Blumenstyk and Stephens Kick Off Spring 2025 Presidential Speaker Series with Discussion of Role of Higher Education
Blumenstyk and Stephens Kick Off Spring 2025 Presidential Speaker Series with Discussion of Role of Higher Education
nhendrickson@c…
Colgate’s spring 2025 Presidential Speaker Series, “The University and the Public Good: The Role of the American College in Our Time,” launched on Jan. 23 with a Q&A session led by President Brian Casey featuring New York Times opinion writer Bret Stephens and former Chronicle of Higher Education senior writer Goldie Blumenstyk ’79. The live-streamed event, which took place at the New York Historical, explored the evolving responsibilities of higher education and the challenges colleges and universities face in today’s rapidly changing political and cultural landscape. The significance of higher education The session began with the basics: why would journalists dedicate their careers to covering higher education? From their perspective, events on college campuses can say a lot about what's happening on the national stage. While covering state politics, Blumenstyk found that a lot could be understood about an area’s political climate by examining its universities, “Higher education systems in states are a reflection of the state, the state’s politics, the state’s history, culture, and their economics,” Blumenstyk says. Similarly, Stephens shared that campus happenings are a reflection of larger national trends. “When I look to what is happening on college campuses and when I interact with recent graduates, I see a lot of what ails and what is going to ail the United States,” Stephens says. “I think the dogmatism, ignorance, and self-certainties that have typified American politics were incubated on campuses a generation or two ago and continue to be incubated now.” The question then becomes, what is happening on campuses to create such an effect on the nation?
Campus crises While both journalists agree that the nation is facing a great threat to democracy, they offer different perspectives on how universities contribute to the problem. For Stephens, the main issue lies in the curriculum. While students are gaining more choice in what they study, they are losing fundamental knowledge that impairs their ability to be well-educated citizens — including ancient philosophy and epistemology. “What universities have to do is to prepare their students to have a common set of ideas and intellectual touchstones that make them understand what it is that they are doing in their lives, in their countries, and in the world,” Stephens says. Blumenstyk disagrees. While tuitions continue to rise and the value of college education is being questioned, the loss of the traditional curriculum of the past is not the most pressing problem of colleges today. “You can develop an education without having this common core of classics; I don’t think that's the definition of an educated American right now,” Blumenstyk says. “You can develop critical thinking skills and develop your passions and interests in a lot of topics by taking things through all different kinds of disciplines.” Concerning fall 2023 protests The nation began to question the role of higher education as college protests and encampments caught the attention of the national media in the fall of 2023 when many denounced administrations for disappointing responses to the events on their campuses. Blumenstyk criticized the failure of universities to provide meaningful guidance during those volatile moments, “The place where I think higher education failed the most during this period is it didn’t teach,” Blumenstyk says. “Everything became so polarized, some of the most knowledgeable people didn’t want to step into the fray so it became much more ideological instead of educational.” The events highlighted shortcomings in higher education and emphasized a need for universities to rethink their approach to education.
What universities must do As the discussion came to a close, Stephens and Blumenstyk called for universities to reflect on their responsibilities to their students and society as a whole. While returning to a focus on teaching and research, Blumenstyk asks that universities begin to lean more heavily into public service, “Universities actually have the capacity to serve society in great ways,” Blumenstyk says. In order to move forward, administrators must ask themselves if they are aligned with their core mission and evaluate the strength of their teaching. “How do we produce students we are going to be proud of in 40 years? That’s the question,” Stephens said.
Alumni
News and Updates
Alumni
Faculty & Staff
Debate and Discourse
Presidential Speakers Series
President Brian Casey, Bret Stephens, and Goldie Blumenstyk ’79 kick off Colgate’s spring 2025 Presidential Speaker Series, “The University and the Public Good: The Role of the American College in Our Time,” at the New York Historical on Jan. 23. (Photo by Mark DiOrio)
President Brian Casey, Bret Stephens, and Goldie Blumenstyk ’79 kick off Colgate’s spring 2025 Presidential Speaker Series, “The University and the Public Good: The Role of the American College in Our Time,” at the New York Historical on Jan. 23. (Photo by Mark DiOrio)
Colgate’s spring 2025 Presidential Speaker Series, “The University and the Public Good: The Role of the American College in Our Time,” launched on Jan. 23 with a Q&A session led by President Brian Casey featuring New York Times opinion writer Bret Stephens and former Chronicle of Higher Education senior writer Goldie Blumenstyk ’79. The live-streamed event, which took place at the New York Historical, explored the evolving responsibilities of higher education and the challenges colleges and universities face in today’s rapidly changing political and cultural landscape.
The significance of higher education
The session began with the basics: why would journalists dedicate their careers to covering higher education? From their perspective, events on college campuses can say a lot about what's happening on the national stage. While covering state politics, Blumenstyk found that a lot could be understood about an area’s political climate by examining its universities, “Higher education systems in states are a reflection of the state, the state’s politics, the state’s history, culture, and their economics,” Blumenstyk says.
Similarly, Stephens shared that campus happenings are a reflection of larger national trends.
“When I look to what is happening on college campuses and when I interact with recent graduates, I see a lot of what ails and what is going to ail the United States,” Stephens says. “I think the dogmatism, ignorance, and self-certainties that have typified American politics were incubated on campuses a generation or two ago and continue to be incubated now.” The question then becomes, what is happening on campuses to create such an effect on the nation?
Campus crises
While both journalists agree that the nation is facing a great threat to democracy, they offer different perspectives on how universities contribute to the problem. For Stephens, the main issue lies in the curriculum. While students are gaining more choice in what they study, they are losing fundamental knowledge that impairs their ability to be well-educated citizens — including ancient philosophy and epistemology. “What universities have to do is to prepare their students to have a common set of ideas and intellectual touchstones that make them understand what it is that they are doing in their lives, in their countries, and in the world,” Stephens says.
Blumenstyk disagrees. While tuitions continue to rise and the value of college education is being questioned, the loss of the traditional curriculum of the past is not the most pressing problem of colleges today.
“You can develop an education without having this common core of classics; I don’t think that's the definition of an educated American right now,” Blumenstyk says. “You can develop critical thinking skills and develop your passions and interests in a lot of topics by taking things through all different kinds of disciplines.”
Concerning fall 2023 protests
The nation began to question the role of higher education as college protests and encampments caught the attention of the national media in the fall of 2023 when many denounced administrations for disappointing responses to the events on their campuses. Blumenstyk criticized the failure of universities to provide meaningful guidance during those volatile moments, “The place where I think higher education failed the most during this period is it didn’t teach,” Blumenstyk says. “Everything became so polarized, some of the most knowledgeable people didn’t want to step into the fray so it became much more ideological instead of educational.”
The events highlighted shortcomings in higher education and emphasized a need for universities to rethink their approach to education.
What universities must do
As the discussion came to a close, Stephens and Blumenstyk called for universities to reflect on their responsibilities to their students and society as a whole. While returning to a focus on teaching and research, Blumenstyk asks that universities begin to lean more heavily into public service, “Universities actually have the capacity to serve society in great ways,” Blumenstyk says.
In order to move forward, administrators must ask themselves if they are aligned with their core mission and evaluate the strength of their teaching. “How do we produce students we are going to be proud of in 40 years? That’s the question,” Stephens said.
Latest Latest
- Anzi Wang ’25 Recognized for Research on Psycholinguistic AnalysisAnzi Wang ’25 Recognized for Research on Psycholinguistic Analysis omiller1@colgate.edu Anzi Wang ’25 Confronted with election data that suggests 60% of counted ballots belong to the Democratic Party, would you say that the Democrats “will probably win the election,” or would you be more cautious and say they “might win the election”? Uncertainty expressions — words like “might” and “probably” — are spoken more or less cautiously in different contexts. So how do people’s beliefs affect their interpretation of uncertain data? Anzi Wang ’25 intends to find out. In her independent research project, “Studying Confirmation Bias through (Adaptation to) Uncertainty Expressions,” Wang uses experimental and computational analysis to help improve the computational model used for psycholinguistic analysis — which seeks to understand why people say what they say. Her research over the past three years at Colgate earned her an honorable mention from the Computing Research Association, an organization that supports researchers across industries and recognizes those “who demonstrate strong research capabilities and a commitment to advancing the field.” Wang’s project began in March 2024, when she was nominated by her academic and research adviser, Professor Grusha Prasad, and selected to be one of two Mind, Brain, and Behavior Scholars at Colgate. Wang’s experiment compared two probability scenarios and the language people used to describe them. The first depicted a gumball machine with orange and purple gumballs. Participants were asked whether the first gumball that came out would not be, might be, or would probably be a certain color. The second scenario offered a hypothetical election prediction from an unknown country. Based on the data, which was stated to be from a reliable source, participants were asked whether a certain (unidentified) party would not win, might win, or would probably win. When it’s as simple as gumballs, people’s language about uncertainty matches their literal meaning. Elections are not so straightforward. The word might suggests that there is some probability that an event will happen. When asked how they would relate election information to another person, participants only said that a party might win when the polls indicated a 50% chance. In the gumball scenario, participants were much more liberal with their use of the word might, attributing it frequently to probabilities below 50% — and staying true to the meaning of the word. Why the difference? Wang suggests that individuals go through an additional interpretative step when reasoning about complex events like elections. They think about the messy contexts of other elections and consider their beliefs and perceptions, rather than accepting the truth of the poll results. As she expands this study for her thesis project, Wang hopes to learn more about biases and preferences in the language used to describe uncertain events. She can use this data to develop an improved, more accurate language model for use by future researchers. Wang and Prasad have been collaborators since February 2023. Wang worked alongside another student to set up an eye-tracking lab and design an experiment using the new tech. During summer 2023, Prasad’s research team designed a new curriculum for language models. Now, Prasad is mentoring Wang as she applies to graduate schools. While at Colgate, Wang has made the most of her interdisciplinary interests. A computer science and philosophy double major, she has been both a computer science teaching assistant and a conversationalist at the “Ask-A-Philosopher” booth at the Hamilton Farmers Market. She worked at the ALANA Cultural Center and served as a core member of Lambda. After graduation, Wang plans to obtain her PhD in computational psycholinguistics. Academics Research News and Updates Student Department of Computer Science Department of Philosophy
- Wanjiku “Wawa” Gatheru Inspires at MLK CelebrationWanjiku “Wawa” Gatheru Inspires at MLK Celebration sliddell@colgate.edu Colgate University’s 17th annual celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Week, Jan. 23–Feb. 1, kicked off with a keynote address by Wanjiku “Wawa” Gatheru, a Rhodes Scholar and environmental justice activist. The event, organized by the ALANA Cultural Center and the Office of the Dean of the College, set the tone for a week of reflection, engagement, and exploration of the theme Shaping Equitable Communities and Sustainable, Just Environments. Gatheru, the founder of Black Girl Environmentalist (BGE), has spent the last decade advocating at the intersection of equity and sustainability. Her work highlights the disproportionate impact of climate change on communities of color and women. In her keynote speech, Gatheru spoke to the principles of justice, action, and inclusivity that King championed. “Her leadership and vision have set the tone for 10 days of action, reflection, and community building,” said Esther Rosbrook, director of the ALANA Cultural Center. The evening concluded with a jazz performance from Chaplain and Catholic Campus Minister Mark Shiner, Assistant Professor of Music Brian Stark, and jazz piano teacher Richard Montalbano. The following day, Gatheru led an Environmental Studies Brown Bag discussion, engaging a packed room of students, faculty, and staff in a conversation about systemic inequalities and environmental challenges. She emphasized the need for greater representation in the climate movement, explaining, “The climate crisis isn’t just an ecological issue — it’s also a leadership crisis, a narrative crisis, and a crisis of connection.” Gatheru pointed out that while people of color make up nearly 40% of the U.S. population, they account for only 12–16% of the green workforce. Even more concerning, she noted, is that Black women have the lowest retention rate of any demographic in this space. Gatheru shared the story behind BGE, an organization she founded in 2020 after hosting a Zoom call where more than 100 Black women environmentalists came together to share their experiences. “That was the birth of the idea for BGE,” she recalled. “I realized there were actually a lot of us, and we needed a space to connect and thrive.” Throughout her Brown Bag talk, Gatheru stressed the importance of community in addressing burnout and overcoming systemic barriers in the environmental sector. “Burnout is an issue in all social impact fields, but when you add racial disparities on top of that, it’s easy to see why Black women leave these spaces so often,” she explained. “That’s why community is crucial — community care is the answer.” Gatheru challenged attendees to reflect on what it truly means to shape equitable communities and sustainable, just environments. “It means placing people at the center of the climate movement. It means acknowledging that environmental justice is social justice.” She encouraged students to recognize their role in the movement and to understand that their voices matter. She left the audience with a thought-provoking question: What’s something giving you hope today? Her own answer: solar grazing — a practice where sheep help maintain vegetation in solar farms, benefiting both agriculture and renewable energy. “Solutions come from unexpected places when people just start talking,” she said, urging students to engage in environmental justice work with new energy, curiosity, and collaboration. The MLK Week Celebration continued with more events designed to engage the Colgate community in meaningful dialogue and action. These included gatherings like an interfaith dinner and dialogue and a Sense of Belonging Listening Session, a special Jummah service focused on King’s legacy, and mindfulness sessions to honor his teachings on peace and justice. One highlight was the Day of Service, where volunteers partnered with organizations in Utica to honor King’s vision of community action. Colgate community members came together to work on local service projects through Cornerstone Church and Hope Chapel. To conclude the week, Colgate hosted the fourth annual Social Justice Summit, led by student leaders from the New York Six Liberal Arts Consortium. This daylong series of workshops helps students to explore the intersection of social justice and sustainability and provides them with the tools to create positive change in their communities. “The 2025 MLK Celebration is all about action and impact,” says Rosbrook. “With sustainability at the heart of our 10-day series, together we are shaping equitable communities and fostering sustainable environments — not just for today but for our future.” Campus Life Community Service News and Updates Faculty & Staff Student Wanjiku “Wawa” Gatheru, a Rhodes Scholar, founder of Black Girl Environmentalist and advocate for environmental justice shares her insights on creating equitable and sustainable environments. (Photo by Mike Roy)
- Bryan (Tai) Pham ’25 Named EuroSim ‘Best Delegate’ for Second Year in a RowBryan (Tai) Pham ’25 Named EuroSim ‘Best Delegate’ for Second Year in a Row sdevries@colgate.edu Senior Bryan (Tai) Pham has been awarded his second consecutive Best Delegate in a Special Role award by fellow students at EuroSim 2025 for his role as chair of the EU Environmental Council. This year’s program focused on the European Green Deal and negotiating legislation aimed at reducing microplastic pollution. EuroSim 2025 took place Jan 2–5, hosted by the University of Antwerp and organized by a consortium of roughly two dozen U.S. and European universities, including Colgate. Each year, EuroSim brings together about 150 students from these universities to debate proposed laws in simulations of the European Union legislative process. Bryan (Tai) Pham ’25 wins "Best Delegate" award at EuroSim 2025 as part of the delegation of students from Colgate. Pham is the only Colgate student to win this honor more than once, and only three other Colgate students out of the approximately 100 who have participated in the program have been recognized with a Best Delegate award: Tommy Vlattas ’21, Shameer Zahid ’18, and Andrew Eldredge ’11. Associate Professor of Political Science Ed Fogarty, who has served as the adviser for Colgate’s EuroSim program for the past 15 years, said Pham’s combination of confidence and charisma helped him stand out in his role, and earned him the award, which recognizes the students who are the most effective within their particular council or committee. “That council can often be contentious because there are a wide range of views and interests," Fogarty says. “Tai was able to maintain control of meetings and guide the delegates to a set of compromises, which is probably what got him his fellow students’ support.” Awards are voted on by the approximately 150 U.S. and European student participants, and nearly all of the awards go to European students, whose studies focus on the European Union — making Pham’s second award such an impressive feat. Pham, who is majoring in East Asian Studies with a concentration on China and double-minoring in Chinese and International Relations, has been a part of Colgate’s EuroSim delegation three times, beginning in his first year. Tasked with guiding his peers through the program’s agenda, Pham notes the role was especially challenging since everyone on the council was highly knowledgeable about the inner workings of the European Union. To prepare, he dedicated significant time to research — including studying for his role as Paulina Henna-Kloska, the chair of the EU Environmental Council — and he worked to become thoroughly familiar with the program. “Fortunately, the parliamentary procedures came more naturally to me, thanks to my experience in speaking competitions with Colgate Model United Nations since my first year,” Pham says. “The outcome exceeded my expectations, as my council and I successfully negotiated almost every amendment we aimed to include in the resolution. It was a delicate balance between policy-making and strategic politicking with other delegates. The experience was incredibly rewarding and remains one of the most memorable moments of my academic journey.” Pham plans to continue his Mandarin studies in China for a few years before directly entering the Foreign Service. “EuroSIM has truly solidified my dream of pursuing a career in public diplomacy, particularly with the State Department, where I aim to advance America’s policies abroad,” he says. EuroSim participation is free for all students on the Colgate delegation thanks to funding from the Department of Political Science and the International Relations Program, with additional support from the Center for Freedom and Western Civilization, the Lampert Institute for Civic and Global Affairs, and the Center for Learning, Teaching, and Research. In addition to Pham, the following students also participated in the EuroSim 2025 Colgate delegation and played the roles of representatives from Poland and Czechia: Boen Beavers ’26, Jaquelin Guevara ’26, Allie Kavalauskas ’26, Simon, Khairallah ’25, Sarah Kinnard ’26, Drew Klauber ’27, Alba Martínez Angoitia ’25, Emma McCartan ’26, and Tucker McPartlin ’27. Academics Social Sciences Student Clubs and Organizations People Student Profiles Faculty & Staff StudentBryan (Tai) Pham ’25 (front second from left) was awarded his second consecutive Best Delegate in a Special Role award as part of Colgate’s student delegation at EuroSim 2025 on Jan 2–5, hosted by the University of Antwerp.
- Colgate University Earns Research University Classification Through Carnegie Foundation/ACEColgate University Earns Research University Classification Through Carnegie Foundation/ACE mcwalden@colgate.edu Colgate University has long been a leading liberal arts university. Now, thanks to a new classification from the Carnegie Foundation and the American Council on Education (ACE), it is also a leading Research University. Research universities are commonly classified by Carnegie’s R1 and R2 designations, labels often held by large state universities that award dozens of doctorates every year. This standard has become a part of the American lexicon since the foundation launched its survey in 1973. The foundation and its partners at ACE retooled survey designations for 2025. Active universities, like Colgate, that spend at least $2.5 million on research are now designated as Research Colleges and Universities. For its part, Colgate logged more than $4 million in research spending during Fiscal Year 2022–23 — far exceeding minimum requirements — to achieve the new designation. Internal expenditures on research more than doubled during the survey period, thanks in part to the early success of Colgate’s Campaign for the Third Century. “This new designation from the Carnegie Foundation and ACE demonstrates Colgate’s effective, consistent pursuit of Third-Century Plan priorities,” says President Brian W. Casey. “These include academic program support, increased startup funds for new faculty researchers, and additional named faculty chairs that provide further research support. Colgate has also nurtured a longtime tradition: the professor-student research partnership.” Partnerships between Colgate faculty members and undergraduate researchers have yielded remarkable results through the decades, most recently contributing to a groundbreaking study that reevaluates the role of Antarctica in global climate change projections. “We welcome this new designation because it recognizes the creativity and initiative of both our faculty members and our students. We are committed to a teacher-scholar model, where faculty engage deeply with their fields and bring that engagement back into their classrooms, labs, and studios,” says Provost and Dean of the Faculty Lesleigh Cushing. “As a faculty, we seek to create new knowledge, and we often involve our students as partners in that creation. That we include undergraduates in what is often groundbreaking research, that they have so many opportunities to learn by doing, and by doing at a very high level, is a real mark of distinction for Colgate.” As a research university, Colgate takes its place among a small group of institutions committed to hands-on learning and to investing in teacher-scholars. “Rigorous organizations like the Carnegie Classifications provide the public with a reliable way to compare myriad institutions of higher education,” says Neil Albert, associate provost for institutional analysis and university registrar. “They allow potential members of this community to observe our ambitions and see that Colgate shares their aspirations.” Research Third Century News and Updates Faculty & Staff
- Netflix Co-Founder Marc Randolph to Deliver Colgate Arts, Creativity, and Innovation Weekend KeynoteNetflix Co-Founder Marc Randolph to Deliver Colgate Arts, Creativity, and Innovation Weekend Keynote mcwalden@colgate.edu Netflix co-founder and former CEO Marc Randolph will deliver the keynote address during Colgate University’s Arts, Creativity, and Innovation Weekend on April 4. His visit, at 6 p.m. in Memorial Chapel, is supported through the Kerschner Family Series Global Leaders at Colgate. Arts, Creativity, and Innovation Weekend, April 4–5, is an annual event that honors the spirit of the Middle Campus Initiative — a centerpiece of Colgate’s Third-Century Plan. Bernstein Hall, the newly opened anchor of Middle Campus, will serve as a focal point for the celebration, which will include performances, lectures, exhibitions, and the 13th edition of the Thought Into Action entrepreneur showcase and pitch competition. Watch for schedule, streaming details, and ticket information at colgate.edu/aciweekend. Randolph is a veteran Silicon Valley entrepreneur, adviser, and investor. At Netflix, he laid the groundwork for a service that has grown to more than 200 million subscribers and altered how the world experiences media. He served on the Netflix board of directors until retiring from the company in 2003. Randolph has founded or co-founded six other successful startups, mentored hundreds of early-stage entrepreneurs, and, as an investor, has helped seed dozens of successful tech ventures. Most recently, he co-founded analytics software company Looker Data Sciences, which was acquired by Google in 2019 for $2.6 billion. He currently sits on the boards of Solo Brands, Augment Technologies, Dishcraft Technologies, and the Truckee Donner Land Trust. Randolph is the author of That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and The Amazing Life of an Idea. He hosts the Apple podcast That Will Never Work, providing 1-on-1 mentoring for entrepreneurs, and he is a judge and investor on Entrepreneur Magazine’s Elevator Pitch web series. The Kerschner Family Series Global Leaders at Colgate, launched in 2007 and sponsored by Colgate’s Parents’ and Grandparents’ Fund, is an opportunity for the University to invite thought-provoking leaders to campus. Past lecture series speakers have included the American Ballet Theatre’s Misty Copeland, President Joe Biden, Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa, and former U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. Learn more at colgate.edu/globalleaders. For more on the place of arts, creativity, and innovation in Colgate’s Third-Century Plan, visit thirdcentury.colgate.edu. Arts and Humanities Third Century News and Updates Alumni Faculty & Staff Student Netflix co-founder and former CEO Marc Randolph
- Contemporary Textile Artists Featured at Colgate Picker Art GalleryContemporary Textile Artists Featured at Colgate Picker Art Gallery Contributing Writer Colgate University’s Picker Art Gallery will open its spring exhibition A Thought Is A Thread: Contemporary Artists Reworking Textile Traditions on Feb. 20 at 4:30 p.m. with a public reception. The history of textiles is intimately tied to the development of human societies. Weaving is at the same time one of the earliest human technological advancements, the foundation upon which modern industrial nations were built, and the basis for the computing revolution. Metaphors using the language of textiles are prevalent in everyday idiomatic English: we follow threads on social media; storytellers weave tales or spin fantastic yarns; friend groups might be close-knit; and we might tie ourselves in knots trying to navigate complex situations. A Thought Is A Thread brings together works by leading contemporary artists who investigate what textiles can still reveal about people and their relationships to each other, to themselves, and to language, land, and the future. Artworks by Faig Ahmed, Sanford Biggers, Diedrick Brackens, Melissa Cody, Suzanne Husky, Joy Ray, and Jordan Nassar present intertwining narratives that both cherish and complicate the web of meanings that emerge when traditional textile arts are given contemporary expression. The exhibition will be on view through May 18, 2025. The opening reception, free and open to all, will feature refreshments, music, and remarks by exhibiting artist Joy Ray. A Thought Is A Thread is part of a series of exhibitions on weaving and textiles opening at Colgate University in February. The staggered openings (see “Related Events”) culminate in a gallery crawl on Feb. 21 when Colgate and Hamilton communities are invited to spend a convivial evening of music, art-making activities, and workshops at Clifford Gallery, the Longyear Museum of Anthropology, Picker Art Gallery, and the brand new Fabulation Lab in Bernstein Hall. Thought Is A Thread: Contemporary Artists Reworking Textile Traditions is generously supported by The Friends of Picker Art Gallery. Find out more information about the exhibitions and upcoming programming, and follow the museum on Facebook and Instagram @pagcolgate. Related Events ***Please refer to the Colgate Events Calendar and the Picker Art Gallery website for updated information about programs and events at the museum*** Feb. 6, 2025 Exhibition opening: Unraveled: Labor and Meaning behind Weaving 5–6:30 p.m., Longyear Museum of Anthropology (Alumni Hall, 2nd floor) This student-curated exhibition explores the incredible amount of labor and skill that goes into creating woven art. Join for refreshments, music, and art-making activities. Feb. 12, 2025 Exhibition opening and panel discussion: For alliances with the beaver people 4:30 p.m., panel discussion at 5 p.m., Clifford Gallery For alliances with the beaver people exhibits recent work by Suzanne Husky that deals with the history and future of regenerative relations with watersheds and beavers in particular. Featuring panelists Mike Loranty, Neil Patterson, and Patti Smith. Co-sponsored by Colgate Arts Council, University Studies, Environmental Studies, Film and Media Studies, Biology, Romance Languages and Literature, Geography, and History. Feb. 20, 2025 Exhibition opening: A Thought Is A Thread: Contemporary Artists Reworking Textile Traditions 4:30–6 p.m., Picker Art Gallery, (Dana Arts Center, 2nd floor) A Thought Is A Thread brings together works by leading artists who investigate what textiles can still reveal about people and their relationships to each other, to themselves, and to language, land, and the future. Join for refreshments, music, and remarks by exhibiting artist Joy Ray. Feb. 21, 2025 Colgate Gallery Crawl 5–8 p.m., Dana Arts Center - Picker Art Gallery and Dana 305, Alumni Hall - Longyear Museum of Anthropology and Alumni 212 (PCON Lounge), Little Hall - Clifford Gallery - Bernstein Hall, Fabulation Lab (Bernstein 103) Join us for the Colgate Gallery Crawl. This program, inspired by Colgate’s commitment to Arts, Creativity, and Innovation, represents a collaboration between University Museums, Clifford Gallery, and LGBTQ+ initiatives. Visitors are invited to make their way through our campus gallery and museum spaces to celebrate textiles, fiber arts, and the people who make them. Fiber art crafting activities will be available at each gallery. About Picker Art Gallery at Colgate University Picker Art Gallery at Colgate University is a teaching and collecting museum that engages local and global communities through innovative exhibitions, interdisciplinary research, dynamic outreach, and meaningful experiences with art across cultures, time, and media. The museum’s permanent collection includes nearly 11,000 objects, among them approximately 8,000 works of art on paper, 1,400 photographs, 900 paintings, and 300 sculptures, primarily from the twentieth century. It is located on the Colgate University campus, off Lally Lane, on the second floor of the Paul Rudolph–designed Dana Arts Center. Picker Art Gallery is open Tuesdays–Fridays, 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Sundays, noon–5 p.m., and during special events. Picker is currently closed on Mondays, Saturdays, and major holidays. Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, visit colgate.edu/picker or call 315-228-7634. Arts Picker Art Gallery News and Updates Faculty & Staff Joy Ray (American, b. 1967), consensual past, 2024, thrift store denim, twine, fabric, paint, chalk. Text from “Monochrome Memories” by Paul Grainge, “The Simple Truth: The Monochrome in Modern Art” by Simon Morley, and “Psychological Dimensions of Mystery” by JP Varani. 49 x 36 x 4 in (124.5 x 91.4 x 10.1 cm). Photo: Ruben Diaz