In the news
“The Long Walk building[s]
along the western edge of the Trinity College campus has been, since
its construction in the 1870s, the public face of the school, and it
is now undergoing a face lift. Actually, it’s more like a forehead
lift. Routine maintenance on the roof of [the] Long Walk revealed
water damage and deterioration, according to Sally Katz, Trinity’s
director of facilities. Similar problems were found in some of the
dormers that line the roof like so many doghouses. Before anything
let go, Trinity erected chain-link fencing to keep people away from
[the] Long Walk's high Victorian, Collegiate Gothic stone facades.
The fencing creates a new traffic pattern has been dubbed by one of
Trinity’s deans as the ‘wrong walk.’ Repairs are beginning, and Katz
estimates the work will take about two years, during which the
building[s] will be covered with scaffolding. For the Trinity
community, this is a little like going to Paris to see Notre Dame
and finding it covered with scaffolds and tarps. Students will not
only be put out by the new routing, they'll also lose sight of a
familiar face on campus. [The] Long Walk is Trinity’s very identity
in slate and stone - the building that signifies the college in ways
that are unique to the institution. Indeed, [the] Long Walk is a
landmark in the history of college architecture.”
“Trinity’s Monumental
Cornerstone”
Hartford Courant, November 13, 2005
“When you first
participate in a ‘Rebuilding Together’ event, you are surprised at
the number of volunteers from colleges, high schools, and businesses
around town … You may recognize your neighbor, a teacher from the
High School, or a member of your church congregation, for East
Hartford is now a recognized affiliate of this wonderful program …
Each year for the past 25 years across this USA, Rebuilding Together
is responsible for completing over 70,000 projects through the
efforts of over 2 million volunteers … Over on Ensign Street off of
Main, Anson Mooney and a crew of students from Trinity College are
busily unpacking Anson’s truck and trying to divide up the many
jobs. Beatrice, the homeowner, welcomes everyone and thanks all of
us … While we work on painting the kitchen ceiling as well as the
top part of the kitchen cabinets, the Trinity students are talking
about New Orleans and how that devastation has affected them … I
like to hear their young minds and how they think, they are so
optimistic in the face of sheer adversity. It is also very touching
to see Anson instruct each student in a different skill, such as
screen-making or mounting glass in a window pane. Although, we did
place two of the larger broken windows in Main Street Hardware where
they will be professionally re-done, our work continued … That
family’s home on Ensign Street is a little more loved, thanks to all
of the work our Trinity students finished this day.”
“Rebuilding Together
restores that community feeling”
East Hartford
Gazette,
November 11, 2005
“One day late last month,
Nancy Birch Wagner was teaching her Trinity College seminar on ‘The
Myth of Faust and Mephistopheles’ when the discussion turned to
crossroads, which often figure into Satanic folk myths. Impulsively,
Wagner asked the class if anyone had seen the film ‘Crossroads.’ One
freshman, Joanna Hill, raised her hand and said, ‘My dad made that
film.’ Out of that exchange comes an unexpected event. On Wednesday,
Nov. 9 Hill’s father, veteran film director Walter Hill, will
present ‘Crossroads’ at Cinestudio on the college’s Hartford campus.
After the movie, he will answer questions from the audience. … The
screening is presented as part of the class curriculum, but the
class consists of only 15 students … Wagner, dean of international
programs and graduate studies at the college, says the primary focus
of her undergraduate seminar is Goethe’s ‘Faust’ but that other
Faustian books and films, including ‘Crossroads’ are studied. The
concepts of crossroads, she says, is a common motif in Satan-themed
stories.”
“Chance Allusion Brings
Film Director To Trinity”
Hartford Courant,
November 8, 2005
“In December 1972, Kiel Auditorium was swathed in holiday bunting,
and 50 debutantes swathed in satin and lace waited to be called to
bow before the Veiled Prophet, his mysterious majesty. Even the debs
on the outer edge of the privileged circle, the ones such as Lucy
Ferriss whose family had the pedigree but not the business clout
necessary to elevate her to the special-maid category, could not
help but be excited by their deep curtsey before the berobed head of
the ruling social order. Ferriss was particularly mellow; she’d
eaten a dozen marijuana brownies before the ball to silence her own
questions about participating in an elitist event she felt was
ill-considered in the midst of the Vietnam War. But then something
totally unchoreographed punctuated the courtly proceedings and her
drug-induced reverie. Flying past the extravagance of security
measures, swinging down to the stage on a rope that gave way and
dropped her 30 feet to the dais, interloper Gena Scott, 24, a member
of a civil rights protest group called ACTION, swooped down on the
prophet and snatched his veil…’I was ashamed that a member of my own
race and sex had denuded the Prophet. I was ashamed of myself for
sitting silent on the stage while someone brave and authentic took
action,’ she writes in her memoir and history, ‘Unveiling the
Prophet.’ Ferriss, now a writer in residence at Trinity College in
Hartford, Conn., undertook the book in 1999, still trying to
understand the claim that the institution of the Veiled Prophet laid
on her family’s thinking and that of the city’s white upper class.”
“Serendipity Leads To
‘Crossroads’”
St. Louis Post-Dispatch,
November 6, 2005
Hartford Courant,
November 6, 2005
“If Samuel Alito Jr. is
elevated to the U.S. Supreme Court, he would become the fifth Roman
Catholic justice on the bench, marking the first Catholic majority
in history at a time of heightened debate on abortion, same-sex
marriage and religious liberties. A fifth Catholic on the court also
would mark a milestone in U.S. religious history, illustrating the
increasing diversity of faith in a nation whose founding fathers
were predominantly Protestant … Catholic Justices Clarence Thomas
and Antonin Scalia are known to oppose abortion rights, but Anthony
Kennedy, also Catholic, voted to uphold the Roe v. Wade decision.
Newly appointed Justice John Roberts is the fourth Catholic
presently on the bench. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Stephen
Breyer are Jewish; Justices David Souter and John Paul Stevens are
Protestant. ‘To the degree that justices do their job of applying
the Constitution to cases, the religious makeup should make no
difference,’ said David Machacek, [visiting assistant professor of
public policy] at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. ‘The real issue
is how their faith shapes the way they interpret the Constitution.’”
“Alito confirmation would
be milestone for Supreme Court”
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer (GA), November 6, 2005
“Robin L.
Sheppard got her information from word of mouth and a few minutes
spent perusing Mountain Lakes High School’s Web site. Sheppard,
associate athletic director at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.,
liked what she heard and saw regarding the Group I school and Title
IX. ‘Mountain Lakes is doing well with compliance,’ Sheppard said
during a recent lecture sponsored by the American Association of
University Women. ‘Those in the athletic department here should be
giving workshops.’ Although a ‘great situation’ exists at Mountain
Lakes, Sheppard, whose program was entitled ‘Are We There Yet? Girls
and Women in Sports,’ 20 percent of colleges and universities still
are not meeting the requirements. ‘Today, there are thousands of
women playing on unsatisfactory fields with inadequate equipment and
coaches,’ Sheppard said. ‘There’s a great situation at Mountain
Lakes but check out the colleges.’ Title IX, which became law in
1972, stated: No person in the United States shall, on the basis of
sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of,
or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or
activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
”Mountain
Lakes enjoys program about Title IX”
Daily Record
(NJ),
November, 5 2005
“Vijay
Prashad denounced multiculturalism as modern racism Thursday night
during an Asian American Heritage Month event. The professor of
International Studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.,
explained to about 100 people how multicultural ideas failed to
serve humanity. Although he was sponsored by Asian American
Kaleidoscope Month, his message did not apply only to Asian American
students … he said that colorblindness - consciously looking beyond
a person's race or ethnicity - is disregarding that person's
history. He said people are not blank slates and cannot be treated
that way. Multiculturalism divides people into cultures and only
shows the conservative elements of cultures. He also explained that
these two ideas do not work together. ‘How can you celebrate
cultures when you don't have history?’ he asked. He described the
‘model-minority’ myth and how it affects people of all cultures,
saying this myth makes Asian and Jewish cultures superior, strips
white people of any culture and implies that black people have a
lower level of culture. He said people use the myth to become
chauvinistic about their cultures and say they are proud to be black
or Chinese. He also challenged the perception of Asians and other
minorities as being geniuses and well educated.”
“Speaker stresses that
culture cannot be erased”
The Independent Alligator (FL), November 4, 2005
“Urban planner Sam
Seidel, a 39-year-old candidate for Cambridge City Council, hopes to
unseat an incumbent in next week’s elections—no small order in a
city with low political turnover. In entering this race, the
progressive Democrat is willing to accept all the help he can get. …
He says one of his greatest concerns is the relationship between the
city and its universities. Despite the cultural and economic
contributions that Harvard offers its neighbors, Seidel says he
believes that the University’s effect on the city is not beneficent.
Even so, he says Cambridge and its universities depend on each other
… Seidel says that achieving the proper balance in this relationship
requires ‘a complicated dance’ because of Harvard’s facilities and
the constraints they place on the geographically small city. As a
nonprofit tax-exempt institution, Harvard uses public resources—like
roads and sewage channels—with no legal requirement to pay for them.
The University makes a voluntary annual payment to the city in lieu
of taxes, but politicians frequently call on Harvard to contribute
more. ... He says institutions like Columbia University in New York
City or Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., offer examples of the
positive impact that a university can have on its surrounding
community. As an urban planner, Seidel says he believes that Harvard
should share responsibility for creating affordable housing in
Cambridge—partly because it is in the school’s own interest to do
so.”
“Seidel: Urban Planning
Focus”
The Harvard Crimson,
November 3, 2005
“As
director of Hillel at Trinity College in Hartford, Lisa Kassow had
her hands full to overflowing. ‘I had to do everything,’ recalls
Kassow. ‘I was planning, coordinating and facilitating programs,
acting as administrator, serving as liaison to the college,
recruiting students, grant writing, newsletter writing, fundraising
… and then I was here with my family every Friday night.’ Clearly,
it was too much for one person which, coincidentally, was the sum
total of Trinity’s Hillel staff. Enter the Hillel Steinhardt Jewish
Campus Service Corps (JCSC) n a one-year fellowship that enables
recent college graduates to work with Hillel houses on campuses all
across North America, helping students connect with their Jewish
identities.’ I was thinking about how best to share this job in a
most effective way,’ says Kassow, ‘and I loved the idea of this
program because it offers the chance to work with someone who is
pretty much a peer of the students and, therefore, can relate to
them on their level. The JCSC Fellow can do the kind of
from-the-ground-up interpersonal outreach that can be challenging
for me in light of all the other things I have to do. Besides, it’s
just great to have a young person reaching out to other young
people.’ Trinity Hillel took part in the program for the first time
last year n an experience that proved so successful, Kassow decided
to sign up once again. Katie Bloomquist arrived in August.”
“Connecticut Hillels benefit from JCSC Fellows”
Jewish Ledger, November 2, 2005
“Barry
Kosmin, Ph.D. … has just been funded with a five-year, $2.8 million
grant at Trinity College (Hartford, Connecticut) to establish the
Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture (ISSSC)
to further the study of secularism.
FREE
INQUIRY: What is secularism, and who are the secularists? BARRY
KOSMIN: This is the very question we shall be studying and
researching as the focus of our work at ISSSC. FI: You head the new
Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture.
Secularism—are you and your colleagues for it or against it? KOSMIN:
We are serious academics, not polemicists. Our job is to study and
explain, not missionize. With its program of education, research,
and public activities, ISSSC aims to see that secular ideas and
phenomena are clearly understood so that people can make informed
choices. FI: Who is paying for your institute, and why? KOSMIN: The
Posen Foundation, which has a considerable track record in funding
intellectual endeavors in several countries. It funded the American
Religious Identification Survey in 2001, one the main findings of
which was the doubling in the number of the “no religion” population
since 1990. FI: Is secularism a dirty word? Some television
commentators have tried to convince us that it is. KOSMIN: It’s not
just an anathema to certain American television commentators with a
polemical penchant but also in the Islamic Republic of Iran. With
enemies like that ...”
“Kosmin
Interview — The Subjects Are Secular”
Free Inquiry, October/November 2005
“Nearly 50 years ago,
Rosa Parks was removed from a city bus by a Montgomery, Ala., police
officer. Her arrest sparked a successful 381-day bus boycott by
African Americans in that Southern city, a turning point in the
civil rights movement’s struggle to end legal segregation. But Rosa
Parks’ story is in danger of becoming a safe and distant myth,
especially the way it has been taught in our schools. And worse, the
way we view Mrs. Parks and the famous boycott may lead us to ignore
the contributions of lesser-known women and men who have found the
courage to challenge legal, institutionalized racism in cities
across America, including Hartford … Robert Allen was a white
student at Trinity College. Instead of starting his studies in the
fall of 1963, he was in a Georgia jail, charged with ‘incitement to
insurrection.’ The state’s sedition law did not allow for bail, and
the penalty was death for those found guilty. Allen had been
registering black voters with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee in the Bible belt town of Americus. He was arrested after
the police broke up a march that followed a church meeting. By
November, after protests by students and community leaders, federal
court action freed Allen. The court cited a violation of the 1957
Civil Rights Act and called the arrest an abuse of police power.
Like Rosa Parks, these local heroes made conscious decisions to risk
their own security by challenging injustice. If we know their
stories, they can inspire us to do the same.”
“Rosa Parks: Just One
Face Of Resistance” (Op-Ed)
Hartford Courant, October 26, 2005
“At a time when deep divisions
between religious and secular thinking have created a cultural chasm
in America, and in response to a major population study that
revealed an astonishing rise in the number of Americans identifying
themselves as having no religion, Trinity College in Harford has
established an innovative institute that aims to increase
understanding of the sources, nature, and contemporary significance
of secular values … ‘Issues involving a clash of religious and
secular values are now at the center of public debate in the United
States and around the world,’ says Mark Silk, director of the
Greenberg Center, who is also heading up the public values program.
While several American universities have inaugurated special centers
designed to examine the increased role of religion in contemporary
society, says Silk, ‘So far as I know, Trinity is the first to
establish an academic institute devoted to investigating the secular
side. It is a remarkable opportunity for us.’ In part, the new
Institute is a direct response to what sociologist and demographer
Barry Kosmin calls “the unexpected major findings” of the American
Religious Identification Survey, or ARIS 2001, which Kosmin
conducted, together with the late Egon Mayer and Ariela Keysar … [T]he
rise in the “no religion” population is only one reason for the
creation of the Institute. ‘It also involves a recognition that the
topic of ‘values,’ which seems to focus on the relationship of
religion and secularity, increasingly affects the national public
debate in politics, on all kinds of social issues and even science
policy.’ Kosmin is careful to note, however, that the Institute does
not intend to take sides in that debate. ‘The Institute for the
Study of Secularism in Society and Culture is an academic enterprise
that seeks to bring light rather than heat to such debates,’ he
explains. ‘Its work will involve research, public activities and
curriculum development. Efforts will be made to look beyond the
“Judeo-Christian world” and investigate the situation among Hindu,
Buddhist, and Muslim groups and societies.’”
“Trinity introduces Institute for Study
of Secularism”
Jewish Ledger, October 20, 2005
back
to top
Return to eQuad table of
contents
|
