Honors E-Newsletter
This month’s theme:
Renewal
February 2009
To cherish what remains of the
Earth and to foster its renewal
is our only
legitimate hope of
survival.
- Wendell Berry
Recommended Reading
Honors College
One Pace Plaza – Suite W 207G
New York, New York 10038
Telephone: 212-346-1697
The World
Without Us
By Alan
Weisman
Dr. Christopher Malone,
Director
Dr. Bill Offutt,
Faculty Advisor
Aydde Martinez,
Program Coordinator
[email protected], x10398
Brittani McClendon
& Coty Sibbach
Student Assistants
x 10397 & x10395
Why We Need a
Green Revolution and How It Can
Renew America
By Thomas
L. Friedman
[email protected], x11146
[email protected], x10399
IM: BillOffutt
Hot, Flat,
and
Crowded
The
Geography of
Bliss
One Grump's Search for
the Happiest Places in
the World
By Eric
Weiner
The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle will light a 100-watt
light bulb for four hours. -- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Every ton of recycled paper saves almost 400
gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill and
seventeen trees.
Recycling half of the paper used throughout the
world today would free 20 million acres of forest
land from paper production. -- Berkeley Laboratory.
The average American produces 1,609 pounds
of waste each year. Recycling, composting and
reuse can cut that waste stream by up to 75%.
Recycling is the law in New
York City. Residents, schools,
institutions, agencies, and all
commercial businesses must
recycle.
For more information on
how to recycle, please
visit: NYCWastele$$.
The Corner
With Bill Offutt
…And I don't know a soul who's not been battered
I don't have a friend who feels at ease
I don't know a dream that's not been shattered
or driven to its knees
but it's all right, it's all right
for we lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the
road we're traveling on
I wonder what's gone wrong
I can't help it, I wonder what's gone wrong
…
We come on the ship they call the Mayflower
We come on the ship that sailed the moon
We come in the age's most uncertain hours
and sing an American tune
Oh, and it's alright, it's all right, it's all right
You can't be forever blessed
Still, tomorrow's going to be another working day
And I'm trying to get some rest
That's all I'm trying to get some rest
--Paul Simon, American Tune (YouTube for whole song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE3kKUEY5WU
The problems that have beset the U.S. are serious, and real, and they should not be minimized. Rarely have I
seen so many seniors in my office so concerned about what they’ll be doing following graduation as I have this
year. But what I would like to tell you is that what I have tried to do in Honors over the last seven+ years, and
what I hope Honors will continue to do over the next few years, has only the slightest connection with the
financial shape of the country, either in good times or bad, or even with what you do after you graduate.
College cannot be just an “open head, insert funnel, deposit knowledge, close head, begin making money” sort
of experience. If that’s all you gotten here or are aiming for here, then you’ve wasted your money and your
time. And so Honors has been fired with the goal of having the feel of a small college, where everyone knows
everyone, where meaning grows through the people we have found. If Honors has delivered that ambience for
any of you, it has done so without thinking about money, with the belief that it is NOW that matters most, and
not later.
For those of you for whom Honors has delivered or will continue to deliver some sort of greater meaning to
college, I ask you now in this age’s most uncertain hours to concentrate not on the unknowable future but on
the experiences that you can have this year, in this place. To quote Joseph Campbell’s advice to students,
“follow your bliss” and the rest will take care of itself.
By Bill Offutt
The Corner
With Dr. Chris Malone
February 2009
I hope your semester is off to a great start. Clearly tough economic times in the
country are making things more difficult for many of our Pace students, as the recession starts to hit closer to
home.
I want all of the Honors College students to know that, as Director, I will do all that I can to ensure you get
the financial aid you need in order to continue your studies here. If any of you are having a tough time
finding the funds to pay for your tuition, please do not hesitate to set up an appointment to meet with me. I
can't make any promises about more financial aid. What I can promise you is that I will go to the University
Administration on your behalf to make the case that our best students need to be rewarded for their hard
work, and every effort needs to be made on the part of the University to keep you here.
Senior Thesis
For you seniors, you should be well on your way to completing all of your requirements for graduation. If
you have any questions about your status with the Honors College, don't hesitate to contact Aydde Martinez
at 212-346-1697 or [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. She can tell you how many
Honors courses you have taken and if you are in good academic standing with us. Most importantly, I trust
that you have made a good start on your Senior Thesis. Shortly, I will be announcing the deadline for
submission of the Honors Thesis. Remember that there are very specific formatting guidelines for the Honors
Seniors Thesis. They can be found on the Honors College website at http://www.pace.edu/page.cfm?
doc_id=29137. We will be having a spring meeting about the thesis in the coming weeks - stay tuned for
more information on that.
It's That Time for the Watson Fellowship!
ATTENTION!!! ALL FRESHMAN AND SOPHOMORE STUDENTS ON THE NYC CAMPUS
REGISTERED IN ARTS AND SCIENCES MAJORS! WE WANT YOU TO CONSIDER APPLYING
FOR THE PRESITIGIOUS WATSON FELLOWSHIP
The Jeannette K. Watson Fellowship Program provides a unique opportunity for internships, mentoring, and
$17,000 in funding.
www.jkwatson.org<http://www.jkwatson.org/>
THE DEADLINE TO SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION IS FRIDAY, MARCH 6th, 2009
By Chris Malone
Google Cuts Back
on Products
Mountain View, CA— Google
recently announced to its bloggers
they will cut several products to
decrease costs. Google has always
been known for opening doors to
innovation. However, with the
looming economy, Google is taking
a hard look at profitability,
popularity, and performance in
each of their products. The verdict?
Goodbye:
 Lively, a virtual
world in comparison to
Second Life
 Dodgeball, a text
message service that lets
users know where their
friends are hanging out
 Catalog Search, a
scanning product for
paper catalogs
 Notebook, a tool that
allows users to
bookmark and take
notes on websites
 Jaiku, a tool similar to
Twitter that keeps users
informed of status
updates
Fertility
Clinics Under Scrutiny After Birth of
Octuplets
MONTEBELLO, CA— The
octuplet mother, Nadya Suleman,
has certainly sparked controversy in
today’s fertility industry. Large
multiple births are beginning to
look more like cracks in the
system rather than gifts to a mother
trying to conceive children.
According to 2006 Assisted
Reproductive Technology Success
Rates, National Summary and
Fertility Clinic Reports, only 8% of
patients who undergo in vitro
fertilization are seeking for 2 or
more children. However, nearly a
third of in vitro births result in
twins or more.
Book-Savvy
Librarians Go
Digital
There is a growing number of
multimedia specialists who are
helping students conquer the digital
world of information. The image of
librarians just re-shelving books
and searching through 3 x 5 book
cards are long overdue. Many
public schools including P.S 225
The United States has not set a limit are arming their students with
on the number of embryos a patient tech-savvy information and
can receive. Data reporting from
navigation skills through internet
Fertility clinics is often voluntary
portals. “Now it is the information
and unenforced. As a result, many age, and that technology has
doctors are implanting too many
brought out a whole new generation
embryos to increase the chances of of practices,” says Stephanie
pregnancy, thereby, increasing the Rosalia, school librarian.
chances of multiple births.
However, School of Education are
Multiple births can have health
making cutbacks on full-time
consequences for the babies
librarians and funds to support
including infant mortality, low birth multimedia services to school
weights, and long-term disabilities. libraries. Less than two-thirds of
Not to mention, thousands of
U.S. public schools employ
dollars’ worth of expenses and
full-time certified librarians.
medical care.
Although different forms of reading
Nadya says she is already
has certainly expanded, from
struggling financially with her other scholar databases to blogs, reading
six children, but ever since the birth is still an important skills
of the octuplets, she has received
librarians stress to students.
contributions from people across
the nation to help her support her
“You can read magazines, newspafourteen children.
pers, pictures, computer programs,
Web sites,” Ms. Rosalia said. “You
can read anything you like to, but
you have to read. Is that a deal?”
From my stay abroad last semester in Mannheim, Germany,.
First picture is of the River "Neckar" that was flowing right under my window.
The second is of the University Mannheim, that I attended during my stay.
Sincerely yours, Valeria Zaitseva.
A Drawing by
“Yes, We Can…Disagree with Barack Obama”
I’m sitting on my door room floor, surrounded by flutters of syllabus papers and crumpled up class notes,
trying to write a paper on the Holocaust. My assignment is to discuss some of the long term consequences of
Hitler’s Germany and the Nazi Regime at large. The paper is for a specific class hosted at Pace University on
the history of genocide.
Half a semester through this course on “The Holocaust and Modern Genocides” and my studies of Hitler have
only stoked the fire for more questions about that demented demagogue; namely, how could an entire nation
find itself enslaved by a man of such little to no promise, or for that matter, validity?
By the way, it’s still the same hour that the ballot counting for the 2008 Presidential Election has finished, and
the victor’s been announced as Barack Obama.
Ironically, a few weeks prior to Election Day, a friend from the opposite side of the political spectrum came to
stay with me for a few days. Over that time, we half discussed and half debated the upcoming “Historical
Election.” Even though I knew her ballot would remain resolutely with her own political party, I still asked
her which candidate she was voting for. She hesitated before answering, almost fearfully, because she knew
that I wouldn’t approve of what she said. She said, “I’m voting for the one…”
“…Who is less like Hitler.”
Well, that was a way to give someone mental pause. I stomped on my urge to object with a big, “Nuh-Uh!”
“O-kay,” I opted for instead, and merely warned this dear friend of mine that maybe her history was failing her
in this case. Then I politely said, “I’m sorry, but you need to explain to me, in precise language if you please,
exactly how Barack Obama is like Adolf Hitler.”
She of course gave her reasons. It was an interesting discussion, memorable, to say the least. I remember it
now, anyway, as I’m struggling to write this paper after coming in from outside, where the resident students
have made a block party of the entire street. If our generation has been defined tonight, then We are raucous,
full-spirited, and practically shaking with jubilee just because we can be…“yes, we can.” And all that jazz.
In the end, I told my friend that blaming the man, or woman, as I guess I’m required to say these days, for the
light he/she is cast in by other people was a fickle way to judge. She maintained her points. The discussion
bordered on an argument, and we settled by doing what we’d always done: agreeing to disagree.
And that is the ultimate agreement, “agreeing to disagree.” What good is the right to have our own opinions if
we don’t practice that right and grant it to other people? Here’s a painless fact to agree on: Our whole
generation is our own. It’s new, it’s different, and it belongs to us, as we would all prefer to learn from, and not
repeat, many mistakes of the past.
Now if only I could convey this in my paper which refuses to be written. After a day like this, it’s getting
awfully late for these deliberations to go on, and something needs to get done.
By Megan Hanson
Great Crash or Great Opportunity?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you might have heard that our economy is not
doing all that well at the moment. In fact, you may be finding yourself a dollar short here, a nickel short there.
Or, if you’re really unlucky you might be finding yourself short of employment. How did things deteriorate so
quickly, you may be wondering. To quote my favorite senator from Arizona, “pork-barrel earmarks.” Also
contributing to the mess: greedy Wall Street CEO’s, fraudulent accounting practices, and flat-out poor
management. Recently, executives of major floundering industries have looked toward the federal government
for help. At the front of the bailout beggar line has been the automotive industry.
During times of prosperity, a thriving auto industry ensures jobs for millions of people, and helps
stabilize the United States economy. However, with costs rising and fewer Americans rushing to buy a Ford or
a Chrysler, the industry may be on the brink of collapse. The unemployment rate now, at its highest in 16
years, would seem minor in comparison to the one the country would face with unemployed auto workers. And
yet, throwing billions of dollars at the problem in the hopes of a revival would be a mistake.
In business, poorly run organizations who attempt to fix long term problems with bandage solutions
soon realize that an open wound has developed (see: New York Knicks, 2001-2008). A quick-fix bailout may
help in the short-run, but will lead to similar results down the road. If the big three companies (Ford, Chrysler,
General Motors) are not profitable under their current setup, how can we justify giving the same management
team billions of taxpayer dollars? The companies need to take it upon themselves to restructure in a way to
remain competitive or be forced out of business.
Although the media has portrayed the current economic climate as a dire situation, there is really an
opportunity at stake and the chance to get things right. Companies will figure out a way to be more efficient.
Employees will figure out a way to be more marketable in a highly competitive environment. The CEO’s of
the big three automakers will drive down to Washington, D.C. instead of taking the corporate jet. OK, maybe
not the last one. But the fact is, if we make the right decisions now, we’ll look back at the Great Crash of ’08
as a favorable turning point in our history.
By Alex Veytsman
How Does the
Recession
Affect American
Appetite?
From Wall Street Journal
Reminiscence
A lot can happen in six
A day set aside,
Highlighted, circled.
Sluggish days pass
In anxious wait,
Grasping for the time when
Again we will remember
What has brought us upon this
place.
The First and the Last;
Moments in between the two,
Regain their Immortality.
The precious spaces of time:
Those in silence and still,
Those in stammer and unease.
Each settles in,
One after another;
Guiding us to another fragment
Of time,
To be held deep within our souls.
Released to the surface
Only when our hearts
Begin to forget,
And just when our minds,
Weary,
Awaken to remember.
-Anonymous Honors Student
For submissions of articles,
stories, art, and suggestions
Please write to :
[email protected]
Thank you for your contributions
to this newsletter.
Sincerely,
Newsletter Team
months. I moved from Dallas to
Brooklyn, started my first year of college,
and have discovered a confidence within
myself that I never knew I had. One of
the defining aspects of this exciting new
chapter of my life is my acceptance to the
Lipper Internship Program at the Museum
of Jewish Heritage-A Living Memorial to
the Holocaust.
The Lipper Internship is a unique
amalgam of Jewish/Holocaust studies,
education and museum studies. It is open
to all undergraduate and graduate students
from around NYC and the Northeast. It is
a paid internship and can be done in either
the fall or spring semester. The program
begins with an intense 10 day training
session at the Museum which includes
testimony from Holocaust survivors, trips
to other museums in the city, and a
comprehensive preparation for your
work as an intern. The main focus of the
Lipper program is education. As an I
ntern, you are matched with classes in
public middle and high schools from all
around New York City. With a partner,
you go to the schools and give a
presentation on Jewish heritage, the
Holocaust, and the Museum itself. After
that visit, the students come to the
Museum for a tour which focuses on the
Museum’s mission to celebrate life and
hope. The third part of the program is a
post-visit in which the students are
encouraged to bring together everything
they learned in the previous two events
and apply it to things that are happening in
the world and in their lives. Lipper interns
serve as leaders in the classrooms to
facilitate discussion and lead the kids to
an increased awareness of social
responsibility and justice. For many
students, their class’s visit from the
Lipper interns is the first they’ve ever
heard about the Holocaust or Jewish
heritage. Through these, the students
learn the importance of memory and hope
and how they can be applied to
community involvement and
improvement.
My experience with the Lipper
Internship has so far been incredible. I
attended training from January 5 through
January 13 and it was an amazing week.
Not only did I feel fully prepared for the
tasks ahead of me, I also felt completely
comfortable in the Museum, and met the
most wonderful people that I was thrilled
to be working with. One of the most
meaningful experiences from training was
hearing survivor testimony from some of
the Museum’s Gallery Educators and
seeing their passion for Holocaust
education firsthand. Since training I have
been very busy with the Museum. I led
my first tour for a group of seventh
graders that was, although
nerve-wracking, exhilarating. There was a
moment in the tour when I saw a student’s
face
completely altered with the recognition of
what we were discussing and it was in that
moment that I knew what I am doing is
important, both for the students and for
me. I have also gone on my first school
pre-visit and am excited to see those
students again at the Museum. To stand in
front of a classroom of 8th graders can be
intimidating, however, the energy and
excitement which they bring to learning is
undeniable. You can never predict what
they will say or how they will answer,
which is one of the most humbling things
you can experience as a teacher. Those
are my favorite moments, when the
students surprise me. They look at things
a different way and can apply it on levels
you never expected. I have found myself
inspired and empowered along with the
students I teach. This has already been a
life-changing semester and there’s still
more to come!
I would encourage anyone
interested to apply for this unique and
extraordinary program. Applications for
Fall ’09 are being accepted until April 1.
They can be downloaded from the
Museum’s website: www.mjhnyc.org
By Mary-Catherine Breed