A merican
Magazine of American University
Spring/May 2009
What will
their AU be?
See American University
and the Next Decade, p. 18
Washington Semester students in Professor Christian Maisch’s
foreign policy class braved the cold—and the inaugural
preparations—to meet with National Security Council
representative Tony Harriman at the Eisenhower Executive
Office Building, January 16.
Photo by Jeff Watts
American
Magazine of American University
Volume 60 No. 1
10
meet gregory and fischer
14
meeting of the minds
18
New Meet the Press host David Gregory ’92 and
long-time executive producer Betsy Fischer ’92, ’96
are working together to take the nation’s longestrunning TV show to new heights.
Can two minds produce a better book than one?
Professors Howard McCurdy, SPA, and Robin
Broad, SIS, each cowrote their new books. Find out
what they learned.
american university and the
next decade: leadership for a
changing world
Our new strategic plan commits us to the sustained
and passionate drive needed to take the university
to the highest levels of scholastic excellence and
real-world leadership.
28
remembering dutch
An AU man for all seasons, the late Dutch Schulze
always put his country, university, teams, friends,
and family first.
departments
3
On the Quad
8
Athletics
33 Alumni News
38 Class Notables
44 In Closing
www.american.edu/magazine
American
American, the official magazine of American
University, is written and designed by the University Publications office within University
Communications and Marketing. Personal
views on subjects of public interest expressed
in the magazine do not necessarily reflect official policies of the university.
Executive Director, Communications
and Marketing
Teresa Flannery
Director, University Publications
Kevin Grasty
from the
editor
Hitting Our Stride
Y
ou know it when you hit your stride. You’ve met your match, and you’re
comfortable in that company—on that A-league team, with that business
partner, on that corporate board. For a decade, AU has been repeatedly
“kicking it up a notch” and has definitely hit its stride.
Just what does that mean for a university?
Executive Editor
Linda McHugh
• It’s the confidence to create new programs like the wildly popular freshman University
College launched in 2005.
Managing Editor
Catherine Bahl
• It’s the talent and grit to make it to the NCAA basketball tournament two years in a row.
On the Quad Editor
Adrienne Frank
Staff Writers
Sally Acharya, Adrienne Frank, Mike Unger
Art Director/Designer
Wendy Beckerman
Contributing Designers
Maria Jackson, Juana Merlo, Natalie Taylor
Web Specialist
Evangeline Montoya-A. Reed
Photographer
Jeff Watts
Class Notes
Melissa Reichley, editor; Josephine Sanchez,
assistant editor; Ed O’Regan, editorial assistant
UP09-003
American is published three times a year by American
University. With a circulation of about 90,000,
American is sent to alumni and other constituents of
the university community. Copyright © 2009.
American University is an equal opportunity and affirmative action university and employer. American University
does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion,
national origin, sex, age, marital status, personal appearance,
sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, family
responsibilities, political affiliation, disability, source of
income, place of residence or business, or certain veteran status in its programs and activities. For information, contact
the Dean of Students (DOS@american.edu), Director of
Policy & Regulatory Affairs (employeerelations@american.
edu) or Dean of Academic Affairs, (academicaffairs@american.
edu), or at American University, 4400 Massachusetts Ave.,
N.W., Washington, D.C. 20016, 202-885-1000.
www.american.edu/magazine
Send address changes to:
Alumni Programs
American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave NW
Washington, D.C.
20016-8002
or
e-mail: alumupdate@american.edu
 american
• It’s the persistance of students who win nine Truman Scholarships in nine years,
including 2009 winner Kyrie Bannar; capture seven Udall scholarships in the past
three years; and in 2008, see antitrafficking pioneer Christina Arnold ’04, win the
top Jack Kent Cooke scholarship of up to $300,000 for graduate study.
• It’s a chemist’s, a geographer’s, a theatre director’s decision to include undergraduate
students in critical research projects.
• It’s the commitment of time, talent, and resources over several years to launch a
vibrant new american.edu Web site.
• It’s recognition of graduates’ professional standing that finds two at the helm of the
nation’s premier political show—Meet the Press.
• It’s the commitment to print this magazine at a plant and on paper that have both
been FSC-certified as using paper from only responsibly managed forests.
AU has unquestionably arrived in a new place. So how can we all help our university
firmly plant itself on this loftier ground?
For the past year, university leaders have had the vision and confidence to create
and fund a far-reaching strategic plan designed to further develop AU’s strengths and
achieve appropriate recognition. Properly executed, and backed enthusiastically by us
all—American University can, and will, stand among the ranks of the nation’s highest
achieving universities.
The ideas, the plan, and the people to accomplish this are already here and many
thousands more are knocking on AU’s doors.
You can read their stories in this issue or on our Web site at american.edu/magazine
and register your thoughts by writing me at lmchugh@american.edu.
Linda McHugh
Executive Editor
About our cover story kids: what are the students
of the future looking for at AU? Deirdre Belson,
left, wants to major in biology and minor in music.
On the cover, clockwise from top left, Eliza-Jane
Fogg plans to study musical theatre; Ethan King
is interested in elementary education (and perhaps
the diving team); while Nathaniel Acharya hopes
to combine film, history, and marine biology.
on the quad
C O M M U N I C AT I O N S
Rediscover american.edu. On March 30 American University jumped into
the Web 2.0 world. The redesigned american.edu Web site features a virtual tour of
the campus, a wiki system called AUpedia, a master events calendar, and all the bells
and whistles of a 2009 site.
Stats:
n
More than 25,000 hours of staff time
went into the project.
n
More than 125 people worked on the
project across 20+ AU departments.
n
More than 5,000 pages were migrated
or created for the redesigned site.
Partners:
n
HUGE (strategic Web design firm)
nRealView
n
TV
PaperThin (content management
system developer)
nNorth
Highland (Web technology
consultant firm)
pages to bookmark:
nAlumni—www.american.edu/alumni
“insider” news at American Today—
american.edu/americantoday/
nAU
n
Career Center—american.edu/
careercenter/
nAlumni
success stories—
american.edu/alumni/success
n
American magazine—
american.edu/americanmagazine
“For many audiences . . . this is the front door of the university,” said Terry
Flannery, executive director of communications and marketing. Internally, the site
is more like our new public town square, where people can come together to share
news, applaud successes, or gather in a crisis.”
No matter where you enter american.edu, you can find up-to-date information
for any school or department.
But what if you can’t find what you want? An enhanced global search lets site
visitors locate information as fast as they can say Google.
All of the Web 2.0 elements created to enhance the user’s experience are the
result of more than two years of research and analysis.
“We have gone about this process by finding our needs, finding vendors to help
us, and including all corners of the campus to help us in the project,” said David
Taylor, the president’s chief of staff.
After years of planning, training, and work, AU’s Web presence has vaulted into a
new era. n
—Jon Hussey
spring 2009 
on the quad
H O M E I M P RO V E M E N T
Business Grows Here A $14 million expansion of the Kogod School of Business
is open for business.
The 20,000-square-foot building, which is connected to the existing business
school structure, features a state-of-the-art financial services and IT lab, including
a trading wall with stock ticker and news feed, and three-dozen workstations. The
expansion houses seven classrooms, several break-out rooms and student lounge areas,
and the new Kogod Career Services Center.
This is the first building on campus to be constructed entirely with philanthropic
dollars, including a substantial gift from Robert and Arlene Kogod, for whom the
business school is named. n
SIS Builds Green The area surrounding this green giant is still a hard-hat zone.
But the new School of International
Service building is starting to take shape,
with the completion of the concrete
structure for the parking garage and
terrace levels. Soon, the 150 workers at
the site will begin framing the building
and applying the skin.
The 70,000 square-foot, environmentallyfriendly building is slated to open in
May 2010. n
 american
on the quad
R E S E A RC H
Brain Trust AU students’ creativity and curiosity seems boundless.
A heady mix of science, social insight, and many centuries of grand ideas were on display at the College of Arts and Sciences
during the nineteenth annual Robyn Rafferty Mathias Student Research Conference.
Nearly 200 undergraduate and graduate students presented research on topics as diverse as Macbeth, MTV, and microwave
synthesis. Here’s a taste:
Contagious
Yawning and Empathy: An
Experimental Approach
The Bowie
The Emergence of
Effect: Investigating the
the American Girl Collection: A Social History
Influence of Technology
The Effects of Sunscreen Runoff on on Concert Ticket Prices
Zebra Fish Embryonic Development
Hollywood and the State
Department in Western
Europe, 1944–1954
Pretty Dresses and
Privilege: Gender and
Heteronormativity in
Weddings
Mathematical
Exploration of JPEG
Image Compression
Scheme The Organic Chemistry
Behind Sex
Redneck If . . . Road
You Know You’re a
Kill Is Not a Joke
Third Place or
Marketplace?
Language, Spatiality,
and Consumption
in Neoliberal Coffee
Shops
Food Fight: Fighting for America
Through the National School
Lunch Program
Shakespeare’s
Romeo and Juliet: Why Do We Love
Such an Unrealistic Play?
spring 2009 
on the quad
SCIENCE
Environmental Agenda
“
Media is an important part of
our community infrastructure.
If we don’t have important sources of in-
”
formation at the local level, then we don’t
have the infrastructure to deal with
these problems on a larger scale.
—Matthew Nisbet
The mission: simply stated but not easily executed—make science matter.
School of Communication professor Matthew Nisbet has traveled the globe, helping
journalists, scientists, policy makers, and activists create messages about environmental
issues that will resonate with the public and spur them to action.
One major hurdle: fewer and fewer media outlets employ science journalists—or
even give the subject any play.
“When a newspaper doesn’t cover the local implications of debates over science and
technology, that causes major information gaps,” said Nisbet, who recently returned
from the EU Conference on Science Communication in Venice, Italy.
A proposal: public television and radio stations could team up with universities,
museums, and nonprofits to produce content about emerging research, local regulation, and policy debates.
Follow along with Nisbet’s travels on his blog: http://scienceblogs.com/framing-science/.
Edmonton,
Alberta, Canada
“Where in the world is Matt Nisbet?”
Copenhagen, Denmark
Corvallis, Oregon
Pittsburgh
New York City
Bethesda, Maryland
Chicago
Greenbelt, Maryland
Richmond, Virginia
 american
Venice, Italy
on the quad
Photo by Sophi Tranchell
BUSINESS
Cecilia Appianim, Kuapa Kokoo Farmers’ Cooperative member and co-owner of Divine Chocolate
Sweet Campuses Victory is sweet for a team of six business undergrads, who placed third in a national
marketing competition sponsored by Divine Chocolate.
The students in Kogod professor Sonya Grier’s marketing class were to create an innovative campaign to
introduce Divine’s fair-trade chocolate bars to college students across the country.
The team—Faruk Abolurin, Alexa Antonuk, Ricki Kaplan, Caitlin Kizielewicz, Madeline Tomchick, and
Ashley Willhelm—crafted an executive summary, conducted market research, and drafted a budget aimed
at boosting long-term sales, and educating consumers about the Divine efforts to alleviate poverty in Africa
through fair-trade business practices. n
spring 2009 
on the quad
Ath l etics
Eagles Soar
Wear It Proudly
A
s delirious fans filed out of Bender Arena
following the men’s basketball team’s
March 13 victory in the Patriot League
Tournament title game, many eagerly forked over
cash for freshly-minted championship T-shirts,
which just minutes after the game were being sold
in the lobby.
The men’s basketball team went to the NCAA
Tournament for the second straight season, and
AU was prepared to meet the demand for souvenir apparel marking the occasion. In October the
university signed an agreement with Licensing
Resource Group that ensures AU’s proper marks are
used on apparel and assists the university in dealing
with manufacturers.
The agreement streamlines the manufacturing
process and makes it easier to get merchandise
like the championship T-shirts to campus in a timely
manner.
In addition, LRG will reach deals to sell AU
apparel in outlets other than the university bookstore, which currently is stocked with all the athletics
gear any Eagles fan could ever want. Merchandise
also is available online at www.aueagles.com. —MU
 american
After the final seconds had ticked away on the game,
their season, and their collegiate basketball careers, Garrison Carr, Brian Gilmore,
and Derrick Mercer walked off the Wachovia Center court defeated—but not
before leaving something important behind.
A legacy that will endure forever.
When the trio and starting center Jordan Nichols arrived on campus
four years ago, AU men’s basketball had never tasted NCAA Tournament competition. While this year’s postseason run ended in the same
fashion in 2008, with a spirited but disappointing first-round loss, the
past two seasons of Eagles basketball have been a trailblazing joy ride for
all involved.
“There’s no question that our guys left it all out there on the court,”
head coach Jeff Jones said after AU’s 80-67 loss to Villanova on March
19. “As I told these guys in the locker room, I’m tremendously proud,
not just of their effort tonight, but of the season, and for these three
seniors and the other seniors, I’m just extremely proud of what they’ve
meant to the program. It’s going to hurt to see them go.”
Coming off its second straight Patriot League Tournament championship, the NCAA Tournament selection committee did AU no
favors, sending the 14th-seeded Eagles to play powerful Villanova in its
hometown of Philadelphia. But hundreds of AU fans made the drive up
I-95, and when the buzzer sounded signaling halftime, AU led by 10.
The Eagles extended their lead to 14 before the Wildcats began clawing
their way back into the game by exploiting their advantage inside. Foul trouble and
fatigue contributed to AU’s demise, and much like last year against Tennessee, they
faded down the stretch, losing by a margin that didn’t tell the full story.
Sitting at the podium after the game, answering questions from the media, the
realization of that end began setting in for Carr, Gilmore, and Mercer.
“Obviously this didn’t end the way we would have liked, but I’m really proud
of the team and the other group of seniors that got us this far,” Gilmore said.
“There’s something to be said for getting back here twice in two years. That means
a lot to us.”
And to the entire AU community. n
—Mike Unger
Want to relive the excitement? Read Unger’s “Marching Through March” blog at http://www.aueagles.
com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/marching_through_march.html
on the quad
A+ Athletes
There’s a reason the word “student” precedes “athlete” at American University. A whopping 85 AU studentathletes were named to the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll for the fall of 2008. Twenty earned at least a 3.75 GPA, and six
posted perfect 4.0s. To be eligible for the honor, a student-athlete must have earned both a 3.20 GPA and varsity letter in the fall
semester.
“We are very pleased at the academic success of our student-athletes,” Athletic Director Keith Gill said. “Eighty-five students on
the Patriot League Honor Roll and all teams with a fall cumulative GPA of at least a 3.0 just demonstrates how hard our students
and coaches work to achieve excellence in the classroom.”
American magazine asked AU’s perfect six a few questions about their achievements in the classroom and on the playing field.—MU
Deborah Frantz
sophomore, volleyball
Cassandra Ricketts
Matthew Makowski
sophomore, volleyball
freshman, soccer
Major: Marine Science
Major: Biochemistry
Favorite class:
Oceanography
Favorite class: Organic
Chemistry
Toughest class last
semester: The Global
Marketplace
Toughest class last
semester: Physics
Career goal: Marine
Biologist
Why did you choose AU?: “The
good balance between athletics and
academics.”
Athletic highlight: “Winning the Patriot
League and continuing the [winning]
legacy.”
Career goal: Pediatrician
or Orthopedic Surgeon
Why did you choose AU?: “I fell in love with
the volleyball program and the people involved
with it. It was a good fit for me because it is a
good academic school and has a good volleyball
program.”
Athletic highlight: “Winning the Patriot League
championship for the eighth year in a row. It
was my second championship, and it was an
amazing experience.”
Major:
Undecided
Favorite class:
Biology Lab
Toughest class last
semester: Honors English
Career goal: Medicine
Why did you choose AU?: “AU is a good
academic school with a good soccer
program, and most importantly, they were
interested in me.”
Athletic highlight this season: “The
Bucknell game. It was a competitive game,
and the environment was great. Our goal in
overtime to win was a spectacular ending.”
Kelly McLaughlin
Melissa Casale
Jonathan Freimark
junior, soccer
freshman, field hockey
sophomore, soccer
Major: International
Business
Toughest class last
semester: Production
Operations Management
Career goal:
Undecided
Why did you choose AU?: “Great
location, and the great girls on the team.”
Athletic highlight: “My sophomore year
when we went undefeated in the Patriot
League and made it to the conference
tournament.”
Major: Undecided
Favorite class:
Anthropology
Toughest class last
semester: Critical
Approach to Cinema
Career goal: Undecided
Why did you choose AU?: “I came for the
great opportunities provided by the field
hockey program, excellent academics, and
city life. It’s a win-win environment for me.”
Athletic highlight this season: “Winning
the Patriot League championship—I’d never
won a championship before. Also, scoring
my first collegiate goal during the Patriot
League Tournament.”
Major: International
Studies
Favorite class:
Politics of Education
Toughest class last
semester: CrossCultural Communications
Career goal: Undecided
Why did you choose AU?: “The International Studies Program.”
Athletic highlight this season: “Routing
Georgetown, 4-1.”
spring 2009 
Meet
Gregory
and
Fischer
L
ess than two hours before the nation’s longestrunning and most
influential television
show hits the air, Betsy
Fischer, SPA/BA ’92, SOC/MA ’96,
peels the plastic wrap off one of
the colorful trays of cheese, bagels
and lox, and fruit sitting on the
greenroom coffee table, and pops a
cracker into her mouth. Fresh from
his make-up chair, David Gregory,
SIS/BA ’92, joins her moments later
for a little morning nosh.
“One of the big roles we play is
tasting all the food,” he jokes.
The moderator and his executive
producer, friends since their earliest
days as undergraduates at American
University, are at ease, their chemistry palpable. Soon the guests, two
senators, two congressmen, and a
Washington Post reporter, will arrive,
and at 9 a.m. sharp the pair will team
up once again to produce a broadcast
that will keep 4 million sets of eyes
glued to their television sets.
It’s Sunday, and this is Meet the Press.
By Mike Unger
•
Photos by Bill Petros
Associate producer Chris Donovan ’97, left, keeps
Fischer informed in the control room.
 american
I
n the darkness of a cold winter morning, long before anyone meets the press,
Fischer arrives at NBC News studios on
Nebraska Avenue to prepare for the February 8 show. Shortly after Gregory gets in
around 7, the two sit on set working through
the show’s outline and checking the graphics
and television clips they plan to use.
“We know that we’ll ask Question A
to get to Question B which will get us to
Answer C,” Fischer says. “There’s a design
that we’ve set up when we’re working out
the outline. Throughout the week we’re
reading about everything the guest has
said, we can kind of anticipate what kind
of answers we’re going to get, so we know
what the logical follow-ups are to each of
those things.”
After the dry run they make their way
to the greenroom to greet the guests: Senator John Ensign and Representative Mike
Pence, Republicans; and Senator Claire
McCaskill and Representative Barney
Frank, Democrats. McCaskill is the first
politician, all accompanied by staffers and
some by family members, to arrive.
“When you get an e-mail from Betsy,
as a press person, you get very excited,” says
Adrianne Marsh, McCaskill’s communications director.
Today is Ensign’s first Meet the Press
appearance.
“It’s certainly got a great Q-factor,” the
Nevadan says.
Shortly before the live broadcast begins,
Fischer shifts to the control room, where she
monitors all facets of the show as the hour
unfolds. Things are progressing smoothly
when talk turns to Tom Daschle’s failure to
pay taxes for a limo and driver.
“The last chauffeured Town Car I drove
in, David, was this morning when you sent
one to pick me up,” Frank says.
Fischer’s ears perk up and she quickly
speaks into a microphone connected
directly to Gregory’s ear piece.
“That’s because we wanted to make sure
he got here!” she says.
“We wanted to make sure you got here,”
Gregory says seconds later, eliciting laughter
from all the guests.
“If she gets in my ear it’s because she’s
got a good suggestion to make, and I take
it,” Gregory says. “We’re really in sync, so
she’s either saying you should move on to
this other thing, or here’s a smart point to
make. One of the real challenges is—are
you present in every moment, are you
listening to everything not just thinking
about where you want to go. I do think
I can do my best if I’m really in that moment, and she’s in that moment as well.”
It’s another example of the seamless
synergy that exists between these former
classmates, current coworkers, and old
friends.
NBC
News’ Northwest
Washington studios
sit less than a mile
from the Massachusetts Avenue gate of
AU’s campus, where Fischer and Gregory
arrived as freshmen in 1988. While each
had grandiose hopes, neither could have
foreseen that two decades later they’d be
among America’s media elite, running the
nation’s preeminent political news show.
“Never in my wildest dreams would I
have imagined I would be in the news business,” says Fischer, who majored in justice
and minored in politics. Law school back
home in Louisiana was her post-AU plan
when she landed an internship with Meet
the Press in fall 1991.
“I went to the Career Center and I
flipped through a big black binder of various internships,” she says. “From when I
was eligible to do an internship I had done
them every year. I did one on the Hill with
[former representative] Bob Livingston, and
one at a law firm, so I got a good taste of
things. I thought [Meet the Press] sounded
interesting, and I knew it was right down
the street, so I said this is great, I can sleep
late and just walk to my internship.”
Today Fischer’s job responsibilities, paycheck, and mode of transportation to work
have changed (it’s a bit too long of a stroll
from her McLean, Virginia, home), but her
destination has not. After staying on for a
second internship, she took a position as a
researcher for the 1992 elections, working
under new Meet the Press moderator Tim
Russert.
“People talk about getting bitten by
Fischer and Gregory sit on set for a dry run every Sunday morning before the broadcast.
spring 2009 
Fischer and Gregory greet guests in the greenroom: from left, Rep. Mike Pence; Sen. John Ensign; Rep. Barney Frank; and Washington Post reporter Thomas Ricks.
the journalism bug, I kind of got bit by
the Tim Russert bug,” says Fischer, who
became the show’s executive producer in
2002. “He had that sense of enthusiasm
about him. He loved covering politics, and
it hooks you in. Tim never ever sat down
in that chair without being 100 percent
prepared, and David is the same way.”
W
hile Fischer was working
her way up at Meet the Press,
Gregory was establishing his
journalism credentials at a lightening fast
pace. A Los Angeles native, he landed
an internship after his freshman year at
KGUN-TV in Tucson, Arizona, which
hired him to file reports from Washington the next year. After graduating with a
degree in international relations, he joined
NBC News in 1995 at the ripe age of 24,
covering the O. J. Simpson trial for the network’s affiliates. Three years later he was
shifted to Washington to cover the Monica
Lewinsky scandal, and after chronicling
George W. Bush’s victorious 2000 presidential campaign, he became White House
correspondent at the age of 29.
On December 7, 2008, six months after
Russert’s sudden death, NBC News president Steve Capus chose Gregory as the 10th
permanent moderator of Meet the Press.
“We lost a legend this summer, and today we hand the program over to someone
who has a true appreciation and respect for
the Meet the Press legacy, and a keen sense
of what it needs to be in the future,” Capus
 american
said. “David and Betsy are first-rate, and
I’m thrilled to have them in their roles at a
key time in the program’s, and the country’s, history.”
Supremely confident and unquestionably ambitious, Gregory nevertheless
understands the magnitude of stepping into
Russert’s buffalo-sized shadow. In his mind,
he’s still “in a time of testing.”
“There’s no getting around it, this was
not a natural transition,” he says. “No one
expected me to be in this position. There
were intangibles that Tim had; he had certain gifts that I can’t try to emulate. I’ve got
to be my own guy. What I strive to do is
say there are standards, and there is a legacy
to live up to. I will do it my own way, but
it’s an ideal.”
One he shares with Fischer.
“David and Betsy
are first-rate, and
I’m thrilled to have
them in their roles
at a key time in the
program’s, and the
country’s, history.”
—NBC News President
Steve Capus
“That ethic of focusing and working
hard and always being on top of things,
that doesn’t end at any point,” she says.
So far the transition has seemed to resonate with the public and critics. Since Gregory took over, Meet the Press has remained
in first place among Sunday-morning news
shows, even increasing its audience by 5
percent from a year ago. It leads its closest
competitor, CBS’s Face the Nation, by more
than 1 million viewers.
“From where I sit with 25 years of
writing about Sunday morning public
affairs television, I think Gregory and the
new Meet the Press got off to a very promising start,” Baltimore Sun television critic
David Zurawik wrote in his December 14
blog. “Most important, I think Gregory
and executive producer Betsy Fischer are
wisely and somewhat seamlessly shaping
this venerable franchise for the new media
future—without losing any sense of its
glorious past.”
M
idway through this Sunday’s first
segment on the economy, debate
among the panelists has disintegrated into partisan bickering.
“Hold on, we’re not going to resolve this
today,” Gregory breaks in, reestablishing
control of the conversation. “What I’d like to
do is provide some daylight about this plan
with regard to getting [bank] lending going.”
Fischer, 39, and Gregory, 38, began discussing today’s topic and potential guests
just minutes after last Sunday’s sign-off.
Below, Gregory with Frank, Pence, Ensign, and Sen. Claire McCaskill
“It’s kind of a never-ending cycle,
because the competitive nature of the show
is you want to be on top of things,” Fischer
says. “We want to get the biggest guests
on the biggest topics every week. We don’t
want to rehash last week’s news. We want
to take a story and move it forward. We
want to make news.”
After unwinding with their families on
Sunday afternoon, they try—with mixed
results—to stay away from the office until
Wednesday. By then the guests usually are
booked, and the staff, including associate
producer Chris Donovan, SPA/BA ’97,
are pouring over every archived newspaper
story and TV broadcast they can fix their
eyes on.
By Friday the preparation narrows, and
Gregory and Fischer hunker down, often
late into the night on Saturday, crafting an
outline for the next day’s show.
“We have [video] elements that we choose,
and a direction, but never really a formal list
of questions,” Gregory says. “When you’re in a
longer interview you can have a roadmap, but
you want to be fluid enough to be responsive
to what they say. Ultimately, you’re having a
conversation. What distinguishes Meet the Press
is that it is a pointed conversation.”
One that works perfectly today. The
first half hour was a lively yet thoughtful
debate that touched on all aspects of the
economic crisis. After the second segment, in which Gregory discusses Iraq
and Afghanistan with Thomas Ricks of
the Washington Post, he delivers the show’s
signature tagline, and another Sunday is in
the books.
Fischer once again joins Gregory at
the table on set to deconstruct the previous hour and begin early preparations for
next week’s show. One of their standing
goals has been achieved: Ensign’s declaration that no bill would be better than
the Senate’s stimulus bill is the lead story
Monday morning on the public radio show
the Takeaway. As it has for sixty-plus years,
Meet the Press has made news.
But there’s precious little time for revelry.
“We joke, whew, the show’s over,”
Fischer says. “But you know what? There’s
another show coming. It’s a 24/7 thing on
your shoulder, and it never gets off.”
Already her mind is racing with possible
guests for seven days from now.
“We’re hoping to get someone, so I’ll
probably call his press person tomorrow,” she says. “Actually, I should call
her this afternoon.” n
spring 2009 
Meeting
of the
By
Sally
Acharya
Minds
What kind of world is emerging in the twenty-first century? That’s a
question that leads myriad places—from the stars to the developing
world to the halls of AU. It’s part of what led a Smithsonian space
expert to team up with an SPA professor and look at the future of
interplanetary travel. It was on the minds of a think tank director and
an SIS professor as they worked together to understand the myths of
development. In the process, the scholarly pairs modeled something
that is becoming a hallmark of the twenty-first century workplace
and classroom: teamwork.
Robots in Space: Technology,
Evolution, and Interplanetary Travel
By Howard McCurdy, SPA, and Roger Launius
If there are earth-like planets in the
near reaches of outer space, and
Howard McCurdy thinks there are, their
discovery will certainly be followed by a
great interest in exploring.
“But who’s going to go?” asks the
School of Public Affairs professor, an
expert on space policy. Could it be
possible for humans? Or would it be
a job for robots?
At the dawn of the space age,
computers were too big to fit into
spacecraft. “We thought we’d have
to have a human brain inside every
spacecraft,” McCurdy says. That’s
still the popular vision of space
exploration: an intrepid explorer, in
a ship cut off from the home planet,
going where no one has gone before.
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Whether that is the arc of the future
is explored in a new book by McCurdy
and his frequent coauthor, Roger
Launius, senior curator of space
history at the Smithsonian’s National
Air and Space Museum. Robots
in Space: Technology, Evolution,
and Interplanetary Travel poses
questions that go to the heart of
the space program.
“Fifty years ago we had this vision
for space exploration—humans
happily skipping across the solar
system, living on Mars,” McCurdy
says. “We think that model is
undercut by developments in
technology. It’s still popular, the
government is still pursuing it, but
we think it’s going to disappear.”
Either that, or the space program,
if it puts people in space, will need
to be explicit about a dramatic and
very long-term goal: colonizing
other planets.
“Rationales are important,”
Launius says from his office in the
Smithsonian. “If the purpose is to
learn about the universe, we’ve got
quite an aggressive robotic space
program that is doing well. What
is the purpose of adding humans?
Ultimately to get off this planet and
become a multiplanetary species.
That’s the only justification for putting
humans in harm’s way. If that’s not
our agenda, why send people at all?
We can do the other things quite
effectively with robots.”
McCurdy and Launius have
collaborated since they both worked
for NASA almost 20 years ago. They’ve
written three books together, growing
out of their speculative conversations
about the subject that fascinates
both of them: space flight, not in its
Hollywood fantasy version, but in all
its real challenges and possibilities.
“Howard’s just about the only
person I’d ever undertake a new book
project with,” says the Smithsonian
senior curator. “We keep each other
honest. If you write something as a
solo author, you don’t have someone
who gives feedback all along the way.
And we have a good synergy; first,
we’re friends, and second, we bounce
ideas off each other.”
For instance, what about
evolution? How would people have
to change to colonize other planets,
even Mars?
“Just think about it for a minute,”
Launius muses. “Gravity. The one
constant for life on earth has been
one G. Every form of life is acclimated
to it and has been throughout the
history of our planet.
“Now say we’re moving to 1/6
G (on the moon) or 1/3 G (on Mars).
How does that force us to change
over generations? The first baby
born on Mars—what will it be like?
How does it gestate? How does
its bone structure change, its
muscle structure?”
One option might be that it’s not
humans who go into space at all,
particularly on long treks to other
solar systems to explore any potential
Earthlike planets.
Nor, perhaps, might the travelers
be robots. Not exactly.
Just as artificial intelligence is
expanding the abilities of machines,
technology is enhancing human
capabilities, from devices that
allow injured soldiers to recover a
wide range of movement to skull
implants that can allow brains to hear
sensations that aren’t sound waves.
Looking at the way science is
developing, there’s a chance that
future space explorers would be
neither robot nor machine. McCurdy
Under a nearly full moon, the space shuttle Discovery sits atop a launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral,
Florida, March, 2009. Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
puts it this way: “Humans need to
breathe air. So space exploration, as
it stands today, is analogous to asking
fish to explore the surface of the earth
in a fish tank full of water. Fish solved
that problem in a very different way.
They developed lungs.
“We are descendants of that
natural biological process. Machines
don’t need a bubble of air. Maybe
humans don’t either. Maybe humans
can learn to breathe in space. We
don’t have to wait for 100 million years
of evolution for that to occur. We think
in the long run it won’t be humans
versus machines.”
The two may come together,
merging in yet unknown ways. At any
rate, “They will be our descendants.
Things we create—not the result of
natural evolution, but a result of us.” n
spring 2009 
Image Credit: NASA
Meeting
of the
By
Sally
Acharya
Minds
Development Redefined:
How the Market Met
Its Match
By Robin Broad, SIS, and John Cavanagh
Flight engineer Garrett Reisman on a spacewalk at the International Space
Station in 2008. Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Space: Is it the Final Frontier...
of branding?
Yes, concluded students in a Kogod consulting
practicum who investigated whether the U.S. portion of
the International Space Station (ISS), set for completion
in 2010, might provide branding opportunities.
Three second-year MBA students presented their
recommendations to NASA in December.
“People are interested in buying space technology
products,” said student Alexis Bawden.
“Consumers are very interested in HD footage,
clothing, and medicine from space. You’re going to
give the taxpayers tangible results.”
NASA had conducted its own brand evaluation,
producing a 2002 report that Professor Stephen Day,
who led the practicum, said “didn’t go anywhere.”
The agency is reluctant to move forward with a
branding campaign for numerous reasons, including
its fierce protection of its own NASA brand, Day said.
The students addressed that issue head-on in their
presentation. “NASA’s values are safety, teamwork,
integrity, and mission success,” student Krissa Lum
said. “You want to make sure that’s the ISS brand
as well.”
The business students landed before Mark Uhran,
NASA’s assistant associate administrator for the ISS,
thanks to Day, chairman of the Japan U.S. Science,
Technology and Space Applications Program.
“We initiated this project because we felt there is
unexploited value to the American taxpayer,” Day
said. “If this group demonstrates the value, this
thing is worth taking a really serious look at.” —MU
 american
Are people “the poorest of the poor” if they live on less than
a dollar a day?
Is a country developing if its economy is booming?
The answers might seem obvious. But sometimes, numbers
don’t tell the whole story. Robin Broad and John Cavanagh have
questioned many of what they call the “myths of development”
in their effort to understand how decades of development policy
have sometimes done more harm than good.
The husband-and-wife team brings both practical and
scholarly expertise to their recent book, Development
Redefined: How the Market Met Its Match. Broad is a professor
at the School of International Service with a strikingly wideranging background. She has, for instance, conducted
fieldwork among farmers in the Philippines and also worked as
an economist at the Treasury Department and U.S. Congress.
Cavanagh is director of the nation’s oldest progressive think
tank, the Institute for Policy Studies, and an expert on thirdworld debt. Together, they set out to analyze the fashions and
failures of decades of development policy.
The problem they found, in simplest terms, is that numbers
can be misleading. A country pushing to join the developed
world can appear on paper to be making progress if aspects
of its economy are prospering. “Unless you look at figures of
inequity,” Broad observes, “it can look good.”
Subsistence farmers, for example, may not contribute much
on paper to a country’s economy. They may be tilling a few
acres of vegetables and rice, but the harvest goes mainly to
feed their families—with, perhaps, a few extra tomatoes or
bags of rice sold to neighbors at local markets. They may earn
so little in cash that it amounts to less than a dollar a day.
Money isn’t circulating much. On paper, it’s a grim picture.
If their land comes into the hands of the local business elite
or international corporations, things can start to look better.
Many small farms may combine into a vast tract of sugar or
pineapples grown for export, bringing in foreign currency and
raising the gross national product. The farmers, meanwhile,
may move to the cities and earn more than a dollar a day.
Far away in Western offices the numbers can be encouraging.
Image Credit: Photos.com
But Broad and Cavanagh have also
done fieldwork together, and
they know that those one-time
farmers may end up being squeezed
into sprawling and crime-ridden
slums, struggling in unhealthy
conditions to earn cash that doesn’t
actually buy as much food as they
once grew. When that happens, has
a country truly improved?
It’s a question that both of them
think about a great deal. But turning
their thoughts into a book was a
challenge, even though they can talk
to each other any time—or, perhaps,
because the couple can talk to each
other any time.
“We approach it as if we were work
colleagues. We block off time on
our calendars, because if not, you’re
doing it at 11:00 at night,” Broad says.
Cavanagh and Broad have written
numerous articles together, and
this was their second book. “I love
collaborative writing. I think it’s
actually much more difficult than
writing on your own,” says Broad.
“We don’t literally sit there and write
World Bank Photo Collection. Image Credit: Ray Witlin
every word together, but you read
every word. You fight over every word.
You can’t get away with anything.
The final result is as if one has gone
through dozens of drafts.
“I actually have the belief—and I
bring this to my graduate seminars—
that not only is collaborative work
good because that’s what the world
needs, but collaborative work leads
to better analysis and better writing.
It’s similar to having a really good
outside editor, but it happens
throughout the process.” n
spring 2009 
By S A L L Y A C H AR Y A
 american
American University and the Next Decade
Leadership
for a Changing World
What the university community is saying and doing about the strategic plan.
Photo key p. 48
spring 2009 
It’s time to make the push.
Time to take the best of American University,
spread it to every corner of campus,
and make sure the world knows about it.
That’s the commitment at the heart of a
10-year plan for AU’s future that seeks
to bring the university to unprecedented
prominence by committing us to doing
more—a lot more—of what we do best.
When President Neil Kerwin launched
the strategic plan process last year, it
became clear that AU was at an exciting
point in its history. In a sense, the AU of
2008 was like a top athlete poised for the
Olympics. Years of effort and discipline
had paid off, and the components of
greatness were in place: the talent, the
focus, the passionate commitment.
AU has risen in the ranks of the academic
elite and anticipates rising even higher with
its strategic plan, American University
and the Next Decade: Leadership for
a Changing World.
The plan emerged after months of forums
and the use of both high-tech and
traditional tools to gather insights from
the entire community—in essence, an
ongoing meeting of hundreds of minds.
From that process, Kerwin and the planning committee crystallized a vision that
takes AU’s greatest strengths and proudest
 american
accomplishments and commits the
university to propel them further. When
the Board of Trustees met in February,
they called the plan “courageous” and
unanimously approved both the plan
and a budget that allows AU to begin
implementation this year.
Will the current economic difficulties
impact the new plan? AU is confident
they won’t, in part because its prudence
and financial stewardship have paid off
dramatically. The university is operating
from a position of financial strength.
Unlike many universities that finance
much of their operating budgets—
sometimes 40 percent—from endowment
income, a miniscule 1 percent of AU’s
budget comes from endowments.
While our reliance on tuition has always
brought some uncertainty, today, AU is a
high-profile university where admission
is eagerly sought by a large applicant
pool of talented students who know
its excellent track record for educating
leaders. AU is financially strong and in
high demand. The time is right for the
university to surge ahead, and Kerwin and
the trustees are moving forward on the
far-reaching agenda.
The strategic plan is the road map to the
future. Ten transformational goals define
where AU is heading; six enabling goals
describe the tools needed to support the
effort; and action steps lay out specifics
of how to achieve the goals.
This vision, however, is more than a
plan for AU’s future. It’s a celebration
of what we already are, a recognition
that greatness is within our grasp, and
a commitment to the sustained and
passionate drive needed to take AU to
the highest levels of scholastic excellence
and real-world leadership.
Following are the words and stories of
a few of the extraordinary people who
are poised to point AU toward a future
of leadership in a changing world.
To read the strategic plan, go to
www1.american.edu/strategicplan/.
Read more stories at www.american.edu/
magazine.
1. Epitomize the Scholar-Teacher Ideal
“The scholar-teacher ideal is a model for students as well as faculty. Pursuit of
knowledge and understanding, and simply getting ‘it’ right should be part of their
lives and daily endeavors. Learning how to inquire, learning how to explore, is
what their education is all about.”
Alan Kraut
professor of history, CAS,
and a Scholar-Teacher of the Year
PRAGUE SEASON
The path of scholarship isn’t one that Gail
Mardirosian walks alone. AU students and
alumni are part of her journey, even when it
leads to Prague.
The performing arts professor, CAS/MA
’79, CAS/PhD ’02, is in Prague as a Fulbright
scholar, directing a play written in the World War
II Terezin ghetto by imprisoned artists. It will be
performed at the camp itself, and Mardirosian
calls it “the most challenging experience of my
directing life.”
Her students and fellow alumni helped her
prepare by doing a read-through of the play and
pondering its message—“we need beauty and
wisdom as we need a piece of dry bread and a
warm cover.”
Mardirosian’s students then traveled to Prague
to absorb the city’s artistic heritage, join acting
workshops, and experience Terezin with a
survivor. “We felt so fortunate to have that
opportunity,” adds Erika Hall, CAS/BA ’09,
right. “We really came to understand how art can
be a strategy for survival,” says Ezree Mualem,
CAS/BA ’09, seated.
AU film students studying abroad are documenting the project, while an arts management
graduate student plans publicity for the play,
which will also be performed at AU, along
with poetry by Terezin children set to choral
music. Mardirosian’s research will inform an
honors course.
Alum Bethany Corey, CAS/BA ’07, left, helped
organize the study trip. “To me,” she says, “Gail
is the epitome of a scholar-teacher—constantly
working to learn more, do more with herself,
and involve her students in what she learns.”
spring 2009 
2. Provide an Unsurpassed Undergraduate Education and Experience
“It’s significant to see education and experience
together. Many of our undergraduates come because
they’re interested in government. What AU offers is the
ability to experience Washington, and then pull back and
reflect on those experiences.
“It starts with something as important as our physical
location. We’re not in the middle of the fray, no monuments break up our campus, so the AU undergraduate
experience is about being in D.C., but also about pulling
back and reflecting on it.
“There is a great essay by Max Weber where he talks
about politics as a vocation. Students read it for the first
time and think, ‘OK, that’s interesting.’ Then they go to
an internship and come back saying, ‘Oh, this is right!’
“You can’t get that just by reading. And you could go
work in those organizations and never think about it.
“The combination of worldly experience and reflecting,
formulating things in process and checking them out in
practice, is the heart of what an excellent undergraduate
education should be about.”
—Patrick Jackson
professor, SIS; and director, General Education Program
and University College
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3. Demonstrate Distinction in Graduate, Professional, and Legal Studies
David Rosenbloom
distinguished professor, SPA
“Graduate education is central to AU. By head count, we have more
graduate than undergraduate students, so in my mind, this is a very
large piece of who we are.
“The scholar-teacher model is ideal for graduate education. You want
faculty who are top scholars teaching the graduate students who will
become the next generation of top scholars. We want faculty to be cutting
edge in their own area, and also to take teaching very, very seriously. “
BOOKS, NOT BRIBES
In Peru, Carmen Apaza, left, turned down
bribes. Now she’s working to rein in corruption
around the world.
“They said I could have a blank check,” the
former customs inspector says of those who
tried to draw her into their schemes.
The experience drove her to the courts, and
then to AU’s School of Public Affairs where
she’s researching corruption control and prevention mechanisms. The doctoral student has
spoken at international conferences and is coauthoring a book with an acclaimed scholar she
met at a panel organized by an AU professor.
An internship at the Organization of American
States led to a job working on good governance.
“You can keep ethical in a corrupt environment,” she says. “But some people just want to
have more.”
Apaza, too, wants more—more honesty, and
more transparency. For her, that means more
research, writing, and engaging with scholars and
practitioners around the world.
4. Engage the Great Ideas and Issues of Our Time
through Research, Centers, and Institutes
“The centers play a pivotal role in the life of AU. They create a platform from
which AU leaders can develop partnerships with industry leaders. We then can
bring the students into that conversation, where they benefit from meeting, being
nurtured by, and finding mentors among top leaders in their fields of study.”
Chris Palmer
distinguished film producer in residence,
SOC; founder and director, Center for
Environmental Filmmaking
spring 2009 
5. Reflect and Value Diversity
“I teach criminal law and procedure, where race is an important issue. Without
varied points of view that come from different backgrounds, our class discussions
would not only be uninteresting, but incomplete.
“It’s a much richer academic experience to hear from diverse people of different
races, ethnicities, genders, and socioeconomic backgrounds—and it prepares
students for the real world. It’s also the right thing to do.”
—Angela Davis, professor, WCL, and winner of this year’s University Award for Outstanding Scholarship, Research, Creative Activity, and other Professional Contributions
6. Bring the World to AU and AU to the World
“It’s part of what attracts students to AU, and I know from talking
to parents that they consider that part of being educated.
“The world is shrinking, and very few of our graduates are
going to get a job where they’re only dealing with one kind of
people. Whether you’re in the private or public sector, you need
to have an awareness of other countries and cultures. Just
as we’d assume any student who graduates from AU would
be computer literate, we should assume every student will be
cross-culturally literate.
“We’re one of the leading universities already in global awareness
and experience. It’s a vital part of education today, and that’s
going to be true long into the future. We’re already ahead of the
curve; how do we expand that more?”
Gary Weaver,
SIS/BA ’65, SIS/MA ’67, SIS/PhD ’70,
professor, SIS; and director, Intercultural
Management Institute
 american
7. Act on Our Values through Social Responsibility and Service
“What’s really critical is we are determined not to be an ivory tower.
I don’t think there’s anyone on campus who isn’t connected beyond
the university to multiple tiers of external service. What I do in the
classroom spills over to my scholarship and spills over very dramatically
into my public service.”
FIGHTING INJUSTICE
The Washington Post and Time don’t often quote
interns. But Tony Taylor, CAS/BA ’09, isn’t a
typical intern.
The psychology major with “a passion for
poverty issues” began interning last summer at
the National Coalition for the Homeless, which
is working on legislation that will make crimes
against the homeless hate crimes.
To bolster the case, Taylor enlisted sociology
professor Andrea Brenner as a mentor and
designed a survey on violence. Then he spoke to
AU classes and found volunteers to fan out to
soup kitchens and shelters with the questions.
The findings: one in four homeless people in
D.C. had been a victim of violent crime by the
non-homeless.
Meanwhile, Penny Pagano, SOC/BA ’65,
director of the office of Community and Local
Government Relations and a veteran D.C.
political insider, connected him with some of
the city’s key players.
He’s since testified before the D.C. City
Council, found a supporter in Rep. Eleanor
Holmes Norton, and earned his wings as a
media spokesman for the homeless.
Taylor, right, has regularly spent 24 hours a
week at his unpaid job, far more than the formal
internship requirement—all while maintaining
an honors’ level GPA.
Pam Nadell
professor of history, CAS; director, Jewish Studies Program;
and a Scholar-Teacher of the Year
spring 2009 
8. Engage Alumni in the Life of the University, On and Off Campus
“Alumni mitigate some of the academic observations in formal literature;
they leaven it; they bring their experience to it; and they question it.
Alumni want to give. They bring their wisdom and knowledge, from
failures as well as successes, to our students and our faculty. Our
students learn about careers, and they also build networks.”
James Thurber
distinguished professor, SPA; director,
Center for Congressional and Presidential
Studies; and a Scholar-Teacher of the Year
SHOWING THE WAY
Michael Cascio calls AU “the best kept secret in
the industry.”
The industry is filmmaking, and Cascio, SOC/
MA ’73, knows it well. He’s a senior vice president
at the National Geographic Channel, was a top
executive at Animal Planet, created major shows
for A&E, and helped launch the History Channel.
“Washington has become the capital of
nonfiction production in the country,” Cascio
says. “It’s a media town, and AU is already in the
center of that. In the future, we need to be even
more central.”
He’s helping that happen by making time for
students. Cascio, left, speaks regularly at a
class taught by two-time Oscar winner Russell
Williams, SOC/BA ’74, and at Center for
Environmental Filmmaking events.
On the SOC Dean’s Advisory Counsel, his
insider’s view of his fast-changing field helps
keep the school on the cutting edge. He also
mentors a student each semester, meeting oneon-one, looking at film footage, and helping
them make contacts.
This spring he’s paired with Aditi Desai. “I’ve
asked him a million questions,” says the graduate
film student.
Alumni involvement was key to her decision
to come to AU. “That was a huge thing for me,”
she says. “I thought, ‘Wow, there’s not only a
great program, but also all these connections.’”
 american
9. Encourage Innovation and High Performance
Ajay Adhikari
professor, Kogod, took students to
India as part of a joint graduate course
with SIS and WCL on the information
economy and corporate strategy.
“Innovation really comes from the bottom up. It comes from the
faculty. But we also need a culture at the top that puts structures in
place to encourage that. We should be able to integrate across departments to get many perspectives you don’t think of when you work in
silos. I’d think of innovation in terms of the curriculum and student life
activities—that’s the real innovation. Technology is merely an enabler.”
EVOLVING EDUCATION
The Galapagos Islands will be
the setting for what could be
a preview of AU’s innovative
future. Students will head to the
islands in May armed with scientific knowledge, video cameras,
and real-world assignments.
It’s the final project of the
team-taught Practice of Environmentalism, where they’ve been
learning about policy, science,
and digital storytelling tools from
CAS, SIS, and SOC faculty. “Science can drive policy,”
says Mark Petruniak, SIS/BA
’09. “But messages have to be
communicated properly, and that
depends on the science being
in place and the policies being
substantive.”
It all leads up to a scientific
message for policy makers and
the public.
Photo caption on p. 48
10. Win Recognition and Distinction
“Having more institutional support to let people know about the exciting things we do will
encourage the faculty to make AU the platform for our energy.
“This all goes together: The more research we do, the more outside funds we raise; the
more collaboration we do, the more there is to tell people. And the more we have to tell
people, the easier it becomes to raise funds to do even more.”
Patricia Aufderheide
professor, SOC; founder and director,
Center for Social Media; and a
Scholar-Teacher of the Year
spring 2009 
Remembering
Dutch
By Mike Unger
 american
When a baseball was pitched to him,
Dutch hit it. When a basketball made
its way into his hands, he scored, and
when a football sailed his way, he caught
it. When his bowling ball collided with
pins they tumbled, when a fish swam
near his line, he hooked it. Dutch drove
a golf ball down the middle of the
fairway, and smoothly stroked winners
down the line on the tennis court. In a
swimming pool, he glided through the
water as effortlessly as a dolphin.
Nearly a half century before Robert
Redford on the silver screen, Dutch
Schulze, CAS/BS ’41, MA ’61, was
American University’s version of
The Natural.
A husband, father, patriot, player,
coach, and administrator, Dutch held
AU close to his heart throughout his
remarkable life, which ended after
nine decades on December 7, 2008.
A plaque honoring his induction into
the inaugural class of AU’s Stafford H.
Cassell Hall of Fame hung on his wall
from the moment he received it in 1969
until his final days.
“He built such strong friendships
there,” says his daughter, Judy Hanson.
“Dad didn’t have any siblings, and mom
didn’t have any family out here, so the
AU people were our family.”
athletic scholarship to AU and quickly
garnered headlines of his own.
One of the earliest articles ran in
the February 11, 1939, edition of the
Washington Star.
“Schulze, All-High member
of Western High’s Interhigh
Championship quint last year, put on
a one man show tonight as American
University swamped Virginia Medical
College, 51-26. Schulze hit the cords for
13 field goals and three free tosses for
the staggering total of 39 points, three
more than the entire Virginia Medical
quint could muster.”
Over the course of his four years at
AU, Dutch earned a cool dozen varsity
letters, four each for football, baseball,
and his best sport, basketball. During
his senior year he was named to the
All-District basketball team and the AllMason-Dixon Conference football team.
Undergrad years
Hugo Schulze was born on August
17, 1918, in Martinsburg, West Virginia.
Just six months into his life, his father,
Herman, passed away, a victim of the
influenza epidemic. Suddenly a widow,
his mother moved the family of two
back to her native Washington.
Growing up in Foggy Bottom, Hugo
came to be known as Dutch, after the
famous gangster of that era, Dutch
Schultz. But the clean-cut, straightshooting teen-age Schulze couldn’t have
been more different from the notorious
crime figure. His natural athleticism was
evident from a young age. A multisport
star in high school, Dutch earned an
A lieutenant commander in the Navy, Dutch saw combat in the Mediterranean and Pacific
theaters. Above, he played basketball and football for AU.
spring 2009 
Dutch met his beloved Jane while he was
in the service. They were married for more
than 50 years.
“He was totally devoted to my
mom,” Hanson says. “Her strawberry
blond hair is what attracted him to her.
When he came back to shore, he would
see her.”
Less than a year after they met, they
were married.
“He claims that all of a sudden he
got a letter one day on the ship, and
there was an announcement that he
was getting married to Jane Bronson,”
Hanson says. “He claims ‘I didn’t ask
her to marry me, but I didn’t have
the heart to tell her.’ We knew there
is no way she did that. Guess what,
we finally got the truth out of him
after 65 years of this story. He sent a
letter to her dad asking for her hand in
marriage. It wasn’t until this fall that
he let that slip.”
Post-war: Return to AU
World War II: U.S. Navy
Shortly after graduating with a
degree in business administration,
Dutch joined the Navy, where over
the course of the next five years he
saw combat in the Mediterranean and
Pacific theaters. In late 1942 he was
aboard the USS Tasker H. Bliss off the
coast of Casablanca when an enemy
torpedo tore through the ship.
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“Schulze escaped being trapped
in the burning, sinking ship by
crawling through a porthole from the
communication room, where he was a
communications officer, and landing
on a lower deck,” reads a December
8, 1942, story in the Eagle recounting
the incident. “He then clambered over
the side of the ship and down a rope
to water and safety. Somehow in the
process he wrenched his shoulder, but
he insisted that it’s nothing serious.
“When asked if he’d been scared,
Dutch said, ‘Scared? There wasn’t
time to be scared. Everybody had to
do something, and do it fast. So I
remember that somebody had said you
could climb through a porthole. Out we
went, head first.’”
Between combat missions Dutch’s
ship would dock in San Francisco.
During one of these respites, he was
served a hot cup of coffee by a pretty
young lady volunteering at the USO.
Jane Bronson was studying the harp at
Stanford, and when the two laid eyes
on one another, by all accounts, each
heard music.
Dutch left the Navy in 1946 as a
lieutenant commander. A civilian once
again, he and his bride boarded a train
in California bound for Washington,
where Dutch had landed a job as AU’s
assistant basketball, baseball, and
tennis coach, and intramural manager.
The next year he joined the College of
Arts and Sciences faculty as a physical
education instructor, earning an annual
salary of $2,750.
In 1951 Dutch replaced the
legendary Stafford “Pop” Cassell, his
mentor, as director of athletics and head
basketball coach. For the next five years
he ran the athletics department, placing
special emphasis on expanding the
university’s intramural program.
“AU’s Schulze Truly an All-Sports
Coach,” screamed a headline in the
March 4, 1954, Star. “For a college the
NCAA lists as ‘small’ and which has
been able to muster only 10 basketball
players this season, American University
is doing well in the Mason-Dixon
Conference. Most of the credit for
this success belongs to young Athletic
Director Hugo (Dutch) Schulze.”
Bill Patten, CAS/BA ’51, played
basketball for Dutch. He remembers
a coach who was a skilled tactician,
demanding but fair. Dutch couldn’t
have been too tough on Patten; when
Patten got married at the Navy chapel
off Ward Circle in 1953, Dutch was in
the wedding party.
“He was an expert in man-to-man
defense,” says Patten. “He was very
precise in positioning us to defend
the other team. We were always to
position ourselves between the man
and the basket. You couldn’t have asked
for a better coach, but that wasn’t his
strongest thing. He always was honest.
He never told you anything that wasn’t
the absolute truth.”
In those days the basketball team
practiced in Leonard Gymnasium,
where the Katzen Arts Center now
stands. Another team used to play there
too, Patten recalls.
“He was such a tremendous athlete,
that when the Washington Caps came
up to Leonard to play, and they wanted
to scrimmage, if they didn’t have
enough players they would ask Dutch to
come out on that floor.”
The Capitals weren’t a hockey team
then, they were a professional franchise
in the Basketball Association of
America, a precursor to the NBA. From
1947 to 1949 those Caps were coached
by basketball legend Red Auerbach.
“Red thought the world of Dutch,”
Patten says.
Federal years
With a burgeoning family that
eventually grew to six children, Dutch
left AU in 1956 for the National
Security Agency, where he worked for
30 years until retiring.
“Dutch Schulze is American
University’s all-time outstanding
athlete,” Cassell, then assistant to the
president at AU, said in a press release at
the time. “He is always a scholar and a
gentleman, respected and liked by both
the students and faculty. He is an AllAmerican guy.”
Dutch aged gracefully, never letting
athletics slip from his life. He was
an avid golfer and fisherman into his
late years, and he made sure that he
spent as much time as he could with
his 14 grandchildren and three great
grandkids.
“Because he didn’t have a dad, that
was a real soft spot he had,” Hanson
says. “If there ever was a kid whose dad
wasn’t present, he would go to their
games. He always made sure he’d get to
as many of the grandchildren’s events
as possible, so they knew they had
someone who cared about them.”
Dutch remained devoted to his
beloved Jane until his final days, even
living with her on the Alzheimer’s wing
of the assisted living facility they called
home despite the fact that his mind was
sharp as a tack to the end.
“He took care of her until his health
started to fail,” Hanson says. “That’s
when he kind of gave in. We found
them a place near us. He chose to live
on the Alzheimer’s wing so he could
be with her. That’s a huge sacrifice.
He wouldn’t leave her. People were so
touched, it would bring them to tears.”
Some eyes will be watery, no doubt,
during the commemorative reception
Dutch requested in lieu of a funeral,
but smiles will be much more prevalent
at the party.
“The stuff that has made him a fine
athlete, has stuck by him to make him
a fine officer, a man who sees a small
chance and jumps it without a second’s
hesitation,” the 1942 Eagle story reads.
“Here’s to you, Lieutenant.”
Here’s to you, Dutch. n
A party for
Dutch
Dutch Schulze didn’t want a
funeral—he wanted a party. You
always listen to the coach, so his
family is throwing a memorial
party for him on May 3 at,
coincidentally, Dutch’s Daughter
restaurant in Frederick, Maryland.
All are welcome from 2 to 5 p.m.
for heavy hors d’oeuvres and an
open bar. Just the way Dutch
wanted it.
Dutch’s Daughter is located
at 581 Himes Avenue, Frederick,
Maryland. 301-668-9500.
www.dutchsdaughter.com
spring 2009 
Class
n
tables
SO YOU CAN CATCH UP WITH PEOPLE YOU KNEW AT AU
Tom Shales, SOC/BA ’67
magine this amazing gig for a major newspaper: watching TV all day long and penning witty columns about
whichever shows either rock your boat or make you
reach for the remote. Just a day in the life of Tom Shales, the TV
critic for the Washington Post. Or is it?
“Boredom compounded by tedium,” is how Shales describes
his average day. “A great deal of harassment from various sources
and a lot of guilt over work that I was supposed to finish the
night before.”
I
Frank Mankiewicz, left, with Tom Shales at SOC’s February 2009 Reel
Journalism showing of Citizen Kane. Mankiewicz is the son of Herman
Mankiewicz, who cowrote the 1941 film.
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His voice is a deep rumble as he talks about growing up in Elgin,
Illinois, where he amused his eighth-grade teacher, Mrs. Peterson, by
stringing 25 random vocabulary words into humorous narratives.
“I liked writing,” he says. While a schoolboy, Shales realized
that if his essays were entertaining and well written, the teachers
tended to overlook the sloppiness and the penmanship.
In addition to Mrs. Peterson, Shales credits his mother, Jack
Paar, and Pauline Kael, “who was as brilliant a writer as she was a
critic,” for inspiring him to write.
In high school, “a crusty old newspaper man” taught the
journalism class and Shales rose to become newspaper editor, a
position he also held for the Eagle while an AU student.
One of Shales’s most memorable professors was Harry “Light
Horse” Lee, a charming Southerner who often wandered around
the room as he talked. For one assignment, Shales had to write a
biographical article about Charlie Chaplin. Lee hated it. “He said
it was lousy and the words were dead. It read like an encyclopedia
entry,” Shales recalls. Good writers win over their readers with
lively prose, Lee opined.
Shales took to heart this pithy advice. “I have an attitude
about life,” he says. “It’s a sardonic way of taking things, not
being melodramatic. I would rather laugh than despair.”
In 1972, Shales joined the Washington Post as a writer for the
Style section; five years later he was named chief television critic
and TV editor with a syndicated column. There he won the
Pulitzer Prize for “television criticism” in 1988, which he modestly says he earned not so much for good writing, but for the
relevance of his work to society at large.
“Television and I have the same life span,” Shales says. Ever
since television came into our homes nearly 70 years ago, it’s been
increasingly relevant as a source of news and entertainment. “I’ve
always loved TV,” he says. “It’s both an art form that can be moving and magnificent and utilitarian for information. I remember
when it was considered amazing.”
Over the years, he’s observed a lot of changes in how we watch
TV as well as what’s on TV. “It used to be a family watching
together. Now there is a TV in every room with shows for every
demographic.” He also doesn’t mince words when discussing
“I always hope my antenna is turned the
right way to pick up what’s new and innovative
and interesting.”
—Tom Shales
reality TV. “People don’t demand quality television anymore,” he
says. “These shows don’t require professional performers. Someone realized that ordinary life can be television and doesn’t need
to be written in advance.” The result is shows with “essentially
sleazy, voyeuristic appeal,” he grumbles.
For Shales, quality television was classic hits like I Love Lucy, What’s
My Line, All in the Family, The Cosby Show, and Saturday Night Live.
He counts “six or seven, but four in working order” TV sets
in his house, and watches the tube four to five hours a day, which
is below the national average. Since the explosion of cable, Shales
says “now [it] is harder than ever to decide what show may be
interesting, good, or bad.” He decides which shows merit his
critique by reading advance materials or focusing on certain writers, directors, or stars. “Or sometimes [I pick a show to review]
because it’s something I can have fun with,” he admits. “I always
hope my antenna is turned the right way to pick up what’s new
and innovative and interesting.” Always included in his weekly
viewing line-up however is Saturday Night Live because “Live
from New York,” he says gives him a “weekly fix of beautifully
executed political satire.” — MIKHAILINA KARINA
Esther Benjamin, SIS/MA ’92, CAS/MA ’95
s a child, Esther Benjamin immigrated to the United
States from Sri Lanka, leaving behind a brutal civil
war, and bringing with her an innate willingness to
make a difference.
“Seeing how my country of birth has been torn apart by civil
war over the past 25 years has had a major impact on my life,”
she explains. “My commitment to international service and
global development is part of who I am. I wake up every morning
inspired to do this work.”
That drive has led her to become a White House Fellow, a
United Nations humanitarian affairs officer, and a Brookings
A
Esther Benjamin with husband Tim Webb and President Barack Obama
Institution and World Bank research analyst.
Global public health is the issue that now occupies Benjamin
professionally.
As executive director for resource development at the sevenyear-old nonprofit International Partnership for Microbicides
(IPM), Benjamin says,“My life mission has always focused on
connecting first-world resources with third-world needs. In my
position at IPM, I’ve been able to leverage political and financial
support for a cause that could truly transform the lives of millions of women who are at risk of HIV infection.” IPM develops
products that women in developing countries could use to protect
themselves from HIV. In her two short years with the organization, Benjamin has helped to raise millions of dollars and rallied
political support for product development efforts throughout
Europe and North America.
The recent presidential election brought Benjamin back to the
White House. She was tapped by the Obama-Biden Presidential
Transition Team to review key international agencies and initiatives, including the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the
U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.
The three-month project was “more than a full-time job,”
confides Benjamin, and “a great honor and one of the most
intense and incredible professional experiences of my career.”
“We reviewed a wide range of issues, from economic development and food security, to education and global health. It was a
tremendous opportunity to understand the current issues and the
challenges at the highest levels of development agencies, and to
develop options, strategies, and priorities for the new administration,” she says.
She’s lucky, says Benjamin, to have such a breadth of professional experiences, from the U.N. to the U.S. government to
international nonprofits. “I come from humble beginnings, but I
have been blessed with many great opportunities, and with that
comes the responsibility to give back.” —ADRIENNE FRANK
spring 2009 
in closing
Penny Pagano
SOC/BA ’65
director,
Community and Local
Government Relations
Morris Jackson
director of development,
SIS
Krissa Lum
graduate
student, Kogod
Monica Konaklieva
chemistry professor,
CAS
Aditi Desai
graduate student, SOC
Mark Petruniak
SIS/BA ’09
Bill Gentile
journalist in residence,
SOC
Kiho Kim
environmental science
professor, CAS
Jonelle Williams
SPA/BA ’09
Larry Engel
professor, SOC
Jacqui Kemp
SIS/BA ’10
Katie Kassof
graduate student,
SOC
Jennifer Cumberworth
SOC/CAS ’09
Jackie Vi
SIS/BA ’12
Alan Kraut
history professor, CAS
Joe Sidari
SIS/Kogod dual
graduate student
David Seunglee Park
SIS/BA ’12
Jenna Bramble
SPA/BA ’09
Pam Nadell
history professor,
CAS
Claire Dawidziak
CAS/BA ’09
James Thurber
distinguished
professor, SPA
Paul Lopreiato
SOC/BA ’12
Chris Palmer
distinguished film
producer in residence,
SOC
Dhamma Jama
CAS ’01, staff member,
Development
Deirdre Belson
Class of 2020?
Rowena Royan
CAS/BA ’11
Vishal Vaidya
CAS/SIS ’09
Alison Goh
SPA/SIS ’09
David Culver
biology professor, CAS
Photo Key
Story p. 18
Standing from left: Kiho Kim, environmental science professor, CAS; Simon Nicholson, professor,
SIS; Jacqui Kemp, BA/SIS ’10; Megan Barrett, graduate student, SIS; Bill Gentile, journalist in
residence, SOC; Larry Engel, professor, SOC. Seated from left: Katie Kassof, graduate student, SOC;
Jon Malis, graduate student, SOC; Mark Petruniak, SIS/BA ’09
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Senior Jacob Choi snagged an autograph
from AU’s “first fan,” Washington mayor
Adrian Fenty, during the Eagles March 19
NCAA Tournament game in Philadelphia.
“Over the last four years, AU basketball has
unified us.” Choi said.
Photo: Kevin Grasty