on this page:

• President's Column: Surviving (and Even Thriving)
• Albright Awards Three Honorary Degrees
• Congratulations Class of 2009!
• Faculty Honored for Excellence in Teaching

President's Column
Surviving (and Even Thriving)

As this issue’s cover story makes clear, these are unusually challenging times for higher education, and the challenges come from many fronts.

Although the waters may be a bit choppy, I remain hopeful and optimistic. I know that Albright students continue to have transformational experiences that will serve them well all the days of their lives. I know that this old college has survived wars, panics, depressions, schisms, several moves, floods, fires and more. And I know that we have demonstrated an amazing resilience and adaptability for more than 153 years.

One welcome outcome of our current economic woes is that fewer folks are suggesting that the College should be run more like a business! I’ve been hearing that well-meaning suggestion for as long as I’ve worked at a college—more than 30 years! Recently, I’ve begun to ask which business the speaker had in mind. Certainly not Enron or Tyco, I suppose. How about GM or Chrysler? Maybe Lehman Brothers or Bear Stearns?

Indeed, it seems to me that more than a few businesses need to be run more like a college! How many businesses do you know that have provided essentially the same service for more than 150 years?

Despite the challenges, it’s been an encouraging year. I was deeply moved by our faculty and staff response to the need to trim our operating budget for this fiscal year. Not only was there very little grumbling about the salary freeze, there were creative suggestions about how to save on expenses and generate new revenue.

And if that were not enough, the generous response to our late-spring campus campaign for The Fund for Albright made me stand up and cheer. Better than 52 percent of all full- and part-time employees contributed something. The excitement around the campaign was palpable and genuine.

We were also delighted and surprised to win an important battle with the Pennsylvania Department of Education over new, highly prescriptive regulations for teacher education programs. These regulations would have gutted our existing curriculum, undermined our commitment to the liberal arts, increased our cost of doing business, and made it virtually impossible for students to graduate in four years. As a board member of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania, I testified in Harrisburg last fall about the negative impact, but state officials seemed unbending.

After our faculty spent months developing a whole new curriculum, word came that the regulations were becoming optional guidelines because State Senator Jeff Piccola introduced new legislation that would have gutted the regulations. Independent colleges—and everyone who cares about excellent teacher preparation rooted in the liberal arts—are grateful to Senator Piccola, a graduate of another fine, small liberal arts college.

On a final positive note, Albright has received coverage in the national sports media. One reporter even called Albright the new “epicenter” for college-bound hoopsters when The Hoop Group, a premier national basketball instructional camp, decided to make Albright their new summer home. It has created quite a stir in the basketball world.

If you are on campus this summer, you will see scores of young basketball players and scouts from colleges and universities across the country. The highly respected, 47-year-old program has a long history of campers winning scholarships and making it to the NBA. Hoop Group leaders tell us they are thrilled with our facilities, the amazing welcome they have received and our outstanding service.

It has been great fun to watch hundreds of tall, lanky young athletes play game after game on our 13 courts—six of them at the site of the old Armory, which, at long last, came down last fall. As the Hoop Group says, “Dreams do come true!”

Lex O. McMillan III, Ph.D.
President

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Albright Awards Three Honorary Degrees

Three honorary doctoral degrees were awarded during Albright’s 150th Commencement ceremony on May 24.

Commencement speaker and retired Albright trustee P. Sue Perrotty ’75 received an honorary doctor of laws degree. Perrotty, who co-chaired the College’s highly successful $43 million comprehensive capital campaign, is chairman of the board of KnowledgeFlow Inc., an early stage technology and market development company focused on information delivery via the Internet. Perrotty previously served as chief of staff to the First Lady of Pennsylvania Judge Marjorie Rendell. In 2002, she retired from banking after a 27-year career in the industry.

Baccalaureate speaker The Reverend Frederick Douglas Jr., received an honorary doctor of divinity degree. Douglas is an elder with the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church and serves the Devereux Memorial United Methodist Church in Philadelphia, Pa. His recent book, Somebody’s Knockin at Your Door, is a personal reflection on the call to ministry, vocation and service. Before answering the call to ordained ministry, he was a tenured professor at the College of New Jersey, teaching in the Undergraduate and Graduate School of Education.

Jay R. Rosan, D.O. ’66, a family physician and entrepreneur, received an honorary doctor of science degree. Rosan, who currently serves as senior vice president of health innovation for Take Care Health Systems, was one of the first medical directors at HMO of Pennsylvania, which grew to become U.S. Healthcare. He also developed one of the first and largest breast cancer and colorectal cancer screening programs in the United States. In 1994 he co-founded InteliHealth, one of the first online consumer health web sites, which went on to win the Webby Award for the Best Health Web Site, the Newsweek Award for the Best Health Site and Business Week’s Best of 1999.

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Congratulations Class of 2009!

With 296 traditional graduates, 12 master’s degree graduates and 90 Accelerated Degree Completion graduates, 398 men and women joined the ranks of Albright’s more than 18,000 alumni following Commencement ceremonies in May and June. To view photos from the May and June Commencement ceremonies, visit the Albright web site at www.albright.edu

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Faculty Honored for Excellence in Teaching

Six faculty members who exemplify teaching excellence were recognized at May’s Commencement ceremony. Faculty winners are nominated by faculty, administrators, alumni, or students, and are selected by the faculty members of the Professional Council.

Marian Wolbers, instructor in English as a second language, was awarded the United Methodist Division of Higher Education Exemplary Teaching Award, presented to a person who not only exemplifies involvement with and caring for students and their well-being on campus, but also extends a helping hand off-campus.

Wolbers applies her past experience living in Asia to reaching out to international students in her class and bridging the culture gap they encounter.

The Dr. Henry P. and M. Paige Laughlin Annual Distinguished Faculty Award for Teaching was presented to two faculty members: Alberto Cacicedo, Ph.D., chair and professor of English, and Stephen Mech, Ph.D., associate professor of biology.

For Cacicedo, instruction commonly extends beyond formal class hours, as he regularly holds one-on-one and small-group sessions. His legendary practice of encouraging students to write multiple drafts of essays helps them distill their ideas into the clearest possible form of literary expression, sometimes even discovering poetry they never knew existed.

As one of his mentees pointed out, Mech encourages growth as a student and as a person, making time to ensure that students feel prepared rather than overwhelmed when handling substantial amounts of material. He provides students opportunities to investigate new realms of biological knowledge, and holds them as well as himself to high standards.

David Osgood, Ph.D., associate professor of biology, was awarded the Dr. Henry P. and M. Paige Laughlin Annual Distinguished Faculty Award for Research. When he is not busy slogging with students through local marshes, Osgood manages several parallel projects, notably on ecological conservation. He has even reached across the traditional boundaries between science and humanities to initiate interdisciplinary investigations of water management in Brazil and the United States.

Kristen Woodward, professor of art, was the recipient of the Class of 1949 Annadora Vesper Shirk Award for Outstanding Faculty Scholarship. Whether it’s printmaking, drawing, or painting, Woodward’s national reputation has grown over the course of over 170 exhibits nationwide. Her work is included in many private & public collections, including the International Museum of Collage, Assemblage & Construction, Fort Worth, Texas; Central St. Martin’s College of Art & Design, London, England;  Cozen O'Conner law offices in Philadelphia; Lockhaven University; Weber State University; the South Carolina National Bank; and the Federal Reserve Bank.  Last year, one of her etchings was accepted into the permanent collection of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics in Los Angeles. Her research also extends back to the grassroots, as she seeks to encourage young artists by serving as a judge and instructor in school art exhibits.

Jeffrey Lentz ’85, artist in residence in theatre and music, was awarded the Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award.

A singer, actor, and director with an international reputation, Lentz has devoted his greatest energies to the artistic development of young performers through a series of stimulating classes, long hours in the vocal studio, and through the painstaking creation of visionary theatrical productions that have won national recognition and become a trademark of Albright’s Domino Players.

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