News & Events 06/2001

AMHERST, Mass. - Ilan Stavans, the Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College, will be the host of "Conversations with Ilan Stavans" on WGBH-TV in Boston, on Saturday, June 23 at 6 p.m. An acclaimed author and cultural critic, Stavans will discuss "Becoming American" with Cuban-American author Achy Obejas, Chicano poet Luis Rodriguez and Puerto Rican memoirist Irene Vilar. The talks will be broadcast as a segment of "La Plaza," the Hispanic culture show on WGBH.

Stavans hopes that these conversations, conducted in English and marked by spontaneity and wit, will be a "breakthrough in bringing Latin voices to television." The program, which will be offered to PBS stations nationwide as a new series in the fall, will "offer writers, politicians, educators and artists a chance to discuss their work," Stavans says, "in an intellectual atmosphere that will also be entertaining television. I don't ever want to dumb anything down."

Chicago Tribune columnist Obejas describes her flight from Cuba and her book about Cuban immigrants in Chicago, Memory Mambo. Chicano poet Luis Rodriguez speaks about his memoir, Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Life in L.A., and the pain of watching his son fall into that life. Memoirist Irene Vilar's The Ladies Gallery: A Memoir of Family Secrets is the story of three generations of Puerto Rican women: Vilar, her mother and her grandmother, the political activist and revolutionary icon Lolita Lebron, who in 1954 attacked the U.S. House of Representatives.

A descendant of Eastern European Jews who settled in Mexico, Stavans, who has taught at Amherst since 1993, calls himself" a sum of parts. Spanish is my right eye, English my left; Yiddish my background and Hebrew my conscience." Henry Louis Gates has called Stavans "an old-fashioned intellectual." Stavans is founder and editor of Hopscotch: A Cultural Review and author of On Borrowed Words: A Memoir of Language, The Hispanic Condition, The Riddle of Cantinflas, The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories and The Essential Ilan Stavans, among other books. He edited the forthcoming Norton Anthology of Latino Literature, and has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Latino Literature Prize, among many honors. "Conversations with Ilan Stavans" has a Website at http://www.wgbh.org/laplaza.

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AMHERST, Mass.—R. Thomas Green, Jr., a resident of Hudson, Ohio, received Amherst College’s Medal for Eminent Service at the college’s commencement exercises on Sunday, May 27.

The Medal for Eminent Service is presented to an Amherst alumnus who has demonstrated extraordinary devotion to his alma mater.

After his graduation in 1959, Green remained involved with Amherst, holding several class offices: co-secretary (1969-1974) and then president (1974-1979), followed by class agent (1987-1991). In 1984 he became the “member leader” of an effort to establish a Class of ’59 Professorship, an undertaking which was successfully completed at the Class’s 40th reunion in 1999. Since then, Green has been active on the Executive Committee of the Alumni Association, co-chairing the Cleveland Area Major Gifts division of The Amherst College Campaign.

In 1998 Green retired from his position as chairman, president and CEO of Oglebay Norton Company of Cleveland, Ohio. He is now chairman emeritus.

Green volunteers much of his time to both higher education and Episcopal Church endeavors. In addition to his connections with Amherst College, he is on the board of trustees for Hiram College, Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad and the Endowment Fund for Christ Episcopal Church in Hudson, Ohio. Green contributes to the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio in his capacity as chairman of the Audit Review Committee and co-chair of the Legacy Campaign, as well as his recently appointed position as co-chair of the Bishop’s Legacy Campaign.

Founded in 1821, Amherst College is consistently ranked one of the nation’s best colleges. Amherst enrolls 1,650 students from nearly every state and more than 40 other countries. Amherst offers the B.A. degree in 33 fields of study.

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AMHERST, Mass.—John B. Carter, Amherst College chief of campus police, was elected secretary of the Massachusetts Association of College and University Public Safety Directors (MACUPSD) for the term 2001-2002.

Carter, a resident of Ashby, Mass., was named chief of campus police at Amherst College in 1998. He received a B.S. in criminal justice from the University of Lowell and then an M.S. in the same subject from Fitchburg State College. Carter was an officer for the Townsend, Mass., Police Department from 1986 to 1990. He then served with the Brandeis University Police, first as sergeant and then as detective sergeant, until his appointment at Amherst.

For the MACUPSD elections, Carter ran on a platform of continuing professional vision for the association. He refers to his term as an opportunity for both learning and service to the people of the state.

MACUPSD was founded nearly 25 years ago with the mission of promoting “the common interest in the administration of law enforcement programs...on college and university campuses.” The association currently has about 80 active members from both public and private schools in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

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