Erin Donelan always liked hanging out with her brothers on their varied Boy Scout adventures. “Growing up with two brothers, I found myself wanting to do what they were doing,” said Donelan, 18, a first-year student at Fitchburg State University, studying special education with a concentration in teaching students with severe disabilities. She has started her collegiate career strong, earning a spot on the dean’s list in her first semester. While she gave Girl Scouts a try in her younger years, she pounced at the opportunity to join the Boy Scouts when the national organization opened its ranks to include all in 2019. “We’re a very progressive troop,” said Donelan, noting the other members of Sturbridge-based Troop 163 do not all identify as female. “We’re accepting of everyone.” Because she joined the Boy Scouts at age 17, the clock was ticking fast if Donelan was to follow in her older brother’s footsteps and achieve the exclusive rank of Eagle Scout. “You’re supposed to get it before your 18th birthday,” she explained, though the organization offered an extension. “It’s been a race and I’ve just been chipping away.” For her Eagle Scout service project, Donelan wanted to do something to help children entering the foster care system. A 2020 graduate of Fitchburg High School, Donelan had seen the challenges some of her peers faced when engaged with the social service system. So she decided to create comfort kits for teenagers making the transition into Department of Children and Families’ care. Seeking donations, she hoped she would collect enough funds and materials to create 20 comfort kits that include backpacks and personal care items. She ended up creating more than 100. Donelan credits the outpouring of support to effective marketing, from local news write-ups to social media. “Moms on Facebook, they know everyone,” she said. Donelan has already delivered 50 kits each to the Leominster and Sturbridge DCF offices for distribution to teens facing challenges. She said she is grateful that her project can provide some comfort to teens in tough situations, while also giving members of her community a COVID-safe opportunity to do something positive for others. With her rank achieved, Donelan is looking forward to planning the Eagle Scout Court of Honor where her status will be formally bestowed, even if it has to wait until the pandemic is under control. “It’s like a wedding,” she said of the planned ceremony. “They’re pulling out all the stops.”

Fitchburg State University will celebrate Black History Month in February with a series of events exploring themes centered on the Black family. The theme for the university events was inspired by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. The Black family has been explored through many disciplines, including history, literature, the visual arts and film studies, sociology, anthropology, and social policy. Its representation, identity, and diversity have been reverenced, stereotyped, and vilified from the days of slavery to the present day. For the university's exploration of these topics, Fitchburg State’s Black History Month committee, including cross-sectional representation within the institution, solicited programs from across all campus constituencies. The result is a diverse array of events including speakers from the university faculty and student body, as well as alumni and invited guests and performances by university choral groups. Events include a talk by Rev. Dr. Grainger Browning Jr., a Fitchburg native and son of a celebrated Fitchburg State faculty member, who is now the senior pastor of Ebenezer AME Church in Fort Washington, Md. Dr. Browning will discuss growing up Black in the city of Fitchburg and moving forward to become one of the most prominent religious leaders in the United States.  Other presentations will include a talk by Fitchburg State alumna Yla Eason ’71, a professor at Rutgers University, who founded a multicultural toy company that featured the first Black superhero toy created to promote positive self-images for her son and other children. There will also be a presentation by the rapper and motivational speaker Red Shaydez, a 2014 Fitchburg State graduate, who will discuss her evolution from artist to “artrepreneur.” Other events will include students reflecting on the works of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., explorations of Black representation in culture, the evolution of hip-hop, and celebrations of the Black experience. Several of the events have been made possible through the financial support of the Newman Center Trust. To learn more, please visit fitchburgstate.edu/bhm throughout February.

Fitchburg State University continued its winning ways at the recent American Moot Court Association National Tournament, with students placing 5th in the nation (out of 162 entries) in the appellate brief writing competition. The students in the appellate brief writing challenge were newcomers to the tournament this year: senior Madison LaRoche of East Templeton and junior Benjamin Hill of Troy, N.H. Fitchburg State seniors Samantha Beauchamp of Sutton and Theresa Dzierwinski of Ludlow also excelled at the regional tournament and advanced to the national competition. “Both teams performed very well, winning ballots against schools such as Vanderbilt University, The College of Wooster, Liberty University, and Patrick Henry College,” said Professor Paul Weizer, who founded Fitchburg State’s moot court program and is its longtime coach. “This was probably the most competitive season ever and the competition was fierce. I am very proud of the work these students put in and I am thrilled to see them recognized.”   LaRoche learned about the moot court program – which features teams of students arguing opposing sides of a legal issue, as in an appellate court proceeding – when she took Professor Weizer’s course on criminal procedure. LaRoche, majoring in criminal justice with a minor in psychology, said the course ignited a new passion for her just as she was having what she described as “a quarter-life crisis” in thinking about what her next chapter would be. “I’m especially grateful to Dr. Weizer because he gave me something I love doing,” said LaRoche, who is now planning to pursue law school after completing her undergraduate degree. Hill, who has one more year to complete at Fitchburg State, is also anticipating a career in the law. He is majoring in political science and history. “The most challenging part was presenting the oral arguments,” said Hill, who had some experience with public speaking but had to be prepared to be interrupted by tournament judges – many of whom are lawyers and judges in real life – who challenged their stances. As a newcomer to the program, LaRoche said her goal last fall was to simply not embarrass herself in the regional competition. “When we made it to the nationals we were so surprised,” she said. “We just exceeded every expectation we had.” Competitors make oral arguments and respond to questions from a panel of judges, as well as submit written briefs. For the national tournament, LaRoche and Hill collaborated for weeks, sometimes for 10 hours at a time, honing their arguments. The competitors had to be prepared to argue both sides of the case at any given time. “I really liked writing the arguments and reading the cases while developing them,” Hill said. “It was interesting to read something and then use it for one side in one way and then use it in the opposite way.” This year’s hypothetical case revolved around the First Amendment, wherein a business refused to produce invitations for a same-sex wedding because of personal moral beliefs, with the company also being denied business by a local government because of past contributions to organizations declared hate groups.

Fitchburg State University’s Community Read, which brings the campus and wider community together for discussions and explorations of a shared text, this year delves into Robert MacFarlane’s acclaimed non-fiction book Underland: A Deep Time Journey. MacFarlane takes readers through caverns and cisterns, root systems and glaciers, tombs and mines, opening our sense of wonder while also revealing the damage we have done and are doing to the heart and lungs of our planet. He weaves together poetry and geology, science and mythology, as he mines the earth and explores mysteries we usually assign to the stars. Fitchburg State faculty will lead a discussion of MacFarlane’s text at events throughout the semester. The first installment, covering part one of the book, will be held at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 3, with Professors Steve Edwards (English Studies), Chris Picone (Biology & Chemistry), Ben Railton (English Studies), Collin Syfert (English Studies), Kisha Tracy (English Studies), and Diego Ubiera (English Studies) leading a discussion that explores the major insights and stakes of MacFarlane’s timely work. To join the discussion, register at https://forms.gle/o426YTCCZJnQpRma8 and keep up with the latest news and events at fitchburgcommunityread.com.

Fitchburg State University has received a $50,628 grant from the Senator Charles E. Shannon, Jr. Community Safety Initiative. In this effort, the university will continue to serve as a research partner on projects addressing youth and young adult delinquency and crime in the Fitchburg, Leominster and Gardner areas. As a local action research partner on the Shannon Community Safety Initiative (CSI), Fitchburg State will continue its partnership with the City of Fitchburg in a coordinated effort. Fitchburg State faculty members Dara Drawbridge and David Weiss from the Behavioral Sciences Department will act as a local action research partner to assist the Shannon Site (the city of Fitchburg) with strategic, analytic, technical and research support. This year’s activities include three focus groups with Shannon youth and young adults, trainings on evidence-based practices for reducing delinquency and crime, and assisting partner sites with quality improvement endeavors to enhance programs and practices during COVID-19. “Fitchburg State is proud to serve as a community partner in this important work that will improve public safety,” University President Richard S. Lapidus said. “This collaboration is a powerful way to put the university’s academic skill sets to work toward addressing community issues.” “We are excited to be working with our funded partners on this project for another year,” said Drawbridge, who will serve as project director. “In our work on the Shannon Grant, we aim to really engage with our community partners, build shared goals, and assist our partners with achieving desired outcomes. This work is not only incredibly rewarding but also has the potential to address issues, which drive delinquency, crime, and gang violence.”   Through collaboration with local partners, the activities undertaken in this grant will enrich Fitchburg State’s role in embracing civic and global responsibility while serving the specific needs of at-risk youth and young adults in communities. Undergraduate and graduate research assistants working on the grant will have an integral role on the project. Under the direct supervision of faculty, student research assistants will support all grant-related activities, receive research training and education, and enhance their research knowledge and skills. This grant provides Fitchburg State with an opportunity to continue to engage in the community and support on-going efforts to improve the health and welfare of youth and young adults.

The university maintains a page of news and resources related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including testing results, links to public health resources, and tips on prevention. The page also functions as an archive of the university’s response, with all messages sent to the campus since early 2020 concerning the virus and its impact on operations.

The Center for Italian Culture (CIC) at Fitchburg State University continues its virtual book club in February, with an unforgettable story of epic thievery and political intrigue. On Thursday, Feb. 11, Professor Teresa Fava Thomas (Economics, History and Political Science) will lead a discussion of the New York Times best-seller Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nation’s Treasures from the Nazis by Robert M. Edsel. The discussion will be held on Google Meet at 3 p.m. When Hitler’s armies occupied Italy in 1943, they also seized control of mankind’s greatest cultural treasures. As they had done throughout Europe, the Nazis could now plunder the masterpieces of the Renaissance, the treasures of the Vatican, and the antiquities of the Roman Empire. On the eve of the Allied invasion, General Dwight Eisenhower dispatched art scholars Major Deane Keller and Lt. Fred Hartt of the U.S. Monuments Men on the treasure hunt of a lifetime, tracking billions of dollars of missing art, including works by Michelangelo, Donatello, Titian, Caravaggio, and Botticelli. With the German army retreating up the Italian peninsula, orders came from the highest levels of the Nazi government to transport truckloads of art north across the border into the Reich. Standing in the way was General Karl Wolff, a top-level Nazi officer. As German forces blew up the magnificent bridges of Florence, General Wolff commandeered the great collections of the Uffizi Gallery and Pitti Palace, later risking his life to negotiate a secret Nazi surrender with American spymaster Allen Dulles. Brilliantly researched and vividly written, Saving Italy brings readers from Milan and the near destruction of The Last Supper to the inner sanctum of the Vatican and behind closed doors with the preeminent Allied and Axis leaders: Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Churchill; Hitler, Göring, and Himmler. To join the discussion on Google Meet at 3 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 11, go to meet.google.com/utw-pzod-nxa, or join by phone at +1.470.248.1727 (PIN: 309942948). The CIC’s virtual book club will continue at 3 p.m. Thursday, March 25, when Professor Rala Diakite of the Humanities Department leads a discussion of Clash of Civilizations over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio by Amara Lakhous. The CIC series launched in October with a discussion led by Professor Daniel Sarefield (Economics, History and Political Science) about the book How To Be A Bad Emperor: An Ancient Guide to Truly Terrible Leaders (Selections from Suetonius, edited by Josiah Osgood). The CIC, founded in 1999 with an initial gift from Amelia V. Gallucci-Cirio, encourages the understanding and appreciation of all aspects of Italian language and culture, including ancient and contemporary studies, and the Italian experience in the New World. 

This piece was originally published by Arc Digital on Thursday, Jan. 21. By Sean C. Goodlett Professor, Economics, History and Political Science Days like January 6 provoke historical comparisons. What, we anxiously wonder, are we seeing? A replay of the burning of the Capitol by the British in 1814? A less-organized Beer Hall Putsch as in interwar Germany? The opening shots of a breathlessly-anticipated Second Civil War? The events from two weeks ago prompt us to find some terrible analogue from the recent past — and we certainly have no shortage of those. To better understand January 6, though, we need to think of that day as part of an ongoing process, not a singularity. And rather than situating it within an American context, where there are no exact parallels, it’s more instructive to examine periods of instability in democracies like the French First Republic. The earliest years of that Republic reveal the dynamics of party radicalization and show the dangers of partisan media advancing conspiratorial appeals to the public. Any number of revolutionary uprisings — or journées— bear a similarity to what we’ve just gone through. On September 5, 1793, for instance, thousands of Parisians, goaded by the journalist Jacques-René Hébert and enraged by sharp rises in grain prices, stormed the Republic’s legislative chambers. Inside the halls of the Convention, they made demands to turn the revolutionary army against grain hoarders in the countryside and “unpatriotic” enemies throughout the nation. Ominously, the mob pressed the assembled deputies to “make terror the order of the day.” The most radicalized deputies responded with enthusiasm, while their more moderate colleagues cowered in fear. In the proceedings that followed, extremist deputies were appointed to the infamous Committee of Public Safety, a quasi-executive body. Maximilien Robespierre had joined in late July. Now, in September, with the addition of men like Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne and Jean Marie Collot d’Herbois, the Committee would become, in the formulation of R. R. Palmer, a dictatorship of “Twelve Who Ruled.” The principal beneficiaries and, soon enough, the victims of this journée were the Jacobins, self-described “friends of the constitution” and erstwhile moderates. Jacobinism was not merely an ideology, nor was the Jacobin Club simply a proto-political party. In the short-lived First Republic, Jacobinism was a process, with a logic driven by the necessity of ever-increasing radicalism. Earlier in the spring of 1793, the mob had been the blunt instrument of Jacobin deputies. After repeated instigations by Jean Paul Marat and others, enraged Parisians had overthrown the defenses of the city. Two days later, on June 2, tens of thousands surrounded the Convention and demanded the expulsion of the Jacobins’ political rivals, the so-called Girondins. The charge, when boiled down, was treason. Twenty-two deputies were arrested. Once deprived of more moderate or even just temporizing voices, the Convention hurtled toward the extremism of September. Throughout the First Republic, the process of radicalization was fostered by the 18th-century equivalent of our partisan media ecosystems. The Jacobins were initially loath to sponsor their own newspaper. Instead, they offered support to journalists like Choderlos de Laclos and allowed non-affiliated papers such as the Courrier extraordinaire to report from within the Club. But in June, 1793, following the expulsion of the Girondins, the Jacobins created the short-lived Journal de la Montagne, an official mouthpiece that exposed the fractious nature of Jacobinism. More extreme revolutionary papers, meanwhile, enflamed the populace. Throughout the spring and early summer of 1793, Marat’s L’Ami du peuple had decried Girondin policies while pressing fantastical conspiracies. In September, Hébert was the leader of an army of sans culottes, because his Père Duchêne spewed bloodthirsty bile. By the fall, Père Duchêne and its imitators were among the most vociferous proponents of violent purges and terrorism. Journalists like Marat and Hébert spoke to and for “the people,” and they created an atmosphere of fear inside the Convention. In the mix, deputies found themselves preening before a vast public that they could barely control. It is eerie to see the parallels with today, a time in which any number of elected Republicans stoke the rage of voters, often by advancing baseless conspiracies that then get repeated in partisan media and reposted endlessly in the echo chambers of social media. In the weeks before January 6, for instance, Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz emerged as the leaders of a dozen U.S. Senators — a latter-day “twelve who would rule” — by spreading the fiction that president-elect Joe Biden’s victory was the product of fraud. This despite the certification of the election results as valid, free, and fair in all 50 states. We did not arrive at January 6 overnight. A groundswell of radicalism has been building for years. Right-wing assaults on state legislatures and federal lands, as well as plots to kidnap and assassinate government officials, all preceded the assault on D.C. Armed right-wing paramilitary and militia groups now regularly parade through the streets of America’s cities. Sensing the direction of their party and much of the base of voters, Republicans officials at all levels have embraced radicalism. On January 6, Hawley was photographed raising his fist in solidarity with the enragés who would soon breach the Capitol defenses. Shortly thereafter, a newly-elected Republican state legislator from West Virginia, Derrick Evans, allegedly joined hundreds of rioters charging the building. Meanwhile, Republican state legislators from Missouri, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee were in the crowd on The Ellipse that day, participating in an event that hinged upon a conspiracy theory and that was nevertheless sponsored by elements of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA). Just as on the journée of September 5, 1793, most of those who gathered on The Ellipse on January 6 had come ill-prepared for violence. If they carried anything, it was a cell phone to record their revolutionary cosplay. However, enough of them brought weapons to make the day dangerous. Among those eventually arrested in and around the Capitol building were individuals carrying firearms, high-capacity magazines, Molotov cocktails, and zip-tie cuffs — presumably to hold members of Congress hostage. Improvised explosive devices were placed at both the Republican and Democratic National Committee headquarters. While some might mock the assault on the Capitol building as a Beer Belly Putsch, many rioters were deadly serious in their intentions. Large groups of them chanted, “Hang Mike Pence.” Others hunted the Speaker of the House. In the ensuing violence, the invaders injured scores of police officers, one of whom eventually died from his wounds. An Air Force veteran who embraced election conspiracies also died after being shot while attempting to breach the Speaker’s Lobby, and another woman was trampled to death on the steps of the Capitol by her co-insurrectionists. Two others lost their lives that day in medical emergencies. Senators and representatives fled in terror. And yet, far from being deterred by a violent insurrection in their midst and deaths on their doorstep, radicalized members of the GOP returned to the halls of Congress later that evening to advance the untruth that the presidential election had been tainted by fraud. In the end, despite the danger that their own rhetoric had placed them in, eight of the original 12 Republican senators and more than 130 representatives — over half the caucus — objected to the ceremonial certification of states’ electors, many while reading conspiratorial nonsense into the congressional record. Perhaps nothing could capture the unfolding radicalization of the Republican Party more succinctly than the fact that, on January 6, members of the House GOP caucus trembled before their more extreme colleagues and the mob. In an op-ed in the Detroit News, newly-minted Republican Representative Peter Meijer recounted how a “colleague feared for family members and the danger the vote would put them in.” In the end, “profoundly shaken,” the unnamed colleague abandoned a constitutional obligation and voted to cast doubt on the presidential election. Beginning in the summer of 1793, revolutionary radicals would themselves become the revolution’s victims. In July, a Girondin sympathizer, Charlotte Corday, assassinated Marat. By March, 1794, the Jacobins had placed Hébert under arrest, and soon after he and a band of his followers were executed. Many more would fall under the blade before the founding members of the Jacobin Club, men like Robespierre, went to the guillotine. In between, thousands would die. There are no cut-and-dried lessons to be learned from September 5, 1793, as the progress of Jacobinism was bound up in a months-long, complex struggle for power and the interplay of cynical deputies, Parisian mobs, and partisan newspapers. History, in short, is no simple guidebook. And yet the historical record reveals a range of human motivations and actions, and in analogous moments it can reveal what kind political animal humans have been and can be. For the moment, the radicals within the GOP are content with provoking their voting base with untruths and conspiracies that are then monetized by partisan media. The mobs that have assembled in state capitals and D.C. have largely failed to accomplish their goals, and, of course, nothing like the Terror is on the horizon. Nevertheless, if the French First Republic shows us anything, we ignore the radicalization of a political party at our peril, because the dynamics of this process point to a worrisome future. As the opportunistic Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand is reputed to have said, “Treason is merely a question of dates.” Given the trajectory of events, today’s extremists need only stand still to become tomorrow’s patriots. Sean C. Goodlett is a professor of early modern European history at Fitchburg State University. Research interests include pre-revolutionary and revolutionary France.

Fitchburg State University, home to the only game design major at a public institution in Massachusetts, will once again be part of the Global Game Jam this month. In the free virtual event, participants from around the world gather to create a game from scratch in 48 hours. The game jam is designed to celebrate creativity while exploring programming, iterative design, narrative exploration and artistic expression. The jam primarily features videogames, but boardgames can also be designed. “As a Game Design program, we really value the Global Game Jam because it gets students out of their bubble,” said Professor Jeffrey Warmouth, a member of the Communications Media Department faculty and local game jam site coordinator. “It makes them realize that they’re not alone, that there are people all over the world all working toward the same goal at the same time. For a few days, game developers around the globe are part of one big community, creating games. Not for money, not for a paycheck or because they have to, but because they love it, they believe in it, and it makes them feel connected. We need this more than ever.” Ryan Hallisey, a 2019 Fitchburg State graduate, works as an associate software engineer for WB Games, where he interned two years ago as a student. He first participated in the game jam as a student and will be taking part in this year’s event as an industry professional. “The most distinct thing I remember from my game jams is how quick they go by and how efficient our team had to be with every aspect of the project,” Hallisey said. “Planning was the most important time in the process, by a lot.” Hallisey said the game jams were important to his growth as a developer and were powerful bonding experiences with his teammates. “Participants learn the benefit of organization and planning, and making sure teammates are never blocked from doing work while they wait on someone else,” he said. “I also hope everyone gains a sense of pride in the skills they’ve been building up prior to the event that allowed them to finish a project in so few hours.” Last year’s event led to the creation of 9,601 games at 934 locations – including Fitchburg State – in 118 countries. This year’s event will be run virtually, starting at 4 p.m. Friday, Jan. 29, and running through Sunday, Jan. 31. Fitchburg State’s site is open to students, alumni and guests, ages 18 and over. For more information or to register, visit https://globalgamejam.org/2021/jam-sites/fitchburg-state-university. To see a collection of games produced at Fitchburg State’s previous jams, visit https://itch.io/c/645955/global-game-jam.