Last Monday, January 26, the day before classes began, faculty, administrators and students attended a community forum sponsored by the Reaccreditation Steering Committee. Over 150 people participated in the four hour-long meeting at Alumnae Hall composed of panels and small group discussions which addressed two important questions related to Wellesley's mission as a liberal arts college. The information from the meeting will be included in a self-study report written by the Committee that will help prepare for next year's visit by a reaccreditation evaluation team appointed by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, according to Dean of the College Nancy Kolodny.

The Committee, co-chaired by Kolodny, Assistant to the President Nancy Weinstein and Associate Professor of History Andrew Sherman formed at the end of last spring semester in order to write a self-study of the College "and to make sure what they write reflects a wide range of opinion on campus," according to President of the College Diana Chapman Walsh, who made opening remarks at the forum. The first of the two questions discussed was: "Wellesley as a Women's College: What difference does it make-in the classroom, in residence life, in how we think about success, in our cunicular and campus planning?" The second was: "Wellesley as an Institution Committed to Diversity: What does it mean to be committed to diversity? What steps do we need to take to realize this commitment?"

In his opening remarks, Shennan, the moderator for the event, said the forum "forces us to reevaluate ourselves, analyze our strengths and weaknesses, and project into the future. It is a self-study which makes the whole thing worthwhile." He then introduced the first four panelists who addressed the first question: Head of House Peter Raymond, Professor of Psychology Blythe Clinchy, Rhodes Scholar Julie Levison '98 and Class of 1999 Dean Anita Tien.

Raymond explained that Wellesley confronts students with two conflicting messages: the woman as a "nurturing, supportive, kind and gentle" person, and the idea of students "beating each other as quickly and definitively as possible" by achieving the best grades and obtaining the most sought-afterjobs.

"No wonder women here face such a great deal of confusion and stress," he remarked. Raymond said the solution is for students to reject the "zero sum" attitude promoted here, or the notion that "anything I gain is costly to you."

"If you gain by others' losses, you lose connections with people and the trust of those around you. It's costly to you. We need to look at competition from a larger perspective. We are all together trying to do something as well as we can. We need each other to build on each other," he said.

Levison discussed her growth at Wellesley since she began her schooling here. She explained that professors' expectations for students to be aggressive in class and the idea of pushing oneself forward could be beneficial in terms of a readiness to take on graduate school or the work world. Levison also quoted Simone du Beauvoir who said, "One is not born a woman, one becomes one," and said she wanted to attend Wellesley to be where there were role models of naturally strong women.

Tien closed the panel by recalling her pre-college interview for Wellesley in which her alumna interviewer told her, "You'll be safe at Wellesley. At a school with men, you'll be distracted." Tien said this interview had left her feeling ambivalent toward the College. She emphasized that Wellesley women "shouldn't be sheltered, protected, closeted or spoken to in a special kind of language."

"Wellesley is best when we remember that it is not an island, but has the flaws and complexities that the world has &emdash; when students see these flaws and complexities, and try to work them out. We need to try to have as full and worldly a discussion as we can," she said.

In the first round of 30 small discussion groups held after the first panel presented their remarks on "Wellesley as a Women's College," Emma Ross '98 said her group talked about how students feel their voices are shut-out at Wellesley.

"We think there is a paradox between giving priority to students' voices and supporting the voice for change," she said.

The second group of panelists, who addressed the question: "Wellesley as an Institution Committed to Diversity," was composed of: Assistant Professor of Psychology Nancy Genero, Dean of First Year Students Voncile White, Director of the Office of Institutional Research Janet Civian and President of Wellesley Alliance of South Asian Cultures Usha Pinninti '98.

Genero began the second portion of the program by asking, "Why is it so difficult to talk about our differences, whatever they may be?"

"We need to learn a lot more about how people communicate and negotiate their differences," she said, "Our inability to express ourselves gets in the way of exploring our differences, and makes them seem bigger than they actually are."

White built on Genero's thoughts, saying, "Diversity is fraught with a great deal of emotion." She pointed to several important issues which concern this idea. The first was the issue of conflict versus conflict resolution, or that as a community, Wellesley does not welcome conflict. The second issue concerned the visibility of color.

"I read a recent publication entitled 'Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria.' Why don't we ever ask why all of the white kids are sitting together?," she asked.

Her third issue concerned the primacy of Caucasian privileges, and the fourth was the notion that heterogeneity is conceived as a problem.

"Students are afraid of expressing viewpoints for the fear of being attacked. People from different cultural backgrounds fear ostracization when they diverge from the prevailing opinion. You have to be either insensitive or brave to state a different viewpoint. But it is not effective to avoid conflict, to pretend it's not there. It still influences us in the conscience, even if we are not aware of it," she said.

Pinninti, the last speaker, seemed to speak to the hearts of many Wellesley students when she said that though she chose Wellesley because of its "apparent diversity," communication here is "rare." Students could not control their applause when Pinninti went on to criticize the Administration for the "gaping holes" in the curriculum.

"Why is it that in 1998 Wellesley does not have courses on entire regions of the world, like Southeast Asia?," Pinninti asked. "When Gandhi's grandson comes to speak on campus, how many Wellesley students can place his comments within context? Are Wellesley graduates any more informed than the managers of Urban Outfitters on the appropriate use of Hindu images and idols?"

"Our first priority should be handling and developing diversity," she said.

In one of the observed final discussion groups, members discussed Wellesley's seemingly imposing philosophy of "We never had to do it that way before," or the idea that there is a pressure to conform to a "PC" way of looking at diversity. The group talked about the danger of believing that one needed to assimilate to Wellesley, and that the College should focus on hiring professors already established in their teaching; ones who would be less immune to assimilation, and therefore would bring change and diversity to the College community.

After the final discussion groups were held, the participants convened to lunch at the Sports Center in order to discuss further the ideas and thoughts generated by the panelists.

"It seems to me there is a new urgency in the air, perhaps because more people believe the possibility for significant change has increased," said Raymond.

"I thought it was very valuable and heard some creative and important insights. It will certainly affect my thinking and planning," Walsh said.

Shennan explained that this was the beginning of similar conversations about the College's missions and standards. He said the Committee plans to put together a document about "where we currently are," and distribute it to the College community in March, when sessions for public comment will also be held. Shennan said the Committee will have a page on the Campus Wide Information System within the next month.