A New Preside* At Agnes Scott • Baring the Breast- Cancer Myths • A Foil to Danger
• Please Pass the . . . Rootenanny? — EDITOR'S NOTE
In the present and in the past sleeps the purpose of the future: the new president brings an unfolding vision, a world-view to Agnes Scott College.
President Mary Brown Bullock '66 opened her first transformed this community. Sally Mahoney found much convocation address to the Agnes Scott College to celebrate during her year as interim president. She and
community with a quote from T. S. Eliot's Four I shared a special Stanford bond, and I pledge to continue
Quartets, lines from "Burnt Norton": encouraging Agnes Scott's renewal as a community of
Time present and time past civility, collegiality, intellectual vitality, warmth and
Are both perhaps present in time future, good humor."
And time future contained in time past. . .. Out of the old forms and patterns, out of successes,
But to what purpose mistakes and lessons, she said, emerge opportunities for
Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leaves new beginnings at the College. "We are at a crossroads,"
I do not know. she said, "the future is before us, looming, beckoning, Disturbing the dust—pondering the journey that has challenging." brought her once again to Agnes Scott As institutions face "their own
Bullock explored the meaning of "time beginnings and endings," Bullock
future contained in time past" both for the envisioned an Agnes Scott College that will
College and for herself. The pageantry of survive and become great: as it develops
the day's convocation procession, the strong links with the world, as it responds
academic regalia, she said, are colored by to the needs of women and their changing
the medieval origins of the university and roles, as it continues to engender in
by the variety of alma maters represented by students the joy of learning, and as it
the ASC faculty. Along with the splendor embraces all people.
of this universal scene, "more than a century "Transitions" was the title Mary Brown
of Agnes Scott's own traditions" continue. Bullock chose for her first formal conversa- ullock '66 Bullock's connections with the College tion with the Agnes Scott community.
date back almost a century to when her great-aunt Mary To express the wonder of that circle made of endings
Thompson was a student here. The president's mother, and beginnings, she turned again to a passage from
Mardia Hopper Brown, graduated from Agnes Scott in Eliot's remarkable Four Quartets, "Little Gidding":
1943. More recently, Bullock's brother, George Brown, What we call the beginning is often the end
served as a director of the Global Awareness program for And to make an end is to make a beginning.
the College. "Long forgotten metaphors of time and place The end is where we start from. ...
haunted me," said Bullock, as she prepared late this We shall not cease from exploration
summer for her transition from Washington, D.C., (where And the end of all our exploring
she directed the Asia Program for The Woodrow Wilson Will be to arrive where we started.
International Center for Scholars), back to Agnes Scott. And to know the place for the first time.
During the address, Bullock expressed gratitude to
those from Agnes Scott's past. "Ruth Schmidt's
determination to forge a multicultural, aesthetically ?j2c*-^ beautiful and technologically up-to-date campus CONTENTS Agnes Scott College Alumnae Magazine Fall 1 995 , Volume 72 , Number I DEPARTMENTS 7 2 ^^Htft^t ** rt Welcome Home 5" On Campus By Tish Young McCutchen '73 32 Photos by Laura Sikes Excerpts Deeply rooted both in ASC history and in |®«5?* ^ f*^ # international experience, President Mary 35 B& ' Brown Bullock '66 brings a singular vision Lifestyle to the college. II 40 '' Hr ' !? , iHP^ Letters Giving Alumna Editor: Celeste Pennington L 18 Contributing Editor: Hush and Eat Your Mary Alma Durrett Design: Everett Hullum, Rootenanny Baring the Harold Waller Student Assistants: By Jane Zanca '83 Breast Cancer Tina Backus '97 Illustration by Mac Evans Myths Rolanda Daniel '98 '99 '80 Danyael Miller If food geneticists mate rutabagas and By Carol Willey Jennifer Odom '98 bananas, will the result be a rootenanny? Photos by Laura Sikes Samantha Stavely '97 Even if it is easier to peel, will the kids An alumna writer and a Publications refuse to eat it? Advisory Board: New York artist/activist reveal Christine Cozzens the onerous ambiguities , the deep Kim Drew '90 scars of breast cancer survival. Bill Gailey Ellen Fort Grissett '77 Sandi Harsh '95 Tish McCutchen '73 Kay Parkerson O'Briant '70 A Foil to Danger Edmund Sheehey '65 By Mary Alma Durrett Lucia Howard Sizemore Photo illustrations by Monika Nikore Copyright © 1995, Agnes Scott College. Published tor alumnae and ASC Public Safety officers are active friends twice a year hy the Office of on a number of fronts, helping to ensure Publications, Agnes Scott College, Buttrick Hall, 141 E. College campus safety. Avenue, Decatur, GA 30030, (404) 638-6315. Postmaster: Send address changes to Office of Develop- ment and Public Affairs, Agnes Scott College, Decatur, GA 30030. The content of the magazine reflects the opinions of the writers and not COVER: Agnes Scott's first alumna president Mary Brown Bullock '66. necessarily the viewpoint of the PHOTO BY LAURA SIKES College, its trustees or administration. ON CAMPUS A Cultural Olympics, collaborative research and PEACH, tree tour, high marks in science and math, ads for girls, finding the unexpected and more. ASC OPENS book signings, a book fair, CULTURAL readings and one-person STROLL THROUGH THE TREES OLYMPIAD shows along with confer- ence panel discussions. Agnes Scott College Through the Trees at — is With nine months Audrey Arthur one of a few Agnes Scott" provides and counting, plans areas in Decatur where pictures and profiles of a are taking shape tor the A PEACH OF the trees have remained number of the largest International Conference AN IDEA relatively undisturbed for and oldest trees in ASC's on Southern Literature to more than a century. urban forest including be hosted by Agnes Scott As Washington Recently the College has DeKalb County's College. It is the kick-off wrestles with welfare produced a champion black gum event for the Cultural reform, PEACH (Positive self- tree, the second Olympiad's Olympic Employment and Com- guided largest magnolia in Summer Festival scheduled munity Help) is Georgia's tour of the county (on a for June 2-9, part of the nearly decade-old answer trees (with campus that boasts 100th anniversary celebra- for those who receive Aid 72 magnolias), tion of the 1 996 Olympic to Families with Dependent and a Games in Atlanta. Children to move from wel- white With the slate of writers fare to work. ash that yet to be announced, Last semester five ASC predates spokesman Tom McHaney, students helped document the Civil director of graduate studies the progress of 1 7 women War. The and English at Georgia involved in DeKalb's tour also State University, says the PEACH program. includes conference will bring One outcome: students more together "three generations like Christina Costes '95 funds provided by recently of writers"— established gained an insight into the an Urban and planted specimens like writers, writers of promise lives of PEACH women Community Forestry a spectacular pair and writers heretofore who juggle child care, GED Assistance Program of gingkoes added overlooked. or college classwork and Grant, under the aus- by biology professor "The idea is to bring on-the-job training in order pices of the Georgia S. Leonard Doerpinghaus, half of the writers from the to prepare for, and to estab- Forestry Commission). among about 30 trees he Southern states and to lish, careers. Costes was The booklet "A Stroll planted around campus. invite people from around assigned to Charemon the world who translate, Shanks, a mother of five publish, write and talk (ages 2 to 16) who is earn- Reform Task Force. are working to provide a about Southern writing ing a degree in social work "Sometimes we have better quality of lite for and its influence on their from Georgia State stereotypical images. their children and who are culture," says McHaney. University and who serves Students found it exciting taking control of their The event will include on the Georgia Welfare to interview women who lives," notes Bienda Hoke, ACNES SCOTT COLLEGE • FALL IW ON CAMPUS ASC assistant professor professional instrument." math, science, economics HIGH MARKS of sociology. Students conducted and social studies. IN SCIENCES Hoke designed the pro- interviews with a sample of The pilot project was AND MATH ject to connect sociology PEACH participants and noted both by PEACH research theory and published the information Fulton County staff who Agnes Scott College practice, and to provide in a spiral-bound PEACH have talked to Hoke about has been identified ASC students an opportu- Family Album complete creating a similar publica- by Peterson s Guides as one nity to work with her, with profiles and photos of tion and establishing a of 200 colleges and univer- collaboratively. each of the women. tutorial, and by Georgia's sities in the United States For the project, stu- Out of the experience, First Lady Shirley Miller that "offer an outstanding dents created a set of ques- ASC students established a (wife of Gov. Zell Miller), undergraduate program in tions which Hoke helped Saturday morning tutorial who has a strong interest the sciences and math- refine "so that it was like a to assist PEACH women in in adult education. ematics." As such, ASC EXPANDING LANGUAGE ACROSS THE CURRICULUM A gnes Scott is expanding its German component and the attend the humanities course. J. Vmulti disciplinary Language Church in Latin America with a The grant money also supports an Across the Curriculum program Spanish component. intensive language study for which pairs humanities (or fine arts "You get a deeper understanding humanities faculty who want to or social sciences) with language when you study German history in upgrade language skills. studies. The pilot project (begun in German," notes Martha Bailey '97 Benefits to students are an the fall of 1992 for students with at whose study of European History enhanced understanding of a least two years of German) paired since 1945 included reading the discipline based upon the European History 1914-1945 taught German constitution and German opportunities to discuss and read by Associate Professor of History journal entries written during authentic texts in the original Katherine Kennedy with World War II and viewing contem- language and to improve their a German language component porary German films. "The native foreign language skills with an taught by Professor of German language authenticates the material. additional course hour each week. Ingrid Wieshofer. There are no English or American Students involved in the LAC The College now offers these overlays of bias. Language puts you programs have gone on to use their additional LAC courses: European inside the culture." improved language skills in various History since 1945 with a German Funded by a $152,000 grant ways, including one woman who component; Medieval Art and the from the National Endowment for spent a semester abroad studying in History of Art with French the Humanities, the program is Germany and another who recently components; Native Peoples of the designed to enrich the study of completed a six-week scholarship Americas and the African Diaspora humanities disciplines through at the Goethe Institute. and Women in Latin America with established links with foreign At the close of the grant, the Spanish components. language skills. The funds support College will offer an invitational The College plans to develop course development work for the symposium (April 1996) for two more courses over the next two two-teacher teams and provide the institutions in the Southeast years, Women in Music with a language faculty release time to considering a similar program. ON CAMPUS WCC UNVEILS tools and confidence to be SOUTHERN ASSOCIATION AD CAMPAIGN their successors." FOR WOMEN HISTORIANS Role models for the MOVES TO AGNES SCOTT Expect the best from a girl. WCC-Ad Council ads- That's what you'll get. depicted in childhood pho- Agnes Scott College will be the new home of the If a 15-year, multi million tos—include Julie Willey, 500-member Southern Association for Women dollar ad campaign works director of the Delaware Historians (SAWH), a professional organization for the way the Women's State Police Crime Lab; academicians who research the history of Southern College Coalition and the Lauren Lazin, award-win- women. Agnes Scott Assistant Professor of History Ad Council hope it will, ning documentary film- Michele Gillespie, a member of the association since this slogan will become as maker; and Nicole Lang, 1988, assumes the duties of secretary/treasurer for a familiar as the American pediatrician. three-year term beginning in December. She will also Negro College Fund's Regional campaign serve as managing editor of an organizational newsletter. slogan, "A mind is a terri- launches occurred simulta- The Southern Association for Women Historians was ble thing to waste." neously throughout the founded in the early 1970s to foster the status of women The two organizations United States, including as historians in the South and to promote the research invited Mary Brown one at Spelman College in of Southern women's history, especially across racial Bullock '66 and the Atlanta, hosted by WCC lines. The membership, a subgroup of the Southern presidents of many of the members: Spelman, Agnes Historical Association, produces volumes of research nation's 84 women's Scott College, Wesleyan on Southern women's history following its regular colleges to Washington, College in Macon and conferences every three years. D.C., for the launch of the Brenau University in Gillespie's relationship with Agnes Scott was fortu- national campaign to raise Gainesville. nate for SAWH's officers, who selected Agnes Scott, an expectations about girls' WCC member colleges historic women's college in the South, as their new competence and abilities will serve as resource tor center. Gillespie believes the College's association with and to encourage girls to programs that foster the SAWH will dovetail nicely with Agnes Scott's new perform at their maximum participation of girls and program for Women in Leadership and Social Change. level of potential. women in the classroom. The association had been housed at the University of "Today, women like Arkansas and at Clemson University in South Carolina. Madeline Albright, our COMPARISON ambassador to the U.N., OF WOMEN IN will be included in a book, Education. The schools and Sadako Ogato, U.N. ECONOMICS Top Colleges for Science— were analyzed according to High Commissioner for Leading Programs in the the number and percent- Refugees, are providing omen s colleges Biological, Chemical, age of baccalaureate alum- international leadership," Wproduce propor- Geological, Mathematical, nae having earned degrees said Bullock. "Our future tionately more female and Physical Sciences , due in science and math world will need more economics majors than do out in early 1996. between 1988 and 1992; women like these to be co-ed liberal arts institu- ASC was selected from and the number and per- engaged in solving the tions. That's one oi the among 1,500 four-year col- centage of baccalaureate problems of the next findings of Associate leges and universities iden- alumnae having been century. The campaign Professor ot Economics tified through the 1994 awarded National Science we unveil today will have a Rosemary Cunningham in Carnegie Classification Foundation Fellowships positive impact in equip- her study "Undergraduate of Institutions of Higher 1990-94. ping girls and women with Women in Economics: A • ai :ni-s m utt con i-i if fai i wos VIEWPOINT Comparison of Women's Next, Cunningham and Coeducational Liberal plans to research why there Arts Colleges" presented at are fewer economics majors the International Associa- of either sex in this country tion for Feminist Economics than at any other time since Conference in Tours, 1979, and why women's France, this past summer. colleges are successful in Results indicate that attracting and training women's colleges average women in economics. 31 economics majors per year, compared with 1 1.9 COMPUTER female economics majors a LITERATES year at co-ed institutions. The number of female With a $2,500 grant Agnes Scott Assistant Professor juan Allende spent the summer researching the growth of evangelical religion in Chile, majors who enter a graduate from BellSouth to his traditionally Catholic homeland. economics program is the College, Associate higher at women's colleges Professor of Economics REMAIN WATCHFUL, FOR GOD'S (4-6 compared with 2.1). Rosemary Cunningham OTHER NAME IS SURPRISE Women's colleges also devised a way to become employed more female eco- an Economics 306 "coach" From a meditation for First Friday Community Worship Allende nomics faculty, 35 percent instead of lecturer by devel- by Juan compared with 23 percent oping a microeconomics Summer is as much a movements, and as the at co-ed colleges. course that helps students state of mind—an word "movements" Cunningham began her solve economics problems attitude—as it is a season. suggests, I learned early study when economists in a computer lab rather I began my summer with on that this was not a became concerned that than in a traditional certain expectations topic that one can fewer undergraduates, classroom. about what I would find approach as one would especially women, were Cunningham designed returning to Chile, the the study of minerals. majoring in economics. the course in order to train country where I grew up; No, to study evangeli- Cunningham built her students to work collabora- expectations of winter in cals, one has to be willing study on previous research tively in small groups, using summer—remember, to participate actively in linking women's colleges different types of computer Chile is in the Southern the life of evangelical and female faculty members technology to gather data, hemisphere and the communities, and that with the success of their and using the Excel seasons are reversed; is always a challenge for graduates. She surveyed spreadsheet program for and, finally, expectations the research self—the so- 40 women's colleges with seeing solutions. about my research. called objective observer. degree programs in eco- Cunningham hopes the You see, I go to Chile Let me explain this nomics and 58 highly course will produce more to visit family and to with a story. ranked co-ed institutions active learners. She also continue my research As part of my research, with fewer than 5,000 notes the importance of which often costs me a I traveled 300 miles south students. Fifty percent of integrating computers chunk of my summer, from Santiago to Coronel, the women's colleges and with course materials. both in sunshine and in a small town that sits in a 65 percent of the co-ed "Computer skills are not leisure. The topic of my depressed economic area institutions responded. just an add-on anymore." research is evangelical once famous for its coal ON TAMPI IS . . " . ' — VIEWPOINT and textiles—industries women sat me between to the 7-Eleven for coffee , to of us think we know just that no longer exist. This two matrons, let me peek drown one of those "I-don't- what to expect from our is an area where the in their open Bibles and want'to-get-up-and-gO'to- semesters here ? number of evangelicals is hymnals, hugged me, work mornings" in an ocean How many of us are very large. touched me, and brought of caffeine ready to take refuge in " One afternoon, I was me into the circle. I forgot "How you doing? J our research-selves invited to a meeting of why I was there: with my asked him objective, analytical, evangelical women. I was research-self gone, I joined "Fine," he answered. rational? expecting to find three or them in prayer and praise, "How you doing? " His These stories point to four stern women-pastors. and soon I felt in my words were very slurred. another reality, the reality Instead, I walked into a well-trained, skeptical "Man, 1 am not doing of encountering the tiny room in a house so soul the unexpected well at all. I didn't feel like unexpected, the strange, poor that the roof could presence of God. getting up this morning. I the other—like finding not stop the rain from So much for objectivity. wish I were still giving out winter weather in " coming in. There I discov- So much for expectations. food with you guys Having summer's season. But, as ered 20 or 25 women Back in the States, I initiated my little pity party, someone said, "God's sitting close to each other, read in Sojourners—a mag- 1 continued to complain. other name is surprise." heating the cold, damp azine of faith, politics and "Hold up, man," he said. Our task, I think, is to room with their bodies, culture—another story of "You woke up this morning, remember—amid the while clapping hands, encountering the unex- right?" books and the computers ." singing and sharing their pected, this one told by "Yes. . and the teachers and experiences of hard living. Daniel Goering. He writes: "You're going to a job, students who drive us I felt uncomfortable in I was walking north on right?" crazy—that the unexpect- my American clothes. I 15th Street in Washington, "Yes, that's right." ed is out there, too. didn't know what to do D.C. , when 1 ran into one "Well, you're all right Surprise awaits us or say. i of my former clients from the then! What are you always. God is among the But these j food distribution program. It complaining for? stacks in the McCain evangelical ^ was 6:15 a.m., and Having been thus Library, as surely as God jJ^^^L there signs he restored to my senses, I was in that damp little ^WL'^^L had already realized that 1 really was room in Chile and was '^^^A ^L been drinking. all right, and that, moreover, walking the streets of ^^^^X 9L was 1 had met God that morning. Washington, D.C. HB^^^ heading How many of us got up In our daily routines, this morning with an "I- may we be ready, willing don't-want-to-get-up- and able to let the and-go-to-work" unexpected in and to attitude? receive what it is teaching. How many And may we all be so of us came attuned to creation that back to we come to see God school still everywhere. in a summer —]uan Alknde is assistant - ^^^^^^- ~ ^j«^^iaJi state of mind professor of political science How many at Agnes Scott College \i .NI^MOTl i i>] IH',1- . FALL !»)< —— WELCOME HOME By Tish McCutchen 73 Photographs by Laura Sikes year is 1952. The scene is the Communists in 1949 and then his dra- TheAsia, a continent still wracked matic release is one of my earliest childhood by the vestiges of World War II, memories." by ongoing civil war and by Interest in China, the focus of Bullock's the struggle to find its place in graduate study at Stanford University, led the second half of the 20th century. A dark- her to Washington, D.C, where in 1973 she haired, 8-year-old girl—along with her became a staff member and, four years later, mother, father and brothers, 7 and 1 director of the Committee on Scholarly disembarks after the journey from America. Communication with the People's Republic Her family has arrived with a dream: to of China (sponsored by the National bring the good news of Christianity to the Academy of Sciences, the American people of Asia. Council of Learned Societies and the Social Skip to 1995. In Washington, D.C., a Science Research Council). She helped plan city filled with people struggling to find the first scholarly exchange program which their place in the last years of the 20th during its first year sponsored 10 American century, a dark-haired woman—with students—and now includes hundreds Mary Brown husband, son, 19, and daughter, 15 of American and thousands of Chinese Bullock—ASC's bids farewell to friends and supporters participants each year. before embarking on another journey. The first alumna woman—the child of missionaries, Dr. Mary 1988, she joined The Woodrow president—takes Brown Bullock '66—will soon move to InWilson International Center for Scholars office, bringing Decatur to become the first alumna as director of the Asia Program, housed president of Agnes Scott College. in the Smithsonian Institution. Among to the College In anticipation of her new challenge, this other duties, Bullock (a Woodrow Wilson a new vision evening Bullock greets well wishers gathered Fellowship holder, 1966-67 and a Wilson drawn from her at the U.S. Capitol—ASC alumnae and old Center Fellow 1983-84) nurtured scholars Washington friends here to celebrate at the from an area reaching from Afghanistan to international invitation of the Washington Alumnae Japan. "Mary has been marvelous, much bet- background and chapter, Senator Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) and ter than any other person at the center, at experience, and Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R- dealing with the Fellows," notes Center Ga.). Outside, the U.S. Marine Corps Band Director Charles Blitzer. "We don't have promising to meet is winding down a summer evening concert. undergraduates, but she has certainly been the challenges "The Man of La Mancha" highlights this deeply involved in the care and feeding of of women's week's performance, and as Bullock's friends scholars. That's true of her whole career." wander out of the Capitol and into the Professional priorities during that time education in the warm Washington dusk, the band plays: have included teaching and serving on century ahead. "To dream the impossible dream ... to numerous academic advisory/trustee boards. reach the unreachable star." Since 1991 Bullock has served as a professo- Bullock's family has often reached for dis- rial lecturer with The Johns Hopkins Uni- tant stars. Her parents, and grandparents versity School for Advanced International before them—certainly following that road Studies (in 1992 she was ranked among the less traveled—devoted their lives to mission- top 10 of Johns Hopkins SAIS faculty). For ary work in Asia. "I grew up on my grand- many years she has been a trustee of the father's romantic stories of fleeing from the United Board for Christian Higher Educa- warlords in China," she says. "His capture by tion in Asia. Since 1992 she has served on A NEW PRESIDENT FOR ASC In 1952, Mary and George Brown posed with their mother, Mardia Hopper Brown '43 , at the Emperor's Grounds in Tokyo (above The children studied in ]apan at the international school there. Mary Brown Bullock (right) pauses outside her offices at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. prior to moving , to Atlanta. • \t MK Si DTT mil ROE FA1 I 1995 the executive committee of the board of directors of the National Committee for U.S. -China Relations. Her recent academic/conference travel includes Korea, Japan, Taiwan, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Europe. "Mary is at home in a very broad world," notes Interim ASC President Sally Mahoney. Bullock's great-aunt, Mary Thompson, was the first family member to make herself at home in this wider world. After attending Agnes Scott from 1903 to 1905, she went directly from Atlanta to China as a pioneer missionary. Two "My whole world years later Mary's paternal grandmother, view had been Charlotte, joined her. She met her husband, influenced by Frank Brown, in China. Meanwhile, Mary's maternal grandparents headed for Korea, the East, and this and in the early 1920s Mary's mother, trip through Mardia Hopper, was born in Korea. Europe gave me a Fast forward 20 years, and Mardia Hopper has become Mardia Brown '43, an Agnes chance to see what Scott graduate wooed and won beside the most Americans Alumnae Garden pond. She and China- grew up much born husband Tommy began both a family and their plans to make their way back to more familiar Asia. While he attended seminary, she with. I think it concentrated on rearing young Mary helped me make and George. After Mary finished second grade in the transition." Gastonia, N.C., the young family packed up their household goods and made the arduous journey to Japan. For two years, Mary and her brother took a train every day to an international school. When Mary was 10, her family moved across the Sea of Japan to South Korea, settling in Kwangju, a city of a quarter million in the south. "It was the provincial capital," Mary Bullock recalls, "but it was the capital of the least developed area of Korea. The Korean War had just ended. I remember an impres- sion of grinding poverty ... of riding the train and looking out onto houses with beer- can roofs." Mary's father began his work at a seminary for Korean ministers, and their family grew to include Charlotte and Bruce (14 years younger than Mary). No mission school existed in Kwangju, so Mardia taught Mary and George along with the other mis- sionary children, using the Calvert home- schooling method. By the end of seventh grade, Mary had exhausted the Calvert method, so her parents sent her and George to Japan, to the Canadian Academy in Kobe. "Travel in those days was very difficult," A NEW PRESIDENT FOR ASC — Bullock says. "It took us three days to get "I came from a cosmopolitan environ- from Kwangju to Kobe .. . overnight trains ment into college, and at that time Agnes to the Korean coast, then a small ferry Scott was a pretty provincial place." That across the strait to Japan, then more trains. experience, she later discovered, was shared A few times we were able to make the trip by other Canadian Academy graduates. "It by air." definitely wasn't just me and Agnes Scott At the Canadian Academy, Mary Brown it was a universal experience for all of us studied in the company of both missionary coming back to the States." children and children of the small but grow- Bullock—quickly made a name for herself ing number of businessmen beginning to on campus "the girl from Korea"—and explore the Asian markets. confused a few students by her non-Asian Over the next several years she made appearance. Agnes Scott College Director of infrequent trips back to Korea. "George and Alumnae Affairs Lucia Howard Sizemore '65 I had an aunt and remembers. "I'm sure she got tired of being uncle living in called 'the girl from Korea'," says Sizemore. Osaka, and cousins "In fact, I think she was almost grateful at the same school, when she had some problem with one of so we really weren't her knees and became 'the girl in the on our own," she cast' instead." recalls. Dean of Students Gue Hudson '68 recalls Her mother sees walking across the quadrangle with a group it differently. of students including Bullock, who veered "Basically, Mary has off into some newly sprouted grass in fla- been on her own grant violation of a sign: "Caution—New since she was 14," Grass." When her companions asked what Mardia Brown says. in the world she was doing, Bullock replied "I think that—com- that in Japan and Korea grass was rarely The "young girl" who went bined with the fact that she was the seen and even more rarely walked on—and with her missionary family oldest child, and I depended on her for so she thought it wonderful that the college to Asia 40 years ago has much—helps ex-plain why she is capable of groundskeepers were actually inviting changed over the years . But doing anything." students to walk on the grass, albeit warning her abiding "world view" will When it was time to consider college, them to do so with caution. add to that dimension of the Bullock was familiar with her mother's alma During the turbulent 1960s, other signs College as it moves into the mater. "My parents did want me to go to a of culture shock must have sprung up along 2 1st century. church-related college. I looked through the the young missionary daughter's path. As college bulletins and eventually applied to she noted in 1989 during a Mortar Board Agnes Scott 'early decision.' I think the address as Centennial Distinguished early decision part was my dad's idea, and I Lecturer, "No one was talking about the went along with it because Agnes Scott was Pacific Century in the mid-1960s, especially in a big city." not in Atlanta. The big issues were closer to With a significant detour, Bullock made home: my freshman year, the Cuban missile her way to Agnes Scott College. crisis; my sophomore year, Kennedy's assassi- "I traveled through Europe with my aunt nation; my junior year, civil rights and the and uncle on the way back to the States. Selma march. By my senior year, the war in That was wonderful for me, because I saw Vietnam began to loom on our horizon, but for the first time what Western civilization if anyone thought about China it was as a was all about. My whole world view had closed, radical, communist regime under been influenced by the East, and this trip Mao Tsetung." through Europe gave me a chance to see Somewhat sheepishly, Martha what most Americans grew up much more Thompson '66, a classmate, recalls, "Mary- familiar with. I think it helped me make tried so hard to have us just one night a the transition." week sit in Letitia Pate [dining hall] at a table and discuss international events. The pace, the campus with its She had no takers." American Gothic architecture and In fact, says Thompson, "We really did the prevailing bobby-sox-and-Elvis not get too far beyond the confines of the youth culture posed an adjustment for college—physically or in any other way. I Bullock that September 1962. knew one way into Atlanta, one way to _10 AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • FALL 1995 Lenox Square. Mary kept trying, and some Dr. Kwai Sing Chang in the Bible depart- of us took courses at Emory. But for the ment, and I took his courses in Oriental most part, we were in our own small world." religion and Oriental philosophy," she recalled in her 1989 mortar board address. That Bullock was processing current "The entire history department under events and seeking her own course of Dr. Walter Posey, and two members in response was evident in 1965 during particular—Penny Campbell and Koenraad a bus ride to Montreat, N.C., to visit rela- Swart—believed in me enough to supervise tives. She picked up a Time magazine and independent study and direct reading in read about an upcoming civil rights march Chinese history. in Alabama. "It just seemed like something "I chose graduate study at Stanford partly we should be involved in," she says. because I wanted to go West, and partly Returning to campus, she persuaded because it had a better climate. But also it several other Scott students to join her. had women under- "We signed out to go on a picnic," she graduates, and at that recalls. "That was when you had to sign time Yale and out whenever you left campus. But Dean Harvard did not. I Scandrett caught us before we could get thought it might be a away, and she knew something was up." better environment Dean of Students Carrie Scandrett told in a lot of ways." the students that if they wanted to partici- pate in the march, they must have parental Several Agnes permission. That eliminated a good number Scott graduates of students. But Mary Brown slipped were studying through that net: "I didn't have time to get at Stanford at the a request to my parents and hear back from same time as '^•'U^l-C^?; them," she says. "I just went." Bullock, living in a Before they left, Professor Mary Boney house in Palo Alto. When Martha Prior to moving to Asia with gave them her support and one piece of Thompson visited them in California, she her family, Mary (left) and advice. "Look like real women," she said. met Bullock's future husband, George, also a a friend play in Japanese "So," says Bullock, "we put on dresses and Stanford graduate student. "I was the only kimonos . "I grew up on my makeup and drove to Birmingham for the one who would go with him to a rally for grandfather's romantic stories final stage of the now-famous Selma march. Nixon," recalls Thompson. of fleeing the warlords in "We must have looked so out of place At Stanford, Mary Brown began inten- China," Mary remembers. the marchers ended up putting us in the sive study of Chinese history—at a time middle of the group; we were so clearly dif- when scholars had little notion that within ferent. I guess they wanted to protect us a few years they would be able to study the from the observers lining the streets. I'll country and its culture from the inside. The never forget the stone-faced people we saw." door to China, closed since 1 949 when The Agnes Scott students left before the Bullock's grandfather was among those end of the march and drove—with many Westerners ejected, seemed firmly bolted mixed emotions—back to Decatur to greet shut during the mid-to-late 1960s. "I arrived general disinterest in what had just taken at Stanford well-prepared to begin my grad- place. "I don't remember anyone asking uate career—just as the Cultural Revolution anything about it," says Bullock. "It seemed and Mao's Red Guards threw China into a to be a non-event." convulsive paroxysm from which many wondered if she [China] would ever During her last two years at ASC, recover," Bullock recalled in 1989. Bullock helped organize a week-long In 1968, she earned a master's degree, in exchange program with Spelman 1969, married George Bullock (after making College. She served as president of all the arrangements herself, since her par- Christian Association, was a member of ents were still in Korea) and headed off to Mortar Board and was named to Phi Beta Dallas, Texas, where George was teaching Kappa. She decided to attend Stanford at Southern Methodist University. But soon University to study Chinese history and they were—moving North to the University was awarded the first of her two Woodrow of Alaska "the first place among the hun- Wilson fellowships. dreds of universities we wrote to that offered "Agnes Scott was fortunate to have positions to both George and me," she says. 11 A NEW PRESIDENT FOR ASC For much of her childhood, Mary Brown was a student in a student body of siblings, taught by their mother Mardia '43 Hopper Brown . Now she comes to direct the instruction of more than 600 students at Agnes Scott College. The College "has potential and prospects" that are different from Mary's student days, says ASC interim president Sally Mahoney. "It looks outward at a much broader world, and Mary looks outward at a much broader world." n AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • FALL 1995 — After a year in Alaska, George's work 1988 when she accepted the position as drew them to Washington, D.C. As the director of the Asia program at the great, closed doors of China began to crack Woodrow Wilson International Center for open, Bullock finished her doctorate and Scholars. The center was established by an began work at the Committee on Scholarly act of Congress in 1968 as the nation's Communication with the People's Republic memorial to President Wilson—one of of China—the "China Committee." Housed only two university presidents (along with and sponsored by the National Academy of Dwight Eisenhower) to serve as president of Sciences, the China Committee spearhead- the United States. "Congress decided to ASIA READING LIST ed the revival of decades-dormant academic make it a living memorial rather than a Here are some of President relarions with China, establishing training statue," notes Center Director Charles Bullock's favorite recently- and research programs for American gradu- Blitzer. "We've already got a lot of statues." read books on Asia. Almost ate students and faculty in China as well as Through an international competition, all are available in paperback. for Chinese students in the United States. the nonprofit research institution selects First as a staff member, then for 1 1 years as fellows each year to study under the aegis of Jung Chang, Wild Swans: director, Mary Bullock says that she was "in one of the center's programs: Asia, Europe, Three Daughters of China. the right place at the right time." Her disser- Russia, Latin America or the United States. (New York: Simon and tation and later book on American medi- About his former Asia program director, Schuster, 1991) cine in China provided the background for Blitzer says, "When 1 had to say a few words her work in scientific exchanges. at her going-away party, I decided to risk Shusako Endo, The Samurai. being sexist and said she was motherly. She (Viking, 1978) During those years, Bullock honed her would do things like take her Chinese skill as a bridge builder: between fellows out to dinner . .. things that none Kenneth Lieberthal, nations, between institutions and, of her colleagues think of very often." Governing China: From perhaps most difficult, between her very pub- Bullock continued to nurture scholars; do Revolution through Reform. lic life and her family life. She and George research, publish a book and several essays (Norton, 1995) and two children, Graham and Ashley, and articles; and shepherd her own children moved from young-couple digs on Capitol into adolescence. Then she received a call The Mahabharata, retold Hill to a house in northwest Washington, from the presidential search committee for by R. K. Narayan where George immediately began to organize Agnes Scott College. (Vision, 1987) a neighborhood baseball team so his children "I always wanted to be a college presi- would learn the true American sport. dent," Bullock says. "I think I must have Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy. " Meanwhile, his wife was telephoning inherited that interest from my dad. He has (HarperCollins, 1993) Beijing in the morning and cheering at the been an institution-builder, and I guess I ballpark in the evening—and giving each have some of the same qualities. To take an Nancy Tucker, Taiwan, Hong responsibility the attention it deserved. institution, and the people that make up the Kong, and the United States. "It's kind of amazing to me that Mary has institution, and help them to fulfill their (Macmillan, 1994) traveled so far and wide, she goes to Asia, potential, is an incredibly exciting chal- she makes speeches and does research, yet lenge. And to be doing this at my own alma on Friday night at 6 o'clock she's at the kids' mater is a great honor." Little League games," notes classmate So Bullock brought her family—George, Thompson. "She is able to have a foot in a a government relations professional who very ordinary life and in an exotic, scholarly works with investor-owned utilities; other kind of life too." Graham, a sophomore at Princeton, and Thompson tells of going to a neighbor- Ashley, a student at The Paideia School hood bookstore one evening and hearing to the president's house, which has not had that a famed China scholar from Yale was teenagers in residence for almost 30 years expected momentarily to discuss his new (and has undergone extensive renovation book and the current situation in Asia. She to make it family-friendly, dog-friendly phoned the Bullocks' house, knowing that and capable of housing the Bullocks' Mary would be interested in what the man 5,000 books). had to say, and found that Mary and Graham were already on their way. "Graham Bullock brings her wide perspective to and I sat on the front row, and Mary sat way the Decatur campus. "When she looks in the back," recalls Thompson. "And at the institution, she talks about throughout the evening, the speaker deferred internationalization," says Dean of the to Mary. In his eyes, she was the expert." College Sarah Blanshei, "not about the Bullock embarked on a new challenge in international relations program that the 13_ A NEW PRESIDENT FOR ASC College has in place—we're not talking To define its major emphases, the about specific curriculum here. What Mary College spent much of the past year in an Bullock has because of her particular academic review. The result is "an enor- international experiences is the ability to mously powerful document," believes appreciate the importance of international- Mahoney. It involves a strategic agenda and ization now and for the next decade." statement of values: a series of commitments Notes Interim President Mahoney, to women, to the liberal arts, to teaching "I think Mary will help the College move and to learning that focuses on collaborative from the two or three percent international learning between faculty and students, to students back to the eight or nine percent diversity, and to community life based on that Agnes Scott had at one time." honor and integrity. It addresses the chal- Bullock is not the first in her family to lenge of curriculum in a small school, which guide Agnes Scott through the global maze; has to be selective about what it does, and her brother George is former director of the emphasizes connections—connected learn- Global Awareness program, which was ing through curriculum, pedagogy and a tighter academic organization. "It's a good foundation document on which Mary can build and provide leader- ship in areas of her own interest," says Mahoney. "She will bring insights, contacts and opportunities. The faculty can chew on the review and continue the dialogue with her." The immediate challenge facing the College—and Bullock as its new chief executive—is an anemic enrollment. While Agnes Scott is by no means the only prestigious institution facing that dilemma—"We're in a bad place in good company," says Mahoney—its small size may make the task harder. With com- pletion of the academic review and corre- sponding administrative review—and with a student life review in the works—the College has taken steps to figure out how to make its size an asset, not a liability. The First Family surround designed to provide all students with the Another challenge faces Bullock—her restaurateur Rai Shao outside opportunity for study abroad sometime dur- status as the College's first alumna president. a favorite eating spot in ing their four years here. If the program "The people who remember Mary Brown Washington, D.C. George, were fully funded, all students would be able from their school days," says Mahoney, "will (left) a native of California to participate. Currently, the College has inevitably find a different, deeper person .. . who met Mary while both two global destinations a year, with an aver- a woman whose person and profession have were students at Stanford, age of 25 students participating. "Over 50 evolved in the 30 years since she was a works as a consultant. Ashley percent of our students have had some kind student here. is a student at The Paideia of international experience before they "She is coming to an institution that she School. Graham is a leave," reports Dean Blanshei. "Just through knows has changed over the years. It has sophomore at Princeton. Global Awareness, almost 25 percent of any potential and prospects that it may not have graduating class has gone abroad. That's a had when she was here, in part because phenomenal statistic." Atlanta is a different kind of place, more Bullock believes an international per- cosmopolitan than it was in 1966. It looks spective is "absolutely essential to anyone outward at a much broader world, and Man- graduating from Agnes Scott—or any other looks outward at a much broader world." college—today. All the cliches about the Mary Brown Bullock, that little girl who global village, the shrinking world, are true. set her sights toward the East more than 40 One of the major emphases of higher educa- years ago, has come a long way. tion today is for each institution to find its —Tish Young McCutchen '73 way to deliver that perspective." is a freelance writer in Lufkin , Texas 14 AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • FALL 1995 THE FIRST FAMILY By Audrey Arthur Among George Bullock's most trea- teaching, but instead, I got a job running sured mementos are his auto- the D.C. office of Washington State graphed baseballs from his college- Gov. Daniel Evans." playing days. His anecdotes of starting the Evans did not seek a fourth term in 1976, Capital City Little League while living in so in 1977 Bullock was hired by Michigan Washington with wife Mary, son Graham Gov. William Milliken to set up a procure- and daughter Ashley also reveal a deep ment program to assist Michigan-based commitment to baseball—and to family. companies to vie competitively for federal Ashley caught the baseball fever early government contracts. In 1980, he began From the early and now plays varsity softball at The Paideia directing the D.C. office of Wisconsin, days of their School. "My dad taught me how to play under Gov. Lee Sherman Dreyfus. marriage, the when I was six or seven," Ashley says. That experience later translated well into "When he attends my games, it's encourag- consulting for businesses seeking representa- Bullocks have ing; it makes me work harder—he knows tion in Washington, D.C. "Some companies supported each whether I do my best." were interested in lobbying on legislation to other's career Both parents have tried to arrange work make sure they were protected in Congress and travel schedules to include their on tax-related matters or legislation that development. children's ballgames and they have shared vitally affected their doing business. Others George's willing- responsibilities for raising their children. were interested in selling to the govern- ness to move to "George has always been the one who ment. I was either influencing the course has taken the children to the doctor and of legislation or selling products to the Atlanta is just the dentist. has as much as I have. government," Bullock explains. He cooked latest in a series of He pitches in and does everything. He does Currently, Bullock works for the moves that have not see gender roles within the family," Washington-based Edison Electric Institute, says ASC President Mary Bullock '66. a trade association for 180 investor-owned brought out the Bullock met Mary while the two were electric utility operating companies in the strengths of both. graduate students at Stanford University. United States, including Georgia Power. After his graduation, Bullock taught at "Investor-owned utilities have an interest in Southern Methodist University (SMU) in the activities of state government. I assist Dallas while Mary finished her graduate these companies in their dealings with state work at Stanford. SMU had a strong policy legislators who make laws that set parame- against nepotism, so after the couple mar- ters for the public service commissions for ried, they searched for a university where each state that impact the electric utilities." they could both teach. They accepted Bullock is a native San Franciscan, but positions at the University of Alaska, where he essentially grew up in Portland, Ore. Bullock taught American history and Mary His father, who died in 1971, was in the taught Asian history. construction business and his mother was a While in Alaska, Bullock appeared on homemaker. He has a brother who lives in television and radio and wrote for newspa- Japan; his sister and mother remain in the pers. His work gained the attention of San Francisco Bay area. Alaska's U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, who Out of Mary's first six weeks at Agnes asked Bullock "out of the blue" to run his Scott, Bullock was at home for only two. senate office in Washington, D.C. However, he plans to travel less during this "Given my interest in American period of adjustment, to oversee the final government, I decided what better place phase of the renovation of the President's to be than Washington." home and to organize his office and library. In the early 70s, Bullock served as a Modest and humorous is the way Ashley senior policy adviser on performance characterizes the first husband of an Agnes contracting, government reorganization Scott president. Mary agrees: "George is and revenue sharing in President Richard outgoing, jovial, opinionated, very family- Nixon's administration. "When Nixon went oriented—and supportive of my career. out, I felt it was time for me to go back to We see this as a job we will do together." 15_ A NEW PRESIDENT FOR ASC HUSH AND EAT YOUR ROOTENANNY By Jane A. Zanca Illustration by Mac Evans you hat do you are what you eat," get if you cross what will we be in 2025? soybeans and apples If food geneticists mate cucumbers A cash crop that and sugar cane, will the result be sweet grows on trees? pickles? If they jumble the genes of Apparently that's just rutabagas and bananas, will the result be a what the food industry rootenanny? And even though it's easier hopes will be the out- &C to peel, will the kids still refuse to eat it? come of using genetic Not long ago, the U.S. Food and technology to develop Drug Administration, the agency the perfect food. charged with overseeing the safety of %&&&&* So what is the perfect food? foods, drugs, biologicals and medical It will have its own, built-in devices, said in Science that we're defenses against infestation and fretting over nothing. Americans disease. It will grow abundantly, have been eating such products for year-round, in poor soil, years, says the FDA; tor example, the through dry spells and floods. It kiwi was once a small Asian berry, If food will look luscious and stay fresh, until plant breeders bloated it to an geneticists until you get it home and put it egg-sized, nutritious fruit. the windowsill, where it will That may be so, but how much mate cucumbers on go directly from rock-hard to rot harm can a kiwi do, if you take it off and sugar cane, (this is called the keep-them- the cheesecake before you eat it? will the result be coming-back feature and is Besides, the difference between what being tested in markets across was done to the kiwi and what exper- sweet pickles? the country). imenters would like to do in future The bottom line is: the transformations is the approach: perfect food will increase Instead of breeding selectively or profits down on the old hybridizing, it is now possible to play corporate farm. with genetic constituents of the plant. While we know that our And who's going to monitor such foods are, to some degree, experiments? FQA going contaminated with WW ^ to be pesticides and other unsavory things, the thought of orchards a-dangle with 4 genetic mutations stops us in our tracks. If it's true that _16 watching. Well, most of the time. For the assure the safety of their products. You know. same reason that a shopper wouldn't try on Sort of like the toymakers do. six shirts that differed only in color, FDA One promising aspect of the genetic feels it "would waste its resources and would approach to the labors of our fruit is that lots not advance public health" if it formally of new jobs will open up, especially as reviewed all new plant varieties. The burnout rises among nutritionists who have agency will concentrate on changes in pro- enough trouble explaining the difference tein, carbohydrate, fat and oil components. between high-density and low-density Changes that affect nutrition, such as a lipoproteins. The ranks of nomenclaturists new variety of tomato that lacks vitamin C, persons who come up with appealing names would be dealt with by "appropriate label- for new foods—will surely swell. ing." But why would anyone purchase a Will bananas plus onions equal bunions, tomato if it has no nutritional value? a tear-free, easy-to-peel product for pungent This image problem will be left to the splits and sweet liverwurst sandwiches? Or is marketing experts, already aglow with the that name already taken? concept of cucamonga, a leafy-bumpy- Nevertheless, in a country that is still If they jumble crunchy-silky vegetable produced by mixing reeling from the trauma of learning that the genes of cucumber, celery, lettuce and avocado genes Classic Coke isn't really the real thing (the rutabagas and (using the fine blade in the food processor, company replaced sugar with corn syrup presumably) and splicing them with the years ago), the acceptability of mutant food bananas, will corn genes that encode for stalks. Rumors seems highly dubious. I hope the FDA the result be a are that several famous franchisers are ready remembers what happened to New Coke. rootenanny? to chuck the burger business for exclusive Nutrition-minded Americans, unite. rights to this fashionable Cob Salad. Stick together, keeping food as American as Maybe the government agencies involved apple pie—real apple pie, with apples that in food and nutrition should sit down and smell sweet and wormy, with peeling that talk to each other about this. Certainly, the responds to mistreatment by bruising, crunch National Cancer Institute, which not long that's wet and giving, flesh that turns brown ago announced its "Five-A-Day for Better when exposed, and slices that won't fit to- Health Program," would have appreciated a gether into photogenic, geometric patterns. forewarning from FDA about the vitamin-C- People laughed when Woody Allen less tomato of the future. proposed that, in the future, science would Not that anyone pays attention to any of determine that hot fudge sundaes are good these agencies. By the NCI's own account- for our health. ing, 34 percent of American adults think Maybe we should stop laughing and look that one serving of vegetables or fruit per at the facts. day is sufficient for good health. Only We know that sugar causes cavities and 8 percent think that "five or more" would weight gain, but that's about it. If sugar ensure good health, and half of those later weren't safe, would it be in cat food? Of rescinded their responses when they realized course not. the questions were about diet, not fry-it. We also know that fat causes . .. well, fat. Ironically, if our worst suspicions about Ergo, sugar and fat could well be the most genetically altered foods come true, the honest, unassailable foods on the planet. So, one-fruit-a-day group may fare best. Those if the new American alternatives are amber- smug, vegan guerrillas from the Diet for a grain-that-only-waves-when-you-honk and Small Planet era may have a little trouble genetically fruited plains and fancies, it's fitting six mutated toes into those clunky not at all preposterous that Krispy Kreme wooden clogs they persist in wearing. donuts—long recognized as the secret Could genetically altered foods make you underlying the academic superiority of sick? FDA assures us that toxic or potentially Agnes Scotties—may be the soybean of the toxic substances in genetically altered foods future. Are you listening, FDA? would be given "closer inquiry." Besides, says —Jane Zanca '83 is co-author of The Cancer FDA, those corporate food developers will Recovery Eating Plan be doing lots of t _^^S. "Ov Gp^Q r*% [testing to SA : - ifVJ ^fc%jggg; — — BARING THE BREAST- A WRITER'S JOURNEY By Carol Willey '80 Photographs by Laura Sikes An alumna writer Sometime during my years at Sentimentality is polite and practical in and a New York Agnes Scott, perhaps when I was comparison to the authentic emotions 22, 20 or younger, a mysterious fear, grief, rage and despair. artist reveal transformation began in my right Our cultural understanding seems caught through potent breast. For a complex series of in the second century, when medicine was analysis and reasons that medical science does not more superstition than science. It was then understand, healthy cells mutated into can- that the Roman physician Galen postulated arresting self- cer cells and formed a minuscule region of the four-humor theory of disease and gave portraits—the disease. By the time I was 28, a lump, hard cancer its name, Latin for crab. Aside scars of this as bone, had emerged. When I was diag- from occasionally cutting the crustacea- nosed with breast cancer at 29, the tumor resembling tumors, there was not much malignancy. was revealed to be a genetically complex Galen could do for his doomed patients. little world unto itself, established He theorized that cancer resulted from an and aggressive. It had reached into a imbalance of black bile, the humor of microscopic portion of one of the lymph melancholia, and observed that nodes near my breast and was poised to "melancholy women" were more likely to spread through my body. develop breast cancer. After a near fatal Eight years later, after surgery and bout with breast cancer almost 20 years ago, chemotherapy, I have survived. I will not writer Susan Sontag described cancer's still be one of over 46,000 American women pervasive myths and their historical roots expected to die of breast cancer this year 1 in Illness as Metaphor. For the 20th century —but the emotional wounds left by breast and a society uncomfortable with moral cancer will shadow my life. concepts, Sontag explains, cancer is a Breast cancer is a curious phenomenon. compelling surrogate for evil. "And In a culture of commercialized medicine, it conventions of treating cancer as no mere has its own publicists. Women are taught to disease but a demonic enemy make cancer fear it and to fight their fears with trips to not just a lethal disease but a shameful one." luxuriously appointed "breast centers" that Those of us diagnosed with breast cancer are have sprung up in hospitals, marketed now both idealized and blamed. We are urged by as "medical centers." In October, Breast best-selling authors like Dr. Bernie Siegel to Cancer Awareness Month, we read a fusil- be "exceptional." To "survive" we need that lade of stories about the disease and profiles all important "positive attitude." of the heroic women who have survived Medical science has been cast as the and the heroic women who have died. righteous warrior since 1971, when Congress These martyrs will be canonized as the can- passed the Conquest of Cancer Act. Yet, cer, a silent disorder of the cells, is clothed since my diagnosis, medical practice has in loud sentimentality. We are told that become more blatantly absorbed into what breast cancer is evil and that the fight is Dr. Arnold S. Relman, the former editor in good. Perhaps, for some, these simplistic chief of The New Englarul Journal of Medicine messages make it easier to manage. and a professor emeritus ot the Harvard J8 AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • FALL 1995 ANCER MYTHS AN ARTIST'S IMAGES t's around noon. Matuschlca offers to share the noodle and vegetable dish she's steamed—no fat—in a small iron skillet. It looks pure and simple yet exotic. The meal she moves to her sleek, stainless steel-topped dining table which she says is worth the price of a car and eats, beautifully, right from the pan with chop- sticks. As she talks she quickly peels fresh green husks from two ears of between her fingers with brown umiboshi paste (salted plum butter). After 10 minutes here it seems that in her hands anything Behind her, rows of framed photographs and books, perfectly arranged, climb up the wall to the 10-foot ceiling. Hardwood floors lead to her living space that's also full of her art: hand-crafted furniture, continued on page 20 Medical School, describes as "the medical industrial complex," a wandering maze of financial interests—supporting drug compa- nies, the health insurance industry, medical equipment manufacturers, hospitals and a growing cadre of pencil pushers, marketers and administrators. An estimated 24 percent of all medical costs now go to cover administrative ser- vices associated with private health insur- ance and an annual $2 billion is spent on advertising and marketing for hospital ser- vices, according to Dr. David Himmelstein, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Marketing, tradi- tionally an ethically questionable practice in medicine, has become widespread within the last 10 to 15 years. The $2 billion in hospital costs does not account for the mar- keting of HMOs, pharmaceutical products or physicians' services, Himmelstein says, adding that a comprehensive figure for marketing costs in American medicine would be much higher. In 1995, federal breast cancer research funding will total less than one fourth of hospital marketing costs at $497.7 million, while $6.6 billion will be spent on increasingly expensive breast cancer treatment and care, according to the National Institutes of Health. For those of us who live with the disease, breast cancer encompasses difficult ambiguities—of life and of death, of dignity and stigma, and of medical care and medical economics. It punctures our carefully nurtured 20th century delusion of immortality, assaults feminine identity and trompe 1' oeil painting on the woodwork requires entrance into the unnatural world of medical technology. At diagnosis my and walls. Her artist's studio/home of survival became dependent on medical 21 years is gorgeous, full of natural care. This was particularly troubling for me elements, hold and creative as can be. because in 1987 I was employed in a job I My eye returns to the famous photo- planned to leave. Breast cancer locked me health insurance benefits. 29, graph that brought me here, discreetly in for At with what should have been bright placed on the bottom left corner of the prospects ahead, this felt like being forced grouping, a 16 x 20 color print, into a grave. My experience is not unique. Health insurance status is a constant source of stress for cancer patients and lack of its sheer beauty dominates the wall. First insurance has been implicated as a factor in appearing on the cover of The New York unfavorable breast cancer outcomes. In a Times Magazine in 1993 to illustrate a story Harvard Medical School study, published in oil breast cancer, the color photograph has a 1993 issue of The New England ) ourrial of Medicine, researchers found that women been published internationally, received who did not have private health insurance numerous awards, a Pulitzer nomination were significantly more vulnerable to breast and serves as an icon for breast cancer cancer. The uninsured had a 49 percent awareness. continued on page 24 higher risk ot death. FOR THE PAST FIVE YEARS, although researchers have looked for a rela- because health insurance discrimina- tionship between thyroid disease and breast tion for pre-existing conditions is cancer, none has been established. Perhaps legal in Georgia and I cannot afford a for women, the answer for dilemmas like limited plan that would be of any use, I have mine may be found in a new movement for been uninsured. In 1993, the hardships and a women's specialty in medicine. risks to my health fostered by my insurance "Traditionally in medicine, women's status became dramatically apparent. health has been thought of as reproductive After more than two years of feeling health, but reproduction is only one com- unhealthy and consulting my doctors about ponent. You find that many specialists are recurring throat pain, a thyroid tumor was oblivious or unknowledgeable where larger discovered during a regular breast cancer body function is concerned. Physicians just follow-up examination. The tumor had don't have the training or expertise to Breast cancer been denting my trachea, obstructing my diagnose and address women's problems embraces onerous breathing so that I sometimes feared that correctly. Often, women have to do a lot of ambiguities of life the cells from my breast cancer might have their own problem solving and a lot of spread to my lungs. Hypothyroidism (low footwork to find teams of specialists who and deatb, of thyroid) had contributed to my weariness can address simple issues. It is fair: not dignity and stigma. and depression. Although the tumor was a women should not have to bear this bur- It assaults our suspected cancer, the surgical oncologist I den; many find that they just can not do had regarded as the orchestrator of my it," says Dr. Karen Johnson, a psychiatrist feminine identity. breast cancer treatment and follow-up, hesi- with a background in family medicine, who tated to schedule surgery with me because is part of a nationwide effort among physi- I was uninsured. Throughout my six-year cians of various specialties to structure a relationship with him, he had been paid medical specialty that focuses on women's handsomely and on time. At his insistence, care. Johnson, affiliated with the University I called Medicaid and a state program but of California at San Francisco Medical I was not eligible for help. After a crisis of School and a clinical scholar at the fear, greatly enhanced by the surgeon's Institute for Research in Women's Health reluctance to help me, I had surgery. The at Stanford University, observes that as is tumor was benign. I was not able to forget, often the case in women's illness, breast however, the surgeon's hesitation over my cancer is not recognized as a disease that insurance status. affects the whole woman. I learned that a possible relationship between thyroid disease and breast cancer has been explored in the medical literature THE YEARS SINCE MY for over 30 years. It also became apparent INDIAGNOSIS, as the American that every woman I knew, diagnosed with healthcare crisis had its day in the first breast cancer before the age of 35, all had years of the Clinton administration and thyroid problems. When I confronted the faded into political obscurity again, breast surgeon with my concerns, both that the cancer has remained a recalcitrant mystery, hypothyroidism might be related to my difficult to treat because it is not simply a breast cancer and my horror that it had disease of the breast. Before a palpable gone undiagnosed for years, he patronized tumor forms, cells have been involved in me. I began to feel that he was not qualified the process of malignancy for up to 10 to provide follow-up services and cancer years. By diagnosis, the cancer is usually screening adequate to my needs. An ardu- mature enough to spread or metastasize. ous search has led me to what I hope is reli- Relapse may occur as long as 25 to 30 years able medical care—but my trust in profes- after the tumor is removed. Ninety-four sional medicine is broken. percent of women will survive the first five My experience is typical of women seek- years after diagnosis, but only 64 percent ing help in a medical world that, in my will survive 10 years and, by 15 years, view, does not clearly understand or recog- survival falls to 56 percent, according to nize women's health problems. Thyroid dis- the American Cancer Society. ease is overwhelmingly found in women. Cancer is a subtle disease of the cells. And, as with breast cancer, medical science Only within the past 30 years, as the has only a limited understanding of it. I sciences of molecular biology and genetics cannot entirely blame my physicians: have advanced, has the possibility of a real 21 RARING Till I'.KI \ST-< \N< KR MYTHS answer emerged. Many discoveries of the cells. Genetic therapies, arising from dis- past five years have been especially coveries such as BRCA1, BRCA2 and After long, promising. After years of work with families nm23, a gene believed to play an important solitary walks by afflicted by a rare familial breast cancer, natural role in the suppression of breast researchers in 1994 identified BRCA1, an cancer metastasis, probably hold the the ocean, and inherited genetic defect that predisposes ultimate promise for effective treatment. time spent in women to breast and ovarian cancer. Eventually, genetic tests may reveal BRCA1, on chromosome 17, and BRCA2, breast cancer in women before it has prayer, I realized mapped at chromosome 1 3 and expected to advanced to the stage that it can be found that it was most be identified soon, are discoveries that on a mammogram. A test for genetic sus- important for me promise to help uncover breast cancer's ceptibility, based on the BRCA1 research, to do everything means of forming at the molecular level. has already been used within afflicted fami- Whether or not it is hereditary—some cases lies. And, sophisticated gene therapy may I could to save are, most are not—breast cancer is a disease repair genetic codes scrambled into cancer my life. that arises from miscues in genetic coding before they manifest as disease. According that transform healthy cells into malignant to Dr. Patricia Steeg, the molecular biolo- gist who discovered the nm23 gene, genetic GARY MEEK PHOTO therapies are in sight, but far away. In her work at the National Cancer Institute labo- ratories in Bethesda, Md., she is conducting experiments in mice, trying to find a way to harness nm23 to suppress breast cancer metastasis. In research so far, tumors with less nm23 are more advanced; nm23 appar- ently impedes the last step in tumor maturi- ty and ability to colonize. The discovery and the work are exciting and promising, says Steeg, but actual applications for women with breast cancer will require more time and work than is comfortable to con- sider. Steeg will not venture a guess as to when genetic therapy for breast cancer with nm.23 may become reality. In the meantime, adjuvant (or assisting) chemotherapy and hormonal therapy have shown the most promise for prolonging breast cancer remission. The first chemotherapy was developed nearly 50 years ago when research chemists recog- nized that mustard gas, used as a weapon in World War I, poisoned cells. Drugs that were toxic to tumors were developed and used successfully in the treatment of a number of cancers. Adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer was conceptualized 35 years ago, when it was confirmed that advanced breast cancer, though eventually lethal, did respond to chemotherapy drugs. It was thought that using the drugs before metastasis occurred might prevent spread of the disease. For some tumors, where hor- monal influences on tumor growth are found to be present, hormonal medications like tamoxifen are used to prevent recurrence. In 1992, an extensive survey of In a moment of reflection, Carol Willey '80, women treated before 1985, confirmed that diagnosed with breast cancer at age 29, says those who undergo adjuvant chemotherapy, the emotional wounds will always shadow her. therapy with hormonal medications, or _22 AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • FALL 1995 — both have significantly longer survival. chemotherapy for the next week and, News of the 1992 study was an insisting on a vacation from the breast can- enormous relief to me because my own cer ordeal, went to the beach. experience with chemotherapy was a source After long, solitary walks by the ocean, of tremendous personal conflict. Before and time spent in prayer, I realized that it diagnosis, I had been in excellent health. was most important for me to do everything Afterward, I understood that I had a I could to save my life. In consultations deadly illness—but its treatment was the with two other medical oncologists the source of all my pain and discomfort. next week, I learned that the chemotherapy Chemotherapy was only of theoretical ben- that they recommended did not cause efit; it caused tangible fatigue and nausea menopause in women my age. But the and possible long-term effects. The loss of first medical oncologist had planted a my hair was devastating. My life was threat- destructive image at a time when I was ened by cancer, and I was trapped in a vulnerable and traumatized. Her careless meaningless job that, in combination with remarks continue to haunt me. the chemotherapy, took all of my energy As I went through the ordeal of thyroid leaving little psychic space for emotional surgery in 1993, Hillary Clinton was healing. It took a lot of faith to undergo the organizing a national bid for healthcare wrenching six months of treatment. I often reform that would have provided universal thought of the animal's basic response to accessibility. I was hopeful that some sort of poisoning: to crawl off somewhere to die. reform would take place—and that I would Even worse, chemotherapy had been no longer be a medical untouchable. When presented in a manner that threatened my the initiative failed, with insurance compa- femininity in a more primal way than nies maintaining their hold on American MATUSCHKA IORSO mastectomy. After deciding on my surgery medicine, I was amazed. Although there is over a sleepless 24 hours in June of 1987, I a multi-million dollar publicity push for underwent a series of two operations to breast cancer early detection every October, remove and restore my breast. Diagnosed the problems of accessibility to healthcare on Wednesday, my decisions were final for women with breast cancer are rarely It took a lot of Thursday, and I was admitted for surgery addressed. A lot has been done to make faith to undergo Sunday night. In the hospital a few days mammograms more accessible—but the wrenching later, reeling from the surgical assaults, I treatment and quality of life issues for was confronted with a pathology report women after diagnosis are not significantly six months of revealing that the tumor was aggressive considered. All of the multitudes of articles treatment. I often and likely to recur. in the women's magazines are aimed at thought of the No one had bothered to tell me that women who have never had breast cancer, there would be a pathology report to as if those of us who have had it are animal's basic consider. And soon after my surgeon beyond the pale. response to recommended chemotherapy, a medical Since 1993, accessibility problems have poisoning: to oncologist I had never met came into grown more widespread. In 1992-93, an my room to tell me about clinical trials, estimated 37 million Americans were crawl off some- a of obtaining care in uninsured. That figure now stands at good manner which where to die. participants are followed over the course of around 40 million, and 6 million have been many years to evaluate treatment protocols. added to the Medicaid rolls, according to Himmelstein of Harvard Medical School. For that reason, the figures don't complete- WAS ALONE, without the support ly illustrate the magnitude of accessibility of a family member or friend, as she problems, he says. "Insurance companies I hurriedly presented information. are shutting more people out with pre- In the material she provided, the effect of existing clauses and higher prices—and chemotherapy on ovarian function was private insurance is becoming harder and mentioned. I asked her about it. She harder to come by. Businesses are offering told me that chemotherapy caused insurance coverage less and less frequently menopause—that it would likely cause to their employees," he says. menopause in me. Grief-stricken by the Ultimately, people who are ill are sacrifice of my breast, I couldn't imagine dependent on the professional expertise of risking such a horrible consequence, even physicians, according to Relman of to save my life. I refused to consider Harvard Medical School. He maintains 23_ BARING THE BREAST-CANCER MYTHS Believing artists are messengers, that physicians, from the dawn of history, Matuschka has a commitment to other have viewed their responsibility to patients as more important than their own financial women who face mastectomy. Most of interests, but in an environment in which the photographs she has seen dealing medicine has become driven by the market with the issue have always hid the values of the American medical industrial damaged breast or covered or chopped complex, medical practice has taken on much of the mien of commerce. Until very off the model's head. recently, the commercial advertising and With her pho- marketing of medical practice that is so tographs, she wanted common today, was considered unethical. Physicians, to be honest, to says Relman, have also become involved in medical enttepreneurialism, return dignity to this imperiling professional objectivity and causing unnecessary expense and unfortu- Matuschka at 13 nate outcomes for patients. Relman feels that medical delivered lost her own mother care should be on a not-for-profit basis and that physicians to breast cancer. I should not be in private practice, but believe her mother salaried. He is an advocate of not-for-profit would be proud of HMOs, such as those sponsored by the daughter Joanne, a Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and Florida. young New York artist who in face of PHYSICIANS are not necessarily the health risks faring well either. A notable decided against American College of Physicians research poll, published in a 1991 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, found that surgery after her physicians are frusttated with the "loss of mastectomy at autonomy and control over clinical deci- age 37. sion making" and the "increase in adminis- trative butdens" necessitated by the great Her body had been the focus of her variety of insurance and other health work and after her in soon mastectomy financing provisions that patients bring to the doctor-patient relationship. Forty In that acclaimed self-portrait, percent of those surveyed were so frustrated and concerned about the future of their "Beauty Out of Damage," she wears a profession they indicated that they simply elegant dress, one side cut away discouraged students from pursuing careers to reveal her mastectomy scar. The idea in medicine. Only 39 percent said they for the dress occurred when her doctor would pursue a career in medicine, if they had the choice to make ovet. recommended reconstructive surgery. As a child in the 1960s and 1970s, I "Ah," she told him, "I was thinking of sometimes accompanied my father, an going topless on that side." imaginative, enthusiastic young man, to the Through personal courage, determi- places where he practiced medicine. In many of our conversations, he spoke of the nation—and her art—Matuschka has joy of his "art." The hospitals and offices shed her clear light on breast cancer where he practiced were modest, of the and created a lasting image for women. unpretentious institutional atchitecture of Matuschka has given breast cancer the early and mid-20th century. He often spoke of the earlier location ot the hospital a face. A brave and dignified face. A where I had my mastectomy and recon- beautiful face. struction in 1987. In the 1960s, it was in downtown Atlanta. Now that it is located Written by Laura Sikes , a photographer — in the northern suburbs, the hospital has an austere and corporate teel. Its new, adjoin- — ing building for physician's offices is luxuri- mer, I learned of Meredith Winter Mabry's ous, reminiscent of Phipps Plaza Mall, a death in March. After graduating with the palace of commerce in affluent Buckhead. class of 1982, Merry became a prominent From the upper floors is an impressive view graphic artist, known for her outstanding of the old suburban forest of my childhood, work for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. I giving way to skyscrapers, pavement and remember her well from the late 1970s pretentious cluster housing—the spec man- when she first came to Agnes Scott and sions of Sandy Springs. Over the eight years from our earlier lives as students at The following my diagnosis and treatment, as I Lovett School in Atlanta. Dark-haired and visited physicians in their shining corporate unassuming, vivacious Merry had special suites, medical costs rose 65 percent. As a presence and charm. She left two young Having been young woman saddled with breast cancer's children, a husband, family and friends. raised the stain of death, I did not experience Coming back to the Agnes Scott cam- daughter, comparable growth of income. pus for my 15-year class reunion this spring, Coming full circle for yet another of I felt the presence of the girl I once was. I granddaughter many emergency mammograms this summer, have not lived happily ever after nor died a and great-grand- I returned to the hospital (now a "medical noble early death. I was not able to find a daughter of center"), where I had my first mammogram corporate job with insurance benefits or in 1987. Still centered in its modest 1960s that other avenue—a husband with insur- physicians, I am architecture, the complex has begun to take ance benefits. The medical publishing ill-prepared to on corporate airs with new, more imposing company I worked with in the early 1990s face today's buildings and multi-level parking decks. was savvy, but no early comer to the trend There, where the introductory question of hiring freelancers and contract workers dishonorable deals with the dark issue of insurance in order to avoid paying health insurance world of coverage, is now a luxurious "breast benefits. At a freelance corporate editing medicine. center" with vivid interior decoration to assignment last year, I witnessed the break- complement colorful paintings, vases, down of an important company division pottery and wall-hangings. Yet in my view, lots of people were abandoned by their patient care should be the work of art. former "corporate daddy" and his health Of course, I am fortunate to have lived. insurance benefits. And there were mercies in my treatment The daughter, granddaughter and and medical care. The plastic surgeon I great-granddaughter of physicians, I was worked with is a brilliant, internationally raised to be a Southern lady by my honey- known innovator of breast reconstruction, voiced mother and grandmothers. This and I continue to be pleased with his work. made me particularly ill-prepared to face He performed the tram-flap, a technique today's dishonorable world of medicine. that harvests abdominal tissues to form a This year, thanks to breast cancer, I have new breast. Much of the external surface found a new and mysterious register in my of my breast was preserved— I do not have own voice. After eight years, I have learned a mastectomy scar. The hospital where to rave and scream. my thyroid surgery was performed did eventually forgive my bill. Of course, I was Writer Carol Willey very frightened undergoing surgery there, tucked in the arm of facing the ambiguities of my insurance sta- her physician father, tus along with the unknown of a potentially L.W. Willey Jr., and malignant thyroid tumor. Within the past pictured (above) year, I have found physicians and an institu- in the Agnes Scott tion willing to work with me. For my breast yearbook, 1979. cancer follow-up care, I now go to an out- of-state comprehensive cancer center, partly funded by the National Cancer Institute. OTHER WOMEN have lost more than I can imagine. I know many who are not here to raise their children, see careers to fruition, or complete relationships. Early this sum- 25 BARING THE BREAST-CANCER MYTHS BREAST-CANCER REFORM MEDICAL REFORM, a failed breast-preserving lumpectomy by patient political cause for the Clinton demand and research confirmation that the administration, is neverthe- procedures were just as safe as the less a thriving reality where breast cancer is Halsted. Cancer specialists and plastic concerned. Since the 1970s, a multi-faceted surgeons developed better approaches to Activists among movement has driven important changes. surgery, treatment and breast reconstruc- Agnes Scott's Harriet Miller '61 and Return-to-College tion. With chemotherapy drugs, and hor- sophomore Jane Green, board members of monal medications, a new era of medical alumnae and the Atlanta chapter of the Susan G. Komen treatment was launched. Women now students have Breast Cancer Foundation, belong to a work with a team of physicians—which, joined forces with strong tradition of positive reform brought depending on the type of cancer, includes a about by women who refuse to accept the surgical oncologist, medical oncologist, others to call unacceptable. radiologist or plastic surgeon. attention to the Journalist Rose Kushner fired the first By the time National Alumnae ravages of breast shot in 1974 when she rejected the brutal President Lowrie Fraser '56, underwent her one-step mastectomy and insisted on hav- mastectomy in 1981, Atlanta physicians cancer and to ing a say in her treatment. In the one-step used sophisticated techniques. She had a push for funds mastectomy procedure, a woman submits to modified radical mastectomy and recon- for research. surgery without knowing if she will have a struction with a silicone implant. "I imme- breast after the procedure is over. A biopsy diately decided that I wanted to have is performed while the patient is anes- reconstruction," she says. "It absolutely thetized; if the results are positive, a mas- held me together." tectomy is completed as she sleeps. Openness about her experience was also Up to 15 years ago, women expecting a an important coping tool. "I was open from minor procedure awoke to find they had the first. I think that enabled me to get undergone the radical Halsted mastectomy, more support, especially at work." When a maiming operation that removes pectoral she was diagnosed at 45, Fraser was the muscles and other structures along with the mother of three adolescents and was a breast. When Kushner refused the one-step career educator, adjusting to an exciting and arranged a biopsy followed by a modi- new role as innovator of the magnet fied radical mastectomy, which removes the schools program for the City of Atlanta breast and lymph nodes but leaves pectoral Public Schools. muscles intact, she set up a hue and cry "When I was treated, breast cancer was that eventually led to the one-step's not regarded as such a systemic disease. It near extinction. was a disease of the breast. Women did not Before 1974, when public figures like have chemo and radiation as they do now. First Lady Betty Ford, who had the Years later, I've occasionally wished that I Halsted mastectomy, and the Vice had had it—but I didn't. The main thing President's wife, Happy Rockefeller, were that occupied me was getting healed from diagnosed and went public with their expe- surgery," says Fraser. riences, women suffered in silence. Breast With the dawn of the 1990s and the cancer was a closely guarded, shameful example of AIDS activists, a new, more secret like out-of-wedlock pregnancy. political breed of breast cancer activism Women like Ford, Rockefeller, Kushner and began to emerge. In 1991, frustrated with journalist Betty Rollin, author of the 1976 the relative lack of attention to breast best-selling breast cancer memoir First You cancer as a public health issue, lawyer Fran Cry, opened a new world for breast cancer Visco and prominent breast surgeon patients and survivors. Dr. Susan Love formed the National Breast Physicians, in the 1970s, when 90 per- Cancer Coalition, a grass-roots movement cent of the mastectomies performed were and lobbying organization. The coalition radical Halsteds, and in the 1980s, were brought a more political tone to advocacy encouraged toward the less disfiguring, efforts as it increased federal funding for modified radical mastectomy and the breast cancer research and began to lobby _26 AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • FALL 1995 —— for greater treatment and follow-up tory and the fact that the primary predictor availability. for developing breast cancer is simply being Over the course of four years, 300 breast a woman. Of 182,000 new cases expected in cancer advocacy groups from throughout 1995, 60 percent will be diagnosed in the country have joined in the coalition. So women with no specific risk factors. far, its efforts have brought $325 million in Many women with breast cancer band government funding to researchers. The together in support groups, over Internet New Jersey Breast Cancer Coalition was lines, and nationwide informal networking instrumental in enacting statewide health groups like Y-ME. Some learn how to read insurance reform in 1994- Now insurance medical papers and conduct Medline companies can no longer discriminate based searches for the latest clinical studies and "Women have got pre-existing conditions. The coalition is opinions. medical libraries on Some haunt and to demand better the descendant of older groups, developed show up at conferences. After surviving in the 1970s and 1980s, when new treat- diagnosis and treatment decisions, emerging treatment," says ment options and the need for support information becomes a sort of life-line ASC's Green inspired Y-ME, a 17-year-old information oddly comforting in its familiar welter of whose mother was and counseling service based in Chicago, numbers and medical terminology. diagnosed with and the Dallas-based Susan G. Komen "Research is at an exciting place Breast Cancer Foundation, founded and, with so many lives at stake, it is breast cancer. 12 years ago. important to see that it proceeds as Susan Komen was a Midwestern woman expeditiously as possible," says Miller. who died at the age of 36 after she failed to "Women's involvement is important. receive the aggressive treatment that her We need to be heard." '80 breast cancer required. Komen foundation —Carol Willey is a freelance founder, Nancy Brinker, Komen's sister, writer living in Atlanta survived the same deadly type of pre- menopausal cancer, armed with better 1 Zampinik K, Ostroff JS. The post-treatment resource information about breast cancer and treat- program: portrait of a program for cancer survivors. ment options. Still in remission, Brinker Psycho-oncology: 2:1, 1993. has fought to inform women and to build ^ Ayanian JZ, Kohler BA, et al. The relation between funding for research since her sister's death. health insurance coverage and clinical outcomes The national foundation has contributed among women with breast cancer. New England $28.5 million in funding for research over Journal of Medicine 1993; 329: 326-331 1 2 years and has raised breast cancer Goldman MB, Monson RR, et al. Cancer Mortality in awareness with innovative early detection Women with Thyroid Disease. Cancer Research 1990; 50:2283-2289. and fundraising efforts such as the annual Race for the Cure held in cities across the ^ Steeg PS, De La Rosa A, et al. Nm23 and breast United States, including Atlanta. cancer metastasis. In: Breast Cancer Research and Treatment. Netherlands 1993. Kluwer Academic ASC's Miller and Green are glad to be Publishers; 1993; 25: 175-187. involved. After a lumpectomy, Miller Early Breast Cancer Trialists' Collaborative Group: decided to become active with the fledgling Systemic treatment of early breast cancer by hormon- Atlanta chapter—founded in 1991 —as she al, cytotoxic or immune therapy: 3 randomized trials underwent radiation treatments. involving 3 1 ,000 recurrences and 24,000 deaths Stepping into that volunteer role was among 75,000 women, lancet 1992; 339:1-15 therapy, and Miller, a long-time Atlantan, ° Kushner R. Alternatives: New developments in the war was able to garner important corporate sup- on breast cancer. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Warner Books Inc.; 1986: 14-15. port. From 1991 to 1994, the Atlanta chap- 7 ter raised approximately $500,000. Now a Blichert-Toft M, Rose C, et al.: Danish randomized thriving presence, the group expects to raise trial comparing breast conservation therapy with mas- tectomy: six years of life-table analysis, journal of the another $500,000 in 1995. National Cancer Institute. Monograph 1 1:19-25, 1992. An ASC chemistry major, Green, whose ° American Cancer Society Facts and Figures— 1995. 64-year-old mother was treated for breast American Cancer Society, Atlanta, Ga., 1995. cancer last year, works in the medical field " Seidman H, Stellman SD, et al. A different perspec- in cancer care and research as president of tive on breast cancer risk factors: some implications the American Research Institute. "Women of nonattributable risk. CA-A Cancer Journal for have got to demand better treatment. An Clinicians 1982;32:301-313. incredible number are affected," says Green, adding that she is at risk, due to family his- 2]_ BARING THE BREAST-CANCER MYTHS A FOIL TO DANGER By Mary Alma Durrett Photo illustrations by Monika Nikore Across America, shades of red and pink and defense is a state of mind as much as a crime has emerged orange sink below the hori- physical ability." Aszon, the sky repaints itself in While class members momentarily deal issue as an of darkening shades of blackish with the mental exercise, Guerrucci moves common concern. blue. Night comes to Agnes on to their physical preparation in his While dangers Scott in typical fall fashion with leaves and semester-long self-defense course held students blowing in and out of Evans, weekly from September through December. exist at Agnes McCain Library and Buttrick, and whirling Since Guerrucci began instruction in 1989, Scott, Public about the quadrangle. Visible is the white more than 150 Agnes Scott students have blur of a bike helmet as Officer Dana perfected twists, turns, punches and kicks. Safety officers Patterson whizzes across campus on pedal "What do you want to learn from this work to make patrol, checking door locks at Walters and class?" he queries the group, which responds the campus a Winship and the other residence halls. predictably: "To be able to get away from an Steps quicken along the brick pathway and attacker. To feel more secure." safe environment. a dozen street lamps pour hundreds of watts of light out onto the darkness of the central Gone are the days when ASC campus. The pulse of the campus calms as President Wallace Alston could students drift off to take refuge in Main and stand on the front porch of his Inman for study and later, sleep. house and shoo away potential intruders. In one glowing corner of Rebekah, a Atlanta, though attractive culturally, public safety dispatcher huddles over a demonstrates the same crime excesses as transmitter, receiving updates from the beat other major cities, with property and violent officers, calmly repeating the familiar crime in the five figures. Agnes Scott has response, "10-4-" Across the quad, a small worked hard to hold down its property crime group of women gathers in the aerobics to around 25 and violent crime to two or room of Alston Center, listening intently to less, annually, over the past three years. a martial artist whose self-defense instruc- The Agnes Scott self-defense class is just tion reaches to their very core. "It doesn't one component in the College's very do you any good to learn how to rip off deliberate efforts. somebody's lower lip or gouge out their eyes Rus Drew, ASC's public safety director of if you aren't going to use the techniques," 10 years, heads a team of 10 full-time, state- chides instructor Paul Guerucci, a part-time certified police officers and two part-time public safety officer who attained fourth- officers. With a minimum of two officers on degree Black Belt proficiency. duty at all times, ASC's officer-to-service- These are not pretty thoughts by community ratio is 1 to 400, better than anyone's standards and some students are twice the national average (1 to 1,000). Its noticeably disturbed. But uglier are current response time, tracked by the year-old statistics that one rape occurs every five Automated Records Management System minutes or that every other woman in (A.R.M.S.) software, is 4-8 minutes on America (literally one of two) will be con- service calls and less than 3 minutes on fronted by a sexual predator during her life emergency calls, also better than average. time. Add to that the overall escalation in ASC's public safety department has violent crime in recent years and the primary policing responsibility tor more than picture worsens. the 50-acre campus; its full jurisdiction "You've got to decide what you are (bounded by King's Highway, Columbia willing to do," stresses Guerrucci. "Self Drive, Ponce de Leon, Kirk Road and 18 AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • FALL 1995 29 A FOIL TO DANGER Some students are sensitive to the issues of crime but most are not. Often people this age have a sense of invincibility. Oakview Road) extends 500 yards beyond sites on campus and telephones located out- the 50 rental properties owned by the side of each residence hall, are part of College, which encircle the campus. And Agnes Scott's plan for self defense. in September, the campus of Columbia Last year the ASC police department Theological Seminary was added to also offered 13 distinct crime prevention its watch. programs on campus. Beginning with pro- Public Safety provides escorts at night to grams during orientation weekend for first- individual students, faculty or staff who feel year students and their families, public safe- insecure about walking alone between build- ty launched a series of lectures and demon- ings, to and from parking lots, and to and strations dealing with general crime preven- from the MARTA Station in Decatur. tion, self-defense, acquaintance rape and Phones strategically located at three remote defensive chemical sprays (such as pepper spray). Overall awareness and education are critical to each student's safety. Emotional Havens "Some students are sensitive to the issues Even as the Department of Public of crime but most aren't," admits Lt. Amy Safety works to keep both campuses Lanier '72, on ASC's force since 1991. secure, Margaret Shirley '81, ASC "People the age of the traditional students counselor, has a part in helping students have a sense of invincibility. Being the vic- find their own emotional "safe place" in tim of a crime is not an overriding concern." this increasingly violent world. Often For instance, during orientation public she walks students through a series of safety encourages parents to remind their anxiety reduction exercises when their daughters to call for escorts or to walk in feelings of fear become overwhelming. groups on campus in the evening, but, At other times she must remind stu- Lanier laments, "A lot of students don't dents that self defense is, ultimately, a take it to heart." state of mind. However, both Lanier and Drew (who "Having been a student myself, earned his degree in criminology from 1 know it's real easy to get on this Auburn University and worked two years campus and not think about being in for the Marietta Police Department before the real world. So I'm all for telling joining the staff at Agnes Scott) recall sev- students to pay attention. No place is eral instances in which students have dettlv completely safe." turned around potentially dangerous situa- tions. For example, a few years ago, Drew 30 AUNES S( OTT COLLEGE • FALL 1993 —— —— says, a man in the Hopkins parking lot "followed two students and forced himself CRIME AT ASC into the car with them don't if —we know As a state certified law enforcement was going to try assault the he to students or agency since 1983 the Agnes Scott take the car." Together, the students try to Department of Public Safety reports attacked the man who fled the scene. "We campus crime statistics to the Georgia weren't able to him but apprehend we were Bureau of Investigation which in turn very proud of the way they dealt with it is reported to the Federal Bureau of and the students were proud of themselves." Investigation. YEAR a state-certified law enforcement 94/ 93/ 92/ Charge 95 94 93 Asagency (since 1983) and a recipient of federal funds, Agnes Scott com- Burglary 3 4 2 piles, publishes and distributes campus crime Criminal Property Damage 5 2 2 statistics, in compliance with the Campus Harassing Phone Calls 7 3 Security Act of 1990. Through a "Playing it "For some Motor Vehicle Theft 2 Safe" handbook, notices in the student reason," says newspaper and the campus-wide newsletter, Rape 1 Drew, "people Campus Connection, and through reminders Sexual Battery 2 posted in the residence halls and in other particularly Theft by Taking 20 6 20 kids buildings around campus, students receive Underage Alcohol 2 4 just want to come updated information about crime and crime up and talk to prevention. The above is partial list of crimes reported to you During the summer months, when fewer the GBI and FBI. when you're on a students remain on campus, public safety bike. That's been a turns more attention to the surrounding wonderful [crime community. From about 6 p.m. to dusk the seminary and have faculty and staff who live bike patrol is active, with officers talking to in the area, as well as students who walk, jog prevention] tool." neighbors of the College and listening to and baby sit in those areas, we felt it impor- their concerns. tant to expand," Drew says of that decision. "For some reason," says Drew, "people The one-year renewable agreement particularly kids—just want to come up and between the two campuses calls for ASC to talk to you when you're on a bike. That's patrol seminary campus buildings, parking been a wonderful tool. It also provides areas and on-campus housing, as well as greater flexibility for our patrol in parking provide motor vehicle assistance and lots. Officers are able to move in and out, escort services, after hours, to on-campus pretty much unnoticed. Again this year, the personnel. number of incidents occurring in parking According to Drew, the seminary areas has steadily declined." provided funds for hiring four officers and Agnes Scott is hoping to have a similar purchasing two vehicles primarily for use on effect as it handles security for the Columbia the seminary campus. However, through this Seminary campus. year the Decatur Police Department will "Since we are so close in proximity to the remain Columbia's primary policing agency. CRIME AND COMMLINITY A look at Crime in the United States 1 993 , Uniform Crime Reports (Rapes are a subgroup of the violent crimes total.) Location Property Crime Violent Crime (Rapes) Atlanta MSA (19 counties) 209,778 29,321 1,336 Atlanta (city) 53,633 16,281 492 DeKalb (county) 43,334 3,836 217 Decatur 1,244 185 4 Agnes Scott College 27 1 31 A FOIL TO DANGER EXCERPTS Silver Rights ... A true story of the civil rights struggle in the South TAKE CARE waiting truck. with Matthew and help the Civil Rights Act. The OF MY KIDS Thornton's mission was "withdraw 'em out." speech was delivered only simple. He told Matthew Matthew said that he a few hours before the that he'd heard about the didn't need the help and Mississippi NAACP leader From Chapter 2 enrollment and he believed that if he decided to Medgar Evers was mur- News of the enrollment that the best thing for withdraw the children, dered outside his Jackson of the Carter children Matthew and Mae Bertha he would go himself. home just after midnight spread like wildfire through would be to go back to Mae Bertha, who had on June 12. Mae Bertha's Sunflower County, and Drew and withdraw the been standing on the porch son Man had sent her the Mae Bertha felt sure that children. He believed they listening, went into the record, and it was one of someone from the school could get a better educa- house. She came out a few her greatest treasures. Mae superintendent's office had tion at the black school. minutes later carrying a Bertha started the record called Mr. Thornton, He explained to Matthew chair, a single record, and a player and turned the vol- the plantation overseer. that the children would little record player. She set ume way up: Early the next morning, have no friends at the the player carefully on the "And when Americans Thornton drove up in his white school. Neither black chair, close to the porch are sent to Vietnam or pickup truck and blew his folks nor white folks would door so the cord could West Berlin, we do not ask horn in front of the have anything to do with reach an outlet in the for whites only. It ought to Carters' house. the Carters anymore. living room, and she put be possible, therefore, for "Mary," Matthew said Those poor whites who on the record. It was the American students of any softly over his shoulder, lived over on federal land June 11, 1963, speech that color to attend any public using his special name for near the Carters would President Kennedy had institution they select with- Mae Bertha, "it's starting." cause them a lot of trouble. given on national radio out having to be backed up He went outside to the He offered to go to Drew and television calling for by troops. . . . We are con- ABOUT THE BOOK AND THE AUTHOR From 1964 to 1975, Constance Curry '55 worked as a views with the family and correspondence with Mae Bertha field representative jor the American Friends Service Carter, a mother fiercely determined that her children would Committee, assigned to the Mississippi Delta to help the have the best possible education. family of Mae Bertha and Matthew Carter and Curry studied abroad as a Fidbnight others involved in desegregation mandated by Scholar after graduation from Agnes Scott Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Silver with a degree in history . She holds a post- Rights, released this month, grew out of Curry' doctoral fellowship at the University of relationship with the Carters who psiive Virginia s Center for Civil Rights and a in 1 965 enrolled seven school-age fellowship in Women's Studies at Emory children in a formerly all-white University. She has a law degree from school in Drew, Sunflower County Woodrow Wilson College of Law. From Mississippi. Curry was at the fami- 1975 until 1990 she served as Director of ly's side through several troubled Human Services for the City of Atlanta. years, which included their eviction from the plantation on Kirkus Reviews lias described Silver Rights as "a solid they which were sharecroppers, nightriders' gunfire into their contribution to the literature of recent political history ... cabin and harassment from the community and school. The a moving story of a family's unforeseen contribution to the book is based on Curry's personal observations, later inter- civil-rights struggle in America." _3_2 AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • FALL 1995 fronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the Scriptures and as clear as the American Constitution." I can imagine Mae Bertha standing by her front door, firm and proud, arms folded, as John Kennedy's voice spilled across the early morning silence—talking about what it was like to be a black person in America, and about the great oppor- The Carter children, books in hand, await the schoolbus. tunities available to all brave one, you know." except black children. Mae Sunflower County project to no white folks' house calling, 'cause that's proba- As the first day of Bertha let the record play director for the Student bly ones shot into school drew near, life for on as Matthew stood out Nonviolent Coordinating the who the Carters proceeded as by the truck. Finally Committee. When Mae my house." the usual, for the most part. Thornton said he would go Bertha finished telling her Parker and FBI the The older children picked down to the barn to give story, Moore and McLaurin agent inspected cotton, but they talked Matthew time to talk to called the FBI in Jackson. Carters' house carefully. among themselves about Mae Bertha. The next day the Deputy Mr. Thornton, the changes that would Mae Bertha remem- Sheriff John Sidney Parker plantation overseer, was the soon take place. Matthew bered what she had then received a call at his home present as well, and helped of the had extra work in the said to Matthew. "You go from the county sheriffs them take each the walls. evenings sewing underwear out there, to the barn," she office in Indianola, five bullets out of agent for the girls from cotton had told him, "and you tell miles away. Parker was The Washington took the bullets with him sacks and hemming dresses. Mr. Thornton that I am a asked to go to Crew to join investigate as evidence, and that was The children remember grown woman. I birthed an FBI agent to the day he announced, those children and bore the the shooting at the Car- the last the Carters heard FBI or anyone "Mary, I have stopped pain. He cannot tell me ters'. The agent was from from the shooting. smoking. We need money what to do about my chil- FBI headquarters in Wash- else about the story circulated in the too much to send these dren, like withdrawing my ington; he had flown in The community was that children." children out. And I'd be a because local FBI agents white Carters, prompted by fool to try and tell him were on other assignments. the militants eager for where to send his kids." He and Parker drove in black only money the Matthew answered, separate cars to Busyline. publicity, had done the The .... Carters had in August "Well, Mary, I'm not going When they reached the shooting themselves [But African-Americans 1965 was $40 hidden in a to tell him all that." Carters' house, the agent's the dangers facing mattress, saved in case Mae They told Thornton first question to Mae Ber- knew Recalls one,] "I Bertha needed to go to simply that they had decid- tha was, why had she gone the Carters. believe I three or Toledo to see her mother, ed to keep their children in all the way to Cleveland to made there and was Luvenia. Matthew knew the white school. call when she could have four trips out Bertha missed gone to some of the white scared every time. I that Mae people's houses nearby? thought about we had Luvenia and he had had Schwerner, insisted that they save The morning after the Mae Bertha chuckled already Goodman the bus fare. shots were fired into at the memory of her Chaney and these patrol- The sharecropping the house, a neighbor took response. "Go where?" she murdered by and every system of buying food and Mae Bertha to Cleveland, answered the agent. "Let ing Klansmen, thought that one supplies on credit from the Miss., to see Amzie Moore, me tell you one thing, trip I right around the plantation store, paying a black businessman and man, I ain't got confidence might be corner somewhere. And I when there was a little NAACP leader, and in any white man living in was supposed to be the money, and always being Charles McLaurin, the Mississippi. I can't be going 33 EXCERPTS beholden to the plantation Mae Bertha told me remembers how she lay in taking a seat by herself. owner and in debt to his what she thought about bed wondering if she had Mae Bertha stayed on store was still very much during those tense days; the strength and will to get the porch and watched in effect at Pemble she remembered what a up and face the fear that until the bus was out of Plantation. A few days preacher in Cleveland had pressed in upon her. sight. Her eyes filled and after enrolling his children said once: "Everybody's It was the first day in she took the baby, Carl, in the white schools, afraid and it's okay to be Drew history that black back into the house. She Matthew Carter went to afraid but you can't let it children would attend later wrote Jean Fairfax: Bob's, the store that usually stop you." She explained to public school with white "When the bus pulled gave him credit. he Had me that the "covering" she children. Those black off, I went in and fell down heard right? the felt owner had first as a young girl children were hers. They cross the bed and prayed. I asked. Had Matthew been came over her during those would be desegregating stayed on that bed and over to Drew and enrolled days and she felt confident both Drew High School didn't do no work that day. his kids in the all-white that her family was protect- and A. W. James No 'covering' in sight this school? Matthew ed. When On the fourth night Elementary School. But time. I didn't feel good and nodded, he was told he had after the shooting, the fam- the principles of "freedom stayed cross the bed and until three o' clock that ily off moved the floor and and choice" and when I heard the bus day to take the children back into its beds and "desegregation" seemed coming, I went back to the out of the school. Matthew never slept on the floor high-flown and irrelevant porch. When they came off went home with only a again. Mae Bertha told as Mae Bertha imagined one by one, then I was package of food in his Matthew that she was call- the day that stretched released until the next hands, rather than the ing to the Lord. ahead of Gloria, Deborah, morning. But the next weekly order of staples Beverly, Pearl, Stanley, morning I felt the same needed to feed ten people. Larry and Ruth. way, depressed, nervous, Mae Bertha took the $40 Bertha has forgot- After breakfast, the chil- Mae praying to God. I wasn't fare bus from under the ten none of the dren, each with a quarter saying a whole lot of words; mattress and gave it to details of Sept. 3, 1965, the for lunch, went out on the just saying, "take care of Matthew, who drove to first day of school in Drew, porch with Mae Bertha to my kids"—no time for all Cleveland to buy food. Miss. Matthew was up at wait for the school bus. By those words. And I didn't several For days it 5:30 a.m. to get water from 7:30, the sun was out in do housecleaning until the seemed that the enrollment the pump, heat up the ket- strength. The heavy wet children came home. After of the children and the tle and the big dishpan on heat of late summer about a month, I started night shooting had never the stove fill and the tub in settled over the cotton easing up a little bit. I had occurred. No one came to the bedroom. He bathed fields. Would the new bus prayed to God so much! I the house. But the bullet and dressed Deborah and driver know where to stop had been going to church holes had made the truth Beverly, the two youngest for the Carters? Would they and talking about trusting clear for the Carters. The girls. The older ones got be the first ones on the bus? in Jesus, but never trusted family slept on the floor themselves ready. Mae Where would they sit? How Jesus until my children for three nights after Bertha remembers how would they know where to went to that all-white the shooting. mute they were. She also go when they got to school? school. That school sure A newly painted yellow brought me to God!" school bus was spotted Editor's Note: The Carter turning onto Busyline. In children graduated from silence Mae Bertha and the high school in Drew arid children watched its slow enrolled in the University of passage down the rutted Mississippi; all sevei\ earned dirt road. Finally the bus their undergraduate degrees. stopped at the house and Silver Rig/its: A True Story from the the children stepped down Front Lines of the Ckil Rights from the porch and one by Struggle. By Constance Curry. one climbed in to discover Algonquin Books (25S pp.) $21.95, Oct. 1995. that they were indeed the ISBN: 1-56512-095-7. first to be picked up. They Rt'^rinted uith pemussion. Cofwight © 1995 sat two by two near the \rj Algonquin Books o/ Chapel Hiii. a diiision of W'oiknum PuHishing Bertha Carter '55 Mae and Constance Curry front of the bus, with Ruth Company N.Y..N.Y. AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • FALL 1995 LIFESTYLE Horsing around with country music; Atlanta Project volunteer, medicine for migrants, eat your veggies, a grand hike, Shakespeare & company COWPATTYS: Trout Fishing in America TAKING THE organization and are STAGE WEST booked for multiple weeks in theaters from its home state of Texas west to Performer ]oy Cunningham '77 California and east to Virginia. CowPattys also you ain't heard us, you If made news in the August ain't heard shee-ut," goes issue of Texas Monthly. the promotional slogan for To ride the range with the original "western, her cowgirl cohorts, almost vaudeville-style Cunningham left her job comedy" CowPattys, teaching writing at Austin co-written by and starring Community College. She Joy Cunningham 77. notes with some disbelief Cunningham and three that she's actually making a singer and actor friends living. "Not many people created the "country-and- get to make their western ha ha capella" pro- living as a performer," duction at a party several she says. years ago. Since 1994, the "Udderly Amoozing" The Her travels have also four "wild, nutty an' sassy" CowPattys , started by changed her role from cowgirls named Patty Cunningham (second from creator and director of Cake, Crash Patty right) and friends as a lark, is growing in popularity with "The Girl Project" to (Cunningham), Patty appearances set nationwide. adviser. The ASC Addy and Patty Lorraine English and history major LaWanda Louise Linda conceived the theater Letisha LaBelle, have the 'W in Wrangler." workshop program after taken their popular "And Wrangler put the where reading Harvard psycholo- show nationwide. Oooow! in cowgitls," go the new West weapons carried gist Carol Gilligan's Decked in boots, fringe the words to the song "the only weapons, the ground-breaking book A and other outrageous cow- about tight jeans. are congealed children play cowboys and Different Voice. The book girl wear, the four open CowPattys' extreme par- American Indians highlights the immense their show with Shero, a ody, "Stand By Your Fan," Native the rodeo uses loss of self-esteem suffered musical story of a cowgirl laments hot Texas weather and where only animals who volun- by American girls aged who starts out low and — their music meshes participate." 10 to 18. ends her career as head of while meshing the styles teet to debut at Cunningham received 45 men on the range. of Gregorian chants, Making its CowPattys has two grants for the program, Another tune in the country and rap. benefits, Smothers which "gleans girls' stories, "moosic, cowmedy and CowPattys delights opened for the of Brothers, performed for the taking raw material in an brahma" is "Cowgirls put I audiences with visions 35 LIFESTYLE improvisational manner Jimmy Carter's vision for Sprint feared lack of One successful program and turning it all into a healing urban ills, was participation on the part resulting from their work combination of movement, Margaret "Maggy" Harms' of its relatively small targets middle school stu- scenes and dance for dream job—the one the (1,500 employees) dents needing tutoring and performance." Class of '63 graduate says Atlanta office. But help with homework. The Impressed with she was "born and bred for" Harms and her two co- program aims to "interest Cunningham's idea, by her own committed advisers from Emory girls in staying in school, to Gilligan plans to start the volunteer parents. University and The keep them from getting program at Harvard. However, it took the Carter Center found the pregnant and going on wel- financial analyst/manager volunteers. Their mighty fare rolls," explains Harm. two years to persuade the task: to reduce poverty She adds that during her VOLUNTEER Kansas City-based corpo- and hopelessness and Atlanta Project involve- HERITAGE rate office of Sprint, her empower urban commu- ment, her cluster—the employer, to "loan" her as nities to solve as many Bankhead Highway region Margaret "Maggy" an adviser to the West problems and take of Atlanta—has had no Harms '63 Fulton cluster, an inner- advantage of as many reports of violence. he Atlanta Project, city area of 8,000 predomi- existing programs and Recognized several years T former President nantly black residents. opportunities as possible. ago as an Outstanding THE BEST MEDICINE Jimmie Ann Collins '51 could have been a scenario from the movies. High At various points in the countryside, the medical team It on a primitive village hillside. Rugged and muddy set up clinics. Using one-room buildings with bed sheets terrain. At last, a drenching, tropical rain brings after- as partitions, the volunteers staffed a pharmacy, a dental noon relief. Amid the downpour, a rustic, 15-passenger office and offices for a nurse practitioner and Collings' bus, carrying a busload of Americans maneuvers down husband, Tom. Poor and anxious villagers lined the street the rain-slick hillside, begins slipping and sliding and waiting for care. nearly spins out of control. Another curve in the unpaved Stateside, the Collingses work with migrants in East road is rounded; and again the native driver loses control, Tennessee, teaching Sunday School and English-as-a- this time sliding further, finally stopping at the brink of a Second-Language. Jimmie Ann, who says she is a 20-foot drop. "practicing Christian," works to show God's love and That was when Jimmie Ann McGhee Collings '51 kindness to the migrants, most of whom are from Mexico. and her Baptist Medical Dental Fellowship co-volunteers "They are economically persecuted and their children are decided they would skip the bus ride and walk the rest of shoved around by their peers in school." the way. Other travels take the Greenville, Tenn., resident to "We had had a scare and decided we flower shows nationwide with daughter Sharon needed the exercise." Ann Collings 77, a sculptor/potter. Where The mission trip with her pediatri- Jimmie Ann is a Master Flower Show cian husband was Collings' second judge, she also demonstrates flower to Venezuela. arranging in Sharon Ann's unique flower vessels. 36 Ai INES SCOTT COLLEGE • FALL 1995 LIFESTYLE Atlantan for her volunteer the patient feels lousy work, Harms plans to keep about food. Cooking is alive the bonds formed hard, especially when you with her cluster communi- are so fatigued. One of the to help a petson ty. Her daytime attention, best ways however, will soon be experiencing cancer is to directed at the Auditory provide meals." Education Center, a non- profit United Way BECKONED agency that has v £/\ BY THE BARD named her V executive - *& Evelyn Sears director. The Schneider '39, Mary center works Author jane Zanca has written a "warm and Ann Gregory Dean '63, friendly" book on the nutritional approach to with hearing- Jeanne Addison prevention and cure. Eat your veggies. cancer '46, impaired chil- Roberts Mary Price Coulling '49 and dren and adults. Zanca, a medical times scary feelings of her Giddy Erwin Dyer '38 writer for the American book's readers: "I'm going to lose my life, or have to a lecture called Cancer Society, possessed In A RECIPE FOR the ability to ptesent the sell my house, live in a "The Brou-ha-ha of RECOVERY data to the lay public, to one-room efficiency and sit Hamlet," Evelyn Sears '39 explained make it "warm and fuzzy, in a wheelchair." Schneider Jane Zanca '83 friendly and enjoyable. For 15 months, Zanca that the centuries-old play is the Mona Lisa of When Jane Zanca '83 There are not a lot of slept, ate and breathed her puzzled decided to co- things to enjoy when freelance assignment. No literature. "It has any author The Cancer Recovery you're recovering from can- television, no pleasute everyone more than Eating Plan with Daniel W. cer," she says. reading. "I wrote a good bit Shakespeare play." the Nixon, M.D., she was Zanca knows. of the book in my sleep," And it has captured than unsute about some of the Three of her family Zanca says and laughs. She imaginations of more oncologist's concepts. But members died of cancer. also worked with nutrition- a few Scotties. Schneider delivered her as she researched and The ASC English litera- ists, a chef and other conjunction with wrote, she too became a ture and creative writing experts in nutrition and lecture in production of believer in the cancer- major drew from experi- cancer, editing recipes and last year's the Orlando preventing powers of a ences of her loved ones massaging the material. Hamlet by Shakespeare Festival. high-fiber, low-fat diet. and from her own struggle She's excited and proud Gregory The 450-page book, with a chronic illness. The that the book empowers (Mary Ann '63 is the annual published by Times Books/ mother of two "twenty- her readers to become full Dean Festival's new executive Random House, was writ- somethings" says she knows partners in their health director.) Twice, eager ten for people who have the feeling of having and explains how they can audiences heard the retired had cancer and want to "chunks" of her life taken cope with the side effects professor of literatute share "take charge and prevent away. Diagnosed a few of cancer treatment. adds, "One of the her views on "what all its recurrence." years ago with a form of Zanca surrounding Nixon had the medical rheumatoid arthritis, she many impacts of cancer the ruckus Hamlet is about," once at and nutritional expertise; empathizes with the some- and its treatment is that 37 LIFESTYLE Schneider's church, First Roberts has presented two speare authored Hamlet the canyon from its north- Unitarian of Oakland, and lectures on Shakespeare and other works, a view ern to its southern rims. also at the Unitarian for the Washington, DC, disputed by some scholars. Twenty-six friends and Universalist Society. Agnes Scott alumnae. For family members (including Schneider hypothesizes the first, alumnae read and SEEKING NEW Robison's sister, Becky that "Shakespeare knew discussed Winter's Tale HEIGHTS Evans Callahan '60), rang- that life is not always black with the professor. (AND LOWS) ing in age from 1 5 to 60, '94 and white. ... [He] did not Love of Shakespeare joined the summer choose to dictate definite enticed two more Scotties, expedition. Day one was a Emily Evans Robison, answers to the questions he Mary Price Coulling '49 Joanna Russell 14-mile hot-and-dry hike raises. Instead, he invites us and Giddy Erwin Dyer '38, Hogan, Vivian "down, down, down," to come up with our own to embark on a "Hamlet to "Biba" Conner Parker recalls Hogan. Night was and conclusions." Hardy" cruise. Jan Whitfield spent along the Colorado Hughen, '62 As presiding judge of Coulling's husband River at Phantom Ranch, a The Elsinore Appeal: teaches English at Wash- The typical visitor to rustic lodge that once slept People vs. Hamlet, a mock ington & Lee University, Arizona's Grand Teddy Roosevelt. Day two trial hosted by the New the cruise sponsor, and Canyon stands on a was a nine-mile trek "up, York City Bar Association, Dyer is married to a W&L tenced-off cliff and gazes at up, up" malodorous and Jeanne Addison Roberts '46 alumnus. Cruise partici- the beauty of the natural dusty trails littered with drew her own set of con- pants sailed the North Sea wonder. Not good enough mule dung. clusions. Three-hundred from Copenhagen to for four soul mates from the Parker, Hogan and an people attended the trial Elsinore, the assumed cas- class of '62. assortment of 10 friends which acquitted Hamlet tle of Hamlet. From there Emily Evans Robison, went on to higher sights of Ophelia's murder but they journeyed north to Joanna Russell Hogan, during the fall of '94. The found him guilty of Scotland, the setting of Vivian "Biba" Conner group began their hike in murdering Laertes, Macbeth. On they went to Parker and Jan Whitfield the rice patties of Nepal at Claudius, Rosencrantz the Scottish Islands, and Hughen donned their hik- an elevation of 1,500 feet. and Guildenstern. in between England and ing boots, polished their They averaged six to 10 Before retirement, Ireland, where they ven- walking sticks and hiked miles daily, up and down Roberts, a Shakespearean, tured to Thomas Hardy's taught literature—includ- country and literary Dublin. ing many years of Hamlet Before the cruise —at American University. launch, participants dined The professor had observed with the American ambas- similar Shakespeare trials, sador to Denmark. Dyer which are becoming popu- and Coulling were pleas- lar, and was invited by a antly surprised to learn the former student to partic- ambassador's wife is Susie ipate in the New York trial. Goodman Elson '59. She has authored two All of these graduates books on the Bard, includ- except Gregory studied ing The Shakespearean Wild, Shakespeare under profes- highlighting the women in sor George P. Hayes. And Intrepid hikers from the class of '62: (1-r) Emily Robison, Shakespeare's writings. all believe that Shake- Joanna Hogan, Becky Callahan, Jan Hughen, Biba Parker. J58 AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • FALL 1995 — LIFESTYLE stock of Turner the Himalayas, criss-cross- wash cloths froze. of Broadcasting System ing hundreds of trails. During their jour Their destination was ney they saw people (TBS), the company she serves as vice 14,000 feet, in the shadow who "in 1995 live president of finan- of Mount Everest. In total, the way people lived cial communica- the two Scotties and clan 200 years ago, with of walked 127 miles and no roads, electricity tions and director investor relations. climbed 44,000 feet in alti- or water," recalls "Investor rela- tude. "A lot of up and Hogan. down," admits Hogan. The two Scotties, tions is really The venture was much plus Hughen and marketing the company's stock more strenuous than fitness Robison are among a making sure that buffs Hogan or Parker "nucleus" of 14 class of the market has the anticipated. There were no '62 graduates who have Kitsie Riggall works to sell right information to roads. Anything other than remained in contact. The Wall Street on the value of fairly value the stock," the clothing they wore was group gathered at Sea Turner Broadcasting stock. says Riggall. carried on their backs, by Island the year they turned monitor the percep- Sherpa guides or by yaks. 30 and again at age 40. Hogan, who recalls some- To tion of Turner in the news, They tottered across sus- At 50 they went to what sheepishly that her office overlooking the pension bridges, bamboo Nantucket, where Parker smoking at "The Hub" was interior of Cable News bridges, stones in a stream declared they were getting the 14 graduates' drawing Network (CNN) Center is amid hot, humid weather. older and wouldn't have point at Agnes Scott. "We filled with everything from The group also waded too many more decades. all liked to smoke. That Wall Street Journal to through leech-swarming This year, she hosted the was back when smoking the gravitated trade publications like rice patties. Five mornings gang, who celebrated 55, was cool. We Cable World and Variety. they awoke shivering in at her part-time home toward The Hub (a former of us Riggall's own view of their tents as temperatures in Jackson Hole. student center). None has been formed from plummeted to 20 below "We were lucky to have smokes anymore." TBS thing. Next the inside, out. She began zero, so cold that among stayed in touch," says It's a good her career at the Turner other things, their spring, Parker and Hogan plan a 20-day New Zealand subsidiary CNN as an hike. intern during her senior —Leisa Hammett-Goad is a year at Agnes Scott. Just freelancer in Nashville, Term. after graduation, she was offered a full-time job. "I publicized CNN's TAKING coverage of major news STOCK events," says Riggall. "That was back in the days when Kitsie Bassett CNN was still trying to Riggall '83 establish itself as a credible Kitsie Bassett Riggall's news source." It involved Backdropped by Mt. Everest days swirl around heady days of working in Russell Hogan (on left) and. Ama Dablam (on right) , Joanna the value the media camp of the '88 and Biba Conner Parker relax before their trek up, up and up. Wall Street and 39 LIFESTYLE LETTERS Democratic National Convention in Atlanta Harassment is a state of mind; memorializing mink. and the Reagan- Gorbachev summit. Congratulations on a am going to tell you. the morning to pick up very interesting summer A mink coat is not the newspaper. .. . In 1989 she left CNN issue of ASC Alumnae something to wear. It is On holidays, wear your as senior manager of public Magazine. I sent copies of the outward and visible mink: on Halloween relations. From there several articles and the symbol of the wild, (bleach your hair, get big she became director of poem to a number of extravagant, luxuriant, earrings and go out as a corporate communications people—and the whole sensual love of beauty Dallas woman) and issue to a cousin who does streaming from the heart Christmas, at all parties for Turner. community theatre in of every woman. It is your whether formal or infor- She served a nearly North Carolina. soul sister, your trusted mal. Remember: mink is a two-year stint as vice presi- Mary Anne Kernan '38 accomplice, financial state of mind. dent of Turner's entertain- Nashville, Term. commiserator, counselor, There is nothing more love advisor, supreme extravagant and luxurious ment division which I was pleased as I am fashion visionary, friend, than a mother's love for required frequent flights surprised to see that you healer, ally! her daughter. between Atlanta and Los published the letter from And you keep such a It is true that one day in a all give Angeles. "A large portion Susan Smith Van Cott in being locked up cold we have to our the summer issue. There vault in a stuck-up place mothers up. But we do not of our publicity efforts was are others of us who feel like Northbrook Court? have to lock away their focusing on the original the same way. Now a Dallas woman glorious love for us. We movies that TNT I spent four years at would do that, but here in revel in it and pass it freely produced," says Riggall, ASC learning to think for Houston we understand to our own daughters. myself It would appear MINK. After all, this is Many thanks for shar- "so there was a real that today's students are the drive it or wear it city. ing your feelings about Hollywood angle." being taught to let the A mink coat is not your beloved mom. I bet I Today, the red-haired liberal media do their something you save for know exactly how she telt Riggall assesses the impact thinking for them. cold weather. If you put about you. It seems to me that your mink in the vault in Sonja Nelson '66 of changes that will occur "liberated" women should summertime, you couldn't Sugar Land, Texas at Turner in the face be as capable of defending turn the air conditioning of the late September themselves from harass- down way low and sleep Re: the article on violence announcement that ment as we were back nude snuggled up under it. to children. My wife is too then. I find it rather ironic You can't put it on to pay modest to send this [a Time-Warner would that they need government the bills. You cannot weep Birrnmg/umi News article acquire the company. protection in personal rela- into its thick folds and featuring lawyer Wendy In the meantime, tionships. For some reason, silken lining when life's Brooks Crew 'SO, founder Riggall has the "perfect Anita Hill reminds me of hurts assault your heart. ... of Street Law, a program a neighbor who had an There are plenty of for 2nd- 12 th graders liberal arts job," she says, obscene phone call that places to wear your mink taught by students at the one that requires both lasted 45 minutes! when it does get a little Cumberland School of strong analytical skills Frances Vandiver chilly, you know, under Law—it helps prevent '52 and excellent writing. Puckett 75 degrees Farenheit. juvenile crime by teaching Jacksonville, Fki. With boots and jeans, young people subjects "At 25,1 don't know wear your mink to the gro- from the basics of conflict that I would have thought I was shocked, shocked cery store, to the car wash, management to the conse- that dealing with Wall SHOCKED, to read in this to drop the kids off at quences of crime], but Street analysts was for me. distinguished publication school, to the Oilers games I'm not! that a grown woman does (the Astrodome is air-con- Thought you might like At 34, 1 think the work is not know what a mink ditioned, after all), and on to see this. incredibly interesting." coat is for. . . . all airline flights. Also, Richard D. Crew '84 —Karen Young Pay attention to what I wear it when you go out in Birmingham, Ala. _40 AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE • FALL 1995 ) GIVING ALUMNA "ASC is one of the best investments 1 can make in the future I wont see." is important. ASC fundraiser Dorothy "Dot" Addison '43 ur money says a lot about what we think years, life of what ASC gave me." DOT ADDISON H3 at ASC in recent holding positions in the While travel and a new Home: Atlanta, Ga. Centennial and Campbell granddaughter ("she is my Age: 72 Science Hall campaigns, hobby; she gives me a new Occupation: Homemaker ") serving as fund chair for lease on life ... add joy Husband: Thomas E. Addison Jr., retired from the the Alumnae Association to her life, these days, Addison Corp, wholesale building materials and establishing, with for- Peachtree Road United Children: Two, one grandchild mer Board Chair Betty Methodist Church benefits '43, most from her volunteer For a student who might mittee for much of that Cameron the Laney never have attended time, although at first her Fund in memory of English service. great Agnes Scott College, heart was not in fund- Professor Emma Mae Addison also takes playing dupli- Dorothy "Dot" Addison raising. "It was the life of Laney. In addition to being pleasure in donor, cate bridge with her hus- has made quite a mark on the mind 1 wanted to talk a Founders' Club "I have all my her alma mater. (Addison's about," explains Addison. Addison is a charter mem- band Tom. support systems right parents were convinced "As I got into it, though, ber of the Frances Winship Society. around me," she concludes. that all good women's I found fundraising to be Walters Peachtree Road colleges were in her home important. How we use our "Agnes Scott is one of "From my I can apartment, I can see the state of Virginia—until she money says a lot about what the best investments Addi- steeple of my church, the chose Agnes Scott. we think is important." make in the future," tower of Main at Agnes A trustee for 10 years, Addison has contributed son believes. "I give in Scott husband at she has served as a member to some of the most impor- gratitude, as well, because and my of the development com- tant fundraising initiatives I've been conscious all my the breakfast table." 41_ GIVING ALUMNA Agnes Scott College 141 E. College Ave. Decatur, GA 30030 IUL.IL.,,11,11 il,l.„t!l,„ll„„.tll„l,l,l„! **********************}i*s-ntr.n 300301 ._ Jrive Decatur, TJ^ 30030-3706 WOMEN WHO SURVIVE More than 46,000 American women will die ot breast cancer this year. Among the survivors is Matuschka—a New York artist (above)—who has continued to create immutable self-portraits after she underwent a mastectomy. In this issue, Matuschka and another breast cancer survivor, alumna write] Carol Willey '80, team up to bare many of our breast cancer myths.