The presentation and discussion will address attitudes toward authority and the nature and value of authority and questioning in a variety of contexts, including family, college, science, art, and athletics.

Among the topics to be addressed are the nature of authoritarian personalities, the awe that authority can inspire, and how to deal with various sorts of authority.

In conjunction with the convocation, Alpern will moderate a discussion on intelligent design and evolution Wednesday, January 24, from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., in the Alumni Heritage Room in Teachout-Price Hall.

This discussion, led by Hiram students Dan Factor and John Somerville, continues a series of such constructive discussions, which have included the topics of abortion, euthanasia, and the relationship between Palestine and Israel.

Hiram College celebrates Black History Month with two February events

Sparrow Village – the last hope for children dying of AIDS

The Sparrow Village Hospice, South Africa's first hospice for people dying of HIV/AIDS, was founded on February 14, 1992, by Rev. Corine McClintock. Since its opening, the reality of AIDS challenges the hospice workers daily. From hopeless, helpless individuals who stand outside the doors to the children with their brave smiles looking for someone to love - these hospice workers are surrounded by one of the biggest tragedies in human history. 

On February 7 at 7:00 p.m. in the Kennedy Center Ballroom, Carol Ruggie, a United States representative of Sparrow Village, will be speaking about this remarkable African Hospice started to offer a few months of comfort and dignity for abandoned African children dying from AIDS.

This presentation will include graphic images and sensitive content which may not be appropriate for young children.

For more information, go to: http://www.sparrowvillage.org/Sparrows.html.

Secret Black Military Units of World War II

Did you know the U.S. Navy had a destroyer escort called the USS Mason with an all-black crew that rescued single-handedly an entire convoy in the North Atlantic? The ship, known as Eleanor's Folly because the first lady supported an integrated military, was immediately scrapped after the war, helping to keep it a secret.

Did you know in 1944 the State of Oregon was attacked by the Japanese and defended by the Triple Nickels, an all-black parachute team that pioneered modern-day smoke jumping techniques?

Did you know that General Patton had an all-black tank battalion he sent into battle ahead of the white tank crews to use up the German ammunition? The black crewmen kept winning, were the first to cross into Germany, and hold unprecedented accomplishments still unchallenged today!

Did you know that Patton's 3rd Army, as it fought its way across France, consumed up to 800,000 gallons of gasoline per day in its tanks, trucks, and jeeps? The Red Ball Express, an all-black unit of 6000 tanker trucks, supplied this front-line army with its fuel and ammunition.

Did you know that the Tuskegee Airmen, the first all-black Army Air Corp fighter group flying P-51 Mustangs, escorted over 15,000 B-17 and B-24 bombers on 200 separate bombing missions over targets in Germany and Romania and never lost one single bomber to enemy fighters?

Learn about these incredible stories and meet some of the original war heroes at 7:00 p.m., Thursday, February 16, 2006, in Dix Hall in the Kennedy Center at Hiram College. Autographs will be available and photographs will be taken of you with these remarkable heroes!

The roadmap to Hollywood

During a three-day visit to Hiram College for the world premiere of his teleplay "The Water Is Wide," alumnus Jonathan Estrin '69 answered the equivalent of the old trick question: How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

The answer, as the joke goes, is not directional but practice, practice, practice.This wasn't Estrin’s answer, however, when he addressed a similar question with his College Convocation speech: "From Hiram to Hollywood: The making of a writer/producer/director."

The answer, Estrin told those who attended the convocation, is both more complex and simpler. Whether the destination is Hollywood – an Estrin haunt when he isn’t performing his day job as executive vice president of the American Film Institute – Carnegie Hall, or another exotic port of employment, a person can get there with a liberal arts education from Hiram College.

In fact, Estrin said, a Hiram education can be a fast ticket. It was for him. Though he went on to get a master’s degree in theatre directing from the University of California at Davis, it was the passion he discovered at Hiram that paved his way to Hollywood. An underachieving student – he thought the only way he was likely to get out of high school was if someone served him with extradition papers – Estrin discovered at Hiram the first of four road markers he followed to Hollywood. Keith Leonard, professor of theatre, showed it to him.

"He had a passion for (theatre) that was overwhelming," Estrin said. "Passion just oozed out of him."

It doesn't matter what the passion is for, Estrin said, just that it exists.

When his son graduated from high school, Estrin shared with him his Hiram lesson: "Figure out what you like to do most, and get someone to pay you for it."

This isn't as simple as it might sound.

"You must live in the world," Estrin explained. "Whatever path you choose, it exists in a context."

Estrin's passion for directing did not translate into his dream job and a matching salary.

"This is how naïve I was," Estrin said. "I thought I would go to L.A. and direct plays and someone would see me and invite me to direct a movie."

Didn't happen. But that didn't discourage Estrin, who recounted an allegory about a grandmother who was walking on the beach with her grandson when a huge wave crashed onto the beach and swept the boy away. The grandmother prayed that her grandson be returned to her, and suddenly another wave deposited the boy back on the beach. The grandmother looked up at the sky and said: He had a hat.

"Always ask for the hat," Estrin said. "You ask for the impossible. I'm asking for the hat all the time."

Since no one would hire him to direct a movie, he decided he'd have to write one and then refuse to sell it unless he could produce or direct it. Estrin had never done this, but the idea led him to his third road marker.

"Nobody ever did anything before the first time they did it," he said. "You can figure it out."

He did, and he got to produce what he wrote.

He has applied the same principle to leading, for the past 10 years, Operation USA, an international medical relief and development that has sent more than $200 million in goods to 81 countries, and to winning the position of dean of the College of Media Arts & Design at Drexel University.

In his job interview at Drexel, he told university officials that he would be perfect for the job because, "I come to you unencumbered by knowledge."

"You make it up as you go along," Estrin said.

He and other Hiram graduates have been able to do this, he said, because of the fourth and final road marker that guided him to Hollywood.

They learned how to learn, Estrin said.

"What is important about your education," he told the convocation audience, "is not what you learn specifically – that will be obsolete – but that you learn you can learn."

Do this, he said, and a person can wing it, as in the Guillaume Apollinaire poem:

"Come to the edge.
No, we will fall.

Come to the edge.
No, we will fall.

Come to the edge.
He pushed them,
And they flew."

Quick hits…

• The Friends of the Hiram College Library will hold their January Book Sale in the Library Monday, January 23, through Friday, January 27. All books cost 50 cents and sale racks are restocked regularly. The sale hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., except for Wednesday when the closing time is 9 p.m.
  
  
• There will be a T-shirt at the end of the Buckeye Trail for those who join the Walkers Club and complete 26 segments of the Buckeye Trail. A map may be viewed at www.buckeyetrail.org or on the third floor bulletin board near the Martin Fieldhouse track. The Walkers Club, which is free, is open to students, faculty, staff and their partners, as well as Coleman Sports Center pass holders. To sign up or for more information, contact: Jim Johnston at johnstonjw@hiram.edu or 330.569.5351, or Carl Capellas at capellascp@hiram.edu or 330.569.5344.
  
  
• Intramural Basketball League, Intramural Soccer League, and Intramural Floor Hockey sign-ups will continue through Thursday, January 26. Each basketball team will consist of five players with a limit of one former Hiram College player on the team. Each soccer team must have four men and two women with a limit of three varsity soccer players. Each floor hockey team will consist of four men and two women. There is a $10 entry fee for teams in both leagues. It is refundable at the end of the season. To sign up for basketball or for more information, contact: Carl Capellas at capellascp@hiram.edu or 330.569.5344, Ryan Winger at wingerrc@hiram.edu, or Max Kravitz at kravitzjm@hiram.edu. For soccer sign-ups and information, contact: Capellas, Winger, or Meghan Urbon at urbonmt@hiram.edu.  And for floor hockey sign-ups and information, contact: Capellas, Winger or Paul Pancoe at pancoepm@hiram.edu.
  
  
• Student Senate and the Office of Campus Involvement have opened the new Student Organization Resource Center (SORC) in the basement of the Kennedy Center. The SORC also includes the community service office.


• Get in the groove on Monday nights with the Hiram College Afro-Cuban Ensemble.  This campus-community drum circle is open without charge to Hiram students, faculty, staff, and area residents of all ages.  Beginners meet 6:30-7:15 p.m. in Room 102 of Frohring Music Hall, Dean Street,  Hiram.  Players with at least one semester experience meet from 7:30-8:30.  Director is Cleveland hand percussionist John Spuzzillo.  Latin and African drums are provided or you can bring your own.  Group members are expected to attend regularly.  The ensemble is supported by Hiram College and the Hiram Community Trust.  For further information call the Music Department at 330-569-5294.