes-research laboratory in the endocrinology department at Yale Medical School through an internship arranged by the parent of another Lafayette student.
Manhasset Press (N.Y.), Dec. 22
Marquis Scholar Sean Comerford ’06 of Manhasset, a double major in English and music, is a graduate of Manhasset High School. He is the son of Brian and Carol Comerford of Munsey Park. Sean will travel to Hawaii Jan. 2-20 for the special course “The Geologic Evolution of the Hawaiian Islands.” He will study volcanic, geomorphic, and coastal processes as factors that have shaped the islands.
The Chelmsford Independent (Mass.), Nov. 24
One day, the work Marquis Scholar John Kolba ’06 of Chelmsford is conducting for his honors thesis could be used to perfect hearing aid technology or help the United States government improve radar transmissions. An electrical and computer engineering major, Kolba is breaking new ground by working with a set of signal processing techniques called blind source separation (BSS) to determine which method is most effective at finding sources of mixed signals. Ismail Jouny, Dana Professor and head of electrical and computer engineering, is Kolba’s thesis adviser. Almost no research on BSS has been conducted. While doing something that has never been done before is exciting, the work with audio BSS technology is equally interesting for Kolba. “It’s fun right now, working with the signals, playing back the mixed signals, running the processing and separating them,” he says.
Other
Journal of the Pocono Plateau, Jan. 26
“One man’s exploration of the essential elements of the art making process and life” is the focus of A Reductive Life, an exhibit of works by Curlee Raven Holton, professor of art, at the Binney & Smith Gallery of the Banana Factory in Bethlehem from Feb. 3-March 26. It includes 60 works from the past two decades.
Times News (Lehighton, Pa.), Jan. 20
In a presentation to the Carbon County Chamber of Commerce, Ed Seifried, professor of economics and business and chief economist for BNK Advisory Group, said that “regardless of the future economic situation, America’s economy is still the best there is.” He discussed economic factors of which the business world should be aware in the coming years.
Other recent media coverage reports:
Jan. 27, 2006
Sept. 12, 2005