An Act of Civil Disobedience
| Photo by: Tom F. Driver |
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| Lorie Smith Gates’59 and Philip Gates’58,
at a demonstration calling for the closing
of a military combat training school. Phil
was imprisoned after peacefully crossing
the campus boundary last year. |
At 70 years of age, Philip Gates’58 was facing the very real possibility of going to prison. A devout Christian, he had joined an ecumenical movement that campaigns for the closing of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), a military combat training school sponsored by the U.S. government that is involved in Latin American policy initiatives. In November 2006, Gates’ commitment to the cause landed him a date in court and, later, time in a federal penitentiary.
A retired superintendent of schools since 1996, he and his wife, Lorie (Loraine) Smith Gates’59, often participate in service projects sponsored by the Presbyterian Church.
In the summer of 2005, the church sent Gates to Colombia, a nation ravaged by civil war. For nine weeks, he served as an invited "accompanier”—a foreign national who accompanies human rights activists as they work. He was introduced to many Colombians who had lost members of their family to political regimes and rebel and criminal forces. Their stories of kidnappings, assaults, torture, and murders horrified him.
"We’ve had an Iraq-type situation going on in Colombia for 40-plus years,” he says. “The body bags aren’t filled with Americans; they’re filled with innocent civilians and soldiers from three separate Colombian armies. Our country is bankrolling the situation to the tune of $2 million a day.”
After returning to the United States, Gates began researching the political situation in Colombia and reading about the WHINSEC (formerly known as the School of the Americas). An estimated 63,000 military personnel from Latin American countries have learned military tactics there. Critics of the school contend that hundreds of graduates have used their training to intimidate and kill thousands of civilians.
The more he learned about the SOA/WHINSEC, the more Gates was convinced that it was contributing to human rights violations throughout Latin America. With strong encouragement from Lorie, he prepared for a defining moment of activism.
Last fall, the couple joined more than 20,000 other protestors who marched in front of the SOA/WHINSEC campus at Fort Benning, Ga. As planned, Gates was among 16 individuals who trespassed onto the grounds of the fort—a deliberate act that registered his opposition to the existence of the school. In so doing, he became one of more than 180 U.S. citizens who have “crossed over” to make a political statement condemning it.
His arrest was swift and incident-free; within 24 hours he was released. At a court appearance in January, Gates pled “not guilty” and read a statement outlining his reasons for breaking the law. “…If my efforts to garner support to close the SOA/WHINSEC contribute to that end, my act of civil disobedience…will not have been in vain,” he said.
He was sentenced to 60 days in a Los Angeles, Calif., detention center. While serving time, Gates learned to navigate prison culture and joined a Bible-study group.
After his release in May, he returned home to Prescott, Ariz. Now, when he speaks to audiences about his experiences, he often makes the point that his actions are not meant to diminish the U.S. armed services. “I revere, respect, admire, and honor the military,” Gates says. “This is about government policy.”
Today, he and Lorie continue to pray and work for the closing of the SOA/WHINSEC and peace in Latin America. In April 2008, they will return to Beloit College at the behest of Carol Wickersham, a visiting instructor of sociology and founder of the organization No2Torture. They hope that by speaking to students, they can inspire the next generation of Beloit activists for peace.
"It is very encouraging to know that there are students from our alma mater who are aware of SOA/WHINSEC’s role in widespread human rights abuses,” says Gates. “Hopefully their action will help motivate other members of the Beloit College community to take an interest in what is going on.”
— N. Marie Dries’92
Anthropology is Community College Chief’s First Love
| Hometownlife.com photo |
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| Steven Reif’70 |
Steven Reif’70 is the new president of the Southfield/Royal Oak Campus of Oakland Community College in Michigan.
An anthropologist by training and inclination, Reif is the new face of the OCC campus that experienced a 32-percent increase in enrollment over four years—3,280 students in 2006, compared with 2,495 in 2002.
That surge shouldn’t surprise anyone, Reif said recently as he prepared to give an orientation presentation to a group of incoming first-year students. "I’m a big proponent of developmental education,” he says. “I want every student to have the skills needed to do college-level work and to be successful when he or she leaves.
"I will tell them (new students) that OCC will provide the opportunity,” Reif adds, “but they have to do their part. They have to put forth the effort and let us know if they need help.”
Increased enrollment in Southfield and other OCC campuses is very likely a reflection of the economy, Reif says. When the economy is down, people generally seek additional skills, either to prepare for a new job or to make themselves more valuable to their current employer.
Being an OCC campus president is not a particularly high-profile job, Reif acknowledges. It’s more like being part of a process and a system.
"OCC is a very collaborative institution,” Reif says. “Change comes as the result of great deliberation on the part of many people.”
He doesn’t have a personal agenda, Reif says. But he will be an important part of any changes that come as OCC helps students reach their goals—be they true first-years, displaced workers, professionals, or retirees expanding their horizons.
Aside from his or her duties as an administrator, the OCC president has a very important role in the community, says Frank Brock, Jr., executive director of the Cornerstone Development Authority, a quasi-public agency that coordinates economic development in the square mile northwest of Eight Mile and Greenfield, and home to the campus.
Past presidents of the OCC campus, including Dave Adams, Reif’s immediate predecessor, have served on Cornerstone’s 12-member board of directors. Reif says he would like to have some role in the area’s community development, possibly in conjunction with Adams, who is now the school’s president of marketing.
The OCC presidents have always provided “reasoned and wise counsel” concerning the future of the immediate area. “Other board members rely on their input,” Brock says.
"The president of the Southfield campus is expected to be OCC’s face in the community,” says Bingham Farms resident John Wangler, a retired faculty member who was on the OCC board of directors for six years, including two as chair. “He (or she) is expected to have a finger on the pulse of the community.
"Steve Reif is a fantastic choice for that position,” Wangler adds. “He’s very thorough, and he knows how to bring the best out of the people around him.”
Reif is a native of the Cincinnati area and spent 23 years with Kilgore College in Texas before coming to OCC. He studied anthropology at Beloit, with a stint teaching English as a second language in Popayàn, Colombia. He also has a master’s degree and a doctorate in anthropology from Ohio State University.
"I’ve always loved anthropology,” he says.
Reif came to OCC in 2000 as dean of academic and student services, and shortly thereafter married Lesli Barger, who also has advanced degrees in anthropology from Northwestern University. Barger was on the faculty at the College of DuPage, a two-year institution in suburban Chicago. She was also associate vice president of economic development and community affairs.
Until this summer, their marriage was a long-distance relationship. "Traveling was exhausting,” Reif says. “I’m glad it’s over.”
Barger will teach anthropology this fall at OCC.
Reif is philosophical about his tenure as president at the Southfield/Royal Oak campus. “I expect to be at OCC for another 10 years,” he says. “I hope to be president as long as I can make a solid contribution.”
— Pat Murphy
Reprinted with permission from hometownlife.com.
Beloiters Among First Responders to Bridge Collapse
Star Tribune/Minneapolis-
St. Paul 2007 |
 |
| Rob Allen’84, Minneapolis deputy
chief of police, escorts First Lady
Laura Bush around
the scene of
the I-35W bridge collapse in August. |
The call came just after 6 p.m. on Aug. 1, as Rob Allen’84, deputy chief of police for the city of Minneapolis, was walking into his kitchen. The I-35W bridge—a main traffic artery through downtown Minneapolis—had collapsed during evening rush hour, spilling vehicles and their occupants into the murky Mississippi waters below. Preliminary reports suggested mass casualties.
For Allen, who had traversed the span only minutes before on his way home from work, the call signaled the beginning of a 72-hour drama that may be his greatest professional challenge. Within minutes, he was at the site of the wreckage.
“I ran into a sergeant, who said, ‘we don’t need rescuers, we need organization,’” he recalls. At that moment, he took over as incident commander for the law enforcement team. Working first from his car, then from a series of command tents, Allen began coordinating emergency operations, ensuring that what ultimately became 70 local, regional, state, and federal agency teams received logistical support.
“For continuity’s sake, you need one person who sort of knows everything,” he says. It is a role that Allen is well-equipped to fill. A career officer with the Minneapolis police force, he has logged countless hours planning for disasters by developing crisis-response strategies, designing and implementing training programs, and coordinating emergency drills. His work has taken him to training seminars throughout the United States and around the world.
When it came time to lead the law enforcement team, Allen was ready to assign staff, delegate tasks, coordinate equipment and supply deliveries, maintain lines of communication, and determine and meet evolving priorities. The eye in the center of a storm of activity, he also handled operations briefings. As midnight approached, he finally had a chance to consider what he was dealing with. Ascending in a helicopter with state troopers, he was stunned by what he saw below.
“I had no idea about the full scope of the disaster until about five hours into it,” Allen says, explaining that his role was not to assess the situation or join rescue and recovery efforts, but to assist colleagues who did. “I don’t need to know all the details…it is their job to determine that and my job to see that they get the resources they need.”
In the midst of everything, Allen crossed paths with Mike Salter’76, an operations commander in the sheriff’s department for neighboring Ramsey County. Nineteen years on the force has given Salter plenty of administrative and supervisory experience; when Minneapolis officials sent out an urgent appeal for aid, he was quick to react.
Working swiftly, Salter helped coordinate his team’s participation. “The first few hours are chaos,” he says. “Once you get people in charge of key areas, determine a system, and put some sort of process in place—then the situation becomes manageable.”
Ramsey County deputies helped establish and maintain a perimeter, launched boats on the river and assisted diving efforts, and rounded up eye-witnesses. Salter also monitored the routine operations of the sheriff’s department. “You still have to handle police calls and meet your commitments in your own community,” he explains. “It’s a real balancing act.”
With the immediate crisis now past, Salter and Allen are working with their departments and other agencies to analyze the causes of and response to the catastrophe. They are also looking ahead to September, when an estimated 50,000 visitors will converge on Minneapolis-St. Paul for the Republican National Convention. It is an event that promises to recapture media attention and produce a whole new set of logistical concerns. Allen is confident that he and his fellow law enforcement professionals are up to the challenge.
“The scope of planning for an event like the convention is huge—unimaginable for one agency to manage,” he says. “But the bridge collapse demonstrated that we can break down jurisdictional and turf issues and respond as a united community.”
— N. Marie Dries’92
A Stirring Performance
| Richmond Times-Dispatch photo |
 |
| Ellie Elyawati Basch’97 is an
award-winning chef and entrepreneur
who’s dedicated
to helping low-income
women learn about her profession. |
Like many teenagers, Ellie Elyawati Basch’97 wanted to break from family tradition and follow her own career path.
She grew up in Central Java, Indonesia, and spent much of her childhood cooking alongside her mother and grandmother. Both women worked as professional chefs.
“I loved playing in the kitchen with my mother,” Basch says. “But in high school, I wanted to do something different. It wasn’t like I didn’t like cooking anymore. I just didn’t think it was something I wanted to do with the rest of my life.”
She was wrong. Since relocating to the United States in 1994, Basch has become a successful caterer and culinary teacher. And now she is an award-winning chef. Her recipe for Olivado citrus salad won top honors in the vegetable category of the 2007 Olivado Avocado Oil Chef Quest: Celebrating Women Chefs competition.
About 75 women chefs entered the contest, sponsored by Olivado Natural Nutrition and Women Chefs & Restaurateurs.
The tangy salad is full of flavor thanks to mounds of grapefruit, oranges, avocados, arugula, basil, and lime juice. The creation earned Basch a trip to Australia, where she and two other winners competed in Olivado’s International Chef Cook-Off, part of its annual Seafood Festival. Basch finished fourth out of eight finalists.
“We hope this contest will spotlight women chefs through healthy recipes,” says Trina Kaye, a WCR committee member who helped organize the contest. “We want to showcase their talents. Fifty percent of the work force in culinary arts is women, but they don’t receive the accolades we think they should.”
Basch never envisioned herself in the field. In high school, she set her sights on becoming an English teacher. She came to the United States to attend Beloit College, but after graduating, she decided a career in the classroom was not for her.
She married, then worked in a bakery in Indiana, and later waited tables and served as a line cook.
“The allure of food called me back,” Basch says.
When she and her husband, Tony, moved to Richmond, Va., in 2001, she opened a catering business, Everyday Gourmet. Since becoming the coordinator of Breadwinners, a culinary training program for low-income women, Basch doesn’t have as much time for her business.
“This is my passion,” she says of the Breadwinners program.
Breadwinners is part of New Visions, New Ventures, a nonprofit organization designed to provide women with the skills and confidence to achieve success and financial security through employment and entrepreneurship.
“Ellie has walked the walk and knows what is needed to be successful,” says Jennifer Pierce, the director of program development for New Visions, New Ventures. “She’s a great high-energy person. She’s become these women’s business coach, mentor, teacher, and friend.”
As the coordinator of the program, Basch teaches catering classes to 12 women. Twenty others are enrolled in business classes. Most stay in the program six to nine months before starting their own businesses.
Basch also helps them with pricing, menu planning, food safety and sanitation, cooking techniques, and licensing.
“I enjoy working with the ladies,” Basch says. “They have talent and a burning desire to start their own business. What I really love is seeing the progress they make. It’s very satisfying, but it’s all their hard work.”
At home, Basch enjoys cooking simple meals. She and her husband are marathon runners, so energy-boosting pasta dishes are a must. Other favorite recipes are zesty pork tenderloin and almond-herb rice pilaf.
“I’m all about simple and easy,” Basch says.
That’s how she came up with the idea for Olivado citrus salad. She loves avocado, she says, so she built the rest of the salad around it.
“I just thought about what’s good with avocado,” she says. “Lime and citrus are. The ingredients just came to me. I just worked with the flavors.”
And created a winner.
— Janet Caggiano
Copyright Richmond Times-Dispatch. Used with permission.
Editor’s note: Basch recently stepped down from coordinating Breadwinners, but continues to support it as a volunteer. She also plans to feature baked goods made by women in the program when she opens a new coffee house later this year.
