MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: Judy Horn, Second-Generation WISE Member

Carol Epstein, Judy Horn’s mother, was an early member of WISE. When Carol retired as a social worker from Children’s Friend, Inc., she joined WISE and attended classes with her friend and former Colby College roommate, Hannah Laipson, who is a former president of WISE. Carol especially enjoyed attending WISE classes in film and literature.

Carol’s daughter, Judy, traveled far from her childhood home in New England. Her education was varied, and her career path was an interesting one. Although she earned an undergraduate degree in History and a Masters’ degree in Library Science, she recently retired from the pharmaceutical industry in California after a late career change to positions in drug information research and editing. Judy has returned to the Worcester area to be closer to her mother and to become reacquainted with the cultural opportunities available in the area. 

In addition to spending time with her mother and attending WISE classes, Judy is a member of both Tower Hill Botanical Gardens and the Worcester Art Museum, where she enjoys classes and tours. She loves to walk when the weather allows, and she continues remodeling her fixer-upper condo. 

Because of her mother’s enthusiasm for WISE, Judy Horn decided to join WISE for our Spring 2016 season.  She started slowly; her first WISE class was Music’s Greatest Century led by Paul Shannon. Listening to Romantic composers of the nineteenth century on Friday afternoons provided an informative and refreshing way to end the week. Her D session classes include The First American Hippies with Philomena Feighan and Images of Senior (Older) Women in Literature and Film with Susan Perschbacher. We hope this will be the beginning of many more sessions and courses to enjoy.

 Welcome to WISE, Judy!

WISE on Facebook: No Puppies, No Kittens

Since last October, members of the Communications Committee have been enhancing the offerings on the WISE Facebook page. We continue to post the monthly Blogs and Bulletin, as well as timely messages about courses, but we have also added outside material we think might be of interest to members of WISE. We have not posted any pictures of cute babies, kittens or puppies, though there are plenty of those to be found on Facebook. Instead, we focus on the literary and scientific topics that we glean from our own searches. The committee members have thus become the filter through which material flows. If it is not to your interest, you can blame it on me.

We have averaged sixteen posts per month, including videos (why Autumn leaves change color, colliding Black Holes, Picasso in his eighties making linotype prints); photos (trip to France, courses by Margaret Watson and Jane Crooks, brown-bag lunches); and links to articles from Telegram.Com (Sue Durham and her home*), NASA, BBC News, TED.Com (talks about lifelong learning), and NYTimes.Com (Resilience of Parisian Street Life, 100 Notable Books of 2015, and more).

Research in mid-November showed twice as many non-members had clicked “like” for the Facebook page as WISE members had. The number of “likes” has gradually increased over the last six months, and we now have 125 likes from the USA, one from Hungary, and one from Kenya. Gender distinction runs about 75% women and 25% men: maybe women are less shy about expressing their opinions on Facebook. But beyond the people who “like” the WISE page, there are many more people who read the articles and watch the videos.

In the month of November, 537 people were reached and connected to our page. That is more than our entire membership. Even with all the holiday activities of December, 285 people checked in to see what there was to see.  Recently the most popular posting has been the video of a 73-year-old Japanese artist using Excel software to make art.  If even one new member joins because of our Facebook page, it will be worth it. Tell your friends and family members to check us out.

* If you are not on Facebook, but would like to read the article about our president, Sue Durham, and her home, here is the link: http://www.telegram.com/article/20151127/NEWS/151129111/-1/topic
 

Assumption’s New Academic Building

On March 10, 2016, President Francesco C. Cesareo announced that, at their recent meeting, the College's Board of Trustees approved the construction of a new academic building. To date, $7.8 million in cash and pledges have been raised.

The first phase of the construction project began this week with the installation of temporary perimeter safety fencing in the areas between Hagan Hall, the Information Technology Building/ Fuller Hall, and Switzer Building. Once the fences are erected, crews will begin preparing the site for the construction of the new building.

Groundbreaking is anticipated in April. Access to the second floor entrance and exit of Hagan Hall will be closed during this phase of construction; the walkway between Hagan and the Information Technology Building/ Fuller Hall will also be closed. The targeted completion date of the new building is fall 2017.

The photo above (taken by Paul Mahon on March 14, 2016) shows the site of the new building from the walk in front of the chapel. The IT Center is out of frame on the right and the D'Alzon Library is out of frame on the left. The buildings through the trees are the Laska Gymnasium (large building) and Hagan Center (barely visible on the right).

This 60,000 square foot building will contain 13 high-tech, flexible classrooms of varying sizes, seminar rooms, common study spaces, a 400-seat performance hall, a rehearsal room, a multi-function space that has a capacity for 400 people, faculty offices for the Business Studies Department, the Honors Program, the Assumption Core Texts Program, the Center for Teaching Excellence, and a new Center for the Study of Ethics.

Once the new building is opened, we are hopeful that current classroom space on campus will become available to fill WISE’s documented need for more class offerings on campus.

In Memoriam

Correction

Eliot I. Sommer’s name was misspelled in last month’s Bulletin.