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Riding in cars with boys
16 November '09 by rnirschel, under Community.
Friday night I had the privilege of joining Colonel Dean Esserman, chief of the Providence Police Department and an honorary son of Roger Williams University, for a midnight ride on patrol in our state’s capital.
Starting at the downtown Public Safety Complex, I toured the narcotics unit, saw holding cells and watched roll call as officers in blue and captains in white planned the evening’s deployment. I even saw a skull in BSI (the real-life version of television’s CSI) from an unsolved murder.
I was impressed with the technology at the ready – data to identify crime “hot spots,” the release of felons, gang violence, violence by gang wannabes – but also with the human connection the officers have to the community and citizens. Riding on a rain-slicked night we saw a fire or two, a hit and run, and youths on bicycles wearing matching gang caps and claiming to be off to the mall (at 11 pm?). The police knew the gang members and others on sight and had an easy rapport.
Stopping off at the New York Style for coffee milk and fries (disrupting my daily rhythm and diet) at midnight, we caught up with Teny Gross, the indefatigable head of the Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence, who gave me his perspective on how to tackle violence in Providence, the investment necessary and the price we pay for failing to do so.
The clubs of Providence were about to spill out, pouring thousands of students and not-so-young revelers onto the streets. We drove past dozens of officers at the ready and then headed home to quiet Bristol, secure in the knowledge that the citizens of Providence were well served on Friday the 13th by the Providence PD and that RWU’s efforts in police training and justice studies are partners with them.
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Every Day should be Veterans Day
12 November '09 by rnirschel, under Community.
Yesterday we had a moving Veterans Day ceremony on campus, held in memory of Joseph Fortin, Class of 2008, who was killed in Iraq this August.
Hundreds of students, faculty, staff and family members attended as a wreath was laid in the courtyard, next to the cornerstone that memorialized Kenneth “Brad” Goff, a 1966 graduate of then Roger Williams Junior College, missing and presumed dead in Vietnam.
I thought of my own parents, both World War II veterans; my uncle who survived in Korea; my grandfather who fought in World War I; and the stories they told – of Normandy, of guarding prisoners of war in Washington, of trench warfare and of how cold Korea was.
For decades, the University has provided outstanding educational programs for veterans and active duty military here and abroad, including now a paralegal studies program offered on ships at sea for members of the Navy. We have an active ROTC program and are recognized as a military-friendly university.
But respect for veterans should transcend just a single day of recognition or our educational programs. Americans throughout the year should champion better pay for servicemen and women, adequate supplies and gear, improved health benefits including mental health upon return, as well as the respect of a grateful nation.
Roger Williams University is a private institution with numerous labor unions representing our employees, and Veterans Day has been a day of work, one “traded” in negotiations for holidays that provide three-day weekends and the like. I am championing a change – that Veterans Day be a holiday at our University replacing the uniquely Rhode Island Victory Day in August. I do this out of respect for alumni like Brad and Joseph and for the countless others who have served or continue to serve today.
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There is no honor in “honor killings”
28 October '09 by rnirschel, under Abroad.
It is hard to imagine that in the 21st century, in parts of the Islamic world, women are killed not by strangers but by male family members for bringing “dishonor” on the family name. Such “crimes” as flirting, sexual relations or even immodest dress can result in men – brothers and fathers – killing their own daughters or sisters.
On November 12, journalist and author Rana Husseini is coming to Roger Williams University – hosted by our Women’s Center – to discuss the horrific practice known as “honor killing.”
Although women have achieved great political and economic freedom in the U.S. and elsewhere, including the developing world, there remains a two-tiered system of dignity and worth afforded women in many parts of the planet. That’s why it was important for us to provide educational opportunities for young women from Afghanistan, bring speakers to campus on issues such as “comfort women” in World War II Asia, and now raise this topic of honor killings.
Issues raised by women’s centers are not just women’s issues – they are human rights issues. As a sidebar, what gets lost in the debate about Afghanistan is that, since 2001, millions of girls who previously were denied the right to education (or any human rights) under the Taliban have gone to school. That right vanishes should the Taliban resume power.
Empowering women empowers a village, which empowers a society. Honor killings not only kill the poor woman, but also reduce the human dignity of those perpetrating the crime. It is unfortunate that we have to have programs on domestic violence, sexual abuse or even honor killings. But raising consciousness and issuing a call to action is what education should be about in addition to classroom learning.
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On the Road
13 October '09 by rnirschel, under Community.
It’s Homecoming soon at RWU, so instead of being on the road I will be in Bristol – welcoming back families, alumni and friends (and hosting a scholarship fundraising gala in the new Global Heritage Hall).
I will also be “going home” to Stamford, Conn. – my hometown in a sense. Stamford’s news publication, The Advocate, invited me to be a guest book reviewer (via blogging, coincidentally) and I reviewed “On the Road,” by Jack Kerouac.
Four decades later I still come back to Kerouac. In 2007 I was flattered that Professor Jim Takach asked me to introduce Ann Charters, the definitive author of matters Kerouac and the Beats, during our annual Birss lecture on the 50th anniversary of “On the Road’s” publication. I have visited the Kerouac gravesite as well as his hangouts in Lowell and San Francisco. My daughter Jane and our RWU wellness coordinator Kim have both joined me in the Kerouac 5K Road Race in Lowell to raise scholarship funds for a budding writer.
Jack Kerouac grave site in Lowell, Mass
Why Kerouac? He had a love for language and description. He had a voracious appetite (too voracious at times) but at his heart he was a patriot, a man of faith, someone supremely human. He saw the world with eyes wide open and in his writing believed that all his words were one word – and the word was “Wow.”
And in October, he wrote, “it’s homecoming; everyone goes home in October.”
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The best laid plans
01 October '09 by rnirschel, under Abroad.
Instead of catching a plane to Istanbul I caught the flu (fortunately not the swine kind) followed by dental problems that caused me to cancel my long awaited trip. In my absence, Provost Laura deAbruna did an outstanding job carrying the RWU message to Turkey on my behalf.
Closer to home I still managed to stay global by acknowledging our four newest presidential ambassadors – staff members who were chosen to go abroad this winter in hopes of making the campus more global. The criteria are rigorous: no prior study abroad experience; little to no international travel; and be a stellar representative of the University.
Palazzo Rucellai
John Tameo from facilities, Gordon Wood from campus programs, Carol Sachetti from student affairs and Barbara Kenny from the library will be off this year to spend a week in Florence at our program at the Palazzo Rucellai. The notion is to make the campus even more global by complementing faculty and student study abroad with that of our staff. Last year’s “class” not only came home more globally aware but also incorporated global thinking into their work (in the dining hall, IT, residence life and even the office of the president).
I have also challenged the faculty curriculum committees to mandate study abroad for every student academically and judicially eligible, as well as a foreign language requirement for all students who hope to teach or work in an internationally oriented field. I cannot write curriculum but am hopeful that the faculty will take this opportunity seriously and work across disciplines (which doesn’t always happen!) to make our students more globally aware and connected, just as we are doing with our presidential ambassadors.
