The College News 1988-2-17 Vol. 9 No. 8 (Bryn Mawr, PA: Bryn Mawr College, 1988)
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Bryn Mawr College Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College Publications, Special Bryn Mawr College News Collections, Digitized Books 1988 The olC lege News 1988-2-17 Vol. 9 No. 8 Students of Bryn Mawr College Let us know how access to this document benefits ouy . Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.brynmawr.edu/bmc_collegenews Custom Citation Students of Bryn Mawr College, The College News 1988-2-17 Vol. 9 No. 8 (Bryn Mawr, PA: Bryn Mawr College, 1988). This paper is posted at Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College. http://repository.brynmawr.edu/bmc_collegenews/1381 For more information, please contact [email protected]. EGE NEWS BRYN MAWR COLLEGE February 17,1988 Smith minority prof, resigns; what about Bryn Mawr? BY L0RR1E KIM ber issue of The Sophian, Smith's student-run put on a back burner." Mance describes the Nowrojee expresses concern for Bryn newspaper, Butler acknowledged the "good current campus mood as watchful and rather Mawr, as one of the Smith "counterparts" Jtor the past few months, Smith College intentions that do exist at Smith," but pointed cautious, following last semester's "almost referred to by Burger: "I guess that the inci- has been the focus of nationwide media atten- out that playing down the significance of catastrophic" tumult: "It was a very emo- dent at Smith reinforced my questions about tion. The much-publicized resignation of racism is a naive approach that leaves "racial tional time for students, stressful and how seriously minority concerns are taken. I Johnella E. Butler, Smith's first black professor problems on the periphery," rather than intense." am looking for more commitment from this to obtain tenure, followed by the resignation of respecting and acknowledging difference. Bryn Mawr student response to the situa- college. I certainly feel sympathy for the Gregory Vaughn, assistant director of admis- The Smith student body has been a vocal tion at Smith has been heightened by students. It would be terrible for us at Bryn sions for minority concerns, has sparked participant in various aspects of the conflict, statements from President Dunn and Smith Mawr to lose the support of the few faculty of spirited discussion about the depth of ad- including a press conference last semester, Dean Ann Burger. According to the Boston color that we have.' 'People of color comprise ministrative commitment to fighting racism. and a meeting with Smith President (former Globe, Burger says, "There will always be peo- 9.3% of Bryn Mawr faculty, or 19 individuals, Vaughn was quoted in the February issue of Bryn Mawr Dean of the Undergraduate Col- ple who say we haven't moved fast enough or and 28.77% of the staff, or 124 individuals. Sojourner as saying, "Minority administrators lege) Mary Maples Dunn. They have been done enough. I don't think Smith is different Smith has 7% faculty and 5% administrative are in positions of immense responsibility, but working for expansion of the Afro-American from any of its counterparts." And Dunn is staff. have little or no authority to properly execute Studiesdepartmentand have demanded more reported as saying, "Of course there is racism Bryn Mawr President Mary Patterson those responsibilities. A truly multi-cultural professors of color in all departments; they are at Smith, but it is not a racist institu- McPherson points out that the college goes institution is one in which minorities occupy currently involved in searching for and inter- tion. .. Show me a place in the United States beyond what is legally required even by prin- positions of real authority. Unfortunately, this viewing a new appointment to Afro- where there isn't racism." ting the statement in every periodical that is not the case at Smith.'' He was backed up by American Studies, as well as a replacement "This is exactly what we meant by Bryn Mawr does not discriminate on the basis his colleague Alice Smith, assistant to the dean for Greg Vaughn. "This is something that has 'hegemony-busting'," responded COLOR of race. She mentions a number of ways in for minority affairs (whose possible resigna- been going on for a long time," explains leader Sia Nowrojee, referring to professor which the college supports diversification tion has also been publicized), who claimed sophomore Michelle Mance, who is chairing David Karen's "Racism Sexism Classism: (such as the recently installed East Asian con- that her position amounted more to "token- this month's New England Black Students' Hegemony Busters" design for last year's centration), but places greatest emphasis on ism" than to access to key policy channels. Alliance conference at Smith. sociology department t-shirts. Sisterhood co- diversifying faculty: "There are very few per- Johnella Butler, who has assumed a new "When we [Smith students] apply, we are President Jacqueline McGriff adds, "It is a sons of color in the pool to hire, very few post at the University of Washington in Seat- under the impression that the administration cop-out to say racism is everywhere instead of minority Ph.D.s.... In the 1990s we are going tle, stated that although she had professional has everybody's best interests in mind. dealing with it where you are, because racism to see an almost complete faculty turnover." reasons for leaving Smith, "the school's Women of color don't feel that's the case. We is something that is within." According to In order to prepare for that turnover, Bryn lethargy in fighting racism" was the most don't feel that the administration places much Mance, President Dunn has recently stated Mawr has been stepping up its teacher cer- significant factor. In an open letter to the Smith importance or significance on our issues. .as that she will not tolerate racism on the Smith tification program for undergraduates, and community which was published in a Decem- if these issues aren't real enough, or could be campus. {continued on page 9/ Lesbian feminism explored BY SARAH DAVIS According to Phelan, standard lesbian fem- inist arguments opposing sadomasochism Xemple University Press has accepted have stated that sadomasochistic lesbians are Haverford Visiting Professor Shane Phelan's not, in fact, making a free choice, but that such first book, Identity Politics: Lesbian-Feminism behavior is essentially "a perpetuation of and the Limits of Community, for publication patriarchy and a patriarchal mode of operation within the next year, Ms. Phelan received her .. [sadomasochists] think that [they] can do Ph.D in Political Science from the University this freely, but [they] cannot." The problem of Massachusetts, and has taught there and with such reasoning, in Phelan's view, is that it more recently at Williams College before com- mirrors the reasoning used against homosex- ing to Haverford for this year. uality in "earlier rounds . first with According to Phelan, Identity Politics takes psychiatry . there was a whole discourse the form of a "history of radical lesbian femin- which said that it doesn't matter if [homo ism over the last twenty years," and particu- sexuals] think [they are] making a free choice, larly addresses disputes which have arisen what can [they] know, [they are] crazy ... the within the lesbian-feminist community dur- challenge for opponents of sadomasochism ing that period. Phelan feels that "[radical les- now is to show how that argument is different bian feminists) began with a critique of liberal- from [standard lesbian feminist] arguments." ism, and developed a theory partly as a re- What interested Phelan about the discourse STUDENTS CELEBRATE BLACK HISTORY MONTH on a larger scale than in recent years. See center spread for action to that," but that "some important between standard lesbian feminists and pro details. MIEKATAKAYAMA liberal values got left out along the way," ponents of sadomasochism was not so much leading to a situation in which the radical les- the actual dispute about sexual practices, but bian feminist community is "so separatist, and "the dynamic within the lesbian-feminist so demanding of its members—it places such community that got us into this mess, where Halpern joins BMC, discusses goals tight standards on what is lesbianism, so that the community is virtually splintered, in- lesbianism isn't just a matter of being sexual, capable of working across these lines, and that BY BETH FUSSELL and serious" institution and she said she has but you have to be a certain way to 'count' this is a bizarre sort of thing to destroy a move- been impressed by the friendliness of the com- —that women weren't any freer in the com- ment over." Oue Halpern, the new addition to Bryn munity. Halpern believes that Bryn Mawr munity than they had been before." Phelan Identity Politics was originally aimed at an Mawr's Political Science department, has sev- "students are more concerned with feminist argues in Identity Politics that radical lesbian audience of "mainstream political theorists," eral goals for her three-year, tenure track ap issues" and that they have "sense of distinct feminists must work on "accepting that there and was designed to bring to their attention the pointment at Bryn Mawr. Primarily she wants concerns as women." Halpern was attracted are some limits on community . .. talking sorts of disputes which currently occur in the to "become a good teacher." She also plans to to Bryn Mawr because it is a small college across those limits," and getting back to he radical feminist community, disputes which work on completing a book on her dissertation rather than a university and because it is a basic liberal value of "civility," in order that "are going on, in a language that [political topic: the comparative politics of constitu- women's college.