SU Named a "Best College" for 7th Consecutive Year
New Carnegie Classification May Affect U.S. News Rank
Musical Premiere Concludes Jewish-Christian Conference
Pine Lawn Renovated and Expanded
Choir Tour 2001
Former Chaplain Thomforde Named President of St. Olaf College
Make Way for the Caped Crusader!
Alumni News
SU Named a "Best College" for 7th Consecutive Year
Susquehanna Moves to New Carnegie Classification
As Susquehanna welcomed the largest student body in its history to campus this fall, the University also ushered in another academic year with a top ranking in U.S. News & World Report's "Best Colleges" guidebook. For the seventh year in a row, Susquehanna is ranked number one among regional liberal arts colleges in the northeastern United States. As Acting President Sara Kirkland noted in her address to parents during November's Family Weekend, however, "we're not counting on an eighth year."
That's because the Carnegie classification system upon which U.S. News traditionally has based its ranking categories just underwent a major revision. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching released the 2000 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education in the fall. The new classification, which is an interim update to be finalized in 2004, divides schools by number and types of degrees awarded, while the old system also attempted to include selectivity of admissions for liberal arts colleges. The classifications were first developed in 1970 and last updated in 1994.
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Pine Lawn Renovated and Expanded
Pine Lawn, the university's president's home built in 1929, underwent significant renovation last fall when two, two-story wings were added to create more functional living spaces and additional entertainment space for university events. The home's infrastructure was also upgraded, to include new wiring, telecommunications, plumbing and a new furnace. SU's board of directors began discussing the need to renovate nearly a year before the announcement by then-president Joel Cunningham that he intended to leave. The Cunninghams' departure in July provided an opportunity to make the needed changes before the January 2001 arrival of new President Jay Lemons, his wife, Marsha, and their family.
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About 650 colleges and universities changed categories in the new classification, including Susquehanna University. Susquehanna moved from a Baccalaureate II college in the 1994 edition to the newly named Baccalaureate Colleges-Liberal Arts category (known as Baccalaureate I colleges in the 1994 version). The main difference between the two categories is that institutions in the Baccalaureate Colleges-Liberal Arts category award at least half of their bachelor degrees in liberal arts fields while schools in the other category award less than half in the liberal arts.
Susquehanna's situation is unusual because the Carnegie Foundation gave the University a choice. "Because the percentage of degrees we've awarded in the liberal arts over the past few years has been so close to 50 percent, the foundation gave us the opportunity to choose which category we wanted to be in," said Kirkland. "It was a subject of much discussion on campus and with the board of directors. We concluded that Baccalaureate-Liberal Arts is an appropriate reflection of Susquehanna's special blend of strong liberal arts programs enhanced by equally strong professional programs in areas like business, education and communications."
The change in Susquehanna's Carnegie classification will most likely cause the University to be placed in a different category in U.S. News & World Report's "America's Best Colleges" guidebook, although the publishers have not indicated how their ranking system will reflect the Carnegie changes. It is possible that Susquehanna will join a larger pool of liberal arts colleges, which in the past the guidebook has ranked as National Liberal Arts Colleges. "It's anybody's guess where Susquehanna might fall in future U.S. News rankings, but we felt it was more important to define the University as it is and expects to be, rather than focus on how it might affect our rankings in a college guidebook," Kirkland said.
There are 228 colleges in Carnegie's new Baccalaureate Colleges-Liberal Arts category, compared to 166 in the comparable 1994 grouping. In addition to Susquehanna University, other Pennsylvania colleges in that category include Allegheny, Bryn Mawr, Bucknell, Dickinson, Franklin & Marshall, Gettysburg, Muhlenberg and Swarthmore colleges.
Musical Premiere Concludes Jewish-Christian Conference
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| Composer Simon Sargon conducted the world premiere of his Susquehanna-commissioned musical dramactic work, "The Search Unending," in Degenstein Center Theater on November 8.
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Jewish and Christian scholars and music lovers converged on the University campus on Nov. 8 for a one-day conference on the Hebrew narrative known as the "Akedah" and the world premiere of a Susquehanna-commissioned musical work by well-known Jewish composer, conductor and teacher Simon Sargon.
"The Search Unending: Jewish-Christian Dialogue and the Binding of Isaac" explored issues that have inspired and haunted the imaginations of artists and intellectuals for more than two millennia. In the Akedah narrative, told in The Bible's Genesis 22, God asks a father to kill his son, and the father presents himself as willing to obey. The story raises a number of issues for study - God, death, family and sacrifice - that are central not only to both Judaism and Christianity, but to Islam as well.
For modern scholars and readers, the various attempts to unravel and understand the Akedah have also revealed the differences between religious traditions and between contemporary interpreters of the Bible. Those disagreements have flared recently into sometimes rancorous debate, according to Assistant Professor of English Laurence Roth, coordinator of Susquehanna University's Jewish Studies program, who co-chaired the event with Assistant Professor of Music Peter Dennee.
Conference attendees heard four eminent scholars from Jewish and Christian traditions discuss competing interpretations of the Biblical text. Morning session panelists were Carol Delaney, associate professor of cultural and social anthropology at Stanford University and author of Abraham on Trial: The Social Legacy of Biblical Myth, and Rabbi Reuven Firestone, professor of medieval Judaism and Islam, and director of the Louchheim School of Jewish Studies and the Department of Graduate Studies at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles and author of Journeys in Holy Lands: The Evolution of the Abraham-Ishmael Legends in Islamic Exegesis. An afternoon session featured Judith Banki, author and director of special programs at the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding in New York City; and Dr. Eric Gritsch, emeritus professor of church history at Gettysburg Lutheran Seminary and author, editor and translator of 20 books including Lutheranism and Martin: God's Court Jester. An open dialogue followed.
University Chaplain the Rev. Mark Wm. Radecke, Assistant Professor of English Karen Bloom and Assistant Professor of Religion Karla Bohmbach served as moderators for the sessions.
The conference concluded with the premiere performance of "The Search Unending," a musical dramatic work for chorus, soloists and chamber ensemble commissioned by Susquehanna University from Simon Sargon, director of music at Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, Texas, and professor of composition at Southern Methodist University. The text is taken from the Akedah with additional lyrics by the composer.
The 45-minute dramatic scene, performed by the Susquehanna University chorale and chamber ensemble under the direction of Peter Dennee, meditates on the search for understanding and faith that the story of the binding of Isaac continues to incite. Sargon's next composition project is to be a work based on the Psalms for the 300th anniversary of Yale University.
Funding for the conference was made possible by a generous gift from Sandra M. Rocks '75, a member of the University's board of directors, and by the University departments, programs and offices of Academic Affairs; the Chaplain; Philosophy, Religion and Classical Studies; Music; Diversity Studies; Jewish Studies; Genocide- Holocaust Committee; and the School of Arts, Humanities and Communications.
Choir Tour 2001
Susquehanna alumni, prospective students and friends will be able to hear members of the Susquehanna University Choir take their talents on the road for a four-state concert tour beginning in March and ending in April. Professor of Music Cyril Stretansky directs the 50-member group.
Three concerts will be presented in North Carolina for the first time this year. Previous tours have taken the choir to Maryland, Virginia, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont, as well as regular stops in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey.
The 2001 tour schedule includes concerts at the following locations:
Friday, March 2, 8:00 pm
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church
Winchester, VA |
Saturday, March 24, 7:30 pm
St. Mark's Lutheran Church
Asheville, NC |
Saturday, March 3, 7:30 pm
Sharon United Methodist Church
Charlotte, NC |
Sunday, March 25, 3:00 pm
Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church
Salisbury, NC |
Sunday, March 4, 3:00 pm
First Lutheran Church
Norfolk, VA
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Sunday, March 25, 8:00 pm
Zion Lutheran Church
Harrisburg, PA
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Sunday, March 4, 7:30 pm
Christ Hamilton United Lutheran Church
Stroudsburg, PA |
Friday, March 30, 8:00 pm
First Presbyterian Church
Morrisville, PA (Philadelphia area) |
Monday, March 5, 7:30 pm
The Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa
Doylestown, PA |
Saturday, March 31, 7:30 pm
St. Michael Lutheran Church
Unionville, PA (West Chester area) |
Tuesday, March 6, 7:30 pm
First Lutheran Church
Altoona, PA |
Sunday, April 1, 7:00 pm
Trinity Lutheran Church
Islip, NY (Long Island) |
Friday, March 23, 8:00 pm
St. Paul's Lutheran Church
Doylestown, PA
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Sunday, April 8, 3:00 pm
Annual Return From Tour Concert
Weber Chapel Auditorium
Selinsgrove, PA |
For further information regarding the tour, please contact choir manager Adam Staub at 570-372-4295.
The Susquehanna Unviersity Orchestra will be on tour from March 9 through 11 performing a family concert, "Composer Encounter," for the Linden, N.J., school district, the Montclair State University Music Preparatory School, and the Montclair Unitarian Universalist Church. The family concert will also be performed in the Degenstein Center Theater on campus on Monday, March 12 at 7:00 p.m. the orchestra has commissioned senior composition major David Little to write a a new piece of music for the tour.
For further information, please contact Assistant Professor of Music Jennifer Sacher Wiley at 570-372-4290.
Former Chaplain Thomforde Named
President of St. Olaf College
Former Susquehanna University Chaplain the Reverend Dr. Christopher M. Thomforde has been named the tenth president of St. Olaf College, a four-year liberal arts school with 2,950 students in Northfield, Minn. The 125-year-old institution of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) selected Thomforde in September of 2000 following an extensive national search.
Since 1996, Thomforde has served as president of Bethany College, another ELCA college, in Lindsborg, Kan. Prior to that, he served for ten years as chaplain of Susquehanna University. He has also served as a parish pastor at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Dansville, N.Y. Previously he had been an assistant chaplain and instructor in philosophy and religion at Colgate University, Hamilton, N.Y., and taught western languages and medieval European history at Tunghai University in Taiwan.
A basketball standout in both high school and college, Thomforde earned an A.B. degree in medieval and Russian history from Princeton University in 1969 and a master of divinity from Yale University Divinity School in 1974. He completed studies for his doctorate in ministry from Princeton Theological Seminary while at Bethany College.
Make Way for the Caped Crusader
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| The Caped Crusader
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There's nothing like a new mascot to get the fans roaring!
And at Susquehanna, the Caped Crusader is becoming a crowd favorite as students and friends cheer the University's Crusader athletes on to victory.
Susquehanna teams have been without a costumed official mascot for many years, although they have been known as the Crusaders since the 1920s when Susquehanna athletic director, the late Luther Grossman, led a "crusade" to keep collegiate sports on an amateur basis.
Introduced to a very responsive crowd at October's homecoming football game, the Susquehanna Caped Crusader is depicted as an orange tiger with black stripes, wearing a maroon cape and mask, and a belt with the Crusader logo.
The new mascot is the brainchild of a student-run organization, the S.U. Ambassadors, who plan and participate in recruiting efforts as well as alumni events for the University. The group conducted a student poll and a drawing/idea contest for the new mascot. A Crusader tiger was the most popular concept. The group then won approvals for the design from the University's alumni board and administration. The mascot has been launched with the permission of DC Comics, which holds the trademark for the Batman comic book character, a.k.a. The Caped Crusader.
