The Bi-College News Online

Inside Athena’s Circle, Bryn Mawr’s Pagan Club

jreyes — Fri, 21 May 2010 00:08:49 +0000

By Juliana Reyes

Features Editor

It’s a Thursday night in Thomas 223 and Athena’s Circle, Bryn Mawr’s pagan club, is having its weekly meeting.

The club’s head, senior Olivia Coplan, sits on the couch at the back of the classroom, near the windows. She admits to the 12 students around the table that she has nothing planned for tonight. At the beginning of the semester, the club creates a calendar of meeting topics or events, like Divination and Donuts, one of their most popular events, or Tea and Tools, where members showcase their pagan supplies, like tarot cards or small statues, over steaming cups of tea. But this semester’s snow days have thrown off the calendar and tonight’s meeting topic has yet to be decided.

The secretary of the club offers to read from a list of ideas the club compiled earlier.

“Myth Swap, discussion of paganism and the afterlife, energy workshop…”

“Arm-wrestling contest?” suggests sophomore Ellen MacInnis.

The table shakes with everyone’s laughter.

“All right, that, I’m going to veto,” Coplan says in her slow, calm voice.

The club decides to talk about Pagan internet resources, which spirals into a discussion of all things Pagan: the unkempt nature of most Pagan men (“It’s like, I’m meant to do the great rite with that?” says one horrified member), the discovery of scholarships for Pagan-identifying students (“I can pay for grad school!” says another member), but also more serious, personal topics, like the struggle to come out as a Pagan to your parents.

The feel of Athena’s Circle meetings – kooky and off the wall one second, confessional and supportive the next — is a lot like the all-inclusivity of paganism itself. A pagan can believe in monotheism, polytheism, pantheism (the belief that the Universe is God), and the list goes on. It’s less about rules and more about the individual experience, more about what feels right for you. The club supports this notion of pluralism by encouraging people of all faiths to attend meetings. MacInnis describes the club as a place to come and question alternative religions and spirituality. The club’s members run the gamut from atheists to Wiccans to Buddhists to Druids. Not everyone in the club, even some regulars, necessarily identify as pagan. And it’s not a problem. Like paganism, Athena’s Circle doesn’t enforce restrictions on its members.

MacInnis says that paganism is often criticized for being too pluralistic. The broad spectrum of paganism sometimes leads people to believe that there is too much freedom in the religion and that it is “hedonistic” or “flaky,” she explains.

“But what good is a religion if you have to completely warp yourself out of your natural state and follow a set of rigid rules that you don’t feel connected to?” MacInnis says.

MacInnis, who was raised Presbyterian in what she calls a “sequestered household” in central Virginia, says that before she learned about paganism, she had only ever been exposed to Christianity. So when she first googled “Wicca” her sophomore year of high school she expected to see “Satanists eating babies,” she says, laughing. She soon learned that the Wiccans on TV shows were nothing like real Wiccans. MacInnis continued researching for months, using books and the internet, before she practiced any rituals.

“I feel that if you’re going to feel vehemently about something, you should know a lot about it,” says MacInnis, a religion major.

With her two trademark long braids, purple and pink-striped headscarf and piles of bracelets, rings and necklaces, MacInnis looks like what one might expect a Pagan to look like. But it’s less a Pagan thing and more an “Ellen thing,” she says.

Pagan stereotypes can sometimes cause trouble for Pagan-identifying students. Coplan says that in high school the stigma of being Pagan was made worse because she didn’t fit the image of someone who might experiment with religion. Coplan wears minimal makeup and jewelry. She wears her shoulder-length wavy red hair naturally.

The stark differences in appearance between MacInnis and Coplan exemplify the importance of the individual experience in Paganism. MacInnis says paganism helped her stop generalizing. Growing up attending Sunday School, she was never pushed to think critically about God or religion. She never knew she had any other options.

MacInnis is also a Unitarian Universalist.

“If I’m in a sticky situation, I go to a church,” she says.

At this church there are pagans, Christians, Jewish people – “I don’t know how it works, but it does,” she says.

MacInnis plans to go to a Unitarian Universalist seminary because there’s no such thing as a pagan seminary. This lack of structure is one of the reasons Paganism gets a bad rap, MacInnis says. There’s no universal leader of the religion, like the way the Catholics have the Pope. That’s why MacInnis wants to be a pagan minister when she gets older. It’s part of her mission to make paganism a “real religion,” she says.

“The Chant Writing Center”

But for the time being, MacInnis will keep educating others about her religion. One Thursday at Athena’s Circle, she leads the Chant-Writing workshop. Chants are usually simple and short and repeated continuously to reach a state of transcendence.

MacInnis tells the members of Athena’s Circle that chants must be fun to sing and pleasing to your ears. The words are meant to beautiful, she explains. While everyone takes a stab at writing their own chants, MacInnis goes around the table asking students how it’s coming.

“Mine’s currently making no sense,” one member says.

“I have this really powerful idea, and I can’t put it into something that would be comprehensible,” another member says.

MacInnis talks them through it and soon silence fills the room, except for the sound of one member humming, sighing and blowing into her pitch pipe to clarify the notes in her chant. She’s writing her chant out on sheet music paper.

Besides being a place to question alternative religions and spirituality, Athena’s Circle is also somewhere where students can learn about paganism. Meetings are usually centered around furthering everyone’s knowledge of paganism. It’s also an opportunity to be part of a religious community that isn’t easily accessible for most Pagans.

Coplan, who was raised Jewish, started exploring Paganism in sixth grade after her best friend showed it to her. But soon their interest in the religion diverged and Coplan found herself practicing Paganism alone.

“Being solitary sucks,” she says.

Coplan wasn’t happy with her spiritual development until she came to Bryn Mawr and Athena’s Circle, saying that she didn’t think of her beliefs as a religion until she came to the college.

“When you’re alone you sometimes feel like you’re making things up,” she says. “It’s hard to find things that resonate with you when you only have your [own] opinions.”

She says she felt immediately comfortable when she joined Athena’s Circle her freshman year.

“Joining Athena’s Circle was finally having that community,” she says.

In this way Athena’s Circle can also function as a support group.

“Without it, it’s lonely,” she says.

Though Coplan is this year’s head of Athena’s Circle, she stresses that it’s not because she’s the most knowledgeable of all the members. It’s simply because her fellow members elected her.

Spring Awakening

Coplan does perform certain duties, like leading the ritual to celebrate Ostara, the spring equinox. Rituals, as explained by MacInnis, are like “Pagan services.” They can occur on Pagan holidays, like Ostara or Beltane, which is May Day (and the high point of Pagan celebrations at Bryn Mawr because of how it coincides with the college’s tradition), or on any given day. Athena’s Circle member Charlie Hersh, a sophomore, remembers how MacInnis lead Full Moon rituals last year “during full moons or when it was nice and we felt like it.” These rituals prompted his interest in paganism.

The club’s Ostara ritual takes place in late March and usually outdoors, but this year the rain intrudes and forces the ritual inside, into the Quita Woodward Room in Thomas.

The ritual begins with smudging, a Native American purification practice. It involves waving burning sage all around one’s body.

MacInnis describes the practice then asks, “Who wants to be smudged?”

Everyone raises their hand. She moves from person to person, her necklaces jingling, while Coplan leads a “cleansing breath,” which Coplan likens to meditation.

The ritual continues with the invocation of gods, or “where we invite deities to come hang out with us,” as MacInnis puts it.

Everyone has a chance to call upon any god he or she wishes. Gods summoned range from Athena to the divinity of spring to Persephone to the trees, “whose roots hold us together,” one student says.

A calm energy permeates the room as the ritual proceeds. Coplan delivers the Athena’s Circle cauldron to each student one by one, and the student walks clockwise around the circle of 14 students. This is meant to symbolize the myth of Persephone, goddess of the spring, who spent months in the Underworld. Her absence, the myth says, causes winter, as her mother, Demeter, grieves. Her temporary return to the earth is said to cause spring. The walk around the circle acts out this myth: the student leaves the circle then returns, “reborn, as new life in the spring,” says the program handed out at the beginning of the ritual.

The ritual ends in celebration. Some students get up and do Scottish traditional dancing, MacInnis plays her djembe, Hersh strums his guitar. Other students beat their knees. Then everyone gets up from the floor and hangs out around the room. Hersh suggests going to Uncommon Grounds. It’s all very reminiscent of post-church mingling.

"A.C. South"

MacInnis calls this year’s Ostara her “crowning joy,” though she eventually wants to perform the ritual outside, “in front of God.” Though she is transferring next year, she says it’s going to happen, even if she has to come back and do it.

She isn’t sure if the college she’s transferring to will have a Pagan group. Her future school will be in more conservative Virginia, but MacInnis is unfazed.

“I’m doing AC south if I have to,” she says.

Still, she knows she has to be realistic about how people will react to her religion in an environment that’s not as welcoming as Bryn Mawr’s. She says she welcomes the challenge. MacInnis says she sometimes falters in class when it comes to identifying herself as Pagan, but she strives to change that.

“No one’s going to think well of pagans if they don’t know any,” she says.

And MacInnis has faith that being Pagan at a different college won’t be so bad. Regardless of what gods or goddesses MacInnis believes in, she says her most powerful belief is in people.

“If there’s one thing I believe in, it’s people. People are good.”

Ashcraft’s Antics Shift From Suburbs to Second City

jreyes — Thu, 20 May 2010 23:54:38 +0000

By Lauren Smith

Managing Editor

Kady Ashcraft BMC ’12’s fall semester schedule is probably cooler than yours. Instead of taking Introduction to Computer Science and Problems in Satire, which she pre-registered for, Ashcraft will be enrolling in Writing Comic Scenes and Physical and Vocal Training.

The goal is to learn how to write funny, “sound funny, and look funny,” she says.

These classes are just part of the standard curriculum at the Comedy Studies program, an intensive program in sketch comedy and improvisation sponsored by legendary comedy club Second City. Long known as a breeding ground for Saturday Night Live’s "Not Ready for Primetime Players," Second City paired with Chicago’s Columbia College in 2007 to offer a one-semester program for college juniors.

Studying at the former home of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler is a big deal for Bryn Mawr’s aspiring comedienne.

“[It's] the Juilliard of clown colleges,” Ashcraft says with a laugh.

While Ashcraft has honed her comedic skills as one of the Lighted Fools’ campus jesters, Second City will give her the chance to learn sketch comedy in a more formal setting. The 12 students in the program take six classes and stage weekly performances, getting both an academic grounding in comedy and invaluable practical experience.

At Bryn Mawr “there’s always another requirement to fill,” Ashcraft says, bemoaning the language requirement that had her memorizing Italian vocabulary all year. Comedy Studies will be “a whole semester of pursuing what I really want to do,” she says.

Ashcraft says comedy had always been something she thought she had a natural talent in, but wasn’t sure she could make a career out of it.

“I always thought of it as an impractical obsession of mine — watching standup, obsessing over Amy Poehler," she says.

Now she realizes she can be more than just a “creepy fan.”

“It sounds silly, but [my decision about my future] was hinging on this. I thought, ‘If I get in, I think I will pursue this,’” Ashcraft says. “It’s hitting me now that I could do this for a semester… and make a career out of it.”

Ashcraft doesn’t have a dream career in mind — she mentions traveling comedy troupes and sitcom writing as possibilities — but she hopes her experiences at Second City will bring her “a bit closer to discovering a more specific career path.”

With a concentration in Creative Writing, Ashcraft is particularly interested in comedic writing and cites satirical news site “The Onion” and literary journal “McSweeney’s” as her inspirations. Professor Dan Torday’s Creative Nonfiction class “exposed me to a genre… that nurtured my comedic writing,” she says.

Ashcraft first discovered Second City’s Comedy Studies program while “poking around on the internet last fall, not doing work,” she says. Ready to leave Bryn Mawr for a semester but not particularly drawn to any study abroad program, the English major had already been looking at domestic study programs.

“At first I was looking at outdoorsy, wilderness things,” she says. A visit to the Second City website changed her mind, and Ashcraft soon found herself filling out the program’s application and crossing her fingers.

She spent last Monday, the program’s official notification date, obsessively refreshing her email — and forgetting to recharge her dying phone.

“I expected an email and thought they were just disorganized,” she says.

When she finally charged her phone at 1 a.m., she had one voicemail — “I thought it was from my mom, but I listened to it on a whim."

But instead of her mother, it was Jason Flowers, Director of the Comedy Studies program, telling Ashcraft the good news. He had called seven hours earlier.

“I was just being lazy and not charging my phone,” she says with a sheepish smile.

Ashcraft confesses she’s still “figuring things out” for the fall. She’ll need a place to live in Chicago next falls and wonders if any of the classes she’ll take at Second City could apply toward her English major. But only several hours after her acceptance she’d already been in contact with fellow accepted students from places like Brandeis and the University of Wisconsin. They may try to find housing together.

For now she has finals and a Creative Nonfiction piece to finish (“it’s about chocolate”), and a pair of Lighted Fools shows to perform. But she’s “going to approach the Fools’ shows with a new vitality now,” she says. So if Kady Ashcraft is a little more zany than usual at Friday and Saturday nights’ Fools’ performances in Sharpless, you’ll know why. She’s getting ready for Second City.

Independent Studies Give Students Chance to Design Own Courses

jreyes — Thu, 20 May 2010 23:50:14 +0000

By Eleanor Easton

Staff Writer

Have you ever had an idea for a course you would want to take that is not offered? Maybe, The Writings of Kirkegaard, Islamic Philosophy, or Protestant Theological Tradition?

"Students with a strong background in a particular field" can do an independent study, according to the Bryn Mawr website. These courses are tailored to students’ interests, allowing them to study exactly what they are interested in.

Only a small group of students choose to do this each year, since it requires the student to have a specific interest and to do extra work to plan the course. Marisa Franz, a Bryn Mawr senior, did two independent studies at the same time last fall.

Franz, a religion major and philosophy minor, studied the readings of the Danish philosopher Kirkegaard with David Dawson and Islamic philosophy with Travis Zadeh, both Haverford religion professors. She chose do do two concurrent independent studies in order to pursue interests not addressed in the courses offered.

"There aren’t a plethora of course offerings," Franz said.

Both classes involved extensive readings, meeting with the professors on a regular basis, and having one-on-one discussions. Because of these discussions, there is often more work and more pressure to keep up than in a regular course. Falling asleep is not an option one-on-one. Franz said she stayed motivated by her interest in the topics since she planned on using Kirkegaard for her thesis.

For her course on Kirkegaard, she read between 100 to 150 pages each week and then wrote reactions and discussed her thoughts with Dawson.

Dawson said that he is not required to do independent studies with students. He chooses to do them because he is interested in the topics and enjoys the experience. He usually does one or two a year, not more than one in a semester. This semester he is overseeing a study on Protestant tradition.

"It has to be intellectually invigorating," he said of independent studies.

Dawson enjoys having conversations with students about their chosen topic. Franz also liked the discussion component, looking forward to the regular talks with her professors.

"It’s a time to have really in-depth conversations," Franz said.

The benefit of working one-on-one is that the professor has a better understanding of the student’s grasp on the material, according to Dawson.

One downside of an independent study, Franz said, is that "you lose diversity of discussion." However, she was also given more freedom and flexibility in what she studied. For example, the weekly writing assignments varied depending on what she was interested in. She also got a chance to talk to two very knowledgeable professors about topics that interest her.

Independent studies are not for everyone since they require the student to be highly driven.

"It is up to the student to take the initiative," Dawson said.

Professor Profile: Professor Denise Su

jreyes — Thu, 20 May 2010 23:45:58 +0000

By Vanessa Sanchez

Staff Writer

She was four years old when the Neanderthal man looked back at her from the cover page of her older sister’s "Time Life" book. It was in that moment that Anthropology professor Denise F. Su found her true calling. She just didn’t know it yet.

While growing up, Su developed a penchant for archaeology and paleoanthropology, the study of ancient human fossils. Like many incoming students, Su entered college with a specific major to pursue, expectations to fulfill, and career goals already set in mind. During her sophomore year at the University of California, Berkeley, Su had to fulfill the school’s social science requirement. She chose to take a class on physical anthropology, one of her greatest interests. It was then that the pre-med student in molecular cellular biology was reunited with her first love.

“That was pretty much it for me,” she says. “I never went back. I changed my majors, and that was it.”

Su is now a paleoanthropologist specializing in paleoecology, investigating possible environments in which ancient hominins may have lived. When she’s not at Bryn Mawr teaching her Human Evolution or Primate Evolution and Behavior classes, she is lost in the exciting and highly competitive world of research in paleoanthropology. She reads the latest literature in her field, does her own research, and works on grant proposals for future field works. While most of us dream of cool and comfortable working conditions, a field anthropologist like Su thrives in opposite environments – usually far from the glamorous and picturesque pages of National Geographic.

Oftentimes, dirt drowns everything and everyone. There, Su abandons her well-kept hair and professional style for a more comfortable outfit. Baking under the sweltering 100-degree weather, Su says she and her fellow paleoanthropologists search for fossils in conditions comparable to that of a needle in a haystack. While it’s difficult to travel to a specific research location, it’s even more difficult to find exactly what you went there for.

During her junior year in college, Su went to an archaeological field school in Kenya to see how she would fend in these demanding conditions. She says the training was very grueling in terms of physical comfort, but she was completely enamored with it. Su remembers the first time she picked up a stone tool.

“The last time somebody saw this and touched it was a million years ago… that floored me,” she recalls.

Ever since then, she’s found gratification and reassurance working in the field, collecting and cataloguing data, putting pieces of history together with a limited amount of information to work with.

“Every time that I’m out there, it reaffirms that feeling that I’m an incredibly lucky person," she says.

The work is challenging, but at the end of the day she is as passionate about paleoanthropology as she was during the first day of her first physical anthropology class. Armed with “probably all the vaccination required to go anywhere,” she has since traveled to sites all over Kenya and China, contributing to the question of the origin of human evolution one ancient environment at a time.

She may have begun to make her mark in the realm of human evolution and paleoecology years ago, but Su has only just begun to make a name for herself at Bryn Mawr. Su will be completing her first year as a full-time professor this month. Bryn Mawr values research as much as she does, allowing her to flourish on her own without neglecting students in the process. Su’s decision to work a Bryn Mawr marks a transistion from large institutions to a small college: in addition to Berkeley, she holds degrees from New York University. From experience, Su knew she wanted to be in a school that offered individual attention in smaller classes and encourages meaningful relationships between professors and students.

For most people in anthropology, it is reasonable to simultaneously take up a position as a professor in a university and continue to conduct research on their field.

“How else are you going to generate more paleoanthropologists?” she jokes.

Maybe the next generation’s anthropologists are the students who have been mesmerized in class by the skull replica of the Neanderthal in Dalton. Maybe they are currently solving problems in chemistry and biology and taking an anthropology class just to fulfill their social science requirements.

“You will have no other time in your life to [explore] this," Su advises. "You might be surprised at what you find to be really interesting.”

And she’s right. No one can predict when an old love from the past may become our entire life in the future.

The Legacy of the Taylor Bell

jreyes — Thu, 20 May 2010 23:42:36 +0000

By Sowmya Srinivasan

Staff Writer

The Taylor bell is accessible from the attic across from the Registrar’s office on the 3^rd floor of Taylor, the building named for Joseph W. Taylor, Bryn Mawr’s Quaker founder. Inside the attic, there is a rickety set of spiral stairs that lead to the bell tower.

The bell rang for the first time in 1885 to announce the start of the new academic year and to welcome the college’s first class of 42 students. Nearly 125 years later, it continues to bring in the new year each fall. The bell rings on the hour each day to remind students of the time. According to college archivist Lorett Treese, it is a relic from the days when the majority of people did not have watches or cell phones to tell them the time.

In 1978, the college switched to an automated bell ringing system which is still in use today. For nearly a century before that, the bell was rung on the hour by a college employee designated for the job.

A little exploring in the College Archives reveals some surprising anecdotes about Taylor Bell. The bell’s clapper, the part of the bell that strikes against the body of the bell to create the ringing, has been stolen several times through the ages. The most notable of these thefts was when the clapper appeared in the Archaeology department several days after it had been stolen. Whoever had stolen it left behind a sign heralding the clapper as a “petrified Neanderthal tibia.”

A new tradition appeared sometime in the mid-20th century involving seniors and their Garden Party girls, the underclassmen who organize seniors’ graduation parties, ringing the Taylor Bell at the end of the year. Treese speculates, based on information found in College handbooks from this era, that the tradition started in the mid-1960s or early-1970s. According to the handbooks, seniors rang the bell just before their comprehensive exams as a plea for good luck.

The tradition has since evolved. Today, seniors ring their bell the number of times of their class year after finishing their work for the year. The Class of 1999 had to ring the bell 99 times, the highest possible number of rings.

The bell ringer cannot hear the bell from inside because the windows are usually closed, and the rope falls well below the belfry. Virginia Briscoe, a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania who wrote a dissertation on Bryn Mawr traditions, mentions that this is seen as a metaphor for some Bryn Mawr students: outsiders appreciate their value but they themselves do not.

Briscoe also notes that during the late 1970s, the noise from the repeated ringing of Taylor Bell during finals week grew to be a problem, as residents of the surrounding community complained about the noise. Initially, the administration tried to be charitable to nearby residents by ensuring that Taylor Hall was locked at night and had security guards posted outside the doors.

As the seniors – scrambling to finish their work so they can ring Taylor Bell – know, the administration has since become less strict about this policy. In fact, the rope for ringing the bell is reinstalled at the end of every semester solely to allow seniors to continue the tradition. This year, we should be prepared to withstand an extra 3,100 rings more than on an average day (for the approximately 310 seniors in the Class of 2010, each of whom will ring the bell ten times). It will be quite an earful.

Keeping the Time at Bryn Mawr: The Historic Grandfather Clock

jreyes — Thu, 20 May 2010 23:38:44 +0000

By Jessica Watkins

Staff Writer

President Jane McAuliffe’s office on the second floor of Taylor Hall looks especially majestic as the midday sun filters in. The hardwood floor, pale blue walls offset, and white moulding, all overlooking the grassy area in front of the Pems, are fit for a queen. Amidst the decorative splendor sits a gift from Florence Chapman Child, Bryn Mawr class of 1905: a tall case grandfather clock that tells both time and a story.

The clock stands between six and seven feet tall with a black face embellished with ornate, gold hands and gilded Roman numerals. The ray of sun that reflects off the President’s wooden desk makes the clock’s pendulum shimmer as it swings back and forth. The woodwork of the clock, complete with swirling spirals near the top of its face and light brown and black detailing, is immaculate and striking against the blue walls.

Florence Chapman Child, who graduated from Bryn Mawr in 1905, left the grandfather clock to Bryn Mawr in her will when she died in 1957 on the condition that the College would "install it in an appropriate place, keep it in proper condition and repair, make no changes in the fundamental appearance, and not… have it electrified,” according to an article on "Quirky College Donations" on cnn.com. The inscription on the clock explains that it was donated in memory of Dorothy Child, Florence’s sister, who graduated from Bryn Mawr in 1909 and later died in a boat explosion. The clock itself is 200 years old, made in 1810 by John Child, Florence and Dorothy’s great grandfather, who also crafted the clock that stands on the floor of the United States Senate in Washington, D.C.

“It’s a beautiful clock, isn’t it?” murmurs Diane McLaughlin, Administrative Assistant in the President’s Office, as she looks dreamily at the handsome timepiece.

It is beautiful. Anyone who walks into the President’s Office may find themselves distracted by its looming presence.

John Child, Sr., 93, is Florence Chapman Child’s nephew and one of the last living people to have known her personally. He remembers the clock in a different setting—the living room of Florence’s house in Germantown, Pa.

Florence, who attended medical school at Johns Hopkins University and received her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, was the embodiment of a Bryn Mawr woman.

“Well, for one, she didn’t want to get married,” John Child, Sr. says, chuckling. “Then again, Dorothy had some men who were very eager to marry her. Florence wasn’t as attractive.”

Florence’s success after double majoring in Biology and Chemistry at Bryn Mawr was great—she took care of wounded soldiers on the front lines in Switzerland and France with her sister during World War I. Soon after, she held positions such as Supervisor of School Medical Inspection in Philadelphia and Chief of the Child Welfare Department in the City Bureau of Health in Trenton, N.J, according to a file put together by the Bryn Mawr College Alumni Office.

Florence’s file is surprisingly slim considering all the details about the accomplished alumna it holds. The only documentation about the donation of the grandfather clock is a sentence in Chapman Child’s obituary.

“You give the college $500,000 and it gets published,” says Special Collections Librarian Marianne Hansen, who manages the alumnae files. “You give them your old clock and no one really wants to write about it.”

Florence’s file sits quietly on the long wooden table in the middle of Special Collections. As it opens, the comforting smell of old paper floats up out of its pages.

The first piece of paper is a photocopy of Florence’s obituary from the Bryn Mawr Alumni Notes of 1957 describing her career and the “handsome clock” she left to the college along with her entire estate in the form of scholarships under the Florence and Dorothy Child Memorial Scholarship. This fund is set aside to pay for the residence fees of Quaker graduates of the Agnes Irwin School, where both Florence and Dorothy spent their grammar school days.

A yellowed index card from the Bryn Mawr Alumnae Association addressed to Florence displays her spidery script and the word “physician” under the "Occupation" section.

A second form from the Association is behind it, this one multiple pages long. On the second page of the form there is a "Home-Making" section with questions like “Do you administer the household? Is it your chief occupation?”

Like a true Bryn Mawr woman, Chapman Child left this section blank.

Two Years of Traditions Mistresses Reflect

jreyes — Thu, 20 May 2010 23:27:29 +0000

By Mallimalika Gupta

Staff Writer

Whether we are consciously aware of it or not, traditions play a huge role in the lives of students and their experience at Bryn Mawr.

Each year, two brave and willing Mawrtyrs step up to the task of "womanning the fort" and take on the position of Traditions Mistresses. Elected by the student body from the junior class, these two women hold the position for a year and organize and run Parade Night, Lantern Night, Hell Week and May Day.

The Bi-College News met with three generations of Traditions Mistresses to find out more about what the job means to them.

“One of the most gratifying things about this job is that you really help change someone’s Bryn Mawr experience,” says present Traditions Mistress Sarah Sherman ’11. “Traditions are one of the main reasons I came to Bryn Mawr."

Sherman says she really cared about how they turned out.

“The importance of Traditions on this campus made me want to be active in [their] implementation,” she says.

Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that for last year’s Traditions Mistress, Weezie Lauher ‘10, present Traditions Mistresses Colleen Haley’11 and Sherman, and the newly elected Traditions Mistresses for next year, Blair Smith ’12 and Jennifer Savage ‘12 all collectively agree that traditions were a huge part of their decision to come to Bryn Mawr.

Haley, Sherman’s co-Traditions Mistress, says she didn’t have the best experience with traditions in her freshman year. But those experiences gave her the incentive to work hard and make Traditions more memorable for everyone. She admits, however, that Traditions Mistresses cannot control everyone’s experiences.

As they take on their roles, Smith and Savage are most excited about being able to introduce Traditions to the incoming freshman class. Savage says she is also excited to relive Traditions with alumni who will be returning for the college’s 125th Anniversary celebrations.

Traditions Mistresses have a tough job. They need to coordinate and organize events for close to a 1000 people throughout the year. It’s a task that can make even the bravest dizzy.

“I think every year each Traditions Mistress is shocked when it all goes off seamlessly,” Lauher says.

Sherman recalls the great feeling after pulling off Lantern Night. Sherman and Haley say that they had their share of ups and downs, but that things often just all come together.

“The other day we figured out scrolls for May Day,” Sherman says. “It was so exciting."

“It all works out in the end,” Haley says.

Haley and Sherman had some idea of what the job entailed but did not fully grasp the responsibilities until they stepped into their roles.

“There are so many things you don’t think about, and assume they just fall into place,” Sherman says.

Haley clarifies.

“Trashcans. Some has to make sure that the trashcans are there where they are.”

They add that the staff are particularly helpful through all of the stages and let Traditions Mistresses know how they have done it before.

“It leaves you with a new sense of appreciation for people,” Haley says.

Lauher feels that the support she and her co-Traditions Mistress Anne Bugnaski ’10 received from their peers was phenomenal.

“It’s not just a two person job,” she says.

Last year it rained in May Day, the first time in more than fifteen years. Instead of being disappointed, the community, with the help of faculty and staff, pulled together and made figurative lemonade with rain water. Students still ran around the Maypole and the main festivities continued.

“It was turned into a giant wet T-Shirt contest,” says Lauher. “It didn’t feel like May Day but was still fun.”

This Sunday will mark Grand May Day, which happens once every four years, once in every undergraduate student’s career. This year’s Traditions Mistresses are aware of the heightened expectations.

“People expect a lot of grandeur, but the budget is fixed,” Sherman says. One of the requests they will not be able to meet was the one for pandas.

“We never bring pandas here!” Sherman says, clearly amused.

Lauher says that Sherman and Haley are “fantastic” and is confident that Grand May Day will turn out to be a memorable experience for the community.

Sherman, Lauher and Haley say May Day is their favorite tradition because it brings the entire community together.

For Lauher it is an interesting experience to sit back and enjoy Traditions, knowing how much work goes into it but without having an immediate effect on it. The present Traditions Mistresses are also looking forward to having that perspective next year. With the immense time commitment that this job entails, Traditions Mistresses have to make cuts in their other obligations. Smith is going to take three classes next spring and Savage, who has almost completed her math major, is going to take one graduate course instead of two. Lauher took three classes during her spring semester last year.

During Hell Week, Sherman was juggling her traditions duties and a swim meet scheduled over the same weekend.

“Looking back, it was strange because I needed to rest up before my meet, and I was running around trying to get things in order,” she says.

The job often comes before a lot of other things, including the Mistresses’ own enjoyment of Traditions. Lauher says that a person who runs for Traditions Mistress “loves Bryn Mawr so much that they are willing to give up their own enjoyment of the events so that Bryn Mawr can be what it is.”

Smith and Savage, who will take on their roles come fall, say that they make a great pair. They each wanted to pick the person who would be the best partner for them and best facilitate the work that needed to be done.

Of course some Bryn Mawr students will continue to avoid certain events or not enjoy Traditions as much as others. Traditions Mistresses are aware of that, but they try to make the events as fun for as many people as possible.

“Whether or not you consciously appreciate it, they’re still there,” Lauher says.

Bryn Mawr’s Graduate Student Mentoring Program

maernst — Sun, 09 May 2010 03:10:05 +0000

By Ryan Fealy
Guest Writer

Recently exciting developments have taken place in reviving the graduate student mentoring program. In the past there was a link in the Graduate School of the Arts and Sciences (GSAS) website for the above mentioned Mentoring Program. It was originally meant to be for graduate student-undergraduate student relations. From what I have found from my research it seems it has been dormant for a while.

My positive experiences as a graduate student in the chemistry department urged me to work on reviving this program. As a second-year PhD student I had the great experience of mentoring 2 new graduate students in our department. The mentoring ranged from assisting with research questions, teaching assistantship positions, and coursework to simple questions about life in the general area. We have become good friends ever since and they have mentioned that my help was extremely appreciated. Needless to say as the department GSAS representative, I was inspired to revive this program during a GSAS general meeting.

I began by sending out an email stating my interest and did receive feedback from about 12 people. We have been collaborating ideas and decided on a good way to execute this. We decided to revamp the old mentoring program link on the current Graduate School of the Arts and Sciences website under “current resources for students” link. This way students would be able to access the help of mentors of varied disciplines.

At this moment we do have all disciplines covered, for example we have math and chemistry but no physics mentors. Since the science and math departments are in close proximity most graduate students know each other from various gatherings they get a general sense of how things work so this really should not be an issue. The mentors are prepared to work together.

On the website there is information on each mentor giving the mentee a little background on them. Graduate students will have the opportunity to volunteer to be mentors every year. This is open to any graduate student in good academic standing. They can email me anytime to be added to the list. We decided to start with graduate student-graduate student mentoring, but later opened up the idea for undergraduates focusing on the Juniors and Seniors. Currently the mentors on the website include Tina Ross (chemistry), Ryan Fealy (chemistry), Becca Bubb (Clinical Developmental Psychology), Lori Felton (History of Art), Matthew Fury (Mathematics), Kelly Landman (Clinical Developmental Psychology), and Jessica Lee (Social Work), and Maeve Doyle (History of Art).

I want to now elaborate what the student would gain from our mentors. From the graduate perspective it is a good way for new students to find their place in their department. It is very important for first year students to figure out which professor to work for as well as learning to survive the course-load. In most departments graduate students serve as teaching assistants, a new experience where guidance from experienced people would benefit. Also Bryn Mawr offers many social activities which mentors could communicate to mentees.

For the undergraduates the mentors could offer guidance on what to do after graduation and maybe share a personal testimonial of why they chose graduate school. Mentors could discuss other alternatives and help one find their niche. There is also the less formal mentoring focusing life in the Bryn Mawr area- finding a good grocery store, the best apartment, or where to go out to eat?

Whatever the inquiry, the revised Graduate Student Mentoring Program will help Bryn Mawr Students (undergraduate and graduate) be the best they can be. We plan to email the incoming graduate students for the 2010/2011 academic year to inform them of our services. This program has also included the Graduate School of Social Work as a part to promote collaboration between the 2 graduate schools.

Ryan Fealy is a graduate student in Chemistry at Bryn Mawr, and can be reached at rfealy@brynmawr.edu.

Open Letter to President Emerson About Teresa Tensuan

maernst — Sat, 08 May 2010 21:33:13 +0000

Dear President Emerson:

I am a recent graduate of Haverford (class of 2009) who has had the privilege of partaking in (what I consider to be) one of the most rigorous and intellectually stimulating departments in the humanities at Haverford: the English department.

While I have not had the opportunity to experience Theresa Tensuan firsthand in the classroom, I have observed and admired her passionate commitment to the department, both inside and outside of the classroom. Professor Tensuan has always taken time out of her own hectic schedule to help the students of Haverford. In my own particular case, for example, she has engaged with me in lively discussions about obscure literary theory, provided career advice while I was serving her coffee in the morning at the Barista’s Nook in the Campus Center (always with a smile on her face), and encouraged my academic achievement outside of Haverford’s provided intellectual opportunities. (I gained my first academic conference experience by presenting my paper, The Presence of the Semiotic in Andy Warhol’s a: A Novel, at the Geis Student Research on Women conference at UDel. Frequent participation in this particular conference is just one example of how Theresa pushes for student involvement in the important and perpetually evolving field of Gender & Sexuality Studies, a field of which she has been a leading proponent at the college.) Theresa has also been resilient in bringing performing and visual artists to campus, thereby propelling the underrepresented presence of the humanities on our campus.

I understand the complexity of offering tenure to professors in the academy, and I realize that I do not know the content of the confidential debate that led to this decision. However, I beg you to reconsider preserving Theresa’s place at Haverford.

Theresa’s work crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries, challenging the pedagogical structure of the discipline both in the content and in the framework of her teachings and work. She has fulfilled the Haverfordian ideal of being a well-rounded member of the community by providing both traditional academic guidance and non-traditional emotional support to countless students, faculty members, and staff members. Furthermore, the direction of Theresa’s work is progressive and consequentially of great value, and it would be an understatement to say that you will be hard-pressed to replace her innovation, zeal, and dedication. I remember sitting in awe during my Junior Seminar oral examination at the profound complexity and intellect of her multifaceted questions, a mere isolated example that is more importantly indicative of her level of commitment to the department and to the field.

I myself will begin the process of acquiring a PhD in Communications in the fall via Columbia’s interdisciplinary and innovative doctoral program. Theresa’s ability to channel a multitude of disciplines in her projects and products while moving forward with an attention to the future of the humanities has inspired me to pursue a non-canonical path with the irreplaceable abilities and skills that I have garnered from the English department.

Dear President Emerson, I must say that I am shocked by and utterly disappointed in the decision to deny Theresa tenure. Please, listen to the voices of the students and reconsider this decision.

Thank you.

Best,

Kathryn Montalbano, ‘09

Freshman Hopes Haiti Will Feel Like Home Again

jreyes — Fri, 07 May 2010 14:04:12 +0000

By Juliana Reyes
Features Editor

Freshman Ralph Alexis is full of hope. He’s overflowing with ideas and vision for the future. His current fixation is the runway show he wants to organize next year, which won’t be just some students strutting through Gummere Basement with a DJ spinning in the back.

Ralph is thinking bigger. Live music – drums, he says, and dramatic lights. He wants the models to wear original designs by students from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. He’s already met with Student Activities Coordinator Jason McGraw, who, Ralph says, loves the idea. After speaking nonstop about his plans, he pauses and sits back.

“What do you think, Juju?” he asks me quietly.

It’s the first time he’s called me this but it seems like the most natural thing in the world. It’s what it’s like to be around Ralph: his subdued nature makes you feel calm and at ease. But his spirit is loud, like the black nail polish on his fingers, the vintage necklaces around his neck, and the bright pink T-shirt under his pinstriped black vest. His smile is unmistakeable.

But speaking about Haiti, where Ralph was born and lived until he was nine, turns his face grave. This Christmas Ralph returned to Haiti for the first time in ten years. About a week before he was meant to leave for Philadelphia, the devastating earthquake struck his home country. Unable to leave from the airport in Haiti because he didn’t have an American passport, Ralph found his way back to Haverford with the help of a kind stranger.

During the chaos of the earthquake, Ralph couldn’t contact his brother, senior Ruben Alexis, who was at Haverford at the time. Ralph says a lot of people thought he was dead because they didn’t hear from him for two days. A worried family friend told a reporter about the Alexis brothers, and on Jan. 17, the Philadelphia Inquirer published an article entitled ‘One brother in Phila., one in Haiti, and no word.’

Four days later, Ralph had been found and the Inquirer published a follow-up piece. Media offers poured in and Ralph was overwhelmed. CNN wanted to interview him but he denied.

“I didn’t want to be a poster child,” he says.

He also didn’t feel he was mentally ready to talk about his experience. Now he wonders if he should have accepted the offer.

“Because I’m trying to do fashion, Marc Jacobs could’ve contacted me for an internship,” he says, grinning.

But at that time Ralph didn’t want to talk to the press anymore. Everything was too fresh in his mind, he says. He told me he wasn’t ready to do an interview, but maybe later in the semester. Last week Ralph decided it was time to talk.

“I feel like people are forgetting,” he says. “I could sense it.”

He talks about the lack of excitement about Bryn Mawr’s Haiti Week in April and how people keep saying that things are getting back to normal in Haiti.

“Getting back to normal is still poverty. Back to violence every day, hunger, AIDS," he says.

He says he won’t be going back to Haiti for a while.

“It’s a warzone,” he says. “No matter how many pictures I’ve seen it still feels like a dream. So many dead bodies. The stench everywhere.”

He says he’s almost scared to go back, like he’s not in the right state of mind to do so. But Ralph still feels that magnetic pull for his country.

“I miss Haiti,” he says. “I really miss Haiti.”

He misses the food, the culture, the language. He remembers how after only a few weeks in Haiti, his Creole was better than his English.

But Ralph won’t give up on Haiti, no matter how much it haunts him. He talks about his brother’s plans to organize a community service trip to Haiti with Sons of Africa, an African American affinity group at Haverford, to help their aunt with the school she’s opening. And Ralph, who says it’s been difficult for him to take on a leadership role for the Haiti effort because he’s so close to the situation, has dreams for Haiti as well. He hopes to one day turn the country into a big tourist attraction.

“Maybe I’ll start it with fashion. Haiti Fashion Week,” he says, his face lighting up. “I want to find the beauty in [Haiti], make it fierce. I think Haiti could be fierce.”

He smiles broadly now, his excitement restored. And so maybe Ralph isn’t getting back to normal but somewhere different. He hopes that people can see the earthquake as an opportunity to turn Haiti’s fate around.

“Haiti used to be called the Pearl of the Islands,” he says.

Ralph believes it can come back.