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Trinity Celebrates the Completion of the
Broad Street Community Mural at a December Reception
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The Trinity College community recently celebrated the
completion of the Broad Street Community Mural at a reception at the
Broad Street Gallery on December 13. The mural will be dedicated and
installed this spring on the north-facing exterior wall of the gallery,
located at the corner of Broad Street and Allen Place.
Led by Associate Professor of Fine Arts Pablo Delano and
artist Nitza Tufiño, 30 Trinity students and eight high school students
from the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts at the Learning Corridor
completed the 8 foot by 24 foot mural. With the input of area residents,
the group created a mural that reflects the cultural diversity and
positive energy of the neighborhood.
“The students are reaching out to embrace the
neighborhood,” says Delano. “Through informal interviews with residents,
the students are creating a street scene that reflects the concerns of
community members.”
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TEACHING |
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Clyde McKee |
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A “pracademic” experiencing
the
joy of teaching |
 Clyde
McKee says he is often referred to as a “pracademic.” Professor of
political science, acting chair of the department, and a 36-year fixture
on Trinity’s faculty, McKee brings a lifetime of practical experience to
the classroom, where he inspires and encourages his students to lead
lives of active, engaged citizenship.
“There
aren’t too many political scientists who come to the field through prior
practical experience,” says McKee, who ran for first selectman in Old
Saybrook in 1967. “It usually happens the other way.”
McKee
has brought his experience as a schoolteacher, United States Air Force
veteran, and elected public official to the political science classroom
at Trinity, where he has taught since 1965. During his tenure at the
College, McKee has also contributed significantly beyond the classroom,
founding and serving as president of the Connecticut chapter of the
American Society for Public Administration, serving as president of the
New England Political Science Association, and creating and heading the
College’s Legislative Internship Program—a unique opportunity for
Trinity students to become active in Connecticut politics.
Known
for his close ties to former students, McKee encourages all of them to
seek careers in public office after Trinity, even offering campaign
contributions to those who seek high elected office, regardless of their
party affiliation.
“It’s a
real joy,” he says of these relationships. “It’s good for the College
and it’s good for me.” Among his former students who have gone on to
careers in the public sector is Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez, whom McKee
once taught in an independent study course. “I was delighted that he ran
for mayor and was successful,” McKee says. McKee recently organized a
political breakfast on campus with Perez and 60 students, faculty
members, and members of the administrative staff.
“You
can’t do that at Williams or Amherst,” he says. “One of the great
things about Trinity is we’re here in Hartford.”
Keeping
Trinity on top in national essay contest McKee has been instrumental in
Trinity’s leading the nation with the greatest number of winning essays
in the Leo Gitelson National Essay Contest, sponsored by the Center for
the Study of the Presidency in Washington, DC. Trinity has produced 19
student winners in the past 14 years. McKee says the contest draws its
entrants from across the Unites States and Canada, and is particularly
popular with students from the military academies, where the competition
is taken very seriously.
In the
first year Trinity students entered the contest, McKee offered anyone
who wrote a winning essay a trip to Washington and tours of the White
House, the Supreme Court, and Congress. He also offered them his word
that he would introduce the winning students to at least one prominent
politician. This added incentive clearly paid off.
“That
first year, we had two winners,” McKee recalls. In recent years, McKee
has organized a party for the winners, attended by many of McKee’s
former students in the Washington, DC, area. McKee says this valuable
networking opportunity has resulted in jobs for some of the contest
winners.
The “joy factor”
After 36
years teaching at Trinity, and with five of his own children now
graduated from the College, McKee says it is the sheer joy of his work
and the subject matter in which he immerses himself that keep him coming
to work each day. McKee fondly remembers a day at his tennis club when
the room fell silent after he claimed, “The nature of my work is such
that, I can’t tell when I’m working and when I’m playing.” McKee says it
is this fusion of work and play that makes teaching at Trinity so
rewarding. “I get so much fun out of what I’m reading as part of my
work, it’s sort of like recreation,” McKee says. “The joy factor is
key.”
A time to teach
“better than ever”
In line
with being a “pracademic,” McKee recently visited Ground Zero in New
York City, where he read memorials and talked to people at the site
about how the events of September 11 have impacted their life.
“It was
a very interesting experience. That’s what being a pracademic is—to
immerse yourself in an experience and, rather than looking at it from
the outside, try to look at it from the inside,” McKee says. “I see this
as a paradigm shift of major proportions,” he says of the recent
tragedies. McKee has given several lectures to campus and community
groups on the topic of political violence. A frequently published writer
and editorialist, McKee is also working on an article to be published on
the topic of this post-September 11 national paradigm shift.
“We’re
living in an interesting time to be a political scientist,” McKee says.
“Rather than letting the recent events disrupt things, you just do your
job better.”
– Michael
Bradley
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