Dean's Seminar Series, "Alumni in the World"

The Dean's Seminar Series brings Alumni working in a variety of fields to the Amherst Campus to speak and meet with students, in order to share their experience and insight.

Robert S. Weiner '74

MEDIA HANDLING OF HIGH PROFILE ISSUES
November 16, 2006

Washington Political analyst and stratagist Bob Weiner's November 16, 2005 speech is available to read HERE

Natasha Tretheway '95 MA read her award winning poetry on the UMass Amherst campus, on April 20th, 2005.

Natasha Tretheway has won numerous awards and
fellowships for her work since completing her MFA in Poetry in 1995. She is now an Associate Professor in Creative Writing at Emory University.

Robert Lynch '71 President and CEO of Americans for the Arts in Washington D.C. gave the inaugural talk in the 2004-2005 Dean's Seminar Series: Alumni in the World, on Monday, November 22nd. At a luncheon in Dean Lee Edward's office and a public evening lecture, he spoke about his years as an English/History major at UMass Amherst, his 10 years with the Arts Extension Service and his move into the National arena of Arts Advocacy with Americans for the Arts. Arts education and funding are issues about which Lynch has not only great expertise, but considerable emotion. An internationally recognized expert, he frequently meets with members of Congress, the media and state and local governments and agencies to clearly and passionately make the case for funding the arts in schools and communities. Art, he maintains is not and has never been, an "extra" a luxury, or something to do after the "important" work is done. Art throughout history has defined cultures and individuals, and played a central role in civilization. To bring that message to everyone from parents to Senators, Americans for the Arts has launched a major new initiative to involve individual citizens in advocacy for the arts and arts education.

The creation of the Americans for the Arts Action Fund adds a new dimension to arts advocacy in the United States by providing a vehicle through which any citizen can help ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to appreciate, value, and participate in the arts. The Arts Action Fund has published a Congressional Report Card highlighting the voting records of Members of the U.S. House of Representatives on high-priority arts legislation, and has begun a national citizens’ membership campaign to encourage Americans to join and support the Arts Action Fund. You may have seen their recent Public Service Announcements on television, starring noted actors and performers, making the point that "the less art kids get, the more it shows."

Over the past two years, 40% of the funding for state arts councils has been eliminated; several states have practically eliminated arts funding; and the share of private giving has declined by over 40% in the last decade. In 1992, the arts received 8.4 percent of all charitable giving. By 2003, it had dropped to 5.4 percent. If the arts maintained their 8.4 percent share of total giving in 2003 ($240.72 billion), they would have received $20.22 billion instead of $13.11 billion—a $7 billion difference. The Arts Action Fund is intended in part to help reverse that pattern, and will initially focus on four primary areas of activity:
• Communicating with the Media and Candidates for Office–providing a leading voice on the importance and benefits of the arts to the media and candidates for office: hosting candidate forums, participating in town hall meetings, sponsoring advertisements, and helping shape candidates’ positions and party platforms impacting the arts;
• Advocacy Training at the State and Local Levels—involving Americans for the Arts’ extensive arts advocacy infrastructure and network at the state and local levels to help educate, train and connect individual arts advocates to local organizations;
• Evaluating Members of Congress—assessing and rating the voting records of Members of Congress on high-priority arts issues;
• Providing a Voice for the Public—aggressively petitioning to shape public policy at the federal level for the arts and arts education.

The College of Humanities and Fine Arts is very proud to count Robert Lynch as one of "our own" both as an alumnus and as an advocate for the Humanities.

Additional information on Americans for the Arts is available at www.AmericansForTheArts.org.

Thursday April 22nd 2004:

Mary Lou Andre BA 1986, Journalism
Founder and President of Organization By Design, a wardrobe and fashion consulting business serving individuals and organizations.

Mary Lou Andre, BA '86 (Journalism and Fashion Marketing) speaks quickly, laughs easily, and punctuates her conversation with body language. She is animated, energetic and completely committed to her business and her passion: helping people function at their best in the workplace by advising them on their wardrobe. If anyone thinks that topic sounds superficial, an hour with Mary Lou will totally dispel that notion! She believes that how we present ourselves to prospective employers, funders, clients and others may be the single most important aspect of marketing ourselves with self confidence, and Mary Lou knows about self-marketing in two senses: marketing ourselves to others, and marketing what it is we do. Best of all, she knows how to do both on a budget, and she knows it all from her own experience.

A native of eastern Massachusetts, Mary Lou Andre says she was "born with fashion in her," and always loved the feel and color of fabrics, playing dress-up as a child. After serving as a high school representative on the Jordan Marsh Fashion Board she came to UMass Amherst where she created her own program of Fashion Marketing, Journalism and Management classes. That combination she says led ultimately to the opportunity to mix her loves of fashion and business, with her flair for the entrepreneurial spirit. As a student she wrote a fashion column for The Massachusetts Daily Collegian, and when asked what styles were prevalent on campus in the mid-eighties, Mary Lou laughs and says, "Madonna! Picture Madonna!" Despite her interest in fashion though, Mary Lou had no plans to make a career out of it. It was public relations and the opportunity to make a difference to people that fired her imagination and led her into her first job.

After graduating, Mary Lou went to work as a legislative aide in the Statehouse in Boston, working on an anti-drunk driving campaign. The senator she worked for had lost a daughter to an alcohol-related traffic accident and was sponsor to a series of legislative initiatives on the issue. Mary Lou provided the media with information on the bills, and in the process had the opportunity to work with a variety of influential people in and out of the political milieu. Her next professional position involved providing public relations for Spectrum House, a now well-known drug rehabilitation program; there the seeds for her future charitable efforts were planted when she organized an effort to bring used, professional wardrobe items in for clients to wear when they went on job interviews after treatment. Drug-free and ready to take on the responsibilities of working women and mothers, they had no appropriate clothing and no money with which to buy them. "Why not help them look their best and feel good about themselves?" Mary Lou wondered, and emptied some of her own closets for their benefit.

After Spectrum House Mary Lou took a position back at the site of her high school fashion experience, as the special events coordinator for Jordan Marsh. Some of us who are old and local enough will remember one of her responsibilities: the annual "Enchanted Village," a Boston Christmas season tradition for generations. But, as the age of the downtown department store faltered, recession forced a massive restructuring of the retail industry, and serendipity and a mentor entered Mary Lou Andre's life and altered her career forever. A woman executive at the store was laid off, and as she began the job-search process she asked Mary Lou to help her update her image and wardrobe. "You could make this into a business," she told her, and then as Mary Lou's own job ended, the same woman hired her to completely reorganize her professional wardrobe and closets. As Mary Lou puts it, "I was laid off on March 30 and began a business on April 1." Word of mouth spread quickly among professional men and women, and Organization By Design was up and running. So was Mary Lou Andre! With no capital to speak of, she sold her wedding dress and some other clothes, took a part time job at the Boston Children's Museum and set about to creating a marketing plan that would make her company survive and grow without spending every penny she had. In the process she developed her "ten guiding principles of business," (she actually wrote them on an airplane flying to a meeting,) the core of which is that "putting money before common sense, decency and human beings," is bad for business and bad for the people involved in it.

Today, Organization by Design is a successful firm serving major corporations as well as individuals from all professional backgrounds, and offering support to women in transition through "Fashionable Giving" charitable events. Her recently released book, Ready to Wear: an Expert's Guide to Choosing and Using Your Wardrobe, has been met with excellent reviews and successful sales. Mary Lou Andre is a brilliant example of her most most basic belief:

"Life is a journey on which we're all learners." she says, "People have a reason and a season, and I don't believe in coincidence. I know we have to stay open to the messages and opportunities that come along in this imperfect world; situational fluency is the key. Situational fluency, that's it."

Mary Lou Andre's' website is found at http://www.dressingwell.com where there is information on her history, business, charitable events and book. There are also weekly tips on professional wardrobes. It is well worth a visit.

The College of Humanities and Fine Arts at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is proud to be part of this dynamic, amazingly competent graduate's life and we hope to have her back on the campus soon so that others may have the opportunity to meet and be inspired by her.

Monday, April 26th 2004

John Jacobs, BA 1990
Co-founder and Art Director Life is good, Inc.

Un-fine Art or Draw What You Like!

For John Jacobs, BA '90 (Art and English,) Life is good...in fact it is very good indeed. Tall, boyish and infectiously enthusiastic, he came to the College of Humanities and Fine Arts in April to visit the campus and talk to students about his passions: spreading his optimistic message through Life is good products, and lending his time and energy to help children facing totally unfair obstacles in their lives. Illuminating had the pleasure of sitting down with John for the following rambling, and very upbeat interview.

I: We'll talk about Life is good in a moment, but first, how did you originally come to UMass Amherst?
JJ: Well, I always drew things. I was drawing from the time I was about three years old, and I thought I wanted to go to an art school and had looked into that. When it came time to go to college though, my older siblings convinced me that I should get a broader education, and I'm really glad I listened to them.

I: Why is that?
JJ: Oh, I really came to love literature and writing, and I played a little baseball and a lot of pick-up basketball and frisbee. UMass Amherst offered great options to study and play too, and the diversity! One of the things I later realized as we traveled around selling T-shirts on college campuses was how a lot of them are pretty homogeneous; students at UMass Amherst though, are all different: clothes, racially, ethnically, there's so much here to learn from. It's a lot more "real world" than most other schools.

I: So you came here and then what? Were you a serious student?
JJ: For the first year I think I really focused on my class work, but one of the most important messages I like to share with students now is that you need to be able to enjoy the whole experience. Ambition and plans are good things, but you need to laugh along the way and balance all the elements of learning. They don't all happen in classes.

I: What do you think was the biggest lesson you learned as a UMass Amherst student?
JJ: The diversity for sure. That you can't judge people by their looks or backgrounds, and that there is a social, people element to everything you do in work or school or whatever you're doing. That's the magical part: the people.

I: Life is good, Inc. You started your business at UMass Amherst too, didn't you?
JJ: (laughs) We made T-shirts and sold them in the dorms! It was fun and we really liked meeting people. We were creating art, meeting girls, I had no idea it would become my "career." Then we started selling shirts on other campuses, driving around and living in a van. After I graduated I was substitute teaching, but my brother and I sold shirts at fairs, on the street in Cambridge, did special orders, and we learned about business as we went along.

I: What's the most exciting part of your business now?
JJ: The Festival Division! Absolutely! We decided that just giving a check to charity was fine, but not what we're all about. We started doing special events for charities and it's been amazing. The first one was through our retailers right after 9/11. We did a line of patriotic shirts and raised $211,000 for the 911 Fund. Since then we've concentrated on organizing family festivals that raise money for groups helping kids facing unfair challenges like life-threatening illness, abuse and poverty. There's a whole lot of information about them on our website. (http://www.lifeisgood.com) The first was our Pumpkin Festival in Portland ME last Halloween, and now we have a Back Yard Games Festival on the Esplanade in Boston in June, and another Pumpkin Festival on the Boston Common in October. We hope to add a festival a year.

I: So, business is good?
JJ: Very. But, we think business is more than hitting sales numbers and projections. We get the biggest kick out of the positive impact Life is good has on culture. The very best are the e-mails and letters we get from people who tell us the brand, the message, has helped them; been inspirational. We hear from folks who wore our baseball caps while they were undergoing chemo, and how the message really meant something to them. One woman told us, "your company makes people feel good." How much better can you get than that?

The Robert and Pamela Jacobs Distinguished Lecture in Jewish Life and Culture Speaker for 2004: Tuesday, April 27, 2004:

Naomi Chazan
Former member, Knesset and Professor of Political Science and African Studies, Hebrew University at Jerusalem.

Israeli Peace Options: Thinking Outside The Box

The College of Humanities and Fine Arts recently had the honor and pleasure of presenting Professor Naomi Chazan when she delivered the Robert and Pamela Jacobs Distinguished Lecture in Jewish Life and Culture for 2004.

A member of the Israeli Knesset from 1992-2003, Professor Chazan is noted for her interests in women's rights, civil rights, religious freedom, pluralism and peace; she served as Deputy Speaker, Chair of the Committee on Women's Rights, and as a member of the Foreign Affairs and Security Committees. Professor Chazan is Professor of Political Science and African Studies at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and is currently the Robert Wilhelm Fellow at the Center for International Studies at MIT.

Naomi Chazan is a passionate voice for peace in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and gave a lecture that combined history, political theory and personal opinion delivered with a scholar's attention to detail tempered by deep emotion and occasional humor. She began by saying that while she wished she could be delivering an inspiring, optimistic speech she feared that it would instead be troubling. The next 45 minutes were spent reviewing the dynamics of the peace process over the last three years, or since the "second intafada," laying out the elements of the recent "Sharon Plan," and analyzing the implications of the changes that may result from the U.S. backed implementation of that plan.

"I am a political scientist by training, but I am also a politician," the Jerusalem born and raised professor told the 150 people gathered in Memorial Hall, "therefore I make absolutely no claim of objectivity." She then laid out the issues she felt were present and blocking constructive movement toward a sustainable peace. Professor Chazan's greatest concern is what she sees as the loss of a "negotiating track," in the current plan. The trend toward extremist control of the process has she says, led to a situation in which "what should be a dialogue has turned into a monologue." Her hope and recommendation is that the "package be unpacked," with what she feels the good elements of the plan brought forward while those that are not constructive are suppressed. "Let's take this plan and move it into a negotiating track," she urged her listeners.

The Roberta and Pamela Jacobs Distinguished Lecture in Jewish Life and Culture is the product of an endowment created by two of the College's alumni. Robert, (a 1968 graduate in Political Science,) and Pamela, (a 1969 graduate in English,) wanted to "create an opportunity to broaden an understanding of Jewish life and culture at the University level," and so established this series. We thank them and Professor Chazan, for the opportunity to host this thoughtful presentation on an issue that affects so much of the world today.

Of Interest College-Wide:

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