Congratulations to Becko, and to the other four finalists: Rachel Cole, Kristin Fujie, Jennifer LaBounty, and Mike Rathbun!

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To read the full story, click here. Congratulations to Professor Stavrov!

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Kristin Collins - Adjunct Professor of Art History

Reiko Hillyer - Visiting Assistant Professor of History

Liz Safran - Associate Professor of Geology

Iva Stavrov - Associate Professor of Math

If you would like to see one of these four professors win the Teacher of the Year award, submit a letter of support! Second-round letters are due to awalcott@lclark.edu by 5 pm on Sunday, April 15. The winner of the Teacher of the Year award will be selected on the basis of the quality, then the quantity, of the letters received in support of that individual.

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Please join members of the Pamplin Society and the greater LC community in celebrating Professor Campion’s appointment. The lecture is free and open to the public. Following the lecture, a reception will be held at 6 pm in the Manor House.

To read the full story, click here.

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Does your professor demonstrate:

1) Passion for Their Field of Study?

2) Preparedness and Grace in the Classroom?

3) Adaptability to New Ideas and Diverse Learning Styles?

4) Enthusiasm, Wisdom, and Compassion as a Mentor ?

Nominate them with a letter of recommendation by March 23rd! Letters may be emailed to awalcott@lclark.edu.

All members of the faculty are considered eligible for the award, regardless of rank, tenure, or department. Candidates are to be judged primarily on the quality, then the quantity, of the letters of support they receive. Please include concrete examples of your professor’s qualifications, if possible.

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Date: February 17, 7:00pm Location: Albany - Smith Hall Albany Quadrangle

The Pamplin Society of Fellows at Lewis & Clark College is hosting a fundraiser for Shree Mangal Dvip in Nepal, a school for Himalayan and Tibetan refugee children. The event will include a silent auction, presentation, and performances by the Section Line Drive, an a cappella group from Lewis & Clark, along with other local combos and performers.

The school’s director, Shirley Blair, will be giving a talk on the history of SMD, describe the current educational environment, as well as discuss their plans for the future. The event will be held in Smith Hall and Albany on the Lewis & Clark campus on Friday, February 17^th, at 7p.m. and is free and open to the public.

Shree Mangal Dvip Boarding School (SMD) was established in 1987 by the Tibetan teacher, Thrangu Rinpoche and currently houses and educates over 600 students. Its aim is to nurture the culture, language and Buddhist way of the Himalayas, and to give Himalayan children the tools to build a better future and help their own people back home.

These children come from remote areas in the Himalayan Mountains where they must sometimes walk a week to get to the nearest road to come to the school. The villages often do not have access to medical care, electricity, education, sanitation, or roads. The children who come to the school are clothed and fed and given an education in English and Nepalese. The best students go on to high schools and colleges both in Nepal and abroad.

Currently SMD has a school complex in Kathmandu, Nepal, which is overcrowded. They are therefore raising funds to build a new sustainable facility outside the city, which will house more students, be earthquake-proof, and have gardens.

Lewis & Clark College is located at 0615 SW Palatine Hill Road. Parking is free on campus after 7pm. For more information, call 503-768-7960.

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“Non-Euclidean Sports and the Geometry of Surfaces”

Richard Canary

Thursday, December 1, 2011 - 7:00 pm

Templeton Student Center, Council Chambers

For those of us who are not flatlanders, it can be hard to visualize the properties associated with non-Euclidean surfaces. While we can intuitively understand the properties of flat-space and to a certain extend spherical spaces (as we live on a sphere ourselves!), we do not have the same intuition for hyperbolic spaces. Professor Richard Canary has developed a lecture which remedies this issue. He will be discussing the impact of hyperbolic geometry on various sports and the classification of these surfaces and their natural geometries. This will lead to a look into the progress being made on the geometrization of 3-dimensional spaces.

A little about the speaker:

Mathematician Richard Canary received his M.S. in Mathematics from Warwick University in Coventry, England in 1984 and his Ph.D. in Mathematics from Princeton University in 1989. He is currently a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. He has authored over 40 papers on a variety of mathematical subjects.

His current research interests include low-dimensional topology and Kleinian groups.

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On the first night, our new Pamplin professor of history, David Campion, introduced himself by presenting a brief autobiography. He told us about his beginnings at a Jesuit high school—his first inspiration to become an educator. We learned that he paid for college by joining the Naval ROTC program, and subsequently went to grad school for engineering (against his better judgment) before becoming an officer on a ship in the first Gulf War.

Before bed, about half our ranks went on a nighttime walk to admire the stars. A handful of us played Banana-grams—a fast-paced word game using Scrabble-esque tiles. Katy ground most of us into fine dust.

In the morning, we met up with a couple of men who would guide us through team-building exercises and ropes courses. Laura Bogar, despite a nagging cold, was the first to volunteer to run as far as she could, while screaming as loudly as she could, stopping as soon as she ran out of breath. Zach, Benjamin and Micah raced her, Zach soon disappearing around a corner, the clear winner.

After everyone else had had a chance at the climbing wall, Professors Campion and O’Sullivan scrambled up like it was nothing, putting many of us to shame.

While waiting for our guides to prepare the zip line, we passed up the usual fall-back-and-trust-your-teammates-to-catch-you exercise, and went for the human gyroscope. That means that we all gathered around Kyle and Erica, in turn, and passed them hand over hand so that they each performed a back flip without touching the ground.

Nikki’s scream pierced the air as she stepped off of a platform in the trees, hurtling along a zip line toward a tree across the way.

In the afternoon, we had a few hours of free time. While the more adventurous among us rented bikes, went on runs or took advantage of Camp Collins’ bouldering and obstacle courses, the rest retired to the cabins to sleep or study. I fell asleep reading Zhuangzi, and a few minutes after waking up was summoned to a yoga session led by Kyle. Erica, Pirtle and I performed sun salutations while “My Heart Will Go On” played in the background on Micah’s Celtic pan-flute.

As soon as we had finished off our hamburgers (or veggie burgers) and ice cream sandwiches, Professor Johnson and Professor Campion introduced a “moral dilemma,” posing a situation in which we had to decide whether to drive a car with a bomb into a hotel, at which we were the manager; or to drive to a police station, at which point the IRA would kill our wife, who they had hostage. There was more to it than that, but I won’t go into detail. The discussion lasted about an hour.

Later, we separated into committees for the semester, each more popular than the last, everyone contributing grandiose ideas.

Back at the cabins, after the professors had left, everyone gathered around the snacks and talked—about school, about spirit animals, about superpowers. At some point, the circle turned its attention to Micah, who held us in thrall with ghost stories, many taking place on Lewis & Clark’s south campus. In the end, he promised to arrange a tour of the Corbett mansion with Campus Safety.

Driving back to Portland the next morning, everyone in my car stared sleepily ahead listening to the top 40. After a fantastic weekend, it was difficult to think about homework and the week ahead, but I have to say that I was more excited about the Pamplin Society than I ever had been before.

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Speeches were made expressing gratitude, appreciation, and admiration for Professor Beckham’s contributions to the lives of those present, as well as his pioneering role in becoming the first Pamplin Professor in 1993. Dr. Pamplin spoke particularly about his esteem for Professor Beckham as an individual, not merely an educator, and emphasized Professor Beckham’s commitment to family, friends, students, and the larger community. Each of the current Fellows was also given an opportunity to make a short address to Professor Beckham about the impact he has had on our lives and college careers.

Other highlights of the evening included Mrs. Beckham’s lovingly humorous tribute to her husband’s accomplishments over the years; equally enjoyable to hear were Professor Beckham’s remarks in response to his wife. Members of the extended Beckham family had gifted Professor Beckham with a “Beckham University” t-shirt, which he displayed at the gathering, commenting that it was a fitting opportunity to embark on a new phase of his career in which he could simultaneously act as dean of the college, professor, and director of athletics!

In spite of the lingering sadness felt by all at the prospect of seeing an incomparable educator such as Professor Beckham conclude his time at Lewis & Clark, the evening was filled with warmth and laughter. Everyone looked forward to continued contact with Professor Beckham and his wife, who extended an invitation to visit them at their beachfront house if ever in the area.

We in the Society will deeply miss Professor Beckham’s presence, his years of experience as an educator, his numerous and entertaining stories, his unparalleled knowledge of local history, and his genuine kindness and thoughtfulness as an individual. It has been a privilege to know and interact with Professor Beckham and we look forward to exchanging updates on our assorted doings!

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