Summer 2012

Editor’s note

If you are a college student, 65 years seems like a long time. But for a college it is just old enough to be past the angst and uncertainty of youth and into the considered confidence of a seasoned institution. This year, Marlboro is celebrating that milestone in many ways, most notably with our alumni reunion in May. In this issue of Potash Hill you can see some photos from that reunion, read what President Ellen McCulloch-Lovell has to say about innovation and find out what some alumni learned about learning at Marlboro.

With articles coming from many perspectives and disciplines, this issue bolsters the contention that time is relative, as well as precious. Commencement speaker Bill McKibben, the noted author and environmental activist, says that the earth has crossed a threshold to a new era of climatic instability in just the last couple decades. Alumnus Will Brooke-deBock puts a modern spin on Marxist theory, and writing professor Kyhl Lyndgaard shows how history was unkind to both Native Americans and native orchids. Recent graduate Trevor Bowen illustrates how time and providence stand between something called a coronal mass ejection and technological disaster. As always, I welcome your responses and ideas, both relative and absolute, for future issues.

–Philip Johansson, editor