Published by Eta Sigma Phi - Monmouth College

School District, and creator of the worldfamous “Language Arts Through Latin”program that for many years enrolled allpupils in the District in an enrichmentprogram based on Latin materials. TheActing Dean of the College of LiberalArts, Carolyn Adams, came to view theceremony, as did Dr. Charles Meyers,longtime colleague of Dr. Rudy in theschool district and an initiate of Eta SigmaPhi himself — in his undergraduate days atBowling Green.Shortly after Winter Solstice, it seemed,Lyndy Danvers, our Prytanis, was off toSan Diego for the annual meeting of theAmerican Philological Association, whereshe made a presentation with Dr. Davisreporting on their experience and experimentswith the Diamond UndergraduatePeer Teachers program. The presentationwas successful, and resulted in an invitationto present on pedagogy at CAMWS.Being in San Diego also furnished Lyndywith opportunity to meet the national officersof Eta Sigma Phi, and to help a littlewith their representation of Eta Sigma Phito the assembled members of the APA.She did not, however, fall under the influenceof the Mega Prytanis Tom Evison andhis interest in University of Florida footballas did Dr. Davis, who stayed up very lateon the night the Gators won the championship,cheering as loudly as though shehad not attended the rival FSU.In the spring term we managed anotherbake sale and a “Poetry and Pizza” afternoon,to which the Vice Dean for UndergraduateStudies in our college came.Dr Rifkin was the original sponsor of theWorld Poetry Reading festival. He enjoyedour miniature version of that event andpromised to come back when next we holdit. His specialty is Russian, and he willread some translations of Greek and Latinpoems for us.Our core committee of eighteenplanners for Eta Sigma Phi Conventionsuddenly realized that we had not one buttwo conventions to help with. Dr. KarenHersch was this year’s president of thePennsylvania Classical Association, anddecided to host it in conjunction with theEta Sigma Phi Convention, producinga historic first. We weren’t sure how theLatin teachers of Pennsylvania would feelabout this, but they embraced the idea.Some furnished materials for Certamenquestions, and two teachers agreed to posequestions at our Certamen.Just before convention time, weinitiated six new members into Zeta BetaChapter and immediately confirmed theirduties for convention itself. This helpedreturn our core committee to full strength.Natalie Johnson was at the Temple Romeprogram for the entire year, and MattCain, Aly Friesen and Cassaundra Amato,good planners all, had departed for Romefor spring semester.There are probably many things thatcould have been included in this report,but all else paled in the face of the GreatConvention-Hosting Experience. We havefound the planning of a convention to bean excellent way to strengthen the spiritof camaraderie among our members, andto attract new students to our group. Weheartily recommend to other chapters thatthey try it!Zeta Gamma at San Diego StateUniversityAbsent from the national convention for acouple years, we were happy to be with youto report that we have prospered under theaegis of the Department of Classics andHumanities. Over the last three years wehave inducted eleven members, thoughonly two this past February, including oneof our four delegates, Michelle Peralta.For the first time we conducted our ritualof induction in our beautiful new ClassicsSeminar Room, beneath the portraits ofHomer, Plato, Cicero, and Vergil. Afterwards,members, alumni, alumnae, andarchon professors dutifully followed theancient tradition of pizza at Mona LisaRestaurant. Our two new faculty members,Dr. Brad Cook and Dr. Kerri Hame, werealready members, but next February weexpect to induct yet another new professor,Dr. Maria Rybakova.We continue to enjoy many activitiesas majors and students of Classics andas members of the department’s studentorganization Umanisti. Last year’s BurnettLecture in Classics brought Professor AmyRichlin of UCLA, who gave us a rousinginsight into Roman Comedy and internationalprejudices. This spring, our own Dr.Charles D. Hamilton, Professor Emeritusof History and Classics, will comparePericles and George W. Bush in their timesof war. Just before classes this fall, wehelped host the Pacific Rim Seminar onRoman Literature, which brought scholarsfrom as far away as England and Australia.In addition, San Diego State hosted forthe third time in twelve years the nationaljoint meeting of the American PhilologicalAssociation and the ArchaeologicalInstitute of America, and once again membersof Zeta Gamma joined The Friendsof Classics as volunteer assistants. TheFriends continue to donate our initiationfees and have generously borne all thetravel expenses of our delegates.Probably like many other chapters,we have been showing the series Rome,although, unlike many others, we hopedthat if the historicism of the work did notdraw outsiders to the classical world, thegraphic violence and gratuitous sex mostcertainly would.We are especially proud of our department’swork with the Cajon Valley MiddleSchool. Through our first Classics graduateMaryann Ostermeyer assisted by MichellePeralta, a program has been established toteach students Latin in conjunction withthe U.S. Constitution. This project is trulyspecial because these junior high kids aremostly refugee immigrants from the wartornMiddle East.The importance of Classics and ourearly history was brought home to us whenSteve Jackson and Prytanis Richard Sheacame upon the tomb of Ben Franklin neartheir hotel. Although Ben’s formal Latinhad been limited to his two years of grammarschool, he returned to Latin as anadult, when he acquired several modernlanguages and even some Greek. As one ofthe nation’s founders, he collaborated andconsorted with those who were steeped inthe classics. This prompted Richard, Steve,Michelle, and Elisabeth Thordin — allgraduating seniors — to contemplate thesignificance of their trip: Now, hundredsof years later, thousands of miles away inSan Diego, we were continuing to formAmericans through the classics by instillinga respect and love for traditions, texts,and ideals. Can there be a better field ofstudy than this?31