Franklin & Marshall College

We are sad to share that Jim Spencer, William G. and Elizabeth R. Simeral Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, passed away last week. After 13 years at Lebanon Valley College, Jim began teaching at F&M in 1980. He met his beloved wife, Kathy, as a member of the search committee for College Librarian, a position that Kathy held for many years. Before the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, Jim could, among other feats, quote from memory hundreds of lines of Shakespeare. He read voraciou...sly in American history, and collected 17th and 18th-century English and American furniture and decorative arts. Jim retired from F&M in 2007 as the emeritus William G. and Elizabeth R. Simeral Professor of Chemistry. At F&M, Jim epitomized the role of teacher-scholar that is the hallmark of excellence at our institution. His research lab was always full of students, and it was commonplace to see him interacting with them wearing his white lab coat and an ever-present smile. Jim is also arguably the person who had the single largest impact on the teaching and learning of chemistry at the high school and college levels in this country over the past half century. He developed curricula, helped revise the AP Chemistry exam and was a co-creator of POGIL, a revolutionary team-based and student-centered approach to instruction. We were fortunate to have this brilliant, thoughtful, and cheerful colleague for so many years. Obituary: https://www.thegroffs.com/obituaries/James-Spencer-20/

Wondering what opportunities are available for #fandm2025 to explore their passions? Sophomore Ojima Abraham said he loves to solve complex problems especially mathematical ones. So he followed this passion and explored his love of technology with an internship with the CK-12 Foundation. I get to build applets that millions of students who use CK-12 resources would use, he said.... Learn more about Ojima's internship and how he's building interactive learning activities that adapt to individual student performance. #fandmproud

Eight Diplomat teams have resumed competition this month, including baseball, softball, men's and women's lacrosse, men's and women's golf, and men's and women's tennis. Men's and women's outdoor track and field begins April 3; men's and women's rowing starts April 10. This is happy news as we wrap up this month's Raise Our Game campaign in support of F&M student-athletes. We're SO close to reaching our goal of $200,000, so if you're still on the sidelines, consider a gift today! https://fal.cn/3epew

Many students experience stresses and hardships during college. In these times, faculty, house deans and dons, and HAs can be a source of comfort and support for students. But if they don't reach out, how do you know if students are in need of support? By coordinating care for referrals and training faculty, HAs, and parents, DipCares is helping raise awareness about resources available to students and providing support and guidance to all students during challenging times. ...DipCares has been an essential resource for a host of my students and mentees, enabling us to navigate various bureaucracies in an expeditious way," said Maria Mitchell, professor of history. "I have particularly appreciated Susan Knoll's commitment to follow-up and make sure issues are resolved. Especially with the pandemic, this kind of clearing house of resources has been invaluable to faculty, advisors, andabove allstudents. Learn more about this award-winning program.

We enjoy celebrating Valentine's Day by sharing photos of couples who met at Franklin & Marshall. Want to share? Message the Franklin & Marshall College Facebook Page or go to: http://go.fandm.edu/share-photo. Please have permission from any photo subjects that appear in an image.

A #FacultyFriday poetry lesson: A crown of sonnets (or sonnet corona) is a sequence of sonnets, usually addressed to one person, and/or with a single theme. For example, see this work by F&M Assistant Professor of English Meg Day recently published in The Nation Magazine. https://fal.cn/3dn5E

OK, we'll bite...#ValentinesDayChallenge Here’s our story: How’d you guys meet? This cool club called "The Ampersand."...Continue reading

We F&M couples!

Common Hour kicks off the Spring semester with Margaret Price, co-founder of the Transformative Access Project, discussing a re-imagination of accessibility and sharing concrete strategies for creating a culture of care and a sense of shared accountability in academic spaces. Join us LIVE, Wednesday, Feb. 10, at 1:30 p.m. EST!

We can’t gather in person but we can still gather in poetry #TrueBlueWeekend2020 #FandM

Reading a lot about political campaigns lately? Could you top the 400 front-page New York Times articles from 2008-2016 that sophomore Nadezhda Ivanova read for her research this summer? She was intrigued when Stephen Medvic approached her with an opportunity to help code media coverage of the 2008, 2012 and 2016 presidential campaigns. I was interested in examining the effects campaigns have on elections in the United States, said Ivanova, who is studying remotely in her h...ometown of Sofia, Bulgaria. The research experience definitely opened my eyes to recurring trends during elections, and also exposed me to nuances in U.S. politics that might not be as evident in a classroom setting.

Trick or treat, have a seat, we put Dips in the hot seat! Thanks to all our participants this sure tickles our funny bones! (Hosted by Christian Duran and filmed by Caroline Ulrich) #FrightfulFandM

Get comfy at home and join us for a wonderful weekend of virtual events including concerts, tours, parent workshops and alumni discussions Oct. 30 to Nov. 1. #TrueBlueWeekend2020 Find the schedule and more at https://www.fandm.edu/trueblueweekend.

Sociology major David Yang, an economics minor who is also president of the F&M photography club, has focused his research on older workers and retirees as they navigate China’s mandatory retirement age policy. China has the second biggest economy in the world, but unlike similarly large economies, it has a restrictive and young retirement age: 50 or 55 for women (depending on job classification) and 60 for men. Yang’s interviews showed that individuals and organizations oft...en find ways around the policy, with both men and women working past the age they are supposed to leave the workforce. When you’re talking about the population of China, it’s a huge population. When you have people who continue working after retirement, there are tremendous policy implications to the country and how we should make or how we shouldn’t be making assumptions about what the reality is, Yang said.

Tell us about an F&M friend that you're excited to see again in-person or virtually!

For Spirit Week's #WaybackWednesday invitation, we thought we'd dig up some photos from the 2010 Family Weekend event. Recognize someone? Tag them! Share your own photos with #TrueBlueWeekend2020 to be entered into a drawing run by the Franklin & Marshall College Alumni Association.

These F&M students take their pumpkin carving seriously. You know what they say: go big or GOURD home! Grab the stencils at: http://go.fandm.edu/pumpkin (Video produced by PJ Howard '21)

In a summer internship for a publicly supported project committed to making Lancaster Country carbon neutral in future years, Michele Jacobs, a Franklin & Marshall environmental studies major, worked to prioritize the top solutions toward that goal. Jacobs said the research was really interesting because I previously had no idea how many solutions there are, and how feasible they would be to implement with the different available resources.

It's #NationalPumpkinDay, which makes it the perfect time to share these stencils for carving your very own F&M-themed jack-o'-lantern! http://go.fandm.edu/pumpkin We're pretty sure making and sharing a photo of one of these would qualify for entry in today's Franklin & Marshall College Alumni Association Spirit Week giveaway too. #TrueBlueWeekend2020

We'll be hosting our Autumn Research Fair online as part of next week's Virtual #TrueBlueWeekend. One of the presenters, mathematics major (and vocal music performance minor) Mitchell Young, will discuss his research in Factorization Theory as a Hackman Scholar working with Assistant Professor of Mathematics Nicholas Baeth. The experience was really enlightening on what math research is truly like, he said. Working on a particular question I wanted to answer, or proof for a theorem, for hours or days only made the ‘Eureka!’ moment when I finally thought of a solution even more gratifying and exhilarating.

Congratulations to these two alums, Brian and Rai, captured by our videographer Andrew Bilindabagabo celebrating their engagement in front of Old Main today! Paraphrasing the words of our namesake John Marshall regarding his dearest Polly: From the hour of your union to that your separation, may you never cease to thank Heaven for this its best gift. #truebluefandm #fandmcouples

#FacultyFriday: Many bestselling children’s storybooks, like The Lorax, aim to teach kids important moral lessons. But do they work? New research from F&M psychology professor Joshua Rottman suggests that they probably don’t, but that parents can effectively instill moral ideas in other ways.