College of the Atlantic August 15, 1974 Greetings! On the surface, College of the Atlantic seems to have had little activity going on this summer. One observes the grounds being groomed, the gardens frequented by zealous caretakers, a few cars in the parking lot, an occasional game of Frisbee - all in all a pleaseant, placid, pastoral scene with the sun shining upon it more often than not. Looks are deceiving, however. It doesn't take many people for activities to be realized at COA, and the following are cases in point. The Summer Forum has gone remarkably well. A weekly event throughout the months of July and August, the Forum has attracted a large number of Island residents and visitors. The lecturers have included: Dr. William Drury, Director of the Scientific Staff, Massachusetts Audubon Society, who discussed the problems of endangered species and habitats. Miraim Weinstein, a young woman filmmaker, showed and discussed three of her autobiographical films. Dr. Edward Mitchell, biologist from the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, presented his work on whales in the Northwest Atlantic, Mark Silber, author of Rural Maine, showed and discussed his work in Photography. Robert Binnewies, Executive Director of the Maine Coast Heritage Trust, presented a slide-illustrated talk on the Trust and its attempts to help coastal landowners choose the best future use of their property. Francis FitzGerald, author of Fire in the Lake, spoke on the social and environmental effects of the American war in Indo-China. Dr. David Peakall, professor of biology at Cornell University, discussed his research on pesticide contamination in birds. Anne Sexton, one of America's leading women poets, will read from a selection of her poetry. This has been the second year the college has offered such a program, and we hope that it will be a continuing summer event. Thanks to a mini-grant from the Maine Commission on the Arts and the Humanities, COA offered a July Foreign Film Series which was run by one of the students, Tripp Royce. It featured films by Welles, Truffaut, Antonioni and Cocteau. A Summer Arts Program, hosted by COA and run by local artisans, offered courses to the general public in the areas of photography, ceramics, modern dance, children's drama, karate, weaving and natural dyeing. Allied Whale has been working with an NSF grant studying whales in the Gulf of Maine. In July, the group received a $1,000 grant from the National Audubon Society for the production of a whale identification film. The Cormorant Workshop has been spending the summer banding and observing cormorants around the Island. Two COA students, Jeff Baker and Sally Morong, are working with the Hancock County Regional Planning Commission on an HEW mini-workshop grant studying subdivisions in Hancock County. David Winship has been working all summer in the MDI Environmental Resource Center updating, cataloging, and cross-referencing its material with the library. The COA library is being renovated. Office space is being constructed for Lynn Dermott, librarian, and study and stack space is being expanded. This summer the library was awarded a basic grant of $4,235 under Title II, Part A, of the Higher Education Act to increase its existing basic reference and humanities collection. COA received another welcome grant in July from the Lilly Endowment, Inc. of Indianapolis. This grant of $71,000 will help to cover a three-year faculty development project at the college. As an initial step, the College has invited Mr. Newton S. Fink, Director of Lands End, Center for Renewal and Study, located in Saranac Lake, New York, to come and work with the faculty and staff in a group process lab on the weekend of August 24 & 25. In June, four members of the COA community participated in an educational workshop, sponsored by the Danforth Foundation. The central purpose of the workshop was to provide an opportunity for intensive study and discussion by faculty, students, and administrators, of ways and means for improving the quality of liberal arts education at the undergraduate level. Outstanding scholars in the field of education were invited to give seminars and participating schools were asked to present a problem for workshop discussion relevant to the overall them of "Liberal Education for New Students." COA focused on the problem of developing an academic program that is simultaneously interdisciplinary, intellectually rigorous, and supportive of the individual. The members of the College community who attended the Colorado conference were Samuel Eliot, Vice President; Linda Swartz, Faculty Member in Anthropology; Megan Godfrey, student; and Karl Ketchum, Faculty Member in Physics. (Copies of the report, written by COA participants, are available on request). On July 13 an Alternative Solid Waste Disposal Conference was held at COA, supported by a grant from the Maine Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities. At this time approximately 75 citizens of Hancock and Washington Counties came together to familiarize themselves with some of the recently developed solid waste alternatives and to work at developing procedures for arriving at solutions to a particular environmental problem which would be applicable in many communities. Three faculty members from the College were on hand as consultants to interject the humanist side of the issue while several consulting experts spoke on technical considerations. The COA faculty members were Daniel Kane, Jr., lawyer; Richard Davis, philosopher; and Elmer Beal, Jr., anthropologist. Richard Davis, Faculty Member in Philosophy, and his wife, Nora, are building a home that will be, when finished, the first self-sufficient, owner-built, modern home in the nation. To make their home self-sufficient, they are using three alternate energy sources: solar energy, windpower, and a woodburning furnace. Ernest McMullen, who directs alternate energy studies and projects at the College, designed and is helping to build the house. The construction crew boasts two COA students - Tom Fisher and Tripp Royce. Two major articles have appeared in the local media; a July 19th article in the Maine Times by John Cole, and an August 1st article in the Ellsworth American by LaRue Spiker. (Copies of these articles are also available upon request The COA Gallery has had two exhibits this summer. In July, a selection of Mark Silber's photography was on display, and during August and September a collection of Raymond Strout's 19th Century Bar Harbor photographs and memorabilia is being shown. JoAnne Carpenter, Faculty Member in the Fine Arts, is in charge of the Gallery shows. A few personal notes: Gillian Brown and Megan Godfrey have been working with Al Stork on grounds crew this summer. Reports and observations conclude that they have done exceptional work. Megan has also done a great job following Sydney Rathbun in setting up refreshments for the Summer Forum. John Cox, a recent graduate of Wesleyan and former participant in COA's first summer program, has joined the staff as an Admissions officer.