Big Bash 2015 - Colloquia Sessions
Professor of Classics Jeremy Hartnett '96 introduces classics major Bruce Baker '65.
Bruce Baker '65 presented his colloquium on the computer system he developed for people with communications disabilities. He created the system based on hieroglyphics. It is now used on six continents.
Bruce Baker '65 said, 'We can teach 100 icon codes in a very short amount of time.' The communication system he developed has more than 5,000 word possibilities.
When asked if his company was public or private, Bruce Baker '65 said his plans are to stay private at the advice of a highly regarded intellectual property lawyer. Baker said, 'I didn't want to be a captain of industry. I wanted to practice my art.'
Crawfordsville Mayor Todd Barton ’00 talked about the historic bond between Crawfordsville and the College, then gave an overview of the city’s many recent successes and new projects, including partnerships with Wabash.
The city is a finalist for a state Stellar Grant, and Barton outlined plans that could energize the downtown area.
The former mayor of Marquette, Michigan, Bill Birch ’60 called Crawfordsville ‘a real gem.’ ‘Small towns are built for retirement communities, and old people bring jobs. If Crawfordsville were marketed right, people would come.’
A paramedic and the former fire chief of Crawfordsville, Barton decided to earn a college degree a few years after joining the fire department. He graduated from Wabash in 2000 and has been mayor of Crawfordsville since 2011.
Jean Williams H’53 asks a question.
Assistant Director of Annual Giving Kevin Andrews ’10 introduced the mayor's talk.
Professor Emerita of Political Science Melissa Butler ’85 greeted Barton before his presentation.
‘Crawfordsville has an authentic and unique history,’ Barton said. ‘We need to circle back and recapture that.’
Alumni peruse one of the maps Barton presented showing the city's planned projects, including improved streetscapes and expanded bicycle and pedestrian paths.
Two mayors--Bill Birch ’60, former mayor of Marquette, MI, talks with Mayor Barton.
In 'Mountains, Memory, and Mayhem: My Sojourn in the Armenian Highlands', Mark Dietzen ’05 talked about his life-changing experience with the Peace Corps in Armenia from 2006 to 2008.
Dietzen lived in a village where he could hear church bells at the same time he heard the Muslim call to prayer. 'Those two cultures, separated by a river, had no formal contact,' Dietzen said.
Dietzen's experience in Armenia and subsequent study of the Armenian genocide of 1915 and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict of the 1990s led him to take a stand for the Armenian people. 'I chose not to be neutral and silent,' Dietzen said. 'I took a stand, and I stand by it.'
Dietzen became executive director of Americans for Artsakh, a group whose mission is 'to preserve freedom, strengthen democracy, foster economic development, protect the cultural identity and promote the heritage of the people of Artsakh.' Here Dietzen talks with Bob MacCallum ’65, former Senior Advisor in the State Department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
Diesen greets a classmate following his talk.