Upcoming Events

Tuesday, July 21, 7:00pm - 9:00pm: Seminar on The Painted Veil
“The Painted Veil with its sadness, its moral tension, its irony and compassion, its building evocations of lust and terror and remorse, is a work of art.” —Spectator
Maugham's prose “rivets attention from the first page to last.” —Saturday Review of Literature

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Tuesday, September 15: Recent Graduates Party
Save the date for the annual Recent Graduates Party.

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Tuesday, October 6, 7:00pm - 9:00pm: Seminar on “The Judgment”
Franz Kafka's 1912 short story “The Judgment”, led by Mark Stratil.

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Tuesday, November 10, 7:00pm - 9:00pm: Seminar on “On Education”
Montaigne's essay “On Education”led by John McCarthy and Jessica Speer.

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Have a room to rent to a college student?
The 21-year-old son of Jim White A'76 will be going to Hunter College in the fall and will be looking for a room in or (relatively) near the upper east side of Manhattan. Any leads would be much appreciated. Please respond to Jim at jimwhitenc@gmail.com

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A recap of the Annual Meeting on June 10th

Dear Fellow Alumni,

Two nights ago, we held a great Annual Meeting for the NYC Chapter. Thanks to all who contributed to the potluck meal, and special thanks to my parents, John and Mira Van Doren, for the space and for the help from their staff in setting up, setting out and cleaning up.

During the course of the evening, we thanked Dean Hannotte for his service to the chapter in the development and maintenance of our terrific chapter website at www.sjcalums.com/nyc. Kevin Farrelly gave us a sobering report on the state of our finances, in which he observed that while our bank account is full, we must be careful with our costs, since the College has reduced its subsidy of our activities considerably in the face of a terrible economy. In addition, we elected five officers each of whom will serve for another year:

President: Charlotte Latham (SF02)
Treasurer: Kevin Farrelly (A01)
Secretary: Carol Trent (A81)
Webmaster: John Hetland (A64) (new officer)
Events Coordinator: Jessica Perry (SF08) (new officer)

The highlight of our evening followed in a presentation by Santa Fe President Michael Peters. Mr. Peters entertained us with a slide presentation about Santa Fe and the plans for new construction on campus. Afterwards, he gave a frank talk about the troubling state of the College's finances. While St. John's is doing better than some, it has slashed expenses by 15% this year and is still struggling to satisfy requests for financial aid to all students who need it. He anticipates an even trickier situation for next year. In the collegial spirit that marks so many of our chapter events, a thought-provoking discussion ensued with alumni exchanging thoughts and ideas among themselves on the roles of both the New York City Chapter and the Alumni Association within the St. John's College Community.

Finally, I want to add a personal note of thanks to the chapter and to Mr. Peters for their generous praise of my work as chapter president for the last five and a half years. Thanks to Charlotte, Carol and Kevin for their sweet gifts, as well as to Mr. Peters for the wonderful bowl thrown by Eleanor Peters in the College pottery studio. It has been a pleasure to serve all of you, and I am happy to say that we accomplished just about everything I set out to do. By the way, I am not exactly fading away, inasmuch as I was elected to the College's Board of Visitors and Governors last December. I'll be out in Santa Fe at the end of July for my first meeting. I'll actually miss the next chapter event, a seminar on Maugham's The Painted Veil on July 21st.

I look forward to seeing all of you in September.

Best Wishes,

Daniel Van Doren (A '81)

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Website Revival!
We are happy to inform you that we are bringing back this website. You can continue to use the Alumni Association's Online Community at for online activity including email communication and registration for events. But this one may have more local color and may possibly be more up to date.

Coincidentally, I am your new webmaster. Dean Hannotte, having served spectacularly for years, has requested retirement from webmastering this site. It will take some time for me to learn my way around Dean's magnificent structure, but I hope to be up to speed soon. -John Hetland, A'64/'65

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Ongoing Activities
Check out our new page on . So far our chapter sponsors four very different ongoing activities, each of which has a point person charged with the responsibility of keeping all interested parties abreast of upcoming meetings. If you want to get on the mailing list for any of them, simply contact the leader and wait to be invited to lots more events besides the ones advertised in our Event Calendar. And did I mention that we need a round of applause for Kay Cioffi, Tony Hardy, Taeko Onishi, John Van Doren and Morgan White-Smith?

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Seminar Reviews
is trying something brand new for our chapter: reviewing an event so that those who missed it can catch up. Check out his reactions to our February 6 Architecture Seminar on . Then read the review of our March 6 Seminar on by .

If you disagree with either of these reviews, or just have something to add, and we'll post your comments too!

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Media Galleries
And the clicks keep coming! We're collecting your snapshots and building online galleries as fast as we can. (And, thanks to Benjamin Van Doren, we even have 4 video clips of our Schooner Odyssey!) So far you can tour:

— our , thanks to ,

— our , thanks to ,

— our , thanks to Leah Casner,

— our , thanks to Gina Lee,

— our , thanks to Benjamin Van Doren and Leah Casner,

— our , thanks to Xhuliana Agolli, Leah Casner, and Dean Hannotte,

— our , thanks to Leah Casner and Jenn Coonce,

— our , thanks to ,

— our , thanks to Dean Hannotte,

— our , thanks to Leah Casner and Dean Hannotte,

— and the collection of we use to adorn our masthead.

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EUREKA!
Check out the new section on our all about breaking news in classics research. First up: Archimedes rediscovered in 13th century prayerbook.

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Will the next seminar leader please stand up?
We had a lot of success with our seminar on Chaplin's "Modern Times", so we are wondering whether there is anyone out there who would like to help us organize a seminar on Charlie Chaplin's "City Lights", a film that asks us to consider what the nature of sight is. We're looking to hold a discussion sometime early next year. We also want to take advantage of our success with our Arts Seminars. Do you know of anyone in the chapter who would help us organize a seminar involving art at the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the Guggenheim? If you are interested in any of these topics, please contact or at (212)757-9523.

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Sign up for Updates
We'd like to contact you about upcoming events and chapter announcements. Please send your e-mail address to .

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Who Let the Blogs Out?
We're compiling a list of alumni for our . (Although "blog" rhymes with "frog", it's actually short for "web log" — a sort of daily diary that anyone can read.) If you produce one, tell us. If you know another member who does, rat them out today to .

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Please Pay Your Dues
Your dues help pay for chapter events, this Web site, and keeping the chapter going. To learn about paying by check versus paying by PayPal, visit our page.

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FrapprMaps and ClustrMaps
FrapprMaps are a new Google tool that lets groups pinpoint their members on a geographical map. Visit our Frappr page to join, and then see how many other alums live near you. Once our map reaches a critical mass, this tool can have myriad unexpected uses, such as facilitating car pooling when we plan events that require travel. And don't worry about revealing your home address — all we need is your zipcode.

ClustrMaps automatically track the geographical locations of all computers that access a web page, and then create an image showing hot spots wherever they exist. Unlike Google's Frappr tool, you don't need to enter any information about your computer's geographical location to have accesses tracked. (This technology isn't perfect, since it's based on IP addresses, but it's still fun!)

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National Alumni Register
The national St. John's College Alumni Association has a new registry allowing alums to keep in touch with each other. We're asking all our members to sign up because at some point in the future we'll be able to tap into their database and (with your permission) send you timely notices about chapter activities. Eventually you'll be able to sign up for events without having to fill in a registration form. Instead, you'll just log in using a password and we'll look up your contact information internetistically.

To register and join your fellow Johnnies, .

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Famous Faces

Our masthead is now decorated with pictures of men and women who have made significant contributions to philosophy, science, religion or art. We've collected over 500 portraits, so we change them randomly — but only once an hour. (To see the person's name, just hover your mouse pointer over their image.) To see all the pictures, . If you have an interesting picture you'd like to contribute, or can think of someone we've overlooked, please contact .

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Calling all writers
We need help fleshing out our website. Get in on the ground floor of this new publishing empire by jotting down your thoughts on anything Johnny related. Tell us about an almost great book you read recently, review one of our events, explain that point you forgot to make in last month's seminar, offer up a gossip column about famous intellectuals, or tell us a joke about philosophy. Did you hear that George Berkeley died? His girlfriend stopped seeing him. Who knows where all this hubris will take us! Once you're ready to spread your wings, contact .