As I write this, the campus is
awakening from the relative quiet of the winter break. It's
good to see students and faculty returning for Wintersession
courses, for internships, work on honors theses, and many
collaborative research projects. The month of January
affords us an opportunity to take stock and reflect. As one
example, I've just left a group of about 30 faculty in a
lively workshop sponsored by our Learning and Teaching
Center on fostering active learning and critical thinking in
the classroom, something they do exceedingly well but can
always do a little better. We made an uneventful transition into
the year 2000, thanks to a team of dedicated employees who
worked intensively for over a year readying our computers
and who gave up their New Year's holiday to test and retest
our key systems for the Y2K bug. This year's nasty influenza
bug has actually been the more vexsome infection here, and I
do hope your family has eluded it. Diana Chapman
Walsh
For one of the many news articles heralding the new millennium, a
Boston Globe reporter asked me what I would include in a time
capsule to be opened 100 years from now. I considered words from the
1848 Seneca Falls Declaration or from a speech by Susan B. Anthony at
the turn of the last century, signaling both how far we have come and
the distance yet to be traveled in ensuring women's place in the
world. I considered the birth control pill, as the technological
innovation that has most radically changed women's lives. But I
decided upon something more parochial and also more provocative:
Wellesley's motto, "not to be served, but to serve." As we look to a
future in which individuals will be empowered -- and the commons
imperiled -- as never before, all of us will need to remember the
duty of service we owe one another and humankind. I sincerely hope
that a commitment to serving others will seem compelling, and not
quaint, when the next century dawns.
The 20th century was an amazing era for Wellesley College, as I was reminded repeatedly during my recent trip to east Asia (about which you can read elsewhere in this newsletter). The College evolved in that 100-year period from a local, to a regional, to a national force, and now to a standard-bearer for women all around the world. Everywhere I traveled -- at a dinner party in Taipei, meeting parents and prospective students in Hong Kong, or during a television interview in Beijing -- I was asked variations of the same question: How has such a small college educated so many women who have had so powerful an impact on affairs of the world? What message does Wellesley College have for women today and tomorrow?
As we enter a new century during a period of stunningly rapid change, Wellesley's challenge will be to adapt to a fluid environment while we continue to embody the high standards of excellence and service that account for the large impact our small college has had. We are taking steps now to ensure that this College continues to be a model of the very best residential liberal arts education available anywhere. We want Wellesley College to remain the place to find an education that is challenging and rigorous, as well as inspiring and transformative, an education that attends to the basics and makes the vital connections that lie at the heart of learning that endures.
I hope that your Wellesley student is having an exciting and challenging college experience with us, that she is being inspired, validated, and stretched by opportunities she encounters here. We are honored to have her with us. I thank you for your trust.
With warm good wishes,
Table of Contents
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President Walsh Visits East Asia to strengthen
Wellesley's ties, explore new relationships
In early December President Diana Chapman Walsh spent 10 days in east Asiaon a visit that included stops in Hong Kong, Taipei, and Beijing. This was her second trip to the region. In 1996, she visited Hong Kong, Seoul, Taipei, and Tokyo. David Blinder, Vice President for Resources and Public Affairs, joined President Walsh on her recent trip.
In Taipei and Hong Kong, President Walsh held a series of meetings with Wellesley alumnae and parents of current Wellesley students. Walsh then traveled to Hong Kong and Beijing where Walsh met with alumnae, parents, government officials, and educators. There are approximately 180 alumnae living in east Asia today. In addition to a newly-established club in Shanghai, there are alumnae clubs in Hong Kong, Seoul, Taipei, Tokyo, and Bangkok.
In Beijing, both the American Studies Center at Beijing University and the Department of International Cooperation and Exchange in the Ministry of Education served as hosts for the Wellesley delegation. While there, Walsh celebrated the historical ties between the College and China and explored possibilities for new educational and cultural relationships there.
In Beijing, President Walsh met with officials at the Ministry of Education and with the vice chairwoman of the All China Women's Federation. She also met with the vice president of Beijing University (known as Peking University in Beijing) and professors from the Center for American Studies there.
She met with the vice president of Nanjing Normal University who also is the immediate past president of Ginling College, a private women's college in Nanjing at which Wellesley alumnae hold teaching fellowships. During her visit, Walsh was interviewed for "Half the Sky," a very popular public affairs program on China Central Television focusing on women's issues. The interview is scheduled to air in January.
Wellesley has a long and proud connection with Asia and with China, in particular. One of the first Chinese women to attend college in the United States came to Wellesley in 1907 under a scholarship established by the Board of Trustees to commemorate the visit to the College by the Chinese High Commissioners of Education.
Among its notable alumnae, Wellesley counts the renowned Chinese author and poet Xie Bingxin, who earned her Masters degree in English Literature in 1926, and Mayling Soong (Madame Chiang Kai-shek), who graduated in 1917 with a degree in English. Wellesley's first president to travel to east Asia was Ellen Pendleton who visited Japan, Korea, and China during a four-month journey in 1919 and 1920.
Three Wellesley alumnae will be honored Feb. 10 for the significant contributions they have made to their respective fields of oncology, social work, and law. Nancy E. Davidson '75, Ann Hartman '47, and Nora Manella '72, will receive the College's Alumnae Achievement Awards for 2000 at a reception and dinner in Tower Court beginning at 5:30 pm. Students are encouraged to attend. (Students must RSVP by Feb. 9 to the Alumnae Office at x2331.)
Established in 1969 to recognize excellence and strengthen relations between undergraduates and alumnae, the awards are given annually to "alumnae of distinction who through their achievements have brought honor to themselves and to Wellesley College." Past winners include Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, astronomer Martha P. Haynes, and journalists Linda Wertheimer and Cokie Roberts.
Nancy
E. Davidson '75 is Professor of Oncology
and Breast Cancer Research Chair at the Johns Hopkins Oncology
Center. A molecular biology major at Wellesley, Davidson earned her
M.D. from Harvard, interned at the University of Pennsylvania, and
completed her residency at Johns Hopkins. From 1982-85, Davidson
conducted research at the National Cancer Institute under the
supervision of Dr. Marc Lippman, whose laboratory is considered one
of the most innovative centers for breast cancer research. She has
been on the faculty at Johns Hopkins since 1986, teaching future
physician-scientists and leading the way in innovative approaches to
cancer treatment.
Davidson's contributions to breast cancer research and treatment include defining biochemical pathways by which cancer cells die and identifying how epigenetic changes in DNA methyl-athion help regulate breast cancer cell growth.
Ann
Hartman '47 is Visiting Professor at the
Fordham University School of Social Service and Dean/Professor
Emerita of the Smith College School of Social Work. She is a noted
expert in family therapy and social work theory and
practice.
A philosophy major at Wellesley, Hartman received her M.S.W. from the Smith College School of Social Work and D.S.W. from Columbia University. Recruited to the University of Michigan faculty in 1974, Hartman was there for 12 years and co-founded the Ann Arbor Center for the Family, a training and research center focusing on family social work practice. She also directed the National Child Welfare Training Center. In 1986, she left Michigan to become Dean of the School of Social Work at Smith College.
Hartman's research and writing focuses on families and family-center practices, child welfare, education in child welfare, adoption, and the history of social work theory and ideology. She is the author or editor of five books, including Family Centered Social Work Practice, which is a standard text on family practice used by social work schools. In tribute to her contributions to social work, the National Association of Social Workers published Reflection and Controversy in 1994, a collection of Hartman's most acclaimed editorials.
Nora
Manella '72 is U.S. District Judge for the
Central District of California, the largest federal court district in
the United States. Named among the "50 Most Influential Women
Lawyers" by the National Law Journal, Manella also has led one of the
busiest and most prestigious U.S. Attorney's offices in the
country.
An Italian major at Wellesley, Manella graduated from the University of Southern California Law Center in 1975. In 1982, Manella became Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Central District of California's Criminal Division, taking over the Criminal Appeals Department in 1988. In 1990, Manella was appointed to the Los Angeles Municipal Court, which she left in 1992 upon her elevation to the Superior Court. In 1993, at the recommendation of Senator Diane Feinstein, President Clinton nominated Manella for U.S. Attorney. She was confirmed later that year.
As U.S. Attorney, Manella prosecuted some of the decade's most notorious cases, gaining verdicts against the Menendez brothers for their parents' murders and against Representative Walter R. Tucker III for tax-evasion and bribery. Under Manella's leadership, former Arizona Governor J. Fife Symington III was indicted and subsequently convicted on seven counts of bank fraud, leading to his resignation from office in 1997. Manella began her term as U.S. District Judge in early 1999 after being unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
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Lani Guinier, noted civil rights attorney and the first black female tenured professor at Harvard Law School, will deliver the prestigious Wilson Lecture on Wednesday, Feb. 16, at 5 p.m. in Alumnae Hall. Her topic will be, "Rethinking Race, Gender, and Power," to be followed by a question and answer period. After the lecture, faculty will lead small discussion groups with students in various dining halls. This year's Wilson Lecture is part of Reflections on Wellesley, a year-long series of events in anticipation of the College's 125th anniversary. Guinier came to public attention in 1993 when President Clinton nominated her to be the first black woman to head the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and then withdrew her name without a confirmation hearing. The experience prompted her to write Lift Every Voice: Turning a Civil Rights Setback into a New Vision of Social Justice. |
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The Wellesley College Summer School will open its doors for its second season with two four-week sessions beginning in June. All classes will be taught by experienced Wellesley professors and courses will count toward regular Wellesley College units, noted Director Ann Velenchik, Associate Professor of Economics.
"Unlike other summer schools, we will employ no untried visiting faculty or graduate students. Because all our classes are small, with no more than 20 students, each student will receive the same high quality, personalized instruction that Wellesley students receive during the regular academic year," Velenchik said. The summer school courses are drawn from the regular Wellesley curriculum and encompass a broad range of departments (see sidebar "Summer School Offerings").
Velenchik hopes to see at least 150 students enrolling this summer, gradually building to a larger program of more than 500 students in the next few years. "Each year approximately 200 Wellesley students take summer courses at other schools, so we know there is strong demand and interest among our own student population," she said.
The Wellesley College Summer School is open to all college students in good academic standing, high school juniors and seniors, and college graduates. Velenchik expects about 75 percent of summer school students to be current Wellesley students.
"We've structured the program to give students the flexibility to pursue other activities during their summers," she said. "Our four-week sessions allow students to take a class and then work or have an internship. We have included a few evening classes to allow students to work during the day and attend class at night."
Information on courses, faculty, and registration is available on the Wellesley College Summer School website at: www.wellesley.edu/SummerSchool/
Session I -- June 12 to July 7Studio Art 108 -- Introductory Photography -- Black/Warren Biology 110 -- Introductory Cell Biology with Lab -- Harris Chemistry 110 -- Introductory Chemistry with Lab -- Coleman Economics 101 -- Principles of Microeconomics -- Blomberg English 203 -- Short Narrative -- Schwartz French 101 -- Introductory French -- Lydgate Math 115 -- Calculus I -- Bu Psychology 205 -- Introductory Statistics -- Hennessey Religion 108 -- Introduction to Asian Religions -- Kodera Spanish 201 -- Intermediate Spanish I -- Vega Writing 126 -- Law in Contemporary Society -- Viti |
Session II -- July 10 to August 4 Anthropology 104 -- Introduction to Anthropology -- Saenz Art 105 -- Drawing -- Slavick Chemistry 111 -- Introductory Chemistry with Lab -- Coleman Economics 102 -- Principles of Macroeconomics -- Blomberg English 267 -- Late Modern & Contemporary American Lit. -- Fisher French 102 -- Introductory French -- Lydgate Psychology 101 -- Introduction to Psychology -- Cheek Spanish 202 -- Intermediate Spanish -- Vega Theatre Studies 203 -- Plays, Performance & Production -- Hussey |
Steady Helps Draft 'Kobe Declaration' on Tobacco Epidemic among Women and Children
Professor Filomena
Steady Filomina Steady,
professor of Africana Studies, was among leading health
professionals, gender experts, and anti-tobacco activists
who urged the World Health Organization (WHO) to fully
integrate the "special needs" of women and girls into a
proposed international treaty on tobacco control. The newly
concluded "Kobe Declaration" was adopted by consensus by
some 500 delegates who attended the four-day international
conference on women and tobacco hosted by the WHO in Kobe,
Japan from Nov. 14-18. The Declaration
demands that the WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco
Control (FCTC) "include gender-specific concerns and
perspectives in each and every aspect" and states that
"gender equality in society must be an integral part of
tobacco control strategies and women's leadership is
essential to success." Steady, who chaired
the declaration drafting group, stressed the importance of
drawing attention to the potential epidemic of tobacco use
by women and girls. "This is the new target population in
the developing world that is particularly being recruited in
this phenomenon of nicotine addiction," she said. Steady explained that
the declaration will help ensure the FCTC has a strong
gender-sensitive component and that it serves as a
mobilizing tool to bring women, non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), leaders, politicians, activists and
academics into this movement. The Convention, targeted for
adoption by May 2003, will be the first legally binding
international instrument aimed at curbing the global spread
of tobacco and tobacco products.
Some of the measures being considered include a ban on advertising, promotion and packaging of tobacco products, raising tobacco taxes, tightening rules to stop smuggling, and special anti-smoking education programs targeted toward young people.
The Conference &emdash; officially called the WHO International Conference on Tobacco and Health, Kobe - Making a Difference to Tobacco and Health: Avoiding the Tobacco Epidemic in Women and Youth &emdash; examined ways to counter the tobacco epidemic among women and youth and focused particularly on the alarming rise in smoking among young women and girls in Asia.
The WHO has estimated that women account for 500,000 of the 4 million tobacco-related deaths that occur every year. If present smoking trends continue, the WHO has warned that by the year 2025, 10 million people per year will die unnecessarily, 70 percent of them in developing countries.
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Wellesley senior Chavi Keeney Nana of Ann Arbor, Mich., is one of 40 Americans to be awarded the Marshall Scholarship to study at a university in Britain next year. Winners are selected for their intellectual distinction and their potential to become leaders in their fields and make a contribution to society. A double major in International Relations and German, Nana currently is writing an honors thesis on the use of repatriation programs which incorporate micro-credit schemes to ease the social, political and economic impact of repatriation on the returning refugees' country of origin. She plans to continue her study of refugee policy, forced migration, and repatriation when her Marshall Scholarship to Oxford University begins this fall. She plans one day to attend law school for human rights law and to become actively involved in refugee policy development. During her junior year, Nana, who is fluent in German, studied at the University of Konstanz in Germany through a Wellesley College exchange program. While there, she worked at the Research Center for International and European Law on Immigration and Asylum. Nana has worked with Bosnian refugees in Germany and with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Rome during the Kosovo crisis. She currently volunteers for the IRC, working with refugees in the Boston area. She worked with the Sindh Education Foundation to help develop community schools for young girls in the urban and rural slums of Pakistan. |
Nana is the ninth Wellesley College graduate to be awarded the Marshall Scholarship since its inception 45 years ago by the British government as a gesture of thanks to the United States for the assistance received under the Marshall Plan after World War II. Former Wellesley College president and alumna from the class of 1961, Nannerl Overholser Keohane, now president of Duke University, was the first Wellesley recipient of the award.
The Board of Admissions sent letters of acceptance to 107 early decision applicants in mid-December, drawn from a pool of 164 &emdash; Wellesley's fourth largest pool ever. While this may seem like a high acceptance rate, Dean of Admission Janet Lavin Rapelye said those who apply for early decision "tend to be a self-selected pool." Generally, these applicants know they have the credentials the College is seeking. So far, the Class of 2004 can boast of representatives from 33 states and seven countries as well as a classical guitarist who's recorded and released an album, a state champion ski racer, and a Westinghouse Science Research winner.
The yellow class of 2003 arrived on campus at the end of August &emdash; 605 traditional students and 38 Davis Scholars:
New England 24 % Mid-Atlantic 21 % South 15 % Central 11 % Pacific & Mountain 20 % International & Americans Abroad 9 %
Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Canada, England, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Lebanon, Pakistan, Phillippines, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan (ROC), Tanzania, Turkey and United Kingdom.
More than 1,200 parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, partners and children of Wellesley students from 38 states and the District of Columbia &endash; and from as far away as Bermuda and Japan &endash; traveled to campus for this year's Family Weekend held Oct. 22-24. Family members had the opportunity to attend regularly scheduled classes as well as dozens of special events that provided an opportunity to experience the Wellesley that students live every day.
During the weekend, members of the Parents Council gathered to discuss their goals for the year. Chaired by Tony Kerbs, the Council is a volunteer group of 45 parents of alumnae and current students who work together to grow and steward the Parents Fund and to help communicate the College's fundraising needs, priorities, and goals to the parent constituency. To learn more about the Parents Council as well as the everyday College activities and issues in which your student may be involved, visit www.wellesley.edu/PublicAffairs/Illuminator/parents.html on the web, or contact Tony Kerbs at (732) 842-4141, tkerbs@msn.com; or Blair Cruickshank at Wellesley College (800) 358-3543, x2657.
About The Wellesley
College Illuminator
Editor-in-Chief: Mary Ann Hill,
mhill@wellesley.edu
Managing Editor: Betsy Lawson, elawson@wellesley.edu
The Illuminator is the published monthly during the academic year by Wellesley College's Office for Public Information, a division of Resources and Public Affairs, 230 Green Hall, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02481. Issues are published the first week of every month during the academic year, except for combined issues in September/October and January/February. Special Family Editions are also published.
Please submit editorial content to the above listed mailing address or e-mail: elawson@wellesley.edu
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