Articles:
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Multicultural Film Festival Presents The World "Through Women's Eyes" | |
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New Initiatives For 1997-98 From Office of Equal Opportunity and Multicultural Policy |
The Reaccreditation Steering Committee is urging all members of the Wellesley community to read the draft chapters of the college's self-study report on accreditation standards and pass along their feedback at this early stage of the process. The committee is currently reading the draft chapters and making revisions; the material is available in printed format now through the Office of the Dean of the College and will soon be available on the college's web site at http://www.wellesley.edu/Reaccreditation/home.html, with ways to submit questions and comments by e-mail.
"This is the phase where the community can look at the accreditation standards and our responses and offer their comments," said Nancy Kolodny, Dean of the College and a co-chair of the Reaccreditation Steering Committee . "Have we raised the right questions? Have we described the current situation accurately? ... We really want to know if what we've written is what people really think is going on."
In the next two semesters, the committee will host a number of forums for students, faculty, and staff to discuss and build on the draft, similar to the all-college meeting on January 26 where attendees discussed Wellesley's identity as a women's college and the meaning of diversity on campus. Future forums may involve anything from revisiting committee structure to examining whether the Physical Plant is adequately staffed.
The final self-study report that emerges will go to the New England Association of Schools and Colleges in December 1998 as part of the NEASC's required ten-year accreditation process. After that, faculty and administrators at other NEASC institutions will conduct an on-site evaluation March 7-10, 1999, and make their own report. Individuals and groups will be able to meet with the peer evaluators then to offer further comments.
The NEASC is one of six regional accrediting organizations in the United States. Its purpose is to ensure member schools and colleges maintain certain standards of educational quality in mission and purposes; planning and evaluation; organization and governance; programs and instruction; faculty; student services; library and information services; physical resources; financial resources; public disclosure; and integrity. The NEASC Standards for Accreditation are also available from the Office of the Dean of the College, or online at http://www.mec.edu/neasc/stancihe.htm.
The draft chapters from the Reaccreditation Steering Committee correspond to each of these areas, in which the College is required to meet specific benchmarks. For example, under "planning and evaluation," the NEASC's requirements include the following: "The institution undertakes planning and evaluation appropriate to its needs to accomplish and improve the achievement of its mission and purposes." The draft chapter looks at the various ways Wellesley pursues that requirement, but also raises questions for the community: How can members of the community participate meaningfully in the decision-making process? Should the College do more to evaluate student learning in ways other than grades? These are the issues on which the Reaccreditation Steering Committee wants feedback, Kolodny said.
Kolodny hastened to emphasize that there is no doubt that
Wellesley will be reaccredited. However, this is an opportunity to
look at all the work the College has done in the last ten years, take
stock, and plan for the coming decade, she said, adding, "We want
this to be a broad-based effort."
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The Wellesley community will have a unique opportunity to see movies by and about women in their original format-film, not video-and speak to the filmmakers themselves at a first-of-its-kind film festival in late March and early April.
"Through Women's Eyes: A Cross-Cultural World View On Film," features six recent films directed by women, several of them not yet released in the United States. All but one will be followed by a question-and-answer session with either the filmmaker or someone representing her. The screening schedule includes the Academy Award-nominated documentary "Waco: The Rules of Engagement" by alumna Amy Sommer Gifford '87.
All the films will be shown at Collins Cinema, said Assistant Professor of Art Salem Mekuria, curating the festival. Because movies have lower-quality, less sharp images when shown as video, it's important that these films are being shown in their original format. "I want students to see these kinds of films, and to see them as films, in their original format," Mekuria explained. "I'm hoping to launch an annual series run by the students themselves."
"Through Women's Eyes" is sponsored by the Davis World Cultures and Leadership Fund, the Office of the Dean of the College, and the Davis Museum and Cultural Center. All films are free and open to the public.
Films screened as part of "Through Women's Eyes"
"A Tale of Love" (1995), Viet Nam/USA
March 13, 7:15 p.m., and March 14, 4 p.m.
Director Trinh T. Minh-ha follows Kieu, a Vietnamese immigrant in
love with love who models for a photographer who idealizes the
headless female body swathed in transparent veils. This film blends
reality, memory, and dream in an exploration of voyeurism, the
fiction of love in love stories, and the history of a country marked
by internal turmoil and foreign domination. Trinh Minh-ha will be at
the first screening.
"Through the Door of No Return" (1997), USA
March 14, 7:15 p.m., and March 15, 4 p.m.
Filmmaker Shrikiana Aina's intensely personal film documents her
attempts to retrace the steps of her father, an ordinary
African-American man who traveled to Ghana years earlier to set up a
business, but died of malaria and a punctured kidney shortly after
his return. He left behind pictures, papers, and mementos, but never
had the chance to actually speak of his trip. Clare Andrade Watkins,
Associate Professor of Visual Arts at Emerson College, will introduce
and take questions at the first screening.
"Waco: The
Rules of Engagement" (1997), USA
April 3, 7:15 p.m.; April 4, 4 p.m.; April 5, 7 p.m.; and April 6, 7 p.m.
This Oscar-nominated documentary by Amy Sommer Gifford '87 raises
critical questions about responsibility, tolerance, religious
diversity, and media coverage of the FBI's 1993 confrontation at the
Branch Davidian religious sect. Gifford will be present at the first
screening.
"A Portrait of a Young Girl in the Late Sixties, in Brussels" (1994), Belgium
April 4, 7:15 p.m., and April 5, 4 p.m.
Chantal Akerman's film, set just before Belgium's social upheavals
of May '68, is a portrait of two 15-year-old girls whose friendship
survives a difficult period in their own lives and the life of their
country.
"FIRE" (1997), India/Canada
April 7, 7:15 p.m., and April 8, 4:30 p.m.
Writer/Directer Deepa Mehta blends Indian mysticism, epic poetry,
and feminism in a story of sisters-in-law who transcend arranged
marriages, claustrophobic traditions, family dynamics, and outmoded
social customs to find emotional, physical, and spiritual relief with
each other. Mehta will appear at the first screening.
"The Soong Sisters" (1997), Hong Kong/China
April 14, 7:15 p.m., and April 15, 1:30 p.m.
Mabel Cheung Yuen-ting dramatizes the true stories of three
sisters whose lives are entwined with the history of modern China:
Ailing, wed to a wealthy industrialist who became minister for the
interior and finance; Chingling, who as Sun Yat-Sen's wife became the
first lady of the Chinese Republic; and Meiling, wife of Chiang
Kai-Shek, military leader and founder of Nationalist Taiwan. The
director will appear at the first screening.
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Hundreds of college faculty and
students throughout the region saw the theater department's
production of "Masterpieces" at the Region I John F. Kennedy Center
for the Performing Arts American College Theater Festival (KC/ACTF),
held in mid-February at Brandeis University. Wellesley's production
was one of only seven chosen from 60 entrants in the region.
The cast and crew had only four hours to "load in" their production-set up the stage and test lights and sound-before performing. They performed the play twice, with only half an hour between performances. Although Wellesley wasn't chosen to progress to the KC/ACTF national festival in Washington, DC, Theater Director Nora Hussey believes the production was a triumph for the department.
"This is a tiny program with only two full-time faculty, so considering we got that far is amazing," she said. "It's a real tribute to the students' work."
KC/ACTF exists to identify and promote talented students in college-level theater production, offering them a bridge into the professional world through opportunities at prestigious institutions like the O'Neill Theater Center, the Sundance Playwrights Laboratory, and the Williamstown Theatre Festival. More than 900 productions and 18,000 students participate in the regional and national KC/ACTF festivals each year. The theater department has entered this competition for the last four years and has gone to the regionals twice.
Hussey credits the program's success in part to the Ruth Nagel Jones Theater, now celebrating its fifth anniversary, and Ruth Nagel Jones '42 herself, who recently endowed a fund to bring more guest artists to Wellesley.
The theater program is currently producing two shows
simultaneously: "The Children's Hour," the classic drama by Lillian
Hellman, and "God is a Woman," a senior thesis project by Hope
Zettwoch '98. "The entire community should be aware of the
extraordinary talents of our theater students," Hussey said.
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Wellesley College has been conducting site testing and clean-up
activities at the former Henry Woods Paint Factory property since the
mid-1970's to remove soil contaminated by paint pigment and monitor
contaminant levels at the site and surrounding areas. The site of the
former Paint Factory is situated on the eastern shore of
Paintshop
Pond, south of Route 135, and borders the western portion of the
campus. This property has been owned by Wellesley College since 1932
and the College remains committed to ensuring the protection of
public health for its students, faculty, staff and general public who
may come in contact with these areas. Over the last 20 years, the
College has done extensive testing and clean-up at the property and
nearby wetlands and water bodies and we would like to take this
opportunity to bring the College community up to date on recent
studies and upcoming work.
History of the Paint Factory
The former Henry Woods Sons Paint Factory was the producer of fine colored pigments and operated between 1848 and the early 1920s. This paint factory was reportedly the largest such facility in New England at the time. The company's production of various colors of pigments involved use of substances including arsenates, lead chromates, barium sulfates, calcium chromates and iron ferrocyanide. The company's production process discharged pigment waste onto ground surface, into unlined on-site lagoons, and into adjoining water bodies known as Waban Brook and Lake Waban.
In 1932, Wellesley College purchased the 11 acre property and paint factory buildings known as the Henry Woods Sons Paint Factory. At the time of purchase, the College's intent was to maintain this property as open space and not allow industrial development to encroach near the campus.
In the mid-1970's, with the advent of regulatory policies and
greater environmental awareness, contaminated soils and paint pigment
were identified by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP) on the property. The College initiated numerous
environmental testing programs including test pits, surfice and deep
soil borings and sediment and surface water sampling. The testing
revealed residual paint waste pigment containing high levels of lead,
chromium, arsenic, and cyanide in the surfice and subsurface soils of
the uplands, wetlands, sediments of Paintshop Pond, and some parts of
Waban Brook and Lake Waban.
The College's Response
When the Department of Environmental Protection informed Wellesley of the presence of waste pigment piles and lagoons on the property in 1975, and noted the high levels of metals contained in this pigment, the College immediately began working with state DEP officials, environmental and health experts, groundwater specialists, chemists and biologists to study and to clean-up the sources of contamination. The College's initial actions included fencing-off and covering the waste piles and lagoons to minimize contact with the material, followed by the excavation and off-site removal of the contaminated soil.
Over the years, the College has extensively studied the property which includes uplands, wetlands, Paintshop Pond, Waban Brook and Lake Waban to determine the extent to which the operations from the paint factory contaminated the soil, groundwater, surface water and sediments. To date, the College has had lab tests done on well over 6000 samples taken from:
Our testing determined that the highest levels of arsenic, barium, lead and chromium were located in the actual pigment materials found on the site and in the wetlands and lake sediments. Pigment material has also been identified north of Route 135 along the Morses Pond embankments. Through the leaching process, these metals have contaminated the groundwater. The primary groundwater contaminant is hexavalent chromium. This groundwater is not used as a drinking water supply.
The College's testing also identified pigment material at other locations both on and off-campus. North of Paintshop Pond, pigment and contaminated soils have been identified along the MBTA railroad embankments and at the Morses Pond culvert.
Eliminating the largest source of contamination, namely the waste piles, was the College's top priority. We hired environmental contractors in 1991 and began aggressive clean-up and containment measures which included:
Where We Are Today
The extensive work the College has completed to date has substantially reduced the chance of exposure to metals present in the pigment and minimized further releases of metals to the environment through surface water runoff and seepage into the groundwater. By fencing off the former Paint Factory site, we have restricted access to areas where contamination remains and have reduced the risk of exposure.
The College is continuing to investigate the cause of the high levels of chromium in the groundwater east of the Paint Factory site. We are working with DEP to collectively evaluate all sources of contamination in the area both on and off-campus. Additional monitoring wells will be installed along the northern portion of the campus between Paintshop Pond and the gymnasium to determine groundwater flow and quality.
Over the next several months, you will see considerable activity
on the Paint Factory site and Lake Waban. We will continue collecting
sediment and surface water samples from Paintshop Pond and Lake
Waban. We will also conduct a wildlife and fish habitat survey. The
next steps in the DEP's site investigation and cleanup process
involve performing detailed Human Health and Environmental Risk
Assessments. These assessments will determine whether remaining
contamination at the site poses any potential human health or
environmental risks. The College will use the assessment results to
determine what additional cleanup and containment measures are
needed.
Swimming Areas
To date, regular testing confirms there is no risk to swimmers
using the public beach on Lake Waban. As part of an ongoing
commitment to protect the health and safety of our students, workers
and the public, the College will re-sand the swim area this
spring.
What's Next
The College continually evaluates the best methods for cleaning up portions of the site, at the same time determining the best use of the former Paint Factory property. Part of this evaluation includes weighing the benefits of cleanup versus the disturbance of the property and ecosystem. The clean-up work performed is overseen by the DEP under a very detailed set of regulations referred to as the Massachusetts Contingency Plan (MCP). The MCP outlines the requirements for notification, assessment and cleanup of contaminated sites. In accordance with the MCP process, Wellesley College is committed to:
For More Information, Contact
Barry Monahan, Assistant V. P. for Administration, at x2386
Mr. Steven Johnson, Project Manager
Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection
10 Commerce Way
Woburn, MA 01801
Tel.: (978) 932-7710
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By mid-March, the Campus-Wide Information System (CWIS) will become something more than a resource for the campus community. A web browser pointed to www.wellesley.edu will find a revised, redesigned web site with information about all things Wellesley.
"It's going to be a resource for everyone with an interest in Wellesley: current and prospective students and their families, alumnae, faculty, staff, and campus visitors," says webmaster Claire Loranz, librarian for digital technologies and documents.
Consistent design elements created by kor group, a Boston web and print design agency, will let viewers know immediately which material comes from official campus information providers. In addition to its new uniform "look and feel," the web site will include these new options:
Loranz and application support specialist Anne Manning, who make
up the CWIS Group in Information Services, reorganized the site's
content with input from the CWIS Advisory Group: Pat Byrne, Office of
the President; Romi Cummings, Publications and Communications;
Jennifer Heilig, Public Information; Jennifer Hines, Admissions;
Alice Hummer, Alumnae Office; Joanne Murray, Office of Dean of
Students, Center for Work & Service; Mary Pat Navins, Office of
Dean of the College; and Liz Stein, Alumnae Office.
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To: The College Community
From: 125th Anniversary Steering Committee
Subject: Planning for the 125th Anniversary of Wellesley College
September 9, 2000 will mark the 125th Anniversary of the Opening
Day of Wellesley College. In preparation for celebrating this
historic day and year, President Diana Chapman Walsh has convened a
125th Anniversary Steering Committee to serve as a catalyst and
clearinghouse for special projects and programs designed to celebrate
Wellesley's past and look ahead to its future in the new millennium.
The Committee has decided that its first priority is to ask all
students, alumnae, faculty, and staff how best to weave into the
academic year 2000-2001, to will call attention to Wellesley's great
accomplishments as well as its future goals. In this spirit, the
Committee invites the community to propose events, programs,
projects, and celebrations that pertain to the following themes:
The 125th Anniversary Steering Committee welcomes advice and support for these major themes, along with other suggestions. The Co-Chairs of the Committee will solicit ideas through meetings scheduled during the course of this semester. The Committee will then make recommendations to the president and the Board of Trustees about College-sponsored milestone events and other forms of celebrations during 2000-2001. Please feel free to contact any member of the committee listed below:
In a predominantly female environment like Wellesley, sexual harassment is less common than it is in the wider world. But that doesn't mean faculty, staff, and students can live in blissful ignorance, says Linda Brothers, director of equal opportunity and ombudsperson in the Office of Equal Opportunity and Multicultural Policy (OEO).
"This is an area with a lot of confusion and misconceptions," Brothers explains. "People ask about it all the time. They think something is harassment that isn't, or they don't know certain behaviors are illegal. There's a need to educate the entire community, because we don't live isolated from the rest of the world."
As part of that education, the OEO has put together a series of training sessions about sexual harassment-what it is and isn't, how it affects campus life, and what is offensive even if it's within the law-for Wellesley staff members. All staffers are strongly encouraged to attend one of the sessions, to be held throughout March and April in the Library Lecture Room. The training will be led by Collaborative Strategies, a Boston-based consulting firm which specializes in diversity training and has a reputation for working with students and other academic groups.
Department heads and some staff members took part in a pilot training session about sexual harassment last year; the OEO is planning workshops for faculty members, too. Plans are also underway to create an education program for students next year, with peer educators leading workshops for their classmates.
This emphasis on helping the Wellesley community face and deal with sexual harassment is just one of a series of new initiatives for the 1997-98 academic year. "We are looking at ourselves as a diverse community," Brothers says. "With diversity comes issues, concerns, problems, opportunities for problem-solving...and a need for greater understanding." These are particular highlights:
The Student Multicultural Summer Research Program is an opportunity for eight to ten sophomores and juniors each year to spend eight weeks in June and July researching diversity-based issues of their choice from intergenerational issues among Asian women to educational issues for students with mental illness under the supervision of faculty members. Students are expected to report on their results when they return to campus in the fall.
The Student Curricular Research Grant is a new source of funding for students who want to research subject that relate to diversity, pluralism, or multiculturalism as a part of their coursework or independent study. Interested students must write a grant proposal to be considered. The program will disburse up to $500 per student to a total of $1,000 per semester.
The Student Leadership Initiative provides funding and support for students to attend conferences and programs and to do independent work. Students who receive funding must use it on activities that develop leadership skills, not on those related to their curricular studies.
The Union Trades Apprenticeship Program, co-sponsored and developed with the Office of the President and the Office of Finance and Administration, is designed to encourage diversity in the skilled trades within the Wellesley union community. Presently, it funds one apprenticeship in the electric shop and one in plumbing, both reserved for union employees who want to move up from low-paying and low-skilled positions by developing the skills and getting the required licensing to enter skilled trades. The program is expanding to add two more apprenticeships.
The OEO also offers a number of ongoing programs, noted Gerdes Fleurant, professor of music, who serves as director of multicultural Policy and Planning. For example, as Ombudsperson, Brothers acts as a confidential resource for conflict resolution, helping people identify and analyze their options in situations where they think they might be a victim of harassment, discrimination, or other problems. The office also funds and co-sponsors campus events which provide students with role models and skills for living in an increasingly diverse world, as well as forums for people on and off campus to discuss issues of multiculturalism. Compliance Coordinator Anabel Perez Crescenzi monitor's Wellesley's compliance with state and federal laws governing equal opportunity, affirmative action, and disabilities.
For information about any of these programs, or for any specific or general information about issues of harassment, discrimination, multicultural policy, diversity, and civil rights, call x3566, or visit the OEO at 232 Green Hall.
All staff members are urged to attend one of these sessions, to be held in the Library Lecture Room:
Tuesday, March 3, 9 a.m. - noon
Tuesday, March 3, 1 - 4 p.m.
Thursday, March 12, 9 a.m. - noon
Thursday, March 12, 1 - 4 p.m.
Thursday, March 19, 9 a.m. - noon
Thursday, March 19, 1 - 4 p.m.
Thursday, March 26, 9 a.m. - noon
Thursday, March 26, 1 - 4 p.m.
Thursday, April 2, 9 a.m. - noon
Thursday, April 2, 1 - 4 p.m.
Thursday, April 16, 9 a.m. - noon
Thursday, April 16, 1 - 4 p.m.
Thursday, April 23, 9 a.m. - noon (location TBA)
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President Diana Chapman Walsh announced last week that the position held by Patricia Byrne, Executive Assistant to the President, has been redesignated Vice President for Planning. President Walsh recommended the change to the Board of Trustees, who approved it at their meeting on January 30, 1998.
As Vice President for Planning, Pat Byrne will be responsible for the coordination of planning initiatives of significance for the College's future. Working with other members of senior staff, the Board of Trustees, and various campus committees, she will be responsible for ensuring that the College's planning efforts are coordinated, and for designing efficient and effective consultation processes. Byrne will also continue to be responsible for the operations of the President's Office, the Board of Trustees and the senior staff agenda.
"The new title assigned to Pat's position accurately reflects the role she has played with distinction in several planning efforts, including the Task Force on Plans, Priorities and Fiscal Policies, the campus consultations on the budget, the design of the campus master planning process, and the search for a new Dean of Students," President Walsh said. "We are approaching the culmination of several decentralized planning efforts. The board and I agreed that formally designating this role is one important way to ensure coordination, attention to process, and continued forward movement."
Byrne was appointed Executive Assistant to the President in 1995
after serving in a variety of administrative positions in higher
education since 1977. Her office will remain located in the
President's Office, Room 350 in Green Hall.
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