The Generations of Ethos
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SPRING 2018 | HOW I GOT TO WELLESLEY | WITNESS TO THE SURVIVORS The Generations of Ethos Spring 2018 FEATURES DEPARTMENTS 18 The Generations of Ethos 2 From the Editor 39 WCAA By Hilary Hurd Anyaso ’93, 3 Letters to the Editor 42 Class Notes Karen Grigsby Bates ’73, and Ikhlas Saleem ’11 4 From the President 73 In Memoriam 28 How I Got to Wellesley 5 Window on Wellesley 80 Endnote By Catherine O’Neill Grace 16 Shelf Life 36 Witness to the Survivors By Heather Long ’04 WELLESLEY MAGAZINE ONLINE Front to back cover (right to left): Francille Rusan Wilson ’69, magazine.wellesley.edu Jill Willis ’73, Alyce Jones Lee ’81, Debby Saintil Previna ’96, Shukri Abdi ’01, Dominique Hazzard ’12 WELLESLEY MAGAZINE PHOTOGRAPHY BY TIMOTHY ARCHIBALD, SAVERIO TRUGLIA, DANA SMITH @Wellesleymag Photograph below of Ethos students in 1969, likely participating in a letter-writing campaign to recruit black students for the class of ’73 From the Editor VOLUME 102, ISSUE NO. 3 his winter, I did something out of the ordinary for me: I picked up a set of needles and joined the ranks of knitters worldwide. I’ve never thought of myself as “crafty,” but I’m Editor À nding the soft wools in vibrant colors irresistible. I’ve made a cowl, a Á eet of hats includ Alice M. Hummer ing a striped one that makes me look straight out of Where’s Waldo?), a simple lace scarf, Senior Associate Editors and a cozy lap blanket. Lisa Scanlon Mogolov ’99 T Catherine O’Neill Grace I’ve also made a whole lot of errors. I’ve ripped out, reknit, or completely started over zillions of times. Finally, I took a class called “How to Fix Your Mistakes 101” at a local yarn shop. Design 2ne handy trick they taught was putting in a “lifeline.” You weave a differentcolored yarn through Hecht/Horton Partners, Arlington, Mass. each loop of an entire row of your knitted fabric. That way, if your simple mistake becomes what I Principal Photographer call a “beginner’s conundrum,” you can rip out the fabric down to the lifeline, but that thread stops Richard Howard further damage. The needles go back into the loops, and off you go. Genius. Student Assistant The whole time I was editing this issue, I was thinking about lifelines—literal and metaphoric— Emma Bilbrey ’19 and started seeing them everywhere. I don’t mean that we are all making huge mistakes that need Wellesley (USPS 673-900). Published fall, win- major corrections, but that there are lines of support that run through our experiences to help hold ter, spring, and summer by the Wellesley College everything together. Alumnae Association. Editorial and Business The À rst one I spotted made me laugh out loud. I encountered it reading the unedited interviews Office: Alumnae Association, Wellesley College, for our cover story, “The Generations of (thos.” The reminiscences of À ve decades of (thos activism 106 Central St., Wellesley, MA 02481-8203. Phone 781-283-2342. Fax 781-283-3638. and sisterhood are well worth your attention, incidentally. See page 18.) This “lifeline” story was told Periodicals postage paid at Boston, Mass., and to interviewer Hilary Hurd Anyaso ’93 by Dominique Hazzard ’12. other mailing offices. Postmaster: Send Form Dominique went on a À eld trip to a bog for one of her classes and fell in. I’ll let her pick up the tale: 3579 to Wellesley magazine, Wellesley College, “You know, bog water’s acidic. My legs are starting to itch. … And so I’m in the bus, and I’m like, I 106 Central St., Wellesley, MA 02481-8203. can’t do this anymore. This is really irritating my legs. So I take off my pants. I put my poncho around WELLESLEY POLICY me. And then when we get to campus, I’m like, how am I going to get off this bus with no pants? So I One of the objectives of Wellesley, in the best go on email—we had First &lass back in my day—>to@ the (thos membersonly forum. And I’m like, College tradition, is to present interesting, thought-provoking material, even though it ‘Listen, y’all. I need somebody to bring me some pants right now.’” Joy Clarke ’11 saved the day and may be controversial. Publication of material met the bus with a perfect pair of pants. does not necessarily indicate endorsement of More seriously, others interviewed for the Ethos article spoke movingly of the strength this vital the author’s viewpoint by the magazine, the organization gave them through their :ellesley years—particularly commenting about the relation Alumnae Association, or Wellesley College. ships it fostered. “Ethos was the place where one could take a deep breath and relax,” Alyce Jones Wellesley magazine reserves the right to edit Lee ’81 remembers. And Shukri Abdi ’01 adds, “I would not have made it through my À rst year if I and, when necessary, revise all material that it accepts for publication. Unsolicited photo graphs hadn’t had my Ethos friends. I would not have, full stop.” will be published at the discretion of the editor. Elsewhere in the magazine is a poignant account by Heather Long ’04 of being on the Las Vegas Strip the night of the mass shooting in 2ctober 201 “:itness to the KEEP WELLESLEY UP TO DATE! The Alumnae Office has a voice-mail box to Survivors,” page 3). 2ne of the À rst journalists there, she doled out be used by alumnae for updating contact and small acts of compassion as she worked. In an emergency room, other personal information. The number is she connected with a gunshot victim whose picture was carried 1-800-339-5233. around the world on her tweets. The two have stayed in touch. You can also update your information online As Heather writes, “There’s a bond that happens in these when you visit the Alumnae Association web- terrible moments, a small reminder that humanity still exists.” site at www.wellesley.edu/alumnae. Wishing all of you threads of humanity that weave through DIRECT LINE PHONE NUMBERS the fabric of your lives. College Switchboard 781-283-1000 Alumnae Office 781-283-2331 Magazine Office 781-283-2342 —Alice M. Hummer, editor Admission Office 781-283-2270 Career Education Office 781-283-2352 Resources Office 800-358-3543 INTERNET ADDRESSES www.wellesley.edu/alumnae magazine.wellesley.edu 2 WELLESLEY MAGAZINE Letters to the Editor Wellesley welcomes short letters (300 words maximum) relating to articles or items that have appeared in recent issues of the magazine. Send your remarks to the Editor, Wellesley magazine, 106 Central St., Wellesley, MA 02481-8203, email your comments to [email protected], or submit a letter via the magazine’s website, magazine.wellesley.edu. An Accessible Magazine I am thrilled to have Wellesley magazine acces- sible online. For years, I have had to have a vol- unteer read me my magazine. My friend Joan Strumph Gordon ’52 has done a superb job performing this service for me. She has been faithfully reading Wellesley onto a cassette PULITZER! recorder for me over these many years. As this magazine was going to press, the College In April 1962, I had a flu-like illness of was thrilled to hear that Mellon Professor Frank unknown origin—and two weeks later, on my Bidart has won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for his book 32nd birthday, I suddenly began to lose my Half-Light: Collected Poems, 1965–2016. perfect vision. I am now totally blind. I did not know until many years later that the cause of my sight loss was Lyme disease, which I have been here and abroad who learn how to adapt and “leaked” decision to demolish the Sage stair. This battling ever since. embrace differences in our common humanity. prominent feature of the Focus, the signature At last, I am able to access the magazine People are people! space of the award-winning 1977 Perry Dean from cover to cover via my computer with speech Stephanie Nelson ’82 Rogers building, deliberately mingled Modernist output for the blind. Although I will miss Joan’s Spring, Texas concrete and glass to stand side by side with the melliÁ uous reading voice, I am thrilled to be able brick and stone of Gothic-revival Sage, including to read Wellesley for myself. Framing the Debate its external stairway. Thanks so much for putting your great maga- I think it is disingenuous of Amita Parashar The Sage stairway presents today’s student zine into a format I can access. Kelly ’06 to frame the two “narratives” of the with an angular, zigzag transition from the 1977 Mimi Feldman Winer ’52 immigration debate as a “Hamiltonian-style building into its 1930 predecessor. Its irregular Wayland, Mass. rise to achieve the American dream” versus “an axes are consistent with the indirection of the ever-growing fear surrounding the immigrants landscape in which it once stood. Turning outside Adapting to a New Culture entering this country” (“Immigrant Journeys,” elements into inside ones (along with the former Regarding “Immigrant Journeys” (winter ’18): winter ’18). facade with its Perpendicular style windows These are excellent stories. As an American The concern of many Americans is more spe- and the iconic campus lampposts) intentionally who grew up abroad in places like Libya, The ciÀ cally with illegal immigration—though this juxtaposed old and new. The present architects’ Hague, London, Paris, and Norway, I can cer- adjective has now all but conveniently vanished proposed replacement for Sage opts for a linear, tainly appreciate how difÀ cult it can sometimes from discussions on the subject.