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SUMMER 2012 | ST. LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE 7
ON CAMPUS
Joanna Fassett '10
What’s the Fare?
Joanna Fassett '10 noticed our request in the last issue for photo evidence
of “St. Lawrence” popping up around the world, and sent this picture. “I
came across this bus in Cochin, Kerala, India, while on my Fulbright in
2010,” she says. “Buses in India often loudly display seemingly random
names on their windshields; no one was present so I don't know why it
(displayed) St. Lawrence.” We wonder if it was about to board a hockey
team for an away game.
—NSB
“We are such a small campus that
people see each other all the time,”
says Associate Dean of Student Life
Rance Davis ’80. “This center teaches
students critical skills so they know
what to do when in a conflict situation
– insight that transfers into the world
after St. Lawrence.”
Davis says that when a student has
done something wrong, he or she is of-
ten viewed with a jaundiced eye. “The
new center will alleviate concerns about
social isolation while giving students
more closure,” he says. “We’ll have a
better sense of justice and fairness.”
While experienced mediators Peter
Ladd and Kyle Blanchfield ’78 have of-
fered conflict resolution courses in the
graduate program, Buckley and Rediehs
thought that the opportunity to learn
mediation skills would provide a valu-
able experiential learning opportunity
for peace studies students. Director of
Residential Life Matha Thornton saw
that it would be immensely helpful in
her area, so the idea of creating a cam-
pus mediation center was born.
Buckley, Rediehs, Thornton and the
students who staff the Mediation Cen-
ter all received extensive training, aided
by St. Lawrence Innovation Grants in
2011 and 2012. The participants are
trained to discuss conflicts and to help
those affected create their own solu-
tions, says mediation intern Kathleen
Berman ’12.
“The people who feel they are at a
dead end are the ones who solve the
problem,” she says. “We’re here to help
with conflicts before they get disruptive
– a preemptive strike, you might say.”
—Pete Harrison ’12
e Universal Language
On stage in the Carnegie auditorium,
a student reads a poem in French to a
full house of eager listeners. As part of
the Poetry for Peace series, which runs
four times each semester, February’s
event celebrated World Languages Week
and featured poems in every language
taught at St. Lawrence.
Sponsored by the departments of mod-
ern languages and literatures and Eng-
lish, February’s hour-long event featured
readings in Arabic, Chinese, French,
German, Japanese, Spanish, Swahili and
English. It was standing-room-only as
the start time approached.
According to Professor Sarah Barber
of the English department, Poetry for
Peace is based on the idea that the
community created by sharing any kind
of poetry is inspired to work for peace
and social justice. Although there is no
national Poetry for Peace organization,
Barber says many informal groups,
including St. Lawrence’s, sprang up in
2003 when the U.S. went into Iraq.
Barber coordinates the series along with
founder Marina Llorente, associate pro-
fessor of Spanish, who says the readings
have been held regularly at St. Lawrence
since January of that year.
In February’s gathering, students read
poems first in their original language
and then in English. Styles and presen-
tations varied.
A group of French students performed
a short skit to accompany their poem
about leaving without your loved one no-
ticing. Several students of Japanese read
nature-themed haikus. Allie Burger ’12
offered a poem written by St. Lawrence
Swahili professor Ndalegwa Amisi titled
“Mother I Love You.” The event closed
with the reading of an original poem,
written by a community member in
response to the works of Salvador Dali.
A highlight was a reading by students
in Llorente’s course on Protest Music,
of Octavio Paz’s “Piedra del Sol,” or
“Sunstone.” Each student stepped for-
ward and read a line of the poem, which
ended with a resonating message: “The
world changes / if two look at each
other and see, / to love is to undress our
names.”
—Lettie Stratton ’12