A Message from the President

Friends:

I vividly remember the fall day in 1996 when board chair John Hurford called to offer me the job as Haverford's twelfth president. Desperately wanting to say something wise and sagacious, all I could manage was, “wow.” Warming to the challenge, I eventually managed to say “yes,” and the ensuing years have been filled with work, wonder, and an occasional frustration. Happily, not a day has passed when I haven't arisen in the morning realizing how lucky I am to be able to serve such a decidedly accomplished institution of higher learning.

However, everything has its seasons and its rhythms, so after careful and deliberate consideration, on Friday morning, April 21, I informed the Board of Managers that I will serve just one more year as Haverford's president.

I shall leave confident that the College is well aimed and possessing a bright future. Working together, this community has considerable accomplishment during the last decade: the academic program, created by a first-rate faculty, is flourishing; students are lively, committed, and idealistic as always; the campus, both built and natural, is inspiringly beautiful; finances, never Haverford's strongest suit, are secure; alums and friends are deeply attached and supportive in every conceivable way to the intellectual ideal and the Quaker purpose of the College.

Louise and I together have determined that this timing is right, both for us and for Haverford. We have great affection for this place and all of its people, and we look forward to sustained friendships with so many terrific Fords. Change, evolution, and rejuvenation are important, both for individuals and for institutions, so we shall take delight in considering the many directions available for our lives just as Haverford College will discover new passageways to greatness.

Vive la ’Ford!

Thomas R. Tritton
President

President Thomas R. Tritton to Conclude His Service
President Thomas R. Tritton announced on April 21, 2006, that he will complete his service to the College following his 10th year in the summer of 2007. He is the 12th president to serve Haverford since it was founded by Quakers 173 years ago.

Tritton’s tenure has been one of the most successful presidencies among top liberal arts colleges in recent memory. His years at Haverford are marked by a commitment to an intense and rigorous academic program, to sustaining a successfully diverse community, to building campus infrastructure while simultaneously maintaining a beautiful natural environment, and to nurturing the College’s essential Quaker character and values. He has been a friend and mentor to students, faculty, staff, and alumni alike, and is known for his openness to people, to ideas, and to irrepressible wit. Throughout his tenure Tritton has maintained his lifelong commitment to scholarly life by his writing and by teaching a course every fall semester (Biology 359, Molecular Oncology).

“The Tritton years will be remembered as a time when the College succeeded in its goals of dramatically enhancing the academic program and core missions, as well as materially strengthening the College’s financial stability,” says Barry L. Zubrow, Haverford Class of 1975 and co-chair of the College’s Board of Managers who now heads the State of New Jersey’s Schools Construction Corporation. “Few presidents have accomplished as much for their institutions as Tom has for Haverford. Haverford is one of the best liberal arts colleges in the country, and in the past 10 years, with Tom as president, we’ve moved away from being a ‘best-kept secret’ to a position where our institutional accomplishments, profile, and fund-raising reflect our academic stature and tradition. Look around campus and you’ll see the results in new facilities, the diverse faculty and student body. Look deeper and you’ll find a college poised to do more great things, a place known for academic rigor embedded in a culture of social awareness, respect for the individual, and personal responsibility.”

Under Tritton’s leadership, Haverford created three new academic Centers, enhanced admission applications, and broadened and deepened its community—all while building on the strong Quaker character of the College. In June 2004, the College completed the largest fund-raising effort in its history; the “Educating to Lead, Educating to Serve” campaign raised more than $200 million and gave rise to the Centers: the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship, the John B. Hurford ’60 Humanities Center, the Marian E. Koshland Integrated Natural Sciences Center, and the Douglas B. Gardner ’83 Integrated Athletic Center. The comprehensive campaign also helped Haverford raise its visibility and enhance its position in the upper echelon of liberal arts institutions. Applications for admission have set records for five years running; the College now receives more than 3,300 applications for just over 300 openings. The College’s endowment has grown from about $200 million in 1997 to over $450 million currently. Annual giving more than doubled in that time; alumni participation is now consistently over 50%.

The Koshland Integrated Natural Sciences Center (KINSC) reflects the academic imprimatur of the Tritton years. When the KINSC opened in the fall of 2001, students were able to take classes in the kind of science facility normally associated with the largest and most prestigious research institutions. For the first time, the departments of astronomy, biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, computer science, and psychology were together in one place, promoting a unique, integrated research and educational experience for students.

“This facility is a perfect example of the interdisciplinary approach Haverford takes to learning,” says Cathy P. Koshland, Haverford Class of 1972, co-chair of the College’s Board of Managers, and vice provost for academic planning and facilities at UC Berkeley. “Of course the physical space is aesthetically wonderful and absolutely functional in terms of promoting the side-by-side research that is done by students and faculty at Haverford. But the synergy resulting from this kind of intentionally collaborative and community-minded approach to learning is what really sets it apart. It is a model for how science is being handled now.”

The Gardner Integrated Athletic Center, which opened in the fall of 2005, is a study in low-impact, environmentally conscious architectural design. Indeed, the 100,000-square-foot building falls under a College-wide building policy, enacted by Tritton, stating that all new construction be “green,” or environmentally friendly. The Gardner Center, designed by the internationally acclaimed architectural firm Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, utilized the latest in environmentally sensitive materials and technology in order to qualify for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold-level certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The facility energizes the College’s south quad and strengthens the institution’s emphasis on wellness and athletics as part of a comprehensive liberal arts education.

The Peace and Global Citizenship Center advances the College’s mission by involving students in experiential learning, service, diversity, peace making, social change, and international education—key areas of emphasis during the Tritton presidency. Interns in this program have traveled to Ghana, Guatemala, Pakistan, Rwanda, El Salvador, and many other countries to learn about communities throughout the world and to contribute to the solutions to global challenges. They have helped address a wide array of pressing social issues, including post-conflict peace building, transitional justice, public health, education, gender inequality, education, fair trade, environmental degradation, sustainable development, cultural preservation, and the arts.

During Tritton’s tenure the College joined the 568 Presidents’ Group to further assert its core belief in need-blind admission and provision of financial aid for all students who need it. The College remains committed to diversity in its faculty, staff, and student population, and consistently ranks among the elite academic institutions in diversity surveys and assessments. In the Philadelphia region the College is a leader for students obtaining federal Pell Grants, outright grants to low-income undergraduate students who have not yet earned their degrees.

A Lakewood, Ohio, native, Tritton is a 1969 graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University. He earned a Ph.D. (biophysical chemistry) from Boston University in 1973 and served for 12 years each on the faculties of Yale University and the University of Vermont. Tritton’s academic expertise is in cancer chemotherapy; he has published over 100 articles, reviews, and books, including several while at Haverford. A member of the American Association for Cancer Research, he also served on the chemotherapy advisory panel of the American Cancer Society during his Haverford tenure, and is currently on the Board of Directors of the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. Formerly the vice provost at the University of Vermont, he assumed Haverford’s presidency on July 1, 1997. He is a member of the Society of Friends and has served on the board and the personnel committee of the American Friends Service Committee for the New England region. His wife, Louise, is an ecological consultant and holds a Ph.D. in forest ecology from Yale University. “Louise and I are taking delight in considering the many directions available for our lives,” says Tritton.

At press time, presidential search committee membership was being finalized; the committee will be chaired by board vice-chair Howard W. Lutnick ’83. The committee will perform a comprehensive national search for Tritton’s successor; more information will be available shortly, including an interactive Web site dedicated to the search.

Stephen J. Lippard ’62 Wins National Medal of Science
For years, Stephen J. Lippard ’62, the Arthur Amos Noyes Professor of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, researched the interactions between metals and biological systems. Eventually, his concentration was with cisplatin, an anti-cancer drug that contains platinum, and has proven effective against testicular and ovarian forms of the disease. Not much was known about cisplatin until he began investigating it as a faculty member at Columbia University.

In 1983 he moved to MIT, and 11 years later wrote in an MIT Spectrum magazine article: “We’d like to learn enough about how the drug [cisplatin] works so we can design new types of platinum compounds that are effective against different forms of cancer.” His MIT team made significant progress in that line, and the White House announced last November that President Bush would award Lippard the National Medal of Science, along with seven other distinguished academics: Kenneth J. Arrow, professor emeritus of economics at Stanford; Norman Borlaugh, a distinguished professor of international agriculture at Texas A&M; Robert N. Clayton, distinguished professor in chemistry at the University of Chicago; Edwin N. Lightfoot, professor emeritus in chemical and biological engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison; Philip A. Sharp, a biology professor at MIT; Thomas E. Starzl, a surgery professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; and Dennis P. Sullivan, professor of mathematics at SUNY, Stony Brook. The NMS is the nation’s highest scientific honor.

Lippard is a pioneer in bioinorganic chemistry, a specialty that deals with the interactions between metals and biological systems. The Lippard lab is also engaged in a major program to understand another biological interaction involving metals, specifically the diiron center in methane monoxygenase, through studies of the enzyme and model compounds. The diiron center is remarkable in that it converts methane to methanol in bacteria which use methane as their sole source of carbon and energy.

In 2000, Lippard and two researchers developed a means to detect nitric oxide that could improve scientific understanding of this molecule’s role in neurological signaling and other biological functions. Nitric oxide plays a major role in the regulation of blood pressure, the prevention of blood clotting, the dilation of blood vessels and the destruction of pathogens.

Lippard has previously been recognized for his work by election to the National Academy of Sciences and the National Institute of Medicine. He’s won two major American Chemical Society (ACS) awards in his field. In 1995 he won the William H. Nichols Medal of the New York Section of the ACS. He is the author or co-author of many research articles and holds several U.S. and foreign patents. With Jeremy M. Berg, he published Principles of Bioinorganic Chemistry in 1994.

“I am very pleased to receive this honor for it recognizes the work of the many wonderful graduate students and post-doctoral associates who have contributed to the science that we were able to accomplish,” Lippard says. “It was most unexpected.”

—John Lombardi 

Gardner Center Dedication

More than 200 alumni, students, friends, and other well-wishers came out on a rainy Saturday morning on April 22 to celebrate the formal dedication of the Douglas B. Gardner ’83 Integrated Athletic Center.

President Tom Tritton offered opening remarks and soon found his hands full, as Haverford student-athlete representatives approached the podium bearing ceremonial gifts of athletic gear. The Chamber Singers of Haverford and Bryn Mawr, directed by Thomas Lloyd, provided a rousing musical interlude.

Master of ceremonies Arn H. Tellem ’76 praised the facility and all of those who worked on the project, including those who raised funds for it, including lead donor Howard Lutnick ’83—who, in turn, offered some emotional words to acknowledge the Gardner, Glasser, and Gooding families and the tragedy that took three vital members of the Haverford community on Sept. 11, 2001.

Rare Book Expert Wins MacArthur “Genius” Grant

Rare book preservationist Terry Belanger ’63 was one of 25 MacArthur Foundation Fellows announced in 2005.
Belanger, University Professor and Honorary Curator of Special Collections at the University of Virginia, is founder of the Rare Books School, a teaching and archive facility.

MacArthur Foundation Fellowships are unrestricted fellowships awarded annually to “talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction.” There are three criteria for selection of Fellows: exceptional creativity, promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishment, and potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work.”

The MacArthur Fellowship carries a “no strings attached” stipend of $500,000, paid out to the recipient in equal quarterly payments over five years.

— J. L.

Commencement 2006

303 happy Haverford seniors marched to the podium in front of Roberts Hall on a cloudy and cool Sunday, May 14, to receive their hard-earned diplomas.

Honorary degrees were awarded to Lois Gibbs, executive director of the Center for Health and Environmental Justice; Jane Golden Heriza, artist and founder of the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program; Tavis Smiley, political and cultural commentator on public radio and television; and Koïchiro Matsuura ’61, Director General of UNESCO.

Faculty Notes

Koffi Anyinefa, professor of French, participated in the African Studies Association Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., Nov. 17-20.

Craig Borowiak, assistant professor of political science, participated in the Annual Meeting of the Northeastern Political Science Association in Philadelphia, Nov. 17-19.

Professor of Psychology Marilyn Boltz presented her paper “Remembering the Rate and Duration of Naturalistic Events” at the Meeting of the Psychonomics Society in Toronto, Nov. 9-13. She also participated in the Meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association in Baltimore, March 16-19.

Professor of Mathematics Lynne Butler participated in the Mathematics Association of America: EPADEL Section Meeting in Villanova on Nov. 19.

William di Canzio, visiting associate professor in the Writing Program, received a 2006 fellowship in theater from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts for his play His Last Night Home.

Assistant Professor of Computer Science John Dougherty participated in the SIGCSE (Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education) Technical Symposium in Houston, March 1-5.

Leslie Dwyer, visiting assistant professor of anthropology and peace and conflict studies, participated in the American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings in Washington, D.C., Dec. 1-4.

Assistant Professor of East Asian Studies Hank Glassman presented a paper titled “No Basis in Text: The Persistence of Unauthorized Iconographies and the Tantric Turn in the Practice of East Asian Buddhisms” at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in Philadelphia, Nov. 19-22. He also participated in the Association for Asian Studies meeting in San Francisco, April 6-9.

Associate Professor of History Lisa Jane Graham participated in the American Historical Society meeting in Philadelphia, Jan. 5-8, and the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies meeting in Montreal, March 30-April 2.

John and Barbara Bush Professor of Physics Jerry Gollub co-authored the article “Chaos and threshold for irreversibility in sheared suspensions,” which was published in December in Nature, Vol. 438.

Faye Halpern, acting director of the writing program and director of the Writing Center, participated in the Annual MLA (Modern Language Association) Meeting in Washington, D.C., Dec. 27-30.

Visiting Professor of Music David Kasunik participated in the Fifth International Conference of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute, “The Sources of Chopin’s Creative Style: Inspirations and Contexts,” in Warsaw, Poland, Dec. 1-3.

Associate Professor of Religion Ken Koltun-Fromm participated in the American Academy of Religion meeting in Philadelphia, Nov. 19-22, and in the Association for Jewish Studies meeting in Washington, D.C., Dec. 18-20.