Macalester College DigitalCommons@Macalester College Macalester Today Communications and Public Relations 2-1-1990 Macalester Today February 1990 Macalester College Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/macalestertoday Recommended Citation Macalester College, "Macalester Today February 1990" (1990). Macalester Today. Paper 24. http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/macalestertoday/24 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Communications and Public Relations at DigitalCommons@Macalester College. It has been accepted for inclusion in Macalester Today by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Macalester College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MACALESTERTODAY LETTERS We welcome readers* opinions of recent articles. Please send letters intended for beings who are able to feel pain. To publication to Letters to the Editor, Mac- destroy these tiny lives in the sanctuary alester Today, Public Relations and Pub- of their mother's womb is an unspeakable lications Department, Macalester College, act. MSTERQAY 1600 Grand Ave., Saint Paul, MN I hope and pray that there is an active 55105-1899. We reserve the right to edit pro-life group at Macalester, and that it letters for conciseness and clarity. will be recognized in your magazine. Here in Cambridge, my husband, John, and I belong to Massachusetts Citizens for Life, which is working and praying Pro-choice demonstrators for an end to legalized abortion. Miriam Rice Marra '61 tarnish Macalester North Cambridge, Mass. The May and August issues of Macalester Today caused me to reassess my feelings about Macalester. The pride I once felt as a graduate of such a prestigious col- A graduate remembers lege has become tarnished with shame. On page 2 of the May issue was a pic- how Mac opened doors ture of a group of students that attended As one of the original students entering This photo appeared in The Mac a rally in Washington, D.C., which sup- Macalester in the Expanded Educational yearbook in 1953, showing home economics ported the legal killing of unborn babies. Opportunities program in 1969 [August instructor Lois Marie Fox demonstrating The photo caption also stated that the Macalester Today], I want to thank you cooking methods to, from left, Juliette student government at Macalester con- for the opportunity to reminisce about my Clark, Shirley Davidson, Chloe Morton, and tributed $3,000 to this cause. If students time spent within the Macalester commu- Donna Hillmann. today have money to spend on trips to nity. I cannot adequately describe to you Washington in support of legal killing of my pleasure in seeing and reading about unborn babies, they don't need the friends and associates whom I have not money the alumni association asks us for seen in over 15 years. every year. My four years at Mac happened to The August issue contained letters coincide with some of this country's most Reference to St. Thomas from two alumni advocating this pro- turbulent times. The war in Vietnam was choice side of the question. These two raging, racial and class unrest were grow- confuses a reader alumni and 250 students made a choice to ing, students were seeking their identity, I read with interest John Hershey's arti- support the legal killing of unborn babies. and Macalester was wrestling with its cle in the August issue of Macalester Was this an informed choice? How much own mission and purpose as well as its Today [on recruiting scholar-athletes for information has the college provided to place in society. To its credit and despite Macalester women's basketball and soft- help students make an informed choice? I a strong backlash from the right and the ball teams]. I understand and appreciate thought that was what education was all left, Macalester decided to give a quality the perspective he provides your about. Maybe something is missing at education to intellectually capable but readers. I particularly appreciated his Macalester College. financially disadvantaged students from admonition to spectators of Macalester Ray L. Baker '49 around the country. College athletics to remember "how hard Saint Paul Since my days at Macalester, I have kids are playing—and how hard their gone on to obtain an advanced degree and coaches worked to put them there." achieve some measurable successes in With that in mind, I think you can see Saddened by actions the business world. My case is not an why I was somewhat confused and upset isolated one as there are many former that in your table of contents on page 1 of pro-choice students EEO students who are successful and you chose to list Hershey's article with The November issue of Macalester Today well respected in the fields of business, the subheading, "Why Macalester works contained a letter which disturbed me law, politics, education, medicine, etc. harder to build a team than does, say, St. very much. It stated that Macalester stu- Macalester provided an academic and Thomas." Hershey's point, it seems to dents have been among the most active social environment that allowed us to me, is that although a team's results participants in the pro-choice movement develop intellectually as well as spir- might vary according to the mission of in the Twin Cities and Minnesota. itually. After all the facts are considered, the institution and a variety of other fac- It makes me sad to know that so many it can be concluded that both the students tors, students and coaches alike are Macalester students condone the killing and the college benefited by our time involved in MIAC athletics because of the of the unborn child. It is a scientifically spent together. recognized fact that life begins at concep- Broderick C. Grubb LETTERS continued on page 33 tion. Unborn babies are living human Metairie, La. MACALESTERTODAY ABOUT THIS ISSUE 2 At Macalester A change in how Macalester reports freshman test scores, a student playwright, ami a new venture at the Hungry Mind 7 A Sentimental Journey Maclalena Porto Tavares won a contest in Brazil Her prize? A return trip to Macalester. by Terry Andrews Greg Helgeson's cover photo shows symbols of some of the religions represented at Macalester. Our story 10 Keeping the Faith? begins on page 10; for details on the cover Macalester wrestles with age-old questions about religion— photo, see page 11. and new ones. MACALESTER TODAY byJackEl-Hai Executive Editor Nancy A. Peterson 16 Books and Sensuality Acting Managing Editor Jon Halvorsen A writer describes a whole set of associations with reading that are Contributing Editor not bookish. Randi Lynn Lyders '83 by Charles Baxter Art Director Elizabeth Edwards Class Notes Editor 17 The Disturbing Power of Books Kevin Brooks '89 An adult scholar looks atjoh?i Steinbeck's classic novel MACALESTER COLLEGE by Deborah Locke Chair, Board of Trustees Mary Lee Dayton 19 Alumni News President Robert M. Gavin, Jr. Around the country, alumni clubs are stepping up the pace of Vice President for Development their activities. Catherine Reid Day Alumni Director Karen McConkey 20 Giving Back: Associate Alumni Director Mary Winston Smail A Businessman's President, Macalester Alumni Association Unfinished Business Julie Stroud '81 Michael E. Sneed '81 puts in long Alumni Director Emeritus A. Phillips Beedon '28 hours at his job in New Jersey, but he makes time for Macalester. Macalester Today (Volume 78, Number 2) is pub- lished by Macalester College. It is mailed free of by Terry Andrews charge to alumni and friends of the College four times a year. Circulation is 24,000. For change of address, please write: Alumni Office, Macalester College, 1600 Grand Avenue, Saint 22 Class Notes Paul, Minnesota 55105-1899. Read about Megan Shaw Tingley's work in Boston—and other news To submit information for class notes section, please from classmates and friends. write: Class Notes Editor, Alumni Office, Macales- ter College, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55105-1899. by Kevin Brooks To submit comments or ideas concerning other sec- tions of Macalester Today, please write: Macalester Today Editor, Public Relations and Publications 23 Alumni Profiles Department, Macalester College, 1600 Grand Ave- A newspaper reporter, an outspoken economist, atidtwofrietids nue, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55105-1899. making music. FEBRUARY 1990 AT MACALESTER given school's numbers, those figures most Ivy League schools, which have not Macalester changes way have no value at all in [comparing col- signed the agreement do not report test leges]." scores anyway. of reporting test scores The public or the press may still Anthony said the great emphasis choose to compare colleges by comparing placed on average SAT scores by the Macalester has joined about 50 other col- the ranges of scores. "What people may press and college guidebooks has led leges and universities nationwide in do is average the range, but when they some institutions "into very questionable agreeing not to publish the average do that it will have no validity. I can't stop practices of reporting SATs. What you standardized-test scores of students people from doing that I hope it will get is colleges which leave out low scores admitted to their freshman classes. The at least head off the tendency to get [by athletes or disadvantaged students, institutions believe the scores are being everything down to one number," Shain for example]. The scores of as much as misused by the news media and college said. 20 percent of a class are not reported. guidebooks and misinterpeted by pro- Of freshmen who entered Macalester And because there is no agreement on spective students. last fall, the middle 50 percent of SAT who should be left out, you get wildly Instead, more than 30 of the colleges scores ranged from 550 to 660 verbal and varying scores.