Trustee Don Straus walks to class with students Teal Akeret '89 (left), Mike Youdelman '89, and Elena Tuhy '90. "I have to understand other people's position and not be too hardcore about my own," she says. Ondine COA NEWS Owens says she is learning how deci- sions affect the world in general as well as how to be a better decision- maker herself. Several administrators, looking for ways to improve organiza- SPRING 1988 COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC BAR HARBOR. MAINE tional techniques, have sat in on a few classes, one of them led by Straus's that our highly technological society is son David, a founder of Interaction Course in Decision creating. Environmentalists can no Associates in Cambridge, San Fran- longer be narrowly focused. They need cisco and Detroit, and co-author of Making Impacts to look at the whole picture." How to Make Meetings Work. According to Borden, seeing the "This is like a seedbed," says College whole picture is one of Straus's Borden. "We are sowing seeds of some greatest qualities. "Don is a tremen- very important ideas ranging from dous resource," he says. "Having spent face-to-face meetings to community his whole professional life in the study and regional planning, to international and practice of dispute resolution, he cooperation. We are also studying Dispute resolution has been COA trus- is offering practical techniques for state-of-the-art communication and tee Don Straus's business for 40 years. problem solving and peacemaking. By computer systems that can facilitate This winter he is sharing his knowl- learning how to solve problems problem solving." edge of this fast growing field in a through negotiation and collaboration Through selected class projects, course he is team-teaching with psy- he sees the possibility of improving the students are having the opportunity to chology professor Rich Borden. Says quality of decision making at every work with the surrounding communi- Straus, "The course comes out of my level." ty. Three students are working with concern for decision making and prob- At midterm the course in decision Acadia National Park, helping with lem solving as it can apply to College making is having an impact on stu- questionnaires completed by past sum- of the Atlantic. My image of what the dents and administrators alike. An ad- mer visitors and helping to analyze College can be doing in the 1990's vocate of animal rights, Teal Akeret responses. One student is focusing on which would be fundamental to hu- feels the course has helped her in deal- women's issues, particularly as they man ecology is to acquire the tools to ing with controversial issues and bring- relate to battered women in the area. solve the kinds of complex problems ing together opposing points of view. "The course is experimental," says 1 Continued on page 2 Decision Making-Cont. from page 1 Straus. The students, whom he finds "interested and eager," are helping to mold the course. "For years Rich and I have been talking about teaching a course like this," he explains. "It is a way to combine our interests in the psychology of group processes and the tools to facilitate complex problem solving. It is really a course in applied human ecology." A trustee of COA since its beginn- ings, Straus is a former president of the American Arbitration Association and chairman of the board of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. He has also been a trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace and the Institute for Advanced Stud- ies. As a COA trustee he has chaired two presidential search committees, and is currently a member of the Ex- ecutive Committee and the Academic Policy Committee of the Board of Trustees. He and his wife, Elizabeth, live in Manhattan but are spending in- creasingly long periods of time on Mt. Tim and Deb Hartt enjoy a rare moment together, juggling classes, work Desert Island. The course in decision and study as a married couple. making is the third course he has (already having attended three other Audio/Visual Coordinator at the Col- taught at COA. colleges). Deb says that the initial lege and works various part-time jobs Says COA president Louis deciding factor to come to COA was in town. "Now that I'm here, I'm hav- Rabineau, "College of the Atlantic is that her application was accepted. ing an excellent time. It's a heavy unique in its tradition of inviting However, she also feels that the college work load, but it is SO much fun that trustees to share their resources as was very receptive to her needs as an the hardest thing to fit in is sleep!" faculty associates." "older" first-year student. "There were Tim says. Other trustees who serve as faculty a lot of transfer and older students. It Deb is taking Children's Literature, associates are Dr. Elizabeth S. Russell, (COA) wasn't a stereotypical Personality and Social Development, a senior staff Scientist Emeritus at The 'Freshman', 'Sophomore', etc. school," and Chemistry. She is also frequently Jackson Laboratory, who teaches a she explains. seen walking to and from school with course in global ecology, and Dr. While Deb was here at COA, she Sara, their dog. Deb notes that the Leonard Silk, an economist and col- kept in touch with Tim, who had also nicknames she and Tim have for each umnist for The New York Times. wanted to go to college. Unsure, other are Captain Antsy and Deborah because of his age, Tim was hesitant; Doddler. She explains, "He's always on but Deb told him that there were the go I like to take my time." She many "older" first-year students, and surmises that is what makes them com- A Juggling Act that one didn't have to be a specific patible. "But," she says, "it doesn't age to attend COA. Says Tim, "I have make a difference if you're married. a lot of hands-on skills, but I was Being a couple is a juggling act." limited as far as employment goes. Deb -Gina Platt Deb and Tim Hartt are students at and I got tired of the 6-hour commute COA, who also happen to be married; to be together. So I knew I was going but they did not meet here, as one to be moving here to Bar Harbor. I might expect. Yet, each came to Col- also knew my skills would be limiting lege of the Atlantic for many of the here as well, as far as job opportuni- COA NEWS is published three same reasons. ties. So I decided to try going back to Deb, 25, had been a cocktail school." times a year. It is circulated to waitress in Stowe, Vermont. Tim, 29, In August of '87, they were married Alumni, Parents, Faculty, Trus- was a "regular," and the Production on a hillside at Deb's home in Ver- tees, and other Friends. Manager at Stowe Canoe Company. mont. In September of the same year, Growing tired of the tedious aspects of Tim started at COA as a Freshman. her job, Deb determined to go back to Since they moved into their house Editor: Carolyn Dow school. One day she sought out the in Bar Harbor, the Hartts have been Assistants: Keith Goodrich, College Handbook, and started search- constantly busy. Tim is taking three Tim Hartt, Becky Keefe, ing under the A's. She found COA classes and doing an independent Lisa Norton, Ned Ormsby, under "Atlantic," visited in March of study in woodworking. In addition to Gina Platt, Mark Tully. '86, and came to school in September his four courses, he is the