Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from LYRASIS Members and Sloan Foundation http://www.archive.org/details/agnesscottalumna7273agne A New Preside* At Agnes Scott Baring the Breast- Cancer Myths A Foil to Danger Please Pass the . . . Rootenanny? EDITOR'S NOTE In the present and in the past sleeps the purpose of the future: the new president brings an unfolding vision, a world-view to Agnes Scott College. President Mary Brown Bullock '66 opened her first convocation address to the Agnes Scott College community with a quote from T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets, lines from "Burnt Norton": Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future, And time future contained in time past. . . . But to what purpose Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leaves I do not know. Disturbing the dust pondering the journey that has brought her once again to Agnes Scott Bullock explored the meaning of "time future contained in time past" both for the College and for herself. The pageantry of the day's convocation procession, the academic regalia, she said, are colored by the medieval origins of the university and by the variety of alma maters represented by the ASC faculty. Along with the splendor of this universal scene, "more than a century of Agnes Scott's own traditions" continue. Bullock's connections with the College date back almost a century to when her great-aunt Mary Thompson was a student here. The president's mother, Mardia Hopper Brown, graduated from Agnes Scott in 1943. More recently, Bullock's brother, George Brown, served as a director of the Global Awareness program for the College. "Long forgotten metaphors of time and place haunted me," said Bullock, as she prepared late this summer for her transition from Washington, D.C., (where she directed the Asia Program for The Wood row Wilson International Center for Scholars), back to Agnes Scott. During the address, Bullock expressed gratitude to those from Agnes Scott's past. "Ruth Schmidt's determination to forge a multicultural, aesthetically beautiful and technologically up-to-date campus transformed this community. Sally Mahoney found much to celebrate during her year as interim president. She and I shared a special Stanford bond, and I pledge to continue encouraging Agnes Scott's renewal as a community of civility, collegiality, intellectual vitality, warmth and good humor." Out of the old forms and patterns, out of successes, mistakes and lessons, she said, emerge opportunities for new beginnings at the College. "We are at a crossroads," she said, "the future is before us, looming, beckoning, challenging." As institutions face "their own beginnings and endings," Bullock envisioned an Agnes Scott College that will survive and become great: as it develops strong links with the world, as it responds to the needs of women and their changing roles, as it continues to engender in students the joy of learning, and as it embraces all people. "Transitions" was the title Mary Brown Bullock chose for her first formal conversa- tion with the Agnes Scott community. To express the wonder of that circle made of endings and beginnings, she turned again to a passage from Eliot's remarkable Four Quartets, "Little Gidding": What we call the beginning is often the end And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from. . . . We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started. And to know the place for the first time. ullock '66 ?j2c*-^] IH',1- . FALL !)< WELCOME HOME By Tish McCutchen 73 Photographs by Laura Sikes Mary Brown Bullock ASC's first alumna president takes office, bringing to the College a new vision drawn from her international background and experience, and promising to meet the challenges of women's education in the century ahead. The year is 1952. The scene is Asia, a continent still wracked by the vestiges of World War II, by ongoing civil war and by the struggle to find its place in the second half of the 20th century. A dark- haired, 8-year-old girl along with her mother, father and brothers, 7 and 1 disembarks after the journey from America. Her family has arrived with a dream: to bring the good news of Christianity to the people of Asia. Skip to 1995. In Washington, D.C., a city filled with people struggling to find their place in the last years of the 20th century, a dark-haired woman with husband, son, 19, and daughter, 15 bids farewell to friends and supporters before embarking on another journey. The woman the child of missionaries, Dr. Mary Brown Bullock '66 will soon move to Decatur to become the first alumna president of Agnes Scott College. In anticipation of her new challenge, this evening Bullock greets well wishers gathered at the U.S. Capitol ASC alumnae and old Washington friends here to celebrate at the invitation of the Washington Alumnae chapter, Senator Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) and Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R- Ga.). Outside, the U.S. Marine Corps Band is winding down a summer evening concert. "The Man of La Mancha" highlights this week's performance, and as Bullock's friends wander out of the Capitol and into the warm Washington dusk, the band plays: "To dream the impossible dream ... to reach the unreachable star." Bullock's family has often reached for dis- tant stars. Her parents, and grandparents before them certainly following that road less traveled devoted their lives to mission- ary work in Asia. "I grew up on my grand- father's romantic stories of fleeing from the warlords in China," she says. "His capture by the Communists in 1949 and then his dra- matic release is one of my earliest childhood memories." Interest in China, the focus of Bullock's graduate study at Stanford University, led her to Washington, D.C, where in 1973 she became a staff member and, four years later, director of the Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People's Republic of China (sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences, the American Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council). She helped plan the first scholarly exchange program which during its first year sponsored 10 American students and now includes hundreds of American and thousands of Chinese participants each year. In 1988, she joined The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars as director of the Asia Program, housed in the Smithsonian Institution. Among other duties, Bullock (a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship holder, 1966-67 and a Wilson Center Fellow 1983-84) nurtured scholars from an area reaching from Afghanistan to Japan. "Mary has been marvelous, much bet- ter than any other person at the center, at dealing with the Fellows," notes Center Director Charles Blitzer. "We don't have undergraduates, but she has certainly been deeply involved in the care and feeding of scholars. That's true of her whole career." Professional priorities during that time have included teaching and serving on numerous academic advisory/trustee boards. Since 1991 Bullock has served as a professo- rial lecturer with The Johns Hopkins Uni- versity School for Advanced International Studies (in 1992 she was ranked among the top 10 of Johns Hopkins SAIS faculty). For many years she has been a trustee of the United Board for Christian Higher Educa- tion in Asia. Since 1992 she has served on A NEW PRESIDENT FOR ASC In 1952, Mary and George Brown posed with their mother, Mardia Hopper Brown '43 , at the Emperor's Grounds in Tokyo (above The children studied in ]apan at the international school there. Mary Brown Bullock (right) pauses outside her offices at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. , prior to moving to Atlanta. \t MK Si DTT mil ROE FA1 I 1995 the executive committee of the board of directors of the National Committee for U.S. -China Relations. Her recent academic/conference travel includes Korea, Japan, Taiwan, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Europe. "Mary is at home in a very broad world," notes Interim ASC President Sally Mahoney. Bullock's great-aunt, Mary Thompson, was the first family member to make herself at home in this wider world. After attending Agnes Scott from 1903 to 1905, she went directly from Atlanta to China as a pioneer missionary. Two years later Mary's paternal grandmother, Charlotte, joined her. She met her husband, Frank Brown, in China. Meanwhile, Mary's maternal grandparents headed for Korea, and in the early 1920s Mary's mother, Mardia Hopper, was born in Korea. Fast forward 20 years, and Mardia Hopper has become Mardia Brown '43, an Agnes Scott graduate wooed and won beside the Alumnae Garden pond. She and China- born husband Tommy began both a family and their plans to make their way back to Asia. While he attended seminary, she concentrated on rearing young Mary and George. After Mary finished second grade in Gastonia, N.C., the young family packed up their household goods and made the arduous journey to Japan. For two years, Mary and her brother took a train every day to an international school. When Mary was 10, her family moved across the Sea of Japan to South Korea, settling in Kwangju, a city of a quarter million in the south. "It was the provincial capital," Mary Bullock recalls, "but it was the capital of the least developed area of Korea. The Korean War had just ended. I remember an impres- sion of grinding poverty ... of riding the train and looking out onto houses with beer- can roofs." Mary's father began his work at a seminary for Korean ministers, and their family grew to include Charlotte and Bruce (14 years younger than Mary). No mission school existed in Kwangju, so Mardia taught Mary and George along with the other mis- sionary children, using the Calvert home- schooling method. By the end of seventh grade, Mary had exhausted the Calvert method, so her parents sent her and George to Japan, to the Canadian Academy in Kobe. "Travel in those days was very difficult," "My whole world view had been influenced by the East, and this trip through Europe gave me a chance to see what most Americans grew up much more familiar with. I think it helped me make the transition." A NEW PRESIDENT FOR ASC The "young girl" who went with her missionary family to Asia 40 years ago has changed over the years . But her abiding "world view" will add to that dimension of the College as it moves into the 2 1st century. Bullock says. "It took us three days to get from Kwangju to Kobe . . . overnight trains to the Korean coast, then a small ferry across the strait to Japan, then more trains. A few times we were able to make the trip by air." At the Canadian Academy, Mary Brown studied in the company of both missionary children and children of the small but grow- ing number of businessmen beginning to explore the Asian markets. Over the next several years she made infrequent trips back to Korea. "George and I had an aunt and uncle living in Osaka, and cousins at the same school, so we really weren't on our own," she recalls. Her mother sees it differently. "Basically, Mary has been on her own since she was 14," Mardia Brown says. "I think that com- bined with the fact that she was the oldest child, and I depended on her for so much helps ex-plain why she is capable of doing anything." When it was time to consider college, Bullock was familiar with her mother's alma mater. "My parents did want me to go to a church-related college. I looked through the college bulletins and eventually applied to Agnes Scott 'early decision.' I think the early decision part was my dad's idea, and I went along with it because Agnes Scott was in a big city." With a significant detour, Bullock made her way to Agnes Scott College. "I traveled through Europe with my aunt and uncle on the way back to the States. That was wonderful for me, because I saw for the first time what Western civilization was all about. My whole world view had been influenced by the East, and this trip through Europe gave me a chance to see what most Americans grew up much more familiar with. I think it helped me make the transition." The pace, the campus with its American Gothic architecture and the prevailing bobby-sox-and-Elvis youth culture posed an adjustment for Bullock that September 1962. "I came from a cosmopolitan environ- ment into college, and at that time Agnes Scott was a pretty provincial place." That experience, she later discovered, was shared by other Canadian Academy graduates. "It definitely wasn't just me and Agnes Scott it was a universal experience for all of us coming back to the States." Bullock quickly made a name for herself on campus "the girl from Korea" and confused a few students by her non-Asian appearance. Agnes Scott College Director of Alumnae Affairs Lucia Howard Sizemore '65 remembers. "I'm sure she got tired of being called 'the girl from Korea'," says Sizemore. "In fact, I think she was almost grateful when she had some problem with one of her knees and became 'the girl in the cast' instead." Dean of Students Gue Hudson '68 recalls walking across the quadrangle with a group of students including Bullock, who veered off into some newly sprouted grass in fla- grant violation of a sign: "Caution New Grass." When her companions asked what in the world she was doing, Bullock replied that in Japan and Korea grass was rarely seen and even more rarely walked on and she thought it wonderful that the college groundskeepers were actually inviting students to walk on the grass, albeit warning them to do so with caution. During the turbulent 1960s, other signs of culture shock must have sprung up along the young missionary daughter's path. As she noted in 1989 during a Mortar Board address as Centennial Distinguished Lecturer, "No one was talking about the Pacific Century in the mid-1960s, especially not in Atlanta. The big issues were closer to home: my freshman year, the Cuban missile crisis; my sophomore year, Kennedy's assassi- nation; my junior year, civil rights and the Selma march. By my senior year, the war in Vietnam began to loom on our horizon, but if anyone thought about China it was as a closed, radical, communist regime under Mao Tsetung." Somewhat sheepishly, Martha Thompson '66, a classmate, recalls, "Mary- tried so hard to have us just one night a week sit in Letitia Pate [dining hall] at a table and discuss international events. She had no takers." In fact, says Thompson, "We really did not get too far beyond the confines of the college physically or in any other way. I knew one way into Atlanta, one way to _10 AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE FALL 1995 Lenox Square. Mary kept trying, and some of us took courses at Emory. But for the most part, we were in our own small world." That Bullock was processing current events and seeking her own course of response was evident in 1965 during a bus ride to Montreat, N.C., to visit rela- tives. She picked up a Time magazine and read about an upcoming civil rights march in Alabama. "It just seemed like something we should be involved in," she says. Returning to campus, she persuaded several other Scott students to join her. "We signed out to go on a picnic," she recalls. "That was when you had to sign out whenever you left campus. But Dean Scandrett caught us before we could get away, and she knew something was up." Dean of Students Carrie Scandrett told the students that if they wanted to partici- pate in the march, they must have parental permission. That eliminated a good number of students. But Mary Brown slipped through that net: "I didn't have time to get a request to my parents and hear back from them," she says. "I just went." Before they left, Professor Mary Boney gave them her support and one piece of advice. "Look like real women," she said. "So," says Bullock, "we put on dresses and makeup and drove to Birmingham for the final stage of the now-famous Selma march. "We must have looked so out of place the marchers ended up putting us in the middle of the group; we were so clearly dif- ferent. I guess they wanted to protect us from the observers lining the streets. I'll never forget the stone-faced people we saw." The Agnes Scott students left before the end of the march and drove with many mixed emotions back to Decatur to greet general disinterest in what had just taken place. "I don't remember anyone asking anything about it," says Bullock. "It seemed to be a non-event." During her last two years at ASC, Bullock helped organize a week-long exchange program with Spelman College. She served as president of Christian Association, was a member of Mortar Board and was named to Phi Beta Kappa. She decided to attend Stanford University to study Chinese history and was awarded the first of her two Woodrow Wilson fellowships. "Agnes Scott was fortunate to have Dr. Kwai Sing Chang in the Bible depart- ment, and I took his courses in Oriental religion and Oriental philosophy," she recalled in her 1989 mortar board address. "The entire history department under Dr. Walter Posey, and two members in particular Penny Campbell and Koenraad Swart believed in me enough to supervise independent study and direct reading in Chinese history. "I chose graduate study at Stanford partly because I wanted to go West, and partly because it had a better climate. But also it had women under- graduates, and at that time Yale and Harvard did not. I thought it might be a better environment in a lot of ways." '^'U^l-C^?; Several Agnes Scott graduates were studying at Stanford at the same time as Bullock, living in a house in Palo Alto. When Martha Thompson visited them in California, she met Bullock's future husband, George, also a Stanford graduate student. "I was the only one who would go with him to a rally for Nixon," recalls Thompson. At Stanford, Mary Brown began inten- sive study of Chinese history at a time when scholars had little notion that within a few years they would be able to study the country and its culture from the inside. The door to China, closed since 1 949 when Bullock's grandfather was among those Westerners ejected, seemed firmly bolted shut during the mid-to-late 1960s. "I arrived at Stanford well-prepared to begin my grad- uate career just as the Cultural Revolution and Mao's Red Guards threw China into a convulsive paroxysm from which many wondered if she [China] would ever recover," Bullock recalled in 1989. In 1968, she earned a master's degree, in 1969, married George Bullock (after making all the arrangements herself, since her par- ents were still in Korea) and headed off to Dallas, Texas, where George was teaching at Southern Methodist University. But soon they were moving North to the University of Alaska "the first place among the hun- dreds of universities we wrote to that offered positions to both George and me," she says. Prior to moving to Asia with her family, Mary (left) and a friend play in Japanese kimonos . "I grew up on my grandfather's romantic stories of fleeing the warlords in China," Mary remembers. 11 A NEW PRESIDENT FOR ASC For much of her childhood, Mary Brown was a student in a student body of siblings, taught by their mother Mardia Hopper Brown '43 . Now she comes to direct the instruction of more than 600 students at Agnes Scott College. The College "has potential and prospects" that are different from Mary's student days, says ASC interim president Sally Mahoney. "It looks outward at a much broader world, and Mary looks outward at a much broader world." n AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE FALL 1995 After a year in Alaska, George's work drew them to Washington, D.C. As the great, closed doors of China began to crack open, Bullock finished her doctorate and began work at the Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People's Republic of China the "China Committee." Housed and sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences, the China Committee spearhead- ed the revival of decades-dormant academic relarions with China, establishing training and research programs for American gradu- ate students and faculty in China as well as for Chinese students in the United States. First as a staff member, then for 1 1 years as director, Mary Bullock says that she was "in the right place at the right time." Her disser- tation and later book on American medi- cine in China provided the background for her work in scientific exchanges. During those years, Bullock honed her skill as a bridge builder: between nations, between institutions and, perhaps most difficult, between her very pub- lic life and her family life. She and George and two children, Graham and Ashley, moved from young-couple digs on Capitol Hill to a house in northwest Washington, where George immediately began to organize a neighborhood baseball team so his children would learn the true American sport. Meanwhile, his wife was telephoning Beijing in the morning and cheering at the ballpark in the evening and giving each responsibility the attention it deserved. "It's kind of amazing to me that Mary has traveled so far and wide, she goes to Asia, she makes speeches and does research, yet on Friday night at 6 o'clock she's at the kids' Little League games," notes classmate Thompson. "She is able to have a foot in a very ordinary life and in an exotic, scholarly other kind of life too." Thompson tells of going to a neighbor- hood bookstore one evening and hearing that a famed China scholar from Yale was expected momentarily to discuss his new book and the current situation in Asia. She phoned the Bullocks' house, knowing that Mary would be interested in what the man had to say, and found that Mary and Graham were already on their way. "Graham and I sat on the front row, and Mary sat way in the back," recalls Thompson. "And throughout the evening, the speaker deferred to Mary. In his eyes, she was the expert." Bullock embarked on a new challenge in 1988 when she accepted the position as director of the Asia program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The center was established by an act of Congress in 1968 as the nation's memorial to President Wilson one of only two university presidents (along with Dwight Eisenhower) to serve as president of the United States. "Congress decided to make it a living memorial rather than a statue," notes Center Director Charles Blitzer. "We've already got a lot of statues." Through an international competition, the nonprofit research institution selects fellows each year to study under the aegis of one of the center's programs: Asia, Europe, Russia, Latin America or the United States. About his former Asia program director, Blitzer says, "When 1 had to say a few words at her going-away party, I decided to risk being sexist and said she was motherly. She would do things like take her Chinese fellows out to dinner . . . things that none of her colleagues think of very often." Bullock continued to nurture scholars; do research, publish a book and several essays and articles; and shepherd her own children into adolescence. Then she received a call from the presidential search committee for Agnes Scott College. "I always wanted to be a college presi- dent," Bullock says. "I think I must have inherited that interest from my dad. He has been an institution-builder, and I guess I have some of the same qualities. To take an institution, and the people that make up the institution, and help them to fulfill their potential, is an incredibly exciting chal- lenge. And to be doing this at my own alma mater is a great honor." So Bullock brought her family George, a government relations professional who works with investor-owned utilities; Graham, a sophomore at Princeton, and Ashley, a student at The Paideia School to the president's house, which has not had teenagers in residence for almost 30 years (and has undergone extensive renovation to make it family-friendly, dog-friendly and capable of housing the Bullocks' 5,000 books). Bullock brings her wide perspective to the Decatur campus. "When she looks at the institution, she talks about internationalization," says Dean of the College Sarah Blanshei, "not about the international relations program that the ASIA READING LIST Here are some of President Bullock's favorite recently- read books on Asia. Almost all are available in paperback. Jung Chang, Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991) Shusako Endo, The Samurai. (Viking, 1978) Kenneth Lieberthal, Governing China: From Revolution through Reform. (Norton, 1995) The Mahabharata, retold by R. K. Narayan (Vision, 1987) Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy. (HarperCollins, 1993) " Nancy Tucker, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the United States. (Macmillan, 1994) 13_ A NEW PRESIDENT FOR ASC College has in place we're not talking about specific curriculum here. What Mary Bullock has because of her particular international experiences is the ability to appreciate the importance of international- ization now and for the next decade." Notes Interim President Mahoney, "I think Mary will help the College move from the two or three percent international students back to the eight or nine percent that Agnes Scott had at one time." Bullock is not the first in her family to guide Agnes Scott through the global maze; her brother George is former director of the Global Awareness program, which was The First Family surround restaurateur Rai Shao outside a favorite eating spot in Washington, D.C. George, (left) a native of California who met Mary while both were students at Stanford, works as a consultant. Ashley is a student at The Paideia School. Graham is a sophomore at Princeton. designed to provide all students with the opportunity for study abroad sometime dur- ing their four years here. If the program were fully funded, all students would be able to participate. Currently, the College has two global destinations a year, with an aver- age of 25 students participating. "Over 50 percent of our students have had some kind of international experience before they leave," reports Dean Blanshei. "Just through Global Awareness, almost 25 percent of any graduating class has gone abroad. That's a phenomenal statistic." Bullock believes an international per- spective is "absolutely essential to anyone graduating from Agnes Scott or any other college today. All the cliches about the global village, the shrinking world, are true. One of the major emphases of higher educa- tion today is for each institution to find its way to deliver that perspective." To define its major emphases, the College spent much of the past year in an academic review. The result is "an enor- mously powerful document," believes Mahoney. It involves a strategic agenda and statement of values: a series of commitments to women, to the liberal arts, to teaching and to learning that focuses on collaborative learning between faculty and students, to diversity, and to community life based on honor and integrity. It addresses the chal- lenge of curriculum in a small school, which has to be selective about what it does, and emphasizes connections connected learn- ing through curriculum, pedagogy and a tighter academic organization. "It's a good foundation document on which Mary can build and provide leader- ship in areas of her own interest," says Mahoney. "She will bring insights, contacts and opportunities. The faculty can chew on the review and continue the dialogue with her." The immediate challenge facing the College and Bullock as its new chief executive is an anemic enrollment. While Agnes Scott is by no means the only prestigious institution facing that dilemma "We're in a bad place in good company," says Mahoney its small size may make the task harder. With com- pletion of the academic review and corre- sponding administrative review and with a student life review in the works the College has taken steps to figure out how to make its size an asset, not a liability. Another challenge faces Bullock her status as the College's first alumna president. "The people who remember Mary Brown from their school days," says Mahoney, "will inevitably find a different, deeper person . . . a woman whose person and profession have evolved in the 30 years since she was a student here. "She is coming to an institution that she knows has changed over the years. It has potential and prospects that it may not have had when she was here, in part because Atlanta is a different kind of place, more cosmopolitan than it was in 1966. It looks outward at a much broader world, and Man- looks outward at a much broader world." Mary Brown Bullock, that little girl who set her sights toward the East more than 40 years ago, has come a long way. Tish Young McCutchen '73 is a freelance writer in Lufkin , Texas 14 AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE FALL 1995 THE FIRST FAMILY By Audrey Arthur Among George Bullock's most trea- sured mementos are his auto- graphed baseballs from his college- playing days. His anecdotes of starting the Capital City Little League while living in Washington with wife Mary, son Graham and daughter Ashley also reveal a deep commitment to baseball and to family. Ashley caught the baseball fever early and now plays varsity softball at The Paideia School. "My dad taught me how to play when I was six or seven," Ashley says. "When he attends my games, it's encourag- ing; it makes me work harder he knows whether I do my best." Both parents have tried to arrange work and travel schedules to include their children's ballgames and they have shared responsibilities for raising their children. "George has always been the one who has taken the children to the doctor and dentist. He has cooked as much as I have. He pitches in and does everything. He does not see gender roles within the family," says ASC President Mary Bullock '66. Bullock met Mary while the two were graduate students at Stanford University. After his graduation, Bullock taught at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas while Mary finished her graduate work at Stanford. SMU had a strong policy against nepotism, so after the couple mar- ried, they searched for a university where they could both teach. They accepted positions at the University of Alaska, where Bullock taught American history and Mary taught Asian history. While in Alaska, Bullock appeared on television and radio and wrote for newspa- pers. His work gained the attention of Alaska's U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, who asked Bullock "out of the blue" to run his senate office in Washington, D.C. "Given my interest in American government, I decided what better place to be than Washington." In the early 70s, Bullock served as a senior policy adviser on performance contracting, government reorganization and revenue sharing in President Richard Nixon's administration. "When Nixon went out, I felt it was time for me to go back to teaching, but instead, I got a job running the D.C. office of Washington State Gov. Daniel Evans." Evans did not seek a fourth term in 1976, so in 1977 Bullock was hired by Michigan Gov. William Milliken to set up a procure- ment program to assist Michigan-based companies to vie competitively for federal government contracts. In 1980, he began directing the D.C. office of Wisconsin, under Gov. Lee Sherman Dreyfus. That experience later translated well into consulting for businesses seeking representa- tion in Washington, D.C. "Some companies were interested in lobbying on legislation to make sure they were protected in Congress on tax-related matters or legislation that vitally affected their doing business. Others were interested in selling to the govern- ment. I was either influencing the course of legislation or selling products to the government," Bullock explains. Currently, Bullock works for the Washington-based Edison Electric Institute, a trade association for 180 investor-owned electric utility operating companies in the United States, including Georgia Power. "Investor-owned utilities have an interest in the activities of state government. I assist these companies in their dealings with state legislators who make laws that set parame- ters for the public service commissions for each state that impact the electric utilities." Bullock is a native San Franciscan, but he essentially grew up in Portland, Ore. His father, who died in 1971, was in the construction business and his mother was a homemaker. He has a brother who lives in Japan; his sister and mother remain in the San Francisco Bay area. Out of Mary's first six weeks at Agnes Scott, Bullock was at home for only two. However, he plans to travel less during this period of adjustment, to oversee the final phase of the renovation of the President's home and to organize his office and library. Modest and humorous is the way Ashley characterizes the first husband of an Agnes Scott president. Mary agrees: "George is outgoing, jovial, opinionated, very family- oriented and supportive of my career. We see this as a job we will do together." From the early days of their marriage, the Bullocks have supported each other's career development. George's willing- ness to move to Atlanta is just the latest in a series of moves that have brought out the strengths of both. 15_ A NEW PRESIDENT FOR ASC HUSH AND EAT YOUR ROOTENANNY By Jane A. Zanca %&&&&* If food geneticists mate cucumbers and sugar cane, will the result be sweet pickles? hat do you get if you cross soybeans and apples A cash crop that grows on trees? Apparently that's just what the food industry hopes will be the out- come of using genetic technology to develop the perfect food. So what is the perfect food? It will have its own, built-in defenses against infestation and disease. It will grow abundantly, year-round, in poor soil, through dry spells and floods. It will look luscious and stay fresh, until you get it home and put it on the windowsill, where it will go directly from rock-hard to rot (this is called the keep-them- coming-back feature and is being tested in markets across the country). The bottom line is: the perfect food will increase profits down on the old corporate farm. While we know that our foods are, to some degree, contaminated with pesticides and other unsavory things, the thought of orchards a-dangle with genetic mutations stops us in our tracks. If it's true that Illustration by Mac Evans & C you are what you eat," what will we be in 2025? If food geneticists mate cucumbers and sugar cane, will the result be sweet pickles? If they jumble the genes of rutabagas and bananas, will the result be a rootenanny? And even though it's easier to peel, will the kids still refuse to eat it? Not long ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the agency charged with overseeing the safety of foods, drugs, biologicals and medical devices, said in Science that we're fretting over nothing. Americans have been eating such products for years, says the FDA; tor example, the kiwi was once a small Asian berry, until plant breeders bloated it to an egg-sized, nutritious fruit. That may be so, but how much harm can a kiwi do, if you take it off the cheesecake before you eat it? Besides, the difference between what was done to the kiwi and what exper- imenters would like to do in future transformations is the approach: Instead of breeding selectively or hybridizing, it is now possible to play with genetic constituents of the plant. And who's going to monitor such experiments? FQA WW 4 going ^ to be _16 AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE FALL 1995