Agnes Scott Alumnae Magazine [1997-1998]

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AGNES scon

ALUMNAE MAGAZINE

Spring 1997

Writing
And
Writers
AtASC

EDITOR'S NOTE

When hike trails are replaced by literary paths , the world expands and the
journey within begins; there, as at ASC, the future replaces the past.

The love of words came to
me rather late. Reading was
a difficult task and 1 much
preferred wheeling around the pine-
lined streets of Atmore, Ala., on my
bike to sitting inside and reading a
book.

But I did enjoy hearing stories
read aloud, especially on a late
spring day at the close of the school
year when the hot, heavy air rolled
in through our Rachel Patterson
Elementary School window and
Mrs. Van Pelt lulled the sixth grade
with the latest chapter of The
Yearling.

Reading aloud or reciting verse
was even harder for me even

more traumatic to me than sailing head-first over the
handlebars of my bike.

Then Nell Harper Lee found her way into my life, or
rather her book did. The author had actually arrived in my
life about three or four years earlier, when I met her at
Boo Boo and Edna McKinley's house. "Mary Alma," they
said, "this is Nell Lee. She's a writer." As a nine-year-old 1
was wholly unimpressed with her and she reciprocated. I
preferred the possibilities of the bug-thick backyard to
chatting with some old writer in a front-room rocking
chair.

A few short years later, 1 found myself reaching for
Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, hoping her words might some-
how rescue me from the tangle of adolescence. For the first
time, 1 preferred a book to biking. Lee's words awakened
something inside me; I began to understand the depth and
breadth of the human experience and marvelled at how it
could be captured in ink on paper. Little did I know at
that awakening that words would become my lite.

But my experience was not an
exclusive one. Many have been
awakened by the likes of Lee or
J.D. Salinger. Many have been
stirred by the host of writers who
have crossed the stage or graced
^ the classrooms at Agnes Scott

^ 5a through a quarter century of

Writers' Festivals. In this edition
of Agnes Scott Alumnae
Magazine, English Professor
Linda Hubert '62 recounts the
shaping of this powerful and his-
toric "literary play" in "The Love
of Words," page 19. Author and
journalist Charles McNair contin-
ues the homage by harnessing the
energy of last summer's literary
convergence. An International Celebration of Southern
Literature, in "Another Gem in the Literary Crown," page
28. His story, like many a good Southern tale, is thick
with wicker, magnolias, a breeze-swept porch and of
course, a ghost.

Beyond the literary realm, we turn to three leading
women's college presidents who discuss the past, present
and future of American women's education in "On the
Threshold of Tomorrow," page 6. From there we travel to
the other side of the globe with Rachel Huffman '97, tor a
glimpse of world religions through her "India Journey,"
page 14. In a special supplement to the magazine, we take
an introspective look at ourselves and our goals in the
College's Strategic Directions report, remembering as
Eudora Welty says, "The most daring journeys begin from
within."

CONTENTS

Agnes Scott College Alumnae Magazine
Spring 1997 , Volume 7^, Number 2

DEPARTMENTS

India Journal

Photo-essay by Monica Nikore
On a Global Connections trip, ASC
students explore the environmental
context of great world religions and
discover that there is so much more
to learn about faith and themselves .

On the Threshold
of Tomorrow

By Mary Brown Bullock, Johnnetta Cole

and Ruth Simmons

Photography by Paul Obregon

Three college presidents oudine the potential and the

promise oj women s education in the years ahead.

18a

Strategic
Directions

A Special Section describes
Agnes Scott College's
plans and goals , hopes and
dreams, for the list century.

COVER: A few of the literary
luminaries to attend the ASC
Writers' Festival: Jane Smiley,
Robert Frost, and (together) Gloria
Naylor (right) and Sharon Olds

The Love of Words

By Linda Hubert '62

Photography by Gary Meek

The Agnes Scott Writers' Festival continues to celebrate the

beauty and majesty of the English , lorm. but m their uking on ,

'mcni, change They chingcd oi
made its particular revelation, tli
t wortii for it But with the pa<u
on them and see them bringing n
idoni, promii^^iy still can: the

and the work of
women and men who capture
meaning and purpose on paper.

Another Gem in
the Literary Crown

By Charles McNair

Photography by Paul Obregon

The International Celebration of Southern Literature proved a

great literary and cultural experience a unique gathering.

On Campus

32
Lifestyle

36
Letters

37

Giving Alumna

Editor: Mary Alma Durrett
Design: Everett HuUum,

Nao Yamashita
Student Assistants:

Kimberly Bagley '00
Tara Hogan '97
Jennifer Odom '98
Samantha Stavely '97

Publications Advisory
Board:

Mary Ackerly

Christine Cozzens

Kim Lamkin Drew '90

Mary Alma Durrett

Bill Galley

Ann Teat Gallant '68

Ellen Fort Grissett '77

Tish McCutchen '73

Lucia Howard Sizemore '65

Copyright 1997, Agnes Scott
College. Published for alumnae and
friends twice a year by the Office of
Publications, Agnes Scott College.
Buttock Hall. 141 E. College
Avenue, Decatur, GA 30030,
(404) 638-6301.

Postmaster: Send address changes to
Office of Development, Agnes Scott
College, Decatur, GA 30030. The
content of the magazine reflects the
opinions of the writers and not the
viewpoint of the College, its trustees
Of administration, e-mail: publica-
tions@asc.agnesscott.edu

ON CAMPUS

Connecting to GALILEO, ASC endowment, life for the Presser dogwood,
a new sculpture on campus, of human rights and Bullock in China.

LINKED
TO THE
UNIVERSE

With the help of
GALILEO, Agnes
Scott College has become
the center of the universe
that is, the information
universe.

GALILEO (Georgia
Library Learning Online),
a statewide project to
enhance library ser\'ices
throughout the University
System of Georgia, offers a
world of research material
through hundreds of com-
puter terminals at 55
libraries within and outside
the university system. In
1996, Agnes Scott was
among the public and pri-
vate academic libraries in
Atlanta to become a part
of the GALILEO system.

Funding for the first
three years of the state-
wide linkup is provided by
a grant from the Woodmff
Foundation to the Univer-
sity Center in Georgia.

Librarians from across
the state agree that
GALILEO "levels the play-
ing field" for students at all
institutions ot higher learn-
ing large or small.
Through GALILEO, all
have access to the same

BRYAN HENDRIX ILLUSTRATION

basic information. In addi-
tion to the full text of the
Encyclopedia Britannica,
GALILEO contains period-
ical indexes for a variety of
subjects, newspaper
abstracts from nearly 30
major daily newspapers and
some of the most popular
databases, including
Business Dateline, ABI
Inform, Current Contents
and MLA Bibliography.

Other resources on
GALILEO include access
to the University System of
Georgia library catalogs,
state of Georgia govern-
ment documents and
Internet resources, such as

connections to the Library
of Congress, Smithsonian
Institution Libraries and
U.S. Department of
Education Resources.

Although GALILEO
can he accessed from
offices, dorm rooms or
computer labs on campus,
four computers at the cen-
ter ot the main computer
cluster in McCain Library
make access to the world
of information quicker and
easier.

To launch your joim\ey
through GALILEO'S world,
point your web hvwser to
http -J I www . Ag>\esScott . eduj
libiwy /welcome. html.

ASC RANKS

SECOND IN

INVESTMENT

RETURNS

With endowment
assets in excess of
$328 million, Agnes Scott
College ranks second
nationally in return rate on
investments and fourth in
endowment per student,
according to a National
Association of College and
University Business
Oftkers (NACUBO).

With a return rate on
investments of 33.2 per-
cent, ASC was second to
Emor^' University's 38.7
percent and well abo\'e the
sector's 17.2 percent aver-
age rate ot return.

Since 1985, the
College's endowment value
has grown from $60 million
to $328 million as of June
30, 1996. Over the past
five years, the rate of
investment return has aver-
aged 18.8 percent.

"Thanks to the growth
of its endowment and its
strategic position in
Atlanta, Agnes Scott has
the opportunity- to pro\ide
national leadership in
women's higher education.
The centun-old college is
planning tor significant

2

ON CAMPUS

growth, including a com-
prehensive building pro-
gram," said Agnes Scott
College President Mary
Brown Bullock '66.

Much of the fund's
growth comes from signifi-
cant holdings in Coca-
Cola stock. Other factors
include an aggressive
investment policy (75 per-
cent in equity stocks and
25 percent in fixed income
instruments) and a low
pay-out of 4 percent annu-
ally.

A 1954 bequest from
former trustee and alumna
Frances Winship Walters
often considered "the
second founder of the
College" provided the
College with two blocks of
Coca-Cola stock valued at
nearly $2.5 million; that
gift portfolio today has a
market value of more than
$196 million.

"Our healthy endow-
ment has enabled us to
control tuition increases
and, at the same time,
support our plans for
enrollment growth, new
faculty positions, and the
expansion and enrichment
of our curriculum," Bullock
explains.

The College's 1997
national rankings include a
"Best Value" designation
by U.S. News and World
Report and "Best Buy" from
Money magazine.

THE DOGWOOD LIVES ON

A fragile rim of bark encircles a deli-
cate dogwood bowl the size of two
cupped palms. The bowl rests atop a small
pedestal inscribed "This bowl turned from
the Presser Dogwood. Given to Agnes
Scott College in memory of Sherry L.
Ellington (B. A. 1984)."

Through this unique art, the College
retains a portion of
the Presser dog-
wood's beauty and a
legacy to the love of
learning.

The once-thriv-
ing tree lives not
only in the memo-
ries of family and
friends of the College, but also in the
timeless form of art.

To create a memorial to his wife,
Sherry, an Agnes Scott Retum-To-
College graduate who died of cancer in
May 1995 at age 50, Douglas Ellington
requested some of the wood from the
Presser dogwood, the tree campus officials
once spared by paying $10,000 to relocate
and restructure Presser Music Hall in 1940.

"Initially, I only wanted enough wood
to turn a ball-point pen for our son Jeff,"
says Ellington.

Yet from the tree limb provided by
Victoria Lambert, manager of campus ser-
vices, Ellington commissioned the creation
of four small bowls and pens to wood-turn-
ing artist Willard Baxter of the John C.
Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, N.C.

Although Baxter never met Sherry,
he "had the pleasure of talking to Douglas
about his wife a number of times. Ob-
viously, she was a very fine person and

dedicated to
Agnes Scott."

After cutting
the wood into
workable
pieces, Baxter
mounted it on a woodtuming lathe and
shaped bowls with hand-held gouges,
sanded them and covered them with fin-
ishing materials.

"Dogwood is very dense and turns
with the lathe extremely well very
smoothly," says Baxter.

The largest bowl is on display at
Agnes Scott in President Mary Brown
Bullock's office, one went to Sherry
Ellington's mother, Louise Laird, in Lake
Havasu City, Ariz., and one to Sherry's
ASC friend, Peggy Bynum '82, of Sandy
Springs, Ga.

Jeff Ellington, the couple's 27-year-old
son who lives in the Atlanta area, has
the fourth bowl and a pen turned from
Agnes Scott's Presser dogwood.

"Sherry was a devoted student who
enjoyed learning for the sake of learn-
ing," says Douglas Ellington. "She loved
Agnes Scott and its beautiful campus."

Samantha Stavely '97

ON CAMPUS

SCULPTURE
IN HARMONY
WITH ITS
SITE

The common image ot
an artist at work is of
a person confined to the
interior of a studio private-
ly contemplating life's
intricacies with paint,
chalk or pencil.

Maria Artemis '67, the
Kirk Visiting Artist for
1995-96 at Agnes Scott,
challenges that perception
with her public sculptures.
She is an artist whose
professional activities
reflect her interest in and
involvement with art in
and the public environ-
ment.

Artemis' most recent
work, Unknoum Remem-
bered Gate, was unveiled in
front of the Dana Fine Arts
Building this fall and dedi-
cated to President Mary
Brown Bullock '66.

"Each piece [of artwork]
is unique to its site. My
ideas come from a growing
dialogue between myself
and the site's history as I
research it and open myself
to what the site has to offer
my intuition and imagina-
tion," says Artemis. "It was
a wonderful experience for
me to create Unknoum
Remembered Gate because 1
could connect to the site
intimately through my per-

GARY MEEK PHOTO

Maria Artemis '67 ai'ui her recent work, displayed on campus: Unknown Remembered Gate.

sonal experience with the
College."

Since 1994 Artemis has
been awarded two Public
Art Commissions for the
city of Atlanta. The first, A
Memorial to Crime Victims
and Public Safety Officers
Who Die in the Line of Duty,
was completed in 1995 for
the new Atlanta Detention
Center Plaza.

The second site work,
Ex-Static, was commis-
sioned through the Cor-
poration for Olympic
Development in Atlanta
for the Civic Center pedes-
trian spur. This work, com-
pleted in spring 1996, is
located on West Peachtree
and Pine streets and is con-
stmcted fi^om aircraft parts,
steel pipe and stainless steel
cable.

Artemis has also served

on panels and symposia
concerned with art in the
public environment,
including the Atlanta
Mayor's Green Ribbon
Committee, the Piedmont
Park Design Advisory
Committee and the Art of
the Public Environment
sponsored by the Georgia
chapter of the American
Society of Landscape
Architects and ARS Natura
Magazine.

Artemis has received
many awards for her work,
including the Georgia
Women in the Visual Arts
Award in 1997; an Artist
Project Grant for her solo
exhibition, Labyrint)\, in
1994 from die Atlanta
Bureau of Cultural Affairs;
and an Artist Grant fiom
the Georgia Council tor
the Arts in 1993.

Her work has been
exhibited and displayed in
Italy and in numerous
cities in the United States,
including Atlanta and
New York City.

Artemis received a B.A.
in psychology from Agnes
Scott College, an M.F.A.
from the University of
Georgia and an M.S. from
the College of Architec-
ture at the Georgia Insti-
tute of Technolog\\

Since 1992, she has
been an adjunct professor
at the Atlanta College of
Art, where she teaches
Visual Studies and
Sculpture. She has also
served as a Visiting Artist
for architectural reviews in
the Graduate School of
Design at Harvard Uni\'er-
sity and at the Georgia
Institute ot Technology'.

MONIKA NIKORE PHOTO

AMNESTY
CHAPTER
FORMED

As students entered
Buttrick Hall the
week of March 10-17, they
encountered a compelling
display of black and white
photographs, along with
quotes from each person
pictured. Closer inspection
revealed these ordinary
faces as those of inmates on
death row.

Amnesty International
of Agnes Scott College
(AlASC) showcases such
exhibits to increase student
awareness of human rights
issues at America's prisons.

Founded by co-presi-
dents Rachel Huffman '97
and Nicole Sikora-Buttram
'97 and faculty advisor and
political science Assistant
Professor Juan AUende,
AIASC is part of a global,
non-affiliated movement
which advocates the prin-
ciples expressed in the
United Nations' 1948
Universal Declaration of
Human Rights.

AlASC's first meeting
was held in spring 1996,
with 15 student members.

"The campus is ripe for
an organization, whose
ideals are relevant to those
of a liberal arts education,"
says Sikora-Buttram.

Amnesty demonstrates at the School of the Americas

In addition to letter-
writing and e-mail cam-
paigns, members of AIASC
have participated in death
penalty demonstrations on
the steps of the Georgia
capitol and have travelled
to Columbus, Ga., to
protest at the School of
the Americas, which
Amnesty describes as a

"terrorists training ground."
The campus chapter has
also sponsored such fund-
raisers as a T-shirt cam-
paign and potluck petition
drive and encouraged
students to wear white
ribbons in support of
Human Rights Awareness
Day.

Sarah Chapman '00

ASC'S BULLOCK OBSERVES CHINA ELECTIONS

Agnes Scott President Mary Brown Bullock '66 was
among a seven-person international delegation
sent by The Carter Center at the invitation of the
People's Republic to observe Chinese village elections in
early March.

Bullock is recognized as an expert on China and has
experience with setting up U.S. -China institutional rela-
tions. The delegation was led by Robert A. Pastor, a
Carter Center Fellow.

=1 CENTER PHOTO

The delegation evaluated elections in the provinces
of Fujian and Hebei and held discussions with govern-
ment officials in Beijing on the electoral process and
other possible areas of cooperation.

The village elections are especially important with
the death of leader Deng Xiaoping. "I came away
impressed by the seriousness of the effort to introduce
choice and political accountability at the village level in
China," says President Bullock. "This does not necessari-
ly mean that China is laying the foundation for democ-
racy (in our sense) at the village or national level. It
does mean that this is an area of significant political and
economic complexity in a changing China."

While on the trip, Bullock visited her son Graham
and initiated plans for an Agnes Scott faculty group's
visit to China in June of this year.

Few foreign groups have had the opportunity to observe
village elections in process, but The Carter Center has
had experience in monitoring elections in 11 countries.

ON THE THRESHOLD
OF TOMORROW

The Past, Present and Future of Women's Education

By MARY BROWN BULLOCK, JOHNNETTA COLE, RUTH SIMMONS

t^

^y PAUL OBREGO]:^

nticipation "an electric ener^'y field," said one participant filled Gaines

.women's education at the college level. Gathered to present their vision were
the presidents of Spelman, Smith and A^'nes Scott: "Tojj;ether we are far more than
our individual lives, our respective colleges," said ASC's Mary Brown Bullock '66.
"Frankly, 1 can't imagine a more powerful women's network!" The more than 800 at
the summit on women's education agreed. In an era of selfishness and self-centered-
ness, women's colleges have the audience learned an opportunity and a responsi-
hility to offer hope and renewal and values to another generation of young women.

,"V

Agnes Scott's Mary Brown Bullock '66

REFLECTING ON THE
PAST TEACHINGS

Global learn-
ing, communi-
ties of spiritual
and intellectual
mentors, and
courage that
sums up a
women's educa-
tion for me.

Each of us has been asked to reflect
on our Uves, our colleges, and the
role of women's colleges today.
My own relationship to Agnes
Scott College and women's higher
education spans three generations and
almost a century. My great-aunt Mary
Thompson finished Agnes Scott in 1905,
and joined other alumnae who served as
missionaries in China.

A generation later, the second Mary
my mother, Mardia Hopper, bom and raised
in Korea left Pyongyang and arrived at
Agnes Scott as a first-year student. She was
here during the tumultuous years of World
War II.

A generation later, in 1962, I arrived
home-schooled from Korea via high school
in Japan just before the civil rights move-
ment and the Vietnam War convulsed the
nation.

As I reflect on Agnes Scott and three
generations of Marys, it is probably not sur-
prising that I think first about global learn-
ing, about the tension in this century, in
this College and in my own life between
multicultural global awareness and tradition-
al Western-oriented liberal learning.
As an almost-new college president

remembering my own student days, howev-
er, I think more about a community of men-
tors. And of the many traits, many values
that our third millennium class shares with
its predecessors, the one that stands out for
me tonight is courage. Global learning, com-
munities of spiritual and intellectual mentors,
and courage that sums up a women's educa-
tion for me.

Agnes Scott is a community that cele-
brates and, yes, struggles with diversity. But
I am convinced that as a women's college,
with traditional and Retum-To-College stu-
dents of all ages, we may become a model of
a new kind of American community that is
learning how to live, and study, and play,
and pray together.

For the 21st century graduates of women's
colleges, understanding other world views
is critical. The Fourth International Women's
Conference in Beijing graphically reminded us
that global issues are women's issues, that
African and Asian women have something to
share with us about family, about human
rights, and about the quest for a good society.

A good women's society, a good women's
college is comprised ot communities of

mentors faculty-, staff, families, and
other students. The word men-
tor comes from Greek mythol-
ogy Mentor was the "wise
and taithful" counselor to
Odysseus and Telemachus
during their long journey
after the fall of Troy in The
Odyssey. Although a woman's
transition from high school
through college and on into
the "real world" may not
be as physically danger-
ous as Odysseus' route,
it can be no less psy-
chologically treacher-
ous. Mentoring recog-
nizes that women are
on a journey and that
we all need help along
the way. For me, there
were spiritual and intel-
ectual mentors faculrv

members such as Ben Kline, former profes-
sor of philosophy and dean of the faculty.
He personified Agnes Scott's motto:
"Add to your faith, virtue, and to virtue,
knowledge."

Which leads me to courage. Courage is
perceived as a kind of macho virtue
that we don't talk about too much. But edu-
cating women and attending a women's col-
lege has always required a special kind of
courage.

The founders of Agnes Scott, Spelman and
Smith were men and women of courage, who
bucked the prevailing educational status quo
because they believed in the inherent poten-
tial of womanhood. Our graduates have been
pioneers in all walks of life. They have tackled
societal problems with a kind of quiet, persis-
tent courage.

And today it is our students who must have
courage intellectual courage and personal
courage. They have selected a women's institu-
tion because they are serious about discovering
and acting on their deepest potential. They
come from all walks of life. Many have come
from the most difficult family circumstances,
circumstances that reflect the many problems
women face in American society. But we
believe something very special can happen in
their lives at a women's college.

A new sculpture on our campus by Maria
Artemis '67, an Agnes Scott graduate, is
titled An Unknown Remembered Gate (see
page 4). It includes a "canopy (or symbolic
shelter) of loosely woven wire cables,
anchored by four polished wood poles, which
floats over a stone path leading to a contem-
plative rock garden." Inscribed on the path
are symbols of mathematics, astronomy,
science, Greek and Hebrew words for wisdom,
and verses of poetry. This path's symbols and
words reflect our shared journeys, beginning
with T.S. Eliot's "We cannot cease from
exploration..." to Italo Calvino's "like a frail
emergency bridge hung over an abyss..." to
these final lines from Mary Oliver: "When
it's over, I want to say all my life 1 was a
bride married to amazement."

That to me is what a women's college is
all about.

Most U.S. colleges and universities are
designed on a Western patriarchal model. If
you could scrap the whole system and start
over, how would you build a college today?

Johnnetta Cole: My colleague, Beverly Guy Sheftall, who
chairs our Women's Studies Center at Spelman and who is the
Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women's Studies, talks about the
three W's in American education too much of it is Western, white,
womanless.

Were I to begin from the beginning, it would not he a college that
described only the experiences of womenfolk because 1 think to do so
is not to describe the realities of womenfolk. To center our women
students in their own realities, it is not necessary to divorce them
totally from the realities of men. To center our students who are
African-American in their realities, it is not necessary to rid their edu-
cation completely of the experiences, the literature, the cultures of
those who are not African-American.

So at the risk of being complicated, I think the college of the future
is a place that is not about men's studies because that is what has
dominated higher education nor is it only about women's studies,
which has been the most important corrective device for womenfolk,
nor is it just about African-American studies or Hispanic studies.

Somehow, complicated as it is, we've got to get to everybody's
studies. That's my response.

Ruth Simmons: I think that's exactly right.

We would look pretty silly enriching ourselves and enriching our
students to the detriment of this nation and to the detriment of the
world.

I like the task force [model used] in Princeton University's Woodrow
Wilson School. In these task forces, teams of students get together as
peers with a faculty member who is there to answer questions, to guide,
but not to do the work. The students are confronted with a problem, a
societal problem, and they have to, in the course of a semester, solve it.
They have to do the research necessary to bring new solutions to hear,
hut in the end, they don't have the luxury of saying, "I can't figure it
out." They must solve it.

The product of the task force goes forward and often somebody
makes use of it.

So if I had to construct a new college, I'm not sure that 1 wouldn't
try as much of that kind of experience in it as possible.

Mary Brown Bullock: One point 1 would make is that we may be
too hard on ourselves. I've spent most of my career outside the formal
university structure in institutions that really are patriarchal and hier-
archical. Having now been at Agnes Scott for a little over a year, I've
been struck by how participatory a women's college is.

Yes, sometimes it takes a while as we talk about and wrestle with
the problems of consensus governance, and yet there are some wonder-
ful models within the college community, within academe. We have a
message to those outside of academe a message of participation,
shared governance of communities coming together and deciding their
future.

So 1 think the quesion is a little too harsh.

I came . . .
with a deep
belief in the
power of
educating girls
and women
to understand
more than
themselves,
to think,
and to act.

Spelman College's Johnnetta Cole

LESSONS FOR FUTURE
GENERATIONS

I want to tell a story. This is about an
old woman who lived in a poor com-
munity. She had one desire: She want-
ed a guitar. Often in her prayers, she
would slip in "If 1 could have a guitar,
I'd be mighty happy."

The folk in her community decided to
pool their meager resources and buy her a
guitar. Can you imagine the look on her
face when they presented the guitar to her?
She stroked it, she kissed it, she embraced
it. Then she placed her hands ever so cor-
rectly and struck a note.

The people clapped. She struck the note
again. And again. And again. The folk were
convinced her striking this single note
would pass, and went to bed only to hear,
throughout the night, the same note. In the
morning, they sent a delegation to speak
with the old lady.

Respectfully the village leader said, "It
has given us great joy to see you embrace
your guitar, but we suggest that a guitar is
capable of sounding many notes and we
thought perhaps you would want to begin
playing various ones."

The old lady replied, "I know. I've heard
them going up and down the guitar playing

these notes. But I want you to know that
what they're looking for, I've already found."
In a women's college, we've found the note.

As I thought of what it would be like to
serve as president of a women's college,
I remembered the woman who perhaps
taught me the most about a liberal arts edu-
cation for women. My Latin class teacher,
Ms. Moss, gone to glory years ago, would
pretend not to hear as every Latin class
period we chanted, "Latin, Latin, dead as can
be; first it killed the Rorrwm, now it's kiUing me."

But one day Ms. Moss decided not to turn
her ear away; she explained that Latin
helped us get outside ourselves, mo\'e
beyond our own reality, come to understand
another people and their way. Then she
added, "Young girls, you are learning Latin
because you will be young women and one
day you will think as well as any young man.
Latin will help you to do so."

So I came to a special place called
Spelman with a deep belief in the power ot
educating girls and women to understand
more than themselves, to think, and to act.

I want to share two lessons that I have
learned at Spelman. The first, learned in
a way that is perhaps impossible outside a
women's college, is that we womenfolk can
and do hold up halt the sky. Sexism shares
with racism that it is such a per\'asive force
that its victims can come to believe its non-
sense, its stereotypes, its destructive notions
about themselves.

A women's college gives you that liberal
arts education Ms. Moss talked about, but it
also helps you get rid ot any doubt about
what you can do and who you can become. I
look, for example, at our institution and see
the ways in which our students enter fields
that are traditionally identified as belonging
to men. Being at Spelman shows me that
women can do what they decide to do.

I am so convinced that womenfolk can
do what they set out to do that I have a
tear: One day I will return to campus and
just as 1 pull through the gates, I will see
crowds looking up to the top ot Rockefeller
Hall. The crowd will be staring at a group

of Spelman students who are flapping their
arms, ready to jump off, because they are
genuinely convinced they can fly.

The second and the last lesson that I
want to share is hardly a new one. Of
course, few lessons are really new discover-
ies. Lessons learned are more often merely a
new perspective on an old idea, or a reaffir-
mation of a previous hunch.

My 10 years at Spelman have reaffirmed
the commonalties and the differences
among us womenfolk. NX'hen 1 pulled
together some exciting ideas into a reader in
women's studies called All-American Women,
I challenged the fundamental idea that if
you've seen one of us, you've seen us all.

We womenfolk share an enormous body
of experience. We indeed may have shared
visions, not only about ourselves and those
that we love, but also about this world of
ours. But Spelman College has reaffirmed
for me that there is extraordinary diversity
among women, particularly among African-
American women.

Because Spelman is a historically black
college for women, I have a chance to con-
tinue to learn the many ways that African-
American women can see and believe and
think and move and act.

Tliis is a powerful lesson.

I believe deeply that if we womenfolk ever
truly come to understand not only our com-
monalties, but also our differences, we would
be the most important agents the most effec-
tive agents for positive social change. For
until we can get men to start co-nurturing
and co-parenting, women will continue to
be the major socializers of our children.

Of course, not all of us become, or even
wish to be, mothers; but for those of us who
are, we are more likely than men to be the
major influence in the lives of the next gen-
eration.

And so when we learn in these institu-
tions called Agnes Scott, called Smith,
called Spelman, a full appreciation of the
diversity among ourselves and indeed among
all of us humans what a lesson we then
pass on to the generations that will follow.

I Tell us about your mothers
and how they might have
influenced you and your
styles of leadership.

Mary Brown Bullock: My mother is in the audience. She has red
hair and one thing about her is that when she feels strongly about
something, she will say so. That's one thing that I hope 1 have learned
from her.

Another is her wonderful sense of listening. I don't think 1 knew
what in the world "active listening" was until 1 read about it in some
psychology books, but now 1 know my mother is an "active listener."
She draws you out and doesn't try to intervene and just hears your
story.

And that's a wonderful trait.

Johnnetta Cole: My mom was a college English professor and regis-
trar of a small, historically black college; later, she became the treasurer
of our family's insurance business.

In thinking of all the things 1 learned from her, 1 inevitably go back
to her message that I should "follow my passion." When I was strug-
gling with the views of others about whether 1 should be an anthropol-
ogist after all, how was I going to make a living doing that it was
my mom who said to me that more than making money, my goal had
to be to make myself happy and to do something good for others. If my
passion was anthropology and 1 could manage those things with it, I'd
better follow it, she said.

It's perhaps the most often advice that 1 pass on to Spelman stu-
dents: Follow your passion.

Ruth Simmons: 1 had very strong parents, but there's no question
my mother influenced me more than any other single person. An
extraordinary woman, she completed only eight years of schooling.
She spent her life as a homemaker, rearing a large number of children,
and being a devoted and subservient wife. After we moved to the city,
she did "day's work," which for those who are too young to remember
that euphemism is being a maid who worked in different homes on a
day-by-day basis.

When I was young, I went with her on some of her jobs and as she
went about her work, she would instruct me about walking with dignity
and grace through life. She taught me, in this way she had, that what 1
was as a human being was much more important than anything else in
my life. She taught me to have consideration and respect for other peo-
ple and not to be consumed by my own selfish interests 1 didn't suc-
ceed very well with that one, but that's what she tried to teach me.

The trustees of my college may think that I am responding to what
they want me to do, but I'm pot. I'm working as hard as I can to be the
person my mother wanted me to be. So for me, my mother's influence
was to teach me how to be a person.

When our students first come to Smith, some come without parents,
some don't have the "right clothes," and they're self-conscious, they're
uneasy; and 1 love to tell them, you know, the greatest person I've ever
known was a maid and she taught me how to lead Smith College. It
doesn't matter where you come from, it matters where you're going and
how you're going to get there.

11

Smith College's Ruth Simmons

BEACONS OF HOPE

FOR GENERATIONS TO COME

My simple premise
is that the quality
of life for all of us
in the future is
dependent on the
quality of educa-
tion and our
capacity to place
that education in
the service of our
communities.

The late Ernest Boyer offers a
vision of the American college
in the future. It's an institution
that celebrates teaching and
selectively supports research,
while also taking special pride in its capacity
to connect thought to action and theory to
practice. This new American college would
organize cross-disciplinary institutes around
pressing social issues. Undergraduates would
participate in field projects relating ideas to
real life. Classrooms and laboratories would
include clinics and youth centers, schools
and governmental offices. Faculty members
would build partnerships with practitioners,
who would in turn come to campus as lec-
turers and student advisors.

This new kind of college is committed to
improving, in a very intentional way, the
human condition. And it may well be that
this will in fact emerge as the new model of
excellence in higher education in the future.
It's a model that would enrich college cam-
puses, renew communities, give new dignity
and status to the scholarship of service. It's a
model based on equity and justice and not
on occasional acts of charity.

Today, about 6 percent of U.S. chil-
dren nearly 4 million live in severe-
ly distressed neighborhoods. The poverty
rate among them is three times worse than
for other children. More than one in five
American children lives in poverty, a ratio
attributed to the number of families headed
by single rnothers, many of whom are under-
educated and underqualified for sustaining
jobs. The poverty rate for children living in
female-headed households continues to be
more than twice that of children in general.

Over the past 20 years, the number of
children under six has grown by less than 10
percent, but the number of poor children
under six has grown by 60 percent. Too
many children are poor, sick, dying and
growing up abused and neglected.

Every 30 seconds a baby is born into
poverty in this country. Evei^ four hours a
child commits suicide. Every five seconds of
the school day, a child drops out of public
school. Every four minutes, a baby is bom to

a teenage mother who already had a previ-
ous child. And every day 5,703 American
teenagers are victimized by violent crime.

All too many of America's children and
their families are in crisis.

My simple premise is that the quality of
life for all of us depends on the quality
of education and our capacity to place that
education in the service of our communi-
ties. We are charged with educating and
training society's citizens, with discovering
and disseminating new knowledge, w-ith
monitoring, recording and analyzing the
human condition, with encouraging and
engendering human creativity and intellec-
tual production through the arts, humani-
ties, sciences and technology. We are
charged with assisting in the search tor solu-
tions to pressing social problems.

Education has a responsibility, an oppor-
tunity, to safeguard our civilization. And
historically the American educational sys-
tem, despite its flaws, has been both the
envy of the world and the hope of a nation,
because it was accessible to all citizens at all
levels. Today we need to rethink and renew
our understanding of our relationship to our
communities; to renew our
understanding of ser-
vice and its relation-
ship to teaching,
research and the
communities that
host our institu-
tions. We must work
together to redefine the
boundaries of knowl-
edge, to create
environments
in which our
children
can learn
We ha\'e
to be
especial-
ly wom-
en's col-
leges
strong
and per-

il

sistent advocates for children and especially
for the growing number of children who are
without defenses in a challenging world.

What about girls in particular? We must
ensure that young girls in elementary
and high school maintain every academic
option open to them for the longest possible
time. Women must be educated today as if
their very lives depended upon their educa-
tion, because we now know for most of
them they will. Each of our colleges will be
among those who help decide the fate of
young women in years to come. We must
care for their hopes and dreams. It is their
high aspirations that will have to sustain
them through a lifetime of many challenges
and much change.

I believe it is increasingly important for
higher education to embrace a strong and
enduring commitment to alleviate some of
the social dilemmas that our world faces.
Most of our institutions are working hard to
develop new programs to achieve this.
1 hope and feel very strongly that as
women's colleges, we have to set the pace.
We have to show the way.

We've got to take a stand for children.
We've got to take a stand for families in

need. We have to
reclaim our
heritage as
the nation's
hope and the
envy of the
world.

How do your institutions serve the non-
traditional student, and do you believe
that women's colleges are especially
suited to the nontraditional student?

Mary Brown Bullock: Agnes Scott's Return-To-CoUege Program
has been going on for about 20 years, probably accounting for 1 5 per-
cent of our student body. What I hear from faculty and other students
is how these women of all ages enrich the classes in which they partici-
pate. They bring life experiences and by their examples, their lives,
their experiences, their sheer determination, they serve as models for
younger students.

But we also need to take their needs more seriously. They come to
our institutions at a turning point in their lives needing academic
counseling, career counseling, better study and childcare facilities. We
need more work on these at this institution.

But certainly, the nontraditional student is an essential part of the
Agnes Scott community and probably will be a growing community
here.

Ruth Simmons: There are so many kinds of students today, I'm not
sure if there is such thing as a nontraditional student. I don't know
what that is anymore.

If we're referring to students who enter college later in life, past
the age when most women enroll, we offer an exciting option in our
Ada Comstock [return to college] Program. Return-to-college stu-
dents are highly motivated, and there is no mistaking the fact that
our institution can make a significant contribution to them and to
their families.

Not everyone comes to this program the same way. Some are high
school drop outs. Some have had a child out of wedlock they've been
sidetracked by childrearing, but they still have the desire to do some-
thing with their lives and to do something for their children. It is
important for us to reach out to all of these women. We've got to look
for people's ability, we have to find out where they are, and we have to
make education available to them. Education is the key to solving
some of the problems we face.

Johnnetta Cole: In a way, I think every woman who goes to a wom-
en's college is a nontraditional student. She's not supposed to be there:
What in the world makes her think that she can be an intellectual? So
for women simply to enroll in schools like Spelman, Smith or Agnes
Scott is to do a nontraditional thing.

Women's institutions are very powerful, very strong, very effective,
but they are not perfect. At Spelman, we have a continuing education
program, but we should do far more in terms of not only attracting, but
also making comfortable and supporting women of many life circum-
stances, particularly those of different ages and family status. Spelman
has primarily an 18-to-22-year-old student body, and although we do
much to enrich the lives of these young women, their lives would be
further enriched were they studying with women of many diverse and
rich life experiences.

Our institutions are works in progress. We have found our "note,"
but there is so much more that we can and should do. We simply must
get on with doing the work.

13

I

NDIA
OURNEY

J)n a (JloBcPI"'Cf

)nnections

rip, Scotties ex

plore the

nvironnnHH

context of great

^^orld religrSH^

and discover that

tiere is so vm^

1 more to learn

bout faid^Hf

id themselves.

'hoto-es^^^l

Vlonika Nikore

xcerpts frorfl^^^H

-lalofRachel Huffman '9

^'

w

m

"THE GANDHI MEMORIAL (k/t) "WAS QUITE IMPRESSIVE.
GANDHI KEPT HIS FINAL FAST THERE. A MONUMENT
STOOD AT THE EXACT PLACE OF HIS MURDER."
ABOVE: RACHEL HUFFMAN AT THE SIKH TEMPLE IN DELHI.

A RIDE FOR DEAR LIFE

Rachel C. Huffman '97 grabbed one of her
friends from the safe confines of the YMCA,
gathered a handful of rupees, hailed a three-
wheeled taxi and hurled herself into the
chaotic traffic of Delhi. "I feel strangely adventurous,
almost invincible, ready to try something new," she noted
in her journal last January, on the first day of a Global
Connections trip to India. As they coursed through the
colorful mass of pedestrians, three-wheelers, cars, buses
and bicycles, Huffman remembered, "Vicki and I held on
for dear life."

A religious studies major from Baton Rouge, La.,
Huffman was one of 1 2 students to witness the burgeoning
"village of India" on Agnes Scott's first Global
Connections trip in January of 1996.

An extension of Agnes Scott's Global Awareness
Program, Global Connections allows students to visit a
foreign country and study a specific aspect of cultural life
as an additional component of an existing course of study.

The India trip followed a semester of study in World
Religions, taught by John Carey, professor and chair of the
Department of Religious Studies.

Huffman: "/ have so many questions that Yd never think
to ask if we were studying India from a textbook rather than
from experience. Gandhi believed in experiential learning
learning by doing and acting. So often this is a man's world
in which to do and act women are forced to compromise to
just be. I hope this pilgrimage to India will let us do without
inhibitions . "

15

VICKI COUCH '98 (with video camera) AT ELLORA CAVES IN AURANCARAO

AT A GROUP GATHERING, A jAIN NU

ALWAYS ON THE GO

We're always on the go, being whisked from place to place
in a bus that is so tall that we look down on everyone .
Huffman wondered if they were being perceived as imperi-
alist Westerners as they travelled the streets.

The group journeyed to Delhi city of temples, monas-
taries, churches, mosques; to Agra, Varanasi, down the
Ganges River to Bombay (the Elephanta Caves), then on
to Aurangabad (the Ajanta Caves and Ellora Caves).

They visited the University ot Pune, SNDT Women's
College, mingling with religious figures of other faiths,
listening to a Jain nun, a Buddhist monk, Sikh and Baha'i

MELANIE HARDISON

SHOrriNG IN .ANRANGABAD

16

ed) CHANTS IN HOLY SrAe:E; Tl IE FACE MASK KEEPS HER FROM INHALlNe : ANYTHING ORGANIC AND THUS DAMAGING ANY LIFE.

EATING NORTH INDIAN CUISINE AT A RESTAURANT

holymen, delving into other's beliefs, learning the singu-
lar and the universal of human existence and experience.

At the Gautam Hotel, two Muslim women, covered
and veiled, swished past Huffman.

"The contrast between the Muslims and us reminded me
of a story Monika [Nikore, the photographer] told. A tradi-
tional woman asked her, 'What are you thinking?' Monika
replied, 'How lucky J am to be able to live my life freely, and
how unfortunate that you are bound to a family . ' The
woman said, 'That's funny, because I was just thinking how
lucky I am to have a grounding and how unfortunate you
are to have to wander through life alone . ' It's all about
perspective . "

17

From ancient to
modem, India
captured the
students' minds
and imaginations.

JESSICA OWENS (second frcm Uft), JENNY HATFIELD (muMe) AND
SARA MARTIN (right) MEET STUDENTS AT UNIVERSITY OF PUNE
MAIN PHOTO: BAHA'I LOTUS TEMPLE, OUTSIDE OF DELHI

THE JOURNEY CONTINUES

The poverty of India was frightful. Jhelieaiity of
India inspiring. The days were full. And meaningful.
"I am learning that change must occur within a person's hearty
and mindaivi soul in order for that person to affect, tke'mder
scope of society. In this way, each of us'Kas the pou)er
dnd inay be empowered to create change in the \
uoild If one cafi learn inner peace , then she
can teach outer peace by examj

I have so much to digest from this trip,
and am constantly contemplating
the implications of it...."

After a quarter of a
century, the Agnes
Scott Writers'
Festival continues
to celebrate the
beauty and majesty
of language and
the work of women

meaning and purpose
on paper

isi

By Linda Lent: Hubert '62

The impact
of the Writers'
Festival events
upon young
writers as well
as old faculty
members can
last a lifetime.

Perhaps because it has been so
much a part of the life of the
College and indeed of the
region the annual Agnes Scott
Writers' Festival seems to Agnes
Scott oldtimers like me to have existed for-
ever. Surprisingly, that is not so, though its
roots reach deep into the foundations of a
college which honors the well-written word
and where close ties to special writers seem
all but taken for granted.

Bom of the myriad literary influences
that have enlivened and enriched Agnes
Scott from its earliest days, the Writers'
Festival was fleshed out in its present form
in 1972. It is now a quarter of a century old
and, unlike some of its fans, growing better
with age.

Although the excitement on campus
reaches its brief apotheosis during two
tightly-scheduled days in late March or early
April, the impact of the festival events upon
young writers as well as old faculty mem-
bers can last a lifetime. The distinguished
participants of this annual spring ritual
release an energizing magic upon the cam-
pus and community. Storytellers as distinc-
tive as Eudora Welty and Gloria Naylor,
poets as admired as Howard Nemerov and
Gwendolyn Brooks, playwrights as celebrat-
ed as Alfred Uhry and Marsha Norman '69,
influential essayists like Philip Lopate and
Melissa Faye Greene such as these join
with their eager, and as yet unproved,
student counterparts to affirm each other's
voices and celebrate a collective joy in the
word.

The talents of May Sarton, Marion
Montgomery and Michael Mott enriched
the first festival. The silver anniversary
event this April was enhanced by Jane
Smiley, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of A
Thousand Acres; versatile Atlanta author
Pearl Cleage; Katha PoUitt, known tor her
incisive commentary; and Agnes Scott
alumna poet, Rashidah Ahmad '92.

Joy in the Word

Because literature has alvx'ays prox-ided
common ground for Agnes Scott stu-
dents, the ample audiences at readings
and lectures are not constituted only of

1974 IS

English majors, nor limited to first-year stu-
dents who proffer battered texts for the living
subjects of their semester's literature study to
autograph. This shared regard for letters pro-
vides one historical reason for the campus-
wide enthusiasm that greets the Agnes Scott
Writers' Festival of today.

A second reason is an enterprising facul-
ty, which began in the early decades of the
century to attract literary luminaries to this
tiny Decatur college.

Harriet Monroe was in\'ited to speak at
Agnes Scott in 1921; her magazine. Poetry,
regarded as the voice ot contemporarv- \-erse
in English, had published the unknown T.S.
Eliot poem, "The Love Song ot J. Alfred
Prufrock" just a few years before. Vachel
Lindsay, another of those poets indebted to

20

5

1977

PREVIOUS PAGE: AUTHOR
JANE SMILEY CAST A FORMI-
DABLE LITERARY SHADOW
ON THIS YEAR'S FESTIVAL.
LEFT: A SPOTLIGHT BATHES
SPEAKER PEARL CLEAGE.
BELOW: JORIE GRAHAM,
CHARLES JOHNSON,
MEMYE TUCKER '56,
JUDITH ORTIZ COFER AT
PANEL DISCUSSION.
BOTTOM: ROBERT FROST IS
INTERVIEWED DURING AN
EARLY VISIT TO CAMPUS.

Monroe's publication, visited
the College in 1922, fol-
lowed by Thornton Wilder,
Louis Untermeyer, Edna St.
Vincent Milky, Carl
Sandburg and Andre
Maurois in the 1930s. Pearl
Buck, Randall Jarrell and
Katherine Anne Porter came
a little later.

And still later, Mark Van
Doren, C.P. Snow, Archi-
bald MacLeish and Peter
Taylor.

Professors Ellen Douglas
Leybum and Janef Preston
collaborated in the 1950s
and '60s to bring writers to
campus in what Professor
Emerita Margaret Pepper-

The College's
"high regard
for letters" and
its enterprising
faculty are
given credit
for the festival's
success and
longevity.

21

dene thinks of as an early avatar of the pre-
sent festival. The poet John Ciardi came at
their invitation as did a shy and not yet
famous Flannery O'Connor in 1961. May
Sarton's first appointment as writer in resi-
dence occurred in the early sixties. When
Sarton returned a decade later, she shared
her sixtieth birthday and the launching of
the newly-configured Writers' Festival with
the campus. The new festival was featured
with the statewide competition for student

FROST IN HIS NEW ENGLAND
GARDEN. FOR MANY YEARS,
THE GREAT POET WAS ONE
OF THE FESTIVAL'S MOST
PROMINENT PARTICIPANTS.
RIGHT: PEARL CLEAGE TALKS
ABOUT HER CRAFT IN A
CLASSROOM DISCUSSION.

writers that defines it today.

Professor Bo Ball, himself a prize-winning
short story writer, shaped the original stu-
dent contest and has consistently directed
the competition, assisted by poetry-teacher
Associate Professor Steve Guthrie and other
faculty in recent years. The eminent writers
constitute a panel of judges for the monetary
awards made to the winners of the student
contest. They select from texts already hon-
ored by their inclusion in the Writers'
Festival Magazine, an annual publication of
the English department.

Students appropriate the visiting writers
once the special guests hit campus: they eat
breakfast with Richard Eberhart, lunch with

1981 IS

22

uwmi

Maxine Kumin, dinner with Tillie Olsen.
They enjoy helping the faculty transport the
writers to and from the airport, often so that
they can have another private word with
Charles Johnson or Carolyn Forche or
Robert Coover. Some have dodged awkward
petitions of the occasional undisciplined
guest like the not uncommon request for a
trip to a nearby package store, served up by
more than one writer who has earned almost
as much fame for liquor consumption as for
deathless prose or poetry.

The Memories Live On

Most of our visiting writers are remem-
bered solely for their generous com-
mitments of time and counsel to stu-
dents and for readings that engage the minds
and hearts of enthusiastic audiences. However,
a few left legacies that we savor now as
favorite anecdotes, although some of the living
moments were trying. If I still react with per-
verse pride to the memory of Gwendolyn
Brooks' complaint that I drove "like a New
York taxi driver," I have suffered sustained
humiliation at the recollection of Margaret
Atwood's droll response to an overly enthusi-
astic introduction: "Thank you. You make me
sound as if I had sprung wholly formed from
the head of Zeus!"

One of our most notorious "struggles-
with-great-writers" stories took place in
1971, the year before the formal festival
began. For all she tried during a pre-lecture
dinner. Professor Jane Pepperdene could not
get the great poet W. H. Auden to down
the coffee that she ordered from one waiter
as fast as he waved martinis from another.

Removed to Gaines for the lecture,
Auden proved irascible. He defied the
efforts of Professor Jack Nelson to hold him
by the coattails backstage until the appoint-
ed hour of 8:15 p.m. At shortly after 8:10,
the two of them flew out from the wings,
Jack having to run round Auden to make
what could be little more than a "Tonight
Show" introduction. ("Fieeere's AUDEN!!")
Spilling his armload of books across the
stage, Auden leaned on the podium, causing
the several papers he still clutched to
crackle into the microphone. Apparently
convinced that an agent of sabotage had

W.H. Auden,
lubricated with
more martinis
than coffee,
proved an
irascible speaker.
He flew onto
the stage before
his cue to little
more than a
"Tonight Show"
introduction
"Heeere's
AUDEN!!"

23

ROBERT PENN WARREN SPOKE
AT AN EARLY FESTIVAL.
CENTER: WRITER RASHIDAH
AHMAD '92 GIVES A HUG AT
THIS YEAR'S EVENT.
RIGHT: EUDORA WELTY, ONE
OF THE MOST TREASURED
REPEAT GUESTS, CAME FIRST
TO THE COLLEGE DURING THE
LEYBURN, PRESTON YEARS.

corrupted the sound system, he protested
the very static he continued to create and
never seemed to understand that he was the
author of his own distractions.

The boozy English accent over a spitting
microphone meant an unintelligible first
half Someone must have worked wonders
or at least succeeded with the coffee dur-
ing a welcome break, for the intermission
brought an amazing recovery. The wit and
wonder of Auden's glorious language was
fully articulate in his remarkable reading
from that point on and at its close, the
overflow audience, sprawled in the aisles as
well as filling every seat, leapt as one to its
feet.

Another flirtation with near disaster
occurred a few years later with the visit ot
Kentucky writer and founder of the New
York Review of Books, Elizabeth Hardwick.
Our excessive hospitality and miscommuni-
cation almost did her in when I instructed a
colleague that she wished bourbon on the
rocks for an aperitif. His hand was heavy
the graceful lady had wanted only a splash
of bourbon and much water in her drink.
Truly sabotaged, she giggled quite a lot
and danced about the stage in Dana
before taking hold ot her wits ... and her
spirits and delivering a charming,
instructive talk.

She liked Agnes Scott well enough to

24

festival on this occasion, Uhry was presented
in conjunction with a campus-wide celebra-
tion in Gaines Chapel, complete with faculty
conscripted into an academic march.

The Atlanta bom and raised playwright
pleased the enormous audience with stories
of his trials as a Jewish boy in a Protestant
neighborhood, and, to our amused delight,
recalled singing "Onward Christian
Soldiers" in enthusiastic abandon with the
Atlanta Boy Choir.

Fresh from an Academy Awards ceremo-
ny where the film version of his Pulitzer-
Prize-winning play Driving Miss Daisy
received an Oscar, Uhry gave us an on-site
sense of his outrageous excitement at receiv-
ing this award. He also confided the tension
attached to the obligation to thank every
living soul who had ever influenced the pro-
ject. He particularly lamented his heart-felt
failure on that occasion to thank the sixth
grade teacher who had fired his interest in
books and writing. He said he wished for a
way to make it up to her.

I was just behind him in the platform
party as we marched out of Gaines. About
two-thirds of the way down the aisle, I saw
him divert to greet a small white-haired lady
who had oddly stepped into the path of the
formal procession. We clustered and

Despite or
because of?
the guests'
flirtations
with disaster,
the festival's
reputation
has grown.

'''immBSMSMssii^igisiK

help us negotiate a visit from her former
husband, Robert Lowell, one of the few
American poets of considerable note
who never made it to the campus. He
died in 1977, the year we planned his
participation in the festival, of a heart
attack in a taxi cab on the way to
Elizabeth's New York apartment.

Driving Mr. Uhry

Alfred Uhry's visit during Agnes
Scott's Centennial provided a
moment of high satisfaction for
me as a teacher. At the request of the
Alumnae Association, whose weekend
activities converged with those of the

mmmm

25

imt

Alumnae Books

regrouped to exit hut only after he had
caught her in a bear hug. After seeing the
notices of her famous student's partici-
pation in the Writers' Festival, Mrs.
Harrison of Highland Avenue School
had determined to attend his reading.
That day on behalf of all who teach
she thrilled to public accolades that are
rare for the teacher; her resplendent
face confirmed the power of unexpected
tribute.

Pages from ASC's Book

Writerly events seminars, sym-
posia, celebrations, festivals,
workshops and various other
excuses for bringing practicing writers to
campuses around the country have pro-
liferated in recent years. Agnes Scott's
festival, however, has the distinction of

The literary legacy of Agnes Scott College far exceeds the 25 years of
the Writers' Festival and last summer's "International Celebration of
Southern Literature." The exact number of works written or edited by
Agnes Scott alumnae will never be known, but more than 300 titles are
in the collection of McCain Library, and nearly 100 more are in the
archives and in the alumnae office. The latest group of alumnae penning
works:

Chor Jee Chow '54, aiithor of A River Called Beautiful, writes
an autobiographical sketch of her childhood and life in
Singapore. Publisher: Landmark Books 1997, 216 pages.

Kathryn Helgesen Fuller '82 writes At the Picture Show:
Small Town Audiences and the Creation of Moi'it'
Fan Culture and contributes Chapter 2,
"Movie-Made Social Science: The Enterprise
of the Payne Fund Studies Researchers," to the
book Children and the Movies: Media Influence
arid the Payne Fund Controversy. Publisher:
Cambridge University Press 1996, 414 pages
Mildred Davis Harding '38 is the author
of Air-Bi7-<i in the Water: The Life and Works of
Pearl Craigie (John Oliver Hobbes.) It is an historical,
analytical and biographical look at the American-born
English author Pearl Craigie. Publisher: Associated

University Presses 1996, 535 pages.

Harriet Stovall Kelley '55 displays her poetry in The ArctAngc'l and
Other Cold Poems. Publisher: HaSk 1996, 27 pages.

being among the oldest and best known in this
part of the country and, as many a distin-
guished guest has noted, among the most plea-
surable and worthwhile.

Gracious colleagues at local institutions
claim that the College long since set stan-
dards for hospitality and substance that they
have emulated with younger programs.
Sometimes, like conference organizers at
Emory who followed our lead for three years
running with invitations to poets Rita Dove,
Sharon Olds and Jorie Graham, they took a
page from our guest hook as well.

For funding, we depend on the kindness
of friends. The generosity of alumna and
former Agnes Scott Professor Eleanor
Newman Hutchens '40 makes possible the
prizes in fiction and poetry for which Agnes
Scott students compete with college and
university students throughout Georgia.

Another more recent alumna and cur-
rent M.A.T. student, Eulalie Drury '92,
began a few years ago to contribute
resources for a new prize in non-tiction. The
will of the late Margret Trotter, an enthusi-
astic supporter of the developing festival
while she was teaching at Agnes Scott, con-
tained a festival bequest which has saved us
from red ink more than once. Grants from
the Southern Arts Federation have helped a
time or two. And ever since Wallace
.Mston struggled to find money for that first
occasion in 1972, the presidents
of the College have funded the
festival at levels not flush but suf-
ficient.

The generosity' of the writers
themselves has often made the dif-
ference: Many ha\-e come more for
ove than tor moiiey. The honorari-
um tor Robert Penn Warren, who
came as our 1973 participant with
George Garrett, was scandalously
ow given his eminence. Knowing
our strictures, he would have it no
other way.

Remarkable Friendships

ost remarkable of the friendships
discounting that extraordinars" love
aftair oi 20 years between the
and Robert Frost, ot course have

M

Collet

26

been relationships with repeat visitors like
Richard Wilbur and Josephine Jacobsen.
Wilbur proved susceptible to Professor Emerita
Jane Pepperdene's persuasive charms and we
to his on some five occasions. A good friend
of President Marvin Perry, Jacobsen was invit-
ed to participate in his inauguration. She
returned in 1975 to the festival; her talk "One
Poet's Poetry" was so affecting that the
College supported its publication. Poet, short
story writer and essayist, this extraordinary
woman came five additional times, gracing our
festival last in 1992.

Eudora Welty, one of our most treasured
repeat guests, came first to the College dur-
ing the Leyburn and Preston years. Some
time later she became friends with Eleanor
Hutchens on shipboard en route to England;
neither likes to fly. That friendship and
one that developed with Jane Pepperdene
no doubt promoted her interest in Agnes
Scott. She came enough times to the
College that we felt we shared a special rela-
tionship with the quietly humorous and
modestly self-deprecating writer. What a
blessing to have Eudora seated on your cam-
pus lawn munching a sandwich from a
white box and sharing her wit and wisdom
affably with those seated around her! She
came last to Agnes Scott as a tribute to
Professor Pepperdene upon her retirement
in 1985.

Distinguished poet
Michael Harper visited
first in 1988. He came
again most recently as Laney
Visiting Professor of Creative Writing in the
spring of 1995, when he simultaneously par-
ticipated in his second festival. Steve
Guthrie, who studied at Brown University
where Harper teaches, was responsible for
this fruitful connection.

Memye Curtis Tucker '56 has been still
another recurrent participant. Alumna,
poet, playwright, editor and teacher,
Memye has gracefully moderated an interac-
tive panel of festival participants on numer-
ous occasions. She was the inevitable inau-
gural choice as Distinguished Alumna
Writer in 1993.

At 25, the Writers' Festival has now
been around long enough for student
competitors like Greg Johnson to return as
distinguished participants. There's no small
pleasure in that recycling! And if you have
been at the College, as 1 have, during part
or all of the last four decades, you have a
residual satisfaction in gazing at several
shelves of valued volumes autographed by
the authors of these books, who are also the
creators of some of your own best memories.

Linda Lentz Hubert '62 is a professor of
English at Agnes Scott.

AUTHORS MAXINE KUMIN
(above) AND CHARLES JOHNSON
(far left) HAVE APPEARED AT
WRITERS' FESTIVALS.
ABOVE; GUESTS AT THIS
YEAR'S EVENT ENJOY CASUAL
DISCUSSIONS AS WELL AS
FORMAL PRESENTATIONS.

27

ANOTHER GEM IN
THE LITERARY CROWN

The International Celebration of Southern Literature proved a great literary'
and cultural experience, a unique gathering of "writers and scholars."

By Charles McNair
Photography by Paul Obregon

"Agnes Scott
has brought
great writers
to campus for
eight decades.
We're proud
of those
intellectual
predecessors,
and pleased
that the
tradition has
been renewed
on this scale."

O

ne could almost feel the liter-
ary ghosts gathering, proud
and tall, on the broad,
breeze-swept porch of
Rebekah Scott Hall to pose
for photos alongside 1 3 of the most honored
living Southern writers.

An International Celebration of
Southern Literature, held early last June at
Agnes Scott College, could rightly have
been termed a homecoming.

Robert Frost, the most famous American
poet of his generation, frequently visited
Agnes Scott College. Robert Penn Warren
and Flannery O'Connor also spent time lec-
turing at the College, as did celebrated
literati such as Eudora Welty, James Dickey,
John Updike and May Sarton, among
others. The legacy of such noted writers
that long literary tradition of Agnes Scott
formed an almost palpable backdrop for the
tour days of readings, lectures and panels
that made up the Celebration.

A beaming George Garrett, chancellor of
the Fellowship of Southern Writers and
author of 20 books, certainly felt the pres-
ence of the past.

"It's a pleasure to come to a place that
has always had a strong tradition of readings
and literary events," Garrett said. "My last
visit, I was here with Robert Penn Warren,
whose bemused ghost certainly hovers over
this place."

Lively Spirits

Hovering ghosts are one thing, hut the
Celebration marked an assembly ot
one ot the most prestigious groups ot
living writers ever brought together in the
South. These luminaries in the tlesh
included: Reynolds Price, Ellen Douglas,
Albert Murray, Fred Chappell, Ernest Gaines,

Harry Crews, Yusef Komunyakaa, Donald
Harington, Mary Hood, Margaret Walker
Alexander, Terry Kay, Tina McElroy Ansa
and Garrett. Their catalogue of awards
Pulitzer, McArthur, O'Connor, etc. would
stretch from Decatur to literary Valhalla.

Why was Agnes Scott chosen for this
mustering of eminent writers ? Certainly the
setting, with its majestic trees and lovely
Gothic and Victorian buildings, seemed
natural for such an event. "It's the only col-
lege in Atlanta that looks the role, it you
were casting it for a movie," said one
Celebration participant. But a deeper reason
is simple: Agnes Scott College earned the
honor. Years before other schools recognized
the value of such programs, Agnes Scott
was putting creative writing efforts front and
center in its liberal arts curriculum.

"Agnes Scott has brought great writers to
the campus tor eight decades," says
President Mary Brown Bullock '66. "We're
proud ot those intellectual predecessors, and
we're pleased that the tradition has been
renewed on this grand scale."

Linda Lentz Hubert '62 ot the Agnes
Scott English faculty agrees. "We started
emphasizing the value ot creative writing
and visiting writers long before it became a
general addiction ot the times," she says.
"We've been doing it and doing it right
for a long time."

In addition to the cream ot Southern
writing, the program carried a slight inter-
national flavor, with participants from at
least four toreign nations.

Thomas McHaney, the Georgia State
University professor who coordinated the
program, arranged tor four of the world's
foremost scholars ot Southern literature to
be on hand as part ot the Celebration.
These esteemed academics, from France,

28

29

Germany, Norway and Uruguay, gained
valuable new perspectives on the literature
and culture of the South during their visit,
helping "internationalize" the region's
offerings.

The noted scholar Lothar Honnighausen
of the University of Bonn seemed especially
swept up by the Celebration. "This is not
only a great literary experience," he said,
"but a great cultural one as well. In Europe,
we don't have this tradition of writers and
scholars appearing together. It's unique."

Celebration Highlights

Agnes Scott College has nurtured liter-
ary moments like these in several
ways. Since 1972, the school has
hosted an annual spring Writers' Festival,
inviting talented wordsmiths such as Margaret
Atwood, Richard Eberhardt and Howard

Nemerov as teachers. (See previous arti-
cle , "The Love of Words , " page

25.) The school also boasts
a first-rate creative writ-
ing curriculum that
emphasizes the value of
written expression in any
liberal arts career.
A number of moments
simply dazzled audiences.

Opening night, Reynolds Price, author of 28
books, read a few of his "personal greatest
hits" to a big crowd in Gaines Chapel. One
of the numerous high points came as Price
read a hilarious letter he wrote a few years
ago to Eudora Welty. The letter recounted a
car trip the pair made in younger years, with
their epic efforts to procure a tackily fur-
nished mobile home for one night, when no
hotel in Alabama seemed to have a vacant
room.

When Price and Welty, dog-tired, finally
slumped to rest on a beaten white couch in
the trailer home's den, Welty dubiously pat-
ted the cushions. "Reynolds," she said, "if
this couch could talk, they'd have to bum
it." The line earned a full minute of side-
splitting laughter from the audience.

If Price brought down the house, then
Atlantan Terry Kay brought out the hand-
kerchiefs. His reading from his breakthrough
novel. To Dance with the WTiite Dog, told the
story of Kay's father as he struggled to make
do, old and alone, after his wife's death. A
bittersweet scene describing the old man's
attempts to make biscuits the way his wife
once did drew sobs from some listeners.

Mary Hood, author of acclaimed short
story collections and a fine novel. Familiar
Heat, showed off her comic timing in a

LEFT TC1 RIGHT: CHARLES MCN.AIR INTERNIEWS .ALBERT MURR.AY .AND ERNEST G.MNES DURING SUND.-W BRUNCH IN EN.ANS L^INING H.ALL.
30

REYNOLDS PRICE ENTHRALLS LLSTENERS DURING HI

series of wry, elliptical monologues between
read-aloud passages. Hood enjoyed seeing
her literary colleagues read at Agnes Scott,
she said, because, "Writers are like preachers
who never get to hear preaching it's fun to
meet the people behind the books."

Margaret Walker Alexander, an Alabama
native introduced as "a strong gust of a
woman" and as "the most honored African-
American woman of her generation,"
delighted attendees with a reading from her
hest-known novel, Jubilee, and with several
African folk tales, retold Southern-style.
She also read her signature poem, "For My
People," which ends with historically and
politically apocalyptic lines:

Let a new world be bom , . .

let a bloody peace be written
across the skies.

Donald Harington, a brilliant but little-
known writer from Arkansas with nine
novels set in or around the mythical small
town of Stay More, read selections from
Butterfly Weed. The tall tale involves a naive
country boy who teaches himself medicine,
then goes to the city to find a diploma so
that he can set up a "real" medical practice.
Harington's droll reading drew gales of
laughter from the crowds.

Yusef Komunyakaa, a 1994 Pulitzer Prize
winner, gave a towering reading. Gripping
the lectern with both hands, he cried out
the poems in his book, Neon Vernacular,
singing lines alternately in a bird's quiet
tremelo, then in a lion's roar. Dazzled
attendees raved about Komunyakaa's read-
ing the next day.

^- Pr.c^

Memye
Curtis Tucker
'56, a versatile
and accomplished poet
who is one of the more celebrated literary
alumnae of Agnes Scott, read on the final
day of the Celebration. "I'm very proud to
be part of this event," Tucker said. "It's an
honor for Agnes Scott College and for me."

Southern Tradition

A Sunday Writers' Brunch, complete
with jazz combo, capped off the event.
In the finest Southern tradition,
guests and writers were packed off for home,
filled with Southern delights black-eyed
peas, fried okra, chicken, pecan pie and a
dozen other sumptuous regional dishes.
International scholar Honnighausen even
remarked on the floral decorations set up for
the brunch, held in Evans Dining Hall.

"Those beautiful flowers," he remarked,
shaking his head in wonder. "They look like
a Dutch still life. Very impressive. It's all
very impressive."

The scholar didn't say so, but he just
might have been reviewing the entire
literary event the Celebration will surely
rank as one of the nation's most important
literary moments of 1996.

And it will shine as a real gem in the
literary crown created by Agnes Scott
College through the years.

Charles McNair, author of the Pulitzer-nom'
inated Land O' Goshen, is the business editor
of South Magazine.

The ASC
celebration
will surely
rank as one
of the nation's
most important
literary
moments.

LIFESTYLES

A RECORD-
SETTING LIFE,
BODY & SOUL

Joy Howard
Waters '91

The critics who railed
against Joy Howard
Waters' life-changing deci-
sion to give up a Truman
Scholarship and graduate
school for the life of a rock
'n' roll musician with
Seely, an Atlanta-based
hand, were silenced with
the Oct. 15 release of "Julie
Only," the first of a four-
record deal on the Too
Pure/American label, dis-
tributed by Warner
Brothers.

Waters says she termi-
nated her Truman Scholar-
ship and departed graduate
school in favor of her new
career because she couldn't
continue to struggle in a
world strangling her with
words, even though writing
poetry had become her
singular focus.

"I was done with people
and done with giving peo-
ple answers about what I
was doing," she says. "I had
been doing academic work
for six years, and I wanted
to do something more
holistic. Everything I was
doing was sitting down and

J SCOTT PHOTO

From academics to rock 'n' roll; a mediator for community's disputes;
a 'Joundation'' in art; planting seeds; preserving tomorrow's heritage

and learning rock classics
by the likes of Jimi
Hendrix and Led Zeppelin
and studying tunes off the
soul label Stax. She sold
her car, took a job working
20 hours each week,
including some manual
labor, and "lived like a
pauper." But she loved it
because she was "working
with people who were so
non-verbal" and chasing
her dream.

For Waters, seeing the
finished product of her
labor as an artist is more
than a dream come true
it's Nirvana. Her trip to the
Ultimate began this year
when at a sold-out concert
she handed John McEntire,
who eventually engineered
and helped produce Seely 's
album, a cocktail napkin
and a copy of the band's
first CD, "Parentha See."

Only a tew days later,
Waters recei\ed a phone
call from McEntire, saying
he wanted to talk about
recording the band.

With the album. Waters
has come full circle in her
struggle with words. She's
taken up wTiting l\Tics.

"In the beginning, I had
no desire to wxite l>Tics. I
wanted to lea\e language
behind there are other

After turning down a scholarship for graduate study, joy
Howard Waters has built a career as a rock and roll musician.

passive. 1 wasn't using my
body and soul. I was tired
of having to think so far
ahead. My life had been a
seamless narrative." Waters
put her finger on her frus-
tration with academia and
describes it as "people were
blowing hot air all the
time, and there was so
much talking and so little
being said."

For a while, her drive
for personal satisfaction
took her to Emory Uni-
versity, where she worked
on a Ph.D. in comparative
literature. Still, that
wasn't the solution.

Graduate school had
become just another step
along the path that had left
her feeling unfulfilled. "1
still had creative impulses,"
she says of her time at
Emory, "but 1 was very sick
of words. I had been study-
ing post-structuralist theo-
ry, and it undemiined my
faith in creating only
through language."

Then, while lea\ing
graduate school in the
spring of 1994, Waters
found herself attracted to
playing bass guitar. She
learned her new trade
while listeniiig to records

32

LIFESTYLE

ways of communicating
and perceiving [the use of]
your body," she says.

On the other hand, the
experience of making
music lends itself to words,
she adds.

"The lyrics came from
the music and the mood of
the music, and they had to
be true to that. When you

put a name on a song, it s
an act of power over the
song and places it in the
visual and verbal world."

At Agnes Scott, Waters
studied political science
and dabbled in creative
writing; as a graduate stu-
dent, she studied at the
University of Cape Town,
South Africa, on a Rotary

graduate fellowship. While
in Africa, she began
preparing for her literary
career, taking courses in
literary theory and post-
colonial literature and trav-
eling around southern
Africa making speeches.
She recently returned to
ASC as coordinator of
student activities, but left

the College a second time
when Seely hit the road for
its tour.

Waters is married to
Charles, a jazz musician
and composer, who is "very
hip" on her career as a
musician. They live in the
Cabbagetown section of
Atlanta.

Dolly Purvis '89

KENT JOHNSON PHOTO

COMMUNITY PEACE MAKER

^^P-M'-^ft flflj^^^^^^B' ~ "^hHHI

Deborah-Gail Erb Manigault '89

T uvenile fist fights. Family disputes. Property rights
1 violations. They are minor cases but rampant in num-
bers, backlogging the judicial court system.

Deborah-Gail Erb Manigault '89 works as a commu-
nity relations specialist for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Neighborhood Development Department in Charlotte,

N.C., to ease the city's court burden and enable citizens
to resolve their conflicts amicably.

The psychology and Bible and religion graduate
serves as a mediator and also trains volunteer media-
tors individuals who act as an impartial third party,
helping disputants resolve their conflicts without legal
intervention.

The majority of disputants have a previous history
with one another, such as neighbors arguing over a prop-
erty issue. If the two decide to settle out of court, they
see Manigault or someone on her paid or volunteer staff.
Or, if the case involves juveniles, the juvenile court sys-
tem may refer the disputants to Manigault.

In mediation, the two people meet face to face. "They
see the effect of their actions and hear each other describe
how they felt and the losses they may have incurred."

Only 50 percent of the people filing court cases agree
to mediate. Many are so angry, they view court interven-
tion as their only option, explains Manigault. But those
who do choose mediation often leave the process with
skills they can use at home, she adds.

Manigault; Empowering others to solve personal disputes.

As a preventive measure, Manigault and her staff
train neighborhoods in mediation and conflict resolu-
tion: using "I feel" versus "you did" statements and
teaching people to act versus react.

The government-funded program is also active in
race relations. Recently, in a potentially volatile case
involving a black woman and a white male police offi-
cer, the department called town hall meetings, providing
citizens the opportunity to discuss the situation and their
feelings about it. Although racial problems exist in the
growing city of about one million people, Manigault
Delieves these programs are lessening the potential for
violent outbreaks.

Also the mother of a toddler, Manigault has found
ler niche in this work. "I always wanted to be in a
Deace-making role, empowering people to resolve prob-
ems peacefully. I'm lucky to be working in a job I feel so
passionately about."

^Leisa Hammett-Goad

33

LIFESTYLE

ART AS THE
WELLSPRING
FOR FAITH

Martha Jane Morgan
Petersen '57

Art can open the well-
spring in our hearts
so that we can relate to
God more fully."

In her life's story,
Martha Jane Morgan
Petersen '57 has played
the part of student, nurse,
mother, missionary, Pres-
byterian minister's wife and
Presbyterian minister.

But it was art that
opened the wellspring of
her heart and deepened her
religious faith.

In classes, conferences,
retreats and individual
counseling, she also helps
others link their faith with
art.

"Words can he misun-
derstood. They can even be
cheap. But art offers an
alternative," says Petersen.
"It can be used to connect
with God through color,
shape and form. As we
grow in our spiritual lives,
many of us find nurture in
the visual symbols and sites
around us."

The Atlanta resident
has taken a few painting,
quilting and fabric art class-
es. But she loves most to
use the medium of clay
when leading retreats.
Petersen encourages her

pupils to "sit" with clay. To
"center." To listen to
Scriptures being read. To
hear what the Scriptures
say to them. And then, to
use their hands to mold.

"What the artist makes
visible comes from the
invisible, the interior of our
natures," says Petersen.

"In the contem-

they created. That comes
from the expectation of
producing something, espe-
cially something good,
beautiful and pretty. What
they are creating is express-
ing something about them-
selves. But this gives them
the opportunity to reflect
on their

plative setting,
the pupil can center, play
and be spontaneous. It is a
process of letting go. And
that carries over between
our spiritual lives and what
we create. I find that very
exciting."

The creation process,
however, can seem risky to
Petersen's conferees.
"They're expressing their
feelings, risking exposure.
At first, people are anxious.
They don't want anyone to
see the 'stupid little thing'

Uanha Petersen uses an
toopendoorwa:)stohelp
others deepen their faith,

lives visually, granting
them permission to put
their hands into clay," she
says.

It was not until mid-life
that Petersen embarked on
her unusual career. During
the late 1980s and early
1990s, the South Carolina
native earned masters and
doctorate degrees from
Columbia Theological
Seminar^' and served as an

interim minister at
Columbia Presbyterian
Church in Decatur.

She began exploring
what happened to art in
the church and what other
Presbyterian churches and
seminaries were doing with
art, plus interviewing artists
and attending conferences
on the subject. "Energy,
excitement" and "invigo-
rating" are words Petersen
uses repeatedly to describe
her discoveries. Her inter-
est led her to leave her paid
staff position and accept an
appointment as a parish
associate for art in the
church. A parish associate,
she explains, is someone
who has a calling other
than parish ministry. Also
included in her calling are
spiritual formation and nur-
turance. In addition to
teaching people about faith
and art, Petersen leads
prayer retreats.

Gradually, she is incor-
porating art into her prayer
retreats and her work as a
spiritual guide, which she
describes as someone who
helps others to explore
faith issues and discern
how God is leading them
in their lives.

Petersen's own spiritual
guide told her, "1 don't
know if God is doing art
through you. He's definite-
ly doing you through art."
Lt'isa Hammett-Goai

34

LIFESTYLE

LAURA SIKES PHOTO

PLANTING
SEEDS TO
GROW
A LOVE OF
NATURE

Elizabeth. Fortson
Wells '65

Botanist Elizabeth
Fortson Wells' '65
fondness for plants was
kindled by her father when
she was a preschooler.
Today her personal and
professional pursuit has led
her to rediscover the flora
that George Washington
once loved.

The professor was
recently hired to conduct a
"diversity study" on a
forested section of Wash-
ington's estate. The estate
is creating a nature trail in
its wooded area, once off-
limits to the public.

For a year, Wells and
two of her George Wash-
ington University students
spent spare time and
weekends documenting
and collecting the proper-
ty's plant species so they
could be labeled for the
visiting public. One stu-
dent conducted library
research to determine
which animals, including
amphibians, reptiles, birds
and mammals, are usually
found in the region but
were not seen during their
visits.

Some of their findings

Cataloging plants at Mount Vernon has been one way Elizabeth Wells '65 teaches conservation.

were not known to be in
the area. While tediously
noting approximately 500
specimens, Wells saw a
bald eagle and an osprey,
perhaps descendants of
those Washington once
observed.

Each summer. Wells
teaches an undergraduate
course on flora of the mid-
Atlantic states. The class
ventures to a West Virginia
bog atop a mountain, down
to Atlantic Ocean sand
dunes and to the mouth of
the Delaware River to
study salt marshes and the
southernmost coastal cran-
berry bog. The students
also learn to recognize

plant species growing in
the forests, hilly sections,
flat and wet lands and
coastal plains surrounding
Washington, D.C. During
their travels, the students
learn to document, collect
and, upon their return to
the school laboratory, press
and label approximately
300 plant species.

Wells' guiding principle
and long-term goal is to
teach people, both amateur
and the professional, about
plants. "If we want people
to conserve and care about
plant communities, we
need to teach as much as
we know about them."

Leisa Hammett-Goad

PRESERVING
YESTERDAY
FOR
TOMORROW

June Hall McCash
'60 and Mary Byrd
Davis '58

Two Agnes Scott
alumnae, both writers/
editors, are devoting their
careers to preserving the
past so humankind can
appreciate it now and in
the future.

June Hall McCash '60
travels between the 12th
and 20th centuries, inter-
preting the roles of
medieval women and their
central influence. And

35

LIFESTYLE

Mary Byrd Davis '58 is
working to preserve ancient
eastern forests as models for
future conservation.

McCash recently edited
The Cultural Patronage of
Medieval Women and an
overview describes the
mostly wealthy women fea-
tured: queens and other
nobility, nuns and widows
of western Europe and the
Byzantine empire.

"Medieval women had
to find ways to assert their
ideas in a society that
didn't offer them a lot of
ways to do that." Women
were not allowed to assert
political power, so they
asserted cultural power,
explains McCash.

Through the patronage
of writers, artists and trou-
badours, she continues,
"they dignified their fami-
lies, making them better
known. They promoted
sons and their other chil-
dren's futures. And they
had things written for reli-
gious reasons to glorify
God or a saint."

Contributions from this
patronage include the first
materials written about the
legendary King Arthur; the
first books about animals;
and the spread of vernacu-
lar writing materials writ-
ten in French, English and
German versus Latin.

McCash, a Middle
Tennessee State University

French and humanities
professor, was honored in
1996 by the Agnes Scott
Alumnae Association as an
outstanding alumna for her
career contributions.

Media attention this
decade has spotlighted the
ancient cathedral-like
forests of the western
United States. However,
little is discussed about the
ancient forests of the east.
Davis is working fervently
to change that.

The Kentucky resident
solicited scholarly essays,
edited and compiled them
in Eastern Old Growth
Forests ; Prospects for
Rediscovery and Recovery,
the first book devoted to
the topic. Davis explains
that old growth forests
often support indigenous
wildlife and are living mod-
els for proper conservation.
Trees can be cut correctly,
but if all the trees are cut,
there is no model.

Davis is co-founder of
Wild Earth magazine. Edited
by her son, John Davis, the
magazine is devoted to pre-
serving natural areas.

The ASC English major
also established Ygdrasil
Institute for old growth
forest and other environ-
mental research. Ygdrasil is
Scandinavian for the
mythological tree holding
the world together.

Leisa Hamn\ett'Goad

LETTERS

Thank you for including
Carol Willey's article in
your fall '95 issue. 1 feel
that it placed the most
important issues facing
women today in a light
that will not be forgotten.
Corporate domination of
medicine, the insurance
scam, and the inept
approach our society takes
toward breast cancer are
those vital issues, and
Carol Willey showed just
how life-and-death they
are.

Claudette Cohen '87

I have just this moment
finished reading every
word (some of them
twice!) of the alumnae
magazine dedicated to
Mary Brown Bullock's
inauguration. In words,
pictures and format it was
a significant gift to those
of us not privileged to be
there.

1 was quite moved
thank you for this gift.
Good wishes in all you do.
Doris Sullivan
Tippens '49

Thank you for your efforts
in bringing us an issue we
will keep and cherish for a
long time. 1 know it must
have involved a lot of hard
work tor you and your
staff'.

It contains some major
disappointments for me,
however, especially con-
cerning my role in the
inauguration ot the
President. On page 10, you
do not mention that 1
extended the official wel-

come to Mary on behalf of
the ASC faculty. 1 am
very disappointed that the
role of the faculty in
welcoming the President
was not recorded in this
historical issue. I am also
disappointed as Mary's
classmate because it was
such a joy and honor for
me personally to welcome
her.

I have two additional
comments, both in rela-
tion to the statement
attributed to me on
Page 9. First, by taking
parts of the speech and
juxtaposing them to
make one statement, you
lost grammatical and
semantic coherence.
Thus the second predic-
tion, as it is printed, fails
to clearly state my
meaning. I was talking
about my conviction
that Mary would be
welcoming of different
approaches to and defini-
tions of scholarship and
teaching excellence.
My second point con-
cerning this page is that
my title is recorded
incorrectly.

These concerns would
not ha\e mattered as
much tor an ordinary
issue, but this is an histori-
cal issue many people
(including myself) will
keep forever, an issue
future historians of the
college will use as a
primary source. 1 wish it
had appeared without
these problems.

Ayse Ilgaz Carden '66
Professor of Psychology

36

GIVING ALUMNA

"I think 1 can never repay Agnes Scott for being so good to me . "

FRANCES S. GARRETT '37

Home: Atlanta, Georgia

Age: 83

Occupation: Retired

Husband: Franklin M. Garrett

Children: One (deceased), three grandchildren

When The Princeton Review handed out the glowing
"dorms-like-palaces" assessment of Agnes Scott's residence
halls, the thanks were due in large part to Frances Steele Garrett
'37. As chair of the College's Acquisitions Committee (in antici-
pation of the Centennial Campaign and Celebration), Garrett
solicited, acquired and refurbished many antique furnishings for
the historic campus.

Her work helped Garrett gamer the 1990 "Outstanding
Alumnae Award for Service to the College" but was a mere "tip of
the iceberg." By the time she received the award, Garrett had
served as class president. Annual Fund chair for her class, a mem-
ber of the ASC Alumnae Association's nominating, admission and
awards committees, as a career planning representative on the
Alumnae Board and on the Centennial Celebration Steering and
Exhibition committees.

Garrett's most recent contribution to her alma mater is in
endowing an unrestricted scholarship fund in her name and that of
her husband, Franklin. Garrett's gift to the College continues to be
enhanced by a two-for-one matching gift from The Coca-Cola
Company, Garrett's employer from 1956 to 1978.

An Atlanta native who grew up in Anniston, Ala., Garrett
admits a "very" soft spot in her heart for the College.
Agnes Scott has opened many doors in many ways for
me," says Garrett.

"When I went to my first job after graduation
and then when I applied with The Coca-Cola
Company, they would say, 'I see you graduated
from Agnes Scott. No problem.' They would
know the background of the liberal arts
college, and that it was a place where women
excel. For that reason, I think I can never
repay Agnes Scott for being so good to me.
This gift is one little thing we can do."

Mary Alma Durrett

Last year matching gifts added $97,4 1 2
to the Annual Fund. For more information
about the matching gift program, contact Chris
Pomar in the Office of Development, 404/638-
6476 or e-mail him at cpomar@asc .agnesscott.edu.

37

Agnes Scott College
141 E. College Ave.
Decatur, GA 30030

Nonprofit

Organization

U.S. Postage

PAID

Decatur, GA 30030

Permit No. 469

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Strategic
Directions

"I believe Agnes Scott has a
destiny not yet fulfilled. First,
we reaffirm our founding
legacy a liberal arts college
for women with the highest
standards. And then we move
on to tackle the educational
issues of our era. We must be
more global and more local,
more interdisciplinary and
more faithful to our founding
values," says President Mary
Brown Bullock '66 as ASC
annunciates its plans for the
next century.
Discover the College's
"Strategic Directions" in the
special center section of this issue .

Let Us Hear From You: Lool< for the special
Readers' Survey in the center of the magazine.

tj

^ Printed on Recycled Paper

Agne

ALUMNAE

G A Z I N E

Summer 19

1 The /

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Semester

Women Series

.fi

A>2 1st Century
College for Women

EDITOR'S NOTE

Inspiring future generations of leaders and mentors means living a deliberate life
today. The alumnae chronicled in this edition provide powerful examples.

People move through time and space in many ways,-
some stride with Texas-style bravado, others tiptoe
with near barefoot lightness. 1 have gained an appreci-
ation for both approaches and for the numerous, nuanced
steps that fall between the extremes. Occasionally, we find
public figures whose strides seem worth emulating. Two such
figures parted the earth this year: Bella Abzug and Mother
Teresa. Unlikely partners, I'll admit, but despite the fact that
their politics, professions and personal styles
were worlds apart, these two women
were alike in an important
way they were dissatis-
fied with the world into
which they were
born and felt com-
pelled to change it
before they left.
They were both
women of action
and purpose who,
as mentors to mil-
lions, spurred entire
generations off their
duffs and into community
service or social action.

Most of us find similar or even more
powerful mentors in our own private worlds from among our
friends, family, teachers or fellow alumnae. They are the ones
who take an interest in others and choose to live deliberate
lives.

The women you will read about in this edition of Agna
Scott Alumnae McuU'Zme have chosen very deliberate lives as
well.

Susan M. Phillips '67 has shaped U.S. monetary policy
while serving on the Board of Governors of the Federal
Reserve as chair of the Research and Derivatives, and
Supervision and Regulation committees. Beginning on page
I i, we are taken on a walk behind the scenes at the Fed with
Phillips and ASC Department of Economics Chair Rosemary
Cunningham.

As a historian, Kathiyn F^elgesen Fuller '82 spends most of
her time tracking down paths already taken the past. In this
edition we get a glimpse of one of her latest trips back in

time through a review of her book. At the Picture Show: Small
Town Audiences and the Creation of Movie Fan Culture. Christopher
Ames, professor and chair of the Department of English,
describes At (be Picture Show as "detailed scholarship . . . that is
brisk and gracefully written throughout " You'll find his
review on page 39.

Associate Professor of Spanish Gisela Norat follows the
life and works of Chilean-born writer Isabel Allende, page 6.
Allende, the keynote speaker at the symposium

Notions of Self and Nation in Writings by
Latina and Latin American Women,"
was the first speaker in Agnes
Scott's "Celebrated Women
Series."

In her travels am.ong
the hospital emergency
rooms of Kentucky and
Virginia, Dr. Audrey
Grant '78 arrived at
middle age, discovered
new aspects of herself and
realized some of her inter-
ests beyond medicine. Learn
more about her newfound fascina-

tion with her own personal health, hap-
piness and triathlon pursuits on page 35
First in Paris and now in Beijing, Katharine Cochrane
Hart '78, an officer in the U.S. Foreign Service, finds herself
assessing the economic situation In one of the hottest spots
on the globe, page 37. Meanwhile, back in the states,
Jennifer Nettles '97, the lead singer for Soul Miner's
Daughter, beats a new musical path up and down the East
Coast, page 36.

We hope you will enjoy meeting all these women, as well
as strolling through an ambitious new Master Plan for the
College In the special section "A 21st Century College For
Women." This plan lays the groundwork for the College to
move into the next millennium and produce Kiture genera-
tions of leaders and mentors, like Bella Abzug, Mother Teresa
and the alumnae whose lives are chronicled m this edition

-&vT,?cL_t^^^^^4 ^

CONTENTS

Agnes Scott College Alumnae Magazine
Summer 1998, Volume 74, Number i

The World of
Isabel Allende

By Gisela Norat
Photography by Gary Meek
The noted Latin American author's
native language may he Spanish,
hitt her message is universal.

Phillips of the Fed

By Rosemary Thomas
Cunningham
Illustration by Kevin Sprouls
For seven years, Susan PhiUips has
{guide U.S. monetary pohcy.

A 21st Century
College for
Women

Ambitious and forward-thmk-
ing, ASCs Master Plan lays the
groundwork jor the College to
move into the next millennium.

By Celeste Pennington
Photography
by Gary Meek
Atlanta's resources are
endless and Agnes Scott
students, with Isa
Williams' help, are
tapping in to the many
ways women lead and
affect social change.

COVER: Clockwise from
upper right: Jennifer Nettles
'97, Mary Hemdon '97
and Isabel Allende.

PHOTOS BY GARY MEEK AND MEG BU5CEMA

DEPARTMENTS

2

On Campus

12

Worldview
32

Survey Report

33

Our World

34

Lifestyle

39

Excerpts

40

Letters
HI

Giving Alumna

Editor: Mary Alma Durrett
Design: Everett Hullum,

Nao Yamashita
Student Assistants:

Kimberly Bagley '00

Heather Branham '01

Amy Cormier '00

Jennifer Odom '98

Publications Advisory Board:

Mary Ackerly

Kim Lamkin Drew '90

Mary Alma Durrett

Bill Gailey

Tish McCutchen 73

Lucia Howard Sizemore '65

Copyright 1998, Agnes Scott
College Published for alumnae and
friencis twice a year by the Office of
Publ.cations, Agnes Scott College,
Buttrick Hall, 141 E College Avenue,
Decatur, GA 30030, (4041 471-6301.
Postmaster; Send address changes to
Ofbce of Development, Agnes Scott
College, Decatur, GA 30030 The
content of the magaz

opir

of the

andr

tthe

viewpoint of the College, its trustees
or administration, e-mail: publica-
tions@asc.agnesscott.edu

ON CAMPUS

Viewing the stars, combining the classic elements for a vision of beauty, emergency
phones and a Great Scott way of recruiting with high national rankings.

BIG BECK
IS BACK AT
BRADLEY

An old friend returned
to campus this
past fall and took up resi-
dence in the Bradley
Observatory.

No, it's not a squatter,-
it's the massive Beck tele-
scope that departed Agnes
Scott's environs in the mid
1980s for a "temporary
stay" at Georgia State
University's Hard Labor
Creek research site.

The 30-inch telescope
and its research capabilities
will not only offer views of
the constellations from its
Bradley home, it will com-
plement Agnes Scott's
other research and teach-
ing telescopes.

The return of the tele-
scope begins a new era of
collaboration between
Agnes Scott and Georgia
Tech Research Institute
(GTRl). A cooperative
plan is being developed to
use the telescope for
experiments in atmospher-
ic physics and atmospheric
chemistry. The physical
location of Agnes Scott
(beneath one of the major
flight paths for aircraft and
with a clear view west of

the air above Atlanta)
makes it an appealing loca-
tion of LIDAR (Light
Detection and Ranging)
technology that GTRI has
developed. Students and
faculty with an interest in
engineering and environ-
mental science will partici-
pate in the partnership.

Agnes Scott is one of
the few colleges its size
with a free-standing obser-
vatory building. The
College has a long tradi-
tion of excellence in

astronomy with Bradley as
a site for both teaching
and research since 1949,
when William Calder
established the obser-
vatory.

Calder's legacy was
noted in an event at the
observatory this May.
Calder died just three
weeks after the event.

B The Braiiley Ohicwiitory is
opm to (f'f puhlii lit s pm on
the second Fridny oj emry month
iiurini) the acndemk yeiir

CLASSIC
ELEMENTS

The President Mary Brown
Bullock 66 portrait on the hack
cover ojthis edition is by pho-
tographer Caroline Joe. The
presidet\t agreed to strike a pose
in front of the latest artwork
addition to her office, an oriental
motif still life by Christie Tloeriot
Woodfin '68. Following is an
excerpt from the artist's descrip-
tion of her work.

When the Agnes
Scott Alumnae
Association commissioned
me to create a painting as a
gift for the president, I
decided I'd like to do
something which reflected
her Asian youth, her
Chinese interests and her
life at Agnes Scott. A still
life with peonies, symbols
of glory, came to mind.

That flower seemed just
right for my friend Mary
Brown Bullock. Among the
peony blossoms are orien-
tal poppy pods, symbol of
beautiful women. That,
too, seemed appropriate
both for Mary and for our
women's college, although
our concept of beaut>'
probably encompasses
more qualities and greater
depth than the poppy
originally connoted. Both

ACNES SCOTT COLLEGE SUMMER ii

the flowers and pods
are from the garden of
Sara Ector Vagliano
'63. The Chinese vase,
which was my moth
er's, is of cinnabar I
chose it in recognition
of Mary's love of clear,
bright color The teapot
and plate are Mary's own.
The peaches suggest
Mary's once and current
home in Georgia, and the
background [lettering]
contains the Chinese char-
acters for "faith, virtue,
knowledge" from Agnes
Scott's motto. The charac-
ters were supplied by Kwai
Sing Chang, professor
emeritus of Bible and
Religion. The purple bind-
ing captures the College's
color, and the fret on the
binding recreates the
architectural element on
the Rebekah porch and the
colonnade. A still life for
Mary would not be com-
plete without a reference
to the life of the mind,
hence the stack of books.

In executing the paint-
ing, what interested me
more than individual
objects was the effect of
light. It unifies and blends
the subjects, bleaching
some elements, casting
others in shadow.

It was my intention to
create a work which incor-
porated both tangible
objects of symbolic signifi-

cance to the president and
the College, and the less
tangible gifts of love from
people dear to the

College, like the alumna
gardener, the professor
emeritus. For over a year, I
have been involved in a
conversation among the

ON CAMPUS

President Bullock accepts Christie
Woodfin's gift to the College
during Alumnae Weekend 1997.

objects, the medium of
watercolor, my feelings for
the College and the
emerging painting. Now
the painting leaves my
hands and becomes a dia-
logue between the observ-
er and the obsewed. I hope
that you will enjoy it.
Christie Theriot Woodjin 68

EMERGENCY PHONES

If you came to an evening event at
Agnes Scott this year, you may have
noticed something new at the edge of
the parking lot. Last fall, the College's
Department of Public Safety installed
five high-visibility emergency phones in
key areas around campus to encourage
increased awareness of people moving
through the area and improve communi-
cation across campus and within the
Decatur neighborhood.

Mounted on blue lighted, 10-foot
posts, the phones are designed for visi-
bility and ease of use. Equipped with
automatic tracer options on each unit,
the emergency phones, once activated,
can be immediately traced by Public
Safety, even if the person activating the
unit is unable to speak. TTie College
plans to install more phones as the cam-
pus Master Plan is implemented.

M If you are on campus, in need of assistance
and find yourself closer to a conventional phone,
remember the Public Safety emergatcy number

is 404/471-6400.

High visibility phones have been installed in key
areas to promote safety on campus and in the
surrounding neighborhood.

ON CAMPUS

GSiRB: ASC
RECRUITING
GETS A NEW
EMPHASIS

Talk about being uni-
fied for a cause. For
years, alumnae of Agnes
Scott College (ASC) have
been involved in recruiting
new students collectively
through the formal Alum-
nae Admission Representa-
tive (AAR) Program, or
individually as enthusiastic
recipients of an Agnes
Scott education.

This year, with Agnes
Scott's enrollment growth
initiative in full swing, the
College has an even greater
need to be systematic about
recruiting potential students.

The offices of Alumnae
Affairs and Admission
teamed up this fall to form
the Great Scott! Recruit-
ment Board (GSlRB),
which works to increase
the number of qualified
students considering and
applying to Agnes Scott.

"GSlRB aids Admission
representatives with
recruitment activities in
their particular areas in
many ways, including
communicating with quali-
fied prospects and accept-
ed applicants to the
College," says Stephanie
Balmer, associate vice pres-
ident for Admission and
Financial Aid, 'This initia-
tive enables us to work

Armed with recruitment materials, the new Great Scott! Recruitment Board gathers before heading out for their
assignments. The board Is part of the College's effort to Increase ASC's enrollment to looo by the year 2001.

with a smaller group of
volunteers regularly, yet
maintain the core of the
broad-based AAR
Program."

The GSlRB is made up
of 34 alumnae from most
of the contiguous South-
eastern states, as well as
representatives from Texas,
California and New York
states which Admission
has identified as primary
recruitment areas also.

These women serve
Agnes Scott in three key
ways: as local team leaders
for alumnae involved in
Admission support,- as a
local source of information
about Agnes Scott for
AARs, prospective stu-
dents, parents, alumnae

and educators,- and as a
source of information for
Admission representatives
about community educa-
tion issues.

The group assists
Admission representatives
in gaining access to college
fairs and identifying pro-
spective students, especial-
ly outstanding candidates
for scholarships, in their
respective communities.
They may telephone or
write to lead prospects,
host a Dessert and Dis-
cussion, a Winter Recep-
tion or a Summer Send-
Off, interview prospective
students who are unable to
visit campus, or "adopt" a
high school, making sure
ASC material is available

in counselors' offices.

In addition, the GSlRB
plans to implement other
supporting activities such
as writing letters to
prospective students who
share career/major inter-
ests, expanding the Book
Awards program, develop-
ing special recruitment
publications for hiends of
the College and encourag-
ing Alumnae Association
chapters in cities that are
key to recruitment efforts.

'This is such an exciting
time in Agnes Scotts
histoiy to be sharing our
College with others!" says
Lucia Sizemore '65, direc-
tor of Alumnae Affairs.
'This group is committed
to finding and recruiting

AC.MFS srnTT rni 1 pr.F <:iimufi) .ooj

ON CAMPUS

those young women who
will shape their world
both at Agnes Scott and
beyond."

The Board consists of
Alumnae Association
Board members Minnie
Bob Mothes Campbell '69,
student relations chair, and
Lisa Pendergrast Cox '83,
recruiting chair Also serv-

ing are Ann Fitzgerald
Aichinger '85, Debbie
Jordan Bates '72, Alyson
Bunnell '94, Betsey Wall
Carter '15, Peggy Chap-
man Curington '70, Lucie
Barron Eggleston '68,
Hazel Ellis '58, Marsha
Davenport Griffin '67 , Beth
Gaines Hallman '84, Car-
lanna Lindamood Hend-

rick '58, Jennifer Jenkins
'94, Pamela Clemmons
Kidd '90, Linda Lael '66,
Susan Landrum '66, Sally
Tucker Lee '70, Pedrick
Stall Lowrey '!(>, Carol
Sutton Lumpkin '65, Jane
Davis Mahon '67, Jennifer
Boyd Miller '90, Kathy
Petros '96, Mary Ann
Martin Pickard '47, Kelly

Jennings Pouncey '96,
Carolyn Davies Preische
'60, Michelle Roberts '91,
Melanie Sherk '87, Lib
McGregor Simmons '74,
Peggy Frederick Smith '62,
Lucy Tomberlin '90,
Tracey Veal -Booker '84,
Claire West '90, Marcia
Whetsel '83 and Elaine
Orr Wise '65.

LATEST RANKINGS

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T f you've been perusing some of the
1 latest national publications, you've

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likely noticed Agnes Scott's name

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popping up in some pretty impres-
sive places. FJere's a roundup of the

all

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latest rankings.

Petersons Gm&ts recognized Agnes

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Scott for offering "an outstanding

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undergraduate program in the sci-
ences and mathematics."

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MS. News & World Report named

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Agnes Scott a top- 1 "Best Value-

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Discount Price" among national lib-

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eral arts colleges. (Agnes Scott

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College is the only liberal arts

^^^^^^^^^1

school in Georgia that earned the
distinction.)

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Money Magazine ( 1 998) rated ASC

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as one of the seven top performers

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among the 47 women's colleges in

Money's value analysis.

Princeton Review (1997) rated the
College among the top 10 in eight
categories, including dorm comfort,
financial aid, faculty quality and
faculty accessibility.

The Fiske Guide to Colleges ( 1 998)
hailed Agnes Scott as "the best wom-

The quality of Agnes Scott s residence halls is among the many pluses of the College that have
kept ASC highly ranked nationally. Faculty accessibility plays a strong part as well.

en's college in the Deep South."

ASC continues to be recognized
as one of the prestigious Interna-
tional 50, the top colleges in the
nation for international focus within www.agnesscott.edu.

the curriculum and alumnae success.

I For the most up-to-date information
about rankings and other news of the College,
check out Agnes Scott's Web site at

The noted author is
a Latin American writer
whose language is
Spanish and whose
message is universal

On an unseasonably warm
February evening, Presser
Hall's Gaines Chapel was
filled to capacity. The Agnes
Scott and Atlanta communi-
ties gathered to hear Chilean writer Isabel
Allende, keynote speaker for a two-day long
symposium titled "Notions of Self and Nation
in Writings by Latina and Latin American
Women."

The symposium marked the first event in
the College's "Celebrated Women Series."

in attendance were more than 50 scholars
of literature from universities and colleges
nationwide who, during the course of the
symposium, presented papers addressing the
various ways in which Latina and Latin
American women's writing portrays depar-
tures from traditional Hispanic notions of
womanhood and inscribes women as political
and social participants in a world which still
privileges men.

The symposium focused on the writing of
Latina as well as Latin American women, a

The audience gathers outside
Gaines Chapel for the presentation
by Isabel Allende (left), keynote
speaker in the launch of the
College's "Celebrated Women
Series." The audience included
more than 50 scholars who
presented papers during a
symposium the next day.

AUende's words resonate
with the ASC audience packed into
Gaines Chapel. Among the most
popular women novelists of the
past two decades, her magical
writings capture the conditions and
the feelings of women not just in
Latin America, but everywhere.

distinction made within academic circles.

Latinas are women of Hispanic heritage
who, as children immigrated to the United
States and Canada, or women of Hispanic
descent who were born and raised in the U.S.
or Canada and have been acculturated to
function in a primarily English-speaking soci-
ety. By contrast, their Latin American sisters,
like Allende, who spent their adult lives in
their native country, write in Spanish and
continue to do so even after years in exile, in
an interview with Michael Toms, Allende says
she writes exclusively in Spanish because "it's
like making love or having children,- it only
happens in your own language, I suppose."

For good luck, Allende begins every new
book on the eighth of January, a practice she
continues since the success of her first book.
The House of the Spirits (translation in English
published in 1 985). On that day in 1 98 1 ,
while exiled in Venezuela, Allende received a
call that her grandfather was dying in Chile.
She needed to communicate the farewell that
she had never expressed to him in person
because she had left Santiago thinking she
would soon return.

Since the military regime prevented her
from returning home to keep her promise of
accompanying him during his last days,
Allende started a letter "to say goodbye and
to tell him that he could go in peace because
1 had all the anecdotes he had told me, all his
memories, with me. 1 had not forgotten any-
thing." The letter eventually became The House
of the Spirits, the novel which catapulted

AUende's career Today she ranks as the most
widely read Latin American woman writer.
Her books have been translated into 27
languages.

Isabel Allende, niece of the late Chilean
President Salvador Allende (1970-73), was
born in Lima, Peru, in 1942 to Chilean
diplomat Tomas Allende who, after a few
years of marriage, left his wife, Francisca
Llona Barros, and children. Allende and her
two brothers grew up in the maternal grand-
parents' home in Santiago where their moth-
er, then a single parent, offset her economic
dependence on her family by working in a
bank and sewing at home.

AUende's formative years were marked by
those grandparents whom she first portrays as
Clara del Valle and Esteban Tnieba in The
House oj the Spirits.

The audience in Caines Chapel heard
about a clairvoyant grandmother "who spent
her life experimenting with telepathy, divina-
tion and moving objects without touching
them." Hinting at magical realism, Allende
remarked that "with a grandmother like that,
there is no need to invent anything." And
revealing her splendid sense of humor, she
added, "I'm afraid 1 exaggerated a little when
1 wrote in The House of the Spirits that she could
play the piano with the lid on. She couldn't
play the piano at all."

Allende and her siblings eventually left
the grandparents' home to live abroad with
their mother and step-father, also a Chilean

From a "lousy journalist" to a magical novelist, Allende has turned
the lessons oj reporting into a strong sense oj narrative, colorful
characters and an ability to capture and hold the reader's interest.

diplomat. As an adolescent, Allende found
intellectual stimuli in the cultures of the vari-
ous countries where her step father's work
relocated the family. Soon after returning to
Chile at age 15, Allende met her first hus-
band, Miguel Fri'as.

When the couple married, Allende sup-
ported the home with her journalism while
Frias finished his engineering degree. Later,
Allende balanced her duties as a homemaker,
a journalist and a mother of two children,
Paula and Nicolas. Allende admits today that
her lack of objectivity and the intrusive first
person perspective in her writing made her "a
lousy journalist." As to her days as a journal-
ist, she comments, "Before 1 was called a liar
Now that I make a living with these lies, I'm
called a narrator and I am respected."

However, she recognizes that training in
journalism did provide the important skill of
seizing and holding the reader's interest,
essential also in fiction.

After the bloody military coup in 1973
ousted Salvador Allende from the
presidency, Isabel Allende continued
her journalism while clandestinely helping
persecuted people leave the country. In 1975,
this work became too dangerous, and
Allende, her husband and children left for
Venezuela to flee the dictatorship of General
Augusto Pinochet whose government
reigned for 17 years.

Allende's The House of the Spirits was
spawned from the years she felt paralyzed by
the emotional devastation of exile and family
displacement. "Writing has been very healing
for me because it has allowed me to trans-
form most of my defeats and my losses into
strength," she says.

Beyond the tale of political repression, the
novel depicts Latin America's heritage.
Esteban Trueba, a patriarch of European
descent and a self-made man, becomes
wealthy by exploiting landless peasants. The
novel portrays a vast disproportion between
the classes, a reality which continues to spark
rebellions in parts of Latin America.

Yet despite Latin America's unresolved
conflicts, students of Allende's work like
Becky Rafter '97 note the strong expression

of "community" in her writing, the notion of
nation and especially of family, whether well-
to-do or from marginalized sectors. Allende
presents "Latin America and its people
[through] her use of magical realism ... a
touch of exaggeration and imagination
[which animate her characters and] makes
these people and their history real to me,"
observes Rafter.

Indeed, Allende combines elements of
fantasy and realism in a portraiture of Latin
American existence, including a matriarchy
sustained by generations of females know-
ledgeable in undermining male control.
Cecelia Heit '97 comments that Allende's
"works have a very strong message about the
strength of feminine relationships and the
power women derive from each other and
from sharing their experiences. "

Allende's novels are rooted in personal
experience. "The desire to write flares up
inside me when I feel very strongly about
something," she has said. "1 need to feel a
very deep emotion."

In her keynote address at Agnes Scott,
she emphasized the role of dreams in her writ-
ing. "Dreams are a very important tool in my
work and in my life. They allow me to enter
into the dark room of the unconscious where
all the information that 1 have gath-ered along
my journey is safely stored. Often, I can
reach that place in a dream and retrieve
knowledge that in a conscious state I would
never have access to. If I pay attention to
those secret messages, they teach me about
myself and guide my decisions and my
writing."

Her second novel, Of Love and Shadows
(trans. 1987), continues the theme of
repression, torture and death in Chile. The
story highlights the political killings of 15
peasants which sparked international atten-
tion when the Catholic Church uncovered
their bodies in an abandoned mine and dis-
closed the news before the authorities
could suppress it. In exile in Venezuela at
the time, Allende remembers the media
coverage and how the book was sparked
out of her outrage over the abuses regular-
ly committed by the dictatorship back
home. Her preoccupation, she says, was

As In her written works, Allende's
words stir applause during her
presentation. Rooted in personal
experiences, her novels are an
outlet for her feelings. "The desire
to write flares up inside me when I
feel very strongly about some-
thing. I need to feel a very deep
emotion," she tells her listeners.

^^0

r't'^

^

^--^^^^

Book signings go with the
territory for authors as well
known and loved as Allende.
On the evening of her speech
and readings, Allende signed
autographs for three hours.
Yet she describes her efforts
as "hard work and discipline"
more than inspiration. An
exception, she notes, is her
latest novel, Paula, "written
with tears and kisses" about
her daughter who died.

"telling about my continent, getting across
our truth."

Such accounts, although conveyed
through fiction, do teach readers about
Chile. Christina Bozzinni '98 remarks that
Allende's stories are "a personal history of
Latin America." Bozzinni adds, "A great deal
of the understanding i have of Latin
American history and culture comes from
what I've read by Allende."

By 1987, when her third novel, Eva Luna
(trans. 1988), was published, Allende
had divorced Miguel Frfas, left Vene-
zuela and moved to California where she has
lived ever since with her second husband.
The character Eva Luna suggests an incarna-
tion of Allende herself, an orphan (symbolic

of exile), a female protagonist whose life con-
sists of a series of adventures, a storyteller.

In fact, Allende began her keynote address
by stating that she had acquired the "vice" of
storytelling at a very early age. And wittily
added, "There is nothing as aphrodisiac as a
story told with passion between two ironed
sheets." Immediately switching to a serious
tone, she observed: "A story is a living crea-
ture with its own destiny and my job is to lis-
ten to its voice and write it down. Writing is
like a silent introspection, a journey to the
dark caverns of memory and the soul. "

In the short-story collection. The Stories of
Eva Liiiw (trans. 1991 ), the reader gets to hear
the stories which the protagonist of Eva Luna
refers to in the novel but does not tell.
Allende has admitted that she dislikes writing

10

"My mother is a great storyteller, " says Allende. "She has a sense
oj pause, suspense, rhythm, tone . . . From her I learned that nothing
should get in the way oj a good story let alone the truth."

short stories and considers the genre a very
difficult one that requires inspiration some-
thing a writer does not control more than
the hard work and discipline which she
strives for daily.

The Infinite Plan (trans. 1993) is Allende's
first novel not related to Latin America.
Inspired by her second husband's life and
work in California in the Mexican-American
community, the novel focuses on Gregory
Reeves, an Anglo who grows up in the barrio,
escapes gang life and pursues higher educa-
tion. In the novel, Gregory Reeves like
Allende's husband dedicates his legal skills
to Latino families.

Readers, such as Ghance Glaar-Kilgore
'97, quickly realize that despite the male pro-
tagonist, women's existence still surfaces as a
major topic.

"Although it is commonly thought that
women, or feminists, recognize the common
oppression of women in the United States,"
observes Glaar-Kilgore, "The Infinite Plan made
me more aware of how women's issues differ
from culture to culture." Indeed, the character
Garmen lives under scrutiny and faces obsta-
cles that do not affect her male siblings
because of the social mores Hispanic society
applies to its women.

In 1991 Allende's daughter, Paula, became
ill and lapsed into a coma. The memoir,
Paula (trans. 1995), inscribes Allende's fam-
ily history as she sits at her daughter's bed-
side in a Madrid hospital waiting for her to
recover consciousness. "Allende's Paula," says
Sterling Elliot '97, "is her most powerful
work. Its message has to do with the 'waiting
period' that people who have terminally ill

family members go through. She captures
that sensation with precision and sensitivity.
The message is that life goes on after and
while you wait."

The book ends with Paula's death on Dec.
6, 1992, in Allende's house in Galifornia,
exactly a year after becoming ill. "After my
daughter's death, writing was the only thing
that kept me relatively sane when Prozac,
therapy and vacations in Hawaii didn't help,"
Allende shared with her audience. "Paula was
written with tears and kisses."

The mother-daughter relationship contin-
ues strong in life with Allende's own mother
who, besides being a best friend, edits her
daughter's manuscripts. Despite living in sep-
arate continents (her mother lives in Ghile),
they faithfully write to each other every day.

"My mother is a great storyteller," Allende
says. "She has a sense of pause, suspense,
rhythm, tone. She can scare you shitless.
From her I learned that nothing should get in
the way of a good story let alone the truth."

Allende says also that her mother is a
tough critic whose opinion she values
because if her mother doesn't like something
Allende has written, chances are it's just not
working.

In the question and answer period which
concluded Allende's presentation,
Allende was cheered for her inspira-
tional words to women. "What is
literature? Literature is like a mir-
ror where we see our own
reflection," she said, "and that is
why it is so important that we
[women] write and show the
world and other women who
we really are with our
weaknesses and strengths,
and our tragedies and losses,
our joy and celebrations, with
our sexuality, which is so
important. All this is important
to show in a mirror so that
we can see our own reflec-
tion. And that mirror has
to be our own voices,
not the voices of men
who see us in a dis-
torted mirror" asc

Author

Gisela

Norat is

^H ^^ '^^^H

associate

professor

of

Spanish.

WORLDVIEW

ASC is developing new programs for students to study internationally.

With increasing
awareness of
the value of
study abroad, Agnes Scott
is expanding its opportuni-
ties for every student to
experience international
education.

Already, ASC's faculty-
led Global Awareness and
Global Connections pro-
grams attract many stu-
dents some participating
throiigh scholarships. But

On a recent educational trip to
Korea and Cliina, Anne Beidler,
associate professor of Art;
photographed the Great Wall.
Today, rather than build walls
to iteep foreigners out, cross-
cultural exchange and global
interaction is encouraged, and
opportunities for education and
living abroad are expanding.
ASC's plans take advantage of
the new global openness to
provide students enriching,
culturally diverse experiences.

for those who seek inde-
pendent experiences, the
new Office of International
Education is developing a
1998-99 pilot program that
will allow 20 to 25 stu-
dents to study abroad
through agreements with
affiliate institutions or
organizations.

Sites for the new affili-

ate programs range from
the University of Maine
program at Universitat
Salzburg in Austria to the
Institute for Study Abroad
program in Costa Rica.
Other locations include
Argentina, Great Britain,
France, Chile, Ecuador,
Spain and Senegal.

"We hope the pilot pro-
gram can meet the needs

of our students next year,"
says Maria Krane, director
of International Education,
"while we continue to
explore other venues for
study abroad. Our goal is
to provide affordable pro-
grams for all students,
because we are comrpitted
to the idea that ovateeas
study enables worircn to
better understand them-
selves and the world in
which they live."

PHILLIPS OF THE FED

For seven years, Susan Phillips has helped 0ide U.S. monetary policy

By Rosemary Thomas Cunningham

Illustration by Kevin Sprouig. ._<.'.::; vK^'-il:?:

Susan Phillips
has discovered
it is not the "love
of money" but
the understanding
of money that
is the key to
today's economy.

For years, the bonus question on my
Introductory Macroeconomics tests
asked the students to identify "the
only woman and Agnes Scott alum"
who was a member of the Federal
Reserve Board of Governors. The question
became legend among my students and with
it, the answer.

Susan M. Phillips.

Phillips, class of 1967, has had a varied
and influential career. On June 30, she com-
pleted a term as one of the seven on the
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve,-
Phillips was only the third woman, although
no longer the lone woman (Vice Chair Alice
Rivlin was appointed to the Board of
Governors in 1996), ever to be appointed to
this important policy-making group.

It was my privilege to meet with Susan
Phillips in her office at the Board of
Governors in Washington, DC., earlier this
year and discuss the Federal Reserve and her
responsibilities as governor

Although the Federal Reserve is often in
the news, the focus is frequently on the chair
of the Board of Governors, Alan Greenspan,

and what the Fed might do to interest rates.
Phillips agreed that the work of the Fed that
gets "the most publicity is monetary policy."
But the Fed also has responsibility for the
payment system and supervision and regula-
tion of the banking system.

"Most people are familiar with monetary
policy, and they see the Federal Reserve most
visibly around the time of the Federal Open
Market Committee (FOMC) meetings,"
Phillips explains.

The FOMC is an important policy making
group of the Fed, with the voting members
consisting of the governors of the Federal
Reserve and five of the Federal Reserve Bank
presidents (who rotate their responsibilities).
However, the FOMC only meets eight times
a year and there are many other activities
concerning economic performance and mon-
etary policy that occur between those meet-
ings.

For example, Phillips explains, "The
Board, not the FOMC, sets the discount rate,
which is the rate that the Fed charges to
banks when they borrow money." This
affects the bank's cost of funds and conse-

The Phillips Bio

Susan Phillips (left) with the author,
Rosemary Cunningham, at the Fed.

Susan M. Phillips graduated from Agnes
Scott College in 1967 with a degree in
mathematics and chemistry. After working for
a time in the insurance industry, she continued
her studies at Louisiana State University
(LSU), receiving her doctorate in finance with
minors in economics and management.

Doctorate, in hand, Phillips worked as an
assistant professor at LSU, before beginning a long association with the University of Iowa.
Hired as an assistant professor of finance, Phillips soon rose through the ranks, attaining
the title of professor of finance, as well as serving as interim assistant vice president, associ-
ate vice president and ultimately vice president for finance and university services.

Her time at Iowa was interrupted twice. Early in her career, she was a researcher at the
Brookings Institution and the Securities and Exchange Commission,- later she worked as
commissioner, acting chair and chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Phillips was appointed by President Bush to serve as a governor of the Federal Reserve
Board in December 1991 . Although the term of a governor is 14 years, Phillips' term ended
in June, because she had been appointed to serve the unexpired portion of a previous gov-
ernor's term.

Phillips is currently dean of the School of Business and Public Management at George
Washington University.

14

quently the interest rates that the banks
charge their customers.

There is a constant flow of economic
information, briefings and papers to help the
board make its decisions about the discount
rate. Phillips describes working at the Fed as
like being "at a university but without
students."

The Board of Governors employs approxi-
mately 200 economists who hold doctorates
providing a research orientation and support
for the governors. The Fed does not just rely
on economics statistics about the past to
form its decisions but meets with various
advisory groups in order to assess what is
going on in the economy.

"One can look at statistics until the cows
come home, but it's always looking back-
wards," explains Phillips "It's like trying to
drive a car by looking in the rear view mirror.
It's extremely helpRil to know what's behind
you but it provides limited information about
the future."

Phillips also relied on the discussions
after her frequent public talks to provide
insight into current economic activity.

The Fed is also an active participant in
the payments system of the United States,
acting as a banker to commercial banks, the
U. S. government and foreign governments
upon request. Phillips explains the impor-
tance of this role in that the payment sys-
tem is key to the smooth functioning of the
financial system of the nation.

The third area of Fed responsibility is
supervision and regulation, and it is in
this area that Phillips has been espe-
cially active. One of four federal bank super-
visory agencies, the Fed supervises state
member banks, bank holding companies, and
all foreign banks, branches and agencies.
Soon after Phillips arrived at the Fed,
Greenspan tapped her to lead a committee
on derivatives that would deal with upcom-
ing policy issues regarding the use of these
financial instruments. Derivatives refer to
contracts that have value that is linked to, or
derived from, another asset (e.g., options).
While chairing this committee, Phillips
recommended alternative practices that led
to a revision and redirection of the supervi-
sion process. The Fed has shifted its focus
from analyzing past transactions to analyzing
the process by which decisions are made:
from "looking backwards at historical files" to
looking at risk management systems and
internal control procedures in place at banks

and bank holding companies. In this way,
"when bank examiners leave, they will have
reviewed systems and . . . the bank will be
just as safe and sound six months later as it
is when the bank examiners walk out."

With banks becoming increasingly inter-
national, the Fed's supervisory role is "taking
on more of an international flavor," explains
Phillips. As few as five years ago supervision
was largely a domestic focus.

But more recently, as the nation's central
bank, the Fed has been providing leadership
in international banking, devoting some of
its best staff to the Bank for International
Settlements (BIS), the central bankers' bank.
The BIS provides a forum for discussions
among central banks.

Phillips explained that it is very impor-
tant that supervision have an international
focus. On one hand, if the United States is
alone in imposing certain regulations, U.S.
banks may be disadvantaged relative to their
international counterparts, on the other, if
there's a major problem in the British or
Japanese banking systems, it's going to affect
the U.S. banking system.

While at the board, Phillips has had
various responsibilities, including
chairing the Research
Committee, the Derivatives Committee and,
finally, the Supervision and Regulation
Committee. In addition, she served on the
Bank Affairs Committee, which oversees the
12 Federal Reserve Banks She compares it
to "being on a holding company board
where you've got 12 subsidiaries and each of
the subsidiaries has a board. We have to
approve their budgets and oversee their
evaluations."

Phillips' day-to-day activities at the Fed
included attending various committee meet-
ings as well as meeting with the other gover-
nors, in addition to direct work with the
areas that she supervised.

She also did a fair amount of public
speaking, especially to banking groups since
she was seen as the spokesperson for super-
vision. She represented the Board of
Governors on the Federal Financial
Institutions Examination Council and at the
meetings of the Central Banks of the
American Continent.

"There's really no other economic super-
power in the world," says Phillips of the
United States' financial position and what
challenges will greet the nation and the
world in the 21st century. "This places a

"One can look
at statistics until the
cows come home, but
it's always lool^ing
backwards. It's like
trying to drive a car
by looking in the rear
view mirror. It's
extremely helpful
to know what's
behind you, but it
provides limited
information
about the future."

15

great deal of responsibility on us to provide
leadership in a number of areas."

Phillips applauds the progress in address-
ing the U. S. government's budget deficit
Through Congress' ability to hold the line

The Fed

The Federal Reserve System is the central bank of the United
States. Founded in 1913, the Fed is structured to give a broad
perspective on the economy and economic activity in all parts of
the nation. It is a federal system, composed of a central government
agency, the Board of Governors and 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks,
located in major cities throughout the country, including Atlanta.

Another major component of the system is the Federal Open Market
Committee (FOMC), which is made up of the Board of Governors, the
president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and presidents of four
other Federal Reserve Banks, who serve on a rotating basis. The FOMC
oversees open market operations, which is the main tool used by the
Federal Reserve to influence money market conditions and the growth of
money and credit.

The Fed's duties fall into four general areas:

Conducting the nation's monetary policy by influencing the money
and credit conditions in the economy in pursuit of full employment and
stable prices,-

Supervising and regulating banking institutions to ensure the safety and
soundness of the nation's banking and financial system and to protect the
credit rights of consumers,-

Maintaining the stability of the financial system and containing
systemic risk that may arise in financial markets,-

I Providing certain financial services to the U.S. government, to the
public, to financial institutions, and to foreign official institutions, includ-
ing playing a major role in operating the nation's payments system.

From: Pidposcs ciiiJ fmicl/oiis, Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System,

on spending programs together with strong
economic growth, the United States has a
balanced budget in sight, something that
seemed unlikely a few years ago. F^owever,
she emphasizes that as the nation enters the
new century and the baby boomers begin to
retire, the Congress must continue to
address the budgetary problems concerning
Medicare and Social Security.

The lack of saving in the United States
remains an issue of concern as well. Not
only does the United States not have the
same tradition of saving as other countries,
Americans save smaller amounts than they
have in the past. Phillips believes that the
country's low savings rate reflects workers
confidence in their ability to work, the
security of their pensions and the contin-
ued existence of the Social Security pro-
gram.

Another need which Phillips identified is
for better economic statistics, especially
concerning productivity. For example, the
country has a tremendous national invest-
ment in communication and information
technology. Yet the statistics don't indicate
how this investment is translated mto
greater productivity of capital and labor

"We all have a stake in the rest of the
world doing well," says Phillips, stressing the
interconnectedness of the world economy.
She sees global financial stability as a key
challenge of the 21st century. Whereas busi-
ness in the United States has many sources
of financing, hrms in many other countries
rely on their banking systems for their finan-
cial capital.

Phillips believes her time at Agnes Scott
prepared her well for the various
responsibilities that she has had at the
Fed and elsewhere during the course of her
career. Although she only took her first
economics course in her senior year, she
feels that her liberal arts education was a
strong preparation for graduate school.
Many of my students will be happy to hear
that she feels the competitive environment
at Agnes Scott made graduate school seem
easy.

Phillips is a great believer in a liberal arts
education. She feels that it "stretches one's
mind to areas that you might not have wan-
dered into on you own ..." and that it is "an
education for life. "

Writer Rosenuvy Tboimn CnMmiu;/iiiiii

is professor diiii chair oj the Department of

Economics at Atjncs Scott.

16

ar.wFt: t;rnTTroi i Fc.r- (^m

A 21st Century
College for Women

Ambitious and forward-thini^ing,
Agnes Scott's Master Plan
lays the groundwork
for the College to move
into the next millennium.

':S^^

The Needs of a Growing Campus

Bold, yet thoughtful planning helped make Agnes
Scott one of the most beautiful college campuses in
North America. Film directors still choose the school
for its combination of pastoral settings and Collegiate Gothic
architecture, established by imposing structures such as
Presser, Buttrick and Letita Pate Evans Dining halls and the
McCain Library.

For those who see Agnes Scott only in the movies, it is
an archetypal college campus, where design, structure and
landscaping merge to symbolize stability, tradition and aca-
demic excellence.

For students, faculty, staff and alum-
nae, Agnes Scott is more than a cam-
pus it's a catalyst for inspiration, cre-
ativity and brilliance in the arts and
sciences, a place, as author/alumna
Catherine Marshall '36 said, "Where
mind sparks mind." Few schools the size
of Agnes Scott can claim the honors
and distinctions of its graduates.

As the College prepares for its role
in the 21st century, Agnes Scott is led
by the same insightfulness, aggressive
planning and attention to detail that
ensured its current place of prominence
among institutions of higher learning.

tion moving decisively into the next century.

The College began its planning with an inventory and
analysis of existing conditions. Wallace Roberts & Todd, a
nationally recognized planning firm based in Coral Cables,
Fla., assessed the College's organizational, spatial and land-
scape character. Determining the best way to manage the
planned enrollment growth to 1 ,000 students by the year
2001 and the necessary enhancements of academic facilities
were the two priorities.

When early drafts were ready, the master planners pre-
sented four alternative con-

The Driving Force

Strategic Direqions Document fuels Master Plan

To remain a nationally prominent
liberal arts colleges, Agnes Scott
must act boldly and decisively. The plan
outlined in this document is based on
six goals: academic excellence, student
achievement, institutional growth,
institutional support, community leader-
ship and physical modernization (see ,^
"The Driving Force" at right). These Jf(
directions affirm Agnes Scott's heritage,
as well as its role as a dynamic institu-

Presldent Mary Brown Bullock '66 discusses
news of the day with (l-r) Farah Kashlan 'oi,
Amanda Gooch 'oo and Juliana Woo 'oo.

18

ASr MASTFR PI AN

1 . Academic Excellence: To enhance Agnes Scott's
liberal arts curriculum for the list century.

2. Student Achievement: To enrich student
lije by recognizing achievement and enhancing programs
and facilities.

3. Institutional GROWTH: To increase student
enrollment to i,ooo by the year 200i.

4. Institutional Support: To insure that the infra-
structure of the College is equipped with the human
resources, facilities, technology, ecjuipment and other
resources rec^uired by a premier liberal arts college.

5. Community Leadership: To broaden College
relations and strengthen Agnes Scott's leadership in
metropolitan Atlanta and Decatur

6. Physical Modernization: To provide and main-
tain a physical plant that reflects the cfuality and size of
the College.

cepts for review by academic,
administrative and student
groups, as well as neighbors of
the College, including officials
of Decatur.

After additional review, the
final Master Plan was endorsed
by the Agnes Scott Board of
Trustees in May 1997, and
further refined during the sum-
mer of 1997.

D:

, uring the entire pro-
cess, a facilities team
analyzed existing space use to
assess the physical needs of the
College as it grows to 1 ,000
students. The analysis used
data on existing space assign-
ments, square footage and use,
then evaluated the data using
guidelines prepared by the
Council of Educational Faciliry
Planners International, a pro-
fessional society for educa-
tional facility planners. Subse-
quently, the College commis-
sioned an engineering audit of
all existing buildings.

This comprehensive analy-

PHOTO BY GARY MEEK

Today Woodruff Quadrangle, seen from the west end of Buttrick Drive, has Agnes Scott Hall (Main) as its focal point

sis determined that the College must expand and improve its
academic, residential and administrative spaces.

The scale of future campus buildings will determine the
land area required. The environment of Agnes Scott College
is characterized by three-story buildings, which create a
pleasant balance with the open spaces of the campus. To
maintain this scale relationship, the Master Plan recommends
that future buildings be limited to three-story structures.

The Master Plan, a living document for a dynamic
institution, will take five to 10 years to complete. Fine
tuning is continuing to occur A campus map on the following
pages illustrates the proposed changes clearly. Briefly, based
on the assumptions above and the space inventory, the Mas-
ter Plan proposes:

For College properties within the traditional campus:

Maintain the present pattern of functions in which
administrative space is distributed among several buildings, as
opposed to being concentrated in a single-purpose adminis-
trative building.

Expand academic and administrative space and public
functions on the western side of campus,- continue to concen-
trate functions that require public access in buildings along
South McDonough Street.

Reserve the eastern campus for student residences.

Retain most College-owned property to the south for
open space, recreation and athletics.

G Expand central open spaces and the pedestrian campus
environment and enhance the link between north and south
sides of campus.

Retain the mixed-use character of Agnes Scott and
Rebekah Scott halls, providing historical continuity and en-
suring that the campus "door" remains active all day.

Maintain administrative functions on the first floor of
Agnes Scott Hall.

For College-owned properties east of South Candler

and west of South McDonough streets:

Retain single-family housing on College-owned
properties on the southwest side.

Build a parking structure, to include the Public Safety
Office, west of South McDonough Street.

Develop housing and support functions on College-
owned properties along South Candler Street.

Sell three parcels south of East Dougherty Street that
are not contiguous with the campus.

In addition to the new and significantly renovated
academic, administrative and residential buildings, modifica-
tions will be required to several existing buildings, including
work to bring them into compliance with the accessibility
standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

ASC's Strategic Directiom proposes the College work
with the city of Decatur to address areas of mutual
interest and concern. In pursuit of that goal, Agnes Scott's
Master Plan also suggests the College assist the city in its
efforts to improve pedestrian and vehicular railroad crossings
and to improve properties adjacent to the College.

The College also encourages Decatur to complete
previously planned streetscape improvements north of the
railroad tracks, and to extend the improvements to the
railroad crossings at Candler and South McDonough streets.

In short, the Master Plan has been carefully designed
around a simple premise: maximize existing facilities and
spaces, transforming these fine old buildings into new centers
of academic excellence while honoring the elegant campus
plan that has served the College and its community for more
than a century.

The proposed Master Plan assures the community that
Agnes Scott reveres and celebrates its past and ensures that it
will be equipped to lead in the 21st century.

19

The Future Campus
of Agnes Scott College

O Rebekah Scott Hall An addition will provide space for a variety of functionsNsuch as
administrative offices and related offices and classroomsNand serve as an entrance to the
west side of campus.

O Courtyard A new landscaped courtyard is planned between the addition and Rebekah
Scott Hall.

O Academic Building A new building to accommodate academic functions is proposed
on the present parking lot between Presser Hall and Dana Fine Arts Building.

'?} Science Building A building on the south side of Campbell Hall will provide additional
research laboratory space for chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics and psychology.

I, Wallace McPherson Alston Center A new Campus Center building is proposed on
the site of the existing Alston and Alston Annex buildings, retaining a campus center
between the residential and academic areas of campus. To be completed by fall 2000.

<s> Mary West Thatcher Chapel The chapel will be relocated in a separate building
linked to the Alston Center and in front of the renovated Snodgrass Amphitheatre.

7 The Anna Young Alumnae House The building will be extensively renovated. A new
building north of the Alumnae House may one day house expanded alumnae and devel-
opment functions.

Parking #1 A 12-space parking lot near the proposed new office space and existing
Anna Young Alumnae House will provide off-street parking.

O Residence Hall A new residence hall on the northwest corner of the South Candler
Street/East Dougherty Street intersection will provide approximately 100 beds in a
three-story building.

S Residence Hall A new residence hall on the present site of Hopkins Hall will provide
up to 50 additional beds, for a total of 100 at this location.

O Parking #2 A parking facility for approximately 500 cars is proposed for the block
bounded by South McDonough Street, Ansley Street, West College Avenue and Adams
Street. The Public Safety Office will be located in this structure, providing additional
security for those using the parking facility.

Parldng#3 A parking structure is proposed on the north side of East Dougherty
Street, just west of South Candler Street.

DECATUR N

Revered Traditions in New Buildings

Three sites for new buildings
will provide additional
academic and administrative
space: the first will eliminate a parking
lot to make room for an addition to
Rebekah Scott Hall,- the second
replaces a parking lot currently located
between Presser Hall and Dana Fine
Arts Building; the third is on the south
side of John Bulow Campbell Hall.

A NEW BUILDING, ADJOINING ReBEKAH

Scott Hall, will serve as a hub of ad-
ministrative offices and faculty offices,
classrooms, meeting and seminar
spaces and will become an entrance to
the west side of campus. Possible
adminstative uses include the Office of
the Vice President for Business and
Finance, plus the Accounting, Human
Resources and Public Relations offices,
all of which are now in Buttrick Hall.
The site plan illustrates the potential for
a landscaped courtyard between the
new building and Rebekah Scott Hall.
The new building could include an
assembly shell and large classroom
space.

A second NEW BUILDING, ON THE

Presser Parking lot site, will provide
space primarily for academic uses.
Consideration is being given to
constructing a new science facility on
this site.

A third NEW BUILDING, ON THE SOUTH

SIDE OF Campbell Hall, will provide
additional space for the sciences. All of
Campbell Hall will be updated.

The existing Wallace M. Alston
Campus Center contains a variety
of campus and student-oriented

services. A NEW BUILDING will be con-
structed on the SITES OF THE EXISTING

Alston and Alston Annex buildings.
With the Campus Center between
residential and academic areas, this
crossroads location will allow the
building to be the center of activity on
campus.

The Mary West Thatcher Chapel
will be re-located in a separate, but
linked, building in front of a renovated
Snodgrass Amphitheatre.

The Caroune McKinney Clarke '27
House at 1 46 Candler Street, across the
street from the Alumnae House, will
be renovated for use by the Alumnae
and Development offices and faculty.

To accommodate the Alumnae
Office's need for more guest room
space, and to meet the additional
space needs for administrative func-
tions, a NEW, SIMILAR BUILDING is pro-
posed next to the Anna Young Alum-
nae House. At this time, extensive
renovation and refurbishment of the
Alumnae House is planned, with an
addition for office uses.

As the College's enrollment grows,
so will the need for additional
student housing. Based on an enroll-
ment of 1 ,000 students, 85 percent of
whom are traditional-aged under-
graduates, approximately 800 students
will reside on campus.

Future housing facilities will be
located on the eastern side of campus
to maintain the close proximity of
student housing to student services.

A building site is proposed on the
unpaved parking area adjacent TO THE

PRESlDENf S HOUSE (the former McCain
Cottage site). Housing in this location
will extend activity to this corner of
campus and create a definite architec-
tural "edge" and an entrance to the
College along South Candler Street.
This three-story building will provide
approximately 100 beds.

Another RESIDENCE hall, on the

PRESENT SITE OF NaNNETTE HoPKINS

Hall constructed in 1954 will
provide up to 50 additional beds (100
total). This will establish an architec-
tural identity for the College at the
intersection of College Avenue and
Candler Street.

Tie College will need approxi-
mately 900 parking spaces to
meet the needs of 1,000 students and
faculty and staff. A parking STRUCTURE
for approximately 500 cars will be
constructed on the block bounded by
Ansley, South McDonough and
Adams streets and College Avenue.
The Public Safety Office will be relo-
cated there, where it will offer addi-
tional security for people using the
facility. By adding new spaces, this
parking structure will replace three
smaller lots designated as new build-
ing sites.

A SECOND PARKING STRUCTURE is

proposed on the northeast side of East
Dougherty Street. Relocation of the
tennis courts provides space for addi-
tional landscape in the central campus.
This shift also makes room for a park-
ing STRUCTURE on the eastern portion
of the land now occupied by the tennis
courts.

The Future Campus
of Agnes Scott College

O Rebekah Scott Hall An addition will provide space for a variety of functionsNsuch as
administrative offices and related offices and classroomsNand serve as an entrance to the
west side of campus.

O Courtyard A new landscaped courtyard is planned between the addition and Rebekah
Scott Hall.

O Academic Building A new building to accommodate academic functions is proposed
on the present parking lot between Presser Hall and Dana Fine Arts Building.

Ik Science Building A building on the south side of Campbell Hall will provide additional
research laboratory space for chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics and psychology.

I Wallace McPherSOn Alston Center A new Campus Center building is proposed on
the site of the existing Alston and Alston Annex buildings, retaining a campus center
between the residential and academic areas of campus. To be completed by fall 2000.

# Mary West Thatcher Chapel The chapel will be relocated in a separate building
linked to the Alston Center and in front of the renovated Snodgrass Amphitheatre.

1 The Anna Young Alumnae House The building will be extensively renovated. A new
building north of the Alumnae House may one day house expanded alumnae and devel-
opment functions.

Parldng#l A 12-space parking lot near the proposed new office space and existing
Anna Young Alumnae House will provide off-street parking.

O Residence Hall A new residence hall on the northwest corner of the South Candler
Street/East Dougherty Street intersection will provide approximately 100 beds in a
three-story building.

a Residence Hall A new residence hall on the present site of Hopkins Hall will provide
up to 50 additional beds, for a total of 100 at this location.

O Parking #2 A parking facility for approximately 500 cars is proposed for the block
bounded by South McDonough Street, Ansley Street, West College Avenue and Adams
Street. The Public Safety Office will be located in this structure, providing additional
security for those using the parking facility.

Parking #3 A parking structure is proposed on the north side of East Dougherty
Street, just west of South Candler Street.

DECATUR N

The Future Campus
of Agnes Scott College

O Rebekah Scott Hall An addillon will provide space for a variety of functionsNIsi
adminisrraiivc ofHces and related offices and classroomsl^land si

OCourtyard A new landscaped cnurlynrd is planni-d between the addition and Rebekah
Scott Hall

OAcademIc Building A new building to accommodate academic functic
on the present parking lot between Presser Hall and Dana Fine Arts Building.

- Science Building A building on the south side of Campbell Hall will provide additional
research laboratory space for chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics and psychology.

Q Wallace McPherson Alston Center A new Campus Center building is proposed on
the site of ihe existing Alston and Alston Annex buildings, retaining a campus o
between the residential and atadcmic areas of campus. To be completed by fall 2000,

Mary West Thatcher Chapel The chapel will be relocated in a separate building
linked to the AKum Center and in front of the renovated Snodgrass Amphitheatre.

" The Anna Young Alumnae House The building will be extensively renovated. A n
building north of the Alumnae House may one day house expanded alumriae and deve

QparklngWl A ll-space parking lot near th
Anna Young Alumnae House will provide ol[-s

O Residence Hall A new residence hall on the northw
Street/East Dougherty Street ii
three-story building,

Itesldence Hall A new residence hall on the present site of Hopkins Hal
up to 50 additional beds, (or a total of 100 at this location,

Parklng#2 A parking facility for approximately 500 cars is proposed tor the block
bounded by South McDonough Street, Anslcy Street, West College Avenue and Adar
Street. The Public Safety Office will be located in this structure, providing additional
security for those using the parking facility

Parldng#3 A parking structure is proposed on the north side of East Duugher
Street, just west of South Candler Street.

Renovated Facilities

The use of Hi Agnes Scott Hall and '^(i Buttrick Hall will change
i-esult of the proposed new buildings. Buttrick Hall will gain signilic
classroom and faculty office space as administrative functions are m
elsewhere,

Passageway A connection between the south side of Prcsser Hall
and a new academic facility may accommodate the backstage needs of
the Games Chapel.

^:< McCain Library The renovated library will almost double in size to
total of 43,800 assignable stiuare feet, accommodating new media and
technological functions. To be completed in 2001.

u? Martha Wilson Kessler Dance Studio The steam plant may be eon

verted into a dance studio to replace the studios in the current Alston
Campus Center.

a^'' Bradley Observatory Renovations will add space to house a 50-sea(
planetarium and a computcr-contralled 16-inch telescope.

l' Woodruff Physical Activities Building More exercise space is planned

Tennis Courts New enurts will occupy the space of the Facilities
Odrce, which will be moved ti. the east side of campus.

^ Snodgrass Amphitheatre A new design will seat 200 to 450 people,

Si Evans Dining Hall Comprehensive renovation will produce seated
dining space for 4(10 and meeting space on the lower level. Renovations
to be completed by fall 1999,

342 South McDonough The house on South McDonough Street
will be used for a variety of functions, including temporary office space

^ WatteiS and ^? Wlnshlp Halls Renovations will add approximately
30 beds in each.

- Parking #4 The South Candler Street parking Jot will be enlarged and
redesigned to improve grading and drainage and to add landscape to screen
the lot from adjacent private residences. To be completed by fall 1998,

Existing Buildings
Get New Life

A s new buildings are added, exist-
/ \ ing buildings will experience
Jl. \. modifications. For many,
this will include a modification in
functions.

The first priority is the renovation
and expansion of McCain Library, which
will require 43,800 assignable square
feet to meet needs to the year 2016.
This means doubling existing space by
adding approximately 70 feet to the
south of the building.

BuTTRiCK Hall will gain significant
classroom and faculty office space as
administrative functions are moved
elsewhere.

To accommodate the backstage
needs of Gaines Chapel, a connection
has been proposed between the pro-
posed Presser parking lot building and
the south side of Presser Hall. Maclean
Auditorium will be converted to move-
able seating, allowing the room to be
used for a variety of functions.

Ground-level spaces in Presser Hall
will be renovated for use as temporary
faculty offices or small classrooms and
other offices.

Rogers Steam Plant, part of the
Facilities Office and storage, could be
converted into dance studio space to
replace spaces removed from Alston
Campus Center.

Other dramatic changes are anti-
cipated. Located slightly south
of the core of campus, the Bradley
Observatory is an important facility.
The high-powered Beck telescope has
been returned to the main dome. An
addition on the north side of the
observatory will house a 50-seat
planetarium and a computer-controlled
16-inch telescope.

The Robert W. Woodruff Physical
Activities Building will be expanded to
provide improved facilities for students,
faculty and staff.

The Office of Facilities (formerly
the Ofhce of Physical Plant) will
be moved and the existing tennis courts
will be relocated to the spot Facilities it
currently occupies. This move will al-
low the creation of a new open space
connection between north and south
campus areas. The Facilities offices,
shops and central receiving function
will be moved to College Avenue on the
east side of campus, beyond Avery Glen
Apartments.

The remodeled Snodcrass
Amphitheatre will be slightly smaller
than the existing facility, seating 200-
450, depending on the configuration of
the seating tiers.

A campus landmark, Evans Dining
Hall will be extensively renovated:
changes include an expanded marche
food servery, expanded eating areas on
north and south "porches" and upgraded
meeting spaces on the lower level.

When the Public Safety' Office is

John Bulow Campbell Hall (\s^) and McCain Library (right) will undergo significant change in the next few years.

Woodruff Quadrangle from the east end of Buttrick Drive has the Gazebo as its focal point.

relocated to the new parking facility, its
present space may be used in conjunc-
tion with the Katharine Woltz Recep-
tion Room.

Approximately 30 beds each may
be added in the renovated attics
of George WiNSHip and Frances Winship
Walters residence halls. New dormer
windows will provide natural light for
each room. This will add beds in the
core of the residential area of campus
without using more land.

The landscape environment of
Agnes Scott College is a great asset.
The landscape and open spaces of the
campus will be maintained and en-
hanced through careful modification
and long-term management.

The recommendations for the
campus landscape and open spaces
are based on the following goals:

1 . Maintain and enhance the con-
nection between the major open spaces
on campus, extending from the front
"park" north of Agnes Scott Hall,
through George W. and Irene K. Wood-
ruff Quadrangle, to the hockey field
and amphitheatre, and the Lawrence L.
jr. and Mary Duckworth Gellerstedt
Track and Field.

2. Manage the campus plantings to
provide for replacement of old or de-
clining tree-s in order to maintain the
extensive tree canopy that presently
exists.

3. Locate future buildings to mini-
mize the need to remove trees or reduce
the amount of landscape on the College
campus. Existing parking lots are prime
areas where future construction will
have minimal impact on the campus
landscape.

4. Improve the Woodruff
Quadrangle through the introduction
of new paving and the redesign of the
southeast corner in conjunction with
the building of the new Campus Center

5. Develop clear points of auto-
mobile entrance to the College's
pedestrian walkway system at
the existing Milton Candler
Loop off College Avenue
and from South
McDonough Street.

6. Develop the
College grounds as a
sculpture garden.

7. Improve exterior
lighting to enhance the

Natasha Price '99 (left) and
Lauren O'Pezio '00 during an ASC
sponsored community event.

safety and security of the campus.

8. Improve on- and off-campus
directional signage, including signage
for people with disabilities.

Modifications will be made to
existing buildings to make sure all
Agnes Scott facilities are accessible to
students and visitors, including those
with disabilities.

"" -ijl&^i--' ;S

^: M

An Agnes Scott jor Tomorrow

Over the past century, Agnes Scott has grown in
beauty and excellence. With a passion for finding,
researching, developing and disseminating know-
ledge, Agnes Scott has developed into a college that has
gained distinction in a variety of disciplines.

With a focus on sustaining that distinction, the plans in
this publication were developed by Agnes Scott administra-
tion, faculty, staff, students, alumnae, trustees and friends in
conjunction with professionals in architecture, landscape
architecture and space utilization.

The plans have been scrutinized and refined with one
purpose in mind: to ensure that the College is equipped with
the human resources, facilities, technology and equipment
required to keep Agnes Scott a premier liberal arts college

well into the 2 1 st century.

Building, refurbishing and strengthening the infrastruc-
ture of the campus will be expensive. But not building, not
growing, would exact a much greater cost in the future. That's
why the College is asking for your support of this ambitious,
exciting plan.

The College invites you to explore in-depth the plans for
Agnes Scott, to learn the details of what is proposed, and to
consider how you might be a part of the renewal of this most
valuable academic resource.

Together, all members of the College community can
position Agnes Scott for continued growth and distinction in
the 2 1 St century.

THE

ATLANTA

SEMESTER

By Celeste Pennington Photography by Gary Meek

A legion of volunteers, donning black
trash bags and yellow hard hats, slogged
around a mud-red construction site
one day last April, determined to
outlast the cold rain and complete
a children's playground in
East Point, Ga.

Hands On Atlanta
volunteers collabo-
rated on the project
with the communi-
ty in a spirit of old-
fashioned barn-
raising. Michelle
Frost '97, a political
science major from
Marietta, recruited and organized
the volunteer work force of 150 as part of her
Atlanta Semester internship at Agnes Scott.

25

The speakers' forum
provides students
exposure to high-
profile leaders from
government, corporate
life and nonprofit
organizations; it is an
opportunity to consider
the substance and
style of leadership.

The Atlanta Semester's hands-on approach enables students
to observe and exercise leadership, to "try on" professions and
establish career networks in Atlanta, while pursuing academic topics.

Educating women who become
strong leaders has been a hall-
mark of the College and now
it is a specific objective for the
Atlanta Semester: Program in
Women, Leadership and Social Change.
"Agnes Scott assertively acknowledged that
'women as leaders and participants in social
change is an important area of study,"
explains Isa Williams, program director.
"We said, 'it is so important that we are
going to build a program around that."'

The Atlanta Semester strikes a unique
balance of classroom study and hands-on
learning. The program is designed for
women to earn 13 semester hours that
include a four-hour supervised internship, a
four-hour seminar, a two-hour speakers'
forum and a three-hour independent
research project growing out of the intern-
ship and seminar. For one semester, the
women wrestle with the theory of leader-
ship and the realities of leadership in the
marketplace from a woman's viewpoint.

Since its beginning in 1996, the program
has attracted inquiries from women in 46
states and three countries. In the spring of
1996, the Adanta Semester was launched
with four Agnes Scott students and one stu-
dent from Spelman College. In the spring
of 1997, 15 students participated includ-
ing one from Ireland and four students from
out-of-state institutions.

Last summer, Agnes Scott offered a lim-
ited program called Women and Work with
a 20-hour-per-week internship and a five-
hour seminar.

Michelle Frost '97 was looking for lead-
ership experience when she chose to intern
at F^ands On Adanta (FHOA), a well-run
nonprofit organization (led by a woman)
which recruits and trains volunteers and
leads them in community service projects
ranging from tutoring and mentoring to res-
cue work during natural disasters.
Eventually Frost would like to pursue a
career in national politics or in the manage-
ment of a nonprofit agency.

During the weeks leading up to park
construction, Frost's FHOA assignment was
to line up volunteers, both for the construc-

tion of the children's playground and for a
one-day clean-up effort at 14 parks in the
Atlanta area.

At the time of playground construction,
Frost rolled up her sleeves and was on site
at 7:15 each morning to make a master list
of workers and tasks and prepare for the
8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. work day, keeping vol-
unteers on schedule, assisting with con-
struction as well as delegating tasks. For
three days, folks dug holes, hauled dirt,
framed the "learning structures," built a
ramp for the slide and buried tires for the
balance walk.

On and off the fourth day, that rainy
April, about 150 showed up to work until
the job was done. "I made sure," says Frost
(whose own construction experience
includes F^abitat for F^umanity projects),
"that women were not just running errands.
1 handed a drill to one woman who said, '1
can't use a drill,' and she worked with that
drill all day and loved it."

Freckled Evan Manderson, a 13-year-old
from East Point, helped sand, drill and tote
boards. "It surprised me," he recalls, "but I
was treated as an equal with adults on this
construction site. Michelle was great."

By 7 each evening, Frost began the
almost hour-long drive back to campus.
"This project is where my heart has been, "
admits Frost. 'The Atlanta Semester allowed
me a semester to be in the real world. After
today," she says with a smile, "I will get
back to my studies."

While the internship enables stu-
dents to observe and exercise
leadership, to "try on" professions
and establish career networks in Atlanta,
the speakers' forum provides students expo-
sure to the high-profile leaders from gov-
ernment, corporate life and nonprofit orga-
nizations.

This opportunity to consider the sub-
stance and style of leadership, up close, was
of particular interest to Donnette Holloway,
a junior social work major from Wichita,
Kan. "My definition of leadership has
changed significantly," says F^olloway. "I
thought you had to hold a political position

26

BETSY BILBRO: Committed to Service

Betsy Bilbro '97 chose an internship with IBM but
first, she chose her mentor, IBM executive Ann
Cramer whom Bilbro met during a luncheon on cam-
pus. "Do you have interns?" Bilbro had inquired then. "We
sure do," replied Cramer. "Give me a call."

Bilbro admired Cramer as a dynamic person with both a
clear vision of leadership and a long history of community
involvement, including serving as chair of the Georgia
Partnership for Excellence in Education, president of the
Junior League and chair of both the United Way of Atlanta
and of the Governor's Policy Council on Children.

During the first two days of the internship, Bilbro
helped with mailouts and
general office work at IBM.
By midweek, says Bilbro, "I
was going to meetings with
Ann, and doing all kinds of
exciting things."

Cramer, regional manager
for IBM's corporate communi-
ty relations and public affairs,
included Bilbro in a corporate
meeting of their employees
from Maine to Florida. Bilbro
accompanied her to a lun-
cheon at the Alliance Theatre,
to a meeting of the Atlanta
mayor and several city council
members (dealing with home-
lessness), and to meetings
with members of the United
Way, the Junior League and
others. She found that the
common thread in Cramer's
professional life and her com-
munity service is how these

By watching Ann Cramer's
career, Betsy Bilbro discovered
not only a job opportunity,
but also a style of work and
service worth emulating.

intertwine to help build a strong human infrastructure in
the city of Atlanta.

"What 1 loved about having Betsy as an intern," Cramer
says, "is that she gained a broad view of the corporation
and a full view of community organization."

Among the first women invited to participate in the
Atlanta Semester speakers' forum, Cramer believes that
Agnes Scott's new program provides "a practical as well as
an ideological framework for college women like Betsy to
grab hold of 'what is next for me,' " and Cramer values the
opportunity it provides for women in leadership to "pass
the baton on to the next generation."

27

ISA WILLIAMS: A Profile in Energy

When she talks about the new Atlanta Semester
program, founding director Isa Williams can't
hide her enthusiasm. "The most exciting thing
is the energy that students, faculty and community mem-
bers bring to the topic of women, leadership and social
change. The program is the energy," she says.

Williams' own energy is the driving force behind this
program that capitalizes on what Adanta offers women stu-
dents. "We are looking at how women are informing and
changing public life," and where better to do this than in a

growing international city? Through seminars and intern-
ships, students study key elements of women and leader-
ship and obtain a hands-on understanding of the theories
they are taught.

Williams' background seems perfectly suited to the pro-
gram. After receiving her bachelor of arts from Spelman
College, she worked for 18 years in the business world,
honing her leadership and organizational skills. In the cor-
porate "classroom," she learned firsthand about women's
roles in public life. This interest led her back to the con-
ventional classroom
at Emory University,
where she pursued a
doctorate in wom-
en's studies. Williams
asserts that women's
studies forms the
foundation ol every-
thing the Atlanta
Semester program
seeks to do. "We
know that women
have never been
totally relegated to
the private sector of
the home. We are
looking at how
vital women are in
the leadership
equation."
Writer Marin
Bet>iK<fun is nssistiint
professor of Woiiifii's
Stuiiies.

Isa Williams in down-
town Atlanta. Her train-
ing in the classroom and
hands-on experience in
business gives the
Atlanta Semester Its
extra dimension.

28

"I have enjoyed hearing opinions from a different region. Women
here are more willing to give honest opinions. It is nice to hear
women who are straight-forward, who say exactly what they think."

Donnette Holloway

or have a position of high rank. Now I real-
ize that being a leader could be as simple as
speaking up in a conversation. You don't
have to be standing in front of a group of
people to lead."

From the program's outset, Williams has
drawn a number of exemplary commu-
nity leaders to participate in seminars
and panels, and she has invited nationally-
recognized women as speakers. These have
attracted audiences from the larger Atlanta
community as well.

Last year, for instance, the Atlanta
Semester presented Rebecca Walker, co-
founder of the Multicultural Women's
Activists Organization and one of Time mag-
azine's "50 Future Leaders of America."
Walker drew audiences from Emory and
Georgia State universities, Spelman College,
Georgia Tech and the University of
Georgia. The Atlanta Semester co-spon-
sored (with the College's Faith and Learning
Committee) speaker Constance Buchanan,
divinity professor from Harvard University
and author of Choosincl to Lead: Women and the
Crisis oj American Values.

"We are calling attention to the fact that
women are actively engaged in leadership
throughout Atlanta," emphasizes Williams
who brought three women mayors serving
in the Atlanta area to lead a panel discus-
sion. "These women felt that they were
drawn into political leadership because they
wanted to build stronger communities. We
learned that finding one's way into political
leadership often begins with the volunteer
work that women engage in, like P.TA.
(Parent-Teachers Association)."

This year, Atlanta Semester students
gathered at The Carter Presidential Center
to meet with former First Lady Rosalynn
Carter. Members from the Georgia
Executive Women's Network came to cam-
pus to discuss women and leadership.
Benefiting from the accomplishments and
experience of Agnes Scott's own outstand-
ing graduates, the Atlanta Semester offered
an alumnae symposium.

During the seminar component of the
Atlanta Semester, students met with ASC

faculty to examine and converse on a range
of issues dealing with leadership in theory
and practice. "Our faculty provides interdis-
ciplinary strength," explains Williams. "This
year we had faculty from history, political
science, economics and sociology. Students
from other campuses found the seminars
especially meaningful."

Holloway is one: "We discussed, very
openly, our reactions to reading assign-
ments, and our opinions about leadership
and social change. Since I am from Kansas
State University, 1 have enjoyed hearing
opinions from a different region of the
country. Women here are more willing to
give their honest opinions, no sugar coat-
ing," notes Holloway. "It is nice to hear
women who are straight forward, who say
exactly what they think."

Each student involved in the Atlanta
Semester is required to keep a journal
and to design an independent
research project related to her internship.
Williams has been pleased with the quality
of internships in places as diverse as The
Carter Presidential Center, The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention and CNN
(Cable News Network).

Williams is also pleased with the caliber
of Atlanta Semester students and the quality
of their research. Betsy Bilbro '97, Phi Beta
Kappa and president of Orientation Council
at ASC, chose corporate philanthropy as
her research topic her internship was with
International Business Machines Corpora-
tion (IBM) in its department of corporate
community relations and public affairs.

Bilbro's project reflected research at IBM
and other large corporations, including
The Coca-Cola Company, BellSouth and
United Parcel Services (UPS). Bilbro, who
would like to pursue a career in corporate
community relations, designed a question-
naire seeking information about the history,
programs and priorities of each corpora-
tion's philanthropy and conducted inter-
views.

The resulting paper, "Corporate Com-
munity Relations and the City Too Busy to
Hate," analyzed the development of corpo-

"Isa Williams' atten-
tion to detail, her
accessibility and her
commitment to women
have made my time at
Agnes Scott College
immensely enjoyable.
Every woman in the
program is dynamic
and added much to my
experience in Atlanta."

Candice Fletcher

Visiting student

from the University oj

Colorado at Boulder

29

During seminars,
students discuss
and debate such
issues as healtii care,
welfare reform, the
roles of women in
social change; in
1998, the topic has
been immigration.

"No other college was doing this-, recognizing the ways

in which womey\ are changing society and bringing those issues to the table.

Everywhere I have gone, the response has been wonderful. "

Isa Williams

rate community relations and public affairs
departments, and documented the ways busi-
ness coordinates volunteer efforts in Atlanta
and targets specific areas to donate corporate
time and resources.

"What I learned," says Bilbro, "is that
companies have been doing community rela-
tions unofficially for a long time. But since
the 1980s, companies have understood that
corporate philanthropy affects the bottom
line. The community receives help. The
employees benefit because they gain leader-
ship skills and increase their professional
network. Finally, the corporation is viewed
as a good citizen. This involvement is a win-
win situation for everyone."

Calling herself a "student of leader-
ship," Williams is particularly suited
to her role in the Atlanta Semester.
Her own career combines strong academics
with corporate experience at NationsBank
and its predecessor banks, C&S and Sovran.

"1 was on the front line to help shape
changes at the bank, but since my student
days at Spelman, I had a dream to work in
an academic setting. When this position
became available, I thought it would be a
great opportunity to shape a new program."
Williams' experience honed her skills in
administration, guidance and counseling,
organization and planning and recruit-
ment. For instance, last year students exam-
ined the roles of women as participants and
leaders in social change.

This past year, Williams brought empha-
sis to three contemporary social issues:
health care, immigration and welfare
reform. In 1998, the Atlanta Semester has
dealt with immigration issues and students
had the option of participating in a Global
Connections trip to the Middle East (in
conjunction with the ASC Department of
Religious Studies). "We see Atlanta as an
international city and part of the global
community. We find that women immigrat-
ing from Islamic countries are having diffi-
culty," notes Williams. "Through Global
Connections we will seek to better under-
stand why."

As Williams evaluates the fledgling pro-

gram, she says that next year students will
begin their internships sooner. More time
will be spent in classroom meetings to dis-
cuss the internship experience and research
projects.

Williams happily notes the availability of
resources in Atlanta. "I have been surprised
that the hard part of my work has been to
narrow down potential speakers and intern
sites," she comments.

"There has been so much interest and
cooperation. We don't have to convince
people about Agnes Scott interns . . . they
eagerly accept our students in a minute."

Mutally beneficial is the way Amy
Bredehoft describes that relationship. As
state coordinator for Healthy Families of the
Georgia Council on Child Abuse, Bredehoft
explains, "We are leading the way in child
abuse prevention in the state and in the
country, so work with us is a great opportu-
nity for the student. Donnette Holloway
worked with us on the help line, in donor
gifts and in providing information to fami-
lies about our program. She assisted me in
developing a manual. Because we are pri-
vate, we benefit from the intern's exper-
tise and fresh ideas."

Williams expresses appreciation for
the direction and support offered
by members of the Faculty
Steering Committee (Catherine Scott,
professor of Political Sciences and chair of
Political Science, Sociology and
Anthropology, Augustus Cochran, professor
of Political Science, Michele Gillespie, asso-
ciate professor of History, Christine
Cozzens, associate professor of English and
Gail Cabisius, associate professor of
Classical Languages and Literatures) and for
opportunities afforded the students through
campus-wide emphases that dovetail perfect-
ly with women in leadership.

"No other college was doing this:
recognizing the ways in which women are
changing society and bringing those issues
to the table, " says Williams. "Even'where
I have gone, the response has been
wonderful.

"1 believe the program is a winner."

30

MARY HERNDON: Emphasis on Outreach

The care and grace with which Mary Herndon '97
relates to the younger generation reflects, in part,
the encouragement a physician showed Herndon
when she was a young high school graduate. "I cleaned in
the nursery, helped feed patients. It was a little job. But the
doctor noticed the way 1 carried myself. She said, 'Miss
Mary, you are known by the clothing you wear.' "

Herndon grew up near Atlanta, the oldest daughter in a
family of 12 children. She studied nursing in New York and
has practiced critical care, obstetric and geriatric nursing in
hospitals from New York to Los Angeles.

She has also worked in real estate and run her own insur-
ance/investments and restaurant businesses. At the same
time, she has raised a family, and has maintained a strong
avocation: working with youth.

At the heart of that, Herndon has been helping young
people to build relationships as they build self-esteem, and
to develop balance in their spiritual, social and intellectual
lives. She has worked with youngsters in California's
Englewood and Watts districts, but she met her toughest
challenge last spring during her Atlanta Semester intern-
ship, in a parenting class for teenagers at Decatur High
School.

The Decatur program provides students classroom learn-
ing supported by field trips and regular hands-on care for
dozens of infants and toddlers (children of teachers and stu-
dents) in a well-run day care center housed in Decatur
High. "Students feed babies, change babies, get in the rock-
ing chair and rock the babies," says Herndon. "The program
is terrific. But," she comments, "most of the girls have atti-
tude problems."

Well-spoken and self-assured, Herndon calmly went
head-to-head with students as she assisted in the classroom
and conducted research that included home visits and one-
on-one interviews. Eventually, congenial chatter filled a
room that months earlier was filled with tension. "At first,"
acknowledges Herndon, "this one didn't want to sit by that
one. Many were feeling the pressures and isolation of
young parenthood."

At the start of the Atlanta Semester, Herndon had plans
to begin her master's degree and open a pre-school through
third grade, primarily for her "great-grands." As the semes-

Atlanta Semester's Mary Herndon and one of the young children in
the Decatur High School day-care program.

ter progressed, Herndon met women like Valerie Jackson,
wife of former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson, who shared
her growing concerns for teenage pregnancy.

Herndon found that as she tried to give high school stu-
dents a new vision for their future and the futures of their
babies she began to reshape her own dreams.

On the last day of her internship, students in the
Decatur High parenting class feted Herndon with refresh-
ments and words of thanks. Her response included an
announcement: "1 have been doing research on teenage
pregnancy for the past three years. 1 [hope to] open a
school that provides a place for girls who have no support
system to bring their children. 1 will also offer parenting
classes. I am only interested in those girls who are further-
ing their education," she said.

Like the wise physician who encouraged Miss Mary,
once again she will be reaching out this time to two gen-
erations as she provides a sure and gracious hand to
young mothers who pursue college or vocational education
and to their children.

SURVEY REPORT

You like what you get including a magazine that's "portable" rather than
electronic. But you want us to remember to put a "very human face" on our reports.

You may recall that
the spring 1997
issue of Acjnes Scott
Alumnae Magazine contained
a brief readers' survey. The
responses have been tal-
lied, the numbers totaled
and the percentages calcu-
lated, and the Office of
Publications wants you to
know that we hear you!

The survey prompted a
total of 289 responses
from alumnae, faculty,
administrators, students
and friends of ASC.
The overwhelming
majority of respon-
dents (92 percent) were
alumnae, representing
nearly every class year
from 1919 (Lulu Smith
Westcott, who turned 1 00
last fall) through 1997.

The College was most
surprised to learn that
while more than half (54
percent) of respondents
have computers with on-
line access, and more than
half (54 percent) expect to
have (or continue to have)
such access in the next 12
months, a full 95 percent
of respondents would not
prefer to receive College
periodicals electronically.

Some readers stated this
preference emphatically:

"definitely NOT!" and
"NO! Horrors! Absolutely
not!" Another reader
prefers the paper version of
the magazine because it is
"portable."

We were pleased to find
that most respondents (74
percent) read "several arti-
cles from" or "almost all of"
each issue, and
that 64 per-
A/^^^r cent of respon-
dents pick up

/^ each issue two or

three times. Of course,
many people not big
clock-watchers told us
that they take "as long
as it takes" to read the
magazine.

One survey question
asked which types of arti-
cles readers like to see in
the magazine and listed a
selection of 19 topics.
Readers indicated that they
like to read ASC news, so
we plan to continue bring-
ing you articles that keep
you informed of important
ASC happenings, including
developments with the
College's new Master Plan.
We also intend to feature
our alumnae in articles that
highlight their creative,
spiritual and career
endeavors.

Since stories by and
about faculty are popular
with our readers, we often
solicit articles by faculty
members, such as Assistant
Professor of Spanish
Gisela Norat's unique per-
spective on the works of
writer Isabel Allende,
included in this edition.

Forthcoming issues will
also feature books by
alumnae, faculty and staff,
and articles on contempo-
rary student life. And
instead of articles on
home economics (a sub-
ject which only 3 percent
of respondents want to
see), you are more likely
to see stories on personal
investment portfolios sug-
gested by students in an
economics class.

Types of articles that
respondents want to see
less include how-to arti-
cles, book reviews and
articles on ASC structure
and organization. Many
wrote in with emphatic
pleas that we not begin
featuring "how-to " articles,
a request with which we
are happy to comply.

We also asked respon-
dents what sort of picture
of ASC the magazine
paints for them. Sixty-five

percent reported that they
get a positive picture of
the College from the mag-
azine, and 25 percent said
the picture is balanced/
informative. One reader's
write-in comments cap-
tured an opinion expressed
by several respondents.
She said, "In articles about
people, ask yourself, has
she done something inter-
esting or just praisewor-
thy? Haloes are dull and
the cumulative effect of
these articles is that you're
putting a gloss on the
College that makes it seem
awfully virtuous but not
very human or likable. We
could do with a few more
warts, I think." We take
these comments seriously
as we work to present an
accurate and very human
view of Agnes Scott.
Several questions
addressed the format and
design of the magazine.
TTie consensus? Keep the
physical aspects of the
magazine as they are.
Overall, respondents are
satisfied with the size
(dimensions! and length
(number of pages) of the
magazine and want us to
continue our present use
of color and black-and-

32

white photography.
Finally, to give us an idea
of what they look for in a
periodical, readers were
asked to list the three
other magazines they read
most frequently. The top
10 responses in descend-
ing order were as follows:
Tifiie, Newsweek, National
Geocjraphic, Southern Livinij,
Smithsonian, New Yorker,
Readers' Digest, US News &
World Report, Good
Housekeeping, Guideposts and
People.

Together, the data and
the subjective comments
provided by the survey
responses many that we
expected, many very sur-
prising will prove to be a
useful tool in directing the
future of the magazine.

Tlie Office of Publica-
tions would like to thank
all readers who took the
time to respond to this
survey and make their
voices heard. These
results will help
greatly in the
office's efforts to
respond to our
readers' interests well
into the 21st
century.

Maria Bevaccjua

I for complete survey result:
check out Agnes Scott's Weh
at www.agnesscott.edu/abottt
AgnesScott.

OUR WORLD

Pakistan Festival on campus celebrates creation
of the first modern religious state.

Agnes Scott was awhirl with Eastern
thought and culture this past fall
when members of the Pakistan-
American community converged on cam-
pus for the Pakistan Golden Jubilee
Celebrations.

The week included scholarly discus-
sions addressing such topics as Islamic
civilization and the role of women in
Pakistan as well as such cultural activities
such as poetry readings and a film
presentation.

Events culminated with Pakistanfest, a
celebration of Pakistani food, music, dance
and dress, which was officially inaugurated
by Pakistani
Ambassador
Tehmina
Zaidi.

11 was uii

The Historical Perspective

Of all the territories under European rule
in the 20th century, Pakistan was the first
to win the status of an independent nation.
In 1947, an entirely new state was carved
out of territories where Muslims were in a
distinct majority in colonial India. It was
the first modern state established solely on
the basis of religious affiliation. Israel was
not established until a year later

Pakistan, then, became an experiment
in a new way of governing not theocrat-
ic, but one in which the ethico-religious
strain is hybridized with democratic insti-
tutions of decision making.
Since imperial
bureaucratic
institutions
have con-
tinued side
by side with
democratic social forms,
the experiment has enjoyed
only limited success.

Though the impact of
Islamic thought an<
been the greatest, Arab, Turkic
Centra'

Asian
(Mongol),
Persian, Indian,
Greek and British
influences have
played into the mak-
ing of the psyche
and character of the
Pakistani people, and
the spectrum of
migrating influences
continues to enlarge.

33

LIFESTYLE

GIFTED AND
GIVING

Mimi Holmes '78

Mimi Holmes, national-
ly known "bead artist,"
never felt like an ordinary
person, even while at Agnes
Scott, where she majored in
art and theatre. By cultivat-
ing her talents, she has
accomplished much in the
19 years since her gradua-
tion.

Born in New Orleans,
Holmes spent most of her
childhood in Jacksonville,
Fla. After receiving her
bachelor's degree from
Agnes Scott, she worked
professionally in theatre for
three years. Then she
returned to academia, earn-
ing a master of fine arts
degree in studio art from
Florida State University in
1984. Since then, she has
made art and art education
her life.

Holmes has been the
recipient of numerous
awards and honors, includ-
ing prestigious artist's resi-
dencies and fellowships in
New York, Wyoming and
Alabama, and her work has
been exhibited in more than
35 states. Holmes now lives
in Minneapolis and devotes
herself to her artwork and to
her husband, Ed Stern.

Holmes is known for
sculpture that uses bright

colors and visually "disturb-
ing" shapes that make the
viewer look at the work as a
whole, not simply at the
beadwork, a technique she
has perfected. She sews
beads onto the sculpture so
that they lie flat, and she
also uses eye-catching
materials such as zippers,
sequins and mirrored glass,
sewn into shapes primarily
resembling female identity
forms.

Holmes creates for her
own pleasure and personal
fulfillment, she says. But
occasionally she is asked to
create a work on a specihc
theme or for a show. One of
her most challenging
"theme " art experiences
came in 1993, when she was
part of "Beyond the Quilt,"
an exhibit at C.A.G.E.
Gallery in Cincinnati.
Holmes' creation honored
her 90-year-old grandmoth-
er's long, full life.

Her "Quilt for the Death
of One I Loved" is made in
horizontal rows assembled
by zippers,- each row has
vertical stitching separating
it into pockets which
enclose compost materials
that form the batting; egg
shells, dryer lint, dried cof-
fee grounds, grapefruit rind
and fake horsehair Holmes
wrote a poem to her grand-
mother on the back of the
quilt.

Holmes says she made

PHOTO BY ED STERN

Mimi Holmes in her studio: Her wori< "transcends boundaries

the quilt to prepare herself
emotionally for the death of
her grandmother small,
body sized and meant to
decompose, not to last
(hence the pockets filled
with compost).

While working on the
quilt. Holmes wrote, "I
think that making a quilt
like this is what art should
really be about. Heartfelt
and connected to others,
purposeful; not worried
about whether it fits into
the current art world scene,
whether I can place it in a
gallery, sell it, etc. ... I'm
proud of this quilt and 1
think it's special."

So did her grandmother,
who died the afternoon of
Holmes' 40th birthday in
November 1996. Since
then, the quilt has been

shown in exhibits around
the country.

Holmes says, 'The really
neat thing about my quilt
for Gram is how well it has
done out in the world, how
strongly people respond to
it once they understand its
intention. Art that is con-
nected, art that is truly made
from the heart, does tran-
scend a good many bound-
aries, and is real."

Holmes plans to contin-
ue her work with beads, as
well as her grandmother's
memorial quilt.

"It comforts me, but I'm
not sure what to do with it.
1 think I'll keep filling the
pockets with stories about
her, keeping her memory
and spirit near me.

Elloi Fort GnssfH '77 mui

Alilri.I Bo'dCljHil

34

LIFESTYLE

A LIFE OF
FLEXIBILITY
AND
EXPLORATION

Dr. Audrey Grant '77

Ask Audrey Grant, presi-
dent of the class of
1 977, what she does at the
moment, and she will explain:
"I'm a locum tenens emergency
room physician. I practice
medicine in emergency
rooms when and where I'm
needed most."

At the moment, that hap-
pens to be Pikeville, Ky., far
from her permanent home in
Fairfax, Va. However, by
working on a contractual
basis in a field that is becom-
ing more and more special-
ized. Grant is able to help
hospitals deal with the
changing trends in emer-
gency medicine, as well as
secure more flexibility for
herself.

"This way, 1 can take sab-
baticals when I want and
need to," she explains. "I
decided after I turned 40 that
while medicine was impor-
tant, it was not all there is to
life."

Surprising words, per-
haps, from a woman who
calls herself a "bookworm"
and who entered Agnes
Scott in 1973 at the age of
16, one of only eight
African-American students
on campus at the time, "I

grew up wanting to please
and wanting to grow intel-
lectually," she recalls.

"When I came along at
the College, it was with this
very Southern, ingrained
notion that blacks had a cer-
tain place, and therefore 1
wasn't as outgoing as 1
might have been on cam-
pus. I studied hard, I had my
'sisterhood' of black women
classmates, and I went on to
medical school because
it was what my
parents want-
ed and
what I
wanted,
too."

After
study-

Now in her 40s, Audrey
Grant iiueiids-anu

years of living . . .
exploring her potentials

facilities without having
to uproot her personal life.
"I've seen emergency medi-
cine change a great deal in
the years I've been practic-
ing," she observes. "It truly is
a specialty. We are seeing
hospitals establish so-called
fast-track programs for
smaller emergencies as
well as chest pain areas,
where the patient may be
cared for by specially
^ trained physicians without
the expense of being
admitted to the
hospital unless
_^ necessary."

However, she
is concerned
that many
people still
use the
emergency
room for
primary
care.
"As long
as we
have peo-
ple who
don't have
insurance, or
are unable to
get in to see
their primary
care physician,
T simply
aren't edu-
cated on
what a
true emer-
gency is, I'm
afraid we'll always

see patients coming in for
basic healthcare, which is
not what emergency rooms
these days should be
addressing." Despite these
problems. Grant remains
encouraged by activists who
continue to lobby for
change in the system.

Since turning 40, Grant
has sought change in her
own life, placing new
emphasis on her physical
well-being and her non-
medical interests. She
altered her eating and exer-
cising habits and began to
train for a triathlon (swim-
ming, biking and running
event). "I intend to live to
be 100 years old," she says
with a laugh. "I believe we
as women can do that if we
take care of ourselves and
pay attention to all those
things in life that are so
stimulating and challeng-
ing."

As a result. Grant hopes
to retire from emergency
medicine in five years or
less, "but not from life."
She'd like to travel more
and perhaps even return to
school to refresh her skills
in French and German and
learn a third language,
Spanish.

"I'm going to set my
sights on achieving the
triathlon goal, then see what
comes next. It's time to find
out what makes me happy."
Ellm Fort Grissett 'n

35

PHOTO BY MEG BUSCEMA

LIFESTYLE

ON KEY

IN THE SONG

OF LIVING

Jennifer Nettles '97

The pub is as dead as the
winter night. Stale ciga-
rette smoke hangs in the air
as a few work-weary patrons
loll against the bar, nursing
beers, unable to shake win-
ter's chill. In strolls Jennifer
Nettles '97, dressed for heat,
tank top and faded jeans
clinging. She jumps on stage,
lets out a signature growl and
discharges a few acoustic
lobs into the air.

With the sound of her
soulful croon, the crowd
surges stageward, listlessness
melting like the snow hit-
ting the pavement outside.

For Nettles the stage is a
spirit filler, a place bearing
joy and energy and peace,
"it really is a sacred space
that shouldn't be defamed,"
she says, her voice quicken-
ing, "because so many peo-
ple want to be there and do
that, and hunger and yearn
to be in that place."

So insatiable is Nettles'
appetite for the stage that
she couldn't wait until after
college to pursue it. The
sociology/anthropology
major split her time between
drama productions and
singing in London Fog, the
College's jazz ensemble, all
the while rehearsing and

Jennifer Nettles strings tier guitar before a sliow at Eddie's Attic
in Decatur, wliere acoustic up-and-comers launch careers.

performing with her band.
Soul Miner's Daughter
Though she values her
Agnes Scott education, she's
relieved to escape the pres-
sures of academic and artis-
tic performance.

Nettles is urgent about
her career, already cogni-
zant of time's ability to steal
the vitality that is her
appeal. Determined to avoid
the what-if-l-had-just-tried
blues, Netdes pursues
adventure in both art and
life. After a year of steady
performances, she took off
for a month and crossed the
country on a motorcycle.
The time away from per-

forming also makes room for
"soul mining," the heart of
her songwriting.

Nettles calls her music a
"fusion of soul, funk and
folk, in that order" Or
maybe it's "rock 'n' roll with
good lyrics," the kind that
spring from everyday expe-
rience, forming a scrapbook
of her life. Soul Miner's
Daughter's hrst album, 'The
Sacred and Profane," pulses
with young, angry love, "but
that's what was going on in
my life at the time, " says
Nettles.

It's not just the beat and
the sound audiences gravi-
tate toward, it's the feeling

the songs evoke, the magic
behind the music. These
lyrics make for a "much
more soulful and powerful
feel," writes Lee Heidel, staff
writer for Red & Black, the
independent student news-
paper of the University of
Georgia in Athens. "Intricate
harmonies and musical
arrangements are matched
with direct, yet mystical,
lyrics."

Netdes' current composi-
tions reflect family life and
growing up. She says the
next album, which the band
hopes to record in late win-
ter or early spring, will prob-
ably be more politically
charged than the last. But
the soul of the music
remains, she says, even as
the band explores new
sounds and themes. Nettles
thrives on her creative col-
laboration with partner Cory
Jones, and now with their
full band, which gives her
freedom to experiment.

Nettles' journey to her
sacred stage began in
church, where she first per-
formed at age 7. As part of a
statewide performing arts
troupe, the Douglas, Ga.
native met Jones in high
school. In college, they
played together at first for
fim but soon decided their
sound was worth a public
test.

Agnes Scott gave Jennifer
and Coiy their first public

36

LIFESTYLE

venue, a stage in Presser
Hall as the opening act for a
Coffee House. Eddie's Attic,
a Decatur acoustic music
venue, became their real
proving ground. They won
an open microphone contest
there, recorded a demo tape,
got an agent and a new
name, made a CD and now

perform all over Atlanta and
Athens. Though Soul
Miner's Daughter still
appears occasionally as an
acoustic duo, having a full
band allows them to book
bigger arenas. This fall, the
group launched a college
tour of the Southeast,
including Clemson, S.C.

and Winston-Salem, N.C.

Does she hope to follow
the path of her musical
hero James Taylor? Even
Nettles isn't sure that kind of
fame is her goal although
she acknowledges she wants
to move beyond the
Southeast to reach new audi-
ences. For her music to

touch the maximum number
of people she will continue
to write and sing, to travel
and perform, to live out this
dream.

"If I can live off what I
love, then that's enough for
me," she says. "I hope it goes
as far as it can."

Kelly Holton '96

A CAREER OF CONSTANT CHANGE

Katharine Cochrane Hart '78

Katharine Cochrane Hart '78 calls her assignment to
post-Deng Xiaoping China "the most interesting and
challenging of my career. China is in a state of change and
the U.S. -Chinese relationship is very important to the U.S.
on many fronts."

Beijing is Hart's latest assignment as an economics offi-
cer for the U.S. Foreign Service. Her job is "defined by
what, at that moment and in that arena, is of crucial impor-
tance" to the United States. Her work includes encourag-
ing democracy, economic reform, peaceful resolution of
internal or regional conflicts, nonproliferation of weapons
of mass destruction or human rights issues.

Successful diplomats must understand the social, politi-
cal and economic history of the country to which they are
assigned. "From this framework," she notes, "you can
inform Washington of policy implications, and best repre-
sent U.S. policy to the host country government."

Hart has spent much of her career overseas. "It has been
said the only constant in a Foreign Service career is
change," Hart remarks. "The worst aspect of this career is
that it takes you far from family and friends." She met her
future husband. Ford, also in the service, two days before
he leh: for Bangkok, Thailand. She was also to leave shortly
for an assignment to the embassy in Paris.

"We gave AT&T and several airline companies a lot of
business," Hart laughs. They married less than a year later
Since Hart's return from Paris, she and Ford have pursued
assignments as a "tandem couple."

A life
the move
is more
the norm
for Hart than
the exception.
As the daughter of a U.S.
Naval officer, she moved fre-
quently as a child, including a move to Brussels during her
high school years.

After completing a degree in English literature and cre-
ative writing at Agnes Scott, she tried a few "conventional"
stateside jobs a stint with Macmillan Publishers in New
York, under the tutelage of alumna Barbara Battle '56, and
later as a public relations copywriter for a regional theatre
in Virginia and an advertising copywriter for a regional
department store.

But she soon found herself missing the excitement of
moving and traveling, so she jetted to Washington, DC,
earned an M.B.A. with a specialization in international
affairs from George Washington University and entered
the Foreign Service.

Hart says that one thing her experience in the Foreign
Service has proven "time and again" is the value of a liberal
arts education.

"At Agnes Scott, I acquired the tools to learn, to ask
questions and to reason through a problem, all of which
are daily components of my job, no matter where I am."

Ellen F. Grissett 'ii

37

LIFESTYLE

OPEN-EYED
DREAMER

Kim Fortenbeny
Siegelson '84

Fiction is an odd process,
Kim Siegelson '84
reflects, "I call it open-eyed
dreaming. At its best, it is
exactly like a dream that is
revealed to you while you
type, one you can control to
a certain degree, but [the
dream] is also controlled by
the characters in your head.
They move and talk and
react to your story line on
their own." The residents of
Hog Hammock provided
just the revelation Siegelson
needed to steer the course of
her first children's book. The
Terrible, Wonderful Tellin at
Hog Hammock (illustrated
by Eric Velasquez, Harper-
Collins, 1996). In it, Jonas,

the central _,

character,
faces the
challenge of
filling the
big shoes of
his grandpa,
Hog Ham-
mock's pre-
mier story-
teller who
passed away six
months earlier. Can Jonas
do his grandpa's memory
proud by spinning a
respectable yarn?

Siegelson cites many

J8

ACNES SCOTT COLLEGE SUMMER i<

sources for the book's story-
line: her love of the Sea
Islands of Georgia, which
she visited as a child,- the
old Gullah stories carried
from the coast by a former
slave named Aunt Cat and
told to Siegelson's grand-
mother, who then passed
them on to her, and a fasci-
nation with the Gullah cul-
ture and language.

The most important
source, however, was a trip
Siegelson made to the Sea
Islands with an Agnes Scott
group of biology students
the summer before her
senior year.

"My major at Agnes
Scott was biology, and 1
spent most of my time in
labs or the science build-
ing," Siegelson recalls. "1 am
most appreciative to Dr.
John Pilger for the marine
biology trip. . . . We spent
several weeks
studying the ecol-
ogy of the Sea
Islands, slogging
through the salt
marshes. I'm not
sure I would
have written
this first book if
1 had not gone
on that trip."
Siegelson explains, 'This
book actually started out as
a non-fiction piece about
the salt marshes. It was ter-
rible and boring! I decided
to add some characters and

Author Siegelson writes for children 7 to 11 because those
years are vivid in her own memory. Her l<ids are glad.

use the marshes as the set-
ting for a fictional story,
and it took off " She
received a grant from the
Society of Children's Book
Writers and Illustrators in
1993 and a book award
from the Center for
Multicultural Children's
Literature in 1994.

Tl.if Terrihk, Woncicrftd Tellin'
is intended for readers ages
7 to 1 1 . "1 write for this
audience because 1 remem-
ber that part of my own life
very clearly," Siegelson says.
"1 remember what bothered
me, what made me happy,
who 1 was afraid of, things
that made me sad, fights
with my sister, nearly every-
thing."

She is sure that her own

children, Aron, 6, and
Zachary, 4, will give her
inspiration, too, as they
grow. She, her sons and her
husband of 10 years. Hank
Siegelson, M.D., recendy
moved into Atlanta from
Clarkston, Ga.

Siegelson has two other
children's books forthcom-
ing h-om Simon & Schuster:
a picture book entided In
the Time of Lhiam, based on
a Sea Islands legend, and
Dancing the Ring Shout,
about an African-American
dance performed along the
Southern coast.

Given her background,
Siegelson is perhaps an
unlikeK' childrens book
author. Following gradua-
tion from ASC in 1984, she

LIFESTYLE

entered Georgia State
University to pursue a mas-
ter's degree in risk manage-
ment. While she found her
classes interesting, she felt
the need to explore her cre-
ative side, so she took a
short course on writing chil-
dren's fiction. She was
hooked. Although she did
go on to earn her M.S.,
writing for children became
her most important work.

Siegelson says that an
ideal life for her as a writer
would be one in which she
would "roll out of bed, make
coffee, bring a cup to my
desk and stare out the win-
dow in my pajamas until
inspiration hit me." But, she
notes, "if I had the luxury of
waiting for inspiration, then 1
would never write anything!"

She reminds would-be
authors that "publishing a
book is not what makes you
a writer. It makes you a pub-
lished writer Writers are
people who sit down and
move a pencil across a page
or a cursor across a screen,
whether they sell their
words or not.

"Persist in the face of
rejection letters, don't obsess
about being published and
learn to revise," Siegelson
advises budding writers.
'The highest compliment 1
have received from editors is
that 1 am good at revision."
Ellen Fort Grissett 'n
and Maria Bevaccjua

EXCERPTS

THE BIRTH
OF THE
MOVIE FAN

What was going to the
movies like in the
first few decades of motion
pictures, the era of silent
film? This is the question
addressed by Kathryn Hel-
gesen Fuller '82 in her illu-
minating book At the Picture
Show: Small Town Audiences and
the Creation o] Movie Fan Culture
(Smithsonian Institution
Press, 1996).

Fuller demonstrates that
conventional film histories
have generalized from the
moviegoing experiences of
urban dwellers, particularly
the immigrant populations
in New York and Chicago
who enthusiastically attend-
ed storefront nickelodeons.

But that's just part of the
picture. From the advent of
moving pictures to the com-
ing of sound ( 1 896 to the
late 1920s), 70 percent of
the country lived outside
major cities. Fuller examines
how their moviegoing expe-
riences differed from those
in big cities. The results
offer a needed corrective to
standard film history and
tell a fascinating story as
well.

Towns too small to sup-
port a permanent movie the-
atre depended on traveling
or itinerant movie exhibi-
tors. Thus motion pictures.

in the earliest years, came to
town like the circus, herald-
ed by advance publicity.
These traveling picture
shows cultivated audiences
that eventually supported
permanent theatres. By 1910,
five- and ten-cent theatres
had been established in vir-
tually all towns of 5,000 or
more.

m pro-
gram-
ming;

rural audiences showed more
interest in travelogues and
other non-fiction shorts than
did their urban counterparts

Because of the racy and
controversial nature of many
fiction films, churches often
set up programs to compete
with less reputable theatres,
promising cleaner pro-
grams and a higher class of
movie patron.

For their programming,
church theatres relied heavi-
ly on industrials, films made
by commercial companies to
promote their products, with
varying degrees of subtlety.

These early "product
placements" make up just

one of the intriguing stories
that Fuller tells. One of the
most popular industrials was
a weekly travelogue spon-
sored by Ford Motor Com-
pany. Ford restricted its
advertising to logos at the
beginning and end of the
film. Other companies
shamelessly focused on their
products in
the midst
of narra-
tives or
documen-
taries, and
these com-
mercial
moments
were often
booed by
audiences.
Exhibitors
sometimes
blocked the projector during
especially obnoxious
sequences.

In 1922, an agreement
was forged with motion pic-
ture producers and
exhibitors banning paid
advertising in the midst of
films (an agreement that we
know is no longer in
force consider the latest
James Bond movie).

At the Picture Show tells
two stories: the first relates
the significant differences
between small town and
urban moviegoing,- the sec-
ond relates the dissolution
of those differences through
the evolution and creation

39

LIFESTYLE

of the movie fan.

by advertisements in fan

Fuller examines tfie earli-

magazines, which often fea-

est fan magazines to show

tured the endorsements of

how the "fan" was a concept

prominent actors.

worked out over time by

Throughout the study.

interaction among the pub-

Fuller weaves a coherent

lic, moviemakers, fan maga-

history from an impressive

zine editors and their adver-

array of sources: Sears &

tisers. Early fan magazine

Roebuck catalogs selling the

audiences focused on men

equipment one needed to

and women, boys and girls,-

open a movie theater,-

the magazines invited movie

Broadway shows mocking

viewers to try their hands at

movie fanatics, popular

writing scenarios, and they

songs playing on fan behav-

answered questions about

ior (such as the 1919 tune

the technical features of

'Take Your Girlie to the

moviemaking as well as the

Movies [if You Can't Make

personal lives of the stars.

Love at Home]"); and, in a

Eventually, however, the

revealing concluding chap-

magazines were aimed

ter, autobiographical narra-

increasingly at young

tives of University of Chica-

women (even though men

go students writing about

and women continued to

their lifetime of moviegoing

attend movies in virtually

experiences as part of a

equal numbers).

1922 sociological study.

One of the most reveal-

The detailed scholarship

ing sources Fuller adduces is

is blended seamlessly into a

the advertising trade maga-

narrative that is brisk and

zines in which editors of fan

gracefully written. Though

magazines hawked their

the book contributes signifi-

pages to potential advertis-

cantly to film history, one

ers as appealing to "perfect

doesn't need to be a histori-

consumers." Fans' tendencies

an or a film scholar to

to copy the styles and pur-

appreciate this lively look

chase the products they saw

into the beginnings of our

on screen were reinforced

mass media culture.

Reviewer, Christopher

Ames, is professor and

chair oj English, he is the author

oj Movies About the

Movies: Hollywood

Reflected (Kmhicfey, ispyj.

pa.

^^ 1 1

M

iSFm

Dear Editor:

When I first heard the
news that the Presser dog-
wood tree was to be "laid
to rest," ! immediately
sought to place my name
on the list of those who
would like to receive a por-
tion of this venerable orna-
ment of the Agnes Scott
campus.

Victoria Lambert gra-
ciously obliged me and I
was able to choose a sec-
tion of the trunk for a very
specific purpose. 1 had just
at that time become a col-
lector of turned wooden
bowls, and aspired to cre-
ate one myself. So, with
my treasured dogwood
chunk in tow, 1 became a
woodturning student of
Willard Baxter at the John
C. Campbell Folk School,
and, with his help, was
able to fulfill my wish with
some satisfaction.

A few months ago, 1
was interviewed on the
phone, I believe by
Samantha Stavely ['97],
about my interest in the
tree and my use of the
wood. (Victoria had sup-
plied her with my name
and my intention to pre-
serve my memories of ASC
in this way.)

1 was quite disappointed
to read the article in the

Acnes Scott Alumnae

MaCAZINE (Spring 1997,
page 3) and find no men-
tion of an alumna who, as
an expression of her deep
love for this tree and ail it

LETTERS

represents, had accom-
plished the difficult task of
turning a bowl from a
block of its wood. All mod-
esty aside, it is, i think, an
admirable work of art for a
frank amateur

it would have given me
great pleasure to have
shared through the ALUM-
NAE Magazine my latest
token of allegiance and rev-
erence, and to have
received some recognition
for a small accomplishment
very much inspired by my
love for Agnes Scott
College.

Julia C. Beeman '55
Mmeral Bluff, Ca.

Dear Editor:

In the Summer/Fall '96

Alumnae Magazine, i

noted that an article i
wrote for the fall '95 issue
was destroyed by clumsy
editing and a presentation
that brutally demeaned
women treated for breast
cancer

So i was stunned that
the editors ran a letter in
the spring '97 issue, linking
the '95 article to me with-
out qualification. The edi-
tors' '95 package on breast
cancer is filled with irre-
sponsible misinterpreta-
tions. I stand behind the
piece only as it was written,
and urge readere to obtain
a manuscript of that article
from the Publications
office.

Carol Wiiiey '80
Atlanta, Ga,

JO

ACNES SCOTT COLLEGE Sl/JUAIR ,

GIVING ALUMNA

The Blessed Become a Blessing

ETHELYN DYAR DANIEL '41
AND ALBERT G. DANIEL

Occupation: Owners of Daniel Properties

Residence: Atlanta, Ga.

Interests: Church activities

Children: Ethelyn, Katie Fisher, Marion, Albert Jr

According to Ethelyn Dyar Daniel '41, the
charitable activities in which she and her
husband of 51 years, Albert Sr., engage are a
by-product of their upbringings.

"We come from people who believed in
giving," says the mother of four who majored in
mathematics at Agnes Scott. Albert Daniel Sr.
echoed his wife's sentiment, "Everything we have is given to
us. We have a responsibility to repay our blessings in some
way."

Through the Metropolitan Adanta Community
Foundation, a philanthropic agency with which he had long
been associated, Mr Daniel recently endowed the Ethelyn
Dyar Daniel Scholarship Rind at the College as a gift to his
wife on their 50th wedding anniversary.

The scholarship, to be awarded annually based on finan-
cial need, helps in an area both Daniels see as critical. Mr
Daniel said, "It is a shame for a person with a good mind not
to fully develop their abilities because of money."

The Daniels retain strong ties with Georgia Tech, where
Mr Daniel was a member of the class of 1940, and recently
established a similar scholarship fund at that institution.

However, their connections to Agnes Scott run equally
strong and deep. Mrs. Daniel was a day student, a member of
Chi Beta Phi, SGA and the Silhouette staff, and played varsity
basketball; Mr. Daniel's mother. Alpha Green Daniel '08 and
an aunt attended Agnes Scott Institute. Two nieces and a
niece-in-law, Anne Gilbert F4enniss '57, Sallie Daniel Johnson
'71 and Virginia Allen Callaway '63 also attended the College.
Mr. Daniel's aunt eventually became a Presbyterian missionary
to Korea. FHe, his wife and other family members established
a library in Korea to honor her work there.

After her graduation from Agnes Scott in 1941, Mrs.
Daniel and her husband built several successful businesses in
the Adanta area, including an insurance agency and Daniel
Properties, a real estate holding company. Mrs. Daniel served
as secretary and treasurer for the business. Her husband spent
35 years as a general agent for Jefferson-Pilot Life Insurance
Company, which continues to match his donations to the
College.

On the advice of Betty Scott Noble '71 , who rents proper-
ty from his company, Mr Daniel contacted the College
regarding his desire to establish a scholarship fund to honor
his wife. The announcement of the fund was made at a lun-
cheon attended by the Daniels, President Bullock and fellow
members of the class of 1941 : Frances Spratlin Hargrett, Jean
Dennison Brooks, Martha Dunn Kerby, Sarah Rainey Glausier
and Mary Madison Wisdom.

Mrs. Daniel continues to believe that the nature of Agnes
Scott's student body makes support ever critical: 'There is a
saying that when you educate a woman you educate an entire
family. It is a cliche, but it is true. Agnes Scott provides a won-
derful environment for that education."

Teresa hiarie Kelly '94

Editor's NotE: Albert G. Daniel died on Oct 1 1, 1997.

Agnes Scott College

THE WORLD FOR WOMEN

141 East College Avenue, Atlanta/Decatur, GA 30030-3797

Nonprofit

Organization

US. Postage

PAID

Decatur, GA 30030

Permit No. 469

Classic
Elements

Agnes Scott President Mary
Brown Bullock '66 poses
beside the latest artwork
addition to her office, an
oriental motif still life by
Christie Theriot Woodfin '68.
Woodfin combined elements
that "seemed just right" for
President Bullock, including
peonies and poppy pods
in a Chinese vase, books and
the Chinese characters for
"faith, virtue, knowledge."

For the artist's description of her work,
see "Classic Elements" on page 2.

^\ PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER