LL Spring05.indd - Lehman College

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• • • • • • • • • • • • • • DEVELOPMENT • • • • • • • • • • NEWS • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • The reception establishing the Billy Collins adding that “the best thing is you don’t have to be dead Endowed Scholarship Fund to have it named after you.” sparkled, as one might The fund will support a de- expect, with dry wit and selfserving student in any field. deprecating humor. Also speaking at the “I started at Lehman in event, held in the Dining the sub-professorial rank Commons of the CUNY called full-time lecturer,” Graduate Center, were Pres- recalled the now-famous poet Distinguished Professor Billy Collins ident Ricardo R. Fernández; and Distinguished Professor. enjoys the evening’s speakers. John Mauk Hilliard, director “The only group you could of Testing and Scholarships look down on was the part-time lecturer.” (retired); Samina Shahidi-McDonald, who This was still not “ample condescension,” he studied with Professor Collins at Lehman; and noted, for the wide gulf between the lecturer Frank McCourt, author of Angela’s Ashes and and the professor, a chasm resembling that ‘Tis, who told the audience that the writer is “between the paramecium and the archangel.” “confined and imprisoned” in prose, while the But, he went on, he did get to evaluate scores poet is free to “flutter around.” of freshman writing assignments, making mar- In Billy Collins’s poems, he explained, the ginal comments like “awkward” and “comma reader is “caught off-guard because of the splice” and asking one-word questions like humor.” The poems “tremble,” as he put it, “coherence?,” “sense?” and “logic?” because the meaning “is under the surface.” Students, faculty and friends gathered last Professor Collins was Poet Laureate of the fall to help start the fund and to honor its United States (2001-2003) and is Poet Laure- namesake for his contribution to Lehman Colate of New York State (2004-2006). The Poetry lege and to the world of poetry. Foundation recently gave him the Mark Twain “My hope,” said the former U.S. Poet Laure- Award, and his most recent poetry book, Nine ate, “is that your generosity and my reputation Horses, was short listed for the T.S. Eliot Prize will continue to grow through the scholarship, and the Forward Prize. ◆ 10 Billy Collins Scholarship Fund Honors a Gifted Teacher and a Poet What’s It Like to Be a Student of Billy Collins? Helping to honor Billy Collins was Samina Shahidi-McDonald, a public school teacher who studied with him during his first year as Poet Laureate of the United States. Here are excerpts from her remarks: “While I was invariably assigning a Billy Collins poem to my students in my morning sessions, Prof. Collins, himself, would stroll into class in the early evenings, the rain of New Zealand, New Mexico or New Jersey still pearling his lapels. It meant a great deal to the graduate students at Lehman to have Prof. Collins teaching there, particularly at the beginning of his national reign. Most of us, teachers in the public school system, took heed of the Poetry 180 program he had developed, relieved to find that poetry could not only be discussed, but taught in a straightforward, demystified manner... “Being a student of Billy Collins means that you will be listened to patiently, and encouraged generously. It entails a learning of the discourses of aesthetics, structure, form and language. Simultaneously, you are also being taught how to teach, bringing with you into your classroom that care for literature, that necessary regard for your students. “I have had the good fortune to work with professors at Lehman who have demanded rigorous effort and practice, coupled with a dedication to serve a student population that arguably has its considerable share of responsibility. This purpose is what Billy Collins has come to exemplify. “I can think of no better way to honor this kind of commitment....In supporting this scholarship, we stand behind this son of Irish and French Canadian immigrants extending his considerable knowledge and craft to Lehman students, themselves the writing sons and daughters of North Americans and Latino, African, Arab, Eastern European and Asian immigrants—our future poets and writers.” ◆ Another guest at the event, the Empire State Building, as seen through the skylight. Below: Professor Collins (left) and his wife, Diane (second from right), with President Fernández and his wife, Patricia. From left: (above) Authors Frank McCourt and Jane Mayer (The New Yorker) with Professor Collins and Sam Menache, winner of the Neglected Masters Award from the Poetry Foundation. (below) Professor Fred Phelps (Psychology), co-chair of the Leonard Lief Drive; John Mauk Hilliard, M.C. for the evening; and Professor Thomas Ihde, director of the CUNY Institute for Irish-American Studies, based at Lehman. English faculty members recall old times: From left, Professors Billy Collins, Walter Dubler, Walter Blanco and Michael Paull.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • DEVELOPMENT • • • • • • • • • • • NEWS • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Generosity of Candido Maldonado ‘79 Honors Professor Dauben And Supports Lehman History Students Candido Maldonado ‘79 was a first-generation American, whose parents were newly arrived from Puerto Rico. First he learned to speak English through television and then he learned about responsibility, when he would come home after school to care for his mother, who was ill. Enlisting in the Marine Corps, where he played saxophone in its military band, he later enrolled in Lehman College. At Lehman, he met a member of the history faculty—Professor Joseph Dauben, who encouraged his studies and inspired his lifelong love of learning. As Maldonado spent his career in the New York City Transit System, guiding commuters on their way, he spent much of his free time in libraries, reading and learning about other cultures and their history, and also accumulating his own extensive personal collection of books. When he died in 1999, Candido Maldonado—a generous man with an enormous heart, even though his income was modest—left major gifts in his will to the Eastern Paralyzed Veterans Association and to Lehman College. At Lehman, as he intended, the gift will fund a “scholarship for a student majoring in history...in honor of Distinguished Professor Joseph Dauben, without whose encouragement I would not have graduated.” It is the largest alumni gift the College has ever received. Speaking at a luncheon honoring this legacy, Lehman President Ricardo R. Fernández noted that “Candido must have been a hard-working student because otherwise he would not have made it through Professor Dauben’s class.” He told Mrs. Maldonado that he hopes she “will find great joy in knowing that your husband’s bequest will help students for as long as Lehman exists.” In recalling her husband’s impact both on herself and on others around him, Mrs. Maldonado compared his life to a pebble that is thrown into a perfectly still lake and causes many ripples. “He had such a big heart and an inquisitive mind that he was like a teacher to me, encouraging me to pursue my interest in yoga to the point where I, too, became a teacher. “Bless you for seeing in Candido what I saw in him.” Representing the History Department, Professor Duane Tananbaum, the department chair, said that Maldonado was typical of the Lehman student in that he “had very realistic Ervin Goodson ‘03 (standing) with Professor Dauben and Mrs. Candido Maldonado at a luncheon honoring her husband’s memory and his gift to Lehman College, the largest contribution from an alumnus in the College’s history. dreams and achieved many of them.” Introducing Ervin Goodson, a recent student of Professor Dauben’s, Professor Tananbaum noted that Goodson had played saxophone at various subway stops to earn the money he needed for tuition. “With this scholarship,” Professor Tananbaum said, “a student will be able to work ten hours a week perhaps, rather than 20, 30 or 40 hours, and that will enable them to get A’s so they can go on to graduate school.” He noted also that Professor Dauben had chosen to become involved as a teacher of “writing-intensive” courses, even though he was not required, as a senior professor, to take on this additional commitment to the students. Thinking back to one of those courses—one of his last history courses before graduation— Goodson recalled that Professor Dauben’s criticism was always constructive and helpful. “Candido Maldonado’s gift is going to honor a wonderful person,” he said, “who is always very cordial and kind, as well as an eminent and formidable scholar. I thank Professor Dauben for being such a great teacher of such high academic integrity and for sharing his knowledge with us.” Remembering Maldonado’s days as a student, Professor Dauben praised him for “not being afraid to come and ask questions. That set him apart. “Teaching at Lehman is a privilege for me,” he said, explaining that at other colleges where he has taught, “There’s no question what will happen to the students. Their paths are set.” At Lehman, though, he noted, the students are not aware of these opportunities so teachers can make more of an impact. ◆ Scholarship Benefit May 10 to Honor Professor Corigliano Distinguished members of the academic and music communities are planning a gala benefit to honor Distinguished Professor of Music John Corigliano and establish the Corigliano Music Scholarships at Lehman College. The event will be held on Tuesday, May 10, from 6 to 9 pm in the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse at Lincoln Center. Professor Corigliano is renowned as one of the world’s leading composers. In orchestral, chamber, opera and film work, he has won critical acclaim for his highly expressive and compelling works. In 2000, he received an Academy Award for his original score of “The Red Violin” and in 2001, he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his Symphony No. 2. He received the coveted Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition for his Symphony No. 1 in 1991. His latest work, “Circus Maximus” (Symphony No. 3 for large wind ensemble), made its New York premiere—to thunderous applause—at Carnegie Hall this February. Performed by the University of Texas Wind Ensemble, the work is the first that Professor Corigliano has specifically written for concert band. Commissioned by the Ensemble’s director, it is scored for large wind ensemble onstage, along with an ensemble that surrounds the audience. The title stems from the visual image of musicians encircling the audience, placing spectators in the center of an ancient Rome-like arena. Indeed, Circus Maximus was a real place in ancient Rome—the largest arena in the world. For his theme, the composer drew parallels between the high decadence of those Roman days and certain forms of today’s entertainment. ◆ 11
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LL Spring05.indd - Lehman College

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