Tag: Rhodes College

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

Immigrant Stories: Anna Mashaljun and Denis Khantimirov

Denis Khantimirov makes a call to Anna Mashaljun. (Photo: Bryce W. Ashby)

Editor’s note: This is part five in a five-part series focusing on immigrant contributions to our nation and city. 

Anna Mashaljun was born and raised in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. Denis Khantimirov is from Vladikavkaz, just north of Georgia (the European Georgia), and as white Europeans their immigrant story is somewhat distinct from the other stories featured in this series, but it’s just as compelling. It intersects in a number of ways with other immigrant stories and relies on one abiding constant: Many people — most young, the vast majority talented and hardworking, from every corner of the globe — are extremely eager to relocate to the United States.

Anna grew up in Estonia but is Russian on her mother’s side, and her father is of Latvian and Polish descent. She went to a Russian-language school and speaks Estonian, in addition to unaccented English. At 18 years of age, she left Europe for the United States, where she enrolled at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas (UNLV) on a tennis scholarship. She studied marketing and finance, and America seemed like a big, scary place to the 18-year-old college student. “The food surprised me,” she says. “It was mostly burgers and pizza and … the portions were huge.” She remembers the warmth of the people she met in America at this time and was surprised to learn that even her professors at the university were friendly and approachable.   

For Denis, the early 1990s in Russia were “turbulent years.” Both his parents were professionals (a father who worked as an engineer, his mother an architect), but people in Russia struggled mightily as society transformed from a central, planned economy to the “new era,” which Denis described as “the Wild West.”   

“There was total chaos with the fall of communism,” he says, “and I was a young boy during the most difficult days, say in the early 1990s.” He remembers his first Snickers bar — which he was able to sample in 1993 as a 12-year-old. He knew when his father’s pay day was because that was when he could expect his next Snickers. “Despite the troubles, I had a relatively stress-free childhood, attended a solid school, and was a relatively privileged only child living in a transforming society.”

Thanks to a program administered by the United States government, Denis was able to attend high school for a year in East Texas, near the city of Tyler. He was given $100 a month as a stipend, and he was 15 years old during the 1996-97 school year. He remembers this experience with great fondness. East Texas was very different from his youthful expectations of an America crowded with skyscrapers, patrolled by Batman.  

“I’m still in touch with my host family from that period,” says Denis, describing the setting as “very rural” and the people “extremely warm and friendly.” He also remembers being better prepared than his American counterparts in terms of “basic academic subjects like economics and mathematics.” The kids in Texas were curious; they were never hostile or unkind, even when they asked him, “Are there TVs in Russia?”

A year in Texas as a high school student generated a strong desire to return to the USA. Denis applied to universities in the U.S. but received insufficient scholarship funding. He made the decision to stay home and study at a state school in Russia, graduating in 2004 with a degree in international economics.

Denis then worked in a hospitality management program in Switzerland. From there, he went to Arizona where he worked in a management training program at a resort in Sedona. He talked his way into an MBA program at UNLV where he received a last-minute offer after another student dropped out. “I was offered a student visa, an assistantship of $900 per month, and completed the degree. I met Anna in Vegas, delivered pizzas as a side hustle in the evenings. I remember wondering how I’d pay for the $600 radiator when it exploded from overuse in the scorching Vegas heat.”

A marketing professor at UNLV encouraged Denis to apply to the Ph.D. program at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. Together with Anna, who studied sports management and marketing at the M.A. level, Denis completed his Ph.D. in 2015 and accepted a position as an associate professor of marketing in the business department at Rhodes College. For Denis, Memphis was and remains “real — it reminded me of Mark Twain from day one, and we all learned of the Mississippi River, and the music called the blues.” Memphis, for Denis, represents a “raw and authentic sense of America.”  

Anna and Denis moved Downtown in 2015 when they first arrived in Memphis; they were conditioned to live in a walkable city center. “We noticed there weren’t many people Downtown. Most of the families at the playgrounds Downtown were immigrant families.” They moved to Germantown after the kids (Alex, 9, and Alisa, 7) arrived. The kids are “fully integrated into their community and love it here.”

Denis and Anna fought and battled to get to the United States, then worked multiple jobs while studying to get ahead. Their type of tenacity and determination may seem unusual, but it’s the essence of a very typical American immigration story. 

Bryce W. Ashby is an attorney at Donati Law, PLLC. Michael J. LaRosa is an associate professor of history at Rhodes College.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

BDSM 101, and Why the Kids Are All Right

Anna Traverse Fogle (Photo: Justin Fox Burks)

Late last week, a series of news alerts broke that centered around a term not often seen in Memphis headlines: BDSM. Specifically, there was a kerfuffle at Rhodes College about the area of erotic expression (BDSM stands for bondage, dominance/discipline, sadism, and/or masochism): A seminar had been planned for students curious to learn more, with guidance from the campus chaplain, Beatrix Weil, who organized the event, and a professional dominatrix. Information about the scheduled seminar began to circulate in an alumni Facebook group called “Rhodes Alumni for Amy,” assembled in support of ultra-conservative Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett ’94, and elsewhere, and the college quickly canceled the event, noting as their oh-so-convincing reason that it had not been properly sanctioned by the administration. (I am going to hazard a guess that if a knitting circle had not been properly sanctioned, no one would have been made to pack up their yarn.)

I was fortunate to grow up a campus kid at Rhodes, where my mother, the late Dr. Cynthia A. Marshall, was a Shakespeare professor and chair of the English department. Many of my tenderest, most crystalline early memories are of moments at Rhodes: tucking myself into the stone window recesses in the ground floor of what’s now Southwestern Hall; cavorting with dogs and Frisbees on the back forty; acting in tiny, child-sized roles at the black-box McCoy Theatre and feeling very grown-up, indeed; curling up with a book on the floor of my mom’s office, whose windows were just below the giant iron clock ticking away on the granite wall outside.

Beyond the physical spaces, I remember sensing an atmosphere of free discussion in the classroom and beyond — at least, that was the idea. My mother taught Shakespeare, but she taught his plays through lenses of psychoanalytic theory, feminist and queer studies, and a spirit of ongoing reimagination. No question was off the table; no intellectual discussion was off-limits. For her later writings, on the nature of selfhood in Early Modern literature, she read broadly into narratives of martyrs but also of, yes, bondage, sadism, and masochism. On our drives to my high school, we might talk about what tests I had that day — and we might talk about the latest account she had read in John Foxe’s Actes and Monuments (commonly known as Foxe’s Book of Martyrs) or a passage from the Marquis de Sade. She wasn’t giving me an instruction manual, or if she was, the how-to was a lesson in curiosity and rigorous research — together, the essence of liberal arts. Her former students tell me that Coney Barrett took at least one of Mom’s classes, which … makes my head spin.

I imagine my mother, if she were still alive today, at 70, would have been delighted to see a seminar scheduled for students to experience a safe discussion about BDSM. I bet she would have been pleasantly surprised (but definitely surprised) that the campus chaplain organized the event — a breath of fresh air! Pastoral care, indeed! But I am quite certain she would be gobsmacked to learn that a faction of alumni malcontents successfully stifled the conversation. What precedent does it set if students — all of them young adults, emphasis on adults — cannot gather in a safe and respectful setting to learn about and discuss a valid, common element of sexuality?

Yes, the social-media graphic announcing the event appeared intentionally provocative: “BDSM 101” does, indeed, sound like a practical introduction to kink. But — so what? Not only is that not what was planned for the event, had it been what was planned, I still fail to see cause for outrage. In an age when college campuses are reckoning with rampant sexual assault and striving to educate students about the importance of consent, surely providing language and context for safe, healthy sexual practices — BDSM or otherwise — can only help. Also — and this cannot be overstated — the event was voluntary; no one was mandated to sit through a BDSM seminar who didn’t want to sit through a BDSM seminar.

One of the knocks on Gen Z is that they are too fragile, too coddled, made too immune from reality by trigger warnings and so on. In my experience, that’s garbage. From conversations I have had with contacts at Rhodes, the seminar was organized because students asked. Rev. Weil teaches a first-year seminar that touched on the topic, but in a smaller setting; many more people were curious, and thus the event was born.

I try to imagine myself at age 19 or 21 being bold enough to ask for … anything — of a romantic partner, of a professor, of anyone. I didn’t know how to do that yet, and wouldn’t for many years more. College students who learn to be clearer advocates for themselves, their needs, and their desires will be better equipped to leave campus more confident in every area of their lives.

Anna Traverse Fogle is CEO of Contemporary Media, Inc., parent company of the Memphis Flyer.

Categories
News News Blog

Craddock Named Rhodes’ First Woman Board Chair

(Credit: Rhodes College)

Rhodes College is making some history on its board of trustees. Alumna Deborah Craddock will become the first woman to chair the college’s board when she takes over at the end of incumbent Cary Fowler’s tenure.

“I have valued my time on the Rhodes board of trustees and have been so fortunate to serve under and learn from the leadership of previous chairs Spence Wilson, Bill Michaelcheck, and Cary Fowler,” says Craddock. “I am truly honored to have been elected as the next chair and look forward to navigating the opportunities that lie ahead for the college. Together with the rest of the board, we will continue to fulfill the Rhodes vision of graduating individuals with a lifelong passion for learning, a compassion for others, and the ability to translate academic study and personal concern into effective leadership and action.”

A graduate of the class of 1980 with a bachelor’s degree in economics, Craddock is currently a principal at Southeastern Asset Management Inc. But her involvement with the college has extended far beyond her graduation year. She first joined the board of trustees in 2001, and served as vice-chair from 2017-2020. Craddock was also a member of Rhodes’ search committees for its 20th and 21st presidents, and helped select Marjorie Hass and Jennifer Collins, respectively, to lead the college. She is also the 2017 recipient of the school’s Algernon Sydney award, which recognizes those who have given generously to the college and others.

“I am so privileged to have the opportunity to work alongside our new president Jennifer Collins, an accomplished leader in higher education, as we further develop and implement our strategic plan to prepare Rhodes for the next decade,” continues Craddock.  “Her experience with supporting faculty, staff, students, and alumni as well as managing budgets and fundraising during her tenure as dean of the law school at Southern Methodist University will be invaluable to Rhodes.”

Fowler has served as chair of the college’s board of trustees since 2017. Craddock will assume that responsibility later this summer on July 1st.

“Deborah knows the college from top to bottom. As chair, I quickly learned to depend on her wise counsel, and her hard work and impeccable professionalism,” says Fowler. “Deborah shares our values completely and has long been an effective ambassador for Rhodes and the liberal arts. She’s a leader everyone trusts, respects and likes, and she’ll make a wonderful partner for our incoming president, Jennifer Collins.”

Categories
Music Music Features

Spaces That Sing: Jennifer Higdon at Rhodes College

Award-winning composer Jennifer Higdon will appear at Rhodes College for a concert and lecture. (Photo: Andrew Bogard)

When Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy-winning composer Jennifer Higdon appears at Rhodes College this week, it will be a homecoming of sorts. But it goes far beyond being a simple return to the South from Philadelphia, her base for decades. (Higdon spent her formative years near Seymour, Tennessee, in the eastern end of the state, a world away from Memphis.) Rather, for Higdon, it’s more about seeing people she’s known and worked with for years.

“I have over 200 performances a year, and I have a really busy writing schedule. So I don’t go to most of those performances,” she explains. “But I love working with the Rhodes music department and Bill Scoog there. Not to mention the choir and the Memphis Symphony. So I try to make sure that I have time to get down there when they put something like this on the schedule. There’s something nice about coming back and visiting with people you know and care about. Something about making music that way — it’s special.”

The performance Higdon speaks of will indeed be a charmed moment. On Saturday, April 2nd, at Rhodes’ McNeill Concert Hall, the MasterSingers Chorale and the Memphis Symphony Orchestra will perform “The Music of Jennifer Higdon” with Rhodes professor of music William Skoog conducting. At the heart of the concert will be one of Higdon’s most powerful works, The Singing Rooms. While the title may suggest intimate chamber music, the seven-movement composition is really a dynamic rendering of the overwhelming passions that familiar rooms can evoke.

Describing how the piece came to be, Higdon notes that “I was looking at the poetry of Jeanne Minahan [which is incorporated into the work], and it made me think of walking around a big farm house, where each room has a personality. It dredges up these emotions. There’s a lot of energy in that piece. When I wrote it, it was an interesting challenge to have a solo violin with a huge chorus and an orchestra backing it. That’s a difficult thing to balance.”

That’s especially true in a live setting. Yet Higdon can barely conceal her delight that in-person concerts are once again happening, after so many live-streamed performances at the height of quarantine. “I think the pandemic made us appreciate the live music experience. Especially with something like The Singing Rooms,” she says. “That piece takes the roof off the hall it’s in. The third movement comes at you like a freight train. It is unbelievable when you hear it live because when you have a full orchestra, with the brass section and the choir, it’s hair-raising! And that’s the kind of thing you start to appreciate in a live music scene. There’s something about it that’s magical.”

Such magical, emotional experiences are at the heart of Higdon’s work. “My music doesn’t fall in the category of an academic sound. To me, it’s important that the music speaks to the performers because if the performers believe in it and are moved by it, they play it differently.”

The roots of Higdon’s music-making are decidedly non-academic as well. “I grew up on a farm in East Tennessee, and I was self-taught on the flute. I can remember walking out on the farm, all the sounds. The soundtrack of my childhood was the whip-poor-wills and the crickets and even the mountain lions.” She also stresses the influence of non-auditory experiences. “I grew up in a visual arts family with a lot of experimental painting, and even animation,” she notes. “My dad was an artist who listened to rock-and-roll at home. So my childhood wasn’t populated with classical music.”

Such aesthetic cross-pollination between different mediums will be the topic of Higdon’s talk on March 31st, as a Rhodes College Springfield Music Lecturer. “I’ve always thought in terms of pictures and paintings,” she says. “You’re constantly having to visualize the stuff going around your head. Sometimes writing music means exactly that. So I put a little film together for this presentation, and the very first segment is on Jackson Pollock because I have a chamber piece called American Canvas, based on three American artists and their styles of working. It’s all connected and it’s fascinating. And the pandemic put me in a frame of mind where I’m thinking about it a lot more.”

UPDATE: The performance of “The Music of Jennifer Higdon” on Saturday, April 2nd, at Rhodes’ McNeill Concert Hall has been cancelled “due to unforeseen circumstances.” Jennifer Higdon’s lecture on Thursday, March 31st will go on as planned.

Categories
News News Blog

Rhodes College Announces New President

Jennifer M. Collins will become the 21st Rhodes College president. (Credit: Rhodes College)

In a press conference this morning, Rhodes College announced that Jennifer M. Collins will become the school’s 21st president. The selection comes after a months-long national search that saw the school consider more than 200 prospects and receive over 100 applications for the position.

Collins currently serves as the Judge James Noel Dean and Professor of Law at Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law in Dallas, Texas. Previously, she was a member of the law faculty at Wake Forest University, where she served as vice provost and professor of law. While at Wake Forest, she created the university’s first ever LGBTQ center and women’s center, and led a large effort to improve campus culture.

“Having the opportunity to become part of this extraordinary institution is truly the great joy and honor of my life, and I cannot wait to get to know all of you and start working alongside you,” said Collins. “When I talked to the search committee about why I was so excited about the Rhodes opportunity in particular, two things I focused on were your remarkable people and this wonderful place, the incredible city of Memphis, that I will now be so fortunate to call home.

“I know I still have so very much to learn about Rhodes and Memphis, and I promise you I will approach this role with a firm commitment to listen and learn, respect your culture and values, and work collaboratively, transparently, and joyfully with those who make Rhodes so special. Because as I always like to say, getting to work with these incredible young people is the greatest thing in the world, and there’s nothing that brings me more joy than that.”

Collins’ appointment was announced by Dr. Cary Fowler, co-chair of the Presidential Search Committee and chair of the Rhodes College board of trustees. The search process also included input from faculty, students, and the wider Rhodes community.

“With the help of Storbeck Search, the committee identified more than 200 prospects, held multiple rounds of formal interviews, and had numerous talks by phone as well as informal social encounters,” said Fowler. “The applicant pool was by far the strongest I have ever witnessed for any position in my professional life. One person in this wonderfully diverse and accomplished pool shone through at every stage.

“While Jennifer’s CV and her many accomplishments impressed us tremendously, it was her personal qualities that won our hearts. We found her to be warm and caring. A good listener. Empathetic and yet decisive; even unflappable. In Jennifer, we will have a president with the values we hold dear at Rhodes College.”

Collins will begin her tenure on July 1st, 2022. She succeeds Dr. Marjorie Hass, who departed this summer. Carroll D. Stevens will continue to serve as interim president until next July.

Categories
News News Blog

Organizers of Orange Mound Revitalization Plan Seek Community Feedback

Organizers of a community-centered revitalization plan for Orange Mound are seeking resident feedback. 

The plan,  Mound Up, is a collaboration between JUICE Orange Mound and the Rhodes College Urban Studies Department that began in the spring of 2020. 

Britney Thornton, founder of JUICE, is leading the charge to create a strong resident-driven plan in order to have a say about future development in Orange Mound. 

“When people show up ready to develop, they’re not trying to wait on you to come up with your plans,” she said. “We want to be ready and in position to know what our asks are. Otherwise, we would just have to follow the lead of people who show up ready with money.” 

Thornton said the goal is to get 350 responses to the survey on the plan by the spring in order to have a finalized plan by the end of the spring. 

Thornton said the inspiration for the plan came from South Memphis’ revitalization plan, SoMe Rap. 

“They’re rallying around an actual document that they created with resident input,” Thornton said. “This isn’t something where we feel like we’re innovating. We’re just replicating and just trying to put a spin on it wherever we can to make it something uniquely signature to Orange Mound.”

Thornton said the motivation to initiate the plan came as she began to notice a shift in the market with more interest in Orange Mound properties. She feared that if there was no intervention, people in Orange Mound would be displaced. 

“We want to be ready and in position to know what our asks are.”

“So I knew we had to do something,” Thornton said. “Mound Up is a proactive approach for us to be able to be in position to show up in these conversations knowing what it is that we want and know what direction we want to go in.”

Displacement is prone to happen, Thornton said, but the goal is to prevent the culture of Orange Mound from being completely altered.

“Our whole premise is that we want to work with people to develop people,” Thornton said. “We don’t want to displace people.” 

Thornton, who is from Orange Mound, said it’s always been her desire to move back into the neighborhood. But she said she doesn’t want to sacrifice any of her expectations. 

“I want the house that I want, the look that I want, and the amenities in the community that I want,” Thornton said. “It’s been a real fight to advocate for the things that I personally want to see in my community. I have to go to neighboring communities often to access the amenities that I seek.”

Thornton said the neighborhood needs a spectrum of options in housing, amenities, and common community spaces. 

“To be as great as we can be, we need to see more options,” Thornton said. “Those options need to scale down to meet people where they are and also scale up to be able to offer attractive options for people who want to come here.”

Austin Harrison, adjunct professor at Rhodes, is leading the course that is working with Juice to bring the plan to fruition. 

The courses began last fall, introducing students to Orange Mound and the needs of the neighborhood. Topics included housing, community development, and the history of systemic racism — “why and how Orange Mound looks the way it does and Chickasaw Gardens looks the way it does.”

With the help of community leaders, the students came up with six focus areas for the plan: housing, community health, crime and public safety, economic development, education, and cultural preservation. 

This is the second year of the project with a new class of 13 students. This year’s class is centered on crafting strategies to implement the plan, focusing on how to implement an equitable plan with community input. 

Throughout the process, Harrison said community engagement is a key part of the plan’s success. 

“Engagement isn’t static for us,” Harrison said. “It’s something that we’ll continue to do. We think when you’re working relational and not transactional, there isn’t just an event that you call engagement and you check that box and move on. We’re always working side by side.”

It comes down to ownership, Harrison said. If residents in the neighborhood don’t see themselves in the plan, they aren’t going to fully support it. 

“If community members don’t feel like they own the plan or it’s something they had a say in, it’s going to make implementing it almost impossible,” Harrison said. 

When the plan is complete, Harrison said he would love to have the support of local government, but the plan will move forward and be enacted whether there is official adoption of it or not. 

“We’re not asking for it,” Harrison said. “It’s not ‘can you let us implement this?’ It’s more of ‘this is what Orange Mound sees for their community.’ We’re telling government officials, developers, and outside actors looking to work with Orange Mound, these are the rules of engagement.’”

“If community members don’t feel like they own the plan or it’s something they had a say in, it’s going to make implementing it almost impossible.”

Harrison hopes that the plan will lay a framework for other neighborhoods to replicate. 

“It’s a framework for holding stakeholders accountable,” Harrison said. “It’s also a framework for residents to take control of their neighborhoods. We want residents to take control of the narrative and of who is casting the vision for where they live.” 

As the first neighborhood built by African Americans for African Americans, Orange Mound has a rich history that Thornton and Harrison hope is reflected in the plan. Harrison said he’s never interacted with a community that has such pride. That’s why cultural preservation is one of the project’s six focus areas. 

“It may seem odd to some other planners to include cultural preservation as a priority, but I don’t think that’s an option in Orange Mound,” Harrison said. “A through line throughout the process is preserving the culture and keeping legacy residents at the forefront of our planning. That’s what’s  missing from a lot of neighborhood redevelopment plans.” 

Categories
News News Blog

Russell Wigginton Tapped to Head National Civil Rights Museum

Dr. Russell Wigginton (Credit: National Civil Rights Museum).

Russell Wigginton will become president of the National Civil Rights Museum on August 1st.

He brings 29 years of experience in education, philanthropy, executive management and program development, as well as strategic planning and partnership building.

Wigginton worked at Rhodes College, his alma mater, as a history professor and senior level administrator for 23 years. Graduating with a bachelor’s in history in 1988, Wigginton returned to Rhodes in 1996 as a William Randolph Hearst Fellow, later teaching full-time before moving into administration. He earned his doctorate in 2000 in African American History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  

While at Rhodes, Wigginton published The Strange Career of the Black Athlete: African-Americans and Sports, as well as articles and essays on African American social and labor history. He has served on civic boards, including the National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis Zoo, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Facing History and Ourselves, Ballet Memphis, ArtsMemphis, UrbanArt Commission, BRIDGES USA, St. George’s Independent Schools, Promise Academy Charter School and KIPP Schools.  

From 2006-2017, Wigginton served as vice president for external programs and vice president for college relations, where he helped establish and implement institutional strategy for the college’s engagement in Memphis and beyond, and oversaw the college grants, foundations and government relations, alumni relations, communications, career services, and continuing education departments. From 2017-2019 he served as vice president for student life and dean of students at Rhodes.  

In 2019, he joined Tennessee’s State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) as its chief postsecondary impact officer. At SCORE, he leads the organization’s work for postsecondary access, retention, and completion while seeking opportunities and identifying gaps in advocacy, policy, and practice.

Wigginton succeeds Terri Lee Freeman as museum president and will resign his museum board post to assume his new leadership role. He is married to Tomeka Hart Wigginton, managing director for Blue Meridian Partners, and has a son, Ryan, who is a senior at the University of Richmond.

Categories
Theater Theater Feature

Rhodes College Students, Alumni Address Theater Major

The McCoy Theatre (Photo: Courtesy Rhodes College)

On May 17th, Rhodes College announced its plans to phase out its theater major. Katherine Bassard, provost and vice president of academic affairs, wrote in an email to the student body and alumni that “interest in the theater major has dropped significantly over the last several years.” The college has offered to place tenured and tenure-track faculty members in other academic departments or programs, and in the upcoming years, it plans to offer curricular and co-curricular opportunities in the performing arts, in lieu of a theater major. 

But many mourn the loss of the department that has earned numerous Ostrander Awards. “The McCoy Theatre is a special place to many,” says Katie Marburger, who graduated in 2014 with a bachelor’s in theater. Marburger heard the news before Rhodes announced its decision to the public, and she started a Facebook group called Save the McCoy Theatre. “I couldn’t stand back,” she says. “If I could do something, I was going to try.” Her plan is to organize a letter-writing campaign to express why the theater department is necessary not only for theater majors and minors, but also for the college as a whole. “The decision doesn’t just affect majors and minors; it affects non-majors. And it’s not just about the Rhodes theater community; it’s about the Memphis community.”

Within a few days, the group has accrued nearly 500 members, including current students, alumni, and friends of the McCoy Theatre, all of whom express a deep sadness about the news. “There are a lot of people who wouldn’t have come to Rhodes if there was no theater department,” Marburger says, “not just people who intended to major in theater like myself, but also people who wanted to major in something else and still participate in theater.” 

In fact, rising senior Annalee McConnell intended to major in English and pursue theater as an extracurricular when she came to Rhodes. “Since I did theater in high school, but was not sure if I wanted to major, I loved the fact that the Rhodes theater department was accessible to non-majors,” she says. But after becoming involved in the department her first year, she decided to double major in English and theater. “I felt so supported by the theater professors and staff and knew I wanted to learn as much as I could from them before graduating,” she says.

A week before Rhodes announced its plans to phase out the department, McConnell met with administration to create an individualized plan to ensure that she could complete her major. She says that she appreciates the personal and sympathetic support she’s received from the school, but she is still crushed and surprised by the news. 

This most recent semester, McConnell participated in a theater class which culminated in a research project called “Proposals for the Future of Our Theatre.” “To spend so much time researching shows and planning for future seasons at the McCoy just to learn that the program was dissolving not even a week after our presentation left me feeling very discouraged,” she says, “especially since it seemed like the voices of those of us in the department were not being heard.”

Olivia Fox ’21 and Alex Forbes ’23 in Hand of God, directed by Juliet Mace ’20 (photo courtesy Olivia Fox)

Likewise, rising junior Eliana Mabe says that she feels unsupported as a student. “From a student’s perspective,” she says, “it does not feel like they have been clear and direct and willing to help.” Mabe is uncertain whether she will be able to finish her major, since Rhodes will stop offering theater classes after this fall; at this point, she has been told that she will only be able to minor in theater. “Before this decision, I was on the track to be a B.S. in biochemistry and a B.A. in theater, which is the prime example of the beauty of a liberal arts education.” 

Upon enrollment at Rhodes, Mabe had planned on pursuing the sciences, but after becoming involved in the theater department, she now plans to attend graduate school for playwriting. In fact, her plays have already been featured in local festivals, and when she’s in those settings, she says, “I feel like I’m an ambassador for Rhodes.” But with Rhodes’ recent decision, she now hesitates to take the same pride in Rhodes at those events as she did before, and she now says, “I feel like I’ve been ill-prepared for graduate school.” She’s reached out to administration about her concerns but has yet to hear back from anyone since her first meeting when she found out about the decision. “I feel very privileged to be able to attend a college like Rhodes, and I want to continue reaping the benefits it has to offer,” Mabe says, “but I need the support of my peers, past alumni, and faculty to continue pursuing my future playwriting career.”

Mabe continues, “This choice [to eliminate the theater department] is perpetuating the stereotype that theater isn’t real work, that it’s just an extracurricular, that it doesn’t deserve to be seen in academic light, which it does.” 

“Theater is not just about acting or putting on shows; it’s about fueling empathy, human connection, and creative innovation,” McConnell says. “My time in the Rhodes theater department has shown me all of these nuances and more and in the process has made me a more well-rounded and confident person both socially and professionally.”

Similarly, Marburger points to the theater department as being instrumental in developing her critical-thinking, analytical, and problem-solving skills as well as her ability to have a dialogue with anyone she meets. “[Theater is] about storytelling and exploring humanity, being able to ask questions,” she says.

Mabe agrees, saying that through the theater department, she has learned that storytelling is an everyday experience. “Sometimes to understand a concept in my biochemistry classes, I have to create a story,” she says, “and that’s an innate human thing.”

“As one of my professors Dr. Dave Mason once said in class, everyone is performing every day of their lives,” she continues, “and when he said that, it really changed my perspective on moving forward as a genuine, good person. As you go through different experiences, how you behave and how you go forth to make good in this world all boils down to this idea of performance, and failing to include that [lesson in Rhodes’ curriculum] is not only a wrong-doing to the mission of the college but is also an error and a flaw that future students didn’t ask for.”

Olivia Fox ’21 (photo courtesy Olivia Fox)

Additionally, as recently-graduated theater major Olivia Fox points out, “Rhodes has always been a supplier of vital community members in the Memphis theater scene. Within the past five years that I have witnessed, there have been prominent actors and directors who have graduated from Rhodes and stayed in Memphis because of the connections they made here.” She also says that the McCoy Theatre has participated in multiple outreach programs in collaboration with places like Central High School and Crosstown Arts. “Since there are no more theater classes,” she says, “these programs will [likely] no longer happen.” It’s also unclear what will happen to student workers in the theater department — whether they will be placed in another department or whether they will lose their position as a student worker altogether.

Despite their disappointment, McConnell and Mabe, as president and vice-president of the Rhodes Theatre Guild, have hope that their student-run organization can “[uphold] the legacy of performing arts that the McCoy Theatre has expertly built over the years,” McConnell says. Since 2016, the group has provided supplementary theatrical opportunities, often student-written and student-directed, without the financial support of the academic department, but members could still go to professors for advice and guidance and utilize the departmental supplies and workers for building sets and making costumes. However, now that the organization will be providing the only theatrical opportunities without the support of an academic department, the productions will likely face limitations in the creative process and execution, especially in student-led shows since, as McConnell says, “none of us have the same experience or training of professionals.” 

Bassard, in her email, wrote that Rhodes is “working to create an environment where our students have access to rich theater and performing arts experiences on campus and in the Memphis community,” but at the moment, it is reimagining and identifying what this may look like going forward. Even with this statement, many students, alumni, and supporters of the McCoy are worried about the future of the performing arts at the college. 

“It’s kind of an open-ended promise at this point,” Mabe says. “However, the responsibility of trying to find other mentors, of reaching out to the community, of reaching out to alumni — that burden should not be placed on the students.”

Fox, who preceded McConnell as president of the Rhodes Theatre Guild, adds, “On top of this, putting all of the burden on students to now do all of the work themselves with no credits is a lot of pressure. Not to mention without classes, it is expected of the students to teach skills of acting and designing to one another.” 

McConnell and Mabe have reached out to the Save the McCoy Theatre group, asking for mentors, directors, designers, or producers to help with future productions. So far, the two have received a plethora of texts and emails from alumni inside and outside of the Memphis area who are willing to offer their support. “These are people who, according to what we’ve been promised, will be paid through Rhodes for their work,” Mabe says. 

“With the help of the institution to fund us and provide professional mentors from the community who can supplement the educational loss from not having an academic department,” McConnell adds, “I have high hopes that we will provide a space of education and creative growth for everyone on campus who loves theater.”

Categories
Music Music Blog Music Features

That’s Doctor Bobby Rush to You

Bobby Rush (Photo by Bill Steber)

Bobby Rush, the forever young blues man based in Mississippi who won his first Grammy Award at age 83, and his second this year, when his Rawer Than Raw record was named Best Traditional Blues Album, is no dummy. In fact, he’ll tell you how smart he is. “I’m smart enough to know I don’t know anything,” he says. “If a man tell what he know, he won’t talk long. ‘Cos man don’t know nothing.”

It’s a typically humble statement from a man who, paradoxically, is not known for his shyness or reticence onstage. When you speak with him, you hear the humility that has kept him working doggedly through the years. “I’m not just a blues man,” he says. “I’m God’s child. I’m another kinda person, you know? And I got by in this rat race, not because I was so good, but because I was so blessed, and God had so much mercy on me. I’m not here on my own. I’m not doing anything on my own.”

With such a philosophical bent, its should come as no surprise that the songwriter and performer has also been a teacher of sorts. Since 2014, he’s partnered with the Mike Curb Institute for Music at Rhodes College as the inaugural Curb Visiting Scholar in the Arts. He continues his relationship with the college to this day through immersive student experiences and historically significant public programs. Over this time, the relationship between Rush and the college has been a part of the educational experience of well over one hundred Rhodes students.

As a visiting scholar, Rush has taught a course on “Music and Community in Memphis,” and offered lectures and performances with Rhodes students in local venues. This semester, Rush partnered with the Curb Institute on a project involving dozens of students that culminated in a recording of an original blues version of “America the Beautiful,” which will be released in recognition of Memorial Day.

As a culmination of all of this and Rush’s own storied career in music, the Rhodes Board of Trustees announced today that Rush will be this year’s recipient of the Honorary Doctorate of Humanities. The degree will be presented at the Commencement Exercises of the Rhodes College Class of 2021, to be held Saturday, May 15th, at 8:30 a.m., in the Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium. Congratulations, Dr. Bobby Rush!

Categories
News News Blog

Marjorie Hass to Leave Rhodes in August

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Justin Fox Burks

Dr. Marjorie Hass

Rhodes College announced today that Dr. Marjorie Hass will depart her role as college president this summer to become president of the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC), a Washington-based association of nonprofit independent colleges and universities. Yesterday afternoon, Memphis magazine editor and CMI CEO Anna Traverse Fogle had the opportunity to talk with Hass about her decision to accept the CIC’s offer and to leave Rhodes. Her story and interview follow:

Hass, a philosopher by training and temperament, has led Rhodes since 2017. Prior to her appointment at Rhodes, she was president of Austin College, in Sherman, Texas, and before that, she spent more than 16 years as a member of the faculty and administration at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. During her Rhodes tenure — whose four-year length neatly matches that of the college’s standard course from matriculation to graduation — she has overseen an era of bold change. Hass has led the 173-year-old institution through a strategic-planning process, which is ongoing. Among her major priorities during her years at the college has been advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout the Rhodes community. The college established the Lynne and Henry Turley Memphis Center under Hass’ leadership, and through it has expanded service opportunities for students. According to the college’s data, applications have increased by more than 20 percent over the past four years.

Her time as president has not been without challenges. Over the course of the past year, Hass has guided Rhodes through the COVID-19 pandemic, including an early move to virtual learning last March. This January, campus reopened to residential students, with aggressive testing and contact-tracing protocols in place. Only a few weeks after students moved back to campus, the Midtown college scrambled to relocate them to suburban hotels when dormitories became uninhabitable following February’s winter weather and associated water issues. The college has faced controversy of several sorts over the past few years, including a crisis surrounding its responses to student sexual-assault allegations in 2019.

Throughout it all — shining forward progress and darker days alike — Hass has maintained an attitude of openness, even vulnerability. She arrived in Memphis in the midst of chemotherapy treatments, and chose to share the fact of her cancer experience with the college community — maybe not an easy decision, but maybe also the only truly viable one.

In October 2020, Hass appeared on the cover of Memphis magazine as part of a story I wrote about her leadership philosophy, especially in difficult times. Regular readers may note that in December 2020, shortly after I wrote a cover story for this magazine about former National Civil Rights Museum president Terri Lee Freeman, who was our 2020 Memphian of the Year, Freeman announced she would depart the museum and Memphis for a museum presidency in Baltimore. After we wrapped up our conversation yesterday, Hass joked, “Organizations may not let you profile their female CEOs anymore!”

She went on to observe, though, “When Memphis leaders leave Memphis, we carry the good news about Memphis with us.”

What follows is an edited version of my candid conversation with Hass.

Memphis Magazine: Thank you for reaching out. Obviously, massively different circumstances from our last Zoom interview [for the cover story of the October issue of Memphis magazine]. Tell me about the new opportunity. I’ve read the release, but if you could share a little in your words about where you’ll be going and what you’ll be doing.

Dr. Marjorie Hass: This is a moment to engage more fully in the national dialogue about higher education, particularly independent higher education. I have devoted my career to that on three different campuses. It is, to my mind, such an important aspect of the American higher education system. And it is facing many challenges, as you know. Rhodes is very fortunate to have navigated some of these more difficult waters so well in the last few years.

We need bold leadership that’s grounded in what’s best for our students, grounded in what we know — the kind of transformational experience that happens on our campuses — and then translating that into policy, into leadership development, into funding opportunities for institutions. It’s a very unique opportunity, and one that I didn’t expect. I wasn’t looking for this, didn’t expect it, but it became something that I feel called to do — even as hard as it is to imagine leaving Rhodes and Memphis.

I’ve served on the board of CIC, and have been very involved with another organization that’s more explicitly involved in federal policy, NAICU [National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities]. The mentoring work that I’ve done nationally also feeds into this. There was a sense that the skills and the passions that this job calls for are things that I’ve been cultivating for many years.

In the interview we did in the fall, we talked about the process that you go through in arriving at a decision — not just the decision itself, but the process that leads you to it. Your approach is so deliberate. What was this decision-making process like?

I knew in coming to Rhodes that I would not be leaving Rhodes to go to another college. There’s no college I would want to be president of more than I would want to be president of Rhodes College. Headhunters call, but none of that was interesting, or tempting, or even felt like an opportunity. I’m very committed to the work we’re doing at Rhodes.

When I was approached about this, it took some time for me even to get my thoughts and head around what it would mean to do this work. Would I have something unique that I could bring to it? Where did I feel that Rhodes was in its development? All of those factors weighed in. I spent a lot of time talking to my husband and God, not necessarily in that order. [Her husband, the other Dr. Hass, is Lawrence Hass, a former professor of humanities, philosophy, and theater arts who is a sleight-of-hand magician.]

But I didn’t have a lot of time for decision-making. This opportunity arose unexpectedly and within a very short time frame. I do feel that the work we’ve done at Rhodes has made an impact, and thinking about how to magnify that impact — how to best serve students across the country, best serve the mission of higher education.

One other factor is this moment: the change in administration, and the renewed focus on access to higher education, coupled with all the various ways that colleges have had to navigate crises over the past few years, make this a unique moment for impact and action.

I also reflect back on the couple of conversations that you and I have had about the opportunities that are presented in crisis. Collectively, we have been in an ongoing crisis for certainly the last year, and in some ways a lot longer than that. I could see that that would be also something that would impel you to make this decision.

I feel so proud of Rhodes. We have navigated this in ways that have strengthened the college. Our goal, going into this, was to make decisions about how to navigate COVID in ways that left the college stronger and better positioned for the future. I can point to so many ways that we have done that. Our strategic plan has been so widely embraced by our board of trustees, by our faculty and students, by our alumni. We’ve been able to make progress on that even in this difficult year. We will continue to do so. I’ll be here till August, so I still have plenty of time to continue working on those projects with others. And I think it sets the next president up with a real opportunity for success.

You’ve been at Rhodes four years now, a relatively short tenure in terms of the sheer numbers. But your impact has been quite a bit larger than one might expect from its length. Could you say a bit about what you’d consider to be key areas that you’ve worked on within those four years?

Many others can weigh in on what this has meant for Rhodes. For me, some of the things that have felt most impactful personally are the core relationship pieces. I am very proud of the people we’ve brought to Rhodes, of people we’ve retained and hired during my time at Rhodes. We’ve filled many key positions, including some brand-new positions that are explicitly focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion. We have our first chief diversity office [Dr. Sherry Turner]; she’s also vice president for strategic initiatives. That’s not just a new person, but a new position. We have some new deans and a newly restructured provost’s office. Those are all opportunities where we’ve brought people who will be shaping Rhodes for many, many years to come. We’ve made changes in the communication office; we’ve really prioritized both strategic communication and more informal ways of engaging with faculty and students on campus, as well as our alumni.

All of those pieces have impacted the culture — the way it feels to be at Rhodes, and how people feel they belong there. So that feels to me like the most gratifying part of the work we’ve done together. We’ve charted a course for the future that is focused strategically on positioning Rhodes to be the institution of choice, or an institution of choice, for the diverse, talented students of tomorrow. We’ve honed what we call the Rhodes Edge. All of those pieces certainly will be here for the long haul.

The work with the [Lynne and Henry] Turley Memphis Center is gratifying. The work we’ve done on teacher education, to help put teachers in Memphis’ classrooms. And the deepening of bonds between Rhodes and the community of Memphis. All of those things feel very personally meaningful for me.

And also very ongoing. As you say, these things are in motion and can continue even without you on campus.

It’s very easy to look at the things that have gone well. The things that have been most meaningful to me have been the ways we have worked through, and I have led our campus through, some very difficult moments. Obviously, COVID was unprecedented, but also other reckonings with aspects of Rhodes’ history, and Rhodes’ present, called for holding our campus as we navigated difficult dialogues, difficult conversations. That also feels very personally gratifying and meaningful, even though those aren’t necessarily the things you point to as the most exciting or newsworthy moments in my tenure here.

We’ve talked before about leaning into crisis, not walking away from it — letting crisis change you.

You asked me how Rhodes might have changed as a result of my being here. But there’s also how I’ve changed because of my participation in the Rhodes community and in the Memphis community. There’s so much that I take away from this experience. I’m not the same woman who came here, either. I have allowed myself to be changed in important ways through the experience of leading Rhodes and living in Memphis.

We’ve been dealing with so much, and so much all at once — I wonder what the experience has been like for you and for the college, to bring students back after everyone has been remote for quite a while [Rhodes ended its spring 2020 semester virtually, and remained virtual during the fall 2020 semester], and then a month or so later, the dorms become uninhabitable because of water problems caused by February’s winter storms.

Historically, let’s hope I will be the only president ever to have to evacuate the campus twice within one year — we don’t want anyone to break that record!

Going through hardship is what bonds you and what shapes you as an institution. We faced these things at Rhodes with our values front and center. As you and I have talked about, the very first thing we did is look at how we make decisions. It’s easy, in times of peace and plenty and calm, to say in words what you value. But it’s when the chips are down, and you’re making challenging decisions, that those values become visible. I think that visibility will serve Rhodes. Again, we certainly want peace and plenty and calm to be the watchwords of Rhodes’ future. But it also will mean that in very living memory, we know that we can navigate through rough waters — and come out better and stronger.

I think with institutions, as with people: you often learn the true colors not in the easy, abundant times, but in the more difficult, stressful times.

My time at Rhodes has been marked by a lot of personal vulnerability. You and I have talked over my years here, too, about how I arrived in the middle of chemotherapy. I was very open with our campus about what that meant for me physically and personally. Rhodes was also reckoning with a number of issues when I arrived. We were acknowledging what it meant for us to be celebrating 100 years of co-education, but only 50 years of integration. We had a longstanding set of questions around our primary campus building, and its namesake. [The college’s oldest building, now known as Southwestern Hall, was, until 2019, known as Palmer Hall, after Rev. Benjamin Palmer, who advanced a purported Biblical justification for slavery.] We had a number of issues that really had to be taken on directly. I would like to think that part of why I was able to help the college work through some of these more longstanding issues was because I was so fully present in those conversations. I didn’t have a lot of personal shields between me and the decisions that the college had to face.

That rings really true for me. Sometimes it’s simpler to be fully present with others’ difficulties in moments when we ourselves don’t have a whole lot of skin on. I’ve had some moments like that. It’s difficult, and it’s exhausting, but often that’s when the most transformative work can happen.

And it invites others to come in, set their armor down, at least for the purposes of the conversation, and you can speak freely and truly. Obviously, as a president you have to make controversial decisions. Certainly there are people who are critical of things I’ve done, or didn’t do. But I hope that people have always felt that I have dealt with them from the core of my being. That I have acted with integrity and with as much transparency as circumstances would allow.

I don’t know exactly how long you’ve known you will be departing Rhodes. What has it been like for you: knowing this news while others don’t, and continuing to show up and lead every day?

First of all, I’m not a good secret keeper; I don’t like to ask others to keep secrets. Fortunately, this has not been a long, drawn-out process. But the bigger question is: how do you lead when you know you’re leaving, right? We have between now and July/August — how will you lead?

The secret, though, is that as a leader you always are leading for what will be beyond you. From day one. You have to be thinking not just: what is best for today, but: how is this shaping the future of the institution? And you’re always trying to make the institution bigger and better than you — more than you. Rhodes belongs to everyone and no one. As an institution, it must and will extend beyond any individual’s leadership. Everything I’ve tried to do at Rhodes, from the day I arrived, has really been with that in mind: what is it that sets Rhodes on a trajectory to longer-term success? And what can I do in my time here to serve our students — not just today’s students, but tomorrow’s, and the students after that.

You make the changes that you can make with the time that you’re allotted. I think about U.S. presidents who have to, like, start answering questions about their presidential libraries before they’ve even gotten through the midterms.

Right, from day one: what do you want your legacy to be? You can’t think like that, but you also have to remember that the institution is more than you. We’ve seen what happens when leaders forget that. When a leader imagines that they are more important, that they transcend the institution rather than the other way around, you really don’t get the kind of good decision-making and the kind of ethical leadership that are required.

And we’re all of us, in roles like this, short-termers to one extent or another.

The average college presidency now is something like five years. I imagined staying at Rhodes longer.

The way that you’re approaching this move and framing it, you’re not moving away from Rhodes, so much as moving toward an opportunity that will in many ways strengthen the future of Rhodes and other colleges like it. It’s not a moving-away, necessarily, it’s a moving-toward.

It’s an expansion, not a separation. That’s really something that makes it plausible and possible. First of all, Rhodes has a lot of relationships with CIC, as do many other independent colleges [Christian Brothers University is another Memphis-based member, for instance.] Rhodes sends a lot of leaders to CIC for leadership development. And the kind of decisions that are being made about policy impact Rhodes and its students every day. We’re about to enter into a major conversation nationally about the Pell Grant, which is essential for so many Rhodes students. We’re about to focus on diversifying and broadening the leadership pipeline so that there are great presidents and provosts and deans for decades to come, reflecting the makeup of our student bodies. We are looking to help colleges identify ways to strengthen their financial underpinnings, so that, again, they can make access available to students.

You’ll be moving to D.C. — is that exciting?

The most exciting thing about it is that I can hop on a train in D.C. and be in Philadelphia really quickly, where my son lives. Bringing our family back together — especially after this difficult year — feels really pleasing. My husband and I both have colleagues and friends on the East Coast, in Washington, D.C., and New York, so there’s certainly a piece of a homecoming there, given that we spent 17 years near Philadelphia. All of that feels good. And then I think about the energy and excitement of being in D.C. and being in the midst of those very important conversations that may seem abstract, but on a daily basis shape the conditions of our campuses.

But we’re leaving parts of ourselves here in Memphis.

The college, through your tenure, has formed a more productive relationship with the city than it’s had for most of my memory.

Right, but it also means that we’re not just saying goodbye to a campus; we’re saying goodbye to a city that we’ve come to love. We will be leaving parts of our heart here, and we will be back often. As Memphians and Memphis leaders find ways to interact with higher education on a national basis, or have business in D.C., I will look forward to continuing these relationships and connections.