Posted on Jan 31, 2007

When the English department sought a new writer in residence a couple of years ago, it had a simple requirement.

“We were looking for a fiction writer of distinction,” said Harry Marten, the department chairman.

Few could have imagined their search would take them to Kenya. But with help from the outgoing visiting writer, Mikhail Iossel, and a strong push from former Union professor Ed Pavlic, the College found its writer: Binyavanga Wainaina.

Since then, the 36-year-old, in the second year of a three-year term as visiting writer, has been garnering attention worldwide. The Virginia Quarterly Review recently awarded Wainaina its 2006 top short fiction prize for “Ships in High Transit,” and in December, The Independent, a newspaper in the United Kingdom, named him one of the 50 best artists in Africa.

Last January, Wainaina's satirical piece for Granta, “How to Write about Africa,” became one of the literary magazine's most widely reprinted stories. It included advice on the collection of stereotypes and clichés authors could fall back on when writing about his homeland.

“In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country,” he wrote. “It is hot and dusty with rolling grasslands and huge herds of animals and tall, thin people who are starving. Or it is hot and steamy with very short people who eat primates. Don't get bogged down with precise descriptions. Africa is big: fifty-four countries, 900 million people who are too busy starving and dying and warring and emigrating to read your book. The continent is full of deserts, jungles, highlands, savannahs and many other things, but your reader doesn't care about all that, so keep your descriptions romantic and evocative and unparticular.”

In 2002, Wainaina won the prestigious Caine Prize for African Writing for his short story, “Discovering Home.”

“He's at the absolute center of a whole new generation of artists and writers over there,'' said Pavlic, who in December spent three weeks in Kenya with Wainaina.

Pavlic, who left Union last year to teach creative writing at the University of Georgia, helped convince colleagues of Wainaina's worth. Pavlic was introduced to Wainaina through Iossel, who was aware of the African writer from a summer literary seminar Iossel directs in Kenya.

When Iossel went to Concordia University in Montreal, some here were skeptical about putting Wainaina, the founding editor of Kwani?, Africa's leading literary magazine, in front of a classroom. Even Wainaina was hesitant, saying, “teaching is not my vocation. I'm a writer.”

But the search committee quickly embraced Wainaina's talent. Wainaina started teaching at Union last winter, though he was delayed a few weeks because of visa issues. He will teach two terms each academic year, including “Workshop in Fiction” and “Contemporary African Fiction” this winter.

“He's got charisma and he's smart as the Dickens,'' said Marten. “He's truly a first-class writer.”

Wainaina wasn't always sure about the writing life. He tried other vocations, including running a catering business and restaurant, “but realized quickly I was not very good, so I always came back to writing.”

Students appreciate Wainaina's approach in the classroom.

“He challenges us,” said Danna DeBlasio '08. “He constantly makes us question things, not only in our writings, but life in general.”

Wainaina is working on his first book, a travel memoir about Kenya. He continues to attract a global following, especially through frequent appearances on the BBC, along with more awards. But there's one honor he declined: the World Economic Forum, based in Geneva, recently included him among 250 Young Global Leaders for 2007. Leaders are selected, in part, for “their potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world.”

Wainaina told the organization's founder, Professor Klaus Schwab, and Queen Rania of Jordan, the chairperson of the nominating committee, that he would skip the group's summit in China.

“I assume that most, like me, are tempted to go anyway because we will get to be ‘validated' and glow with the kind of self-congratulation that can only be bestowed by very globally visible and significant people,” he wrote. “And we are also tempted to go and talk to spectacularly bright and accomplished people – our “peers.” We will achieve Global Institutional Credibility for our work, as we have been anointed by an institution that many countries and presidents bow down to.

“The problem here is that I am a writer. And although, like many, I go to sleep at night fantasizing about fame, fortune and credibility, the thing that is most valuable in my trade is to try, all the time, to keep myself loose, independent and creative…it would be an act of great fraudulence for me to accept the trite idea that I am “going to significantly impact world affairs.”

Posted on Jan 31, 2007

Stephanie Beardman, assistant professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, will discuss “Emotions and Deliberative Reason,” Thursday, Feb. 1 at 4:30 p.m. in the Phi Beta Kappa Room, Schaffer Library as part of the Philosophy Speaker Series.

Beardman, who received her doctorate from Rutgers University, is the author of a number of articles on ethics and the philosophy of psychology.

The free series, which runs through May 24, is funded by the Spencer-Leavitt Foundation.

Upcoming speakers include Manfred Kuehn, Boston University, who will present “Kantian Ethics and the Problem of Normativity,” Feb. 15; and Bas van Fraassen, Princeton University, on “Structuralism and the Physical World Picture,” March 1.

Posted on Jan 29, 2007

Taking on the Union Colors

Soon after the announcement of my appointment as the 18th President of Union College was made public, I began to receive what would end up being hundreds of letters from alumni/ae of Union, parents of current students, colleagues and former students from Holy Cross, and friends from across the country. The words of support and encouragement found in those letters were heartwarming.

I also started receiving words of advice from fellow college presidents. Some advice was practical (e.g., “never handle a piece of paper twice”). Some advice was awe-inspiring (e.g., “always remember that you are the biped representation of the College”). And, some advice was prescriptive (e.g., “be sure to find time for yourself and your family”).

However, none prepared me for the emotional impact of the inauguration ceremony. That may be due to the fact that one cannot adequately describe the feelings that come with that ceremony. Gazing out from the stage in Memorial Chapel, I saw much in the faces of those who attended. Most notably, I saw pride, anticipation, and hope in those faces: pride in a College that has accomplished so much and now enters its third century; anticipation of potential for rebirth and change that comes with new leadership; and, hope that Union will write new chapters in its storied history.

The people who performed, brought greetings, and spoke at the inauguration further deepened my appreciation of the opportunities and obligations of my presidency. Dianne McMullen's processional and recessional along with Elizabeth Ruddle's solo performance of the national anthem left me speechless. The invocation by Victoria Brooks-McDonald, Thomas Boland, and Margo Strosberg left me inspired. The trust voiced by Stephen Ciesinski on behalf of the entire Board of Trustees left me confident and grateful. The greetings from Richard Roberts, Brian Gulack, Sylvia Schninnerer, Linda Stanhope, Susan Lehrman, John Brademas, Ronald Crutcher, John Churchill, Brian Stratton, and James Tedisco left me pleased and slightly overwhelmed. The remarks of William Brody, President of Johns Hopkins, left me motivated. The College choir's performance of Randall Thompson's, The Last Words of David, left me humbled. The personal introduction by my dear friend, James Davison Hunter, left me in sheer wonder at remarkable twists and turns of our life journeys.

Yet it was the moment when I took on my new presidential regalia, the garnet of Union, that the full weight of the inaugural ceremony, the full weight of the Union presidency, literally and figuratively came to rest on my shoulders. It was a feeling that defies description. I can only repeat the words with which I ended my inaugural address: I understand my opportunity to lead, and I pledge that I will do my part in shouldering our responsibility.”

Posted on Jan 29, 2007

Jennifer Lawless '97 remembers SSCI 104.

In the mid 1990s, Lawless was a student in the classroom on the first floor of the Social Sciences Building. During a lecture for the Pizza & Politics series delivered Monday in that classroom, the former student took the podium.

Lawless, now a political science professor at Brown University, discussed the emotion of a losing campaign, learning to raise money and a second possible run for office. In 2006, Lawless lost a bid to unseat a popular incumbent in the Democratic primary for Rhode Island's 2nd Congressional District.           

“I certainly would not write off another run. It was by far the most important thing I have ever done in my life. It was also the most exciting thing I have ever done,” Lawless said.   

In the summer of 2006, Lawless, 31, ran an aggressive campaign against incumbent Jim Langevin to earn the Democratic nomination in the race for one of two Rhode Island seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. With a staff largely made up of Brown graduates and students, Lawless piloted the campaign and, after some early difficulty, raised $400,000.

Lawless earned 39 percent of the primary vote on Sept. 12, 2006, and admitted to listeners at Union on Monday that she still wishes it had been a winning 51 percent. 

“It was a very strange feeling to walk into a room full of about 150 people and TV cameras and they are all crying. They were all upset and I had to make them feel better about it,” Lawless said of election night.

Union College Professor Richard Fox, a handful of other faculty and about 20 students attended the lecture. Lawless told listeners about spending eight to nine hours a day phoning potential donors to ask for donations ranging up to $2,100. 

“I thought I would easily raise $200,000 in the first month because I had listed all the people who I knew who would contribute,” Lawless said. “In the abstract, raising $500,000 isn't that difficult; it turned out that raising $500 took months.”

Lawless was a political science major at Union and salutatorian of her class before earning a doctorate of political science from Stanford Univerity in 2003. She collaborated with Fox on a recent book called “It Takes a Candidate: Why Women Don't Run for Office.” The pair is working on a follow-up study focusing on what factors drive people to run for office.

Posted on Jan 29, 2007

The Start of the School Year

I always look forward to the start of the school year. It is a time of great anticipation as faculty, administrators and staff prepare for the return of students to campus. It is a time of hope as everyone thinks about the new members who will join the community, the contributions they will make, the opportunities they have to grow as we work with them.

This year, the start of the year was particularly special for me. It was, after all, my first fall start as the President of Union College. In a sense, members of the Class of 2010 and I will be going through our “freshman” year together. We are all still learning the ropes, listening carefully to the stories of Union's past and meeting new people. I suspect we share some of the same emotions, too, including that excitement that comes with the promise of great things to come.

During the last week of August, my wife, Judy, and I hosted approximately 40 student Orientation Assistants at the President's House. These students play a critical role in welcoming the new members of our community. Many of the Orientation Assistants were beginning their final year at Union. To a person, they talked about their love for Union. They shared with me stories of the friends they'd made, the faculty who had become trusted mentors and the experiences that had helped them develop both academically and socially. Many voiced regret that this would be their final year. While they looked forward to the next phase of their lives, they could not imagine leaving Union.

On move-in day, I visited each of the residence halls providing housing to first-year students. While the sky was overcast, there was no dampening the spirits of the students and parents. Orientation Assistants and others helped the new arrivals lug their bags to their rooms and parents scurried about, attending to final details. They were all so excited and pleased to be part of Union. They were also clearly aware of the open horizon of possibilities ahead.

Like the first-year students who arrived this fall, I am excited about the great opportunities ahead of me and the College. Like the fourth-year students, I have already been captivated by Union and can hardly remember life without it.

We should all savor the distinctiveness of Union, reminding ourselves of the difference it has made for so many who've lived and worked here and the potential it has to make a difference for generations to come.

Yes, I always look forward to the start of school the school year, and this one especially so!