|
|
|
AROUND THE QUADS
Campus News
 |
| Related
Stories |
 |
|
|
RUPP TO BE HONORED: The Columbia College Alumni Association
has announced that President George Rupp will receive the 2002
Alexander Hamilton Medal at a black-tie dinner on Thursday,
November 14, in Low Memorial Library.
Rupp, the University’s 18th president, will retire from
Columbia on May 31; he will assume the presidency of the
International Rescue Committee, one of the world’s leading
refugee relief agencies, this summer. Rupp will be the seventh
former University president honored with the Hamilton medal, which
is bestowed annually on an alumnus or member of the faculty in
recognition of distinguished service and accomplishment. It is the
highest tribute that can be paid to a member of the Columbia
College community.
TRUSTEE: Faye Wattleton, a former president of Planned
Parenthood Federation of America and a major voice in the national
debate over reproductive rights and family planning policy, has
been elected a University Trustee. Wattleton led Planned
Parenthood, the nation’s oldest and largest voluntary
reproductive health organization, from 1978–92. During her
tenure, the organization became a chief advocate for abortion
rights and grew into the nation’s seventh largest charity,
providing medical and educational services to four million
Americans each year. In 1992, Wattleton co-founded the Center for
Gender Equality, an independent research and educational
institution that advances equality for women, of which she is now
president.
A graduate of Ohio State University, Wattleton taught labor and
delivery room nursing before attending Columbia’s graduate
program in maternal health and infant health care. She holds an
M.S., with a certification as a nurse-midwife, from Columbia.
Wattleton has been awarded 12 honorary degrees, was inducted into
the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1993, and has received
the American Humanist Award, the American Public Health
Association’s Award for Excellence, and the Congressional
Black Caucus Foundation Humanitarian Award, among other
distinctions.
GRAY REMEMBERED: Nearly 100 alumni, students, faculty and
administrators gathered on April 4 in St. Paul’s Chapel to
remember Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature
Wallace Gray, who died on December 21. Adjunct Associate Professor
of English and Comparative Literature Eileen Gillooly,
administrative director of the Core Curriculum, welcomed the
guests. Gray’s “responsiveness to his students,”
she said, was a major influence on her own teaching. Alumni
speakers included Anthony Rudel ’79, who dedicated his recent
novel, Imagining Don Giovianni, to Gray; Roger Blumberg ’83,
who described Gray as “a very great teacher”; Roosevelt
Montas ’95, who described Gray’s Literature Humanities
class as “the central place where I tried to make sense of my
experience”; and Timothy Queenan ’00, who praised
Gray’s Lit Hum classes as “a breed unto
themselves.”
Student Benjamin Fishman ’03 said Gray “not only
taught us all how to read but also taught us how to be our own
teachers.” Cathy Popkin, Lionel Trilling Professor in the
Humanities and a former chair of the Literature Humanities program,
urged the audience: “Let us agree that we will never forget
to acknowledge Wallace Gray.”
Columbia has established a fund in Gray’s memory.
Contributions may be sent to the Wallace A. Gray Memorial Fund, c/o
Eileen Gillooly, Columbia University, 418 Hamilton Hall, 1130
Amsterdam Ave., MC 2811, New York, NY 10027.
BYNUM NAMED: University Professor Caroline Bynum, a medieval
historian and Columbia’s highest-ranking female professor, is
taking a position with the Institute for Advanced Study at
Princeton to allow her more time for research. In 1999, she became
the first woman to be named a University Professor,
Columbia’s top faculty honor. A former MacArthur fellow who
helped create the Institute for Women and Gender Studies at
Columbia, Bynum will not sever her Columbia ties completely; she
will hold the title of university professor emerita “on
leave,” and continue to work with Columbia students.
ON DISPLAY: An exhibition of paintings by Leslee Fetner of
the Alumni Office will be held from May 16–June 21 in the
Lobby Gallery of the Interchurch Center in New York. The
exhibition, entititled “Simple & Fresh: Painterly Images
in Watercolor Monotype,” is open Monday through Friday from 9
a.m.–5 p.m. and is free. The Interchurch Center, which houses
the Alumni Office, is located at 475 Riverside Drive at 120th
Street.
|
| Related
Stories |
|
|
|
|
|
|
