Alumni News

Marlboro College President Ellen McCulloch-Lovell ’69 addressed the growing trend of "nontraditional" college presidents—those who came from outside of the academic community, as she did—in a recent op-ed in The Chronicle of Higher Education. "We bring with us a healthy impatience," she wrote. "The reply to 'We don't do it this way' is 'Why not?'"

Max Nanis ’12 and Ian Pearce ’11 are two of the authors behind the current cover story of Interactions magazine. The article, "Socialbots: Voices from the Fronts," is based on a study they conducted with web researcher Tim Hwang on fake online identities (“bots”) that can interact with humans and even boost human-to-human interaction on social networks such as Twitter. The results of their study were first published in the MIT Technology Review.

Actress Holland Taylor ’64 has earned this year’s Public Leadership in the Arts Award from the Americans for the Arts organization. Given in recognition of “an elected official or artist who plays an important role in the advancement of the arts and arts education,” past recipients include public officials Nancy Pelosi, Edward Kennedy, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, as well as artists Herbie Hancock, Harry Belafonte, Tony Bennett, and Gloria Estefan.

When alumni return to campus, they remember what Bennington meant to them, what endures, and what has transformed. We asked several alumni to take us off on their tour of campus, both recalling it as it was when they were here and seeing it anew.

The entire Bennington community mourns the loss of Helen Frankenthaler ’49, one of the most influential figures in contemporary American art and a former Bennington trustee, who died on December 27, at the age of 83.