Connecticut College Digital Commons @ Connecticut College Linda Lear Center for Special Collections & Alumni News Archives Winter 1987 Connecticut College Alumni Magazine, Winter 1987 Connecticut College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/alumnews Recommended Citation Connecticut College, "Connecticut College Alumni Magazine, Winter 1987" (1987). Alumni News. 243. https://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/alumnews/243 This Magazine is brought to you for free and open access by the Linda Lear Center for Special Collections & Archives at Digital Commons @ Connecticut College. It has been accepted for inclusion in Alumni News by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Connecticut College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the author. The Connecticut Colleae Alumni Mogct:zine Volume 64, No.2, Wimer 1986-87 THE IMAGE IN PUBLIC RELATIONS Editorial Board: Vivian Segall '73, Editor (12 By jean M. Hundley '48 1 Smith Court, Noank, CT 06340) I Margaret Stewart Van Patten '87, Editorial Assistant I Katherine Gould '8\ I Wayne Swanson I Susan Baldwin Kietzman '82 I Marilyn DESIGN lSALL AROUND Us Ellman Frankel '64 I Louise Stevenson By Carolyn Anderson '67 4 Andersen '41, Class Notes Editor I Ellen Hofheimer Bettrnan n '66 and Kristin Stahlschmidt Lambert '69, ex officio I REMBRANDT AND THE ART OF William Van Saun, Designer. PARADOX The Connecticut College Alumni Magazine By Robert Baldwin 7 (USPS 129-140). Official publication of the Conneoicut College Alumni Association. All publication rights reserved. Contents IMAGE TAKING AND lJ\'IAG£ MAKING reprinted only by permission of the editor. By Ted Hendrickson 12 Published by the Connecucur College Alumni Association at Sykes Alumni Center, Connecucur College, New London, CT, four times a year in Winter, Spring, Summer, SA Y IT WITH PICTURES Fa!l. Second-class postage paid at New By Vivian Segall '73 16 London, CT 06320. Send form 3579 to Sykes Alumni Center, Connecticut College, New London, CT 06320. CASE member. THE FOUR SEASONS AT Alumni Association Executive Board: Ellen CONNECTICUT Hofheimer Beurnarm '66, President I Marion By Richard D. Birdsall 20 Nichols Arnold '32, Vice President I Elizabeth Mcl.ane McKinney '52, Secretary I Laurie Norton Moffatt '78, Treasurer / Jay B. R" PR Levin '73, Mary Ann Garvin Siegel '66, and By Barbara Gold Zingman '50 24 Helene Zimmer Loew '57, Alumni Trustees. George F. Hulme '77, Rebecca Holmes Post '63, and Jane Day Hooker '44, Directors LETrERS 25 I Committee Chairmen: Helen Reynolds '68 (Nominating) I Laura Wheelwright Farnsworth '52 (Alumni Giving) I Carol Filice Godfrey '74 (Clubs) I Laurie Norton ALUMNI IN PRINT 26 Moffatt '78 (Finance and Programs) I George F. Hulme '77 (Classes) I Maarten Terry '83 (Undergraduate I Young Alumni Relations) CLASS NOTES 29 I Rita Younger-Walker '73 (Minority Affairs) I Kristin Stahlschmidt Lambert '69 (Executive Director) and Vivian Segall '73 POLITICAL MOVEMENTS (Alumni Magazine Editor), ex officio. By Peg Van Patten '87 40 Communications to any of the above may be addressed in care of the Alumni Office, Connecticut College, New London, CT 06320. One of the aims of The Connecticut College On the cover: Mark Twain in his later years, Alumni Magazine is to publish thought- reading a book at home in Hartford, Ct. Pho- provoking articles, even though they may be tograph from the Beumann Archive. controversial. Ideas expressed in the magazine are those of the authors and do not Our special thanks to Peter Rohowsky of the necessarily reflect the official position of the Beumann Archive for his research assistance. Alumni Association or the College. IMAGES The Image in IMAGES Public Relations Our images of people and places are rooted in reality IMAGES and filtered through the lens of personal experience IMAGES By Jean M. Handley '48 Images. The way the fog looks rolling in off Long Island Sound. The Arboretum IMAGES crowned with laurel on a spring afternoon. Painstakingly filling blue books on exam days. Quiet evenings studying in a library carrel. The exu- berance of dormitory life. Rushing La answer the room intercom telephone, wondering who the call is from. And in a small classroom, Marjorie Dilley, IMAGES our professor of government, challenging us not only to articulate but to defend our opinions. Images. IMAGES They flood the senses now, these many years after I graduated [rom Connecticut. My images of the college come from the years I spent in New London as an undergraduate, from an ongoing relationship with the school over time, IMAGES and from an appreciation that the paths of my own life have been formed by the learning and by the experiences that took place on that wonderful campus. And although the images of Connecticut College that play in my memory forever mix and blend with new ones that confront me every time I IMAGES visit the campus, I believe that in certain, essential ways the images remain constant. Today, the social life of the students is more focused on campus, instead of on excursions to other colleges or mixers at the Coast Guard Academy. IMAGES The college "plant" has changed, too, with the addition of new buildings. The student and athletic centers, the ice hockey rink, the new library, Cummings Arts Center and the on-campus infirmary have all been added since I graduated. Different too is the enrollment of male students who IMAGES since 1969 have invigorated the campus with their energy and their ideas. But fundamental images remain-images that reflect the inherent strength of the school, its lasting values and its unaltered goals. The beauty of the campus remains. The enthusiasm and zest for learning IMAGES that the students bring. The scholarship and research that takes place on this campus. The dedication of the faculty and the administration. All have been retained and renewed with the passage of years. We often think of images as superficial impressions. But the images we IMAGES hold of people and places are rooted in reality and filtered through the lens of our personal experiences. The images I have of this college are a collec- tion of impressions and perceptions about the nature of its character. For surely Connecticut College possesses character, a personality, even, I venture to say, a soul. No institution as vibrant as this one, as full of ideas IMAGES and discussions and passion and vigor and humor, could be without one. And so, how do we go about conveying the character that is Connecticut College? Public relations has a role to play-a role in creating and com- IMAGES municating the images we associate with this school. 1 • • Use the phrase "public relations," and itoffen conjures up a bad or negative image. Many people believe that what public relations professionals do is put a false face on the truth in an attempt to soften it, disguiseit, make it better. But good public relationsis anything but this. Good public relations upholds the consistency between imageand reality. Good public relations, as one of its early pioneers once said, is 90 percentdoing and 10 percent telling. barred critique session and reviews "products"> publ icat ions, brochures, development and recruit- ment material, both print and audio visual-and tal k s about how well the college is succeedingin View, the College's tabloid meeting its pu bl ic relations goals. The image of Connecticut College has a wideand In my job as vice president of corporate relations at profound impact. Public relations helps the College Southern New England Telephone (SNET), I work to maintain a strong leadership position amo~g the. convey positive images of my company. Through my country's smaller liberal arts colleges. Public relations involvemel1l with the Connecticut College National helps create the positive images of the Collegethat Advisory Council on Public Relations, I also work to will attract well-qualified students; r~lain an~.aura(~ convey and strengthen the image of Connecticut College. the finest teachers and scholars; sustain the pride an commitment of the alumni body; encourage thebest Use the phrase "public relations," and it often con- efforts of the administration and staff, and leadto jures up a bad or negative image. Many people successful development activities. believe that what public relations professionals do is The images we project need to be cohes.l\leand.con. p~t a .fal~e face 0': the truth in an attempt to soften it, sistent. They need to be rooted in the reality that IS ?lsgUise. It, make II better. But good publ ic relations Connecticut. d IS anYlht.ng but this. Good public relations upholds But before it's possible to convey images, wenee t~e con~lstency between image and reality. Good pub- to know what it is we want to convey. What are tl~~I lic relatlon,s, as one of its early pioneers said, is 90 . ue qua lues. ~ercent. doing and I percem telling. And when posi- strengths of the school? What are ItS utuq a . I d ot? These live acuons abound, as IS the case with Connecticut What does It have that other schoo son .. that's w~en the telli~g is important. And that's wh; are some of the questions the Advisory CounCilhas the AdVisory Council was born. To assist and help asked and tried to answer sharpen the "telling." ioll5 Our Advisory Council, begun in 1982 k . h Award winning admiss h II' ,war s WIt brochures t e co ege public relations staff to present such shar. pe~e~. more fo~used images of Connecticut to the I~Jgel communIty. The group reviews communica_ lions plans, acts as a sounding board a d ff gesuons'. on the direcuon emphasl·s and, n 0 crs sug-f I· .' content 0 w tat IS con:muillcated .a~out the college.