k'^-

End of an Era ASC's First Woman President Retires EDITOR'S NOTE

Decades since Kwai Sing Chang broke ASC's faculty color harrier,

the College has learned to view diversity as promise , difference as grace

Only three Changs were listen within the institution and she helped the College in the Atlanta telephone make its philosophical commitment to diversity

directory when Kwai Sin supportive on a "day-to-day basis." Says

Chang, an American of Green, "I planted many seeds at Agnes

Chinese ancestry, came in Scott, but I wasn't going to be around for

1956 to teach Bible and philoso- gathering the harvest."

phy at Agnes Scott. He says he Today, almost 40 years since a experienced isolation, not discrimina- seminary friendship drew Kwai tion in his new hometown. But his anec- Sing Chang to Agnes Scott, the dotes of those early years are peppered wi professor emeritus who broke moments of "that stereotypical response" to the faculty color barrier here can himself, his young wife Miyoko, of Japanese open the Atlanta telephone book

ancestry, and their two daughters. With a polite and find his name listed among more

chuckle, he remembers the confusion of a census than 1 20 Changs. He talks about diversity

taker who "didn't know how to list the kids." not in terms of harvest but as pockets of progress. Chang had done his Ph.D. work at the universities of He would be pleased to learn that in 1990 his former

Edinburgh and Cambridge and moved freely in academic student Karen Green went on to advise multicultural stu-

circles, both overseas and in the United States. He found it dent organizations at another college (and will soon enroll in

no different at Agnes Scott College. "I came when Dr. Emory's Candler School of Theology).

Wallace Alston was president. Because Alston and I had Green would be pleased to see evidence of her influence

known each other at Princeton Theological Semmary—we reflected in the first edition of Nandi, a newspaper by and for

had been roommates for a year— I felt completely at home." African- American students at ASC. It contains an impressive

As professor, Chang extended that kind of support and list of 14 young African- American women who in 1992 held academic freedom to his students at Agnes Scott. Karen various elected student offices (including president of Honor Green '86, remembers. Chang encouraged her when she Court, vice president of Student Government Association,

wanted to explore African-American works that he also read president of the sophomore class and editor of the Silhouette).

and sometimes discussed in class. "When I chose to write a Breaking ground through friendship—and as mentors, paper comparing Jewish and Black church tradition through planting seeds—Chang, Alston and Green join a host of music—both spoke about being oppressed—Dr. Chang said, others, including retiring President Ruth Schmidt, who have

'This is excellent, Karen. We need to be sharing this with the helped shape and enlarge Agnes Scott's circle of diversity.

class.' I was reared in the Black church tradition. Kwai "Different Values" (see page 14), by staff writer Audrey

Chang gave me the opportunity to fuse the curriculum with Arthur, fills in with broad strokes ASC's diversity story that my experience." began nearly 30 years before the landmark Supreme Court In turn Green—who characterized herself as a "38-year- integration decision. Brown vs. Board of Education. A time- old African-American Retum-to-College student who would line ("Milestones and Steppingstones in Diversity" pages 24- not be shaken"—reached out often to traditional-age stu- 25) also compiled by Arthur, juxtaposes the growth of diver- dents. During their formative years, these students had few sity at Agnes Scott with national policies and events. mature female African- American role models on campus. As Arthur's report makes clear, we have learned to see Green empathized that in the midst of trying to discover their ASC—and our nation—more as a mosaic than as a melting own identities, almost by virtue of their presence, these young pot. Like the mosaic, each piece—each person— is different, people "were the model African Americans in the dining but each makes a most valuable contribution toward creating

hall, on the playing field, in the resident halls, in the student the overall image of beauty, grace and promise that is center." Explains Green, "Often, the 18-22-year-olds are not today's—and tomorrow's—Agnes Scott College. savvy enough to know they are carrying that burden. They just know they are tired and feeling isolated."

Green, a member of the ASC dean of student's staff for nine years, encouraged students to effect change by working . CONTENTS

Agnes Scott College Alumnae Magazine

Summer 1994 Volume 71 , Number I 6 DEPARTMENTS 2

The End of An Era Lifestyle By Celeste Pennington 35 Colleagues and friends consider the life and work of ASC's first uioinan president. Et Cetera

37

Feedback

COVER: ASC President Ruth The Beginning of an Era Schmidt poses hetore the portrait of Agnes Scott, the College's namesake. By Tish McCutchen Editor: Celeste Pennington This time of transition for the College is Contributing Editor: also a time of testing for higher education Mary Alma Durrett Editorial Assistant: Audrey Arthur Design: Everett HuUum and Harold Waller Student Assistants: Elizabeth Cherry '95 Different WiUa Hendriekson '94 Teresa Kelly '94 Values Emily Pender '95 By Audrey Arthur Vicki Vitelli '97 On the 40th anniversary of Publications Advisory

Brown vs . Board of Board: Jenifer Cooper '86 Education, ASC takes stock. Christine Cozzens Carey Bowen Craig '62 Sandi Harsh '95 WiUa Hendriekson '94 Bonnie Brown Johnson '70 Randy Jones '70 Kay Parkerson O'Briant '70 Tripping the Light Fantastic Edmund Sheehey Lucia Howard Sizemore '65 By Carole Siracusa

Agnes Scott pirouettes into the future Copyright © 1994, Agnes Scott with a dance minor—and a generous gift. College. Published two times a year by the Office of Publications, Agnes Scott College, Buttrick Hall, 141 E. College Avenue, Decatur, GA 30030, (404)638-6315. The

magazine is published tor alumnae and friends of the College. Postmaster: Send address changes to Office of Development and Public Redressing the Student Body Affairs, Agnes Scott College, Decatur, GA 30030. By Mary Alma Durrett f The content of the magazine reflects the opinions of the writers and not Noting some highs and lows of Scottie hemlines j)](S!) the viewpoint of the College, its and hairdos, from the Marcelled bob to Spandex. trustees or administration. —

LIFESTYLE

From tip-toeing over active volcanoes to walking on coals, from help for the harassed to hope for a new novel, alumnae ''sail' along

noes in New Zealand, such as Angeletti, who pay Hawaii and Iceland. Her their own way for two-week work has been exhibited in work stints. museums and galleries in As South Carolina's vol-

various states. unteer field representative,

Angeletti is currently in Angeletti recruits potential private practice, specializing Earthwatch volunteers,

in real estate, business and emphasizing that the only estate law. Her newfound requirement for the tax- knowledge of geology has deductible trips is curiosity. proven useful in representing "Agnes Scott graduates are

real estate clients, including e.xpeditions she has extremely well-prepared to the city ot Green\ille which peered into the deep, bot- do these things," she says. she represents on solid waste SOME tomless void ot a volcano; "A Scott education encour- issues. LIKE IT HOT been within 100 yards of 10- ages a lot of curiosity." On For more information, to 20-foot pieces ot red-hot her first Earthwatch trip write: Earthwatch, P.O. Box Earthwatcher tumbling lava; and descend- Angeletti helped researchers 403, Watertown, MA 02272, Evelyn Angeletti '69 ed with gas mask to the study bear populations in or call (617) 926-2200. Parking a well-oiled body, crater floor of a volcano nearby North Carolina

lemonade in hand, which housed a boiling, mountains.

under a big beach umbrella yellow-green acidic lake. Her volunteer work pro- HELPLINE constitutes a dream vacation Earthwatch funds the vides an expression for her FOR THE to many. For Evelyn work of several volcanolo- "adjunct profession ot pho- HARASSED Angeletti, the ideal getaway gists and other scientists in tography, something more

is perching atop a volcano, fields ranging from archeol- than just a hobby," she says. Attorney Juliana Winters 72 camera strapped around ogy to zoology. Tliey are TTie Decatur, Ga., native her neck. assisted by teams of graduate frequently has vacationed ASC graduate Juliana The Greenville, S.C., students plus volunteers, solo—photographing volca- Winters has helped attorney has spent four vaca- the Federal Aviation

tions globe-trotting with Administration (FAA) suc-

British scientists on a mis- cessfully address sexual

sion to decipher the warning harassment. As an FAA

signs of volcanic eruption. senior trial attorney. Winters

Through an environmental serves as a legal adviser to

research organization called the organization's Sexual

Earthwatch, Angeletti has Harassment Helpline and

ventured to volcanoes in has been cited by its south-

Sicily, Costa Rica and em region for her work on

Nicaragua. During these The Sexual Harassment

AONRS SrOTT TOl I FOF • ^1 JWMPR IQQ4 —

LIFESTYLE

Helpline's Adiisor Haridhook. courts are overburdened. If management not to transfer le\'els of management. Facts

The 20,000-employee we can resolve things short or give a se\'erance package about the situation are veri- southern region is the first ot litigation, we're obliged as [to a person who has filed a fied and the employee is

F.'V,'\ region to institute such public ser\ants to do so," sexual harassment com- contacted within two days a program. With one excep- says the Gainesville, Ga., plaint]," she explains. alter the initial call. tion, the 1 5 cases reported to native. With the Helpline, a "Sexual harassment is a the Helpline during its first Winters has received worker who believes he or drain on the workplace. year were resoK'ed without feedback from non-govern- she has been harassed may Productivity goes down. litigation. ment employed peers that telephone the toll-free num- Efficiency and effectiveness

"Our program is part of a the Helpline is progressive. ber and tile a complaint with are lost among workers trend to resoK'e prohlems "Often, legal departments a trained FAA ad\-isor who even among those who are before they get to trial. Our have trouble convincing takes the concern to two not the victim. Employees

THE FIRE WITHIN

Adventurous retiree Gwen McKee Bays '38

\"\7' Talking on hot coals ple, can be changed into a not to look down and con- enormously in dealing with

VV is a quest most folks state of power." stantly repeating the words, some difficult problems."

would gladly forego. Not Bays felt open-minded "cool down, cool down." The Bayses call Atlanta

Gwen McKee Bays. When about participating in the The ASC Greek major home in summer and

she took early retirement in NLP seminar, a gift from still marvels over the expe- Hilton Head, S.C., their

1981, Bays and her hus- her son who is an employee rience. "It's flesh touching winter residence. In

band—both former foreign of Robbins. However, when hot coals that can bum between those two stays

language professors—deter- she saw seminar leaders you," she puzzles. "The far- the couple has lived in a

mined this new phase of dump a wheelbarrow of hot reaching, profound and Buddhist house in Berkeley,

their lives would be "an coals on the ground, Bays unseen effect this has had Calif., and spent time at

advennare." recalls wanting to run. on my life is the lesson that Buddhist meditation cen-

Part of that adventure Instead she crossed the when faced with difficulties ters in Virginia.

began when they attended glowing embers you can solve whatever is Bays meditates faithfully

a seminar in Orlando unscathed—being careful at hand. and is devoted to Buddhist

taught by Anthony "It has helped my family teaching. Combining . f^ . Robbins, author of best- her devotion with \ • selling Awaken the Giant y 1 her skills as a retired

Within, and a lead trainer in '^w professor of French

Neurolinguistic mw and German, she has

Programming (NLP). f accomplished another V 'mVl^f i] ^4 According to Bays, NLP . feat that she believes / Xifi' \vO ^L^Y^i r teaches "attitude is every- 9 J "^i "A state of fear, for exam- ^f R'w.- / French to English. '^••^^fipi^^ ^»^w^ ^J LIFESTYLE

are not able to thrive in an information, the leads all honie in the United States. these numbers are in addi-

intimidatint; atmosphere." pertain to what has become As press secretary for the tion to the 900,000 legal

Winters finds work with an American "crisis": each Federation for American immigrants. These annual

the Helpline gratifying- year 300,000 to 500,000 ille- Immigration Reform population surges, according

Her other duties include gal immigrants make their (FAIR), Parker explains that to FAIR, affect numerous

prosecuting civilians who carry guns beyond the air- A NOVEL MODEL port checkpoints, airline

captains who deviate from Author Robyn Perry '84 assigned flying altitudes, plus Scotties soon may find for women in Atlanta. gled with a man who owns violators of no-smoking themselves between Agnes Scott graduates may a Majestic-like restaurant regulations, and providing the covers of Robyn Perry's also recognize a favorite called Leo's Electric. counsel on the environmen- first novel, Leo's Electric. Ponce de Leon Avenue Perry is a native of tal impact ot airport The author admits her first hangout, the Majestic. small town Bartlesville, development. attempt at the great After "breaking out of the Okla. After graduation Winters is the past presi- American novel has much gates" of Margaret Chaser from Agnes Scott she dent of the ASC Alumnae in common with her alma College, the young protag- earned a master's in writing Association and a former member of the Board of mater. onist of the book, Maura, from New York University

Trustees. In May 1994, she TTie fictitious setting for eventually becomes entan- and worked for a publish-

was honored as an outstand- her 300-page book is ing company. Then she ing alumna in recognition of Margaret Chaser moved to Los Angeles, her service to the College. College, a small, where she married an inde-

FAIR proper school , pendent filmmaker. TREATMENT Currently she is seeking a publisher for her first

EQR ALL book and, with a tape

recorder, is composing a Press Secretary .^^^ children's novel during Louisa Parker '89 •i^7..^ "v4^ . ^3>.^25fc long commutes to her cur- a typical work During rent "real job" as advertis- week, Louisa Parker ing representative for may talk with the producers LAN, a computer of "60 Minutes," provide sta- magazine. tistics to PBS "MacNeil/

Lehrer Newshour," pitch a

story idea to the producers of

"The Brokaw Report," fax

demographic charts to The

Washington Post, talk with a

reporter at a Seattle paper

and be interviewed on a

radio talk show.

The interviews, the faxed —

LIFESTYLE

aspects of American life, through a coral rect where

from health-care and natural they scuba-di\ed, swam with

resources to education and exotic fish and cut one salt- ^,

employment. water bath short due to a

The ASC graduate is visit by bull-nosed sharks.

responsible for conveying A 300-page log of that

the message behind the 10-nionrh journey accounts

Washington, D.C.-based, the trip of their dreams

nonprofit, member organiza- and a welcome antidote to

tion's goal: to stop illegal the world of work. For 20

immigration and hold annu- years, Anne had directed

al legal immigration to the strong Yucatan cuiTcnt. Rut the Montessori school in national historic average of ON THE by the time they crossed the Beaufort., S. C. Rick is a 300,000, which she says Isla Mujeres reef they were retired pilot with Eastern

would not add significantly WINGS OF gaily singing tunes of Jimmy Airlines.

to U.S. population growth. A DREAM Buffett. At Agnes Scott, Anne

Parker keeps a watchful The next six weeks the was a math major who later Anne Christensen eye on current e\'ents and Pollitzers docked the Egret joined the Peace Corps, Pollitzer '61

calls reporters to tie those off a small, remote island using her second degree { in

events to issues of immigra- September 1992, Anne to education from Emor^' In near Cancun, ferning tion. During the current Christensen Pollitzer, Yucatan where they studied University) to teach high

health-care debate, the ASC husband Rick and their local history, enjoyed Mayan school in Nepal and assist classical studies and history youngest son set sail in their dance, music and art and officials in redesigning

major called reporters' atten- 42 -foot sailboat Egret. toured ancient ruins. the country's science

tion to the dilemma of pro- The first month, the Nine subsequent days curriculum. viding universal coverage to Egret sailed calmly from found the family sailing the Currently she's working

a population that, according Miami to Key West. rugged coast of Belize and v\ith the board of directors

to current immigration fig- But the adventures began finally anchoring inside the with the Montessori school ures, is ever-expanding. in late November as they Belizean reef for a month. (that she founded), assisting

When the World Trade entered the open sea, headed That, says Anne, was the with its capital campaign

Center was bombed, Parker for Mexico. Amid an ink- idyllic life. Bathing in blaz- and substitute teaching.

led "60 Minutes" to a story dark night, the v\'ind hurled ing red sunsets. Donning She's also redecorating her

on political asylum. 10-foot waves—soon Anne backpacks and Reeboks for home on St. Helena Island,

The Gainesville, Ga., was battling sea sickness and rugged climbs. Enjoying the southeast of Beaufort.

native trains and critiques the anxiety of sailing with a serendipity of a rousing sere- But she admits, several

FAIR colleagues for televi- broken mdder. At midnight nade by a small Mexican months after their return

sion and radio interviews so the Egret narrowly missed a Navy crew who upon rou- home, she and her husband

they make their points clear- tanker. By dawn the tinely inspecting their boat were still not adjusted to

ly and succinctly. Pt)llitzers reached the boat of had discovered the Pollitzers' "inside" living.

She also edits reports and friends who had radioed son's guitar. They wonder, "when are

publications as a part of ahead for a rescue boat. The The southernmost point we going again: —Leisa Hammen-Goad fair's mission to educate next night the Pollitzers of their sea travel was is a jreeLmce ximter m

citizens. i U.S. again navigated against a Guatemala. The Egret wove Nashville, Tenn. I THE END OF AN ERA

By Celeste Pennington with Tish McCutchen 73 and Carolyn Wynens

After 12 years FTER THE RECENT "Hats Off to ing the last two decades," states Secretary of Ruth" retirement celebration Yale University Linda Lorimer. "She has had a as the first honoring Agnes Scott profound influence on the national scene as a woman president President Ruth Schmidt, she catalyst: for too long women's colleges had ofASCRuth told alumnae gathered in seen each other as competitors rather than as APresser Hall that on more than one occasion complementary forces at work. Ruth not only Schmidt is she had been introduced as Agnes Scott. talked about coUegiality, she was exemplary." retiring. She Laughter rippled through the audience. "I'm As former president of Randolph Macon leaves a legacy certain," said Schmidt, "that this never hap- Woman's College, Lorimer worked with pened to my predecessors." Schmidt on the Women's College Coalition. of financial As the first woman to serve as chief execu- From 1986 to 1988, Schmidt served as WCC solvency, tive officer of Agnes Scott, Ruth Schmidt chair. She shared counsel with members and educational holds a unique place in the history of an insti- helped them think more ambitiously about tution named for a woman and founded for the ways to translate the benefits of women's col- exploration and education of women. Betty Scott Noble '44, leges to the nation. "a forever better trustee and descendant of College founder "Ruth has long understood the importance institution." George Washington Scott, thinks Scott would of gender issues in education," notes Marcia have valued both the personal commitment Sharp, a former WCC director of 14 years. and force of character Ruth Schmidt has "While provost at Wheaton College [in

brought to the task. Massachusetts], Ruth worked on ways to "George Washington Scott believed not create gender-neutral curriculum. She helped

only in education for women, but in equal women's colleges focus on this issue and deal

education for women. That was a revolution- with it collaboratively. She was prescient if

ary idea," says Noble's daughter Betty '71 —an you consider all the attention being paid to

idea articulated now 100 years later, in the life gender issues in education today."

and work ot Schmidt. Like the founders, she Schmidt's concern for balanced curriculum

has acted on the belief that a Christian world was reflected in the 1981 article in The

view provides a sound intellectual framework Chronicle of Higher Education: "If liberal arts

for investigation of all fields of knowledge. really have to do with human life," Schmidt

The younger Noble reflects a moment. "You noted, "and you haven't looked at half the have to factor in that Col. Scott li\ed ui a human race, you don't know very much about

paternalistic society. But when it comes to the human race." Agnes Scott College having this woman presi- Her concern for equal education for

dent, I think he would have been pleased, very women is evident in curriculum development

pleased. Ruth is such a strong person. She has and focus at Agnes Scott, and in those early

been a strong leader. For 1 2 years she has skirmishes over matters such as gender-inclu- provided an ever-present model for what this sive language. "We had a great debate in some

College advocates." comers about titles," recalls Mary Alvera "Bertie" Bond '53, administrative assistant to RUTH Schmidt has been an advocate for the president, "as we determined whether women's education. "In my view, Ruth people would be called chairmen, chairpersons

has been one of the leading advocates for or chairs." women's colleges and women's education dur- Bond, who has served as administrative

AHKipt^ t^rriTT rni i cnp >

assistant to thtee ASC presidents, says pete with women from similar institutions Rwt/i Sch?7iicit has, worVzd.

Schmidt's contribution has "broadened our (where the primary emphasis is on academics to ensure sctdents hive a horizons in a lot of ways." and no athletic scholarships are awarded), uni- "gender-neutral" currieulum

During Schmidt's administration, the versities like Emory and Washington & Lee. As the first woman to lead College has developed a number of new pro- She has also encouraged the expansion of Agnes Scott College, Schmidt grams including: the Retum-to-CoUege program tor women has "broadened our horizons

\/ an interdisciplinary' Women's Studies beyond traditional college age. in a lot of ways ," says admiri- minor These all work together for empowering istrative assistant Bertie

• a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) women, offering opportunities tor students to Bond '53.

Secondary English with emphases on step outside the pockets of a sexist society dur- writing and gender-equity in the classroom ing a crucial time in their lives and pursue 1/ a post-baccalaureate, one-year, pre-med- their educations. ical and allied health program 1/ a Global Awareness program designed SINCE Ruth Schmidt arrived at Agnes to provide virtually every student an Scott in the early '80s, an unstable econo- opportunity for cross-cultural study in less my has drained higher education in general traveled parts of the world and women's colleges in particular. During •/ a formal student/faculty exchange pro- that time, nearly 30 women's colleges have gram with sister Presbyterian-founded either closed their doots or become coed insti- women's institution, Kinjo Gakuin University tutions. Wheaton College where Schmidt in Nagoya, Japan served as provost, is now coed. "Wheaton

*^ a Scott Free Year-5 program allowing should have downsized a little and stayed all

ASC graduates to take a full load of female," Schmidt has said. "It isn't the same courses, tuition free, the year immediately fol- there any more." lowing graduation. And Agnes Scott? "Certainly we'll be the

Schmidt has been instrumental in the last to go, if they all go," she has insisted. College's move from NAIA (National With that in view, Schmidt has led the

Athletic Intercollegiate Assocation) to College through difficult economic times with

NCAA [National Collegiate Athletic a strategic plan, strong fund raising and a

Association] Division III membership, a step string of tough decisions that have actually put which enables Agnes Scott athletes to com- the 105-year-old College on better financial

AN ERA ENDS ... AN ERA BEGINS footing than she found it. assistant to Wallace Alston, Marvin Perry and high point was the Centennial now Ruth Schmidt, would agree. "We look A j Campaign (1987-1990) which resulted in better now than I've ever known us, and I've donations and bequests of more than $36 known us for a long time." million. Under her administration, the College has BOND MAKES AT LEAST one Other compari- consistently operated within budget—and the son among the three presidents: home endowment has grown from $35.5 million in entertaining. For the Alstons and the Perrys it

1982 to more than $200 million today. was often a family affair, with wives managing

During this same time, Schmidt has over- the details. "When Ruth has to be in a meet- seen a $23 million physical improvement ing until a quarter to six and she has a meal ." project (renovating eight buildings, construct- scheduled for 6:15. . . Bond pauses. ing two), bringing better spaces for teaching, "Sometimes she's running up the stairs, chang-

athletics, residential life and worship. ing clothes, while I am at the front door greet- The renovation has dramatically enhanced ing her guests."

both the face of the institution and its mfra- Bond and Carolyn Wynens, ASC manager "Wherever you structure, from the re-wiring of the venerable of community relations and special events, and walk on campus, dorms (one of her most important contribu- Elmira Pierce, custodian 1, have worked out a tions according to Dean Hudson: "1 no longer system for entertaining 30-40 for baccalaureate you can see exactly have to worry about whether I'll get a call in or the alumnae board or trustees. "Usually

are large that it has to be what Ruth has the middle of the night that a dorm is on these groups enough buffet," says Bond. "Afterward they're invited done. She took a fire") to the creation of the Robert W. Woodruff Physical Activities Building and to a performance in the College Events Series that had campus the Gellerstedt Track and Field complex. or a play." begun to deterio- "Wherever you walk on campus, you can During Schmidt's administration, mutually see exactly what Ruth has done for Agnes beneficial relationships have been developed rate and made it Scott," says trustee Dorothy HoUoran "Dot" on a larger scale, between the College and var- into one of the Addison '43. "She took a campus that we had ious Decatur and Atlanta groups and projects. instance, Scott students have the most beautiful let begin to deteriorate and she made it into For Agnes opportunity to tutor youngsters m nearby pub- small colleges in one of the most beautiful small college cam- puses in the United States." lic schools. The Atlanta Virtuosi and Theatre the United States." Bond, who has served as administrative Gael use ASC performance space in exchange

Aowpt; '^rnTT rni i pr:p • sr ;mufp lOQd "

for working with ASC classes. Observes trustee Anne Jones, "When she These encounters have raised the ASC pro- came here, as she approached difficult deci- tile and strengthened relationships between sions, she put Agnes Scott first. Not hcrselt.

"town and gown." Decatur Mayor Elizabeth She saw what needed to be done and did it.

Wilson appreciates how the College is reach- Candid advice is what ing into the community—and her association Otelia Garcia, former presi- with Schmidt. "As a resident and as mayor, 1 dent ot the Atlanta College am delighted that Ruth plans to continue to ot .Art and now President ot live m Decatur. 1 am sure I can tind a halt Rosemont College, expects dozen things tor her to do in the tirst year. She from Schmidt who served on will be hearing from me." ACA's board. "It I am torn

about an issue regarding the ON THE WALL OF HER OFFICE, Betty Scott institution, 1 know 1 can Noble has a quote from retired faculty pick up the phone and call member Margaret Pepperdene describing an Ruth. She will commiserate

Agnes Scott woman: "She is tough, but with me. But she will also

After l/ic i\( Jiil\ KiUii verdict extremely cordial and courteous . .. She is not gi\-e me an answer. Some people ha\e some inspired riots a Southern belle. It her integrity is challenged embarrassment about acting on principle. She race in Los or if she is treated like a fool, she'll call your is a person who believes something to be right Angeles and Atlanta, bluff. She's tough inside." That picture or to be wrong. Absolute integrity is the word Schmidt joined the ASC com-

munity in a prayer vigil. emerges when Noble and other alumnae, that comes to mind when I think about Ruth. friends and peers describe the one who has There is no duplicity. Actions and words Below: Among Schmidt's ser\'ed as ASC's first woman president. match." most notable achievements is the Bringing up the hard questions is character- Brenau president Burd believes that the construction of Gellerstedt istic of Schmidt, according to President of second woman president of Agnes Scott Track and Field complex, Brenau Universit\' John Burd. At professional College will find a smoother path because of completed in 1988. The meetings on statewide and national le\'els, the work done by Ruth Schmidt. "She did the stress on athletics was part of "She asks about state budgets, how they are groundbreaking. She had to show a woman the president s emphasis on education. spent, how the money can best serve the most can handle this. The path that she paved is a well-rounded students. She values education. She is a com- not a yellow brick road. But it is a .solid, red mitted Christian. It is very clear that her per- brick road that will fore\er make Agnes Scott sonal value system permeates her whole lite." a better institution."

AN ERA ENDS ... AN ER.Oi BEGINS . THE BEGINNING OF AN ERA

By Tish McCutchen 73 Photography by Laura Sikes

"Universities must strive to maintain both the appearance

and the reality of high standards and intellectual freedom.

"It is idle to expect that faculty members will never fight

in public and say outrageous things or to hope that the media

will regularly report these quarrels with judicious restraint.

The only feasible defense is to have university leaders strong

enough to make it clear that academic standards and

intellectual freedom will be preserved despite the battles " that periodically erupt on their campuses

—Derek Bok, former president ot Harvard University, in his final annual report, 1991

In a time of Agnes Scott College, looking toward the future transition, Agnes FOR after a period marked by faculty turmoil, student Scott has an malaise and economic challenge, opportunity to and punctuated by the retirement this of President Ruth Schmidt, the re-examine "every June knowledge that "we are not alone" is reassur- square inch of the ing. Former Harvard President Bok's words are way we do things." confirmation that institutions (and presidents) across the country are struggling with compa- rable problems. But more important, his words

reaffirm the goal set out in Agnes Scott College's mission statement:

"Agnes Scott College insists upon the high-

est standards of excellence in its faculty, staff

and students, and provides a broad curriculum

designed to develop all aspects of compassion-

ate, inquiring persons. Its rich liberal arts curriculum seeks to enable women better to understand themselves and the world in which

they live, and to integrate what they know into a humane perspective."

For Agnes Scott and comparable institu-

tions, preserving academic standards and intel-

lectual freedom is still paramount despite severe pressures, external and internal.

10

Ar.NFS srnTT rni r pr;p • v ;umpr 1004 "

External Pressures 'Where is the return on our imcstment in higher education.'' 'Why ha\en't universities THE EBB AND FLOW within natiiinal and led the way with new and compelling global economies aftect colleges and initiatives?' universities—directly and indirectly. Colleges have always been a mirror for

Direct results ot general economic belt-tight- society, and today is no exception. The prolif- ening are obvious: increased need tor financial eration ot society's economic problems is aid to students, fewer philanthriipic sources of reflected on college campuses. Unix'ersity of fiinding, increased operational expenses. Oregon president Myles Brand refers in the fall

Indirect results may not be so readily apparent. 1993 Educational Record to "the ch.mging

For example, as more students graduate and social values, personal problems and communi- enter the workplace, a college degree is no ty issues students bring to campus." He adds:

longer a guarantee of a good job and salary. "Especially troublesome is the increased intol- More and more students find themseb'es erance of difference. Bias against those who More than ever forced by economic reality to work in environ- do not share one's ethnic, social or cultural before, the campus ments far removed from their field of study predisposition or .sexual orientation too often

(although this has not been an issue with lib- amounts to additional baggage a student car- reflects society, eral arts students). The apparent lack of quick ries to campus." both in racial connection between one's college studies and This greater diversity is more exident on composition and the "real world" is one of the factors leading to campus than ever before. Generally, this a loss of public confidence in higher education is partly societal for this generation. For in age of students. today. As Lois B. de Fleur, president ot the instance, the fastest-growing college-age group

State Uni\'ersity of New York at Binghamton, in the United States is Hispanic, and within a wrote in the v\'inter 1992 Educational Record: few years, the majority among high school "We read each day of this country's growing graduates will be non-white students. loss ot confidence in higher education. Next year, tor the first time in years, demo-

Internationally, the United States is losing its graphics indicate that the number of potential competitive edge, while at home, the social high school and non-traditional-age college and economic situations in our cities have students will increase from the previous year. reached crisis proportions. People are asking,

Campus Strengths and Challenges

ADDITION TO THE ECONOMIC and societal INpressures shared with other institutions,

Agnes Scott is preparing for a new presi-

dent and a new era.

Schmidt inherited a deficit budget her first

year at Agnes Scott; although her predecessor had begun renovation, the physical plant was generally in disrepair. She leaves behind an

institution that is entirely renovated and on strong tooting, financially. The next president will inherit a college with many strengths that

have been undergirded during the 1 2 years of

Schmidt's presidency (for more details, see

"The End of an Era," page 6).

Agnes Scott's endowment is healthy, with

a market value of more than $205 million as of June 1993, reports Vice President for Business

ASC's increasingly diverse student body offers

a learning experience in itself. The opportunity

for interaction with others different from oneself

helps students more effectively make the transi-

tion from campus life to "the real ivorld."

11

AN ERA ENDS ... AN ERA BEGINS —

and Finance Bill Gailey. "When Standard &. Scott community. "There is a lot of good will

Poor's and Moody's looked at us for credit rat- here," she says. "It just needs to be nourished.

ings, they were aware of all that was going on Faculty energy needs to be directed toward campus, and we received ratings of 'Aa' [from teaching and exciting students. That's what Moody's] and 'AA-' [from Standard & Poor's]. we do that's distinctive; we invest in our stu-

That puts us in the elite group of higher edu- dents. That kind of tremendous investment is

cation institutions," he says. what has made Agnes Scott different." Schmidt has also invested in programs that The best way for faculty to do what they

have set the course for Global Awareness, do best is currently under consideration by community diversity and matters of faith with the Academic Review Committee. Between the establishment of a full-time chaplaincy November 1993 and May 1995, this group of and a covenant between the College and the six faculty members, three students and three

South Atlantic Synod of the Presbyterian administrators will be looking at every aspect Church, (USA). of the academic program. (A similarly com- The College has a new master's program posed committee will be performing an and several innovative academic programs, administrative review concurrently.) TTie aca-

including a tuition-free year for students who demic review committee's commission from

would like to enroll in courses immediately the board of trustees is to "re-examine the ele-

after graduation as well as a one-year post- ments of the academic program, taking into

graduate pre-medical and allied health studies account its available existing resources; the

programs. need for an identifiable and distinctive theme

hi terms of its larger community, Agnes for the program; the need to enhance Scott has developed mutually beneficial part- strengths and reduce or eliminate weaknesses;

nerships with several Decatur and Atlanta and the preservation of its character as a lib-

organizations. The new president will also be eral arts college for women." In ASC's tranquil positioned to take advantage of public opinion Dean of the College Sarah Blanshei says setting, turmoil more favorably disposed toward women's col- that such a review is overdue. lege education. "We are struggling with issues here that would be unex- At the same time, the College has been were being dealt with 20 or 30 years ago else- pected. But after dealing with a strained relationship between where," she says. Students want to be heard. the year- ago the president and the faculty that came to a "For example, student evaluations of faculty head in the Spring of 1993 when Schmidt that's a controversial issue here; we don't events, many on vetoed a faculty committee's recommendation have them. But 85 percent of institutions do campus encourage for tenure for an assistant professor. The fac- have student evaluations, and many of them a season of ulty response was to vote no confidence in had them 20 years ago." Schmidt. The Board of Trustees affirmed the The suggestion of both the Southern bridge-building. president and called for a full review of the Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) academic program. accreditation committee and the Board of

The turmoil last spring produced hurt in a Trustees that Agnes Scott ought to look at

community torn by different sides of the issue. "doing less, and doing it better"—fewer

While some are still resentful of Schmidt's majors, and more focus on the programs the

tenure decision and other decisions through College can present most strongly— is unnec- the years, others are encouraging bridge-build- essarily threatening to faculty, according to ing among Agnes Scott's various constituen- Dean Blanshei. "Through recapturing our cies—students, faculty, administration, alum- quality, we'll he able to find our market nae and trustees. niche," she believes. "It doesn't necessarily

"Our institutional psyche was skewed by mean down-sizing, but that's what students

the events last spring," says Dean of Students and faculty hear.

Cue Hudson, class of '68. "There is a lot of "We get criticized for running the College

anxiety about the transition, which is normal. on a business model, but we have to. We must

There is grieving over President Schmidt's be in compliance with federal, state and

leaving and over the change. But I think peo- regional requirements. There's much more ple are beginning to have the energy to think accountability now than ever before." And

about change. We're ready to move forward. accountability for a college goes beyond

We're beginning to look toward the future." accreditation committees or government Linda Hubert '62, chair of the English agencies. The College must be accountable to

department, urges building on the positive its "consumers"—the parents and students attitudes that exist throughout the Agnes who pay the ever-rising tuition bills. As the

12

A *-^vicc cr^rvT'T r^r^i i crM? . c Chronicle of Higher Education reported in on campus than to do so away from campus, February 1993, "Educational philosophy can says Don Hood, a psychology professor at no longer be discussed without our thinking Columbia University. "To make deep cuts in ot economics." the expense base of a university, you need Bonnie Johnson 70, now executive direc- knowledge ot the inner workings of the place, tor ot development and assistant dean ot the confidence of the people and the courage Emory University School of Medicine, was to go out and make decisions before you reach As part of the Agnes Scott's vice president ot dex'elopment a consensus," he says. presidential for five years. She compares the fight o\'er cur- search, ASC is riculum depth and breadth to another prob- lem facing all of America: health-care reform. The Next President redefining and in America have to believe that "We come refining itself. choice is an inalienable right," she says. "But FINL1ING OUT what kind of person should "We've got to in a no-growth era financially, and in an era of he Agnes Scott's next president will be a proliferation of different ideas about what our "great opportunity for us," says Clair decide what kind choices should be, it's just not feasible. MuUer '68, chair ot the presidential search of a college we "Just as we may not always be able to committee. "Times have changed, and we need want to be." choose our own doctor, we can't always justify to he changing also," she says. "We need to he having all the possible choices available in a looking at every single square inch ot the way college curriculum." we do things.

Linda Hubert sees the problem from a his- "This is going to be very much a 'we' torical perspective. "That was in an era of process. We're not just filling the seat ot the single-sex education, when there was recogni- president. We are redefining ourselves." tion that quality education was found at Before the formal search begins, a series of single-sex institutions. Harvard and Yale were focus groups, including all constituencies ot the not available to women. For Agnes Scott, it College, are being conducted on campus and was a question of picking among the students across the country by Academic Search who applied." Consultation Service, and academic consulting

Now, she says, Agnes Scott College suffers firm that will assist the committee in its efforts. from a self-esteem problem. "Before we start looking for a president, we've She cautions against too much introspec- got to decide what we want to be," says Muller. tion, and against placing students, faculty and Whoever becomes Agnes Scott's sixth pres- staff in "contrived" situations in order to try to ident will share a daunting set of challenges force a sense of community. "Ideas come natu- with college and university counterparts across rally in the course of academic life—that's part the country. of the meal on which we thrive. If we can stop Severe financial constraints, curricular bat- staring at our navels and start staring more tles and increased demands for accountability into the faces of our students, then we'll do threaten a college's stability—these problems better. We have overdosed on introspection." demand a long-term commitment although the

One solution she proposes is to spend the average term of a college or university presi- money necessary to create programs that will dent is only from five to seven years. It will he attract students, and that raises questions of interesting to see if Agnes Scott will he like the budget which will continue as a point of other colleges or follow the tradition its of contention for various constituencies as the presidents serving until retirement. The high College moves into the next century. Only level of visibility that goes with the job can with continued careful stewardship ot the place the officeholder at the mercy of public endowment can Agnes Scott hold her own, opinion. The challenges run deep. cautions vice president Bill Gailey. As the College nears the 21st century, it

Schmidt has indisputably been a good stew- looks for a president with the vision to lead it ard of Agnes Scott's financial assets. That tal- onward; the wisdom to look backward from ent fits the profile of many college and univer- time to time, in order to keep the College's sity presidents who took office in the 1980s, bearings; and the strength to be able to deal according to the Chronicle of Higher with today's problems today.

Education, which suggests that more than a few of the presidents who are resigning, retir- During Schmidt's tenure, the College has ing or being replaced now were hired for their strengthened its emphasis on science. Recently, fund-raising skills. Today's college presidents ASC developed a one-year post-graduate pre- may have a greater need to communicate well medical and an allied health studies prograyn.

13

AN ERA ENDS ... AN ERA BEGINS A MIRROR OF CAMPUS DIFFERENCES: MALIKAH BERRY '94 (TOP .AND CLOCKWISE) PINKY BALAIS '94, CINDY ACEX'ES 'Oi^ AND PAM PEEL '95,

14

Anwnc cr-OTT r-ni i cr:c • ci jx^k^cd iooa DIFFERENT VALUES

By Audrey Arthur

MORE DIX'ERSE the consti- the legalities of it all. Now integration At Agnes THEtuency, the more difficult it is to involves African Americans, Whites, Scott College, satisfy everyone," beheves Miriam Hispanics, Asians, Pacific Islanders, Native an appreciation Drucker, ASC professor emerita Americans, Indians. . . . of psychology'. "The more people for diversity you have, the more they want their needs '50s AND '60s WERE PIVOTAL for THE has been a met. What pleases one is what another is America as African Americans tradition opposed to." demonstrated with frequent lunch- that An original co-chair of Agnes Scott's counter sit-ins and marches to secure equal is rapidly President's Committee on Community rights. Agnes Scott faced its first decision becoming a Diversity, Drucker taught at the College for related to that movement when in 1961 a of life. more than 35 years. In that time the campus young African-American woman applied for way came to grips with integration, then civil admission and was denied, according to an rights and then moved on toward cultural official statement, due to an "incomplete diversity. application." Following its annual meeting in

"When 1 came to Agnes Scott the interest February 1962, the Board issued another state-

was in whether there would he integration," ment: "Applicants deemed best qualified ...

Drucker recalls. "I think most of the adminis- will be admitted without regard to their race, tration and faculty (Wallace Alston, president, color or creed." and C. Benton Kline, dean of faculty) were In 1965, Gay Johnson McDougall became delighted to discover that there was nothing the first African American admitted to Agnes by charter to prevent Agnes Scott from inte- Scott. She soon tired of students coming into grating. We didn't need to undo anything." her room, "telling how well they treated their The impetus for Black/White integration at Negro maids at home," McDougall recently

Agnes Scott, as well as at other colleges and told the Washington Post. "The times when universities, can be traced to the Supreme people thought they were being nice were

Court Brown vs. Board of Education decision really, you know, just emphasizing how sepa- that discrimination in schools would not be rate and apart our realities were." After two tolerated. That was 40 years ago. years, McDougall transferred to Bennington

The focus, initially, was on the classroom College in Vermont. She holds degrees from with questions about which schools would there and Yale Law School and currently close or remain open and how to implement serves as the only American member of the busing and how to handle federal funding tor Independent Electoral Commission, an inter- schools. For the most part these issues per- national group that will oversee the demo- tained to Blacks and Whites. Today the chal- cratic reconstruction of South Africa. lenge is more complex as teachers face multi- A high school classmate of McDougall,

'7 cultural, multi-lingual classrooms and as insti- Edna Lowe Swift 1 , became the second tutions deal with issues of religious diversity, African-American woman to enroll at Agnes racially—and ethnically—inclusive curricu- Scott—her daughter Shanika '94 graduated lum, the hiring and retention of culturally from Agnes Scott this spring. diverse administrative and teaching staffs and With measured words. Swift recalls her

15 DIFFERENT VALUES —

four years at the College, beginning in 1967. Swift was the first African American to

"I think a few of the professors were a bit graduate from Agnes Scott, a fact, she says,

out of touch with African Americans. I can that "wasn't played up. h wasn't a big deal." recall a few comments in class that didn't She compares her experience to that of her seem to demonstrate compassion or concern daughter who arrived at a time when the

for African Americans. But I just took College has actively sought diversity among

it in stride." its students. "Shanika was able to participate

THE BITTER AND THE SWEET In the early days of integration, schools "for everyone" were mostly for the courageous

UNLIKE THE LITTLE ROCK NiNE who took with me. 1 had to sharpen my survival first integrated an Arkansas high skills."

school in 1957, Josephine Bradley Her historical journey began after the

did not have a support system of peers when 1954 Supreme Court ruling on desegrega-

she enrolled as the only African American tion. Brown vs. The Board of Education. As

in Greensboro, N.C., High. public school systems across the country

Years later she gained no national atten- began to integrate, Bradley's mother, father

tion as the first African American to gradu- and maternal grandfather decided to trans-

ate from an integrated high school in North fer her from the all-Black Dudley High

Carolina. School to the all- White Greensboro. "The

What she did recei\-e were the sweet and quality of the education at Dudley was good,

bitter fruits of integration—from the power but my parents felt I should not have had to of courage to the trauma of discrimination. ride 10 miles to go to school. Then too, my

"It I had to do it over again, I'd take grandfather felt that school should be for

another Black student with me. I never had everyone."

JOSEPHINE BRADLEY the pleasure of looking around and seeing Evaluating efforts to break through the INSTRUCTOR OF SOCIOLOGY someone like me," says Bradley, an instruc- status quo ot "separate but equal," Bradley

tor of sociology at Agnes Scott since 1992. says, "Integration has had limited success. "We must there- "It was ver>' lonely." Even within fully integrated schools, stu- Rather than experiencing first-day-of- dents tend to group with those like them- fore create a school excitement, Bradley remembers her selves. But 1 can say it has afforded African climate within introduction to Greensboro High as a time Americans the opportunity to come to our community overshadowed by protest and anger. "There places like Agnes Scott. So, educationally was no physical violence from those gath- and economically, integration has been that goes ered, but I could feel the hatred and there beneficial." beyond simply was a lot of verbal protest." To her surprise, From Greensboro she went on to become acknowledging students, rather than their parents, reacted. one of two African-American students at Some dropped eggs on her head as she made Clark University in Worchester, Mass.; she our differences her way into the school. Later, students earned a bachelor's degree from North and learn from harassed her as she ate m the cafeteria. Carolina Central University and later a one another." But Bradley recalls three students master's from Michigan State University. In Jenny, Monica and Julie—bold enough to December, she expects to complete her doc- step outside that gathering tide of hatred. torate at the Institute of Liberal Arts at

They would walk to class and eat lunch Emory University, concentrating on

with her. "Doing what they did, I think, American and African-American studies.

instilled in them a sense of sisterhood and Bradley's career, first as a counselor in

Christianity," she says. "Rather than just government work and then as a teacher, has

talking about it, they lived it out. The cen- given her opportunities to move among cul-

teredness that Christ gives allowed them to turally diverse people. This, along with her

do what they did and feel good about it." personal struggle for integration, affords her The experience reinforced Bradley's own a perspective that other people can only spirit ot "patience, tolerance and inner speculate about—and a riveting message of strength. Even though there were people tolerance.

who were kind, 1 still had to rely on what 1 —Audrey Arthur

16

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • SUMMER 1994 -

in more thinj^s than I did. She ran cross coun- 1985. They telt Agnes Scott needed to acti\-e-

try and worked on the yearhook, sang in ly address dix'ersity issues. Joyful Noise and was a memher of Witkaze "The conference was an eye opener," recalls

(African- American student group). She telt Hudson. "It made us ask 'Are we meeting the

more a part ot the campus than 1 did." needs ot our African-American students?' It

More than a decade earlier, in 1956, the made us realize we didn't ha\e an ongoing sen- faculty color harrier w'as broken by Kwai Sing sitivity training tor faculty and staff. We were Chang. An assistant professor of Bible and just not talking about the differences between philosophy of Chinese ancestry, Chang joined being African American, Hispanic, Asian the faculty under the presidency of Alston American, etc." with whom he had roomed at Princeton "The Committee on Community Diversity

University. He immediately felt at home. "1 was designed to be inclusive was completely accepted on campus," recalls because we have all types ot

Chang. "The only problems I encountered people on campus," explains were in non-academic settings." For instance Schmidt. Reflecting the when he and his wife went to Sears to buy character of the College, the pots and pans, the salesperson asked if Chang committee set out to make were employed in a restaurant. It was a stereo- recommendations and to lay typical response. "All in all it was a happy the groundwcirk for non-con experience at Agnes Scott," says Chang who fronti\'e means to deal with retired after 30 years of teaching at the issues surrounding diversity.

College. Since its inception in 1986,

With a steadily increasing minority popu- the committee has passed a lation, in the 1970s and 1980s, many U.S. resolution concerning the HEATHER A, GOOCjE '97 {left) academic institutions, including Agnes Scott, need for faculty to hire more African- AMANDA LOCKHART '97 began looking to minorities as crucial to American members. It has brought influential, future enrollment. racially diverse speakers to campus. The com-

"The motivation for me [in terms of cul- mittee has also sponsored workshops including "Each race or tural diversity] is educational, but it we want Racism Free Zone (RFZ) and the National group doesn't the institution to grow we need to find out Coalition Building Institute (NCBl). face just one type where and who the students will be," com- The goal of RFZ, a non-profit organization ments President Ruth Schmidt. based in Baltimore, is to encourage individuals of racism, but At an ASC convocation in 1991, Schmidt and groups to "take the responsibility to elimi- several different noted the College's commitment: "Diversity is nate racism," says RFZ founder and executive kinds. All desirable and essential to a rich and stimulat- director Bahati Ansari who helped organize

ing intellectual community, but it does take the first chapter at Agnes Scott. Under the people have more effort on everyone's part to learn to live wing of RFZ, in 1991 a diverse group of stu- stories to tell." with and appreciate the contribution of per- dents, faculty and staff banded together to deal sons and groups quite different from one's with racial tensions on campus. That fall dur- own. We must therefore create a climate ing a convocation, RFZ members stepped for- within our community that goes beyond ward to declare the Agnes Scott campus a simply acknowledging our differences and "racism free zone" and almost 400 members of learn from one another," she stated. "We must the community joined them by signing an RFZ create an environment in which individual statement (see page 20). Although that effort students, faculty and staff feel welcome, gained good support, later evaluations of RFZ appreciated and understood for who and effectiveness have been mixed. what they are." A more recent (and some believe the most

successful) effort is NCBl. The organization UNDER Schmidt's guidance, several addresses discrimination related to visible dif- programs have developed, both to ferences like race, class, gender, age and physi-

help build understanding and to cope cal handicaps as well less visible differences

with situations encountered in culturally like sexual orientation and religion. TTie NCBl

diverse college communities. One of the premise is that all have experienced some form

first was the President's Committee on Com- of discrimination.

munity Diversity. It took shape soon after Cue Associate Professor of Biology John Pilger is Hudson '68, dean of students, and Jenifer a founding member of Agnes Scott's chapter of Cooper '86, director of admission, attended a NCBl. He has trained several of Agnes Scott's

diversity seminar at Swarthmore College in staff, faculty and students in facilitation tech-

17 DIFFERENT VALUES — 7 1

niques and the philosophy of NCBI. "Each White; 17.6 percent minorities and 5.3 per- race or group doesn't face just one type of cent internationals (457 Whites; 77 African

racism, but several different kinds. All people Americans; 1 1 Asian American/Pacific

have stories to tell." During NCBI workshops, Islanders; 17 Hispanics; 32 internationals; participants move in and out of groups and two Native Americans and nine, race

subgroups to explore and confront the dis- unspecified).

crimination in their own and others' lives. A Generally, those percentages compare Catholic male feels isolated on the campus of well against other small private colleges in a Presbyterian-related college for women. A the South and across the country. Shorter young African-American student vents anger College in Rome, Ga., for instance, has a

at race/gender bias she encounters in a class total enrollment of 773 students with an 1 led by a white male—and she laments the percent minority. Southwestern College in color-difference discrimination she finds off- Winfield, Kan., has 747 students with 14 campus among peers in her own racial group.

Explains Pilger, "By understanding these many facets of our own diversity and by understand- ing how we hurt people, we can begin to learn

to build bridges. The NCBI philosophy is to be pro-active, rather than reactive." Pilger says that NCBI recognizes both indi- vidual racism and institutional racism. Rather

than attack either, he says that NCBI tries to bring a sense of wholeness and healing to the individual, so eventually "we can bring heal-

ing to the institution." Being involved in

NCBI has heightened Pilger's awareness ot

diversity at Agnes Scott and it has "opened up communication. People miss the opportunity WHITFIELD '95 AYANNA for friendships of all kinds because of barriers."

WHILE THE FIRST African American "Over the past was admitted to Agnes Scott in decade, Agnes the 1960s, other minorities Asian, Cuban, Portuguese—had attended the Scott has been College as early as the 1920s. Philrey Kim opening up all Choi from Korea became the first Asian stu- kinds of new dent to earn a degree at the College in 1926. But for decades, diversity here and in institu- perspectives tions around the country, was on a small that reflect the scale. However, the idea for greater diversity changing interests was on the minds of many including Priscilla Often '73 who wrote an editorial in the stu- and needs of dent newspaper. The Profile: "I feel that Scott our society." must take the initiative; we must seek after

these students. If minority students will not

come to us, then we must go to them. We must encourage these students even more than others who apply." By 1978 Agnes Scott's minority student

population consisted of 1 2 African Americans, four Asian Americans, 10 Hispanic and 25 international students. By 1988 these numbers had increased to 36 African Americans, eight Asian Americans,

two Native Americans, 1 1 Hispanics and 1 internationals.

In 1992 the College's total undergraduate student enrollment was 605 with 75.6 percent PINKY BALAIS M

18

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • SUMMER 1994 percent minority. to Modern Times and the Psychology of Observes Dean of the College Sarah Cross-Cultural Contact. Blanshei, "We have a higher percentage of "Over the past decade we haxe been open- minority students than other colleges our size ing up all kinds of new perspectives that because we've evidenced a strong commit- reflect the changing interests and needs ot our ment to diversity in the last 10 to 12 years society, with study and with international with our faculty hiring and our curriculum." experiences in Latin America, Japan and

In 1982 only 19 courses in the College's cur- Africa," says Blanshei. riculum concentrated on diverse cultures. In Another evidence of the College's com-

1993 students could choose from 56 courses mitment to diversity is its work to increase that included Latin American and Caribbean the Hispanic presence. In 1991 a $163,000 Civilizations and Culture, African Diaspora, Knight Foundation challenge grant was Native Peoples of the Americas, Asian World awarded, reqLiiring that the College provide

TWINS KEISHA AND KREISHA SHROPSHIRE '96 LAURA SPICZKA '96

19 DIFFERENT VALUES — 5

matching funds. The grant is a three-year, being a European-American paradigm in three-told project (recruitment, retention and terms of policies and programs. These need to

special programs for cultural awareness/train- be re-oriented. Study what makes historically

ing). With money from this grant, each year Black colleges tick because African-American Karina Hernandez, assistant director of admis- students are graduating from these schools. sion, travels five weeks to states with large We also need to look at ways racism occurs concentrations of Hispanics to recruit stu- through student/faculty interactions and

dents. At the onset, the goal was to enroll 1 peer/peer interactions. Hispanic students per "One of the things

year. However, for my colleagues fail to do 1992-93, the College Racism Free Zone'™' is take the time to admitted seven. "The examine cultural differ- Declaration, 1991 College did not realize ences. Because a person

how hard it is to recruit believe the racism that exists who is in the minority 15," says Hernandez. Wein our society also exists on comes on our 'turf,' we "It's difficult partly our campus and is hurting assume she is willing to because Hispanic fami- everyone here. In order to establish a safe become desensitized/ taisting environment that recognizes • lies like their sons and and deculturized. True, as a worth of all individuals and the value daughters to stay close the part of college you of their differences we will; to home." Some also grow and change; but Recognize that no one who is privi- have the misconception that does not include leged by our society is free from racism. that education in a complete cultural dis- No longer remain silent or tolerate small, private colleges is tancing," says York. racist remarks or actions in ourselves or in unaffordahle. To help Another concern for others. In taking responsibility for them retain those Hispanic administrators today is we will reach past blame and guilt toward women who enroll hiring and retaining dialogue. and to aid in the transi- minority faculty. The No longer be threatened by confronta- KARINA HERNANDEZ tion to college—the minority faculty at tion. We will he receptive to others when ASSISTANT DIRECTOR office of the dean of stu- Agnes Scott stands at ADMISSION they help us recognize the pain we cause dents has established a nine; two Africans, two them and the injustice we condone. African Americans, mentor program invoK-- Strive to create an atmosphere con- from one Asian and four "Higher education ing professionals ducive to the advancement and fulfill- 1992 Atlanta's Hispanic com- ment of all people on this campus. Hispanics. In has to cease being munity. Establish a Racism Free Zone of trust there were four minori- a European- and goodwill to stop the abuse of power ty members. Ten years ETAINING that is the heart of racism. ago there were two. American para- MINORITIES is Harry Wistrand, an digm in terms of professor of Rparamount to associate policies and pro- maintaining a culturally diverse environment, biology at ASC for more than 20 years, con- Darlene York, visiting assistant professor cedes the faculty was partially responsible for grams. These need says at Agnes Scott. York, a White American, has these low numbers. "We were dragging our to be re-oriented." studied cross-cultural conflict, culture shock heels in hiring minority faculty. There was a and methods to train people who work with gulf on campus—few middle managers were members of different cultures. Black and with the lack of Black faculty, the She notes that although a number of dean and the president put pressure on the minorities attend predominantly European- faculty to diversify." American colleges, graduation rates among In response, in May 1988, the faculty these groups are often low. A report released passed a resolution: We, the Faculty of Agnes in March by the American Council on Scott College, recognize the importance of Education indicated that 56 percent White having a diverse faculty in an academic envi-

students obtained bachelor's degrees, com- ronment. ... The addition of minority faculty pared with 32 percent of the African members, particularly Black faculty members, Americans, 41 percent Hispanics and 30 per- will not only foster that appreciation but will cent Native Americans. However, Asian also aid in recruiting and retaining minority

Americans outstripped all groups with 63 per- students. We believe, therefore, that we must cent graduates. dedicate ourselves to exploring every opportu-

To increase retention of minority students, nity to recruit faculty from all minority York suggests, "Higher education has to cease groups, especially Blacks.

20

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • SL/MMER )<394 Wistrand adds, "I don't think we were see the whole picture," he says. "But with

afraid to hire—we were afraid to tire. It they cultural diversity you can see the world [minority faculty] didn't work out, there was a through the lens of another culture and that fear of backlash. My attitude has been that you can only be beneficial."

don't hire the most qualified, but rather you And he admits, "The willingness to be cul-

hire a qualified person who fills the role—who turally diverse is an individual journey. It

fits the niche." doesn't come immediately for all." Assistant Professor of Chemistry Vincent

Anigbogu, a native of Nigeria, has been in a CULTURAL DIVERSITY increases on number of academic settings where he was the AScampuses, often tensions escalate. only minority faculty. Through one-on-one According to a Justice Department relationships, he tries to promote understand- report, in the last five years racial incidents on ing and to diminish stereotypes. "No one can college campuses have increased 50 percent. At Georgia State University in 1992, African- American students protested against racially Some believe derogatory messages scrawled on a campus increasing racial garbage can. Last year at the University of tensions California at Los Angeles, Hispanic students on erupted both in riots and peaceful protests campuses are after the administration decided not to turn exacerbated by the Chicano-studies program into a full- tough fledged department. Last February at economic Claremont College in California, 100 times and the African-American students forced the closing dramatic shift in of administrative offices to demand the col- the ethnic lege hire more minority faculty members. make- Gladys Brown, director of human relations up of student at University of Maryland at College Park populations. (UMCP) has studied the causes and results of such conflicts. She believes the problems are exacerbated by tough economic times and the

dramatic shift in the ethnic make-up of stu- dent populations. "We also find more com- plaints involve things professors say in the

classroom which are not illegal, but stupid.

Our solution is to say to faculty this is an aca- demic institution and you are smart and edu- cated. Act on what you know but keep an

open mind that this is a life-long process of learning."

Brown coordinates a task force, sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League and UMCP, which put together a conference "Bigotry 202: Developing a Pro-Active Campus Approach," providing college administrators with

resources, expertise and ideas for policy to

help their institutions deal with difficult issues surrounding diversity and bigotry. Agnes Scott has not been immune to race-

related differences. As violence broke out in the streets of Los Angeles and in Atlanta over

the initial Rodney King decision (not to con- vict the L.A. policemen who beat King), racial tensions also erupted here with students writing racial epithets on a sheet posted on the bulletin board in the Alston student cen-

ter. In the fall of 1991, Black and White stu- PRIYA SIVANESAN '97 dents alike protested—with posters and mes-

21 DIFFERENT VALUES —

sages scrawled on sidewalks—the administra- speaking our own language." Yet Pinky

tive withdrawal of African-American senior Balais '94, who is Filipino and Spanish,

Tara Somerville. In a formal statement to the counters, "I don't like it. I'm tired of letters community, the College indicated that the in The Profile about the lack of cultural

action was not racially motivated but taken to diversity. The problem is obvious—students safeguard the community against threats made haven't changed their consciousness on this

by Somerville. The case is still in litigation. campus. They talk about it, they preach

"Problems on college campuses are a sign about it, but don't actually do it. The dining

of the times," says Victor Wilson, Agnes hall is a prime example."

Scott's first African-American assistant dean As Miriam Drucker would point out, in

of students. "It used to be 'un-chic' to say any- issues of diversity, what pleases one is often

thing racist. Now, it's getting to the point opposed by another.

that people like David Duke are looked up For Kahni Tang '96, issues of cultural

to." Since coming to Agnes Scott in 1992 Wilson has worked on several cultural diversi-

ty projects including the introduction of a multi-cultural component to Orientation

Weekend for first-year students. The compo- nent touches on stereotypes of various cul- tures and poses questions about how students deal with discrimination. After the multi-cul-

tural workshop last August, responses from students in the Class of '97 included:

"I feel fortunate to be in an ethnically diverse school."

"The problem with being politically cor-

ELIZABETH CHERRY' '95 rect is that it keeps a person from learning

about controversial subjects."

"Is calling people 'Black,' insulting to them now?" As retired "Everyone 1 meet has things to teach me." professor Miriam Drucker points IRONICALLY IT MAY SEEM, tensions arise in institutions officially seeking cultural out, in issues of diversity when policy denies minority stu- diversity, what dents the option of being separate. Supporters of the Harambee House at Brown University pleases one is (a residence hall set aside for African often opposed Americans) say it promotes cultural awareness by another. and identity. Its detractors call it separatism.

That debate could occur daily in dining

halls at almost any college or university

Asians tend to sit with Asians, African Americans with African Americans, Whites with Whites. According to a study from the University of Michigan, students from every ethnic sec-

tor are less likely to mingle with those of other ethnic groups when their own group represents a significant percentage of the pop- ulation. Nearly 69 percent of Asian-American and 78 percent Mexican-American students

dined with someone of a different ethnic group, compared with 55 percent of African- American students and only 21 percent White students. Says Bing Wei of China,

ASC instructor of physical education, "We OSJHA ANDERSON '96 ANL:) CLAIRE LAYE '94 simply feel more comfortable with those SINGING "LOLLYTOODUM"

22

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • SUMMER ISP-I diversity at Agnes Scott should liLU-e gotten plicated relationships growing out ot a small beyond Black and White. Ptiya Sivanesan '97, and an increasingly complex population, says, a native ot Madtas, India, expresses suq^rise frankly, "It I had to grade Agnes Scott com- that "people at Agnes Scott are so accepting ot pared to of other colleges and unixcrsities 1 different views and ideas. Maybe they don't would give us a strong C+, because we are talk-

.share the same beliefs as I do, but they accept ing about diversity. There is no college or uni- me." Malikah Berry '94, founder of Nandi, the versity that would honestly rate itself an A.

African-American student newspaper, says she We all have to impro\'e our grade. We at was deeply disturbed by what happened to Agnes Scott are doing that with NCBI tech-

Tara Sommerville. "I'd sum up Agnes Scott's niques and Racism Free Zone." efforts at cultural di\-ersity as bittersweet. It's What it boils down to, she believes, is that been a hard road." "we need to listen to each other respectfully. Dean Hudson, who works day in and day We need to learn from the oppression we have out with students, and has struggled with com- all experienced and we need to learn to trust." THE WAY OF NONVIOLENCE " Two generatiofis oj Bashirs are committed to "help people learn to get along.

TOGETHER, LAYLI MILLER BaSHIR '93 Charmaine Minniefield '95 recalls an inci- and her mother have volunteered at dent during an intercollegiate non-violence

the Martin Luther King Jr. Center seminar (held shortly before the trial ot Los for Nonviolent Social Change: Bashir, a Angeles police officers charged with the

facilitator, has trained others to understand beating of Rodney King), that illustrates

and use King's methods ot nonviolent con- Bashir's assurance. "A lot of students arrived

flict resolution. Her mother is a representa- at the seminar with preconceived notions of tive for Coretta Scott King and a consultant nonviolence, that it basically was not work- TRACICORUM DUNN to the Center's multi-cultural education ing. The conference provided an opportuni- FIFTH YEAR STUDENT WITH 2 projects. ty for them to vent their frustrations. Layli SON GREGORY, DAYS

At workshops and seminars for college was leading a seminar and she got a lot of

students at the King Center, Bashir has negative feedback because she was white

taught King's six principles of nonviolence: and the students felt she could not relate. "My mother's • nonviolence is a way of life for coura- But Layli never backed down. She kept pre- generation was geous people; senting the message ot nonviolence and told involved in civil • nonviolence seeks to win friendship of her personal experiences. She was a and understanding; woman giving her testimony and no one rights. They had a • nonviolence seeks to defeat injustice could dispute that." vision. My genera- and not people; To help open campus avenues for insti- tion thinks it's • nonviolence holds that suffering can gating change, she participated on the educate and transform; President's Committee on Community tried integration • nonviolence chooses love, not hate; Diversity, in CHIMO, an organization for and the process is • nonviolence believes that the universe international students, and she served as a too painful. We is on the side of justice. trainer on the National Coalition Building

During the workshops Bashir has Institute (NCBI). "I think in many ways are backing off noticed a marked difference between the Agnes Scott tried sincerely to promote cul- and going back to reactions of her own and her mother's peers tural diversity. But the College could per- our groups." as they confronted issues surrounding diver- haps focus more on everybody's needs to own

sity. "My mother's generation was involved address this issue and not just point fingers.

in the civil rights movement. They had a I think NCBI is a wonderful step toward

vision and they were fighting for that. My this. It does not focus the blame of prejudice

generation thinks it's tried integration and on anyone, and that elevates the discussion

the process is too painful. We are backing to solution."

off and going back to our own groups where Now at American University, Bashir is

we are comfortable." working on a master's in international rela-

Bashir, however, has not backed off. tions and a juris doctor in international law. While a student at Agnes Scott, she was Armed with both degrees, Bashir hopes to a vocal advocate for racial harmony. "help people to get along." —Audrey Arthur

23 DIFFERENT VALUES "

MILESTONES (AND STEPPING

^ASC About /T '^Thurgood Marshall 'hires first ^1 63;200,000 \J I named first African- minority faculty j^MCM gather in American U.S. Supreme member, Kwai u Washington, D.C., Court Justice. Sing Chang, to support African- assistant profes- American demands /T Q Assassins kill Martin sor of Bible arvi for equal rights. vJO Luther King Jr. and 9 1 ASC's YWCA chapter phibsophy. A Martin Luther King Robert F. Kennedy. w^ J. sponsors forum to dis- p ^ Jr. shares his cuss race issues with dream: "I have a SpelmanfMorehouse students. dream that my four

little children will one day O '2 Three ASC students ^ ^Nine African- live in a nation where they attend Southern will not be judged by the ^^ ^ I American students Student-Faculty Conference integrate all-white high color of their skin but by the

in Atlanta marking "first time school in Little Rock, content of their character. .. white and colored students Arkansas one day right there in

have planned and ccndwaed Alabama, little black boys

such a meeting for the consid- ASC students donate part and little black girls will be eration of mutual problems of of the Junior Jaunt proceeds able to join hands with little

both local and international to Natiorud Scholarship white boys and white girls

importance." l/ll/H Furid for Negro Students. and walk together as sisters Agonistic. and brothers."

26 31 33 41 42 52 53 54 56 57 61 62 64 65 66 6'

A ^ US confines /T 1 First African-American /T /f ASC Christian

I ^Japanese-Americans \J L student applies to ASC. \J I Association declares:

on Pacific Coast to intern- Acceptance denied due to "It is our conviction that as

ment camps during WW II. "incomplete application." Christian students we are

compelled to encourage and to

[T '^ Passage of the U.S. ASC facidty (97 percent) signs work for understanding

..J ^Immigration and statement urging public schools to and acceptance of indi-

. Naturalization Act remain open despite the Georgia viduals of all races

removes last racial and eth- governor's threat to close schools if ///2/64 Profile.

nic barriers to immigration. U.S. government forces desegrega-

tion—426 ASC students issue Omnibus Civil Rights ^ ^ Student Chor similar statement. bill bans discrimina- w/^Jee Goh Chow tion in voting, jobs '54 I ASC /T O University of and public accommo- of Singapore chairs enrolls vJ^ Mississippi enrolls dations.

ASC World Affairs Trina Lopez first African-American Committee. Perez '44 student, James Meredith. /T/rT/iree "special ' Aleida of Cuba. \J\J students" arrive at Martinez

Brown vs. ASC Board of Trustees ASC from Peru, joins ASC Spanish M Board of issue statement that Denmark and El Salvador. department. Education prohibits student applicant consider-

segregation of public ations will be based on U.S. /India Women's '^^'^^C students form schools. academic qualifications College Exchange Program / k) Students for Black

without regard to race. brings from India visiting Au^areness (SBA). Name later

professor Aley Thomas. changed to Witkaze.

24

AfiNRS sroTT rni i fcf • 9i mmfr iodj .. . .

5TONES) DM DIVERSITY

^/^Ayse llgai Garden '66 r\ /^.ASC begins summer / \Joj Turkey, retim\s to y \j¥ord Scholars Teachers ASC as psychology professor. Vroffam to recruit minority high school students jor careers

in teaching. Q 1 \V. Bur/ette Oi Carter '82. r\ 1 Administrative with- African y ± drawal of African- American , first American ASC sttident student Tara Truman Scholar. Sommerville

ASC receives n yj ASC hires first Knight

(—/ I African American Foundation faculty member Carolyn grant to Deriard. increase

Hispanic stu-

'Students elect African- dent presence American Mia Puckett on campus and

as president of ASC Honor to develop Court. Hispanic pro- gramming.

3 71 72 75 76 81 84 85^^61 91 92 93 94

' President Schmidt ASC names 861'institutes President's Joyce Essien, Students Committee on Community M.D., first f 9i elect Diversity African- A/rican-American

American ' '~ Charmaine

ASC hires Africari American member of its Minniefield '95,

Karen Green '86, director of Board of class president

student activities ar\d housing. Trustees. (and continue to

re-elect her—

) ASC faculty pledges To promote she serves as class bresident aR 88:no recruit minority Hispanic four years) members awareness at ASC, students Kinjo Gakuin

kASC Student organize University in 89{Government Espin'tu Latino Japan and ASC Association (SOA) approves establish exchange designated CHIMO seat. gn Fifty- program. j7 Z^ two peo

SGA denies seat to Students pie killed in

for Black Awareness (SBA) Los Angeles riots after jury With encouragement from acquits white policemen

President's office and faculty, accused of beating African-

SGA later approves SBA seat. American Rodney King.

25 DIFFERENT VALUES TRIPPING THE LIGHT FANTASTIC

By Carole Siracusa

Photography hy Bill Denison

Illustrations by Ralph Gilbert

Agnes Scott is enhancing its 'Tou dance facilities and has added CAN a minor in a discipline where in HAVE grace and beauty balance "the IT all" college's rigorous academic That's what a mentor told Mar>-Un Darling when she began developing a demands." dance program at Agnes Scott College. That idea guided Darling, now chair of theatre

and dance, during her more than 20 years as

head of the program. That same idea she tries

to instill in each of her students.

With a new minor in dance at Agnes Scott and with the more recent establishment of the

Martha Wilson Kessler Dance Fund, having it

all will be even more possible for the students

and the College. The accumulated gift of almost $400,000, donated by Martha Kessler '69 and her husband Richard, will enable Agnes Scott to add a new dance studio and

greatly enhance its dance facilities. It also will bring nationally- and internationally known professional dancers and choreographers to the campus. At the dedication of the new dance studio during Alumnae Weekend, Martha Kessler,

who began studying dance at age five, remem-

bers that dance at Agnes Scott brought bal- ance to "the rigors of the academic demands." She also expressed pleasure that ASC dance had led to fulfilling careers for classmates.

26

Ar:wp«; ^irrvrr roi r pnp • cf tkaxapp ioqj 27 DANCE: TRIPPING THE LIGHT FANTASTIC With humor, Richard Kessler said at age five students have already enjoyed changes in the he had also had a brush with dance—tap dance program last fall with the residence of dance—and he hoped that their gift would be New York choreographer Jane Comfort who used to further Agnes Scott dancers and has worked with Merce Cunningham, Maggie

dance in its many forms. Black and Janet Panetta. She set a new dance

The gift will equip the main studio for per- for Agnes Scott's Studio Dance Theatre titled

formances by adding a lighting and sound sys- "Pretty Is as Pretty Does." The gift also provid- tem, a new marley floor (a rubberized mat) ed a four-week residency for two of the four

and motorized shades. The gift will be used to artistic directors of Pilobolus to adapt a piece purchase instructional equipment including a for the Studio Dance Theatre. video recording system, tapedecks and CD Darling, professor of dance, theatre and

players, pilates machines to help dancers build physical education, is especially pleased that

strength and flexibility and two new studio the gift will allow Agnes Scott dance to

pianos. It will provide live accompaniment for attract outstanding artists to campus. "It will

every class. be like bringing New York and Europe and

The gift also provides $100,000 to be allo- Australia to Agnes Scott. People speak differ- cated to the College's endowment to provide ent languages through dance," she explains.

residencies by visiting artists, ballet and mod- "The gift will help move our students from em dance accompanists, commissions of regional dance into national and international choreographic works and student internships ways of thinking. The Kessler money will do

for the ne.xt five years. As a result of the gift. wonders, more than wonders."

"It will be like bringing New York and Europe to Agnes Scott. The Kessler gift will move our students from regional dance to international ways of thinking."

28

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • SUMMER 1994 opportunities to her students." "But if Today, Agnes Scott's Studio Dance Theatre features 25 students who perform

modem, jazz, ballet, tap, forms of Baroque and YOU Renaissance dance. In April, for instance, Pilobolus set a piece, "Duet," tor physics major Kara Moore '96 and political science major LOVE Vicki Sturdivant '97. Pilobolus dancer Jude Woodcock worked with them on basic steps and movement. Then they rehearsed with dance" artistic director Robby Bamett from 4:45 p.m. to 9 p.m. daily for more than a week, working STARTING IN 1971 WITH A GROUP of SIX on the "mood and feel of the piece." Students who had concentrated on mod- "This was not your traditional dancing, a

ern dance, Darling has deliberately tendu here, a jete, there," says Moore." It was shaped Agnes Scott's program to embrace a mostly partnering. It took a lot of physical variety of dance forms. "Agnes Scott's program strength we didn't know we had. At first we is very diverse and rich for its size," acknowl- said, 'We can't do that lift.' It was an intense, edges Sally Radell, director of the dance unbelievable experience. It gave me a whole program at Emory University. "Marylin is an new outlook on what dancing is." She laughs. inspiring leader and she brings wonderful "I am completely inspired to go off and dance." The program brings that kind of experience The Agnes to many students. "We give dancers a wide Scott program range of styles, whereas some companies only has produced do ballet," explains Darling. "We do it all, and

I think we do it all very well." dance students In many ways the program reflects the with strong breadth and intensity of Darling's own experi- ence. She has studied with many of the out- academic standing dancers and choreographers of the credentials who last half of this century, from Martha Graham, have gone on Alvin Ailey, Bob Fosse, Jose Limon Alwin Nickolais of New York to David Roche and to perform Vlaria de Baroncelli at Florida State professionally. University. "She has tremendous drive to

explore dance m all its art forms, and her

choreography is extremely well rounded," comments alumna Mary MacKinnon '85, an Atlanta choreographer. Agrees Joanne Lee, director of the Chastain School of the Atlanta

Ballet: "Her knowledge of all forms of dance is her greatest strength." Moore, whose career dreams may now

include dancing on Broadway, says, "If you are serious about academics, but you love dance,

Marylin is the best. She knows so much." Already, the Agnes Scott program has produced dance students with strong academic credentials who have gone on to perform professionally with Erik Hawkins, Alvin Ailey, Bella Lewitsky and other well-respected companies.

The Agnes Scott Studio Dance Theatre is a dance company housed on a college campus

(to be distinguished from the more commonly formed college student dance groups). For more than a decade, student performances

29 DANCE: TRIPPING THE LIGHT FANTASTIC have been framed by professional choreogra- Agnes Scott dancers "never stop dancing."

phers. Since 1978, visiting artists have taught Meda Stamper '87, an employee of The

master classes here. And now the Kessler gift Coca-Cola Company, regularly performs in

will enable the College to engage such artists community theatre and musicals.

for whole semesters at a time. Sarah Campbell '81 was a junior biology

This, says Darlmg, "makes a dancer a better major mulling over career paths when Darling

dancer, and the better the dancer, the better hooked her up with a dance therapist to study

the program." Having a dance major at Agnes dance movement. Today Campbell has a mas-

Scott would attract an even greater number ter's degree in dance mo\'ement therapy and of students who would pursue careers in dance. works at the Moses Cone Memorial Hospital

But right now the College is concentrating in North Carolina. Darling, says Campbell, "is on the new minor and progressing one step very powerful as a mentor and a motivator."

at a time. MacKinnon experienced that. "When I

"At Agnes Scott, "At Agnes Scott, we've always taken a first joined the company, 1 never thought 1 we've always holistic approach to education, emphasizing would choreograph." Yet Darling recognized the cognitive, spiritual, physical and social MacKinnon's potential and urged her to a holistic taken aspects of learning. Dance is a wonderful choreograph several pieces while at Agnes approach to bringing together of the mind, body and cre- Scott. MacKinnon slowly discovered that she education. Dance ative aspect," says Dean of the College Sarah enjoyed the creative aspect of dance more Blanshei. "The minor in dance was a coming than the performance. Today she does free- is a wonderful of age for Agnes Scott's dance program. With lance choreography. bringing together the minor and the establishment of the addi- "It's unusual for a dancer to come from a of the mind, tional studio, we will have a program that liberal arts college, but 1 have students who not only is enriched in its own right, but can dance professionally and later pursue and body also is a significant enrichment of our fine other careers. For instance, one young woman creative aspect." arts program." who was a professional dancer is now a With pleasure. Darling points out, that no lawyer," says Darling.

matter what their majors or career choices, She smiles. "You see, you can do it all."

30 ACNES SCOTT COLLEGE • SUMMER 1994 REDRESSING THE STUDENT BODY ^k A History in Hairdos and Hemlines .-^^ ¥.. H. By Mary Alma Durrett '"^H^' W

,f>»- £*,% 4^s

N,

fashion! AhGerman economist Werner Sombart

called it "capitalism's favorite child."

Every mother is fond of tossing out fashion axioms to her daughters before sending them

off into the difficult world of dress. You remember: "You will not leave this house

without the proper foundations . . . without

creaming your elbows ... without painting

those toenails, girls, if you're going to wear

sandals. .. . Avoid horizontal stripes. . . .

Remember, no white shoes after Labor Day." Every mother has them. Every mother

31 REDRESSING THE STUDENT BODY hopes her daughters will retain a few. occasions she even wears makeup. In the world of today's young fashion There are days when students break out in

adventurer, these maxims are likely met with a preppy chino skirts and cotton sweaters or

yawn, or perhaps a more \'ehement gesture. crisp khaki pants and dirty bucks. But those of

TTie truth is, the crisply dressed, well-heeled today's world of fashion experimentation grew

Hottentot ot old has been replaced by a new up accepting underwear as outerwear: TTianks

Scottie whose casual mclinations tend toward a lot. Madonna. dusty Dr. Marten battle boots over pretty From her part to bet heart, Agnes X may

pumps. She is a fashion soldier ot this genera- also hear a dozen pierces for earrings, noserings tion—Agnes X we'll call her. She, not unlike and other decorations. Her gauzy dark rumpled the late comedian Gilda Radner, bases much dress brushes low against her tattooed ankle

The truth is, of her fashion taste on "what doesn't itch." (yes, tattooed) and she is likely footed in the crisply- Agnes X personifies the confluence of social, Birkenstocks. Through dress and ornamenta- economic and ethnic change. tion, she enunciates the angst and interests of dressed, well- Her cache of togs no longer hears the wears an age. Grunge rules! heeled Hottentot of a century ago—corsets (a hobbling device "There's the mainstream kind of fashion of old has been of the first order) and floor-length skirts, or of that's not markedly different from generation 50 years ago—pullover pastel sweaters, plaid to generation," says Vicki Vitelli '97 of replaced by a skirts, pearls, ankle socks and saddle oxfords. Florence, Ala., whose cranberry -on-brunette new Scottie Comfort rules the '90s Scottie who crosses shoulder-length locks hint at her fashion lean- with casual campus in high-top Chuck Taylor sneakers, ings. "I think a trademark of today is subver- cut-offs, a T-shirt (not unlike her '60s-era siveness. Fashion today challenges traditional inclinations. mother) and a hall cap with the bill flipped to beauty standards. Anything that's against the

the back—or treks about the Quad in plaid norm makes us question traditional \alues. I

boxer-style shorts and running shoes. Her hair think that's a good thing, whether it means

(if anything is done to it at all) may be pulled questioning gender stereotypes or fashion."

back in a ponytail or secured with a wide The fashion "whys," naturally, are among sweat band. On alternate days, Agnes X may the many questions that emerge in healthy

don a thigh-high spandex skirt (a hobbling youthful debate. Why is one thing pretty and device of the highest otder) or a long, tie-dyed another not? Do we have to define beauty the

(bolder than ever) sarong or tights and an same way our mothers did?

oversized blouse and toss back her head- "My guiding clothing philosophy is (com-

ful of cascading curls or comrows or ing from a small conserx'ative southern town

crimped locks. Occasionally she might and being a raging liberal at heart), I want to wear heels. On rarer be as big a freak as humanly possible during

my college years," says Vitelli. "I'll settle down

later and drive the Volvo." Contrast that with the "white bread" world into which MoUie Merrick '57, asso- ciate dean of students, arrived as an ASC student in 1953. "We were wearing those Villager blouses with Peter Pan collars and dainty flower patterns." To Miami-native Merrick's surprise, classmates were also wear- ing socks with their shoes. "There was homo- geneity. This was the way you dressed and

ever^'body did it. Ever>'hody was in sync."

For years, dress was one of many aspects of

student life dictated in loco parentis by the College; dresses were the standard. "The College assumed authority over student dress

as part of its efforts to graduate accomplished

and proper young ladies," explained Lee Sayrs '69 and Associate Professor of English

Christine S. Cozzens in their book, A Full and Rich Measure.

Varying notions ot "appropriate dress" or "beauty" have been, through the history of the

32 AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • SUMMER 1994 College, exactly that—varied. remembers sewing

Mayhe Coco Chanel said it best: "Fashion many of the skirts is made to become unfashionable." that she brought to

The earliest Silhouettes capture the whims College. "I look at ot student fashion. In those first years students what they're wearing cut hour-glass figures in late-Victorian corset- on campus today an^l ed garb, despite specific instruction in the it's just a hoot. We College catalog that "dress ot schoolgirls be weren't really dressing simple and inexpensive." Within a few years like anyt>ne as they (the 1910s), the look moved toward man- seem to do today. Of tailored ensembles (better for bicycling you course Lana Turner did know) with Scotties wearing classic Gibson- stand out and I guess I girl hairstyles, swept up off the shoulder and thought my hair did kind rolled or folded with ratting into a bun. Their of look like hers. 1 relished skirts were floor-length; blouses, high-necked, that." often accented by a tie or bow. On their feet By 1969, the "beauties" they wore tight-fitting, laced or buttoned, section of the Silhouette ankle-high boots. had gone the way of the By 1925, nearly every Scottie had a varia- hula hoop, hut a good tion of bobbed hair: Egyptian, mannish. amount of attention was

Marcelled, windblown, the Charleston or still paid to dress. The faun. Skirts, likewise, were shortened a dozen ASC Lecture ^\ inches; white hose dominated and shoes fea- Committee and ushers tured modem, slender, high heels. Mainstays retained their standard on the athletic field and in the gymnasium: black dress and pearls bloomers and middle blouses. as a "uniform" at guest k lectures. "Of course there >./ he twenties was that whole con- tingent who wore stuff ovet fostered a their pajamas to class," notes Bonnie B. Johnson fe-Sal "Beauties" '70, executive director for development and assistant photo section in the dean of Emory University School of Medicine, one of yearbook judged by eight students who served on Representative Council's some outside, objec- Special Commission on Rules and Policies (SCRAP) in tive highly visible 1969. "Our focus was on the writer or artist or group of cadets from West 'non-negotiahles.' It was a Point. In 1946, Hollywood photographer kind of stripping down and Paul Hesse chose the beauties, a majority of rebuilding the rules on that whom sported shoulder-length, wavy, war- foundation. We dealt with time hairdos. smoking, drinking, drugs, sign

In 1951, Princeton University's Student outs. Dress was one of those Body President Richard W. Murphy was things that was evolutionary,

". charged with the task. He lamented: . .you the changes had already begun have an unusually good-looking crop of girls; to emerge." But SCRAP and my selections have to be made on the clinched the decision to nix basis of pictures and not the girls themselves." dresses as required garb. After three days of poring over photos of 20 Good-bye fish-net hose; hello

Scotties, Murphy chose Mary Beth Robinson bell bottoms! (Stuart) '53 with her tiny pearl choker and Until 1970, shorts and slacks

"Love That Red" lip color, to top the beauties were anathema in Buttrick, the list. "We just wore what other Southern girls galleries of Dana, Agnes Scott Hall (e.xcept to were wearing at the time," says Stuart, who sign in and out of the Dean of Students'

33 REDRESSING THE STUDENT BODY .

office), the library, and in faculty and adminis- from person to person by dress is not easily

trative oftices, classes and science/art labs. For translatable into words." With a single article about halt the students the "mane attraction" of clothing or a piece of jewelry or a tattoo, a was long, straight "Cher" hair—the other half young woman may be propelling herself along rolled and teased their hair into astronaut hel- the road toward her own personal psycho-sexu-

met-like styles. They could only appear in pub- al destiny, hoping along the way to attract

lic en curlers covered with a scarf some interested party. When she dons an off- on Friday night or Saturdays in the white chemise, she may be simultaneously ask-

1.'" lower Evans Dming Hall. "Rolling ing "who am and saying "this is who 1 am."

Nowadays, ban- was definitely an issue peculiar "Beauty is a very personal, outward expres- the advice to Agnes Scott," says Merrick, "and sion of yourself," acknowledges Vitelli, who an issue in the rewiring of the build- emphasizes her looks with a pierced nose. Mary Beth ings because we wanted to have "Attractiveness is power." Many of today's Robinson enough electrical power for dryers authorities would agree. Like Valerie Steele, in Stuart's and electric rollers." her Fashion and Eroticism: "The concept of With the SCRAP landmark deci- beauty is sexual in origin, and the changing mother sions, the dress code itself moved from ideal of beauty apparently reflects shifting atti- sent her away maxi to mini—a single paragraph: "Each stu- tudes toward sexual expression. At the deepest

dent is urge[d] to dress neatly and appropriately level, the meaning of clothing in general and with: "Pretty is as for all occasions. Responsible consideration for fashion in particular is also erotic." pretty does," faculty and staff members, administrative offi- Eros, who according to Bidfinch's Mythology, would probably cials, other students, and tor campus visitors is "issued trom the egg of Night," has always expected." Cutoffs, here we come! "Students lived in the clothes closet. What Eros present- fall on deaf ears. are much more casual now," concludes ed for wearing has depended on who was

Merrick. The student of the '90s, she believes, standing at the closet door and at what time has "other things to worry about—economic she arrived. Vitelli's loose and flowing garb concerns, social issues, what goes on in dating bears a striking resemblance to that ot her situations, career choices, mobility." favorite period of costume—the Italian Choices do make the "clothes thing" seem a Renaissance. "It managed to be breezy and bit insignificant. And trying on a new "look," bohemian but sort of formal."

whether grunge or prep or funk, has got to fit Vitelli and her cohort of Scotties are cut- today's youthful pocketbook already drained by ting their feminine and feminist teeth on such

college costs. So contemporary clothes are not tomes as Backlash and The Beauty Myth, not

just saying the wearers are the picture of con- Dress for Success or The Official Preppy vention or that they hate what mainstream Handbook.

America wears; they're also saying, this outfit Nowadays, the advice that Mary Beth

is pulled together tor $10. Robinson Stuart's mother sent her away with:

Or some may be speaking a very subtle lan- "Pretty is as pretty does," would probably fall guage to a small group of people—perhaps on deaf ears. Either that, or become a tattoo

even one. Explain Joanne B. Eicher and Mary forever etched on her . . . arm.

". Ellen Roach-Higgins in Dress and Gender, .

some of the information that is transmitted

34

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • SUMMER 1994 . ET CETERA

A new garden, outstanding alumnae, Fulhright scholars, culture shock for Japanese, high marks from Princeton Review and other campus news

RENEWING Spring l'-)94 marks the area complete with weather- facing the Alston Campus

THE SECRET restoration, and April 20 proof chairs and tables with Center will be constructed

GARDEN (during Alumnae Weekend umbrellas. Eventually the this summer.

festivities) the dedication furniture deteriorated and As its gift to the College, On a sketch oi the small and renaming of the was discarded and the garden the Class of 1994 has donat- terrace attached to the enchanting and secluded fell into disuse. ed a birdhouse for the Secret

back of the McCain Library Secret Garden. The Class of 1979 reno- Garden.

—Sara Pilger is a quote from John Milton: Designated originally as vated the garden as its gift to director of commimicatii m.s "Beholding the bright coun- the outdoor Reading the College, using the exper- tenance of truth in the quiet Terrace when McCain tise of Charles Bell, TOP and still air of delightful Library opened in father of Glenda ALUMNAE studies." It captures the orig- 1936, the Bell Chastain 79

inal intent of the library and owner of the

architects and the more Atlanta Garden Virginia Milner Carter,

recent hcipe of a generous Center. When Virginia Love

alumna who wished to cre- renovation Dunaway, Susan Elizabeth

ate such a space on campus. was com- Coltrane Lowance and

plete, crape Juliana McKinley Winters

myrtles, were recently named out-

azaleas and hollies standing alumnae by the

adorned the garden, border- Agnes Scott College

ing the walls. Alumnae Association. Both

'40 '55 Fifteen seasons later, the Carter and Lowrance

garden was once more in received awards recognizing

need of attention. A mem- distinguished careers. Carter

ber of the Class of 1944 founded A.L. Williams and

decided to create a secret Company which grew and

garden to help celebrate her merged with Primerica

class's 50th reunion. Financial Services in 1989.

Perennials, wild flowers, Lowance is director of the

flowering trees and spring program for senior execu-

bulbs now decorate the area tives at Massachusetts

with winding borders. Institute of Technology.

A garden seat has been Dunaway '56, founder of

added near the entrance (at the Memphis Food Bank,

the base of the stone steps received the award for dis-

35 —

ET CETERA

as president of the alumnae magician of German legend 1984-85 and France, 1967- LAC courses combined

association and who helped who entered a compact with 77 and 1963-64) and French study with Medieval

establish the ASC the devil. Her research at Priscilla Shepherd Taylor '53 Art as well as Spanish with

"Distinguished Centennial Agnes Scott covered a (London, 1953-54)— Native Peoples of the

Lecturer," received the period from the beginning honored with Fulbrights Americas.

award for distinguished ser- of the Dr. Faustus legend since the scholarships Proposed for the 1994-95

vice to the College. through the 19th century began in 1947- school year are French with

The alumnae association the Fulbright entails research the History of Art II, presented the awards during through the 20th century. LANGUAGE- German with Europe since the Alumnae Weekend in Jenkins, an international ACROSS'THE' 1945 and Spanish with late April. Newly elected relations major/German CURRICULUM Women in Latin America.

officers for the Alumnae minor, will conduct field The goal of LAC is to Association Board of studies, including interviews Any student having enrich the study of various Directors are: Lowrie with Germans from east and completed four semes- disciplines by allowing stu-

Alexander Fraser '56, presi- west Germany regarding the ters of a language may now dents and faculty the oppor-

dent; Vemita Bowden effects of reunification. add to her language skills by tunity to study original texts

Lockhart 76, vice president Jenkins is especially inter- enrolling in Language Across in foreign languages and also

for alumnae advancement; ested in being in Frankfurt, the Curriculum (LAC) study. to exercise language skills

Liz Steele Forman '81, vice the heart of liberal politics in Through the LAC pilot beyond foreign language

president for chapter Europe, during the German in 1992, for example, a stu- classrooms.

advancement. national elections in dent of German enrolled in The program is supported

October, and in observing European history 1914-45 by a three-year, $152,000

FULBRIGHT the impact of the elections could participate in an addi- National Endowment for the SCHOLARS IN on the conservative govern- tional hour of class each Humanities grant. GERMANY ment of German Chancellor week with discussions about Helmut Kohl. the material, conducted m CULTURE Laura Barlament '93 is a Jenkins and Barlament German with authentic SHOCK FOR Fulbright Scholar com- join a number of Agnes German texts. A discipline JAPANESE pleting a study of German Scott alumnae—including faculty member teams up literature at the University Nancy Duvall Hargrove '63 with a language faculty When interviewed in of Constance in late sum- (who has had a total of four member to teach the added the 1994 Kmjo

mer—^Jennifer Jenkins '94 Fulbrights, studying in language component. Gakuin College catalog

will be a Fulbright Scholar Sweden 1992, Belgium Thiis spring semester. about their 1992 exchange

leaving the United States in experience at Agnes Scott, August to conduct field stud- DEPOSITS, RETENTION UP Japanese women noted the ies in European politics in homey atmosphere of ASC

Frankfurt. Admission reports 143 new students have made and the importance of strong

Barlament's Fulbright has deposits by May 30, up from last year (124) and English skills.

allowed her to continue an significantly ahead of two years ago (116). Student Two students, Tomoko

undergraduate project begun retention is also up. Although fewer students are eligible Yokoi and Asako Shimada,

at Agnes Scott, exploring to return in the Fall 1994 compared with 1993, eligible also commented on the

the changing roles of women students who have re-registered is up 4.8 percent. importance of being able to

characters in Dr. Faustus, the hold their own in class dis-

36

AONRS SrOTT mil FOR . SHMMFR igg4 FEEDBACK

studying at Agnes Scott. "If I have just received the the tone of this article, set by

SENIOR you consider studying abroad Winter 1994 issue of the comparing women and men's

CAMPAIGN just an amusing experience magazine and want to com- giving. Doing this highlights

mend you and yotir staff on a man's way of giving and SETS or a way of learning English, continuing to publish a won- devalues a woman's way of RECORD you will be in trouble after derful magazine. giving that is not getting there." Senieirs pledged 1 found always monetary. Kinjo Gakuin is a host $7,700 to Agnes every arti- Women do give institution to Agnes Scott Scott Annual Fund cle interest- generously of Global Awareness students over the next fi\'e years ing, timely their time, their every two years and has regu- representing 59 percent and support- talents and participation, according lar Japanese student and fac- ive of women their knowl- to Molly Dohm, assis- ulty exchange programs with and their con- edge in tant director of the the College. tinued devel- numerous annual fund and coordi- opment and volunteer nator of this year's honoring of projects senior class campaign. HIGH MARKS themselves. which have These pledges surpass FOR ASC I was dis- made this world a better the previous record

turbed, however, by a part of place. ... I would like to high set in 1990 for 46 The Princeton Review: one article, "The Power of have seen the honoring of percent participation The Best 286 Colleges and $6,900. Giving" where it appears to this style and then a pitch to ranked Agnes Scott num- admonish women tor not add the monetary gift as well. ber one for the beauty of

giving more. 1 believe it said I am on my internship cussions. "American students its campus and dormitories, the history between the this year after six years of present their opinion as well number two for professors sexes shows women "divide doctoral education. 1 have

as listen to others. 1 felt this who "bring material to the amount into a number of depleted my savings, 1 am sort of attitude is lacking life" and third for "best small gifts; men give more." not eligible for loans and 1 among the Japanse and this quality of life." ASC ... Unfortunately it is not am grossing $15,000 this year was a culture shock for me," ranked in the top 20 in 14 also stated that women may with no job secured for said Yokoi. categories including fifth give in smaller amounts August at this time. There-

"American students were and tenth, respectively, for because they have less dis- fore, shaming women and certainly more aware of good town and gown rela- cretionary funds available as me into gi\'ing more [money]

result of does two things: giving social matters. They are tions and for smoothness a making 60 percent One, of what men are paid for would rob me of using that strongly interested in politics of its operation. comparable jobs. money for necessary items and economics and they The Princeton Review

While 1 agree with the such as food, education and know well about their coun- surveys 40 independent authors that making a con- small pleasures to nourish my try, culture and society. college counselors and sistent and habitual effort of heart so that 1 could contin- They probably read newspa- rankings from both US giving helps make a dent in ue giving in the ways 1 am pers well," said Shimada. News & World Report and our impoverished world, and able to give right now (see

In a statement conclud- Money magazines, then it I also agree that money is "The Gift" also in the winter ing the interview, Yokoi surveys nearly 40,000 stu- power and women need to issue); and second, it warned prospective Kinjo dents who respond to 61 find ways to alter that m the decreases the satisfaction of exchange students about the categories of questions current market (as Betty what 1 do give.

need to develop strong ranging from academics Freidan's newest book Laurel Allegm Kramer '79

English language skills before to operations. addresses), I disagree with DeSoto, ILL

37 Agnes Scott College HIE. College Ave. Nonprofit Organization Decatur, 30030 GA U.S. Postage PAID Decatur, GA 30030 Permit No. 469

DQNTFORGET AEWE,

April 28-30, 1995

INSIDE THIS ISSUE rJx:-'

The Ruth Schmidt era ends . . . the College charts a new course for the 21st century. Among the certainities

is the need to encourage diversity. And the need to incorporate aesthet- ics—the arts—and athletics into the world of academics: we illustrate that with a report on the new emphasis on dance at ASC. There's also our look 1 at the one ever-changing certainty of r^^ ^\ ^J^ campus life: hemlines and hairdos. And a final note among the issue's final notes: Despite this period of

transition, ASC still ranks among the nation's best educational institutions:

The Princeton Ktvievj lists the Agnes Scott number two for professors who

"bring material to life," number three

.-"* -^i'^ for "quality of life" and number one for beauty of campus and dorms. To a RACHEL BRAUN '96 AND KARA IvIOORE '96 century of Scotties, that's no surprise. NAE MAGAZINE • FALL 1994

^ SOS'.

t. i ^g^r- dmWMm ^He 5!^1b EDITOR'S NOTE fc-T.?.- rtHT:

The signs of academic trust: Agnes Scott's honor code has become the cornerstone of the entire structure of campus life.

''hile chatting with prospec- dent home. I worried about whether she tive students and parents in should have had a second chance." w,Houston about Agnes Scott's Suspension or dismissal is heart-rending non-proctored and self-scheduled for a student who violates the code. exams, take-home tests and general During her years as administrative assis-

atmosphere of trust, associate professor tant to the president, Bond has observed of English Christine Cozzens noted a many anxious parents awaiting an honor

response akin to shock: "Their jaws court verdict. "I have seen a lot dropped. They began to talk about how of tears." their high schools were under siege." While students think unreported Increased cheating, thett and violence academic infractions are rare, the Agnes

in high schools—in Houston and Scott honor code also calls tor its high

around the country—and the moral standard of behavior as a way of life. malaise in higher education today, seem This distinguishes the Agnes Scott

to he focusing public interest on ways to honor system, and is the point at which

wed education with character-building, the system is most vulnerable. Student moral reason, promise-keeping and critics cite everything from unreported, general honesty. underage drinking in residence halls to What contributes to the viability of the nearly 90-year- misdemeanors. "If you leave your Mick's Oreo Cheesecake old Agnes Scott honor code has been analyzed recently by in the refrigerator," explains one, "you have to attach a Todd Robert Holcomb and reported in his case studies of sign, 'Do not eat or you're dead.'" honor systems at six institutions (Agnes Scott, The To underline community commitment to the honor

Citadel, Davidson, Longwood, the University of Virginia code, this fall the Class of 1998 signed their copy during and Vanderbilt). Holcomb notes good success at both The orientation in a ceremony attended by parents. In a gesture Citadel and Agnes Scott. He cites student-to-faculty ratio of support. Interim President Sally Mahoney added her sig- (8-1), students housed on campus, and institutional/ nature. While the honor code does not create a perfect

student support of the code as contributing factors here. world, Mahoney later reasoned, it "creates an environment Perhaps more central to the issue, through the years of support for that aspiration."

Agnes Scott has purposefully built the honor code into its In her honor court convocation address in late

academic life. This is not something that occurs with the September, Agnes Scott Chaplain Paige McRight '68 reit- "wave of a wand," insists a long-time staff member. erated the value of the College honor system in a world

Applicants sign the code as part of the admission process. crying for relationships ot trust. As example she noted the

As a class, first-year students sign a parchment copy of the recent transfer of power in Haiti. "The U.S. 82nd

code that is later posted in Buttrick Hall. Each student Airborne is in Haiti holding the military accountable to

writes and signs the pledge on each paper or exam for live out its pledge, but holding off an armed conflict which she receives credit. The honor code, according to because the pledge that has been given. A system of honor,

the student handbook, is the cornerstone of the entire a community built on trust, is always a mixed bag, a fragile

structure of Agnes Scott life. creature dependent on the keeping of promises. Such a

Peer influence is the other key. It is students who over- community, I believe, is the environment that best pro-

see the honor system, from reporting code violations to motes life and growth for individuals and tor the world. At

making subsequent investigations, to meting out discipline Agnes Scott, we have a system for learning how to make it

which is "pretty amazing, if you think about it," says Bertie happen and as we are shaped by that system in our years Bond '53. As a student she served on the executive com- here, we become people equipped to share that system as a

mittee in a function parallel to today's student member of way of life."

honor court. She knows it is a tough, soul-searching process. "I vividly remember my first case involving a stu- ^-^^ dent who was caught cheating. We voted to send the stu- . CONTENTS

Agnes Scott College Alumnae Magazine

Fall 1994 Volume 71 , Number 2

DEPARTMENTS 7 2

The Science of Life Lifestyle By John Pilger and Christine Cozzens 34 In retrospect, the life and legacy of distinguished ASC professor/scientist: Mary Stuart MacDougall. On Campus 35 SEXUAL HARASSMENT, AND IT ISN'T Classic A 30KE 37

Stopping the Nightmare Et Cetera By Jane Zanca Illustrations by Mac Evans il

Sexual harassment is fact of life—for many women entering Feedback

the ii'oric force. But, say ASC experts, there are ways ii'omen Editor: Celeste Pennington can handle sexual advances with dignity and coolness. Contributing Editor: Mary Alma Durrett Editorial Assistant: Audrey Arthur Design: Everett Hullum and Harold Waller Cultural Immersion Student Assistants: Rolanda Daniel '98 By Celeste Pennington Jennifer Odom '98 Photos by Paul Obregon Leigh Anne Russell '97 Samantha Stavely '97 Two alumnae form the core of an artists colony Ashley Wright '96 working and living on a shoestring in Mexico. Photo Archivist: Willa Hendnckson '94

Publications Advisory Board: Christine Cozzens Bill Galley Ellen Fort Grissett '77 Hire Education Sandi Harsh '95 Tish McCutchen '73 By Mary Alma Durrett Kay Parkerson O'Briant '70 Photos by Gary Meek and Mar>' Alma Durrett Emily Pender '95 ASC's Office of Career Planning arid Counseling helps Sara Pilger graduates make the transition into "the real world." Edmund Sheehey Lucia Howard Sizemore '65

Copyright © 1994, Agnes Scott College. Published for alumnae and friends twice a year by the Oflice of Publications, Agnes Score College, Buttrick Hall, 141 E. College Avenue, Decatur, GA 30030, (404) 638-6315. Postmaster: COVER: Mar>- Jordan '94, a TV Fifty Send address changes to Office of reporter in Dothan, Ala., found Years Ago-A Remembrance Development and Public .affairs, hard work, preparation and time- Agnes Scott College, Decatur, GA By Marybeth Little Weston Lohdell 30030. The content of the magazine ly tips from ASC's career coun- In century, lot has changed at Scott College, reflecrs the opinions ot the writers selors helped her land the job half a a Agnes just and not rhe viewpomt of the College,

she wanted. PHOTO BY GARY MEEK but the basics have remained the same. its trustees or administration. LIFESTYLE

A true kids' teacher, the molecular structure of patents, caring for the people of other cultures and a job that puts out fires—literally.

THE DANCE language devel- OF LEARNING opment and

perception of

School Teacher surroundings. Ellen Grmmm '62 Granum, who

Inspired hy music she was has taught in

playing for her class both settings,

from the "Sleeping admits that

Beaut^'" ballet, elementary teaching in a

school teacher Ellen private

Granum '62 began twirling school does

around the room like a not insulate

ballerina. In the midst of her from

the dance, she says, "One problems like child Elementai-y school teacher shy little girl got out of her neglect. "Parents, out of Ellen Granum: A mission to seat, pulled on my skirt, Granum arrived, a "young ignorance of what young reclaim the soul of teaching. looked up at me and said, idealist, full of energy and children need, abandon

'Is you a child?' wanting to change things." school. Students include them to nannies and au

"The music makes me Later, stimulated by the children of diplomats, pairs. It's very sad.

want to dance," said issue of the "culturally congressmen and women, Children become neglect-

Granum. "So we all began deprived child," Granum corporate executives, doc- ed in a situation where

to dance like ballerinas. I earned a master's degree at tors and lawyers. Tuition you would not expect it."

loved opening the chil- Bank Street College of ranges from $8,000 to In the classroom, these

dren's eyes and their expe- Education in New York, $10,000 annually. Each students often seem more

riences to a dilferent per- highly regarded for its year, only 20 percent of needy and demanding. "A

ception of adults and the innovative and creative those who apply are child will be half asleep,

world around them." approaches to teaching. accepted. It is a competi- because their routines are

Granum's strategy For the last seven years, tive situation, she admits. unsuper\''ised," says

hasn't changed much since Granum has taught at the "Psirents get ver^' uptight Granum. "Or a child will

the mid-'60s, when she National Presbyterian about it. They think if come to school perennial-

began teaching the chil- School, a small, Washing- their children go to a cer- ly late, because the parent

dren at Center Hill ton, D.C., school that tain school, they'll be is rushing and wants to

Elementary School, the enrolls 200 children in fixed for life." drop the child on the way

first integrated school in nursery through grade six. Students are screened to work."

Atlanta. TTiere, changes in Situated in a low stone primarily during a 45- On this particular day,

the school system and in building on Nebraska minute session of interac- rays of light filter through

the neighborhood weren't Avenue across from the tion with other children. a rain forest canopy as

easy adjustments for any of Japanese embassy, National Teachers and administra- kindergartners reach

the teaching staff. But Presbyterian is a private tors observe a child's toward the huge tree in

2 I — 7

LIFESTYLE

the center of the classroom. an ocean realm, hanging A PATENTED searches to "see if the Vines, gigantic leaves, paper streamers from the CAREER invention has been flowers and parrots cover ceiling so that the child described by others" and Molecular biophysicist the ceiling. Butterflies moving through the room ultimately, her judgment of Jasemine Chambers 77 dance in the mist while the felt like a swimmer. Huge the validity of each patent peculiar music ot chatter- sea creatures hung from For more than a decade, application claim. (A ing monkeys mingles with the walls and ceiling. The molecular biophysicist patent grants exclusive

the notes of songbirds. The children dissected a real Jasemine Choy Chambers rights for a period of 1 children focus their atten- squid and wrote their '77 worked in laboratories years which excludes others tion on a 6-foot hoa con- names from the "ink of the from EXike University to from making, using or sell- strictor (made of felt and squid" and sang songs the National Institutes of ing a drug or invention stuffed with tissue) that about the ocean. Health, cloning antigens without permission or

Granum twists around the "I love building on the linked with auto-immune licensing agreements.) limbs of the tree. excitement of something diseases and identifying "It's very interesting

"Teaching is as much the children are interested genes that could one day work because 1 get to look theatre as it is training," in," she explains. "To see a revolutionize medicine and at the scientific data before says Granum who has child's eyes sparkle, and drug development. Part of it's published," explains taught early childhood edu- know the children are her research involved Chambers. "1 get to read cation for 1 7 years. "I've really excited about some- cloning genes from strands about science at the often felt that I was as thing, is very rewarding, of DNA in an effort to find cutting edge." much an actress as very rewarding." clues to diseases such as Chambers specializes in a teacher." Recently, Granum, 53, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's patents involving transgenic

A nurturing, imagina- has taken a sabbatical. "It's and multiple sclerosis. animals. Recently she tive woman, Granum very tiring at my age In 1989, Chambers left approved patents to creates a place where chil- bending over little tables," her laboratory work for a Harvard University tor a dren feel confident and free she admits. "Buttoning, post as a patent examiner "mouse that's a model for to learn. "You make it a zipping and picking up, for the U.S. Patent and studying prostate cancer, place that children want to and teaching the children Trademark office in and to NIH for a rabbit be. You want them to to do it as well. As much Arlington, Va. Discoveries infected with HIV, useful in come in and say, 'WOW! as 1 love kindergartners, 1 in gene sequencing and monitoring and developing " What's this?' don't have the energy molecular biophysics during a treatment for AIDS."

Children respond to anymore." the 1980s had fueled phe- Five years ago, when having their environment She serves on a com- nomenal growth in the Chambers began at the turned into the place mittee to determine admis- number of biotech firnis patent office, she was you're trying to teach," sion for the following year, seeking new ways to halt among 45 scientists special-

Granum explains. "The judges science fairs, and on deadly or debilitating dis- izing in biotechnology. way you project the infor- occasion substitutes in one eases and a "gold rush" Today, with the flood mation and present it, is as of several private acade- among major drug compa- of patent applications important as the informa- mies. It's just one more nies seeking exclusive rights steadily rising, her division tion itself You want to way for Granum to ensure to their discoveries. has grown to include capture the child's imagi- involvement in her Weekly, Chambers 175 examiners in a nation and interest." passion of education. reviews an average of 6 to patent office employing

When teaching about —Carolyn Blunk is a freelance 10 patent applications. Her 1,500 examiners. marine life, Granum created writer in the Boston area. job includes literature Zarolyn Blunk

LlFESTlTE LIFESTYLE

FLICKERING KATHY DOHERIY PHOTO IMAGES

CARE'S Kathy Doherty '67

Climbing among the volcanic shards out-

side Goma, Zaire, Kathy

Reynolds Doherty '67, pub-

lic relations manager for

CARE, came across the

peaceful form of a child. It

took a few moments for

her to reconcile her first

impression that he was

sleeping, with the reality. Scenes of starvation and deprivation are common for ASC alurmuie Kathy Doherty (below, right) Once again she was staring with Country Director for CARE Somalia, David Neff. Doherty travels the globe for the

international hunger relief agency CARE. into the face of death.

"Tliis was a healthy helping those who escaped sharply rising cloud-cov- "Camera generators, high

looking boy, about to civil war-torn Rwanda. ered peaks juxtaposed with tech equipment on one bloom into adulthood," she (Earlier, in May she was the river of displaced and side—people scrounging reflects. "It broke my heart with 330,000 Rwandans dying people. She found for firewood on the other."

to see he was not alive. I who had fled their country frail, orphaned babies Much of Doherty's

stood there awhile, just to to neighboring Tanzania, "that looked like ancient work is at these intersec-

be certain." in the largest refugee camp people," tents crowded tions, helping members of

It was the "casualness of in the world.) with cholera patients and the international media

death" that struck Doherty Among images still a road leading north report on crises among the

in July during her second moving through her mind toward Uganda, "bodies 53 countries where CARE

trip to African refugee are Zaire's dazzling land- piled up along the side." is already at work. From

camps where CARE is scapes with grassy hills and Temporary camps of care's national head-

JAMES MITCHEU PHOTO, ABC Rwandans dressed in rags quarters in Atlanta, she

and "dying, right and left" also trains CARE workers

she contrasted with a "city in media relations and

of satellite dishes" quickly coordinates coverages.

set up at the airport where Relationship-building is

hundreds of writers, pho- how she describes the

tographers and camera work which may include

crews from the major U.S. lining up an interview for

and international networks the BBC one moment,

and news services had con- answering questions for

verged to gather and trans- Reuters Ltd., news service

mit their reports. "It was or providing leads to The

an intersection of two cul- New York Times or mem-

tures," says Doherty. bers of the media in

Ai~;vicc cr'i-^TT r^t-\i i cr'-C m ta LIFESTYLE

Europe, Canada or Africa. food, health care and SOME LIKE Scott experience e\en

Her first overseas expe- equipment." For instance, IT HOT more meaningful for her rience with CARE was in in Haiti, CARE feeds fellow students." Firefighter Adele Somalia, December 1993. 660,000 people, six days Four months later, in Clements '88 Her job was to accompany a week, regardless of who September, Clements

CBS's John McWethy as happens to be in power. After driving all night found herself in a world he worked on a piece deal- "The U. S. State Depart- from Florida, Adele starkly different from the ing with United Nations ment evacuated all depen- Clements '88 remembers one she had left at peacekeeping. They flew dents in Haiti, but CARE much of her Agnes Scott College. As a new fire- to projects in Somalia and doesn't evacuate. When College graduation cere- fighter for the City of

Mozambique where CARE things get rough, we keep mony as a blur. She had to Decatur, working out of a provides food security and doing what we are doing." be nudged by a friend when firehouse across the street is retraining soldiers for Doherty, the daughter her name v\as announced from her alma mater, other work. of a minister, majored in for the Suzanne Goodman Clements found those

Sometimes Doherty can English at Agnes Scott, Elson Award for 1988. In qualities of character track the results of their took some journalism disbelief she made her way recognized by her peers work, as in Somalia. courses at Georgia State, to the stage amid cheering being put to the test.

"CARE was instrumental then turned a varied career and a shower of cham- While fire fighting school in bringing pictures of the (newspaper experience in pagne. Her peers had voted had prepared Clements for victims of the famine to the '80s, press secretary in her undergraduate who the physical rigors, she still the United States. That three political campaigns reflects "those qualities of shudders as she describes resulted in an outpouring and later work with kindness, decency and her first day at of aid," notes Doherty. international contacts integrity work: the

"Once 220 were dying in for Ketchum Public scotching sum-

Somalia every day. That Relations, organizing mer afternoon number dropped to the Ramses II exhibit when she

20, once Americans for the Mint Museum in walked into responded. Charlotte, N. C.) into a

"Americans" Doherty job that she says "feeds says, "made a difference." my soul."

CARE has been mak- The need she encoun- ing a difference since ters through her work can

1946, and Doherty will be haunting. help bring focus to the Like the two children, celebration of the maybe aged five and six, organization's 50th year she saw waiting alongside which com celebration. a road in Zaire: "I drove bined with

"We started with small back and forth along this an unusu-

CARE packages after road, three times. Each al intel-

World War 11," says time I found these two lit- lectual

Doherty. "Today CARE is tle children just sitting. curiosity big and its 'packages' are in Not knowing what to do. on her the form of emergency Totally alone." part would relief with huge supplies of —Celeste Pennington make the Agnes Scott —

LIFESTYLE

discover the body of a dead must be a leftist feminist, was that if she had been a open to respecting other

woman. The odor and they wanted to see man "they would not have people's ideas and values.

"I could not get out of my how far they could push pampered me so much." She also looks back with

system for days," says me." Commander Stills After six years, Clements a sense of nostalgia.

Clements. "It really did acknowledges that has seen some change in Although she studied

affect me. ... I was very Clements had to tough it attitudes and acceptance as racism and world hunger

saddened that this woman out with the men. She part of the team. For one, and was involved in com-

was discovered because of slept in the same barrack- the department has finally munity-based projects like

the stench and not because like dorm rooms. She com- banned the girlie magazines Habitat for Humanity,

anyone missed her." The plained about the "girlie from the fire house. And as a student, Clements

same day after dinner, magazines" left around the while some co-workers still remained unaware of those

Clements found herself in station and she has stood hold the belief that a fire who lived just blocks from

the middle of a shoot-out her ground when some sug- station is no place for a campus. "At ASC we

in the south side projects. gested that women might woman, says Clements with never saw the worst of

While competently han- be better suited to secretar- a shrug, "We agree to dis- society—the poverty and

dling the situation—the ial tasks or kitchen duties. agree. That's one of the hopelessness that can

nervous, excited crowd, the Stills compares working most important things I lead kids to shoot each

hysterical mother, the out the new relationships learned at ASC—not to other over a pair of

wounded teenage son, among fire personnel to blur the lines of difference, basketball shoes." bullets flying up the hill learning— to relate as sib- but to respect and learn She has lost some of Clements had only one lings "there are differ- from them. We all don't the idealisrn of her student

other thought: that ences, but they get along." have to be alike to get years. "ASC encouraged

"this was not in my job Getting along is neces- along. We can learn from me to make a difference,

description." sary to the teamwork everyone to make ourselves but this job has taught me

As the second woman required to fight fires. better." just how difficult it can be

to work at the Decatur Fire Clements vividly recalls While working full time, to do so."

Department, Clements her first fire assignment at Clements has one contin- Yet that occasion for

discovered that many a construction site burning ued her education—she making a difference sus-

challenges were just as in the middle of the night. has one master's degree tains her: "Out of every ten

unexpected. After the fire was extin- and is currently working rescue calls we get—nine

While she knew that guished, the crew was over- on a second. might be nothing, but then

rookies go through a rite of hauling, checking for She looks back at her there is that one person,

passage with some initial remaining hot spots, when ASC education and experi- one family, that needs and

harassment, throughout her an eight-foot wall col- ences as favorably shaping appreciates our help."

training she had the confi- lapsed on Clements. She her identity as a woman, When asked why she

dence of her commander. suffered no injuries but had providing many strong role ever picked this job, she

Bob Stills. Yet Clements to be pulled out. Her peers models and encouraging laughs and says, "They pay

soon learned that few of seemed surprised that she her independence and me to climb roofs! Can you

the firemen shared his con- was ready to go right back sense of self. believe it? That's what got

fidence. "They were skepti- to overhauling—some Clements believes that me into the most trouble

cal," she admits, then says seemed more shaken by the college atmosphere, at ASC."

with a smile, "They also the incident than she was vibrant with debate, not —Monika hlikore is a

thought that if I came from and took her back to the only made her fearless to freelance writer/

'that woman's college,' I truck to rest. Her feeling voice her opinions but also photographer in Atlanta

AnMCQ QnnTT r^ni i cnc • d; r iqqa — THE SCIENCE OF LIFE

By John F. Pilger and Christine S. Cozzens

work on her dissertation at ery to her research and to her teaching at ASC biology the Marine Biological Agnes Scott, where she was a member ot professor Mary AtLaboratory' at Woods Hole, the faculty and chair of the biology depart- Mass., in December of 1922, ment from 1919 to 1952. With two doctor- MacDougall the young biologist Mary' ates, a Guggenheim Fellowship, 14 pub- challenged the Stuart MacDougall feared she had reached a lished papers, significant contributions to assumption that dead end. The problems suggested by her malaria research and a major textbook to dissertation director at Columbia University her credit during those years, she also the study of had already been solved, and even her cul- defended the value of science at a time science held only tures of protozoa—microscopic, single-celled when the humanities dominated the liberal practical value and life forms—had died. Accepting what arts curriculum. appeared to be her fate, she wrote President MacDougall challenged the assumption that it was devoid Frank Gaines to say that she simply that the study of science held only of cultural worth. could not do research and practical value and that it was Her legacy endures would be back to resume devoid ot cultural worth: her teaching duties at 'the highest service ot at Agnes Scott. Agnes Scott College Science to mankind in February. has been in the While packing emancipation of to leave the the mind, in MBL, freeing men MacDougall from the rediscovered bondage of her micro- superstition, scope slides of and in help- abnormal pro- ing man to tozoan cultures know himself. that she had The message almost discarded of science has months before. ever been the Now armed with a message of intel- better understanding ectual enlighten- of genetics and cell ment and liberty biology gained through To know the truth, courses taken at the MBL, she and the truth shall make looked at the slides once again and you free.'" noticed something new. By morning, a tri- For MacDougall, the study of science umphant MacDougall had outlined her dis- underlay all great intellectual achievement: sertation on chromosome behavior in proto- "Science has so enlarged the mental hori- zoa. From this moment, the words of Louis zon," she wrote, "that the imagination may Pasteur, "Fortune favors the prepared mind," take a bolder flight." That soaring imagina- would drive her research and provide mean- tion made faith possible: "The mystery of ing for her teaching. life means more to the biologist than any- Mary Stuart MacDougall brought a com- one else—that marvel of a bit of proto- prehensive scientific imagination, intellec- plasm, a single celled animal, self-sustaining, tual rigor and a sense of the thrill of discov- repairing and perpetuating, presents a sub-

THE SCIENCE OF LIFE BUT FOR A TWIST OF FATE, MACDOUGALL MIGHT HAVE BEEN A HISTORY MAJOR. BECAUSE OF HER MORNING JOB, SHE RECALLED, "l COULD ONLY TAKE THE SCIENCE COURSES SCHEDULE IN THE AFTERNOON."

ject for wonderment beside which the seven try', and MacDougall's commitment to wonders of the world are foolishness." research suited this vision. Bom in 1882 in Laurinhurg, N.C., A permanent job with demanding MacDougall lost both parents when she was teaching responsibilities only increased a teenager, and to help support younger MacDougall's desire for further education. brothers and sisters, worked as secretary for The MBL, where she completed her disser- a local civic leader who encouraged her to tation research, had been founded in part to attend college at North Carolina College for educate women in science. The presence of Women and later at Randolph-Macon so many other women scientists in courses Woman's College. An and laboratories must have inspired young M.A. from the University researchers like MacDougall, who regularly of Chicago and several brought Agnes Scott students with her teaching positions pre- when, summer after summer, she returned pared the young scholar to Woods Hole to teach and carry out for the duties she would her research. take up at Agnes Scott. Beginning with her dissertation, According to Margaret MacDougall investigated the cell biology of W. Rossiter's Women the protozoan, Chilodon Uncinatus Strand

Scientists in America, 1926 (protozoa whose locomotion is mediat-

until the 1950s women's ed by cilia or hair-like appendages). Autographed copies colleges—with their surprisingly Although she performed basic studies on of classic biology texts substantial endowments, their "almost the cultures and morphology' of subcellular and a microscope are feminist commitment to excellence in wom- structures, her more important contribution among the items in Agnes en's higher education," and their enthusias- was a description of chromosome behavior Scott's MacDougall collection. tic students—were the primary employers of during maturation. MacDougall was the first (Art Lassek Photos) women in science. Agnes Scott was deter- to induce sustained mutations in protozoan mined to prepare students for the best grad- cultures (1929) using ultraviolet (UV) radi- uate and professional programs in the coun- ation. Today, we hear often of the power ot

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • FALL 1994 MACDOUGALL CONSIDERED THE WORLD-FAMOUS CELL BIOLOGIST DR. E.B. WILSON, WHOM SHE MET WHILE DOING GR^ADUATE WORK AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, TO BE "HER GREATEST TEACHER."

UV light in sunburn indices, SPF numbers evening's tour of some of the better known MacDougall's on sunscreens, and precautions to reduce spots under my guidance. ... I had feared explorations in the risk of cancer. that Dr. MacDougall might disapprove of Europe in the early what we would encounter; instead, she Though relatively new in this country, enjoyed the evening immensely and could 1930s captured her protozoology was already well not have been less abashed. Her most mem- imagination and entrenched in Europe, and the labo- orable reaction came after surveying with influenced her ratories of several prominent scientists were objective detachment a group of well- within MacDougall's reach for study, if only endowed young women posing in their science for years she could get there. In 1931, she won one of full epidermal glory: 'Humph, I've seen to come. the first Guggenheim Fellowships in science lots prettier girls in the swimming poo awarded to women—a group that included at Agnes Scott College.'" Nobel laureate Barbara McClintock—which During her European sojourn, took MacDougall to the Kaiser Wilhelm MacDougall went as far as the Soviet Institut fur Biologie in Berlin. The allure of Union. On another occasion, her the great city and the welcome she received sense of adventure took her to a at many laboratories and marine stations of rally where Hitler spoke. She com- Europe captured her imagination and influ- mented that he sounded like "one of enced her science for years to come. those queer radio evangelists." In his popular book. Of Scientists and In 1936, MacDougall earned a Salamanders, Stanford University biologist Science Docteur at the Universite de Victor Twitty remembered meeting Montpelier—complete with a dissertation MacDougall in Berlin: in French—and became one of the few

"Professor Mary Stuart MacDougall . .. women of that era to hold two doctoral complained to me one day that as £in degrees. But Agnes Scott students remem- unescorted woman she was unable to bered Miss Mac, as she was affectionately explore Berlin's celebrated nightlife, and known, as much more than an accom- frankly proposed that she subsidize an plished researcher. In the labs of Lowry Hall

THE SCIENCE OF LIFE MACDOUGALL MET DR. ROBERT HEGNER AT THE COLD SPRING HARBOR LABORATORY AND TAUGHT WITH HIM IN THE MEDICAL ZOOLOGY COURSE AT JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY. THIS ASSOCIATION LED TO THE CO-AUTHORSHIP OF THEIR TEXTBOOK, BIOLOGY: THE SCIENCE OF LIFE.

or on the sunny porch of her home at Impatient with people who didn't value Ansley Cottage—where she grew begonias, the life of the mind as she did and some- cyclamen and "everything from holly to thing of an autocrat, MacDougall could Microscope accessories box hawthorn"— MacDougall loved to tell sto- be intimidating. A student who had strug- with condenser lens, below, ries of the scientists she had known. "She gled through an embryology course remem- and box of microscope stage made it sound like it might be fun to be a bered Miss Mac saying, "You will never be a components, right. biologist," recalled Betty Fountain Edwards great scientist—the only thing you can do

Gray '35. for Agnes Scott is marry a wealthy man and

As if to rouse her students' curiosity, she leave the money to Agnes Scott for a new put her own research table in the teaching science building." In the letter describing laboratory; years later, students who went this incident, the student apologized to her on to careers in science wrote of her inspir- former teacher for falling short of her expec- ing example. tations once again by marrying "an average Though she filled her weekdays with income dermatologist." teaching and her weekends with research, At academic processions, the five-foot

MacDougall would regularly invite eight-inch tall MacDougall "cut quite a fig- colleagues to listen to her fine col- ure" in her crimson and ermine European-

lection of classical recordings in her style regalia. She had adversaries on cam- book-lined rooms at Ansley pus—including the equally formidable Cottage. Her essays and speeches English professor Emma May Laney. As one sparkled with quotations from poets and colleague reported, when Miss Mac wanted philosophers, some of which she read in the something to go her way, "she would simply original French or German. She collected write a letter to the president of the college rare editions of fairy tales, and according to and the thing would be done." Margaret Bland Sewell '20, "while urging on A complex woman who set high stan-

pupils an increasing interest in amoebae .. . dards for herself and others. Miss Mac influ- took time out to read my poems and to enced generations of Agnes Scott students. encourage me in continuing to write." Eleanor Newman Hutchens '40 recalled.

10 AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • FALL 1994 MACDOUGALL WORKED IN THE LABORATORY OF DR. MAX HARTMANN WHILE AT THE KAISER WILHELM INSTITUTE IN 1932. THERE SHE LEARNED VALUABLE PROTOZOAN CULTURE TECHNIQUES. THE SCIENTISTS AT THE INSTITUTE SCATTERED WHEN HILTLER CAME TO POWER.

"She was a highly unusual personality: con- of Southeastern Biologists. A woman of "She was a stantly annoyed by small things . . . chroni- such intellectual stature and reputation highly unusual cally indignant about larger ones, and yet must have posed something of a puzzle to personality: sociable and on the whole good-natured." the male college presidents and educators Alluding to the two sisters mentioned in the who chose her for the honor. constantly Bible, MacDougall said of herself, "My name Spurred on by the increased need for annoyed by small is Mary but it should have been Martha, trained medical personnel during the war, in

things ... chroni- for I am careful and troubled about 1943 MacDougall published her celebrated many things." college-level textbook. Biology: The Science cally indignant MacDougall finally achieved the broad of Life, though her co-author Robert Hegner about larger ones, recognition that her contributions had so died while the hook was in final draft, leav- and yet sociable long deserved. In 1943, The Atlanta journal ing her to finish it. An immediate success, honored her with their Woman of the Year the book was adopted by more than 90 and on the whole in Education award. Miss Mac created a institutions. Balancing taxonomic survey good-natured." lasting memento of this honor by rooting with founding biological principles, the text the sprigs entwined in her celebratory cor- also included chapter-opening quota- sage. Descendants of those plants still thrive tions that reaffirm the link between in the gardens of her friends and near the the humanities and science. main entrance to Campbell Hall. The nominating letter for this award uring the war, described her as "modest and unassuming, MacDougall with a quiet determination ... a very quiet Dreturned to lady who never seeks publicity." Colleagues, research on malaria as a students and friends who knew Miss Mac government consultant. tell instead of a proud woman who relished Because of her earlier recognition of her accomplishments and of experience, she was assigned the her leadership within the faculty and profes- task of describing the life history of sional organizations such as the Association two prominent malarial forms. Her studies

11 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE made valuable contributions to the epidemi- the new building with the latest in labora- ology of the disease at a time when tory facilities finally took place in 1951, just One student of American forces were fighting in malaria- one year before Miss Mac retired. MacDougall wrote infested areas of the world. Upon her retirement, former students and colleagues wrote of her influence and years later: "Your For years, MacDougall had planned the example. "I have long since forgotten the making us dig out new science building that Agnes Scott facts learned in courses taken at Scott,"

intended to build when peace came. In wrote Louise Capen Baker '27, "but 1 think the facts for our- the late 1940s when that project was finally your making us dig out the facts for our- selves in lab has under way, she would haunt the building selves in lab has been invaluable training for been invaluable site, notebook in hand. "Campbell Hall was work in adult life." Letters from colleagues her dream," recalled Professor Emerita thanked MacDougall for friendships that training for work Jo Bridgman '27: "She put a lot of pressure on had lasted many years. President McCain in adult life." the architects to get things the way she told her, "1 am very grateful for your friend-

thought they should be." The dedication of ship. . . . No one in my long years has

THE LEAP INTO SCIENCE Science study/research remains an ASC priority

By Mary L. Lee

GARY MEEK PHOTO When Theresa Hoenes '94 enrolled at Agnes Scott College four years ago, one thing was certain: she would major in French. Yet today she wears a

white lab coat and works at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. "This sort of job was the furthest thing from my mind," says Hoenes who graduated last May with a bachelor of arts in biology. Now she's engaged in AIDS research at the CDC, with the formidable task of doing DNA sequencing on HIV-1, the virus that causes AIDS. She and other researchers are looking back at case studies on the transmission of

the virus, trying to determine how it

evolved and how it entered this country. Although she never intended to make the leap into science, Hoenes was influ- enced by the quality of courses offered at Agnes Scott and by faculty who encouraged her. She says she almost couldn't help her-

self after the first biology course with Associate Professor of Biology Harry Wistrand, who has been with Agnes Scott

for 20 years. "1 loved it, so I thought, I'll just

take the next course to see how it is," she

says. "I did really well, so that made me Alumnae like Theresa Hoenes, an AIDS

decide to stick with it." researcher at the CDC in Atlanta, are spiritual One of the youngest professional staff descendants of Professor Mary MacDougall.

12

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • FALL 1994 shown more real devotion to [the College's] housewives, and poets—scattered across the high standards or worked more earnestly for country and around the world. When Miss them." In a revealing comment to her long- Mac died in 1972, she was buried in Laurin- time adversary, Emma May Laney wrote, "1 burg in the crimson regalia remembered by am full of admiration at your achievement, so many generations of ASC students. and realize fully how much you will he In 1936 MacDougall wrote, "Science

missed at Agnes Scott. Giants like you ... increases the richness and resources of the are not often found among the women inner life, it offers ballast, making tor steadi- of a faculty." ness and poise and broad sympathy." Mary

A fall in 1949 had left MacDougall with Stuart MacDougall had all ot these gifts and a badly broken hip, and during her last generously shared them during the course of years, though she was not as active as she a life of science. had been, friends remember her as cheerful —John Pilger is associate professor ami chair and alert. She continued to exchange letters of biology and Christina Cozzens is with students—scientists, missionaries. associate professor of English.

ASC's Theresa Hoenes didn't members at the CDC, Hoenes, 22, found to do with her life. She was paying atten- she was well-prepared for the transition tion when Rees delivered her favorite mes- plan to become the college lab to the high tech sage in the human origins course: Young from CDC a scientist. Her environment. And those at the CDC have women don't have to go on feeling alienat- interest was told her so. ed from science. "She has very good basic training from Hoenes became interested in the study of developed by her undergraduate courses," says Chi-Cheng plants because professor of biology Sandra Agnes Scott's Luo, a molecular environmentalist and one Bowden was. quality faculty of Hoenes' supervisors. Her background, he And of course, Hoenes credits Wistrand says, is more solid than that of most young with capturing her interest during that first and courses. people with whom he has worked. biology class. He teaches students how to Faculty members credit Hoenes for her learn and encourages them to ask questions. success. Both Wistrand and Martha W. By the time students take Wistrand's molec-

Rees, assistant professor of anthropology, ular genetics, the emphasis is on indepen- describe her as dedicated and enterprising. dent thinking and collegial and collabora- Wistrand regarded her accomplishment so tive problem solving. Even the lab manual highly that he enlisted her as his research he uses in that course emphasizes the impor- assistant in molecular biology, localizing tance of creative thought. It departs from genes on chromosomes of several different the traditional "cookbook" approach, kinds of fruit flies. which tells students what to do at each step.

Hoenes attributes her good progress to Instead, it is a manual of lab techniques that the quality of faculty at Agnes Scott and to can be put into practice, an approach that the opportunities for lab work, intriguing encourages students to think for themselves research and close contact with professors rather than merely follow cut-and-dried who were ready to listen and advise. procedure.

"I would talk to professors about what Already, Hoenes has turned that training they thought, how they got to where they in creative thinking to her advantage at the were," she says. "Professors have so much CDC as she has figured out how to run a more knowledge than what you see in the sequencing and purification machine that clcissroom. Going to them and talking is so nobody else had time or inclination to much better than staring at a textbook." master. Now Hoenes is setting it up so it One person she would talk to was Rees. can be used in research.

Although her main field is anthropology, Characteristically modest about any Rees had emphasized the convergence of achievements in school or out, Hoenes says, biology and anthropology in her classes and "Agnes Scott provided the opportunity. 1

that interested Hoenes in conversations just took advantage of it."

after hours. Hoenes also credits Rees with —Mary L. Lee is a freelance helping her focus on what she really wanted uniter living in Atlanta

13 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE STOPPING THE NIGHTMARE

Sexual harassment has become altogether too common in the workplace, as ASC graduates are discovering.

The College is taking steps to help.

By Jane A. Zanca Illustrations by Mac Evans

the middle ot August, you're 22, It'sfresh out of Agnes Scott College, and you're winding up the first week on

your first real job. Your boss is smiling.

Here it comes, the "well done!" you've

been earning all week. He leans over, cups your face in his hands, and kisses you right on the mouth. You wake up screaming. Just another pre-graduation nightmare?

Maybe. The fact is that nearly a third of all

sexual harassment is targeted at women 18 to 24 years ot age. And in a straw poll of 14 alumnae who were selected by specified career and location from the Agnes Scott

College directory, it became clear that sexu-

al harassment has happened to Agnes Scott women in many settings. Only four said they had never experienced or observed sexual harassment. For recent graduates, identification of

harassment is vital, according to Amy Schmidt, director of the Office of Career

Planning and Counseling. "During the first year or so, they might have difficulty decid-

ing whether what they're experiencing is sexual harassment or not." To help clarify the problem and some strategies for putting

a stop to it, Schmidt produces a senior-year "Last Five Weeks Program" at Agnes Scott that includes guest lectures on office politics and sexual harassment in graduate school and career settings. By definition, harassment involves unwelcome sexual advances, verbal or physi- cal (see box, page 15) and extends to con- duct that creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment.

_14 AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • FAIL 1994 Since Anita Hill accused then-Supreme WHAT STME BIG DEAL, Court candidate Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment, the issue has sharply focused. CAN'T YOU A Wellesley College Center for Research TAKE JOKE? on Women has a Sexual Harassment in Schools Project headed hy Nan Stein. She has received complaints of sexual harass- ment among adolescents in inner city-urhan and rich suburban schools.

/*Sif'*^^'^'''?'*-*^*-v5PiP( Public outrage was clearly expressed in a California jury's recent award of $7.1 mil- lion in punitive damages to a former law

secretary who experienced repeated inci- dents of sexual harassment during her three- months employment in the world's largest law firm, Baker & McKenzie. From day to day, women ponder how they, their co-workers or their daughters should deal with harassment.

Martha Langelan, author ot a land- mark book, Back Off! How to Confront and Stop Sexual Harass- ment and Harassers proposes that sexual , harassment must be dealt with swiftly by direct confrontation that should name the offensive behavior, without preface or apol- ogy. A demand for the offending behavior to cease should be reinforced by eye contact and an 1-mean-business stance. This need

not be elaborate or shrill: She describes one woman on a crowded bus who, realizing that a man was taking advantage of the crush to

So you'll know it

when you encounter it

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission defines sexual harassment as unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature. The harassment must

carry the implication that submission is explicitly or implicitly a term or condi- tion of an individual's employment, and that one's submission or rejection of such conduct will become the basis for employment decisions. Sexual harass ESfesS ment also occurs when such conduct has "the purpose or effect of unrea- sonably interfering with an indivi-

ual's work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment."

15 STOPPING THE NIGHTMARE -I^t...... *..*«.. ..J. paw her derriere, reached around, grabbed That fear has a familiar ring to Cornelia

his arm, held it high, and said loudly, "What Wallace '31, who never experienced harass- was this hand doing on my ass?" ment but observed plenty. "In bygone years,

Harriet King '64, vice provost for academic if a woman went to another employer and

affairs at Emory Law School in Atlanta, mentioned that [sexual harassment] was the

believes confrontation is ideal but not always reason she left [her previous job], they didn't

possible. "It depends on your personality and want to hire her. She was viewed as a trou- the situation," she says. Kim Lamkin Drew blemaker," she says. A survey of 9,000 '90, a public relations specialist who has women by Working Woman magazine survey used confrontation effectively, concurs. At belies the survival of this type of double trade shows, she says, "Most of the women jeopardy: 25 percent of women who experi- are exhibitors—the men call them 'booth enced sexual harassment were fired or forced bimbos'—and their job is to draw men in to quit their jobs, whether they reported the and hand out trinkets. harassment or not. No wonder women are

"These men talk to me as if I were a angry. To whom might they report harass-

12-year-old," she continues. "I usually say, ment? The Equal Employment Opportunity

calmly, 'Why'd you say that to me?' Then I Commission—the very agency that move into my demonstration of the techni- Clarence Thomas once directed? cal equipment." This, she reports, usually The Anita Hill saga in 1991 certainly leaves potential harassers tongue-tied. amplified the dilemma. When Hill blew the whistle on Thomas, she became a target for

with battering and rape, sexual searing scorn, much of it from women. A Asharassment is not about sex. "It's U.S. News and World Report survey at the about power," says King. "It's a time of the hearings showed that just 20 reminder that you're in a world where you're percent of respondents believed Hill and really not wanted." King finds that women only eight percent thought the Senate

of all ages are harassed; however, younger Judiciary Committee's treatment of her was women may be openly propositioned, while unfair. Sixty-nine percent of men believed older women endure things like crude jokes. Thomas and only 24 percent of women

That harassment is related to issues of believed Hill.

power (as is sexual discrimination) is especially evident in the double-barreled maddening but true: More than half of It's approach that some harassers the women who report harassment find aim at African American that nothing happens to the one who women. Civil Rights harasses. Indeed, Clarence Thomas got a activist Fanny Lou Hamer told of Supreme appointment. But Hill has blown a white man lifting her dress while she stood the lid off a kettle of pent-up rage. By 1992, in a voter registration line. Author Langelan the percentage of women who believed Hill notes that companies harboring sexual doubled, and the percentage of men who harassment tend to tolerate racism, as well. believed Thomas dropped to 44 percent.

Even so, it's a problem made trickier by "The Anita Hill hearings served a great pur- some harassers' responses to the recent blitz pose. They brought the whole topic of sexu- of media attention. Some are dressing up al harassment into polite circles of conversa- their bad behavior in strange camouflages. tion," explains Juliana Winters '72, a senior King describes one: "Colleagues will say to trial attorney with the Federal Aviation

me, 'This is a sexist joke and since I know Administration (FAA) who serves as a legal " you won't mind it, I'll tell it.' adviser to the FAA Harassment Helpline. A sure-fire sign that you have been King agrees. "The climate has changed a

harassed, according to Langelan, is a sense lot," she says. Businesses have snapped to of danger. In recollections shared by polled attention and are scrambling to set policies. alumnae, danger and embarrassment lin- New employees now may hear a statement gered, years after the events. Most who of such policies at orientation. One of acknowledged being harassed were anxious Drew's employers requires all employees to that identities not be mentioned. Asked sign a statement that they understand the

why, one recent graduate replied, "Because I firm's strict policy and will abide by it, or

feel so ineffective .... You think no one risk immediate dismissal. A recent Agnes will believe you or might ask what you are Scott graduate says that her employer "set

doing to encourage it." up special counselors that employees go to

16

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • FALL 1994 for counseling on how to deal with situa- is coming from several difterent directions. tions, first by confronting the person. It it The log is essential it harassment escalates doesn't stop, you go to the counselor to plan and a formal challenge becomes necessary. w^^y don't w£ the next action, which may lead to discipli- Author Langelan suggests that network- WORK PURIMG nary action." This young woman is currently ing— in school, on the job, in the neighbor- working with such a counselor to confront a hood—builds a powerful challenge to REGULAR HOURS co-worker's unwanted sexual advances that harassment. For one thing, victims who feel AT THE OFFICE? had progressed to physical contact. they have been singled out learn otherwise Unfortunately, many companies are giv- by hearing others' stories. For another, there ing impressive lip service while below the is nothing that intimidates a harasser like gumline, harassment flourishes. Drew sug- the thought of having "15 angry women gests sniffing out harassment halitosis during on his case." job interviews by inquiring, in a non-threat- It's a strategy especially suited to Agnes ening manner, about the company's policy. Scott women. As former Return-to-CoUege She says, "If the employer says, 'Oh, that student Lyn Smith Deardorft '84 observes, would never happen here,' it should raise Agnes Scott alumnae do not go naked into your suspicions." the world: "We take our friendships, culture, According to Langelan, there are three nurturing and caring with us into the types of harassers. Predators harass as a workplace." A number of poll respondents sexual pastime. Dominators harass to boost reinforced this. They mentioned mentoring their egos (for some, she says, this is a trial their daughters and other women on run for more aggressive behaviors, including dealing with sexual harassment, even when rape). Strategists harass in a cold, calculated in despair about their own situations. attempt to assert territory. Lynne Wilkins Fulmer '67 volunteers with Strategists don't just want to humiliate, a program that provides encouragement they want to humiliate and undermine in a for harassment victims to take legal crowded elevator, or before an auditorium action—and a coach to see them through full of colleagues—and their target is the the process. woman on the rise. While some studies have As studies and hearings plumb the depths shown that women with low self-esteem and of harassment, it's become clear that it pink-collar jobs are likely victims, the survey begins much earlier than previously by Working Women magazine found that the thought. Stein who heads the Wellesley sex- higher a woman rises, the more likely she is ual harassment project notes that children to be harassed. may not choose certain activities or classes In these hard-bitten times of corporate because of harassment. In a New York downsizing and restructuring, strategic Times column she said harassment poisons harassment has been elevated to a high art. the environment and reinforces the idea

And it sometimes comes from the most that school is not a safe or just place. amazing places, including from other Discipline is a critical part of the solution, women. One pushing-fifty alumna, whose according to Stein. "Many high school boys achievements were threatening to her we've interviewed said no one ever told female boss, was floored when the boss them that they couldn't act like this. Their insinuated that there was hanky-panky behavior had been accepted throughout going on between the alumna and a grade school and middle school." 28-year-oId male co-worker. In this decade of challenges to sexual harassment, at least one schoolgirl and her Whatever the type and source of mother have been publicly ridiculed since harassment, experts advise keep- calling attention to the harassment that girls

ing a written account of harass- endure in schools, from little boys who are ment, even if a law suit seems unlikely at simply modeling their behavior on what the time. The date, place, the exact words they see and what goes unchallenged. used or description of the offending behav- There's a message in this for Scottie home- ior, and names of witnesses should be noted. makers who thank their lucky stars that These notes will help an uncertain victim they're not in the middle of this corporate recognize, after three or four notations, that mess. Guess what. Moms and Grandmoms. there is indeed harassment. The written You're our best hope. record is especially important if harassment —Jane Zanca '83 is a writer for the American is a pattern of institutionalized behavior that Cancer Society in Atlanta.

STOPPING THE NIGHTMARE Thin, sharp palm fronds stick up, A CULTURAL bright green against a brilliant sky. Worshipers—mostly women and children—walk across the dusty plain IMMERSION toward the 16th century Santiago Monasterio de Cuilapan for the blessing of the palms. Thirteen accomplished artists join photographer women Pinky "When we sing, it gives us joy—even if we '58 a Bass on pilgrimage to Oaxaca de Juarez, Oaxaca, Mexico don't sing very well," a young woman

explains in Speinish. She joins others along

By Celeste Pennington ancient stone walls.

Photography by Paul Ohregon A priest sprinkles the crowd with holy

18

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • FALL 1994 Over a pcrind oj six months, women artists dip into another culture—as during the Blessing of the Palms at the ancient Monasterio de Cuilapan

(left) —then produce works culminating in an exhibit, "Bi'locacions" at a local gallery. Alumna Kitty Couch (below) suspends her sculpture of a dog made from pdpier mache; photographer Bass's

mixed media reinterprets the sacred iiruxge.

water. "The two Americans with palms. "I'm looking for things not of this world," "To be around so They are believers," old says says Bass, with a tape recorder and an man and equipped many artists has gestures toward two women in their midst. camera to collect the milagros of the moment. been wonderful." The women are fine art photographers This Palm Sunday she and Turner have

from Alabama, on sabbatical in Mexico's broken away from the group of primarily southernmost state of Oaxaca [wah HAH Southeastern artists—painters, potters, sculp- kah]. Marion McCall "Pinky" Bass '58, a tors—to be a part of the pre-Easter obser-

Bible major at Agnes Scott and former vance. "A month to direct myself in a place

Presbyterian missionary to Mexico, is like this offers such an opportunity for

the organizer; with her is McLeod Turner growth," says Turner. "To be around so many

of Mobile. artists has been wonderful."

19 A CULTURAL IMMERSION — . —

"With pencil in hand, the image

I produce is basically up to me. But I can't For each of the dozen artists, the pil- full of unorthodox choices and surprise. orchestrate grimage to Oaxaca—whether for a From a roll of film, she may select the photography. few weeks or several months—offers frame accidentally thrown out of focus. She My manner of the opportunity to live simply, to immerse has used a slide projector as an enlarger oneself in another culture and to take time she has sewn together her photographic working is not to preconceive. to retreat, to reflect, to work. images. On one print she may pour Clorox. Among the six gathered through the Holy She may select the frame with multiple So it always Week is Agnes Scott alumna Clara Rountree exposures for another. "I get bored" she comes out a "Kitty" Couch '43, a North Carolina ceramic explains, "if 1 don't try new things." surprise. Always." sculptor and Bass's frequent collaborator. On A self-described mystic, Bass is constantly

this trip. Couch connects with Enedina pushing her boundaries. "With pencil in

Enriquez-Lopez, a native potter. As the two hand, the image 1 produce is basically up to

women work in clay. Couch has learned con- me," she explains, "but 1 can't orchestrate

versational Spanish. this." Working with black-and-white film

Constance J. Thalken (her photos will be and 32x40-inch paper, her images are emo-

on exhibit at the ASC Dana Gallery tionally charged, haunting—often unexpect-

through December 9) has a BFA from Yale ed, even to Bass. "My manner of working is

and teaches photography at Georgia State not to preconceive. So it always comes out a

University. Equipped with a Spanish dictio- surprise. Always.

nary—and an old Mamiya press camera "When my work is very personal—and

each day she catches a taxi or bus and sets when it transcends me—this is my goal."

out to photograph a different site.

Bass, who often photographs with home- Each artist finds different expression. two-story made pinhole cameras (she built a Alumna Couch and Oaxaca area artist pinhole camera for the Atlanta Arts Festival Enedina Enriquez-Lopez (above) talk arid

joke in Spanish as they shift pottery shards one year), moves back and forth from shoot- and prepare to fire pottery in an earthen kiln ing and developing film to printing in the at Enriquez home in Santa Maria de Atzompa; set in her quarters at the Hotel darkroom up at right, ahamta Bass sifts through a stack of

Xandu. For her, the art of photography is oversized prints

20

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • FALL 1994 21_ A CULTURAL IMMERSION With dust trailing, the Chevy When the uphill trail fades into a foot Blazer bumps along roads that path, Bass parks, and the silver-haired

connect the barrios. Bass, with Vasquez leads to the excavation site of

a van-load of artists in tow, may cut a swath steep, white pyramid-like structures. Aztec

through a dry river bed that divides one tiny Indians may have founded Oaxaca, but

community from another or, like today, Zapotec and Mixtec Indians were here when "I came here nose the vehicle up a narrow, winding road European Christians arrived, Vasquez to find—to toward prehistoric ruins. explains. On the site of worship and burial rediscover—my First, she has stopped to pay respects to of an earlier civilization, Vasquez's own voice. I live in native friends and to pick up twice mayor generation has planted a cross. both worlds." of nearby Santiago Suchilquitongo, Vidal Mexico, with its striking layer-on-layer of

Cruz Vasquez. culture, folkways and religion, affords the

Vidal Cruz Vasquez (above) , recounts how he helped a German archeologist remove wheel'

harrow after wheelbarrow of rocks to excavate a portion of the pyramid-like ruins outside Oaxaca. As Bass and Vdsqu£z chat in Spanish (right), Couch examines pieces of pottery she

finds near the site. Couch travels extensively,

having served as an artist-in-residence in Italy

and studied pottery -making in India and Nepal. "Why not experience those other worlds?"

22

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • FALL 1994 artists an interesting context both tor encourages the other artists to do the same.

examining matters of taith and for making Mornings, they gather to talk about their

inward journeys. dreams, each other's work, grants, books, a

After the loss of several loved ones, cure for turista or ingredients tor toco sopa.

Couch is learning how people in different Evenings are also loosely structured for time

cultures view death and is expressing that in to share meals and interact.

her art. Earlier, Couch spent three months Bi-locacions, the artists have named the

at the University of Cuenca in Ecuador, culminating exhibit of their work here. "I teaching ceramics and studying native cus- came here to find—to rediscover—my

toms related to aging and death. voice," says Bass who lived in Mexico from

Bass, whose work is introspective and 1962-66 and returns frequently to Oaxaca. self-revealing, keeps detailed journals—and "I live in both worlds,"

23 A CULTURAL IMMERSION "My whole object

is to pursue my photography" she says. "I've got all these negatives.

What I want to do now is go home ." and print. ..

tew small jars of paint still stand Couch builds a fire in the bottom of a rusted

in a box outside the kitchen oil drum-tumed-kiln, spreads the ashes Adoor—inside, negatives dangle around, then sets pottery inside. "Hear that from a clothespin in the kitchen-studio- draft going?" she asks as the sound of the fire

living room at the Hotel Xandu—two garlic crackles and grows to a soft roar. She gathers

cloves hang above the sink where Bass more wood to build a second fire on top of

pours a coffee pot of boiling water to rinse the plates. "1 can do this because these

the breakfast dishes and then makes an pieces have already been fired." Otherwise,

iodine-water solution for soaking small, she says, grinning, "they would blow up." As

ripe tomatoes. Couch stirs the flame, she talks about how

Behind the hotel, in a space populated smoke from the fire will penetrate the clay,

with bedsprings and a pomegranate tree, giving it a softer, dark patina.

24

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • FALL 1994 — — "

art living simply—and This is among the last of their projects pleasure of providing a place for a dozen The of the joy of native hospitality— in just a few days, Couch, Bass and the other artists to share ideas and work draw Bass and Couch back to final group of artists will pack up their and the opportunity to resume life in her Oaxaca. "If you wake up and belongings and head back to the other world. you hear music, if you can't

go to sleep, follow the music," United States. Now she is eager to finish the work only

advises Bass . "Wherever you On Maundy Thursday, the group drives begun here. "My whole object is to pursue find music, you will find a into the provincial capital, the City of my photography" she says. "I've got all these party. And even though you

Oaxaca, for a meal. Then with the pre- negatives. NX'Tiat I want to do now is go are a stranger, the people

will invite you in , and treat Easter throng, they move slowly from cen- home and print. ... you as a special guest. turies-old cathedral to cathedral and on into "The camera transforms," explains Bass.

Zocalo, the stylish central plaza. "When I took photography, it was, 'Oh, this " For six months, Bass has had the hectic is what I had been looking for all my life.'

25 A CULTURAL IMMERSION — HIRE EDUCATION By Mary Alma Durrett

When Mary This September, with video camera in reporting internship at Channel 5 in Jordan graduated tow, Mary Jordan '94 found herself Atlanta. In addition to garnering work jetting toward one of the biggest experience in her field of interest, she from in May, ASC national stories of the year: the shift in sought help from people in the profession, she was one of power in Haiti and America sending troops both alumnae and non-alumnae, and 1.2 million college there. Just a tew months earlier she had worked after hours to gain extra skills and to been knee-deep (literally) in one of the edit her own promotional video. The result: students looking most dramatic regional stories of 1994 a job secured before graduation. for a job. How the muddy overflow of the Flint and Jordan was indeed a natural. She used Chattahoochee rivers in south Georgia and the Office of Career Planning and she found one is Alabama. Both times, she was right where Counseling occasionally for resource the result of self- she wanted to be, riding the crest of a break- materials and served on its student Career motivation and ing news wave. Advisory Board, but for the most part, assistance from the One of 1.2 million students graduating was self-motivated. with bachelor's degrees in 1993-94, this college's Office of Tallahassee native began working for a CBS Most students need a hit more assis- Career Planning affiliate station in Dothan, Ala., before the tance in getting their career and Counseling. ink on her diploma was two days old. motors running. Many are unsure Parlaying her English literature degree and of selecting a major, let alone a career, so good looks into a news reporting slot for they go through the "soul searching" process WTVY-TV, Jordan saw an aggressive job with tests and interest assessments before

hunt and years of preparation pay off. they can identify and narrow the field of

By all accounts, Jordan seemed to know options. For these students, career planning instinctively how to shape a career plan and offers the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, pursue a job. Carolyn Wynens, manager of Strong Campbell Interest Inventory and

community relations and special events, SIGI-Plus computer program, all tools for who oversaw Jordan at work one summer, determining interest or identifying specific

says that very early in her first year, Jordan jobs that match interest. "just wowed us with desire and spunk. She For seniors, the options are many. At the brought by a sort of marketing plan of what beginning of each year, CP&C sends each she could do for us. We were amused and senior a Job Choices magazine, produced by

delighted by it and eventually she went to the College Placement Council, which

work for us. She was just as young and just relays up-to-date information about the job as wide eyed as the typical student but the market. They also receive a calendar of difference was in her focus." workshops and recruitment visits available With a predetermined interest in public through CP&C, a sample resume, and a relations and past work experience in the "Senior Time Line" of what should be done field, "she seemed to have incredible clarity by what time. Before graduation, CP&C of purpose." offers seniors these opportunities: While her purpose shifted slightly when • September and October: Initial dis- she was exposed to news reporting, her drive cussions with the career counselors and

suffered none tor the shift. After an intern- numerous resume writing and interviewing

ship at CNN in Atlanta, she pursued an skills workshops. exchange semester in journalism at • November: Mock interviews on video American University in Washington, D.C., —taped and evaluated by the CP&.C staff. (covering the White House), then a news • December: Begin to organize for job

26

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • FALL 1994 GARY MEEK PHOTO

general. They helped me put in concrete terms what was important to me."

Schmidt, director of CPSiC Amysince 1986, says "Not ever>' student is ready to deal with certain issues at the same time." Many first-year students are wcirking through homesickness—others bring more difficult problems from home (insecurity, abuse, eating disorders, etc.) that need to be confronted before tackling career- related questions. The desire to address the students' needs more holistically and to increase use of the services (286 students used the career coun- Finding a ioh takes seling office in 1993-94, 101 students p[anning and required the services of the personal coun- determinatioii. selor) lead to the consolidation of personal and career counseling areas this past year. English liicrature major With the consolidation came a formal name Mary ]ordan '94 (left, on change from career planning and placement assignment in Conyers, to career planning and counseling. "What's Ga.,) parlayed aggressive job fairly neat about our arrangement is that huntir\g arid years of prepa- although we are unified, geographically we ration to shape a career in remain separate," says Schmidt who directs television news reporting. both areas. She now works for WTVY- With services from the two offices, ASC TV, an Alabama station. students should be able to attain "the general search and start networking with friends, wellness model of personal development and family and professionals. growth" for which Schmidt and her staff • January: Time for extemships, to encourage students to strive. As a result of research companies and to begin writing consolidation, career and personal counsel- cover letters for the Resume Recruitment ing areas will be working collaboratively.

Program. One of the first such projects: an eight-week • FEBRUARY: Sign-ups for on-campus series of self-esteem sessions conducted by interviews with potential employers. Margaret Shirley '81, the personal counselor, • March: CP&C encourages students to and CP&C Assistant Director Kathy King. apply for numerous job positions. "There's a lot that we would like to do that • April: "The Last Five Weeks" series of would take multiple sessions," King points evening workshops prepares the soon-to-be out, "but it's difficult to get a commitment graduates for apartment- or house-hunting, to that." establishing credit, office or graduate school Getting students in significant numbers to politics, confronting sexual harassment, cre- come to workshops remains a challenge. Low ating a professional image through dress, and attendance can be "discouraging," admits saying good-bye to friends. King, but she and Schmidt and the Student Holly Demuth '95 from Kingsport, Tenn., Career Advisory Board are constantly trying has followed career planning's advice since out new ways to bring students in, through her earliest college days. She remembers innovative programming and scheduling. "1 entering Agnes Scott with intentions of pur- want to try to [target] programs more directly suing math but becoming disillusioned. Once to student organizations." the math moved away from numbers toward "I'm really not sure why students don't the more theoretical aspects, she says, "I kind use [the center] more," says Demuth. "1 think of lost interest. But I enjoyed the practical for many people coming face-to-face with applications of math within chemistry. the future can be very frightening." Advisers helped me select chemistry as my Some students think they need a detailed major. I began going to career planning after plan for the future, before engaging the help taking a Myers-Briggs test. Staff there helped of career planning. Yet CP&C has resources me find out who I am and what I wanted in for students at various stages of inquiry.

27 HIRE EDUCATION —

MARY AIMA DURREn PHOTO

MAT student Aunee Turner, right, xvith Kathy King, assistant director of Career Planning aivd Counseling, who directs a resume-writing workshop in the career library. Career Advisory Board

Members 1994-95 including a career library with 800 books, to connect each sophomore with an alum- periodicals and tapes. nae mentor in a matching field of interest. Carrie Mastromarino '96, Many students, she acknowledges, are at chair the "I don't have any idea what I want to do Convincing students that career '95 Annette Dumford stage." Often, Schmidt will recommend that planning is important—and fun Keri Randolph '97 these students should sample fields of inter- remains a constant challenge to Jackie Reynolds '96 est through internships, extemships or Schmidt. In one effort to accomplish that, Leigh Feagin '97 shadow experiential programs. during orientation CP&C served as host Margie Weir '98 This past year, 43 students participated in site for a focus group session using the Rohin Penr '96 46 internships in the Atlanta metropolitan SIGI-Plus computer software program. Yet

Akeley David '97 area lasting from a few weeks to a full semes- statistical findings in career planning should

Becky Wilson '97 ter. Twenty-three students participated in be enough to sway the doubtful. The 1995 Amanda Daws '98 week-long extemships (75 percent of which job Choices magazine reported a recent sur-

Sasha Mandic '97 were sponsored by alumnae of the College). vey of liberal arts graduates showing that Tomekia Strickland '97 Twelve students took advantage of 14 one- students who used a college career center day experiences "shadowing" professionals. received more job offers, received their

Schmidt recommends these programs as offers earlier, and received higher starting ways of trying different careers. Recalls salary offers than those who did not use

Demuth: "I followed two pharmacists in my the center. hometown of Kingsport. One pharmacist Demuth does not view the role of career was in a hospital and one was in a [free- planning as a "job placement agency."

standing] pharmacy. By the end ot the expe- Agrees Jordan, "It's up to the student to go

rience, she says, "1 realized I didn't want to beyond what they learn in CP&C and fight

'lick, stick and count.' That profession had for the position they want."

seemed very appealing to me, hut I found She took the advice of ABC television

that it required a gross amount of education correspondent Sam Donaldson, who said, for the work performed from day to day." "When everyone else was at home sleeping,

Often short-term work experiences afford I was in the news room working." When students' learning as much about what they she returned from her Washington semester do not want to do as what they want to do. she was admittedly "obsessed with getting a At Agnes Scott, experiential programs job." She landed an internship with are enhanced by alumnae involvement. WAGA-TV in Atlanta and often worked

CP&C has a database of 1 ,800 alumnae who as late as 3 or 4 a.m. to get experience. serve as resource people for students shop- Jordan and others agree with Schmidt's ping the job market. Now in the planning most basic admonition: "You can't expect

stages is a Sophomore Mentoring Program somebody else to lay out a path for you."

28

AONF.S SmTTCni I Fr.p • FAM IQQ4 THE CP&C STAFF ASC's Office of Career Planning and Counseling offers Scotties guidance and support in the quest for jobs after graduation.

The counseling services of Agnes March. Having come from Old Dominion Scott College, overseen by the Office University in Norfolk, Va., King served as A Summary of the Dean of Students, were recent- student services specialist and career coun- of Career ly reorganized. Career counseling, personal selor in career services before moving to the Planning Services advising and multicultural counseling are Atlanta area. She received her master's now unified under Career Planning & degree in community/agency counseling in Counseling but are housed in 1992 from Old Dominion and t/ Individual Career two locations. her B.S. in education in 1976 Counseling "We wanted career plan- from West Chester University i/ Myers-Briggs Type ning to be right in the middle of Pennsylvania. Her office is Indicator of everything; we wanted in Main. t/ SIGI-PIus computer people to trip over us," Margaret Shirley '81: program comments Amy Schmidt, Personal counselor since 1987. t/ Strong-Campbell director of career planning and Received her master's degree Interest Inventory counseling. in counseling from Georgia v^ Career Advisory Board

So the decision was made State University and her (all student members) to keep that office on the first undergraduate degree in psy- ^ Career Workshops floor of Agnes Scott Hall. chology from Agnes Scott. ^ Convocations featuring

"There was also a need for the Her office is in Winship. career-related personal counseling offices to Paige M. McRight '68: speakers be off the beaten path." The Julia Thompson Smith Chaplain of the ^ Alumnae database for

In addition, personal counseling needed College since August. McRight is affiliated networking and men- more space for group sessions, discrete access with CP&C and splits her time between the tors (1,800 names) to the counselors, an office for the newly- Center for Counseling and Multicultural ^ New student orientation named advisor for multicultural affairs, Affairs in Winship. An ordained Prospective students

Karen Green '86, and an office for volunteer Presbyterian minister, McRight was most assist admission office activities with the College Chaplain, the recently associate pastor of First Presbyterian t/ Extern, intern, shadow

Rev. Paige M. McRight '68, who is also Church in St. Petersburg, Fla. She received experiential programs affiliated with CP&C. So the Center for her M.Div. from Princeton Theological Career library (800

Counseling and Multicultural Affairs (per- Seminary in 1971. Her bachelor's degree is resources) sonal counseling), was created this fall and in Bible. Her office, across from the chapel, • "The Last Five Weeks" is on the first floor of Winship Residence is on the upper level of Alston Center. Series

Hall. Margaret Shirley '81, the personal Karen Green '86: Advisor for multicul- counselor, notes, "We wanted to legitimize tural affairs at ASC since August. Green is counseling here and this was a move to employed part-time and is working on a do that." master's of divinity degree at the Candler Members of the CP&C staff include: School of Theology at Emory. She returned Amy Schmidt: Director, career planning to Agnes Scott after serving as director of and counseling, since 1986. Received master's multi-cultural affairs at Hamilton College in degree in college student personnel adminis- Hamilton, N.Y., for four years. Previously, tration and counseling and guidance from Green served as director of student activities Indiana University in 1978. Her undergrad- and housing at Agnes Scott after receiving uate degree in English and psychology was her bachelor's degree from ASC. Her office from Centre College in Danville, Ky. Before is in Winship. coming to Agnes Scott, she served six years Misty DumaS: Secretary since July

as one of two career counselors for Memphis 1 993 . Dumas came to Decatur from Eureka,

State University and for two years as assis- Calif She received an associate degree in tant director of career planning for Indiana police science from the College of the

University. Her office is in Main. Redwoods in 1985. Dumas has an office Kathy King: Assistant director since in Main.

29 HIRE EDUCATION . — J^%

FIFTY YEARS AGO- i A REMEMBRANCE

A half century later, the more things change, the more they remain the same.

By Marybeth Little Weston Lobdell

To reach Agnes Scott, e arrived on campus the And in November, President Franklin some of us traveled by tall of 1944 wearing high Roosevelt was elected to a fourth term, with train from far away—Mother heels and shiny rayon Harry Truman as his vice president. and I hoarded in west stockings—silk and World War II was being fought on all Texas—and the trains were nylon had gone to war. sides of the world. Brothers and high school crowded with young men in wWe wore hats. Ladies dressed up when trav- beaus were at boot camp or in submarines, uniform . It was a dressy occa- eling, and we were ladies, or tried to he. To ships, planes ... or on bloody battlefields. sion; we wore high heels arid reach campus, we traveled by trolley from Unlike the women who shared some of their

hats . As students registered downtown Atlanta or by family car using hardships or worked in factories, we were for fall term, we did not guess saved-up gas coupons and threadbare tires. privileged teenagers headed for a beautiful that many historians would Some of us traveled by train from tar away shelter in the midst of the storm. Our col- designate 1944 as the must Mother and 1 boarded in west Texas, and lege, Agnes Scott, took women students pivotal year of the century the trains were crowded with young men seriously—and exclusively—and we liked

in uniform. that. It also had some limitations and rules

As we began fall classes. Allied troops that seemed, even then, quaint and a tad entered Germany and the Nazis were bomb- eccentric. College women today would find ing London with V-2 rockets. In October, most of the social customs tyrannical.

the biggest naval engagement in history, the Registering for the 1944-45 first year, we Battle for Leyte Gulf in the Pacific theater, did not guess that many historians would proved a great victory over the Japanese. designate this as the most pivotal year of the Russia moved into Hungary and Yugoslavia. century. The Allies would overthrow Nazi

30

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • FALL 1994 .

Germany and imperial Japan; lines would Even if male partners were scarce, 1944 he drawn between the Soviets and the music was too good to be missed. Cole West that would remain frozen almost 50 Porter gave us "Don't Fence Me In." years, and the discovery of the horrors of Harry James played Duke Ellington's "I'm the Holocaust and the aftermath of Beginning to See the Light." Jerome Kern Hiroshima would haunt the world's dreams and Johnny Mercer (from Savannah) wrote and faith in humanity for generations. "Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive." Judy But for most of us at college that year, Garland sang "Have Yourself a Merry Little the first-year memories and snapshots seem Christmas," and because my name was unbelievably innocent and cocooned. Mary Little, friends penned that on my Christmas cards. 1944, most first-year students were To go dancing, or out on any date any- In16 or 17 years old; high schools in where, we had to sign forms in the Dean's the South then had only three years. office. The questions included the boy's Many of my classmates had been the vale- who-what-when-where-why, and how we dictorian or salutatorian of their high could he reached—the kind of query I would school classes. Many had been elected later inflict on my own children for their best citizen or best Latin class student or good and my peace of mind. Agnes Scott best something. expected us home and safe in our beds early.

Each of us arri\'ed with big hea\'y trunks The dorm was a citadel no male could o)i the left, with my I'm packed with cardigan sweaters, short skirts, enter—except the first and last day of roommate, Nancy Greer saddle-shoes and at least one glamorous school, to carry luggage. Dean Carrie Alexander, and Navy man evening gown even if we didn't know any- Scandrett would chat in her office with the Allen Reagen and his buddy one in town (I didn't). We would dine for- young men and tell them to take good care To go dancing, or on any mally one night a month on campus, and of us, and then she'd wink. She had a win- date anywhere, we had to we hoped to be asked to a big-band dance some smile and a permanent blink, and our sigri forms that asked the at then all-male Georgia Tech or Emory befuddled dates swore they didn't know boy's who'what'when-

University. If we got a nod only from the whether she was flirting or telling them to where , and how we could

Cotillion Club on campus, we could still have a real good time with us, wink, wink. be reached. Agnes Scott put on a long dress, tromp over to a In the dormitory, we had one phone for a expected us safe in our beds

Victorian parlor in Main, and wistfully floor of 24 girls with ears perked for every early . The dorm was a practice our dancing skills with each other. call. (We called ourseK-es girls then, and citadel no male could enter.

31 A RaiEMBRANCE ,

sometimes still do.)

An urgent call came the first week to a student who had a friend at Emory. "Can

you line up some girls to come over to the fraternity house to help with Rush?" Oh, we rushed to get there, the biggest snag being that to go anywhere we had to have a senior chaperone. That meant scaring up a wet-behind-the-ears date for an old maid senior, assuming we could scare up a will- Pleated skirt, cardigan, ing senior. Many of them, like some of the

pearls—if not typical tirst-year students, were worrying about—or dress, not unusual either. And grieving over—boyfriends or husbands in the times seemed so peaceful. the war. We were isolated from war. The quaint rule about senior chaperones

Yet it touched us, too. Much had a nice side effect. It quickly acquainted was rationed. But love was us with upperclass students who showed us

not. And in some ways the the ropes. In no time, we had learned what intensity and poignancy of our some women didn't see until the '70s femi- letter writing and dating were nist revolution: women have a talent for magnified by the urgency of helping friends, and men friends come and go but female friendships are steadfast. Our lights-out curfew on week nights but we were sensitive to injustice and scorn-

was 10:45 p.m. Most of us spent five or six ful of some parents' attitudes.

hours a day studying at the library, and in our brief evenings we combined homework think of other mental snapshots: The and beauty routines as best we could. Some 1 day-students who were such good orga- girls would sit in almost yoga position in nizers of their own time and of class poli- our wide dormitory hall, book in lap, fin- tics—some were scholarship students with gers clenched in front of the bosom, jobs, and some were to be Atlanta debu- pulling, never wasting a moment trying to tantes. Bright autumn days when the tennis

change an A cup to a B while changing a and field hockey players made us all long to B grade to an A. Others would stand while be athletes. Dormitory ironing boards, reading, gently bumping the wall, hoping always in use, for pressing blouses and dress- to expand the mind while reducing the es and even veils for the hats we wore on derriere. The dorm's stately architecture Sundays. We did not need a chaperone to held together while we tried to re-do go to church and see some of Atlanta and our own. have a long lunch. Southern food was not We talked after turning off the lights, called soul food then, but that's what we often of love, often of race and religion, liked at Mammy's Shanty and Aunt Fanny's

sometimes of war. Because we were an all- Cabin. The greatest preacher we heard was

girls school, we learned what we could the handsome Scotsman Peter Marshall, about "the real world" by reading and by who was made even more famous by his

imagination and discussion. I remember Agnes Scott wife, Catherine Marshall, in intense conversations in the dating parlors, her book, A Man Called Peter. only a few steps from the Dean's office, all We went to operas and concerts. The

doors open. We learned to sympathize with first live symphony I ever heard was in the the plight of literary lovers separated by old auditorium with wooden floors where

custom and decree—Romeo and Juliet, the Atlanta Symphony played. I did not Tristan and Isolde, even Bottom's ludicrous realize then that the orchestra was also in its

Pyramus and Thisbe. first year. I remember my blush when a We were an all-white school, as well, Tech boy lightly put his hand on mine at

not by rule but because no one of another the end of the first movement, for I had

race had yet applied, and no one had been clapped, alone, not knowing I should wait

recruited. Many of us had known "colored until all that glory was at an end. He was

people" we respected as children, but gallant and told me later it had given him a grownup interracial friendships were rare. good excuse.

Our era preceded even Driving Miss Daisy The year 1944 produced no little excite-

32

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • FAIL 1994 — .

ment in literature: T. S. Eliot's Four who lived on an island called Lesbos. A 12- Quartets; W. Somerset Maugham's The year-old grandchild today probably knows Razor's Edge—a popular book and later a more than we did.) movie; Tennessee Williams' The Glass We haunted the mailroom tor letters,

Menagerie and Georgian Lillian Smith's but as our first year wore on, we began to see Strange Fruit—images of southern lite new to that some of our old hometown throbs did- the rest of the country, and even to most ot n't spell too well, or more important, could- us. Faculty members sometimes talked with n't understand what was so splendid about us about what they were reading and what such things as our cherished honor system. we might enjoy come summer. Their con- It seemed so clear to us that we would cheat cern for us during the pressures of exam ourselves and friends of a true education if week had brought about a dated but endear- we cheated on a test or paper or helped a ing tradition: tea at the Candler building, buddy cheat. Learning was for the rest of complete with pretty teacups and polite our lives. 1 was even disappointed in a conversation with faculty members. In the Texas beau who tailed to fathom my excite- midst of the squalor of exam week, it was ment in "heaven in a wildtlower, eternity Our alumnae were encouraging to know they still considered us in an hour." made strong by part of their community of scholars. But by then, we were dazzled by the an old-fashioned new company we kept—Sophocles, Plato, course, there were rumors that all Shakespeare, Newton, Bach, Moliere, liberal arts educa- Ofwas not pure innocence in this Darwin, Dickinson, Freud and our frequent tion, serious theo- Adamless Eden. It was whispered campus visitor, poet Robert Frost. Even for logical searchings, that some students had enjoyed forbidden first-year students, the emphasis was on puffs of cigarettes at the nearby Decatur the eternal. examination of depot. The only place Agnes Scott students conscience about could smoke was in a private home, but cig- that amazing year, it was not the pro- politics and race, arettes were in short supply and were, in Infessors who were isolated; it was we who fact, considered thoughtful hostess gifts. wore blinders because of our youth and and long discus- Meat, cheese, canned goods, gasoline, even our backgrounds. Yet I am truly thankful sions about shoes were rationed. Wages, salaries and now for that place of quietness, despite our humankind. We prices were frozen in 1943 to forestall infla- insular self-absorption. 1 am glad the profes- tion. We were fnigal in everything except, sors did not drop everything to teach cur- had an impractical as I recall, splashing on perfumes: Prince rent events. In hindsight 1 think our alum- but, in fact, pow- Matchabelli and Wind Song. Somehow they nae were made strong by an old-fashioned erful preparation just didn't linger like our mothers' pre-war liberal arts education, serious theological French perfume. searchings, examination of conscience about for a life ahead full Love is not rationed in wartime, and in politics and race, and long discussions not of surprises and some ways the intensity and poignancy of just about men but about humankind. We hard questions. our letter writing and dating were magnified each had a seemingly impractical but, in by the urgency of war. No one knew when fact, powerfijl preparation for a life ahead this war would end. No one knew who full of surprises and hard questions, some- would live beyond 18 or 19. One girl con- times unanswerable. fided at a late night talkfest (we never called We were lucky in the company we them anything so indelicate as a bull-ses- kept—schoolmates who cared and played sion) that yes, she had gone to "first base, fair, professors who respected our academic and second base" with a boy gasp—but honor and work, and the great men and "of course not to third." women whose words and music we read and Most of us thought in our heart of hearts heard, whose paintings and experiments and that we were the only ones who liked to be decisions we pondered. kissed; friends and writers did not confess College students still need, 1 believe, the much then. The college offered a non-credit chance to prepare for their own turbulent

Marriage Class, but it was limited to those times by losing themselves in the timeless. the college thought would need it—seniors, Despite our difference in dress and deco- and underclasswomen if they were engaged. rum, and certainly in dance music, students Our senior lecturer was a married doctor of today have made the same fortunate choice medicine, pregnant, clearly a good example. in Agnes Scott that we did.

(I never heard the word lesbian in college —Marybeth Little Weston Lobdell '49 though if asked, we knew Sappho was a poet lives in New York City

33 A REMEMBRANCE . ON CAMPUS

Computers now link ASC with the world . .. and with new possihilities

MARY AIMA DURREH PHOTO From a computer ter- Program (ITEP) got on line minal in Australia, with Internet, Hendrickson

he types via Internet could pick up her long-dis-

to his girlfriend at Agnes tance computer communi-

Scott: I don't want to be cation at Agnes Scott. As it

apart like this Willa. I want turned out, the prelude to

to be with you to stay! Mclntyre's telephone pro-

She responds: I want to posal of marriage was via

be with you. ... the computer.

If this sounds like mod- Students like these are

em romance, it is. Two finding that with ITEP, the

years ago, Willa Hendrick- campus bulletins can be Students, suijj andjaculty are using the campus' new Information Technology Enhancement Program (ITEP), but son '94, now a Scott-Free read by E-mail (set up for few have used it more successfully than Willa Hendrickson and Year 5 student, and private messages), and on- Duncan Mclntyre of Australia. The pair met and fell in love EXincan Mclntyre, a line database searches to communicating over Internet, the international computer linkup.

psychology major at the remote locations can be

Australian National conducted (a grant from the telecommunications com- chair of the mathematics

University in Canberra, National Science mittee for ITEP, agrees. department, recently put

met through a computer Foundation pays the fee for "Students wanted cable out a network search for

game with an international ASC's unlimited use of television and liked the the author of an unpub-

mix of players on Internet, Internet). idea of voice mail. But a lot lished article. Within one

the world's largest com- According to Tom of students didn't under- day he had a reply. On

puter network. Internet Maier, director of informa- stand the Internet and its campus, students have used

enables computers of all tion technology services, capability." the network to pass ques-

kinds—including thou- virtually all staff and fac- Students are using tions to Riddle about

sands from universities, ulty and about 40 percent of Internet for study and fun. homework. "The network

corporations and govern- the students are using the Hendrickson's long- is most useful to promote

ment offices around the computer network. Students distance romance began more interaction between

globe—to communicate not yet linked to the net- one evening when she and students and teacher. We

with one another). work in their residence hall Mclntyre both logged on to can have a discussion group

Hendrickson kept "run- rooms are in a "period of a M.U.D. (Multi-User for a class and students

ning into" Mclntyre as discovery," says Maier. Domain) game. They con- don't necessarily have to

they played on Internet. "Students wanted to see tinued to correspond, first call me, but instead can use

Over a period of months, the value of E-mail, the by computer, then by letter. the computer," Riddle says.

the two developed a rela- electronic access to library Since then, Hendrick- Plans for ITEP involve

tionship separated by thou- systems and other Internet son and Mclntyre have vis- the electronic transfer of

sands of miles but connect- resources. Now that they've ited during summer and information such as tran-

ed by technology. seen the benefits they want holiday breaks. scripts. However, this will

By this past fall, when to get connected." Faculty members also not occur until security

Agnes Scott's Information Kim Wright '95, the stu- are corresponding around issues have been resolved.

Technology Enhancement dent representative on the the globe. Larry Riddle, Hardware and software

34

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • FALL 1994 CLASSIC security methods now pro- equipped to develop multi- tect the flow of informa- media applications for Farewell to an old campus beauty. tion to and from campus. instruction.

Access to individual ac- ASC-TV, the campus a campus decision," says Victoria counts requires a password. television system, began Onknown for trees, Lambert, manager of cam- Other plans for 1995 operation in late fall. In the Presser pus ser\'ices, "remarkable include an upgrade to a addition to cable stations, Dogwood stands out. For that it happened. That higher Internet connection 10 channels are set aside more than a century* the kind of decision needs to speed. Maier says the for satellite campus pro- elegant old dogwood has he made today more than upgrade is needed because gramming. The campus graced its comer of Agnes ever, and it's even less the network is changing channels air taped videos Scott. Each spring, its mul- likely." To make that same from text-based informa- and a bulletin board for tiple trunks and graceful decision today would cost tion to graphics, video and community events. limbs loft a canopy of $106,000. sound. "Video can be used In the meantime, Agnes white blossoms above the No records note who in teleconferencing and Scott's Willa Hendrickson walkway at the west end of made the decision in 1940, distance education. and Duncan Mclntyre plan Presser Quadrangle. of the thinking and argu-

Students would be able a December wedding in Many know the tree ments that went into it. to attend lectures at other Atlanta. After she com- and know its name. But no But whoe\'er did left a campuses—to see the pro- pletes her degree, she will one seems to know legacy that has lasted fessor and ask questions. join him in Australia. whether it was a planting 50 years, and unknowingly

But the quality of image And Internet? or the coincidence of a created an icon that for and sound on computer is Hendrickson says it will wooded countryside. many symbolizes the heart not on par with TV yet." continue to link them with Whether benign or pur- of the ASC campus.

Also on the drawing friends in the States—and poseful, it grew undis- "It's one of those things board is the ASC Faculty with her father at his com- turbed and at some point that becomes a cultural

Development Center that puter in Atlanta. became a backyard tree for symbol without the insti- will house four computers —Audrey Arthur a house that once faced tution even knowing it,"

McDonough Street. says Terry McGehee, pro- PLUG IN TO AGNES SCOTT In 1940, houses along fessor of art. "The shape of the street were razed to the tree, with its location, Not only can Agnes Scott receive information by make way tor the construc- has a presence that's network, it can also provide information. tion of Presser Hall and significant beyond the

Alumnae interested in finding out the latest ASC the old dogwood was to be tree itself."

news or who have questions regarding the College can cut down. In battles of access Agnes Scott E-mail at the following Internet beauty versus utility, often Next spring, a self-

address: [email protected]. beauty is sacrificed—espe- guided tour ot trees

On the same E-mail address, alumnae may receive cially when money is on the Agnes Scott cam-

the ASC Fact Sheet, updated four times a year, by send- involved. It would cost pus will be published. The

ing their E-mail address to Sara Pilger, director of com- $10,000, a significant sum Presser Dogwood will not

munications. "This is in response to alumnae's request even today, to change the be among them. "Each

to increase the amount and frequency of news from the plans, relocate the building year its leaves are a little

College," says Pilger. "Alumnae want to use the and save the tree. Yet bit smaller, a little less

College's updated technology and this a good match." that happened. dense," laments Lambert.

"It was a remarkable "There is a lichen growing

35 ON CAMPUS AND CLASSIC —

CLASSIC

on it that indicates decay.

This year, the leaves are

turning and falling much

sooner than they should.

It's slowly dying."

Since Lambert first

noticed the tree was trou-

bled in 1989, she and her

staff have worked to keep

the dogwood alive. A pro-

fessional tree service has

injected it with insecti-

cides and fungicides,

pruned deadwood, applied

soil conditioner and fertil-

izer. During times of

drought, student gardeners

have aerated the soil The ci^in^ Presser Diigunutd, ip'ciemg the amipii.s jor >0 years, jaees the jiUe iif itll /ii'iiii^' things.

around its base and

watered it copiously. an occasion to celebrate Terry McGehee is work- Dogwood, she says no

Lambert estimates over the the Presser Dogwood. "It ing toward that end. The one knows.

past five years, the College will be a chance for the base of the tree and other Certainly trees, living

has spent $1,500 trying to campus community to say large portions could be alongside us on a scale so

keep it alive. good-bye," she says. stored tor a year and slowly different from our own,

It is a tremendously A new tree will be air dried. Then she would embody whole histories.

large tree for its species. planted nearby. Lambert is determine how much of And occasionally—only

And old. The severe undecided whether it will the wood is good, how occasionally—one like the

weather of the past several he another dogwood. much is rotten, where it Presser Dogwood grows

years—too much water "We've planted hundreds splits. Some could be used around us, becomes part

this year, too little last of trees in the past few by students for sculpting of our history, and we a

has taken its toll. It no years," she says. "It will be and woodcarving. And part ot it.

longer has the reserves to interesting to see it any of McGehee could turn the —Bill Bangham is a writer in

regain its former vigor. them develop the interest rest of it into something of the Atlanta area

"What's happening to the Presser Dogwood has, a remembrance.

the Presser though I doubt any will." For McGehee, Dogwood memo- EDITOR'S NOTE: J/ 70M

happens to trees all around Sometime after that, the ries of working with wood have remembrances—

thoughts, feelings, anecdotes, us," she says. "It has old tree will be cut down. date back to childhood. maybe photographs—of the reached the end of Wliat will happen to Last summer while inspect- Presser Dogwood that could it's life." tree the wood from the Presser ing a downed in be incorporated into the

Next year, in February, Dogwood is anyone's guess. Colorado, she found in the celebration on Arbor Day

please send them to: on the third Friday, Arbor Lambert hopes someone middle of it an old saw dat- Victcrria Lambert Day will be celebrated on will have a grand idea and ing from the mid- 1800s. Campus Services the Scott campus. create Agnes something of lasting While she doubts anything Agnes Scott College

Lambert hopes to make it remembrance. will be found in the Presser Decatur, GA 30030.

36

AnwRt; cr^oTT noT i cric • cat i loo^ ET CETERA

Enrollment steady, cops on hikes, historic preservation, faculty giidng, magazines praise ASC, a death in the family and other campus news

FAMILY planes to travel around the Growing up in Alasl

deserted island for a week- land on water, Bloomfield

end of camping and fishing says her favorite place to

is a normal part of life for visit was an island in the

Jamie Bloomfield, Class of middle of a river. "It was

'98. Of course, Bloomfield far away from anything and

spent the first 1 7 years of was sunounded by beautiful

her life in Anchorage, mountains."

Alaska, and says all of her Bloomfield, who came Lexington, Ky., is one of at Agnes Scott this fall.

friends' families used air- to Agnes Scott from 209 new students enrolled She chose Agnes Scott

over other schools because

she feels more comfortable

TO: ALL ALUMNAE with smaller classes. She is

on the Agnes Scott soccer FROM: The Presidential Search Committee team and plans to try out Clair McLeod MuUer '67, Chairperson for tennis in the spring.

While none of the other our last progress report, the Presidential Search Committee informed you that new students noted spend- Inwe were inviting to the campus those people who we believed would fill most ing summers and weekends closely the current needs of Agnes Scott. We were very pleased to announce that

flying over Alaska, the list three individuals accepted our invitation to visit the campus. of their accomplishments Each of these visitors spent two and a half days on campus during November,

and diverse experiences is meeting in small and large groups with various constituencies of the Agnes Scott impressive. community so that they could learn more about the College. They come from 23 dif- Members of the search committee have referred repeatedly to the priorities which ferent states, Puerto Rico, were developed at the begirming of the search after wide consultation with the ASC the Virgin Islands, Greece, community. We have taken the time necessary for careful review of candidates and the Netherlands and the for discussion of the views of members of the committee as we worked toward con- Ukraine. sensus at every point. Agnes Scott deserves no less. As a result, we presented our The 153 first-year finalists to the campus community with enthusiasm and confidence. students represent the very Immediately following these visits, the search committee will meet again to devel- best from high schools op our recommendation to the Board of Trustees according to the committee's initial around the country. Sixty- charge. Very soon we hope to announce the new President of Agnes Scott College. three percent graduated in

the top 20 percent of their

37 ETCETERA —

ET CETERA

class with 43 percent explains that the hike reaching the top 10 per- patrol allows the ASC FIRST^YEAR ENROLLMENT UP cent. Oi the students who police to cover more terri- were graded on a four-point tory and to respond more The fall 1994 enrollment reflected an 11 percent scale, the average GPA quickly in certain emergen- increase in first-year students (153 compared with

was 3.42. cies. On day one of the 138 last year) and a steady level, overall.

Twenty-six are Retum- patrol, for instance, bicycle A total of 594 students are enrolled, with 472 repre-

to-CoUege (RTC) students officers were on the scene senting the traditional undergraduate population. The

whose ages range from 24 to back up an arrest of a remainder include Retum-to-CoUege, Master of Arts in

to 65 years—the average suspected felon on College Teaching, post-baccalaureate, and Year-5 students.

age, 38. Avenue, then days later Stephanie Balmer, acting director of admission,

Thirty-three percent were essential in the appre- notes that this level of enrollment offers students the

of the new students have hension of a drug offender. advantage of a favorable teacher-student ratio (1 to 7),

family or friends who are "We have more contact and class size (the average, 13).

Agnes Scott alumnae—one with the public in one hour

mother, two grandmothers, on the bikes than we nor- hour shift," says Drew. more noticeable."

one great-grandmother, mally have in a full eight- "Bike cops," he says, "are Campus people and

one sister, two cousins and neighbors alike note their

one great-aunt. One RTC Officers Curtii Parrott and Dana Patterson patroling ASC campus. efforts. Harry Wistrand,

joins her daughter, already biology professor and Avery

an Agnes Scott student. Street neighbor, appreciates

Sheryl Jackson is a freelancer the "increased visibility and

Imng in the Atlanta area interaction" that he

believes "enhance the PEDAL College and the surround- POWER ing community." PATROLS Emory University, DeKalb County and the With a slight change City of Decatur have also in uniform (shorts) recently begun bike patrol

and the purchase of appro- programs.

priate (two-wheel) equip- —Sara Pilger is director of

ment, the Agnes Scott ASC communications.

College Police Department inaugurated a bicycle patrol ASC MAKES program this summer with NATIONAL four of the 1 1 ASC officers DIRECTORY trained for this duty. The patrol serves during Already, the admission

daylight hours only and office has received

is in addition to the 3,100 inquiries from

previous level of vehicle students who have read

and foot patrols. about Agnes Scott College

Police Chief Rus Drew in two editions of Private

38 — —

ET CETERA

Colleges & Universities. education," says (acuity and financial

directories Balmer. "We resources, The pub- / Ooll, graduation rates

that the / lished in February 1994 know '"fS"'" —.,, and alumnae satisfaction

'"" include a two-page feature/ more personal- ' - ' reflected in giving levels. photo spread on Agnes ized attention U.S. News noted that

Scott and are distributed to the student gets during the College's percentage students who take their the recruitment period, the ot tirst-year students

PSAT or PACTs. One edi- more likely she will be to within the top 10 percent tion focuses on students in enroll." ot their high school the Southeast region; the Students enrolled this BmRMlSSlON class—60 percent— is COVER PHOTOS USED other edition is distributed fall received bet\veen 1 2 to second only to Birming- nationwide. 20 contacts from Agnes the tuitions they charge, ham Southern's 67 percent

While a strong response Scott students, staff and according to a recent within the same category. was expected from the alumnae. Sheryl Jackson Money magazine special Agnes Scott continues

Southeast, a number of issue. Money Guide. to climb the list in Money inquiries have come from MAGAZINES U.S. hlews ranked magazine's special issue, the national edition. RANK ASC Agnes Scott and Sweet from number 86 four years Inquiries from Georgia FIRST RATE Briar College in Virginia as ago to last year's ranking of totaled 249. A breakdown tier-rwo schools among 65. The 1995 edition of of responses from students A gnes Scott College was national liberal arts col- the guide also lists the top in states which normally ± \.one of the two high- leges. Agnes Scott ranked buys within several other don't generate a large num- est nationally ranked wom- above Sweet Briar in six of categories. Agnes Scott ber of inquiries shows 418 en's colleges in the South, the 10 categories. U.S. appeared number 1 8 in a from Texas, 108 from according to the Sept. 26 News differentiates list of the 20 best values

Wisconsin, 107 from issue of U.S. News & between national and among small schools with

Michigan and 103 from World Report. It was also regional schools based on traditional liberal arts pro-

California. ranked 55 th among the top the classification of the grams and number 4 of the

These inquiries could 100 colleges and universi- Carnegie Foundation and top 10 values in a women's result in new students by ties which deliver the high- are determined each year college education. die fall of 1995. At that est-quality education for by student selectivity. In creating its rankings time, Stephanie Balmer, each year. Money examines acting director of admis- TO ERR IS HUMAN? 16 key factors that measure sion, says she and her staff education quality' in rela- will carefully check the computer spell check avoids some human error. tion to tuition. Included

were entrance exam results, enrollment to learn how ABut it's not perfect. In this issue, for instance, spell many of these 3,100 check suggested changing Chair of the Biology Depart- high school class rank and become ASC students. ment John Pilger to Pilfer and Pinky Bass '58 to GPA, faculty and library

"As we follow up on Pinkeye. resources, budgets for stu-

these inquiries, we will In the spring issue (page 6), spell check (and the edi- dent services and instruc-

evaluate each high school tor) read right over a reference to Mary Alverta "Bertie" tion, retention and gradua-

student's needs carefully to Bond '53 as Alvera. An alumna caught a second error: tion rates, advanced study,

make sure we recruit stu- In Editor's Note, professor emeritus Kwai Sing Chang student loan default ratios

success of dents who will gain the was roommate of Dean C. Benton Kline Jr. at Princeton and business

most from a private college Theological Seminary, not of Dr. Wallace Alston. graduates. Sara Pilger

39 ON CAMPUS AND CLASSIC ET CETERA

CANDLER ST National Register, a prop- also appeared on a com- worked with Rothstein in a CELEBRATION erty must be at least 50 memorative Coca-Cola focus group with first-year

years old; it must have sig- bottle which was available students. She noted that

Visitors to the nificant history in terms of at the celebration. Rothstein had been

Woodnift Quadrangle architecture, landscape or —Sheryl Jackson involved in Habitat for

on Oct. 9 were transported engineering; it must be Humanity projects at home

back in time to an old- associated with events, LIFE IS and at ASC, and had fashioned small-town developments and people FRAGILE worked on a mission project holiday celebration. important in the past. for her home church, St. Jugglers, music, ice Because inclusion in the We need to take spe- Cloud Presbyterian. cream, Cokes and speeches register recognizes a proper- cial care to support Rothstein also served as

helped guests commemo- ty for historical as well as one another in the difficult a point guard on the ASC

rate the inclusion of architectural significance, times," said Agnes Scott basketball team in 1993-94;

the campus and South Agnes Scott's contribu- Interim President Sally 1 2 of her teammates trav-

Candler Street in the tion figured largely in the Mahoney at a Sept. 26 eled with their coaches to

National Register of application approval. memorial service which St. Cloud for Rothestein's

Historic Places. "The original appli- marked the death of ASC funeral. An AT&T scholar-

According to cation was initiated by student Stephanie ship fund has been estab-

Leslie Sharp, the South Candler Rothstein '97. lished in Rothstein's name

national register Neighbors Rothstein, a native of at ASC and another at St.

specialist in the Association but St. Cloud, Ha., was killed Cloud Presbyterian.

Office of Historic Agnes Scott soon in an automobile accident At the Sept. 26 memori-

Preservation, the joined with the near Lake City, Fla., on al, McRight offered words

district was group, providing Sept. 23; two other ASC of solace to the campus

awarded its place information from our students, Hillary Spencer community. "Death shakes

in the register in archives and finan- '97 of Pensacola, Fla., and us profoundly," she said.

recognition of its cial support," notes Jennifer Phillips '98 of "When we care about peo-

"representative Carolyn Wynens, Gainesville, Fla., were seri- ple we share their pain and

examples of late manager of communi- ously injured in the wreck. we realize how fragile life is

19th and early 20th centu- ty relations and special ASC Chaplain the Rev. for all of us."

ry styles of domestic archi- events for Agnes Scott. Paige McRight '68 had —Mary Alma Durrett

tecture, its variety of houses TTie historic district is

and the academic Gothic defined as the Agnes Scott

Revival architecture on campus plus the first seven

the Agnes Scott College blocks of South Candler

campus which was designed Street (heading south from

by locally prominent East College Avenue) plus

architects." small portions of East Davis

TTie National Register is and East Hancock streets.

the official list of historic The logo designed for

buildings, structures, sites, the neighborhood will

objects and districts worthy appear on building mark-

of preservation. ers, street signs and district Stephanie Rothstein '97 (front row, right), a member of the To be listed in the "boundary" signs. TTie logo basketball team, died recently in an auto accident in Florida.

^0 FEEDBACK

Congratulations on the tine summer AluiTuiae

Miigayne! 1 appreciate your feature about President Ruth Schmidt.

It gives important intor- mation and fine pictures. In your Editor's Note, you mention a paper written

by Karen Green '86. I would like to read her comparison of Jewish and Black church traditions

through music. Would it be possible to get a copy of her paper? Gladys Cotton Sweat '54

Naples, Fla. Interim President Sally Mahoney greets Yoko Saijo, language assistant, during a community-

wide reception in the Agnes Scott College Gazebo this fall. After reading the

"Different Values" article

in the Summer 1994 issue

social community. . . . celebrate important mile- A TIME ot the Agnes Scott TO COME If we wait for perfection stones, like the tenuring of Alumnae Maga::ine, we thought you might be TOGETHER to celebrate our lives, we'll colleagues, or the receipt ot interested in the enclosed never party. I was glad to professional awards or article on cultural diversi- In her first campus address to know about movies on the scholarly prizes that some- ty in historic preservation students, ASC interim quad last year and ot "ice times find note in our [Cultural Diversity: A of President Sally Mahoney breakers" and roller skating College publications or Movement Statewide Efforts in the South, The spoke of directions and as part of leadership devel- national press. I do know ]oumal of the National

. decisions . Here are excerpts opment last week. . that those who welcomed Trust for Historic from her speech: Our obligation here is to me at the Gazebo last Preservation, September- 1993]. Perhaps live within our means and Friday seemed to enjoy the October the most important fact am still largely observ- to improve—through fellowship of the morning. about the article is that it ing and listening. prudent use of available I look forward to explor- is written by two Agnes I Nevertheless, there are resources. The planning ing with all of you the rich Scott graduates [Susan Kidd '78, director, aspects of Agnes Scott that exercises in which we diversity of Agnes Scott Southern Regional Office, resonate with my own engage through shared, College. .. It is important National Trust for type-cast or experience, making me largely faculty-led gover- to refuse to be Historic Preservation, and

think that as a community nance with student and to succumb to type-casting Susan Wall '81, informa- tion coordinator]! we can come together, lay- staff participation, involve others. The Alumnae Magazine ing creative foundations for opportunities for sharpen- I'll be looking this year looks great. Keep up the transition to ing focus, for improving for opportunities to cele- permanent good work and let us

College leadership. And service support through brate accomplishments, to know if we can ever assist you in any way. that the leadership I bring collaboration and new express appreciation, and Susan Kidd '78 to the College during this modes of working together. to see the President's Mount Pleasant, S.C. interim will support the I don't know yet how it House as a place of Susan Wall '81

building of intellectual and is the faculty and the staff hospitality. Charleston, S.C.

41 Agnes Scott College 141 E. College Ave. Decatur, GA 30030

THERESA HOENES '94 AND A CENT

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

The legacy of a professor/scientist: Mary Stuart MacDougall's life

continues to influence students like Hoenes (above) . A retro-

spective of MacDougall's career is one of two journeys into the past we feature as "bookends" to an issue whose content ranges from career opportunities to sexual harassment in the workplace —we take a look (so to speak) at both, as well as offering a photo-essay on ASC graduates who are working in an artists'

colony in Mexico—the project is a true "cultural immersion." And, finally, Marybeth Little Weston Lobdell '48 takes us back a

half century for a visit to the College in 1944. Hers is an era of pleated skirts, cardigans, pearls—and prayers for peace: different, yet not so different at all, from today's ASC campus. Blackfriars' Search for Signs of Intelligent Life • Child Violence • Mother's Mink

i I . EDITOR'S NOTE

Through its connections , Agnes Scott links learning with life , the campus with the world beyond. That may he its ultimate measure of effectiveness

GARY MEEK PHOTO

laughter rang I tudent out on nar; a two-hour speaker's forum

. the Quad one April day in (open to the College and featuring Sihetween the gentle shower ot AGNES leaders and faculty from across the cherry tree petals and the full bloom country); a three-hour research pro-

of dogwoods. For an hour or so stu- ject; and a four-hour, supervised dents spontaneously romped, then internship with a community orga- lingered in our halcyon spring. SCOTT ni-ation (such as The Carter It was one of many beautiful days C O L L E G E Center) or with a community ser- at Agnes Scott that stir in me a \-ice branch of business or

sense of poignancy as I cross the corporation. The program will grassy threshold of campus. During combine academic research and the hour-long drive home—tuned scholarship and bring that to bear

into National Public Radio— 1 am on the community, explains more aware of the leap into a less Blanshei. As students explore how perfect world: the Bolshoi ballerinas learning interconnects, they will on strike in Russia and neighbor also form bonds throughout the

Mexico in the throes of economic city. "The theoretical and the

crisis; Rwandan Hutus massacred by experiential are a two-way street. Tutsi countrymen and a bomb blast What happens during the in Oklahoma City in late April killed more than 160 experience can change theory—and theory can inform adults—and children. experience."

The days when I pause at the brink of less tranquil prospects, words from English poet William Wordsworth Virtual travel by computer through time and space makes

remind that it is recollections of life's beautiful landscapes it as easy for students at Agnes Scott to network with that serve to refresh and inspire, perhaps to lighten that scholars across the Atlantic Ocean as in Atlanta. Today's burden of the mystery of "all this unintelligible world." communications technology actually makes ours a world with myriad landscapes—and few boundaries. It's the connections we make with the world beyond our That was demonstrated so powerfully in late April,

boundaries that offer a clear measure of the instituticm. when television transmitted the indelible image of a life-

Traditionally Agnes Scott students have developed less child cradled in the arms of an Oklahoma rescue

connections through volunteer work, through cultural worker. Days later as I lamented the bombing deaths of 19 exchanges and global experiences in places like South children. National Public Radio reported that five Africa and Soviet Georgia, through internships and infants/children die each day (almost 2,000 a year) at the extemships. hands of parents or caretakers. What happens to children,

Enriched pedagogical and curricular learning with believes law professor Lucy Schow McGough '62, is "the experiential learning are vital to academia says Dean of most important sociological issue" facing our nation.

the College Sarah Blanshei. She notes that the College McGough is one of many alumnae—several featured in will soon take that tradition a step further as it develops a this magazine ("A Prayer for Children," page 18) —who new network of relationships, beginning with the Atlanta stand as strong, articulate advocates for children,

Semester (loosely patterned after American University's especially children in crisis. Interviews for that story

Washington Semester) and an overarching program of remind me that the ultimate measure of this institution is

Women, Leadership and Social Change. "A lot of institu- how it prepares its graduates to cross the threshold of cam-

tions work with individual aspects of this, like writing pus, to combine learning with life and work in the worlds across the curriculum or study abroad. But we are taking a beyond Agnes Scott. holistic approach ot connectedness throughout the institu- tion," says Blanshei. Jj4£:^C^/i-c

Agnes Scott College Alumnae Magazine

Summer 1995, Volume 71 , Number 3 6 DEPARTMENTS

Is It Soup or Is It Art? On Campii.s By Mary Alma Durrett 32 Photos hy Marilyn Suriani

Bhckfriars cook up their own Lifestyle

ivitty concoction of The Search 35 for Signs ot Intelligent Life in the Universe. Classic A Liji^styk Kj 36 Nccdlin' People

... sec pa^e S2 Letters

37

Mother's Mink Givino Alumna By Christine Cozzens Illustration by Ralph Gilbert Editor: Celeste Pennington Contributing Editor: What do you do with a fur coat that you'll never Mary Alma nutrctt wear, but that holds a priceless memory? Editorial Assistant: Audrey Arthur A Prayer for Design: Evetett Hulluni Student Assistants: Children Rolanda Daniel '98 Jennitet Odom '98 By Celeste Pennington Leigh Anne Russell '97 At time violence a when Samantha Stavely '97 '96 threatens to rob the Teaching Ashley Wtight nation's youngsters of their Photo Archivist: Wdla Hendrickson '94 innocence, Agnes Scott Nonviolence in a alumnae and students Violent World Publications Advisory Board; Christine Cozzens work to bring hope into By Plamthodathil S. Jacob Bill Gailey the chaos. '77 The practice of nonviolence Ellen Fott Gfissett Sandi Harsh '95 can be costly; it is a path for Tish McCutchen '73 the courageous and committed. Kay Patkerson O'Briant '70 Emily Pender '95 Sara Pilger Edmund Sheehey Lucia Howard Sizemore '65

Copyright © 1995, Agnes Scott College. Published for alumnae and friends twice a year hy the Office of Puhlications, Agnes Scott College, ^^ ASC World Wide Buttrick Hall, 141 E, College Avenue, Decatur, GA 30030. Web Connections (404) 638-6315. Postmaster: Send address changes to Office of Develop- By Audrey Arthur ment and Public Affairs, Agnes Scott College, Decatur, GA 30030. The COVER AND ABOVE: Osjha Anderson stars Illustration by Richard Hicks content of the magazine reflects the as Tnjdy, the lady, in hag Blackfriars winter of the writers and not the ASC students now have access to the sights and opinions production. She will compete in the Miss Georgia viewpoint of the College, its trustees Pageant in June, photos by marilw suriani sounds of places around the world—and beyond. or administration. ON CAMPUS

ASC intern at The Carter Center, answers to questions about old posture pictures, Olympics on campus, CD-ROM award and more. AMU'S POSTURE GLOBAL PHOTOS AWARENESS scandal of sorts As Nigeria is faced Aerupted when a 1994 with an increasingly article in The New York

defiant military govern- Times Magazine disclosed

ment, Ngozi Amu '95, an that hatches of nude pos-

intern at The Carter ture photos from Northeast

Center, talks frequently colleges had been released

to the U.S. State Depart- for research and were at the

ment, scans daily updates Smithsonian Institution.

and monitors hotspots That disclosure prompted

throughout Africa: Nigeria, pointed questions from one

Ghana and Kenya. or two ASC alumnae who

Amu assists Ahuma remember posture photos

Adodoadji, acting director taken when they were Carter Center intern Nfj^uzi Amu '95 of Swederi blends an of the African Gover- first-year students. international outlook with a strong joeus on human rights. nance Program at The A tradition among

Carter Center in Atlanta. between peoples ot visiting in South Africa many private colleges from

Among her duties are different nations." and Botswana where she the 1930s through 1970,

briefings about Africa for Amu grew up in lived with a black African posture photos were

former President Jimmy Gotenborg, a port city family and gained insight designed to help students

Carter, who is preparing wedged between Denmark into the life and culture. identify and correct spinal

for a visit to Africa. and Norway along She has also studied in problems such as scoliosis.

"Amu reads and Sweden's Gold Coast. Her France at the Sorbonne At least that was the pur-

quickly summarizes situa- father is a Nigerian busi- and the University of pose at ASC, says Kate

tions," notes Adodoadji. nessman; her mother is La Rochelle. McKemie, physical educa-

"She is a good writer and Swedish. "1 am particularly tion instructor with the

because of her Nigerian She is fluent in three interested in democracy College from 1956 to 1988

heritage, she understands languages, and will gradu- and human rights issues," who took posture photos.

the factors involved ate from Agnes Scott this says Amu. "I'd like to "We checked for postural

there." spring with a double major work with the educational curves and did find some

Agrees Amu: "As a in International Relations development of African atypical postures, and stu-

person of two nationali- and French. She aspires to children, and to affect dents were counseled on

ties, Swedish and a career in international policy and promote cul- measures to improve."

Nigerian, 1 have always diplomacy and law. tural diversity and under- Lucia Sizemore '65,

felt a need to contribute She participated in the standing." director of alumnae affairs,

to cultural understanding Global Awareness Program —Carol)!?! Blunk is a remembers that the Agnes

and communication during the winter of 1993, freelance writer. Scott photos were taken as

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • SUMMER 1995 privately and tastefully as watchful eyes of Yale key Olympic Games per- interrupt that schedule

possible, with students University officials, the sonnel and for sports train- and delay the College's

dressed in underwear. She Smithsonian burned its ing. From early July 1996 fall .semester, which

also remembers that stu- posture pictures. through the Olympic will begin iii September

dents disliked the practice For the record, McKemie Games, teams in synchro- rather than late August.

enough to feature skits does admit that those nized swimming, N'ollcyball Agnes Scott's participa-

about posture photos dur- Agnes Scott posture pic- and soccer will practice in lion uill benefil the

ing Black Cat high -jinx. tures she took, as well as the ASC sports complex. College both in name

Even though the ASC older posture photos that A delegation ot Irish recognition and as a "val- physical education she located in the base- dignitaries will be housed ued institutional partner department quit mak- ment ot Presser in the Anna Young with the Olympics," adds

ing posture photos in Hall, were burned Alumnae Hiuise. The Irish t;,irolyn Wynens, manager

the late 1960s, more than two selected Decatur as a base ot community relations

McKemie says ques- decades ago. ot operations during the and special events.

tions about posture McKemie will Olympics. —Audrey Arthur photos continue to probably con- The College also is circulate during tinue to bedev- negotiatiing with the class reunions il inquiring Atlanta Olympic Orga- GIRL'S with at least one alumnae with nizing Committee EDUCATION or two alumnae fret- her mischie- (ACOG) for additional ADVERTISING

"1 ting, "Where are my ' vous reply: Olympic-related activity. CAMPAIGN posture pictures?" burned every- The Paralympic organi- Women's College That question has one's posture zation has also expressed The Coalition and the been put to rest for picture .. . except serious interest in using Advertising Council, Inc., those whose photos ended yours." the campus in August after have joined forces to pro- up at the Smithsonian. —Teresa Kelly '94 the Olympic Games. mote "Expect the Best from Recently, under the MAT student Normally during the Girl," a public service summer break, Agnes a

campaign on behalf ot girls' ASC CULTURAL OLYMPIAD Scott facilities are used tor wtimen's achievements camps, conferences and and in education. Designed to Agnes Scott will host The Conference on meetings. The Olympic encourage girls to acquire the kick-off event for Southern Literature, Games participation will the Cultural Olympiad's hosted by the College,

Olympic Summer Festival will include discussions by on June 2-9, as part of the European scholars of

100th anniversary celebra- Southern literature and tion of the 1996 Olympic public readings by a num-

Games in Atlanta. ber of major and up-and-

The multidisciplinary coming Southern authors. summer festival, scheduled The conference will for June 2-Aug. 3, will include a book fair. feature more than 25 Agnes Scott's size and exhibits and 200 perfor- location also make it a mances in 30 venues. desirable site for housing

ON CAMPUS ON CAMPUS

the skills and competencies who can help empower

necessary to succeed in girls, and to the girls them-

today's world, the cam- selves, who will be making

paign began with television choices that aftect their

advertisements in mid- lives.

August. As the first-ever gender-

The Women's College specific campaign, the ads

Coalition (ASC is a mem- recognize that under-

ber) estimates the cam- achievement in girls and

paign will generate $25 women is a national prob-

million a year in tree public lem. Girls who under-

service time and ad space. achieve in school (often HABITAT HOME BODIES

Targeting parents ot influenced by gender bias)

members the class '97 worked during fifth- through ninth-grade may experience low levels Eleven of of Spring Break at the headquarters of Habitat for girls, this 15-year campaign of achievement throughout

Humanity in Americus, Ga., a nonprofit Christian organi- encourages parents to their lives and careers.

that provides howing the poor. The Americus become advocates for their The campaign begins zation for

headquarters builds 60 to 80 houses per year, compared to daughters at school. The with television ads; print

the 15 to 18 built by affiliate volunteers. Volunteers began ads also appeal to teachers, ads will follow in the fall. each day with a group devotional. During the week, stu- ANNUAL FUND DONORS UP dents split into workgroups and helped with roofing, paint- ing, laying plywood or tile for floors and hanging sheetrock.

Chaplain Paige McRight led the devotion Thursday morn- As Agnes Scott prepares to welcome Mary Brown ing, and all volunteers were honored in a firud service with Bullock '66 as its seventh president, "the best gift thank-you mementos. —Samantha Stavely '97 the College can give her is a fully funded annual oper-

ating budget," believes Adelia P. Huffines, director ot major gifts. "TTie best indication of support her fellow CD'ROM "ONE multimedia presentation, alumnae can give is to generously participate in the OF THE BEST" was made for prospective Annual Fund campaign." students and parents.

The number of donors is up for the 1994-95 cam- Atter a New York edu- Pop the CD into a paign compared to this time last year, but the total cation/media consul- computer with a CD-

dollars are down. tant browsed through ROM port, and get an

As of late March, 2,119 donors had given a total Agnes Scott's interactive introduction to Agnes

of $722,982 to all funds. "With roughly two months multimedia recruitment Scott (music,

remaining in the College's fiscal year, we need assis- presentation on compact sound.

tance in reaching our important goal of $1.2 million," disk (CD), he typed back a

continues Huffines. note on the Internet: I

Former Agnes Scott College Director of have seen CDs from other

Development jean Kennedy recently joined Brenau institutions and this is one

University as director of alumnae affairs. of the best in the country.

Sarah Cave, a Wake Forest graduate associated The ASC CD, which

with the ASC development office since 1994, was recently won the top

recently named acting directcir of the Annual Fund. national CASE competi-

tion award for interactive

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • SLWMER 1995 ON CAMPUS

dazzling still and mo\ing it's truly multimcxlia (not firmed my expectations ot include c;n-ROMs. pictures, animated graph- just a slide-show on com- Agnes Scott" which he Now the College ics and type, to literally puter); and it dovetails had gleaned from sources admission office has place the College on the with, but does not repeat such as the Princeton moved into phase two, map). Then access infor- verbatim, information in Rei'ieu' and the Fiske mailing 1,500 additional mation on more than 30 ASC's printed admission Guide to Colleges. "You copies ot the CDs—tor use topics or questions about recruitment pieces. can accomplish m an on either Macintosh or the College from acade- "We wanted to take interactive CD things you IBM computers—to mics to residence halls, this a step further than cannot in a video" prospective students who from alumnae to financial any college CD programs he says. request the program and aid and application dead- we had seen," notes "The first VX CDs, for to guidance counselors. lines. Among the ques- Jenifer Cooper of Melia Macintosh computers, Portions ot the program tions the CD answers is, Design Group in Atlanta were distributed by admis- also are being used to cre-

"Why choose a liberal arts who wiirked with the sion staff during the tall ate "Agnes Scott on the college.'" College to produce the 1994 travel season," World Wide Web," via

For instance, select the program. "We wanted it reports Stephanie Balmer, the Internet (see page 30), residence halls option and to be fun and visually director of admission. and being included in take a visual walk through exciting." "More high schools than multimedia programs pro- a real student room via A \-iewer who explores we had predicted had the duced by several college sound and images from a ever^' menu option spends technology to use com- guidebook companies. hand-held video camera. about an hour learning pact disk." Questionnaire Alumnae interested in

The CD's fine audio about Agnes Scott. responses indicated an obtaining a copy of the and visual details often Donald Sharkus, father overwhelming interest; CD to share with a prospec- surprise students. But of Virginia applicant even rural schools have tive student or school guid- technical gimmickry is not Astrid Sharkus, has used the technological capabil- ance office may contact the what pushes this product the College's multimedia ities because they receive ASC Office of AcJmi.ssion

1 grants for that at 1-800-868-8602. to the cutting edge. Com- . CD. "What saw con- computers

munication does. The pro- gram is easy to interface; THIRD CONSECUTIVE FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR

For the third successive year, an Agnes of sculpture in the 13th-century cathedral Scott senior has been awarded a in Naumburg, near Halle, by attending

Fulbright Scholarship. Katie Stromberg of seminars and researching general German

Erwin, Term., will continue her ASC history and theory of art.

independent study at Martin Luther Both Halle and Naumburg are located

University in Halle, Gemiany. in what was previously East Germany.

With an interdisciplinary major in Stromberg follows ASC Fulbright

art history and German, Stromberg '95 Scholars Jennifer Jenkins '94, who is

has studied sculpture of the cathedral in studying European politics in Frankftirt,

Naumberg, Germany, and 20th century Germany, and Laura Barlament '93, who

texts written about the sculpture. She is in\'estigated German literature at the

interested in furthering her investigation University of Constance in 1993-94. asc

ON CAMPUS —

IS IT SOUP OR IS IT ART? By Mary Alma Durrett Photos by Marilyn Suriani

The Blackfriars ''Fifteen minutes to places." people as it had for opening night of the previ- smell of hair spray perfumes the air. ous play. The Visit. cook up a witty The Jennie Alhritton '97 of Paducah, It's opening night for The Search for Signs of theatrical Kentucky, digs through a small green Intelligent Life in the Unii'erse by Jane Wagner. production that chest and offers an actor advice, "I really don't The play scrutinizes life in much the same way think you need hlack lipstick." A dozen young the character Trudy scrutinizes a can of feeds the soul. women huddle hefore a long, lighted mirror, Cambell's soup and an Andy Warhol painting putting the finishing touches on makeup and of a can of Campbell's soup. costumes. The miracle of wigs and aerosol Backstage, Lucree van den Huevel '98 color transforms shades of hlonde and hrown and Christina Rinaldi '98 carefully tag and

hair to black and red. With greasepaint, colle- place props on tables in the wings. Lent giate women are transmogrified into house- crouches at the curtain's edge with a dim

wives, hookers and homeless bag ladies. It is a flashlight reviewing the prompt book. Brook scene further colored by long-stemmed roses Partner '98 tiptoes behind the stage with her from fathers and boyfriends, the language of shoes in her hand, mouthing the lines of the night and the energy of youth. Various character Kate, a bored socialite.

show tunes rise up from their tender lungs. Assistant stage manager Erica Lent '98 appears "Ten minutes to places" at the dressing room doorway to announce the Converging in the Green Room, the impending opening of the Blackfriars' produc- group offers a collective "thank you"

tion. The group's anxiety and volume take a to the barker at the door. At the cen-

measurable leap. ter of the room is a big basket of Hershey's Hugs and Kisses with a note of support to the

"Chloe, I can hear you out front." cast and crew from director, N.J. Stanley. stage hand admonishes the acting All actors are preparing for their entrances troupe and Chloe Sehr '98 of San —many dip into the chocolate for good luck. A Francisco—who's readying herself for Costumed students are scattered about. Some her part as a 15 -year-old performance artist pace, some stare silently, some read, some in

to he quiet. It appears that their weeks of work headsets listen to music. Others discuss school,

in Winter Theatre and the creative publicity the O.J. Simpson trial, family members in the

On opening night. Director are paying off. The house has twice as many audience. 'They came all the way from

N.J. Stanley offers final Asheville?" words of encour- Upstairs in the booth, beneath the cool agement and blue glow of a few tiny lamps, Jennifer advice in the Parker '97 and Emily Pender '95 stand ready Green Room. tor the lighting cues; Alicia Quirk (an exchange student from Mills College), the

sound designer, sits alert at the controls, headset firmly clamped down over her ears. They mumble to one another in low voices. Out front, in the lobby of Dana Fine

Arts, is a line at the box office that pleases house manager Cecelia Heit '97. Blackfriars used e-mail and voice-mail messages from characters in the play to invite attendance.

Fliers with such teasers as "What is Reality?

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • SUMMER 1995 Chloe Sehr '98 is transformed into 15-year'uld Af^nus.

Emily Pender '95 (left) and Wendy Wheles

Trudy knows," paper the residence halls and sound from the stage. cafeteria. Two-for-one ticket coupons were From the booth above passed out to strategic campus offices. the audience, assistant Osjha Anderson '96, who plays the lead, director and stage manager hops into the Green Rot)m covered in Post- Wendy Wheless '95 gives the verbal go-ahead. it notes. The actors are amused and their volume level again rises. Stanley offers "Start the show." Anderson a few final words of critique. Trudy comes to lite as the centerpiece in "Let's see your hands. The dirt is good. Let's Wagner's feminist production, The see the back. Good." Search for Signs. From out ot the dark- Dudley Sanders, associate professor and ness the aging bag lady shuffles on to the stage, ASC's version scene designer, gives the group a final her "negotiable" hair juts Medusa-like toward of The Search for "shush!" As if preparing for a marathon, the spotlights. Signs of Intelligent Anderson shakes out her legs and quietly paces. Here we are, standing on the corner Life in the Universe of Walk, Don't Walk. departed from "Places." You look away from me, try in' not actress Lily Stanley gives Anderson a hug and sends to catch my eye, but you didn't turn fast Tomiin's one- her to the curtained edge of the stage enough, did you?. . . Look at me. .. wing. The Green Room grows silent. In I'm not just talking to myself, woman Broadway unison the group leans toward the electronic J'm talking to you, too. performance by speaker that pipes in sound from Scratching, pointing, pontificating, she using 14 different turns her contorted mug toward the audi- artists to flesh ence and dispenses kernels of Truth from out an array of the yellow Post-it note files that decorate her recycled frock. characters.

It's my belief we all, at one time or another, secretly ask ourselves the ques-

tion, "Am I crazy?" In my case, the answer came back: A resounding YES!

The character Trudy, a former marketing

IS IT SOUP OR IS IT ART!

"

Trudy: "They

'0 find it hard to grasp some things that come easy to

us. ... I show 'em this can of Campbell's tomato

soup, then I show 'em a picture of Andy Warhol's painting of a can of Campbell's tomato

soup. 'This is soup.

This is art.'

OSJHA ANDERSON '96 IS THE BAG LADY TRUDY. Agnus: "No matter how much contempt I have for society, it's nothing compared with the contempt society has for

CHLOE SEHR '98 SPEWS THE ANGST OF AGNUS, THE TEENAGE PERFORMANCE ARTIST

-T r-f-ii I PHF • <;i ;mmfr 1995 Lyn: "(Edic] thinks

Marge and I are too middle-ofthe- \ road, and maybe ^

we are. But I have marched and rallied

till I'm bleary-eyed.'

JENNIFER NETTLES '97 PLAYS EVERYWOMAN IN LYN.

I V .

whi: who skidded off the edge of reality ing for the stage presence and energy to "fill

some time in the late '70s, is the smelly, dis- the stage." In Trudy's case, the character must

heveled, off-kilter personification of human fill the theatre. Stanley's ability to recognize

weakness and optimism. She's a roving para- potential in these actors is intuition honed by

dox, if you will, with the ability' to "tune experience. She's directed 26 plays including in" to other people's lives Search, has a Ph.D. in theatre from Indiana through her self-described University- and has worked in theatre since

mental "dial switching." before her undergraduate days at Louisiana Trudy's talent also affords her State University. Stanley asks Blackfriars to

the privilege of ushering a con- submit to the same sort of auditions as "real

tingent of "space chums" world" actors.

through the theatrical parade "The first night of auditions, I require a

route of life. prepared monologue. I prefer that it not be

Immediately, laughter rises from the play we will produce. This is stan- from the audience. Relieved, a dard procedure in professional theatre," says thespian in the Green Room pro- the director. For Search, auditions began in

nounces: "It's a good crowd." On September, just days after the students

this opening night, Nov. 2, the returned to campus. "The second night

crowd tails in love with Trudy. It invoh-es cold readings. 1 assign people a

IS a polished performance from a scene (1 chose 15 from Search for Signs) and

young woman who two months ear- usually ha\'e them read two or three parts. 1

lier hadn't the slightest notion she always see e\-eryone twice." would be accepting the lead role. Once cast, the 14 actors—all of whom — "J. always jokes that she cast me have prior theatrical experience ^begin because of my hair," says Anderson, a long rehearsals squeezed in between classes, native ot Glenn\ille, Ga., in a pre- study, club meetings and occasional eating

Jennie Albritton '97 production interview. Trudy was the and sleeping. In less than six weeks, the helps Brook Partner '98 pre- "last role in the entire play that 1 troupe must move from choppy distinct per- pare for her rok as Kate. thought she would cast me for. It is so oppo- formances of 14 separate characters, to a site to my own character. I'm normally real fluid, theatrical soup. contained." The multi-actor approach to Search (chosen in order to in\'olve many student

I refuse to be irttimidated by reality actors) is a marked departure from Lily

anymore. After all, what is reality anyway? Tomlin's Broadway \'ersion, performed as a Nothin but a collective hunch. one-woman show. Although play publishers

could not confirm it, Stanley believes that

"Search for Signs Trudy is far from contained. She mo\'es Blackfriars is mounting the first such ren-

across the stage, sweeps through the audi- dering. The risk is that segmenting the play is a perfect case ence, up into the balcony, talking and ges- could undermine a central message—the in point with no turing non-stop. During the play she allows "connectedness" of the universe—which traditional begin- her space chums and the audience to peek Trudy artfully interprets; "E\-ery particle ning, middle or in on the li\'es of 13 other characters who affects every other particle everywhere." run the gamut from a frustrated housewife to "Conceptually, Tomlin performed with end. It's very a narcissistic jock to an anguished teenager. no props and very little scenery; this

open-ended. "Superficially, all the characters are allowed Lily, by the transformation of her There's revelation stereotypical," comments Stanley. "The body and face, to just stand there. We had challenge is to tlesh them out and make to create sequences, opportunities for peo- but not necessarily them complex." ple to come off and on stage," notes the resolution." director. The script had no instructions for "1 The hwrian mind is kind of like blocking movement around the stage.

a pifiata. When it breaks open, there' re was starting with a completely clean slate.

a lot of siaprises iriside It was scary at first, making all these choices The streets of New York City are Trudy's and watching it all gel." stage. Anderson won the role through

her ability to convey the strengths and M_\ space chums think

weaknesses of humanity. Director Stanley, t7i\ unique hookup with himianity assistant professor of theatre since 1993, says could be evolution's awkward attempt

for Trudy and all the other roles, she was look- to jump-start itself up again.

12

ACNES SCOTT COLLEGE • SLTklMER 1995 Risky, too, was the play selection, full of her father, her grandparents, all of society adult language. In the afterword to the and its social conventions. printed version of Search, critic Marilyn

French hails the piece as "the first work 1 J'?7i gettirig my act know that simply takes it as a given that a together and I'm mass audience will accept feminist attitudes, throwing it in your face! that proceeds on the assumption these atti- Misunderstood and starving for atten- tudes are shared and that, therefore, does tion, Agnus is angry with the world. not lecture, hector or even underline." Says She telephones her problems to a

". Stanley: "I don't like plays that simply radio "shrink": .. the court gave me to my entertain. The writuig [in Search] is witty dad. He's a gene-splicer, a bio-husine.ssman at and intelligent. It's spiritual in a uni\ersal this research lab of misapplied science, where sense. In a very optimistic way, Trudy cele- he's working on some new bio-form he thinks brates humanity." he'll be able to patent. He doesn't get that 1

am a new bio-form."

If evolution was worth its salt, Personifying the angst of

by now it should've evolved into something her age, Agnus spews:

better than survival of the fittest . ..

1 think a better idea would be No matter how much

survival of the wittiest .. . That way, contempt 1 have for

the creatures that didn't survive society, it's nothing could' ve died laughing. compared to the contempt society has for me.

Search is the kind of work Stanley and others have in mind for the theatre and "Clearly, we had to dance department. "We are trying to create have someone in the part a justifiable vision now (as we go through with enough 'oomph' to Ashley Seaman '95 applies our academic review). There are two driving deliver that performance," notes Stanley. makeup as she and Lisa forces: to increase commitment to address- "Fortunately Chloe wanted Agnus and she Hayes '98 (right) become the ing the contributions of women in theatre got Agnus." Sehr was one of the actors who characters Edie and Marge. by producing plays that focus cin women's developed the character herself, choreo- lives and are written by women, and in the graphing her own Un Club performance. realm of curriculum, to ftirther explore "Young actors get caught up on the idea women theatre artists and their innova- that they're a vessel and I'm supposed to fill tions," says director Stanley. them," explains Stanley. "In the real world,

Stanley's "Female Identity and the the actor begins the process first" and brings Making of Theatre" class studies feminist the character interpretation to the stage. theory in terms of "how it has expanded our With Search for Signs, some students did, understanding of how theatre works. some didn't.

Women, especially in the last 20 years, have Dealing with a cast virtually the same age been creating new forms of theatre. Women (average age: 20) presents unique challenges writers have disregarded traditional play for the director as does the rehearsal sched- (climactic) structure, creating new kinds of ule. Nearly every actor runs through her structure. Search for Signs is a perfect case in lines and movement separate from any other point with no traditional beginning, middle (with a couple of exceptions) until roLighly a or end. It's very open-ended. There's revela- week before the plays opens. Since most of tion but not necessarily resolution." the character performances are monologue

Performance art as it has come to be vignettes, Stanley feels this approach will known in the past 20 years is "the place for allow one-on-one direction with every cast women to control their own work—to speak member. their own words with their own voices. A For major characters this proves benefi- lot of it is autobiographical." cial. In her earliest rehearsals, young

Chloe Sehr, as character Agnus, demon- Anderson plays Trudy as a palsied grand- strates the form on stage. Appearing against mother who speaks in a falsetto. "I've got to a red backdrop at the definitely declasse Un work on the voice," admits Anderson in a Club, Agnus, a 15-year-old, writhes tie-died moment of frustration during a mid-October and chain-draped on the floor. In pseudo- run through. exhibitionist style, the woman-child trashes "You've a lot of things to keep up with,"

13

IS IT SOUP OR IS IT ART.' consoles Stanley, who offers direction on new outrageous gesture or turn every time

timing, movement and vocal range. "Right the director yells "move." It is a break- now, virtually none of your movements through moment. have motivation. Trudy as a true eccentric

can do anything just hecause she feels like / love to do this old joke: I wait for some

it. We're going to do some exercises." music-loving tourist from one of the hotels Stanley climhs from the darkness of the on Central Park to go up and ask someone,

empty "house" that night and joins Ander- "How do I get to Carnegie Hall?" Then 1

son on the lighted rehearsal stage. runup and yell, "Practice!" "Imagine that the

body is not a straight Trudy has arrived, she is completely off

line held together hy a the edge and actor Anderson knows it.

spine," she gestures "That felt so much better."

erectly. "It's a rubber The character is an admitted "stretch" for

band." She coaxes Anderson. "I have had little to draw on. I Anderson to follow her took MARTA and watched a bag lady. She

through a host of out- was really the first woman street person that rageous movements I've seen." Mimicking some of the bag lady's and sounds. They motions and heeding Stanley's direction, work in what seems a Anderson moves Trudy toward a true eccen-

chaos on stage: crawl- tric. "Every night 1 get looser and looser. J. ing, stamping, shov- helped me knock down some inhibitions." ing, yelling, pacing. Among the most challenging characters

Director Stanley watches Anderson becomes Trudy; her delivery to create is Lyn, portrayed by Jennifer Osjha Anderson '96 apply continues with more physical emphasis. Nettles '97 of Douglas, Georgia. Lyn as finishing touches to her makeup. Everywoman, dominates the stage in a 45-

I never could've done stuff like minute monologue and ties together many

that when J ivas iri my right mind. loose ends that other characters leave hang-

rdbe worried people would think ing. "I feel really connected with Lyn; we

I was crazy. When 1 think of the fun I have a lot of the same opinions," notes the

missed, I try not to he hitter. Spanish/sociology-anthropology major, who's never seen the Lily Tomlin version of

Stanley's oral instruction continues: "I her character. "If I had seen it I would have

want you to think of your face and what you thought that's how Lily did it, that's the can do with your face. Think about things right way. The hardest part for me was that

that you've never been able to do with your- Lyn's age ran from my age to her 40s. I self in conventional theatre—slurping, suck- haven't been through a lot of the things ing, burping, cooing, growling." she's been through." Anderson obliges with a sort of monkey Yet Nettles has taken Lyn beyond the face contortion adding dabs of twitching director's expectations. "1 think she's made

and itching. Yells Stanley from the darkness Lyn a lot more interesting than I remember of the house, "You may never have this Lily's portrayal," observes Stanley. "She did

chance again. You are in this tiny little box a lot of preliminary work, defining Lyn's

called 'realistic theatre.' You don't have to emotional and psychological state."

be. I release you." Trudy takes her cue. Stanley's style as a director is "not to stroke our egos," offers Ashley Seaman '95, Never underestimate the power of Gainesville, Florida. At the same time of the human mind to forget. The other the director has succeeded in coaxing the

day, I forgot where I put my house keys— brazen, lesbian feminist, Edie, out cif the

looked everywhere, then 1 remembered even-tempered, agreeable Seaman.

I don't have a house. "I wasn't sure I could do it," confides the

anthropology/religion major. "I began [gain- Stanley acknowledges Anderson's head- ing insight] by studying feminists and femi- way at the rehearsal yet pushes her further. nist theologians and began to identify with

"You're making baby steps. There's no time Edie's anger. She is a separatist, which I

for baby steps. We've got to make quantum identify with and is happy with herself. But

leaps. I want Trudy to burst through space." to call myself a lesbian and have a lover

Anderson tries again, this time making a kind of took my breath away. At first I felt

14

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • SUMMER 1995 .

like I was risking Ashley's reputation in On opening night, diminuti\e Quirk some way. What will people think'" must occasionally rise from her seat in the Yet since Seaman donned the camou- control booth and peek o\er the sizable flage fatigues, rihhed tank shirt, Birken- sound board to see the precise mox'cment on stocks and, yes, arm-pit hair, she telt "very stage. Strategically, she hits the white-hot powerful," fully capahle of doing a real live electrical sound button— ;;;;it—which ush- fight-the-power-style Edie. There's much to ers in Trudy's latest dial-switching experi- be learned from these characters, stresses ence. Pender, at the light board, alters the Seaman. "The only person in the play that background color of the stage as a dex'ice for Ft^r the most part, becomes jaded is Marge. Even the prosti- changing course (time and place) in Lyn'> there is a sense of tutes [played by Bayo Gary '98 and Lorie lengthy monologue or for moving Agnus optimism throu^'h- Summers '98] don't become jaded. For the from her grandparents' house to her gig at most part, there is a sense of optimism the Un Club. With a steady hand, Valerie out, that there's throughout, that there's something just '98 follows a Case Trudy with spotlight; she something; just around the comer. Maybe that is Wagner's crisscrosses the stage, climbs stairs, trans- around the corner. message." verses the balcony. Props are sparse and cos-

tumes are off-the-rack sixties, seventies, While Seaman and other actors eighties styles, so lighting and sound are the breathe life into their characters, key effects. With 124 light and sound cues,

theatre associate professor Dudley Stanley jokes, "It's looking like a musical." Sanders and a handful of students have designed and constructed the austere set for Awe, sweet mystery of life, Search. Following Stanley's style notes, at last I've found thee. Sanders created a space reflecting the "curvi- Trudy belts out a big one, crooner style, linear flow of outer and inner space ... a as part of the final farewell to her space streamlined universe where story takes prece- chums and reflects on the many revela- dence over theatrical effect." To accomplish tions about life that she has found during the this, Sanders built two connected black ramps transcontinental travelogue—most notably, that converge against a black backdrop. the final goose-bump experience that the orig-

Through an elaborate array of lighting inal audience was afforded at the Shubert

(designed by Sanders) and sound cues (by Theatre: Trudy ascends the ramp one last Quirk), the audience can leap with the char- time, hauling her shopping bags and admiring acters through time and space, from the cor- the stars that swirl around her. ner of "Walk and Don't Walk" in New York

City today, to Los Angeles in the sixties, to Maybe we should stop trying

Stonehenge, to an Indianapolis International to figure out the yneaning of life, sit hack

House of Pancakes, two weeks ago. arid enjoy the mystery of life .. . .ak

The Behind'the-Scenes Legend of ASC Stage The primary stage for Louise Harrison Waterman to Mortar Board), Phi Beta Blackfriars' produc- Professor of Speech and Kappa and performed many

tions is the Winter Drama from 1967 until male parts as a student in Theatre, housed in the Dana 1974. A demanding and Blackfriars productions. Fine Arts Building designed prolific director, Winter She completed her M.A. by John Portman. The staged 49 productions dur- and Ed.D. degrees in edu- theatre was named for ing her tenure. cation from New York Roberta Powers Winter '27 Two of her own plays University in 1939 and upon her retirement in 1974- were published, Bishop 1953, respectively, and Winter was a major Whipple's Memorial in 1927 studied play writing at Yale force in Agnes Scott's and Bridal Chorus: A University under George drama department for 35 Comedy in Three Acts in Pierce Baker.

years, serving as assistant 1935. Winter received a She died in 1991 at the professor, then associate degree in mathematics age of 85, in Berryville, Va. professor, 1939-67, and from ASC, was a member ultimately as the Annie ofHOSAC (predecessor Winter teaching at ASC

15

IS IT SOUP OR IS IT ART.' a MOTHER'S MINK

By Christine S. Cozzens Illustration by Ralph Gilbert

the Cdol shadows of the vault at "You're right," I say, cringing, because had I InI. Magnin's in Northbrook Court, my been able to do what she wanted me to mother's mink coat hangs on a rack, its do—for once—we wouldn't be having this

thick tokls stilk its silken Uning silent. conversation. For I am the oldest, the only

A smell of cedar tills the airless chamber, daughter, and mother's mink coat was to where rows of coats and jackets and stoles have been mine. encased in their plastic wrappers await the "I'm doing this for you, you know," my

flurry of movement that disturbs the vault m<"ither said defiantly when she first took me

each fall when to the fur salon to

wraps are ushered witness a fitting. out to eager own- In my T-shirt,

ers, and again in Indian print skirt,

late spring, when and sandals, I was the garments are hardly a candi- What do you bundled back into date for black wil- do with a fur their numbered low mink lined coat you could cells. Some with mono- eccentrics slip in grammed satin, never wear, yet and out at odd and we both burst is—and always times, their owners out laughing at just back from a the thought. Two will be— trip abroad or years later to the priceless memory? stirred at last to week, when Mom collect their coats was lying in a by the opening of hospital bed sur- the opera season rounded by or a holiday invi- machinery—her

tation. Then, still- arms so thin and ness and silence bruised from IVs set in once again that they had to in the cold dark give her the mor- heart of the phine in her swarming shopping mall. thigh—the mink coat helped her acknowl- From time to time, when he's in a reflec- edge that she was dying. Gulping oxygen tive and especially cranky mood, my father with every word, she pleaded with me in the calls me up to rehearse a litany of family private language that families share, "Don't

business—do I know where the stock certifi- let your father take the pads off the dining cates are, have we increased our life insur- room table"—they had been arguing for

ance, have I talked to my brothers—and years about how to preserve its inlaid sur- always ends by asking in exasperation, "And face, my father claiming that a "natural pati-

what am I going to do about that coat.'" as if na" was the only solution.

it were some nagging relative, forever mak- A little later, having approached the ing demands. abyss, she continued, her voice weak and

We are agreed that we can't sell the coat. muffled by the mask, "I want you to have

"She would have rather had me give it to a my mink coat." new girlfriend," Dad says, only half joking. In one of our what-shall-we-do-about-

16

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • SUMMER 1995 the-coat conversations, I proposed to Dad "Where would 1 wear it?" 1 say ro iiispclisncl that we ofter it for a charity auction at the this image. hospital where my mother had worked after Atlanta winters can be cold enough tor the youngest ot us had left home. It was, fur, but people dress down tor the parties 1 after all, the money she earned trom that joh attend, bringing their children and carrying and the sense of entitlement it gave her that sloppy casseroles up the driveway from cars enabled her finally to achieve her dream of bearing the latest environmental slogans. I would like to owning a full-length mink coat. Would an No one in the family has ex'er seriously have been able auction bring in zinything like the coat's real imagined me wearing mother's mink. 1 am value, Dad and I asked each other, privately viewed as a sort of an unglamorous sixties to wear my wondering if people would pay money for a Jane Fonda—harsh, strident, a defender of mother's mink chance to own a dead woman's coat. ( 1 have trendy radical causes. coat, to have since discovered that "preowned" is the "You're always mad at someone," Mom trade euphemism for this circumstance.) would say, her voice rising to a pitch ot

I remember how shocked I was that frustration, "be nice for a change!" steamy summer day when Mom whispered I try to imagine even one situation in the price to me in the salon. "Ten thousand which 1 could unselfconsciously wear a full- dollars!" length black willow mink coat.

I gasped. "Shhhhhhh!" she hissed, looking around Like a coat packed away in storage uneasily, embarrassed for me as she had awaiting its owner, this story about my often been. That was August 1984, ten mother's mink lay in my drawer for months after the mastectomy. Now that almost tour years awaiting an ending. Last unspeakable sum seems a small price to month my sister-in-law told mc, that my have paid for the confidence in the future dad's housekeeper told her, that he had that purchasing the coat must have given given the coat to his girlfriend, a nice widow her. Or was it a kind of bargain with who gardens and paints and thinks every- done that one fate— I can't die as long as I've got so much thing is man,-elous. In mistaken allegiance small thing for invested in life? to me, my relatives grumble behind Dad's

For a while. Dad and 1 tried to give the back about this arrangement, but as 1 sus- her. Instead, I read coat to my sister-in-law, wife of my brother pect Dad knows, I'm glad that the coat will the books she the brain surgeon. Dad had been to a couple be worn and enjoyed by someone who kept at her bedside of hospital parties where all the doctors' understands it as a coat and not a burden. wives were swathed in mink and thought I would like to have been able to wear and write a story maybe she secretly aspired to the image. But my mother's mink coat, to have done that she would have she turned us down. Though it would fit her one small thing for her. Instead, 1 read the read with care. and she has the delicate looks for it, the books she kept by her bedside and wrote her mink coat is too heavy a burden, even for a name in—P.G. Wodehouse, Jane Austen, daughter-in-law. E.F. Benson, Barbara Pym—remember the

"Are you sure you don't want it?" Dad crossword puzzles she taught me with words asks me every now and then, but he doesn't like ogee and adit, and write the story she wait for an answer. would have read with care, about the impor-

Even if there were enough give in the tance of a mother's mink coat, asc seams to make the coat several sizes larger, —Cozzuns, associate professor of English,

I'm afraid I would look like some hairy teaches writing and directs the Women's behemoth in all that black fur. Studies Program at Agnes Scott College.

17 MOTHERS MINK A PRAYER FOR CHILDREN By Ina Jones Hughs '63

We pray for children who put chocolate fingers everywhere, who hke to be tickled, who stomp in puddles and ruin their new pants, who sneak Popsicles before supper, who erase holes in math workbooks, who can never find their shoes.

MARK SANDUN PHOTO And we pray for those who stare at photographers from behind barbed wires, who've never squeaked across the floor in new sneakers, who never "counted potatoes," who are born in places we wouldn't be caught dead, who never go to the circus,

who live in an X-rated world.

We pray for children

who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions, who sleep with the dog and bury goldfish, who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money, who cover themselves with Band-Aids and sing off-key,

who squeeze toothpaste all over the sink, who slurp their soup.

And we pray for those who never get dessert,

who watch their parents watch them die, who have no safe blanket to drag behind,

who can't find any bread to steal, who don't have any rooms to clean up, whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser,

whose monsters are real.

18

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • SUMMER 1995 LAURA SIKES PMOIO /yi^ ^ ^m^ 1 Ia^m m J 1 B^^Hp^ 'v^^^^VH f . "^ Hh ilI 1 1^^r ^rl1 r L *^>Jt • r V , Pw ^A \^S *^p 1K. „-' ^'^ We pra^i for children

who spend all their allowances before Tuesday, who throw tantrums in the grocery store

and who pick at their food, who like ghost stories, who shove dirty clothes under the bed and never rinse out the tub,

who get visits from the tooth fairy,

who don't like to be kissed in front of the car pool, who squirm in church and scream in the phone, whose tears we sometimes laugh at

and whose smiles can make us cry.

And we pray for those whose nightmares come in the daytime, who will eat anything, who have never seen a dentist, who aren't spoiled by anybody, who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep, who live and move, but have no being.

We pray for children who want to be carried and for those who must. For those we never give up on, and for those who don't get a chance. For those we smother, and for those who will grab the hand of anybody

kind enough to offer.

19 A PRAYER FOR CHILDREN LAURA 5IKE5 PHOTO At a time when violence threatens to rob youngsters of their innocence, Agnes Scott alumnae and students are working to bring hope into the chaos.

By Celeste Pennington

Two Waterton, Connecticut, day-care employees stopped

to check at the apartment

ot a two-year-old girl who had been

absent for two days and could not be

reached by telephone. At the sound

of her teacher's voice, the toddler

greeted them at the front door. The

little girl was covered with blood. The

body of her slain father was on the

kitchen floor. According to one of

the workers, the child had "thrown a

blanket on her father's body" and had kept vigil through the night, sitting in a pool of blood.

From this tragic scene for one child emerges a disquieting paradox for us all: The child, as

English poet William Wordsworth wrote, is the father of the man. We may derive hope in

the care and love this two-year-old child lavished on her parent, notes Agnes Scott College

Psychology Professor Emeritas Miriam K. Drucker. Yet in a world with too many blood-

stained children, the poetic contradiction may also serve as a warning. Childhood—and so

our adult world—seems to be losing its protective veil.

At-risk children are on the hearts and minds of a number of Agnes Scott students and

alumnae including Eileen Altman '85 who serves as a youth initiatives coordinator for the

Illinois Council for Prevention of Violence. Describing how violence has turned the child's

world upside down, she says, "In Chicago, we hear about parents who put their kids to bed in

the bathtub to protect them from gunfire. Lying in bed can be dangerous."

Even more unfathomable to Altman and to Milling Kinard '62 who is doing post-doctoral

research on child abuse at the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New

Hampshire, are children at risk in the hands of those who should be their first line of defense:

acquaintances and family members. An astonishing number of youngsters are beaten,

maimed, molested and murdered by parents, relatives or babysitters, writes Ronald Henkoff

20

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • SUMMER 1995 in Fortune magazine. For huni.lreds ot thousands ot children, not even the woinh provides a

sate haven according to Nelba Chave:, administrator ot Substance Abuse and Mental 1 lealth

Services Administration, who reports that more than ^00,000 children have been exposed to drugs, in utero.

These at-risk children are no longer the anomaly of one or two inner-city neighborhoixls.

At-risk is the way veteran primary school teacher Ginger Westkind '66 describes roughly one- ^^-^Hl third to one-halt of the children in each ot the multi-grade classrooms at Pointe South

Elementary, Clayton County, Georgia, where she serves as a special instructional assistant.

"In the past 20 years we have seen so much change. The family structure has changed. We have 19-year-old parents bringing to school their tive-year-old children; we ha\e more sin- gle-parent families and fewer extended families. We see children who have been abused. We see the effects ot parental drug and alcohol use. We see children with de\'elopniental delays.

Since birth, some children have not had a lot of healthy stimulation—the television is a baby sitter. Then there is the influence ot the media. Kids today have seen .so much more violence."

For years, professionals like Westlund have warned adults to stem the steady stream of entertainment violence flowing into the home—from TV to pop music to video games. The effects are evident in the increasing number of incidents ot adolescent violence, observes — Drucker "All you have to do is listen to the news." Backed by longitudinal research, the "When children,

American Psychological Association's Commission on Youth and Violence warns, "The the symbol of innocence, images that populate mass media actually have the longest-lasting impact of all contributors commit the to violence." Meanwhile, more and more youth and children bring violence into their play- severest of crimes, grounds and school rooms. Each day 6,250 teachers are threatened with injury and 260 are then something assaulted. Julie Weisberg, assistant professor of education at Agnes Scott, points out the must be going number of threats and assaults should be placed in the perspective ot the number ot schools, wrong with nationwide. "Of course," she relents, "those numbers should he zero." society."

their increasingly violence-charged world, children and youth are becoming perpetra-

Intors of heinous crimes. "Children have always fought," admits Mark Rosenberg, director

of the National Center of Injury Prevention for The Centers for Disease Control, who notes that today children as young as five have been found carrying guns to school, "but now fights are more likely to be fatal." Laments an editorial writer for Der Spiegel, a German news- magazine, "When children, the symbol of innocence, commit the severest of crimes, then something must be going wrong with society."

At the Tenth Annual Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy, Chavez said, "By kindergarten, this generation of children has had enough."

Chavez—and Airman, Westlund and Kinard—are among a growing number of profession-

als who know that children suffer because, as Chavez says, adults have not taken action "to keep the social fabric from unraveling. Some people believe we do not have a prayer."

21 A PRAYER FOR CHILDREN By Ashley Wright '96

Leon, 5, seemed to he doing so well, even though we had ohserved his need for special attention. Then all of a sudden, it seemed, he was uncontrollable. Over the next few Saturdays, his behavior grew wild and his attitude progressively worse until M finally we had to send him home. It was not until later that we learned his moth- ^ cr had started taking drugs again. We felt naive, never suspecting that young Leon's problems ran deeper than unruly behavior.

Drugs, shootings, rapes and murder are a part of life in Atlanta's West End government housing. In the midst of that turmoil stands West End Baptist C'hapel. Every Saturday, children of the community flock there to enjoy lessons

and activities. On those mornings, four of my friends from Agnes Scott and I come together with students from Georgia Tech and Emory to lead a program

called JAM (Jesus And Me). I have been working with the children for almost a year, but for two or three years other students have spent Saturdays at West End, offering songs, Bible stories, crafts and games to about 20 rambunctious children.

The children recognize our cars now and some mornings run out to meet us. Little boys' faces light up with excitement as Tech guys throw them over their

shoulders. Little girls rim over to us and begin playing beauty parlor with our hair. Little hands reach out to be held and arms reach up for a hug. The children remember our absence from the week before, and they want to know why. They

want us to be a constant in their lives, it nothing else is. All children need love

and when these youngsters do not receive it at home, they need it even more

from us. Love is what we try to provide with JAM. We are not so unrealistic to think that a group of college students could

t hange the world, so we think smaller. If we could change even one child's life and give some hope for a better future, then we feel we have done our job. Each

Saturday is a challenge. It is easy for us to feel discouraged sometimes, as in the

The children of case of Leon. But when a seven-year-old girl hugs my neck and tells me she loves me,

West End "want us discouragement just melts away and a good feeling that 1 am doing something positive for children fills its place. to be a constant in their lives. All '63 children need love Ina Jones Hughs and when these couple of times a week, Ina Jones "It made me think the world is divided youngsters do not AHughs '63 gets requests from a wide basically between two kinds of children, the receive it at home, range of people for permission to use her "A ones who are cared for and the ones Prayer for Children" (pages 18-19). Last brushed aside." they need it even Christmas, Charles Gibson read it on "Good The prayer is included in A Sense of more from us. Morning, America." Marian Wright Edle- Human, a collection of her columns pub- man, president of the Children's Defense lished by the Knoxville News-Sentinel, and Love is what we Fund, often quotes it. The prayer was read lends its title to her latest book, A Prayer for try to provide." during UNlCEF's World Summit for Child- Chiklren, which she signed at ASC in May. ren in 1990. And during a presidential cam- While Hughs, a 22-year veteran award- paign sweep through Tennessee, Hillary winning newspaper columnist, believes that

Clinton concluded her speech with it. "A Prayer for Children" is not her best The idea for the prayer which Hughs work, she feels pleased with the thousands wrote for a newspaper column in The of permission requests that have poured in.

Charlotte Observer came to her as she was "The thing that encourages me is that we preparing Thanksgiving dinner and noted have a wide-sweeping concern for children. a public television commercial with a "Of course," she acknowledges, "words disadvantaged child. are the easy part."

22

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • SUMMER 1995 2

LAURA SIKES PHOTO

"We wanted to work with children before Ellen Granum '62 they had developed a lot of anger. That's As educator Ellen Granum '62 and hood education (see Fall '94 ASC Alumnae parishioners of St. Columha's Episcopal Mag.AZINE, page 2), volunteers as one of two why we decided Church (near American University) consid- mentors assigned each day to each of the to start with ered ways to make a diftetence in Washing- three classrooms. kindergarten." ton, D.C., through a project that would Another component of the program is involve helping families, they looked closely developing relationships, family to family. at helping inner-city youth. Every other Saturday, a St. Columha's bus

One parishioner had served on an "I gathers up Truesdell kmdergartners, their Have a Dream" project that began in the siblings and parents who connect with vol- late 1980s with a challenge to a class of sev- unteer adults and their children at church enth graders that they finish high school in for breakfast and lunch, games, music and exchange for fully paid college tuition. "If three theme-related projects (science, art you offered to pay their tuition, the thinking and cooking). One Saturday featured fish- went, city kids would study hard," the children found out how fish swim, they Washingtonian magazine summed up expec- made colorful prints with fish and baked tations. But sponsors quickly discovered that trout-shaped cookies. The— program offers an youngsters needed more: a safe place, full enriching environment "an alternative to stomachs, help with homework, encourage- television," says Granum and it encourages ment, discipline, hope, "someone getting the parents who want to provide healthy involved in their lives." experiences for their children. The parishioners considered mentoring To highlight Saturday programs and to inner-city youth hut as they fleshed out provide an update on classwork, St. details, Granum says they made an adjust- Columha's also publishes a weekly newslet- ment. "We decided to start with children ter for parents, Truesdell Elementary School who had not experienced a lot of failure, Kindergarten News. who still had positive feelings about them- "When children have violence in their selves and the adults in their lives. We lives, they don't learn to tmst," notes wanted to work with children before they Granum who along with others at St. had developed a lot of anger. That's why we Columha's is listening, learning and forming decided to start with kindergarten." friendships. "We are treading lightly."

After careful study and a year to establish St. Columha's bold commitment is to a partnership with urban Truesdell mentor these same children for the next 1 Elementary School, St. Columha's initiated years—through their high school gradua- a mentoring program with 60 children in tion. The church has also begun a college the school's three kindergarten classes. trust fund for the children. Says Granum,

Granum, whose expertise is early child- "Our purpose is to fill a vacuum with hope."

23 A PRAYER FOR CHILDREN Mami Amall Broach McGee '65

are tough. I am shy. So when I talk learned through my grandfather how a per- "When people Kids to children, 1 get someone to go with son can speak without words." read this story, me—someone whose Up does not tremble," Her next book, Diego Columbus: they seem to have explains soft-spoken Marni Arnall Broach Adventures in the High Seas, published by McGee '65 of Santa Barbara, California. Revell, was picked up by the Weekly Reader a moment of That someone is her alter ego, puppet Earl. Home Book Club and has sold 55,000 feeling very safe." Years before the puppet and his friend, copies. This carefully researched historical McGee, accepted speaking invitations, she fiction for 7- to 13-year olds explores the was absorbed in the solitary task of writing relationship between Christopher Columbus

for children. Between the time McGee sent and son Diego. "My premise: if 1 were a 12-

year-old child of Columbus, what would I want.' To be with my father. But a good father would have to say, absolutely no.

Diego's mother died in 1485. 1 have a scene

early in the book in which Diego says, '1 will

be with you when you go.' That is historical.

Columbus answers, 'I loved your mother and " I lost her. How could I risk losing you?'

McGee wrote the first draft of what she calls her miracle book, Forest Child, in just a matter of hours. Her writing was an intense

response to learning about children in crisis. "The words," says McGee, "seemed to flow from my fingers as tears had flowed from my eyes." Three

her first manti- weeks after /71 her third hi)ok, Forest script to receiving the Child, ASC ahimna Marni Athenaeum ani.1 manuscript, her McGee hm crafted a story received her very agent sold that, hkc all books, "has a life first acceptance Forest Child to of its oun and, somehow, [it letter 15 years Green Tiger seems] more than most." later from Press, a divi- Athenaeum, she sion of Simon admits having & Schuster. developed an Six weeks Ivy4 Press Copyrighl',' .^^j.^^. appreciation for 1 ol Green Tiger ^.J^^ f^^^^ Reprinted by permissit the nuances of printing, the book sold out. "When people

rejection. A form postcard from publishers is read this story," says McGee, "they seem to

the worst, then a form letter (unless it have a moment of feeling very sate."

includes a hand-scrawled note at the bot- Forest Child is a mystical story of animals tom, like "keep on trying" or "send us that help a boy who ventures into the more"). "When you get a personal letter of woods. Late last year, the book provided the rejection," says McGee, "you are tempted to basis for a prcigram for 550 children in celebrate." Winston-Salem who listened to the story,

She jokes that her first book. The Quiet then made themselves masks patterned after Farmer, published by Athenaeum, took 45 the characters. More recently, a woman

years to write. It is based on experience: composer set the words to music to be per- McGee padding behind her grandfather on formed in a ballet for children in Houston

his farm in LaGrange, Georgia. "He was a this spring. "Books do have a life of their very gentle man who seemed to give a lov- own," says McGee, "and this one, somehow,

ing blessing to the world around him. 1 more than most."

24

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • SUMMER 1995 ,

E. Milling Kinard '62

That abuse and family violence takes its toll on the child is no question for

E. Milling Kinard, Ph.D., a post-doctoral research fellow at the Family Research Laboratory (FRL) at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, a pioneer in research on the effects of family violence. Earlier Kinard conducted a large-scale study ot behavior and school performance of abused children at the New England Research Institute in Watertown, Mass. Kinard's research includes mother- teacher assessments of behavior problems in abused children, assessment ot social support for abused children and their mothers and Eiken Altman fieip.s draji the academic performance in abused '85 Eileen Altman legislation for violence children. "Both mothers and teachers rated prevention. She speaLs abused children as having more behavioral regularly to parent gr

Abused children were also more likely This is evil, Altman remembers thinking. believes than non-abused children to have lower What have we done as a society so that this Altman grades in academic subjects, placement in young man has no hope ? parents are a key special education programs, retention in In 1994, after completing her doctorate, to stopping grade, more days ot absence and generally Altman joined the Illinois Council tor the before it more problems in school. Prevention of Violence, where she serves as violence Kinard points out that resources to serve youth initiatives coordinator and manages starts. But many abused children are otten limited. "Peacing It Together," a violence preven- parents don't She deplores insufficient or abusive foster tion project for Illinois schools. realize they are the care—and the reluctance of the court to Altman taps school programs statewide sever abusive parent/child ties in favor of and helps recommend resources for violence problem, rather adoption. "I have often thought that the prevention. She addresses faculty and parent than the solution. system should not let children languish tor groups and organizes regional forums for years in foster care waiting for something Youth Violence Prevention. good to happen to their families. It parents She also helps draft state legislation that are not changing or not meeting the goals, it promotes inter-agency cooperation and gives is time tor the child to be adopted. The "every agency a piece of the pie." child needs a family." To care tor children at risk, Altman Kinard, who has conducted research on advises each community to define "what we children and abused children for 20 years, can do, together" to curb violence. also sees the toll that child abuse research The roots of violence are in the home, so takes on her large team of research assistants Altman suggests that parents model conflict and interviewers. "They think about these resolution and screen media violence and child abuse cases when they get home," she "stop violence before it starts." Her programs reports. "They dream about them. that teach violence prevention are "really

"I have learned that the research team fun for kids," says Altman, and good tot needs support. It helps them to talk over adults. "They learn to exercise a different what they are finding." kind of power."

25 A PRAYER FOR CHILDREN Lucy Schow McGough '62

housands of children take the witness "Women have always led the way in this Tstand each day in communities across area, but it took a while for my generation the country, drawn into legal controversies to see this as the cutting edge. When I grad- ranging from criminal prosecutions to uated from Agnes Scott, children and family dependency/ahuse proceedings. issues seemed to be more traditional con- Otten the court struggles with how cerns for women," says McGough, "but in

to discern the reliability of children as truth, it turned out to be what mattered McGough ranks witnesses: Is a child more disposed to fantasy most to me." or memory 'fade than an adult? The court Child Witnesses has been nominated for what happens also struggles with certain applications of the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, the to the next the law. The Constitution provides for the Gavel Award ot the American Bar Asso- accused to confront the accuser. Is this ciation and The Order of Coif of the generation of effective—or is there potential for further Association ot American Law Schools. children as "the abuse—when the accuser is a child? McGough has also written Benchbook for most important" Lucy Schow McGough '62, a specialist in Louisiana Juvenile Court judges. family law and Vinson and Elkins Professor social concern. of Law at Louisiana State University, has explored the vulnerabilities of children in the American adversarial legal system in Ginger Westlund '66 Child Witnesses: Fragile Voices in the

American Legal System, published last year by Yale University Press. Ginger Westlund wears a gold pin The book offers a striking transdiscipli- formed from the words "Children

nary discussion of legal processes and rules First." Children and their ability to learn are

of evidence and of social science's assess- the focus of education at Pointe South

ment of the developmental skills and poten- Elementary School, a Georgia School of

tial reliability of children as witnesses. Excellence in Riverdale, near Atlanta.

McGough notes significant efforts for reform Children First also frames Westlund's and proposes statutes like recollection- philosophy honed over 20 years in primary recorded videotapes of children's statements education. "Every child can learn, even a to ensure reliability of the testimony. child with a multitude of problems," insists

McGough ranks what happens to the Westlund, now a special instructional assis- next generation of children as "the most tant who identifies at-risk children in the Law Professor Lucy important" social concern. Yet as she accu- school's lower grades. McGough found child aitd mulated data for Child Witnesses, she began Westlund helped Pointe South set up family concerns were to realize that issues related to childhood multi-age classrooms for children in kinder- '\vhat mattered most." development were underexplored. garten through grade two—with 10 at-risk youngsters integrated into each class. All children are exposed to the concepts only second graders are expected to master. The second graders become role models of

behavior and learning for the rest.

Learning-rich is how teachers describe

the environment. "The room is a teacher," says Westlund. Children's art and creative work cover the walls. In different learning

centers are Lego letters for spelling, a com- puter, saw, hammer, nails and 2x4s, an over- head projector that the children can oper-

ate, artist easels, blocks, measuring cups and spoons. Each room also has shelves of books. "These children are not just reading bor-

ing little stories," notes Pointe South Principal Judy Robinson. "They are reading about history and insects and aircraft. They

26

AGNES SCXHT COLLEGE • SUMMER 1995 a

PAUL OeREGON PH,

Her ''Cat'in-thc-Hat' students are the reasons for Ginger Westlund's Children First motto.

study about space, dinosauts, toys— we have parents of children who are not at Georgia Tech student of robotics brought a risk who also want to be part of it." robot for them to examine." Children in the early intervention pro- Children appear to interact without def- gram, for instance, keep a nightly reading erence to age. Westlund calls these class- log which the parent signs. "We just want to "Every child can rooms a true, heterogeneous group: multi- plant the seed, you need to read to this learn, even a child ethnic, young and old, middle-class and child—from birth." with a multitude impoverished, at-risk and gifted. Poverty is a primary factor in children at

Westlund's job is not only to identify' all risk. "We have our eyes open for the child of problems,"

of the at-risk youngsters, but also to assess is without a coat or who is not fed, for who believes Westlund. each child's progress. the child who is being abused," says A crucial component of the Special Weslund who also notes at-risk children

Instructional Assistance (SIA) program is come from wealthy homes ottering little parent education. Teachers at Pointe South interaction between parent and child.

confer with parents on a regular basis. But "In my more than 20 years of teaching, I Westlund believes that to be effective, the have seen an increase of learning disabilities intervention must reach children before and behavior disorders. We have children they enter kindergarten. coming in who are emotionally battered, An early intervention program in 19 who seem to act without conscience, who schools in Clayton County teaches parents are hyperactive, who have been affected by

of four-year-olds about everything from fetal alcohol syndrome and drugs, who are nutrition to age-appropriate games, from totally out of control. We in education are toys to reading. "Parents sign a promise that doing what we can to help these children."

they will come to these meetings— if they Children First is a pin Westlund might

miss without an excuse the child is dropped. like to stick in every parent's lapel. "We try

So far, I believe only one child has been to let parents know that they are the most

dropped from the program. It is so strong. important teacher in their child's life." as«

27 I A PRAYER FOR CHILDREN — TEACHING NONVIOLENCE IN A VIOLENT WORLD A Gandhian View

By Plamthodathil S. Jacob

spite of the rapid progress that human- One should practice simple acts of Inkind has made in science and technology, courage and faith—within the family, school

we are living in a far more violent world. and workplace. At first, such an exercise In a violent world, Through progress, we have sought to control may leave one feeling exhausted and weak. walking the path the material world, but we have failed to con- Gandhi also suggested the daily practice trol our inner selves. of certain simple tasks associated with self- of nonviolence Mahatma Gandhi, an apostle of nonvio- discipline. He arose early, read inspiration may be costly lence (ahimsa), understood that nonviolence material, engaged in meditational prayer and should and could be practiced in a violent learned to control his wants. He encouraged as the lives world. He also found that nonviolence each person to modify and work out little of Jesus Christ, could become a successful political strategy acts of daily discipline. Gandhi and which he used against the British Empire at Martin Luther the zenith of its universal power. Cure the sickness of your own soul The Gandhian concept of nonviolence The South Asian concept of God as It King Jr. prove. requires a gradual process of self-purification Truth, Goodness and Beauty (satyam, sivam

is a path for the through self-restraint. It is based on and sundaram) serves as a reminder of the courageous and Gandhi's embrace of Truth (satya) as the need for those qualities within every soul. ultimate reality and on the practice of absti- Violence reflects a lack of those qualities strong-willed. nence from greed and covetousness. He and confirms a sickness within the soul. The

believed that only through inner control practice of nonviolence is impossible for a that thwarts the persistent driving force of person with such a sickness.

human wants and through an unfailing Violence destroys the inner being and it commitment to hold to truth (satyagraha) destroys the individual, the group and the

will the individual grow fit for the practice environment. Getting rid of violence

of nonviolence. restores creation as it was first visualized by

Gandhi emphasized that nonviolence is the creator. Purging violence occurs as one

not a characteristic of the weak and it can- works through daily spiritual exercises. not be accomplished without one's building a reservoir ot spiritual strength. To practice Strengthen your faith nonviolence, he knew, requires inexhaus- in the goodness of others

tible inner strength. The practice of nonviolence is based on A Gandhian view ofters these guidelines the assumption that God has placed the

for moving toward a life of nonviolence: potential for nonviolence in all human beings, including those who are violent. Cultivate the inner strength Gandhi believed that only those who have Gandhi found that religious faith and such faith and who make that appeal (even faith in the goodness of humanity gave him in a violent world) will have the potential courage and confidence, his own building for awakening the quality in others.

blocks of inner strength. Such faith brought Some appeals for nonviolence may fall on him a calmness, a peacefulness of mind, a deaf ears. But even then, one must sustain sense of tranquillity. the hope and belief that the deaf will learn To cultivate inner strength, one should the sign language of nonviolence and will be

set aside a time for meditation and the prac- won over by its message. tice of sending out mental "love waves" to individuals, incidents and activity of a Be ready to pay the price violent nature. In a violent world, walking the path of

28

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • SUMMER 1995 —

ART LASSEK PHOTO !vS^^ r,,l^ ^^

\^^

^ii^-

The acceptance VlamxhoixxthA S. Jacob seri'es oi a {)art'ti)Ti(; pro/esior 0/ Bible aiid religion at Ag7'ies "iicoxx College and visiting professor of philosophy and religion at Emory University. of violence at any level as an nonviolence may prove costly; it is a path find a large number of people interested in ordinary expres- for the courageous and strong-willed. nonviolence, divide them into small groups. Apostles of nonviolence—Jesus Christ, Each group should make every effort to sion of human Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. —became understand the urgency of the message, the nature sets the victims of violence. Suffering and setbacks, challenges and opportunities for its practice. stage for a wider even death, may be encountered. Gandhi Practicing nonviolence, discipline, self-study visualized that a cadre of volunteers in every and meditation should be the objective. world of violence. society would, out of conviction, take the t/ Project nonviolence as a viable answer risks. From their selfless service to the cause to violence. Gandhi advised his Christian would grow the message of nonviolence. friends to practice the directives of the Sermon on the Mount. He believed that Establish a perfectly balanced mind walking the second mile or turning the other

An agitated mind is unstable and poten- cheek—both teachings of Jesus Christ tially violent. Gandhi used prayer, fasting, offered clear examples of reconciling acts in meditation and holding firmly to truth as a a violent world. way to fortify his mind with peacefulness. *^ Identify specific acts of violence in The state of the balanced mind must be your immediate area. The news media cover like a firm rock, insisting, "I will not be the most sensational violent acts but neglect moved." The Indian philosophical term is others. Remember that heinous acts often sthithaprajna which in this context may be build on the ordinary acts of violence. translated "unshakable, immovable wis- ^ Address existing violence by develop- dom." The intimidating posture of violence ing a suitable program of reconciliation or will be unable to disturb such an outlook. peacemaking. Programs begun at local levels One must remember that practicing non- may become state, national—even interna- violence in a violent world is no ordinary tional—programs of nonviolence. task. It requires great soul-force. Leaders in our pluralistic, modem world Even the person who is not ready to have succeeded in reducing the prolifera- become an apostle of nonviolence may tion of nuclear weapons. Yet persisting

wish to participate in nonviolent work. violent practices affect all earthly life, from

Here are several things I suggest: insects to plants, animals and humankind. The ^ Organize a voluntary corps or cell of acceptance of violence at any level as an ordi- nonviolence in your family, neighborhood, nary expression of human nature sets the stage school campus, church or city. Do not for a wider world of violence.

expect to attract a large group. Even two or Beginning with one's inner self, let each three are enough for a good beginning. individual become an immovable force for

Personal interaction is a key, so if you do reconciliation and peaceful coexistence. Ase

29 A PRAYER FOR CHILDREN ASC WORLD WIDE WEB CONNECTIONS By Audrey Arthur

Illustration by Richard Hicks

ASC students Imagine being able to see the Egyptian Agnes Scott is in the proces of develop- pyramids along the banks ot the Nile, or ing its own Web home page (like a table of now have access dropping in on an exhibit at the Louvre contents), accessed through the campus to the sounds and —without packing a suitcase. network ScottLan. ASC's home page will sights of distant Virtual travel is now possible at Agnes provide linkage to information regarding Scott, using a new passport, World Wide admission, the Office of Technology places, thanks to a Web (WWW or Web). Services, alumnae affairs, public relations College link with Through the Web, student users may sit and the McCain Library catalog. "the Web." And down at a computer, link up with Internet Larry Riddle, associate professor of math- —a network of computer networks—and by ematics, and Alberto Sadun, associate pro- teachers are weav- pointing and clicking a pointer on pictures fessor of physics/astronomy, have incorpo- ing the Web into or text, access not only text but also sounds, rated the Web into their curriculum. their curriculum. sophisticated graphics and video clips com- Riddle's linear algebra class is compiling municated by computers in far-flung desti- biographies ot female mathematicians that nations. Virtual visitors from cyberspace may be accessed through the menu in the may drop in on the Agnes Scott campus departmental Web page. Web document as well. "Usually, only individual faculty mem-

"The Web is the latest way to navigate bers read student assignments, but with this the Internet," explains Tom Maier, director project, thousands of people from all over of information technology services. "There the world will read the students' work,"

is tremendous potential to use it internally says Riddle.

and externally." Publishing College research "This is a way of promoting women in or magazines that include text and graphics, mathematics, and letting others, particularly

joining international discussion groups, girls in high school, know about the contri- observing virtual surgery or exploring the butions women have made in mathematics," world's libraries and museums may be done says Riddle who notes that while mathe- with the click of a computer mouse. matician biographies are available on the

The Web document is referred to as a Web, Agnes Scott's project offers a focus on

page, and is organized similar to a page the contributions M of women. in a book. Sadun's students are conducting a Internet Lingo study of ; astronomy resources BBS: Bulletin Board System that offers available a range of goods and services such as around the electronic mail, games and live chat. world. The Flaming: Electronic insults data and Lurking: Reading a forum or confer- graphics ence conversation to be sure your gathered comments are relevant. from their

Netsurfer: Person who visits different research areas ot the Internet. will eventu-

Usenet: Collection of discussion groups ally be placed on a specific subject. on Agnes Scott's

30

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • SLfMMER 1995 —

home page. made progress rapidly," he ohserves. "We __j Maier points were well hehind most institutions in /pil out that one terms of our technical capabilities. Agnes

advantage for the Scott is now close to the leading edge, hut, v/\. /v A^W

^^^V^^^^ College is that educa- it's never over. . .. There has to he a tional institutions do not pay continued commitment to stay current for Weh software; there is minimal cost to because hiternet and the Weh are such fast install the Weh and the College already developing areas." pays a flat tee for access to Internet and has Those with an Internet account and "Agnes Scott completed an upgrade that mcreased the access to a browser such as Mosaic or is now close to Internet connection speed 30-told. NetScape may reach Agnes Scott's develop- the leading edge "We received good support from the ing World Wide Web home page at: institution and trustees and as a result have HTTP:www. scottlan.edu asc in computer communications technology, but, The Endeavor Link it's never over. . . Son of ASC s Information Technology Services director questions astronaut in space From his father's office NASA had chosen his and exploring the universe in Agnes Scott's question, and an astronaut for himself one day.

Information Tech- had answered it, in-flight. Interviews with Thomas nology Services, young That evening, father and were aired on NBC

Thomas Maier Jr. located son went to the ASC office Nightly News with Tom the World Wide Web site and Thomas logged onto Brokaw and on Atlanta's

set up for NASA's Space the Web. First he checked WSB radio. Unfazed is how Shuttle Endeavor mission NASA's responses to ques- Maier describes his son's in March and submitted a tions for the day. Next reaction both to the media question for the crew. Thomas selected responses attention and his computer Thomas likes to wake from the crew where he linkup with the Endeavor up in time to watch each found his name in "big let- crew. On the other hand,

space shuttle lift off, so he ters" along with a digitized Maier expressed consider-

asked: "Why is blast off audio clip from space. able pleasure. "I was glad,"

scheduled for 2 a.m.? That Astronaut Tamara Jer- he says, "to see that

is well past my bed-time. I nigan read Thomas' ques- Thomas was willing to ask am 9 years old." tion, then explained that questions and not to be

Out of curiosity, the NASA had decided on an reserved about it."

next day Tom Maier, direc- earlier than normal lift off TTiomas first learned tor of information techno- to avoid a magnetic field about the change in lift-off ogy services, checked the that would have interfered schedule during an open computer for a NASA with their view of stars and house at ASC's Bradley response and found nothing. quasars located near the Observatory. The 151^-day However, a few days edge of the universe. Astro-2 space voyage was

later the Maier family got a "Nice ... and scary," is dedicated to astronomy call—NBC-TV wanted an how Thomas describes his with the astronauts peering interview with TTiomas idea of being an astronaut deep into space.

31 ASC WEB CONNECTIONS LIFESTYLES

Healers exploring the ancient arts; clergy married to clergy; and therapeutic horseback riding for youngsters with disabilities

JOURNEYS migraines, to homeless TOWARD lDe Vries explains that

Acupuncturist Marijke detoxification via acu- '56 de Vries and puncture is simple to per- therapist nurse form and more effective Anneke Corhett '63 than the usual treatments.

Sisters, they journeyed Up to 75 percent of the west from the patients who receive the

Netherlands to the United acupuncture administered

States—and to Agnes via five needles in their

Scott College. Eventually ear, do not relapse.

they settled on opposite "Acupuncture is a

ends of the United States, medium that sends energy

where both practice to the organs to strengthen

ancient Eastern medicine. them," she says. It comple-

Graduate school, mar- ments Western medicine. Marijke de Vries fauiul a career in acupuncture after recenin" riage and then children "As long as we've termed acupunenire treatments for pain resulting from a car ureck. followed both Marijke it alternative medicine, we

Schepman de Vries' and the arm to the breast. is able to help dimmish a put an either/or perspec-

Anneke Schepman Five treatments later, patient's obesity and high tive on things. I wouldn't

Corbett's graduation. de Vries felt better but, blood pressure or to detox he here if not for western

De Vries '56 was a stay- she says, "being a scientist drug addicts. medicine," she says refer-

at-home mother in New I didn't believe my feel- "I decided maybe the ring to her near-fatal car

Jersey for 14 years before ings." Within two years of car accident had to do crash.

returning to school and the car accident which with my not choosing to Anneke Schepman

earning a graduate degree crushed the fifth vertebra be a researcher, but getting Corhett '63 agrees with

in biochemistry. Then five in her neck, de Vries was into healthcare, which I her sister and borrows

years into her new career free of pain, rid ot pills, had dreamed of since I was from Eastern and Western

as a research chemist, she done with muscle relaxers six years old." medical thought in her

broke her neck in a car and studying acupuncture. After further studies work as a registered nurse

crash. Hospitalized tor two By the early 1980s, she and a degree in acupunc- and massage therapist.

months and unable to was working as a bio- ture, de Vries moved to Whereas deVries practices

work tor three-and-a-half chemist and volunteering Albuquerque where she the Chinese art of acu-

more, she visited an on weekends as an acu- has a private practice. Her puncture, Corhett uses the

acupuncturist. After one puncturist at a physician- patients "run the gamut" Japanese version: Shiatsu,

treatment, she regained supervised clinic in the from women who are able a massage technique per-

use of the pectoral muscle, South Bronx. De Vries to avoid hysterectomies formed without needles.

which connects the top of says with acupuncture she to people relieved of A single parent ot two

32

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • SUMMER /99-( — —

LIFESTYLE

children, she became a CLERGY Seminary is a breeding rctrohmcnr. We go to the nurse 10 years ago as "a MARRIED ground tor romance, beach e\'ery Friday to be step out of a lower wage CLERGY she jests. with each other m nature, scale." Inspired by her sis- Their tirst try at a to have solitude and be in ter, she began studying Ministers Mary Boyd same-profession mar- the presence of God." Chinese medicine where Sugg Click '73, Dusty riage found them each Click met her husband, '70 she lives in North Hamp- Kenyan Fiedler with a church Jay, at Richmond's Union and Ann Fitzgerald ton, Mass. Later, she Aichinger with a 65- Theological Seminary. He Aichinger '85 switched to the Japanense mile commute. She is pastor of a church in art. After three years of Two-career couples typ- characterizes the Springtield, Va.; she is study and a degree, she ically juggle work arrangement as "extra interim pastor with a pos- opened a part-time Shiatsu schedules, extra-curricular stress." More compati- sible permanent position. practice and continues activities and day care. ble, they've found, is her Click used to think part time as a nurse. Three Scotties have added position as a youth min- their same-career marriage

Recently she wrote a another dynamic to the istry consultant with a was unusual, but learned grant proposal to practice modem marriage. Mary Presbytery ot the sur- that other couples holding the technique at the hos- Boyd "Tig" Sugg Click '73, rounding 250-mile full-time jobs have the pital, where she is a Dusty Kenyon Fiedler '70 region that includes 40 same demands ot carpool- favorite of coworkers. and Ann Fitzgerald churches. She is also a ing, meeting children's

"Hospitals are so stressful; Aichinger '85 are ministers parish associate at her schedules, et cetera. "It is people get headaches. I married to ministers. husband's church. She as unique as two lawyers or work with a lot ot nurses All three Presbyterian says the honorary title two doctors married to who appreciate that a five- clergy note advantages and recognizes her as "Rev. each other—which is still minute back rub can alle- disadvantages to their Ann Aichinger," a min- rare," she admits. viate stress symptoms." marriages' shared profes- ister also versus being "What is diffetent is

Corhett takes pride that sion. "We both had to "the preacher's wife." night meetings when you amid nursing routines she wrestle with it before we The couple ccintinu- have children. There must can comfort a distressed married," says Ann ally reflects on their be someone covering cancer patient or ease the Aichinger of her relation- dual calling, mindtul home base." Click worked muscle tension ot a person ship with husband Frank, a that one spouse's min- part time when her chil- recovering from surgery. church pastor in Fort istry doesn't take prece- dren, now 10 and 12, were

"1 find Shiatsu incredi- Myers, Fla. "What did it dence over the other's. younger. bly gratifying. It's an art as mean for our lives, tor the Give and take on a daily "The advantage of our well as a science," she says. future, for our future chil- basis means, among both being ministers is

"It's poetic. I have pictures dren? How do two people other things, Frank that we can share on a in my mind of what will discern God's calling?" cooks dinner on days meaningful level what happen to the part ot the Aichinger attended when Aichinger comes each other's going body I am working on." Princeton Seminary and home only to leave through. The joys and

The ASC art major whose was a minister for two- again for a nighttime frustrations. We can be medium was sculpture and-a-half years then meeting. On other more understanding." admits, "Shiatsu fulfills began further graduate nights, she wears the It's easier to balance me in a way art fulfilled work at Columbia chefs hat. home life, she has found, but in a richer more Seminary where she met "We protect our- when one spouse has a experiential way." her future husband. selves. We need time for smaller church and the

33 LIFESTYLE

other, a larger one. They rosis, cerebral palsy or number of things we come

both encourage their con- head injury. "Children in up with in using the

gregations to have lots of wheelchairs have no sense horses. We look so stupid

meals. The more meals, of freedom or mobility," out there," jokes Brock,

the more their congrega- she explains. "This thera- who breeds and trains

tions will see the entire py opens a whole world of championship horses. Click family—and sensations to them." Many children with

neither minister will have Often students, includ- disabilities never learned

to cook. ing adults, begin riding to crawl, which many edu-

Clemmons Presbyterian "like a sack of potatoes." cators believe is essential

Church, Clemmons, N.C., Gradually posture changes for developing language.

is the second church that as riding exercises the stu- Brock, a psychology major

Fiedler and husband Bob dent's trunk. Unlike tradi- at Agnes Scott who taught

have served as co-pastors. The Rev. Mary Sugg Click: tional physical therapy, at the University of

Both work part time, or The advantage of husband the therapeutic riding Virginia in Charlottes- and wife "both being minis- as she explains, two- works all ot the muscles. ville, participated in an ters is that we can share thirds time. During a typical ses- experimental program in on a meaningjul level."

After seminary both sion, the student is helped which researchers discov-

served different churches bus arrives and spending up on the horse with a ered a horse could be

and decided against the the afternoon at home. walker on either side, and trained to walk a four-beat

arrangement. When their "I'm grateful my hus- four volunteers assisting. gait—in the same pattern

second child was bom, band was willing to do this The walking motion of an infant learns to crawl.

they moved to another equally," says Fiedler. " It the horse moves the pupil Often physicians warn

church and became co- says a lot." from side to side, back- parents that children who

pastors. Working as a ward and forward. In the cannot crawl will never

team, life became a little process of reaching for the talk. To her pleasure.

simpler when, for exam- HORSE reins or stroking the Brock has heard some of

ple, a child became sick SENSE horse's mane, the student these same children in rid-

on Saturday night. And also bends at the waist and ing therapy excitedly say a Riding therapist Irene the "relentless return of stretches both call and horse's name as his or her Knox Brock '68 the Sunday" is a little less foot muscles. first word.

relentless since they alter- Irene Knox Brock has two Other exercises include Brock lives in Roanoke, nate preaching each week. passions: horses and chil- two children atop horses Va., with husband Tom, a

In addition to sharing dren. As a dedicated volun- tossing a ball to one General Electric Company

ministerial duties, the teer, she fulfills her need another or performing a vice president. His job

Fiedlers are "equally par- for both. number of movements transfers (every tour years)

enting" their children, Brock teaches thera- designed to strengthen have enabled her to assist

ages 10 and 13. Both min- peutic riding to children hand and eye coordina- the National TTierapeutic

isters work at their church with disabilities. Seventy tion. Children are also Riding Association and

in the mornings, hiring percent of her juvenile taught colors. "It's tactile, other similar programs in

childcare during summer pupils—she also teaches mental and emotional several Eastern cities, uc

mornings. Each parent adults once a week—are stimulation. It's physical —Leisa Hammet-Goad is

takes turns meeting their confined to wheelchairs, and fun," says Brock. "You a freelance writer based in

children when the school many due to multiple scle- would not believe the ISlashville, Tenn.

34

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • SUMMER /995 CLASSIC eUi!^5K

The Presser dogwood is alive and well . . . at least in alumnae memories.

read with a pang the

article in the tall I Alumnae Magazine about the Presser Dogwood and its nearing end. One of my fondest memories of my time at Agnes Scott is borne by that tree.

The spring day had been hot, and the concert of medieval music by the

New York Pro Musica scheduled for the evening promised to be well- attended. In the days This spring, a neiv dugivuud is planted near the aging Presser Dogwooc before air conditioning in

Presser Hall (this was, I heat, for a while. By inter- panionship of close Garden, a career that may

think, in the spring of mission time, it was nearly friends. have grown out of my first

1968 or 1969), all that miserable. We looked at I'm not sure life offers dazzling spring in Georgia,

could be done was to open the windows, dark now much that is sweeter. I 1945. The Presser dog-

the windows of Gaines after the late twilight of shall miss the old tree. wood seemed big to us

Auditorium and hope for spring, and saw the dog- The Rev. Mollie even then.

a breeze. Nine hundred wood blossoms nodding Douglas Pollitt 70 Marybeth Little

warm bodies on a warm slightly in the barely-mov- Clarksville, Ga. Weston Lobdell, '48

evening were going to get ing air. The tree! Armonk, N.Y.

warm indeed! Abandoning our pre- Poetic Inspiration My friends Elizabeth cious seats, we went out- A Resting Place Jones 71 and Tricia side into the cooling air occurred to me that it It Johnston 72 and 1 were and climbed up into the might be of interest to remember the first time I

determined to get the best dogwood's branches. We you for Arbor Day that the I read about how the tree

seats we could for the con- couldn't climb high Presser dogwood inspired was saved from being cut

cert, so we arrived about enough to see the stage, the imagery in two love down. My admiration for

6:30. The windows were but we found perches and poems I wrote as an Agnes Scott College

open already, but the settled in. The second half English and music student. immediately soared higher!

breeze was barely there, of the concert was a dream As a West Texas girl, I There were times espe-

high above our heads, on of time suspended: music was overwhelmed by the cially during exam week

the first or second row. hundreds of years old, the beauty of our campus in when our brains were so

People came in. The room strong arms of the old tree, the spring. tired! My roommate,

grew warmer. The concert the quadrangle's lamplight "... a highlight [of my Wendy Boatwright, and I

began with its timeless filtered through the big working life] was being would climb up in that

music and we forgot the white flowers, the com- garden editor of House & tree and just rest.

35_ CLASSIC — CLASSIC LETTERS

It really helped.

Once I was "stir crazy" Pros and cons of harassment; 50th remembered again.

from sitting in a room

and memorizing lines Several lines in the cuit. 1 guess this part of ASC graduates/mothers

the accusation didn't fit of today of Shakespeare for story, "Stopping the and tomorrow Nightmare," [Fall 1994 into Zanca's story, did it? should not assume that Dr. George Hayes' class. Agnes Scott Alumnae I wish that some of the their liberated attitudes But it helped my nerves to Magazine] epitomize why funds 1 contribute to reli- toward the role of women

go sit in the tree. I continue to exclude gious, educational and in modern society will nat- Agnes Scott College from charitable organizations urally develop in your One night Wendy and I any financial gifts. Speci- could go to Agnes Scott. chauvinist-by-nature male found out that one of our fically, on page 1 6 the However, the fact that offspring. As in all aspects favorite upperclassmen was author [Jane Zanca] things like the above crop ot developing humanity in

out walking with her date asserts: up regularly in the alum- human beings, the training

"It's nae publications must begin at early and heading in the direc- maddening hut makes me home true: More than half of the wonder whether the and be reinforced often. tion of the tree. So we ran women who report harass- College has strayed from Thanks for a terrific and got up in there just in ment find that nothing its commitment to schol- magazine!

time to see him kiss her! happens to the one who arship. 1 hope this changes Jamie Osgood harasses. with the new president. Shepard '74 She found out ahout it,

Indeed, Clarence Should I hold my breath? Panama City, Fla. and of course she was furi- Thomas got a Supreme Siisan Smith ous with us! appointment." Van Cott '67 Congratulations on

After 1 graduated and This suggests that accu- Selma, InA. another fine issue. I loved

sation of harassment is your handsome layout for got married, 1 lived in

equivalent to guilt. Such a 1 read with great inter- my article, "Fifty Years Atlanta for two years. notion—while certainly est and empathy Jane Ago—A Remembrance" spring came 1 When knew acceptable in today's Zanca's article on sexual [Fall 1994, pages 30-33].

1 had to go see the tree. So trendy feminist circles harassment. During the 20 Alas, a couple of print

in a publi- years 1 spent in corporate mistakes slipped in. we packed a picnic lunch does not belong My

cation of a college that America, 1 have run the foommate was Nancy and took our little boy and prides itself on a high level gamut of being told out- Geer, not Greer, and our a quilt, and we had a '48 of scholarship. Moreover, right that if 1 wanted the graduation year was '49. wonderful afternoon beside it suggests that Clarence order 1 would have to not . ..

rather "work tor it" to having one Marybeth Weston the tree. Thomas, than Anita Hill, lied. Beyond a member of my board of Lobdell '48 Many years later and public opinion poll, Ms. directors tell another Armonk, NY

miles away 1 still many Zanca offers no evidence director that my picture

remembered it, almost as a for such a claim. was in the paper on Page I just finished reading

Ms. Zanca tailed to 8B only to discover a local the new magazine and 1 friend that 1 missed seeing.

point out that Ms. Hill nightclub's ad. . . . am still sniffling. 1 truly So 1 took a picture of it to profited greatly from her But the most provoca- enjoyed Marybeth Lob- an artist friend and asked accusation. Prior to the tive statement came from dell's touching piece on her to do a watercolor for accusation, she was an my then- 10-year-old son. 1944 and the article on

at 1 was explaining it the Presser Dogwood me. She chose to paint a unknown law professor As why a third-rate law school; her was important for boys to (sigh). Adele Clements' branch rather than the scholarship was, at best, handle a household, my views on life as a Decatur whole tree. It's lovely, mediocre. Since the accu- son, the product ot an firefighter and the details

and it hangs in my living sation, however, she has emancipated man and of Mary Jordan's white-hot were very well room today. been nominated for an woman, boldly stated that career track endowed chair, secured a he didn't need to know conveyed also. Emily Parker lucrative book contract about cooking and clean- Congratulations! McGuirt, '60 '90 and is being well compen- ing, "that's why you have Andrea Swilley

Camden, S.C. sated on the lecture cir- a wife!" Loganville, Ga.

36

AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • SUMMER 1995 I GIVING ALUMNA

"I had such a great experience at ASC, 1 want to give something back."

'81 Laura B>7iHt7i : Agitcs Scott prepared her both jor her job and for being a mother and wife.

LAURA BYNUM '81 matured and advanced college here and 1 saw the through the ranks at relationships they had

Home: Atlanta, Ga. NationsBanc Capital made through the College.

Age: 36 Markets Group (a sub- 1 liked the fact that Agnes

Occupation: Vice President, NationsBanc Capital sidiary of NationsBank), Scott had that to offer as Markets Group she has increased her well as an education. Once Husband: James Jordan Bynum III, architect, Nix, Mann giving. "When you have a 1 saw Agnes Scott, 1 tell in and Associates baby, and as your life love with it." Hobbies: Strolling with daughter Hays, age 1 changes, you think more Laura appreciates the One of the Agnes Scott with a degree about how you want to "friends for a lifetime" she youngest charter in psychology, Laura has take care of things. I'm made while at ASC and

memhers ot the given to the College. sure that has affected the personalized academic

Frances Winship Walters "Working as a class my decision to give to attention that helped

Society, Laura Bynum is chair, 1 learned how the College." build her self-esteem. an Annual Fund contribu- important it is to give," Giving to Agnes Scott "Agnes Scott prepared me tor at the Tower Circle says Laura. "At first I gave continues a relationship for what I do in my job level, a former Annual just $5 or $10 or $15— that began when she was a and tor being a mother

Fund chair, a past Alum- thought at least that will seventh grader trom and wife. My education nae Board member, and a help the College pay for Memphis visiting the has made me successful

"perpetual" class chair. postage or electricity or Agnes Scott campus. "My and 1 feel an obligation to

Ever since graduating from something." As Laura has mother and aunt went to give something back." Ase Agnes Scott College Nonprofit 141 E. College Ave. Organization Decatur, GA 30030 U.S. Postage PAID Decatur, GA 30030 Permit No. 469

BALL GAMES ON THE HOCKEY FIELD ARE A SURE SIGN OF SPRING.

SPRING HAS SPRUNG

Baseball, the national pastime and sure harbinger of spring may have let us down on a national level this year, but at Agnes

Scott, pick-up Softball games on the hockey field are still in evidence. There are other signs of spring and the upcoming summer, too: enrollment and admission concerns are "On

Campus" and we continue to remember (if not revive) the

Presser Dogwood "Classic." Your "Lifestyles" speak of new life: alumnae who've changed careers and practice renewal. We include a report on child violence and ways alumnae and students are offering hope to its startlingly large number of victims. And that may be a "spring" message, too.

^^ Printed on recycled paper