“The Time to Act Is Now.”
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MACALESTER SUMMER 2020 TODAY “The time to act is now.” PROFESSOR DUCHESS HARRIS ON HOW HISTORIC EVENTS SHAPE CONTEMPORARY RACE RELATIONS MACALESTER TODAY SUMMER 2020 12 16 24 FEATURES When Grading Goes Change in Plans 24 High-Tech 12 How alumni are responding to the JESSE DITTMAR PROVIDED; ALJEFRI; PHOTO OF CONGRESS; OBADAH LIBRARY KYRANI KANAVAROS; RIGHT: TO LEFT A math professor builds a digital pandemic—and looking ahead platform that saves educators time. Honoring Alumni 32 Our Microbiome Jungle 14 This year’s Alumni Award recipients What’s happening in the gut’s made a mark on their communities outrageously diverse ecosystem? and their classmates. “The Time to Act is The Fight to Elect More Now” 16 Women 36 Professor Duchess Harris on how A century after women got the right historic events shape contemporary to vote, Kristin Hayden ’92 wants to ON THE COVER: race relations make parity in politics a reality. How did we get here? That’s the question that Professor Duchess Harris “It is Purely a Fiction of A Space to GLOW 38 has been fielding from Adulthood That We Don’t For two alumnae, separate media this summer, and See Color” 23 she can’t answer without graduate school projects grew drawing on history. Why children need to hear about into a show exploring queer youth racism, according to Keon West ‘06 identities. STAFF EDITOR Rebecca DeJarlais Ortiz ’06 [email protected] ART DIRECTION The ESC Plan / theESCplan.com CLASS NOTES EDITOR Robert Kerr ’92 PHOTOGRAPHER David J. Turner CONTRIBUTING WRITER Julie Hessler ’85 ASSISTANT VICE PRESIDENT FOR MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS Julie Hurbanis 36 38 CHAIR, BOARD OF TRUSTEES Jerry Crawford ’71 PRESIDENT DEPARTMENTS Dr. Suzanne Rivera VICE PRESIDENT FOR ADVANCEMENT Correspondence 2 D. Andrew Brown Sounding Board 3 ASSISTANT VICE PRESIDENT FOR ENGAGEMENT 1600 Grand 4 Katie Ladas A donation drive, a serendipitous MACALESTER TODAY (Volume 108, Number 3) discovery, and an admissions is published by Macalester College. It is policy change mailed free of charge to alumni and friends of the college four times a year. Class Notes 40 Circulation is 32,000. TO UPDATE YOUR ADDRESS: You Said 41 Email: [email protected] Call: 651-696-6295 or 1-888-242-9351 Books 43 Write: Alumni Engagement Office, Macalester College, 1600 Grand Ave., St. Paul, MN 55105-1899 Weddings 45 TO SHARE COMMENTS OR IDEAS: In Memoriam 46 Email: [email protected] Phone: 651-696-6123 Last Look 52 Macalester Today is printed on Rolland Enviro 100, a 45 100 percent recycled paper. Our printer, Royle Printing of Madison, Wis., is FSC® certified. (FSC® C22017) SUMMER 2020 / 1 CORRESPONDENCE be gay,” he said, “and that would be sad.” Editor’s Note Yes, that was liberal Macalester College This summer, George Floyd’s murder back in the 1960s. Beyond homophobic. by Minneapolis police six miles from Robert Hofler ’72 Macalester’s campus ignited a global New York, N.Y. movement. Many Macalester alumni joined demonstrations affirming I read “Points of Struggle, Points of Pride” Black lives worldwide. Many dealt first, in your good alumni magazine, be- with fresh waves of pain that rippled cause my experience at Mac as a feminist across generations, particularly in was so very formative. A couple of histori- Black communities. Many reflected, cal things missing from the 1970s summa- for the first time or the thousandth, on ry were: Redstocking Cafe, an all-woman how they could play individual roles space for hanging out, held in the chapel in dismantling white supremacy, one or two nights a week; and Conscious- and what it means to live out our ness Raising (CR) groups. These small, Macalester values in the world. facilitated, woman-only groups were com- We carry that reflection into our mon in this second wave of feminism that work on Macalester Today, where was the ’70s. We rotated where we met, in June found us midway through a different people’s dorm rooms. In our group summer issue that suddenly felt Rosenberg Reflections of eight or so women, one woman came out incomplete. In this publication, we You did such a fine job of capturing the es- to the others, and it was the first lesbian I’d strive to lift up and amplify the voices sence of Brian Rosenberg (Spring 2020). ever met. Or at least that I knew was a les- of Black, Indigenous, and People of My President was Dr. Turck. I have very bian! Ah, times have changed—although Color (BIPOC). We know we can do limited personal contact with Dr. Rosen- in some ways from your decade by decade more. In what ways does our story- berg but treat him as “my President” for synopsis, it seems too slowly. telling uphold or dismantle structural all of the reasons you captured with his Betsy MacMichael ’78 racism, anti-Blackness, and white departing thoughts. His greatest gift is the Durham, N.C. supremacy? In the immediate after- ability to connect with you at your level, math of George Floyd’s death, how forgetting about his PhD. should we center Black perspectives Don Olson ’58 “How to Practice Medicine without asking even more of those Vashon Island, Wash. in Alaska” most affected by racism during a time “How to Practice Medicine in Alaska” told of immense pain? the story of a “frontier” doctor. Frontier One clear message emerged Expanded Timeline was defined as “beyond rural.” But frontier from our conversations: we must Your “Points of Struggle, Points of Pride” does not mean “beyond rural”—it means sustain this commitment to shining article about Macalester’s queer history a desired, divine dreamland in desperate light on racial justice work being was informative as it traced life from the need of colonization. Frontier ideology done in, by, and among the Macal- invisibility of the ’60s to the full openness continues to inspire and glorify brutal, per- ester community in the months and of 2020. I am mentioned in the article un- vasive attacks on Indigenous nationhood years ahead. In this edition, we start der the Summer 1971 section about Jack and Indigenous lives in Alaska. To use this with the stories of BLMatMac’s do- and Michael’s marriage. Jack and I enjoyed term without critique betrays Macalester’s nation drive this summer (p. 8); the our talk with the brave lesbian and gay stu- values. If geographic isolation is all the ar- historical context that brought us to dents who invited us to speak with them. I ticle intended to describe, “rural-remote” 2020, outlined by Professor Duchess also want to add that I am a Mac alum, is a common term. If the author employed Harris (p. 16); and why Keon West Class of 1970, which made speaking there “frontier” for its mythic effect—we must ’06 says we must talk with children all the more meaningful for me. ask why, and hold ourselves accountable about race and racism (p. 23). to the full context of that myth. We invite you into the conversa- Karen Browne-Courage ’70 Maya Pisel ’13 tion. What stories—and whose sto- Northampton, Mass. Lawrence, Kan., and Juneau, Alaska ries—should we tell? Your feedback, ideas, and suggestions will help make I enjoyed reading Hillary Moses Mohaupt’s I really enjoyed reading about Heidi Macalester Today stronger. Please article regarding Mac’s LGBTQ history. I Baines and the roads she travelled to lead email [email protected]. remember trying out for a production of her eventually to Alaska. From her remarks Together we will keep building a more Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” in I presume she has studied native culture just Macalester and a more just world. 1968, and the director had turned Estragon and some of Alaskan history. Would love to –Rebecca DeJarlais Ortiz ’06 into a woman. He didn’t want to show two hear more! men on stage kissing each other, as per Louise Roome Klimoff ’64 Beckett’s directions, because “that would Poughkeepsie, N.Y. 2 / MACALESTER TODAY SOUNDING BOARD WHEN IT COUNTS Last fall, in my first conversations about George Floyd was murdered in Minneapo- the search for Macalester’s next President, lis. Every time my spouse and I turned on I was told several things that piqued my in- the TV in our hotel at the end of each day, terest in the opportunity. the news was more shocking and sad and The first: Macalester is a very special infuriating. We wanted to get to the Twin place. As I met members of the Macalester Cities as quickly as possible so we could family, I heard story after story about the roll up our sleeves and try to be helpful. ways in which Macalester changed a life, We crossed into Minnesota on a Satur- solved a problem, contributed to the well- day night and I started the job on Monday being of the local community, or produced morning, June 1, with the cities in crisis a new venture. Each was told with love and and everyone in our community hurting. pride about Mac’s values and its impact on We felt like we had arrived at the center of most intrepid, extroverted students who the wider world. our country’s broken heart. show up for faculty office hours. In some The second: You would be walking into I will never forget how, in that first ways, these tools are actually enhancing an ideal environment for a new President. week, I saw Macalester’s values in action. and improving what we do, and I hope we’ll Everyone I spoke to about the opportunity You can say a lot of wonderful things about hold onto those lessons even when we can described the Macalester presidency as “a what you believe, but none of that really return to something more like the kind of dream job.” matters unless you actually come through campus life that we remember.