Letters

Letters to the editor

November 14, 2012  by emae2021@pomona.edu Comments Off on Letters to the editor

Immigration & Consequences

I was astonished at how the open-borders advocate in the Summer 2012 magazine could be so utterly clueless as to the consequences of his position. I have never understood how many of the same “progressives” who love to prattle on about “sustainability” advocate at the same time for increased immigration. Are they so detached from reality that they do not understand that the two positions are irreconcilable? The mass immigration policies of the past were at a time when there was a continent to populate, railroads to be built, labor-intensive factories to staff. Mission accomplished. Country full.

We are already the third most populous country on Earth, exceeded only by those environmental showplaces, China and India. And, the environmental footprint of the average American is much greater than that of the average Asian. Let’s for a moment dream the “open borders” nightmare and assume that in 50 years our population has doubled to 600 million. Where are we going to put them without devastating most of the last “breathing-room” open spaces of the West?

How much arable flat land will be left to grow their food? Where will they find work in a time of increasing automation? And where are they going to get the water? The southwestern U.S. (case in point: Las Vegas) is already in a scramble for every drop of water they can get their hands on to sustain the current and projected population, and the Colorado River famously no longer runs to the sea.

The inevitable result of “open borders” will be environmental and social chaos and a drastic lowering of descendants’ standard of living. (No doubt immigration would taper off when living conditions in this country are as lousy as they
are for the average Asian.)

Immigration policy, like all other national policies, exists to benefit our own citizens, not everyone else. An environmentally trashed, overcrowded, Third World America is clearly not in the best interests of our current and future citizens. “Open borders” advocates must be stopped. Cold.

—Robert C. Michael ’66

Immigration is not only an issue in the U.S. In Europe, post-war labor shortages led to large- scale immigration from African and Middle Eastern countries, a phenomenon that has completely altered the racial and religious makeup of the host societies. Integrating these new people into European societies has proved to be the major social problem of the last half century. The problem is compounded by the fact that these immigrants are today not aliens. Many are second- or third-generation people who are citizens of the countries in which they reside, yet remain outsiders socially, economically and, in some cases, even linguistically.

Also, immigration is not only inward to the U.S. There is also emigration, as people become expatriates for jobs or personal reasons, and later become citizens where they reside. I know, since this was my path. I took my first job at a law firm in Brussels. The job was interesting, but Brussels was just a place where the train stopped on the way from Paris to Amsterdam. Over 40 years later, I’m still here, now a Belgian citizen, though also living part-time in Italy. For Pomona students of my generation, programs like semester abroad (then administered by the Experiment in Interna- tional Living) or the Peace Corps showed us that life could be interesting and rewarding in a lot of places.

—Fred Lukoff ’64

Serving Up Nostalgia

I simply could not resist penning this response to what Connie Fabula ’48 wrote in your spring 2012 issue regarding the Pomona College Wedgwood china. It was difficult to determine whether she was disparaging the china, simply stating a fact or aligning herself with other alumni who hold onto College memorabilia. Whichever the case, I only wish that I had shown the perspicuity to collect more of the set pieces. We didn’t begin to acquire individual items until relatively recently. We lost out entirely on special-purpose pieces such as the salad and dessert plates and the cups and saucers as they have gone out of stock.

However, we now own 10 of the dinner plates, including duplicates of some of the original eight designs, and one small ashtray which portrays the sophomore arch. The plates are strikingly done in that calming Staffordshire blue on white, depicting cam- pus scenes. The interesting border design

of a mixture of camellia flowers, oak leaves and eucalyptus flowers and leaves set off the center scenes handsomely.

The plates are large enough and beautiful enough to be useful for both formal and informal occasions. I remember many years ago, after phoning alumni from Seaver House, we volunteers were treated to a sit- down dinner using the College’s cache of Wedgwood china. It was a time and place which I have never forgotten.

At home, our dinner guests invariably comment on the Wedgwood. When there are just the two of us, the plates are poignant reminders of the campus as I knew it more than 60 years ago.

–Larry West ’49

Doing the Reunion Math

I had a wonderful reunion time at Pomona this past spring although it was not a reunion year for me. It was for a daughter, Caroline Johnson Hodge ’87, a son, Steve Johnson ’82 and a son- in-law, Ed Cerny ’92. I was there for the three grandchildren. (In the Alumni Weekend photo spread in the summer issue, they’re the two girls and the boy on the left helping to carry the 1992 banner.) We had a great time while their parents, Ed and our daughter Julia ’91, attended reunion events. As we walked the campus I could over- hear the two younger Cernys, a first grader and second grader, discussing who among the relatives would be at their own future five-year Pomona reunions. (Quinn thought he might be Class of 2026 and Sarah ’27.) Would it be grandmom ’54, aunts Polly ’56, Caroline ’87, Amy ’84, Marilou ’85 or uncles Tom ’84, Steve ’82, Paul ’85, Peter ’81, or mom or dad? Each will have several from among the DuBose, John- son, Pitsker, Hodge and Cerny alums to share their future reunion years.

—Frances DuBose Johnson ’54

Alumni and friends are invited to email letters to pcm@pomona.edu or to send them by mail to Pomona College Magazine, 550 North College Ave., Claremont, CA 91711. Letters are selected for publication based on relevance and interest to our readers and may be edited for length, style and clarity.

D.B. and That Number

November 14, 2012  by Mark Kendall Comments Off on D.B. and That Number

Don Bentley doesn’t want to talk about 47, the enduring numerical fixation the legendary math professor long ago placed in Pomona’s collective consciousness. It all started with a paradoxical proof Bentley put up on the chalk- board back in 1964, showing that all numbers are equal, which then morphed into all numbers equal 47—and spawned our endless, obsessive search for the magic number. But remember, Bentley doesn’t want to talk about that.

For my part, I don’t want to talk about math or statistics. So we’ve agreed to talk about people, and Bentley shows up for the interview with a banker’s box laden with old photo albums full of fresh-faced college kids burdened with ’70s sideburns. It was two of those kids in the box, Greg Johnson and John Irvine, both from the class of ’76, who piqued my curiosity about the noted statistician. In talking to them for another story, I noticed that after all these years, their beloved professor still seemed to hold a mystical, Sontag-like sway over them. So I set up an interview.

Bentley, who taught here from 1964 to 2001, turned out to be hard to pigeonhole. He started off at Stanford with plans to study religion but found firmer ground in math. In conversation, he references a slew of noted statisticians, but there also are plentiful mentions of beer and pizza. He waxes statistical at academic seminars and plays folk music on the guitar. He has fought his share of battles, calling himself a “thorn in the side” of the administration at times, and yet he also is an ordained minister.

The professor taught some of the Math Department’s toughest classes—such as linear algebra with differential equations—that weeded out some students and built confidence in those that passed. As he puts it, “The kids, if they could survive the curriculum, got out feeling wonderful about themselves.”

But Bentley hardly cut the figure of the hard-nosed mettle-tester. The emeritus professor recalls that he felt closer to the students than to his fellow faculty members. “It just is natural for me … because I’m immature maybe and I relate better to kids than I do to adults.”
He remembers how students came in and out of his family home at will, whipping up meals in the kitchen, washing their cars in the driveway. Once, he recalls, his bedroom door swung open at 5:30 a.m. as a crowd of students broke into singing “Happy Birthday.” “They had come in, they had decorated the living room, they had cooked breakfast and the dog didn’t even bark because they were just part of the family.”

That all-in-the-family attitude did create a dilemma for Bentley early on in his career. Bentley couldn’t figure out just what the students should call him. Mr. Bentley, Dr. Bentley, Professor Bentley—they all felt too stiff for a guy who considered his students to be his best friends on campus. Having them call him Don, on the other hand, didn’t feel quite right either. Somewhere along the way, “D.B.” caught on.

Me and D.B., we cover a lot of ground, a lot of memories and accomplishments. He points to his “close fellowship” with former students—and their accomplishments in fields as varied as teaching, law, medicine—as most significant to him as he looks back. “I really want to thank them for what they’ve done for me,” he says.

And then, well past an hour into our talk, Bentley lets loose a surprise. It turns out he’s not entirely done with 47. He’s says there’s more to the lore behind it, more details to clarify and lay out someday. He’d like to do a paper, with input from alumni who were there for the mathematic myth’s long-ago birth. But that’s sometime down the road, and, remember, we’re not going to talk about that now.

Letters to the Editor

July 2, 2012  by emae2021@pomona.edu Comments Off on Letters to the Editor

The Great Debate

 Mark Wood’s column, “When Bad Things Happen,” marks the first time I’ve been truly angered by something I read in Pomona College Magazine. While one doesn’t expect hard-hitting journalism from a publication whose main purpose is to stroke alumni and encourage donations, this was beyond the pale.

 Comparing Pomona’s controversy over the firing of undocumented workers, many of whom were trying to unionize (a facet of the story Wood mysteriously omitted) to the disturbing events at Penn State, Wood waxed poetic about “when bad things happen to good institutions.” With all the subtlety of Rush Limbaugh on meth, he implied that it was somehow unfair and prejudicial not to “imagine good, caring thoughtful people agonizing over intractable problems,” suggesting that a failure to do so was the moral equivalent of blaming people with cancer or AIDS for their illness.

 It’s hard to imagine a more offensive and intellectually dishonest argument. What happened at Penn State was the result of people—maybe good, maybe not so good—making truly horrible decisions, in the context of a campus culture that placed certain programs on a pedestal. It appears that seriously horrible decisions have also been made at Pomona. Whether they were in fact made by “good, caring, thoughtful people agonizing over intractable problems” remains at best a matter under dispute. In any case, good intentions are hollow without good judgment.

 The decision to delay a more thorough examination of the firing controversy until the next issue was understandable, given the deadlines and lead times of a quarterly publication. To publish Woods’ apologia in the interim suggests strongly that the whitewash is well under way.
—Bruce Mirken ’78
San Francisco, Calif.

I’d like to compliment you on your article “When Bad Things Happen.” It gives proper perspective on an unfortunate situation. It reflects the thought and care I would wish of all journalists. Keep it up!—Bob Hatch ’51
Laguna Woods, Calif.

 I am writing in response to President Oxtoby’s winter letter to alumni lamenting the termination of 17 college employees after the worker documentation investigation.

 Few take pleasure in terminating employees. However, your sympathy may be misplaced, and your willingness to use scarce college resources to support the discharged employees seems inappropriate and misguided. While the intent of the discharged employees in working illegally may have been benign—a better life for them and their families— the results of their action were harmful:

 —They broke the laws of our country by entering illegally;
—They secured employment under false pretenses and in violation of the law;
—They compromised the integrity of Pomona’s hiring practices and, thereby, stained the reputation of the College;
—They placed themselves ahead of the millions who are attempting to immigrate legally into the country;
—They deprived U.S. citizens and legal residents of employment opportunities.

Perhaps, unemployment is not an important issue for the college staff and faculty, but unemployment in California has been running over 10 percent, and at a much higher rate among African Americans. By hiring illegal immigrants,

Pomona does nothing to relieve the suffering of the unemployed. Do you not think that the College has greater obligations to our own citizens than to those who have broken our laws and violated our trust?

 I strongly urge that you renounce the misguided decision to provide health insurance to the discharged employees through June 30 and, instead, use the funds for an outreach program to potential replacement employees who are citizens or legal residents, especially African Americans.

—George Zwerdling ’61
Carpinteria, Calif.

 I sent this to President Oxtoby in response to his alumni/ae letter about the pain of firing undocumented college workers: Responding to the dilemma of your valued long-term employees, who happen not to be citizens, doesn’t seem so difficult an issue to me at all, if the institution has any ability to take a moral stand.

 Declare Pomona College a sanctuary. Defy the damn racist law. Think of the university grounds in Mexico during 1968, declared sanctuary until the army violated it. Think of the European countries that allow non-citizens not only to reside and work, but to vote! I could go on and on and we’d inevitably end up with Jim Crow, the internment of Japanese-Americans and the anti-Jewish laws in Germany, so I won’t. Still, firing the employees without a struggle is shameful.

—John Shannon ’65
Topanga, Calif.

The Life of Liffey

 Like Jake Smith ’69 (“Class Notes” Spring 2012) I was moved by the article in the Fall 2010 PCM to seek out the complete series of Jack Liffey novels by my classmate John Shannon. John and I were dorm neighbors in Walker Hall freshman year, but had little contact after that and none since graduating in 1965. Finding all of the books was made possible by Amazon’s network of sellers of used books. Some of the earlier titles are actually library discards.

 I enjoyed all of the novels, some inevitably more than others, but wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the whole series, preferably read in order. The stories are well-told, the characters exceptionally well-drawn and the Los Angeles milieu fascinating. It is the latter that has drawn comparisons with Raymond Chandler, but because of the sense of history and the uncompromising social criticism I am more reminded of James Ellroy. But John’s voice is very much his own and he is driven more by indignation, where Ellroy is driven by paranoia. For a sometimes dark but always convincing vision of the hometown I left nearly 40 years ago, thank you PCM, thank you Amazon and especially thank you, John.

—Steve Sherman ’65
Munich, Germany

 A Sagehen Star

I just received your spring ’12 “racing issue.” Unfortunately, it appears to be missing an alumnus story that should have been included. I’m referring to the professional track career of Will Leer ’07. Let me say up front that I’m biased. I’m the managing editor of Track & Field News, a monthly magazine that covers the elite end of Leer’s sport at the world, U.S. national and high school levels.

 Will is a professional middle distance runner and aspiring Olympian, specializing in the 1500 meters, although he is now starting to explore the 5000 meters. At the ’08 Olympic Trials, he placed fourth (three make the team). At the USATF National Championships in the years since he has never placed lower than fifth. The ’09 and ’11 nationals served as trials for the World Championships, and last year Will missed a qualifying spot by 0.01 second. In 2010 at the USATF Indoor Championships, Will placed second and went on to represent the U.S. at the World Indoor Championships in Doha, Quatar.

 Will spent this winter training and racing in New Zealand and Australia with training partner Nick Willis, the Beijing 1500 meters silver medalist, and other members of their training group. He spends his summers racing on the pro circuit in Europe.

 Hopefully when your summer issue comes out Will Leer will be a London-bound Olympian, although this year’s 1500-meter Olympic Trials final should be as tough a nut to crack as the event has ever seen in the U.S. The story of a Sagehen competing at the highest level in his sport is compelling either way, if you ask me.

—Sieg Lindstrom ’84
San Francisco, Calif.

 In Memory of David Waring

We our hoping to establish an endowed scholarship fund to memorialize our late son, David A.T. Waring ’03, who passed away at the age of 29 from the ravages of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), “an acquired neurological disease with complex global dysfunctions.” David—who played a riveting lead guitar in his college band, “Dave and the Sweatpants”—had planned to study applied mathematics and music in a graduate program before he was stricken with ME/CFS just four days after his 23rd birthday.

 The scholarship would be awarded to an incoming freshman whose dream of applying science/ mathematics to an understanding of music reflects Dave’s passion. We welcome contributions from the Pomona College and the wider communities to honor our late son. Donations, which are tax-deductible, may be made to the following:

The David A. T. Waring ’03 Memorial Scholarship Fund, c/o Don Pattison, Director of Donor Relations, Pomona College, 550 North College Ave., Claremont, CA 91711.

—Alan and Pat Waring
Parents of David
Irvine, Calif.

 Missing Meg Worley

During the 2011–12 academic year, Pomona College lost superstar English Professor Meg Worley to Colgate in New York. From the perspective of alumni, it happened quietly. After a protracted tenure-consideration process ended in a surprising “no,” Professor Worley decided to head east. For us English alumni, it is a sad way to say goodbye to a faculty member who provided so much stability and guidance during a period of significant changes in the English Department. From 2004 to 2011, Professor Worley saw a number of fellow English professors retire, move, or pass away (including many of the department’s institutional names: Martha Andresen, Paul Saint-Amour, David Foster Wallace, Steve Young, Rena Fraden and Cristanne Miller). During this time, her dynamic classes, patient mentoring and professionalism reinvigorated the department and it was no surprise to us when, in 2010, she won the Wig Award—the highest honor bestowed on Pomona faculty.

 We would like to thank Professor Worley wholeheartedly for organizing the first senior-seminar colloquium and night readings of Beowulf; for spicing up course readings with non-traditional literary texts such as graphic novels, Arthurian myth and the Bible; for offering her grammatical expertise, without judgment, whenever the need arose; for writing countless letters of recommendation for graduate school; for always keeping her office open for impromptu visits; and for expecting a lot from students but giving back so much more. In short, she represented the best of what Pomona advertises about its instructors: individualized attention, warmth and high-level intellectualism without pretension. She was a professor who brought creativity and energy to every endeavor she undertook. As one former student wrote, “No one could mistake a Meg-graded paper as you knew any assignment would be returned, every word read, and marked with one of her colorful array of pens and extraordinarily neat handwriting.” She learned our names, kept in touch after we graduated and invited us to lunch when we returned to campus for a visit. Professor Worley was a reason to stay connected with Pomona and we are so sorry that future Sagehens will miss the opportunity to learn why.

All our best to you in New York, Meg! We should have kept you, but here’s to new beginnings:

 “Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote…”

 —Carlo Diy ’06
—Emily Durham ’07
—Meredith Galemore ’06
—Coty Meibeyer ’05
—Carolyn Purnell ’06
—J.B. Wogan ’06

 Editor’s Note: The letter was signed by seven additional alumni.

 Alumni and friends are invited to email letters to pcm@pomona.edu or to send them by mail to

Pomona College Magazine
550 North College Ave.
Claremont, CA 91711.

Letters are selected for publication based on relevance and interest to our readers and may be edited for length, style and clarity.

About This Issue: Where We Are Coming From …

July 2, 2012  by emae2021@pomona.edu Comments Off on About This Issue: Where We Are Coming From …
walker wall

Silhouettes of 17 people painted on Walker Wall.

Under the forgettable headline, “Mexico Worker Issue Debated: Claremont Conference Takes Up Immigration,” a Los Angeles Times article told of a “record-breaking crowd” of more than 700 people gathered at Pomona College for an annual conference about U.S.-Mexican relations and immigration.

At the event, an American academic addressed “the influx of Mexicans to the United States,” while a Mexican border official upheld the “right to immigrate” and seek better prospects in the U.S. The two men did agree that a committee of immigration experts from both nations should be set up to look into the issue.

That was in 1928.

Being in Southern California, the College has long been touched by immigration. From the early days, Pomona has been part of the long-running debates over who to let into the country.

But this past year was different.

The 2011-12 school year brought events that, in the words of President David Oxtoby, drove “questions about our nation’s immigration policies into the very heart of our campus life.”

Seventeen workers lost their jobs—let go by the College—after a review of Pomona’s workplace documentation procedures. The issue was set off when a college employee made a complaint that Oxtoby’s administration (and previous ones) was not checking new employees’ documentation as the law requires. The complaint went to leaders of the Board of Trustees, who decided it required them to investigate, and they brought in the Sidley Austin law firm to do so. Ultimately, the lawyers found the College had been following the rules. There also were some problems.

As part of the audit, investigators examined every employee’s paperwork and found “deficiencies” with the files of 84 of them. Most problems were cleared up—but not all of them. After a deadline passed, 17 workers still were found to be lacking the right paperwork.

On Dec. 1, those workers were fired. Administrators said they had no other choice under the law. Sadness and anger followed. So did pickets, protests and a boycott of Frary Dining Hall. Faculty spoke out against the firings. Student tents went up on the lawn outside the administration building. Donations were collected for the workers (who also received severance pay).

Critics of the College’s approach questioned whether auditing employees’ documentation was truly necessary, or even appropriate. Some suggested enforcement action was unlikely. Others called on Pomona to refuse to comply with unjust laws. President Oxtoby agreed the regulations were too harsh and reform was needed, but said the College still had to obey the laws.

All this came in the midst of a unionization drive for campus dining workers. Union supporters on campus and beyond took up the cause of the fired workers. Groups ranging from the ACLU of Southern California to the National Council of La Raza joined the chorus. The issue played out in the media, reaching The New York Times and other outlets.

The College also had defenders, who said administrators were in a difficult situation and had to take the steps they did. And beyond campus, not everyone was sympathetic to the fired workers’ cause—witness the reader comments with the Times article.

As the school year closed, the Trustees released their own subcommittee report concluding, as The Student Life headline put it, that “Oversight Mistakes Were Avoidable, but Work Authorization Investigation Was Necessary …”

Another class graduated, and summer break set in.

Still, 17 Pomona College employees—no doubt people with families, commitments and bills—had lost their livelihoods. With immigration reform stalled for now, it is inevitable that similar stories will unfold elsewhere, perhaps out of the spotlight. America’s long debate over who gets in—and who gets to stay— is sure to carry on.

That’s what drives this issue of Pomona College Magazine. We’ve delved into some Pomona-related historical tales to provide context and shed light on conditions earlier immigrants faced. We’ve asked four alumni with strong views on immigration reform to propose ways to move forward. Finally, we want to introduce you to young alumni with immigrant backgrounds and let them share their own paths, in their own voices. We don’t expect to end the divide over immigration. We do hope to offer a glimpse beyond the wall. —Mark Kendall

TIMELINE OF EVENTS:

Feb. 2011
The complaint is received by the chair of the Board.

March 2011
Vice chair of the Audit Committee retains the Sidley Austin law firm to conduct an investigation.

June 2011
Sidley Austin begins review of I-9 documents for all staff, faculty and part-time employees.

Sept. 2011
Sidley Austin reports no wrongdoing on the part of the administration but identifies deficiencies to be addressed.

Nov. 2011
84 Pomona faculty, staff and part-time employees are notified that they have deficiencies in their work authorization files and that they should schedule an appointment with Human Resources.

Dec. 2011
17 Employees who are unable to correct deficiencies in their files lose their jobs. 150-200 staff, students, alumni and members of UNITE HERE protest. Members of the Board meet with staff, faculty and students. The Board appoints a subcommittee to review the investigation.

May 2012
The subcommittee of the Board releases its report, concluding that there were “breakdowns in communication” and that the Board could have done “a better job of supervising the investigation,” but that the investigation was necessary.

MORE INFORMATION ON:

•work authorization events — www.pomona.edu/work-documentation

•subcommittee report [pdf] — www.pomona.edu/board-review2012

•new policies [pdf] —www.pomona.edu/whistleblower-policy2012

•unionization — www.pomona.edu/unionization

 Excerpts from The Student Life:

Nov. 11, 2011
Pomona Reviews Employee Documents; WFJ Protests

“Pomona College began checking the work authorization documents of 84 of its employees, provoking widespread outrage from many students, professors, and staff members. Supporters of Workers for Justice (WFJ), the pro-union group of Pomona dining hall staff, began demonstrating before dawn on Tuesday in opposition to what they saw as a campaign of intimidation, while college administrators insisted that the document verification process was legally required because of an external audit that is unrelated to unionization. … ”

Nov. 18, 2011
Faculty Resolve to Support Workers; Students, Staff Protest Document Checks

“At a faculty meeting Nov. 16, Pomona College President David Oxtoby pointed to fears of potential involvement from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and reiterated that the college must re-verify the work authorization documents of 84 college employees before Dec. 1. The Pomona College administration has been under fire this week as students, faculty, and staff questioned the college’s decision to ask those employees to meet with the Office of Human Resources to provide valid federal work authorization documents. Opponents of the document reviews expressed their discontent in a vigil Nov. 11, a teach-in event Nov. 14, and a protest and press conference 16 that attracted local news media. … ”

Dec. 2, 2011
17 Employees Terminated Over Documents; Boycott, Vigil Extended
“Pomona College fired 17 staff members yesterday, after those employees were unable to meet the college’s deadline for submitting updated work authorization documents. The terminations, which most directly affected dining services employees, marked the end of a three-week verification process that has provoked outrage from many organizations and individuals, both within and beyond the Claremont Colleges. Demonstrations against the college’s actions are expected to continue into the weekend, as two of the community’s most visible groups of protesters signaled that they would keep up their efforts. … ”

 May. 16, 2012
Oversight Mistakes Were Avoidable, but Work Authorization Investigation Was Necessary, Report Finds
“The Pomona College Board of Trustees made some mistakes related to communication and oversight of the investigation that led to the firing of 17 staff members last year, but the comprehensive audit of work authorization documents for all Pomona employees was necessary, according to a report by a subcommittee of trustees.

The board voted Saturday to accept the subcommittee’s report. Pomona students, professors and staff received access to an online version of the report Monday.

One day before the board accepted the report, the board’s Audit Committee adopted a new set of policies for handling complaints. Audit Committee Chair Terrance Hodel ’64 said that the new policies were necessary because there was no preexisting procedure for responding to complaintslike the one that the board received last year, which accused the Pomona administration of having illegal hiring practices. … ”

More from The Student Life: http://tsl.pomona.edu/

Stray Thoughts: When Bad Things Happen

April 10, 2012  by Mark Wood Comments Off on Stray Thoughts: When Bad Things Happen

It’s a famous truism that bad things happen to good people. What isn’t so clear, sometimes, is that bad things also happen to good institutions.

 This thought came to me recently as I contemplated the black-on-black cover of the latest issue of the Penn State alumni magazine—about the terrible scandal that has rocked that university to its core—and thought about another, very painful situation closer to home: the work authorization dilemma that in recent months has left many here at Pomona feeling saddened, disillusioned or angry. (If you aren’t familiar with this situation, I suggest that you visit www.pomona.edu/work-documentation before reading on.) After a great deal of thought, we at PCM have decided not to try to cover these events hurriedly in this spring issue of the magazine, but to wait until the summer issue, which we plan to devote primarily to the issues surrounding immigration and borders here in the U.S. and around the world. However, as I was considering what I should do in this little introductory missive, my thoughts kept turning back to why bad things happen to good institutions.

 Besides costing 17 longstanding Pomona employees their livelihoods, the chain of events unleashed by a complaint to the Board of Trustees last year has plunged us all into the midst of a divisive political issue, strained the College’s relationships with important segments of the College community, generated a range of conspiracy theories, threatened the College’s reputation for inclusivity, driven many to tears of sorrow or anger or frustration, and raised legal and moral questions to which there are no easy answers—or, at least, no answers that satisfy everyone. When must complaints be investigated? What do our immigration laws really require of us? Must we always obey those laws? Can anyone commit an entire institution to a path of civil disobedience? Who can we blame for the bad things that happen in our midst?

 Few today take the Medieval view that bad things happen as a judgment from God. Still, when we hear about bad things happening to presumably good people, our sympathy is sometimes leavened with judgment. Lung cancer? Must have been a smoker. AIDS? Probably promiscuous. Auto accident? Careless driver. At heart, we may understand that sometimes bad things really do happen to people for no good reason, but it’s more comforting to think that they somehow invited it. It’s easier to sleep at night when you believe that character is synonymous with fate.

 Maybe that’s why, when bad things happen to good institutions, we’re so quick to assume that maybe they weren’t quite as good as we thought. Or even that there was something sinister going on behind the scenes. An assumption of ill will simplifies matters. It makes it easier to believe that if we had been there making those decisions, things would have turned out differently. We would have been wiser, better, braver, more perceptive, more compassionate—more something.

 It’s much less comfortable to imagine good, smart, caring, thoughtful people agonizing over intractable problems without the benefit of hindsight and making hard choices from a range of painful options, knowing full well that their actions will have a ripple of consequences only some of which they can predict but for which they will always be judged.

Letterbox

March 5, 2012  by emae2021@pomona.edu Comments Off on Letterbox

 Reaction to ‘It Happened’

Re: “Pomona College Museum Curator Rebecca McGrew ’85 and the Making of It Happened at Pomona”: I was a student at Pomona from 1964 –68 and lived in the area throughout the ’70s. While I know nothing of the inner workings and politics of the Art Department in those years, I never had the sense that the College was ever artistically conservative, especially in terms of collaborative artistic efforts and multi-media events.

 I remember quite vividly various campus performance art pieces, “happenings,” midnight concerts and a heady artistic extravaganza in a deserted winery in Cucamonga. Art, dance, film, theatre and musical entertainment combined frequently and pushed cultural limits routinely.

 I’ll never forget performing in a piece by the philosopher/composer Pauline Oliveros: loud electronic music filled the air inside and outside Little Bridges, Ms. Oliveros worked furiously in the balcony projecting ever-changing colored lights throughout the hall, and I had to improvise on my bassoon while a film of a walking rhinoceros’ armpit (leg pit?) was projected on me.

I remember, too, when Tim Paradise ’69 (subsequently the clarinetist of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra) and I, amongst others, sat around an electric popcorn popper and waited for the popping corn to become our musical notes: We wore glasses with staff lines drawn on them.

Vulgarity was not confined to urinary art, which now strikes me as nothing that would shock anyone who ever went to a keg in The Wash. I remember conducting in Little Bridges at a well-attended midnight concert a trumpet concerto for solo trumpet and men’s chorus called Hum Job.

As far as I experienced, the College encouraged experimentation in the arts. If there was any lashing going on, it wasn’t conservative back lashing. In the current world of tabloid historians, rapacious bankers and cult politicians, a little experimentation might be in order again.

—David Noon ’68
New York, N.Y.

I read with great interest Suzanne Muchnic’s excellent article about the Museum of Art and the “It Happened at Pomona” exhibitions. As one familiar with the museum and its history, I have a good sense of the challenges involved in this hugely ambitious undertaking and applaud the staff, which is richly deserving of the accolades flowing their way. I also know how difficult it must have been to reconstruct a period for which only sparse records exist, and how important it is that this has now been accomplished.

The innovative art of the period in question, recollected now in relative tranquility, was understandably unsettling to the status quo—such is the nature of the cutting edge. Developing as it did during a period of widespread unrest on college campuses nationwide, it would have represented an additional challenge to already beleaguered administrators. One can only imagine the conversations the activities of the Art Department and gallery must have occasioned with conservative members of the campus community, and we can be sure that President Alexander’s skills at smoothing ruffled feathers were much in demand.

I didn’t move to Claremont until 1981, some years after the events in question, but, having worked with David Alexander for nearly 30 years, I would suggest a different, somewhat more nuanced interpretation of his response to the art scene at Pomona in the late ’60s and early ’70s. When Alexander interviewed me for the directorship, he told me about the gallery’s history and mentioned, in particular, Wolfgang Stoerchle’s performance and Michael Asher’s installation.

About the former, which incensed many and, at the very least, surprised others, he said only that it “raised some eyebrows,” a classic understatement typical of him. Of the Asher, he painted so gloriously detailed a picture that I still remember the mental image I formed. He had clearly been captivated.

Working with David Alexander throughout the last decade of his administration and, subsequently, on the College’s archives project, I gained great respect for his intellectual sophistication; his reluctance to dismiss any serious academic endeavor, however controversial; and his capacity to adjudicate the demands of conflicting constituencies. The last was, no doubt, a particularly onerous responsibility during the period chronicled by the museum’s exhibitions—a challenge quite possibly as daunting as those facing the artists whose work at Pomona helped shift the way we define and understand works of art.
—Marjorie L. Harth
Emerita Professor and Director,
Pomona College Museum of Art

 As someone who was there, I can’t resist offering my own thoughts on the contention that “David Alexander was fed up with the Art Department because the artists were pushing boundaries and taking advantage. It was difficult for Pomona, fundamentally a traditional place, to really embrace that.’”

David Alexander was a most astute, perceptive and fair-minded person. However talented and inventive the student-faculty in the studio arts at Pomona may have been during those critical years, there were at the same time several unfortunate changes and departures in the art history faculty that helped make the department as a whole unbalanced and somewhat anarchic. We may be sure that the decisions and actions he took in the years after his arrival were in an effort to improve the stability and balance of the Art Department as a whole and to make it more responsive to the needs of its students.

As for the notion that Pomona was “traditional” and perhaps even conservative in its approach to the arts, I draw on my experience teaching in the Music Department from 1950 to 1994.

It is true we offered our students, both pre-professional and amateur, a rigorous traditional program of studies in music theory, history and performance (i.e., “applied music”). But our students had ample opportunity to hear and to take part in what was new music, truly contemporary, “avant-garde,” fresh and vibrant. For several decades, beginning in the ’50s, Professors Russell, Briggs and Loucks regularly took students to concerts of “new” (and “old”) music at the Monday Evening Concerts in Los Angeles (an internationally renowned series), as well as to events at USC and UCLA.

In retrospect, the offerings of concerts and lectures by both our own faculty and by many distinguished guests seem quite remarkable, bringing to the campus and to Bridges Hall luminaries that included Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Cage ’32, Luciano Berio, Severino Gazzeloni, Mauricio Kagel, Cornelius Cardew …

We also attended, with some of our interested and devoted students, music-theater-performanceart events that were indeed “pushing boundaries and (perhaps) taking advantage.” One such, at UCLA, I recall, involved the Rachmaninoff Prelude in C sharp minor played with great concentration by a young man totally oblivious to the six naked young women who rode their bicycles around the stage, circling him and the piano! I believe firmly that many of our alumni (including my former students, some of whom are now in their 80s like me) will verify what I have said here, in my attempt to help clarify and to present an additional perspective on “what happened at Pomona.”
—Karl Kohn
Professor of Music and Composer in Residence, Emeritus

 If only we had known! The raves say it all: “artistic feats … avant-garde action … creative energy … mythic status … flash of radical brilliance.”

Tossing lighted matches at a nude woman; getting naked and urinating in public; nothing short of pure genius.

When my cohort of surfers and beach bums did these things in the 1950s and 1960s, we were nothing but childish, antisocial, exhibitionistic idiots. If only we’d thought of calling it art— we, too, could have made history and joined the pantheon of Great Artists.

—Dave Rearwin ’62
La Jolla, Calif.

 A Tragic Loss

As reported briefly in the fall issue of PCM David A. Waring ’03 died on Sept. 28, 2010. Twenty-nine years old, he had suffered for many years from an illness that continues to confound.Having been in touch with the Waring family, and having come to understand better both the challenges his life involved and the impact he had on friends and family, I offer here a bit more about David’s life.

Classmates, friends and family held a memorial service in Claremont in May. According to Matt Leavitt ’03, a roommate and friend, “He was absolutely intrigued by how people behaved, why we did what we did, why we were who we were. … Dave’s musical talent and ability were otherworldly. I used to tell him that while I played guitar, he was a guitarist. … Perhaps one of the most tragic aspects of Dave’s affliction was we’ll never know what he could have accomplished with the world of music. … It is in his thoughtful interpretations of art, music and life that Dave truly flourished both intellectually and spiritually.”

Dave’s mother, Pat Waring, said that “in his freshman year, Dave was ‘beside-himself-excited’ to find a seminar on mathematics and music. Professor Ami Radunskaya nurtured his love of ideas in music, and for her he wrote a paper on ‘the relationship of set theory and improvisation in jazz.’” She also spoke of his love of sports, with baseball his favorite. At Pomona, he was a DJ at KSPC, a calculus grader, a psychology experiment designer and an assistant in a Claremont arts program for the disabled.

After graduating from Pomona and while in Osaka, where he was teaching English, he was stricken with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). Pat Waring noted, “Dave valiantly battled ME/CFS, a disease one expert pronounced ‘monstrous’ and ‘subtle’ in the same breadth. … In the end, he remembered others who suffered from ME/CFS. He requested that his organs be donated to medical science to be used for research to solve the biological questions swirling around his disease. But because of the decades-long medical politics—the titanic battle between those who view ME/CFS as a biological disease and those who see it as a psychiatric one—his contribution is yet to be determined.”

Pat Waring is educating the public about ME/CFS, the diagnosis of which is currently undergoing reevaluation, and inspiring students to pursue research into this tragic and perplexing illness.

—Don Pattison
Past PCM editor

 Bedbug Background

I read with interest the “Bedbugs are Back!” article by Sara Faye Lieber ’03, learning that Stanford Chemistry Professor Emeritus Carl Djerassi founded a company that makes a chemical which battles these pests by sterilizing them. One coincidental bit of information not included in this article is that Dr. Djerassi’s now deceased daughter, Pamela, was a member of the Pomona class of 1971.
—Steve Lansdowne ’71
Austin, Texas

Out of the Box

I always enjoy the magazine. In reference to the photo spread in the fall “Time Travel” issue depicting the Pomona College Wedgwood China, I bought my Pomona plates in 1948. I got them out of their box once for a luncheon in 2003.
—Connie Fabula ’48
La Jolla, Calif.

Tragedy at Sea

Regarding “The Pirate Trials” in the fall issue, Jean Hawkins Adam ’66 was a dear friend, even when we only got together occasionally. She lived life to the fullest, and shared her enthusiasm with those around her. Her e-mails and website made me feel as if I was adventuring with her and Scott on their trips around the globe. They are sorely missed. I can only hope this tragedy will awaken more people to the serious problem of piracy and the need to address it. Nations must take the pirate attacks very seriously and work together to stop them.

—Diana Grover Barris ’66
Long Beach, Calif.

Remembering
Motts Thomas

As the proud 40-year wife of a Pomona graduate, I am deeply grateful not only for the outstanding education Steve (Class of 1970) received at Pomona, but also for the continuing pleasure of reading your magazine. Thank you for the particularly thoughtful, poignant and provocative collection of articles in the summer 2011 issue. Like Dr. Elizabeth McPherson ’71 (“Born Still”), Steve’s future career in genetics research and teaching was set by his undergraduate work with Professor Larry Cohen.

As a proud graduate and trustee emerita of another outstanding liberal arts college, mine located “back east” in Wisconsin, I am also deeply saddened to learn of Dean Motts Thomas’ passing. During his short time at my college, Motts engaged in the same kind of relationship building and commitment to diversity thatled your Professor Swartz to rememberMotts’ time at Pomona with such affection.

But … last time I checked, my college was careful not to refer to your college as Cal Poly in Pomona. Perhaps next time you refer to my college, you could get its name straight as well.

—Priscilla Peterson Weaver
Class of 1969, Lawrence University

[Editor’s note: Our apologies for the mix-up with St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y. ]

 Repartee and Regret

When I read the letters in the last issue, I realized that I, too, knew Leslie Farmer ’72 (“The Bequest,” summer 2011), and my memories also capture a distinctive person who walked a path of her own. I have two memories of her. First, Leslie wrote epigrams—short pithy sayings with deep implications. At that point in my life I thought all the epigrams had been written, and it was a complete surprise to realize someone could actually create these things.

The second memory concerns an exchange we had in the Sagehen. Leslie had written something critical of a situation on campus. I cannot recall what it was, but her piece was passionate in an academic way—allusions to literature or references to history or such. I thought she was being overly dramatic and silly, and I wrote a poem in rebuttal. The poem was set as if written by Leslie. It began “Why, oh why, is the ivy dead on the halls of old PC?” From there I threw in a number of disconnected worrisome queries drawn from my still limited liberal arts education. I closed with the vengeful retort, “Stupid Leslie, it’s winter.” (Forty years before “It’s the economy, stupid.”)

 I was very proud of myself, and I assumed there was no possible retort to my sharp pen. However, I was wrong. Leslie took up the challenge and responded with a longer, more complex and probably more informed response. Perhaps she was enjoying the engagement, but I knew I lacked the substance to continue the exchange, and I left the field of battle.

If I’d had the wherewithal to respond, I might have come to know her better. Even all these years later my encounter with Leslie stands out as a very formative event for me.

—Brian Stecher ’68
Santa Monica, Calif.

 

 

 

 

 

LetterBox: Sagehens Sound Off

October 11, 2011  by emae2021@pomona.edu Comments Off on LetterBox: Sagehens Sound Off

Leslie’s Legacy

When I saw the header on page 40 of the Summer 2011 issue which said, “At first glance, the elusive Leslie Farmer ’72 left little trace at Pomona, but upon her death, she left millions to the college. So who was she?” I said aloud, alone in my study, “She was my roommate.”

Leslie and I entered Pomona in the fall of 1963 and lived in a suite (230 Harwood Court) where we shared a room first semester of our first year. I have a clear picture of her in my head: slender, tall-ish (I think we were the same height), often in a long cotton skirt and top, and her light brown hair under a scarf tied behind her neck. She walked with a long stride, head forward, always looking clear in purpose and direction, always alone.

That summer, we had written each other long letters once we discovered we were roommates. I’m sure mine was suitably adolescent and breathless. Hers was not. She had a voice and a view on the world. I distinctly remember her interest in learning Arabic. Or perhaps she was teaching herself Arabic even then. I can’t imagine what I made of that at the time.

Once our college lives started, we lived them differently. I was thrilled with the apparently limitless social opportunities available away from parental oversight, and attended only in fits and starts to what my parents were paying tuition for.  Leslie was altogether more serious and more earnest and definitely more solitary. It did not make for a good roommate blend. We weren’t in conflict; we just didn’t connect, and I was making as many connections as I possibly could.

Before the end of the semester, I had found a new roommate who was living in a single in a suite nearby, and we engineered a switch so that Leslie took the single. I am not proud of that. I don’t think we were cruel in setting it up, and my new roommate and I were very close friends for many years, but I can’t imagine that any young person wouldn’t have felt rejected under the circumstances. I could have seen the year out. Her feelings were clearly not a high priority for me.

I’d like to think that, more than 40 years on, young people like Leslie who don’t fit in the niches generally available are now viewed more positively and appreciated for their unusual strengths and interests, rather than being seen as odd or anti-social. We now know what wonderful accomplishments can come from intensely focused people, what amazingly creative solutions can emerge from interests society finds obscure or not worthwhile, that lives can be lived fully, away from society’s current parameters.

I took away from Mark Kendall’s fine and sensitive piece (accompanied by Mark Wood’s beautiful drawings) the tremendous strength of purpose and will and individuality that propelled her from one interest and concern to the next, and her continual focus, in one way or another, on cultural hotspots in the world, connected to her continued effort to express what she saw, what she learned, what she knew, in writing. That she died, as she often lived, alone is not surprising, but I grieve those lonely and isolated circumstances, suffering so severely from her paralyzing disease.

I know that Pomona College will use her extraordinary and generous gift well and wisely. I am so pleased that her spirit—her unusual, quirky, complex spirit—will live on.

—Gretel Wandesforde-Smith ’67
Davis, Calif.

 
Thank you for another outstanding issue. Many of the articles were poignant but none more so for me than the one about Leslie Farmer. She was one year ahead of me, and while I never spoke to her or shared a class, I remember her clearly. During my four years at Pomona, she was the only woman I ever saw who wore pants to class! While we might put on slacks or shorts at the dorm, women always wore skirts or dresses while on campus. There was no rule that I know of, but it was a matter of tradition and respect. So when I saw her striding across the quad in her signature tight black pants and black cape, she was memorable. I must have asked someone her name, but that was all I knew about her then.

Reading your article filled me with sadness. We know so little of the people we walk by every day, but even then she was a loner, eccentric, different. And to me she will always be the girl who wore pants at Pomona.

—Marilynn (Muff) McCann Darling ’68
Colorado Springs, Colo.

I regularly receive PCM because I spent a year at Pomona as a French exchange student back in 1964-65. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the article about Leslie Farmer in the summer issue. My year at Pomona is obviously blurred by the passing of time and I don’t have clear memories of all the people I met there. But strangely I have a vivid recollection of Leslie Farmer and I often thought of her, wondering what had become of her. I remember her as a very pretty girl with a pale face, very elegant and wearing a hat. She was very opinionated and spoke a lot about Arab culture, which in those days was very unusual. I was a young student from the University of Aix-en-Provence and meeting this strange young woman in a small California college was to say the least … an experience. I am extremely moved by your article which has helped me to at least discover who this young lady was.

—Gérard Bardizbanian
Salon-de-Provence, France

 Birth and Death
From Both Sides

In my four years at Pomona, I had just two roommates, both of whom were also very dear friends. Little could have been more personally poignant than opening the summer issue titled “Birth and Death” to find it featured both of them—one on each side of that dichotomy.

It certainly seems a sad, bizarre and ironic twist of fate to everyone who knew her that my ridiculously fit, vivacious, fearlessly adventurous, ambitious Oldenborg suitemate Mariah Steinwinter would suffer a debilitating stroke at age 28 that would sap her will to live. Thanks so much for the article about her—a lovely and thoughtful profile of her life, and a gentle glimpse into the struggles of her final months.  

On the “birth” side: how my other roommate Barbara Suminski and I would have delighted, on giddy nights of freshman-girl-talk in Smiley 1, to know that nine years later she and Torrin Hultgren (subject of many of these talks!) would be happily married and wrapping their first-born little boy in a snuggly blue Sagehen blanket for a photo with his Sagehen great-grandma. Thanks, too, for including this happy photo—and for all the ways, from intriguing articles to simple class notes, that Pomona College Magazine helps us continue to share in the life stories of our fellow alums.

—Emily Sherman ’02
Nashville, Tenn.

Maternity and the Medical Machine

I was so pleased to see the topic of birth highlighted in the summer 2011 issue since the mainstream media strives to avoid it. I am a living oxymoron, a health care professional who has worked in various hospitals but did everything I could to avoid giving birth in one knowing that my pregnancy was low-risk. Aside from trying to avoid an unnecessary cesarean birth in a for-profit hospital, there are many other reasons to consider giving birth at a birth center or at home with a trained midwife if you have a low-risk, uneventful pregnancy. Drug-resistant infections are rampant in hospitals. The environment is hostile for a mother who needs focus, relaxation and privacy for the optimal chance to give birth naturally. Also, babies are typically whisked away unnecessarily for several hours and given bottles, reducing the likelihood that a mother will be able to successfully initiate and continue breastfeeding.

I am grateful that we have technological advances for true emergencies, but pregnancy is not automatically a medical emergency that warrants intervention to progress. Do your research, make an informed decision, be very careful choosing your provider and, if you choose to give birth in a hospital, be prepared for a system that is rarely designed to support the natural birthing process.

—Miranda Crown ’98
Bend, Ore.

 As a midwife, I was especially drawn to the profile of Sarah Davis’ important work as a home birth midwife and Nathanael Johnson’s discussion of industrialized birth. While I commend Johnson for his attention to this important issue, I challenge his conclusion that health care consumers are powerless to do anything other than choose a system and surrender as an act of faith. Certainly it is a sad commentary that a newly pregnant couple would resist asking important questions of their health care provider out of concern for sounding “like a crazy person.” In large part the fault lies with the system for resistance to such inquiry. Coupled with this resistance, however, is a competitive interest in patient satisfaction, which does invest the consumer with power.

Certified nurse midwives attend about 10 percent of vaginal births in the U.S., the vast majority in hospitals, and on average have lower cesarean section rates than obstetricians, even when controlling for patient risk factors. This and other favorable birth outcomes are tied to midwifery philosophy, which dictates nonintervention in normal processes and respect for a family’s self-determination. While I agree that our health care system and maternity care specifically need reform, it also is important that we recognize successful models of care and empower ourselves to ask for them.

—Kara Myers ’95
San Francisco, Calif.

Baked Goods and Big Beds

Back in my day, instead of pancakes the week before finals (“Syrupy Beginning,” summer 2011), we had QUEST courses to relieve tension. They were taught by anyone on campus who had a skill to teach, from the janitor to a student to a professor. There were topics like ballroom dancing and how to knit a ski cap; I took a pie baking class taught by Mathematics Professor Mullikin. To this day, everyone compliments me on my pie crust and one of the recipes he gave us, “Miss Clara’s Fudge Pie.” 

On the subject of the new housing (“Home Suite Home”), I noted the photograph with the “full-sized bed.” Gee, I would think that could be a problem, with students competing to get one of those rooms, since the majority of dorm rooms have only a single bed. And if you are trying to utilize space better, a smaller room with a smaller bed would have been the ticket. It’s good for things to be a bit austere during college, so you can really appreciate your first tiny apartment after you graduate.

—Cheryl Nickel Prueher ’83
Harrison, Idaho

 Remembering Corwin Hansch

Professor Corwin Hansch will always be for me the ultimate professional mentor.

He was my organic chemistry professor and academic advisor in 1956 and recommended that I change majors to mathematics from chemistry because my “C” grades in the latter and “A” grades in the former subjects strongly suggested I would not professionally succeed in my chosen field. I stubbornly rejected his appropriate advice and indeed earned only a “C” in that fall semester in his lecture course.

Where I excelled was in the laboratory and, in the following semester, as my brain started accepting the theory of the subject, he offered me the then very rare opportunity to be his summer 1957 research assistant on his grant involving plant growth regulator synthesis and testing using oat sprouts. Corwin’s teaching process for me was to tell me the question he wanted solved and then to disappear and leave me alone to use the literature to determine how to select chemicals and apparatus to carry out reactions and to verify results.

I will forever be grateful to him for that learning experience, which by his invitation was duplicated in the summer of 1958, after graduation, on a totally different project. The immersion into doing real chemistry propelled me to complete my Ph.D. thesis in graduate school in a short 2.5 years.

As a career professor of chemistry I mimic his method with undergraduate and graduate students joining my group. Thank you, Corwin, and may your soul rest in peace!

—Richard Partch ’58
Hannawa Falls, N.Y.

Alumni and friends are invited to send us their letters by email to pcm@pomona.edu or by mail to the address on page 2. Letters are selected for publication based on relevance and interest to our readers and may be edited for length, style and clarity.

Letterbox

September 12, 2011  by emae2021@pomona.edu Comments Off on Letterbox

Brain Disorders Not for Laughs

Alexander Gelfand’s story, “The Exploding Piano,” about Kathleen Supove ’73 expressed well Supove’s excitement and joy in new music. The energy she brings to her “more inclusive, accessible vision of the piano recital” speaks well to her years of the experimental late ’60s and early ’70s at Pomona. But one recital reported didn’t seem very inclusive.

Although I overlapped her, graduating as a music major in 1969, I don’t remember Kathleen Supove. I suspect neither of us, at that time, would have blanched at “crazy” jokes. But the world is better and

“more inclusive” now. I hope we are both better and kinder now, and that the description of the “show” in Montclair, N.J. where she “came on stage wrapped in a blanket, holding a broom as a pretend rifle, and proceeded to act like a crazy person,” was merely media hyperbole.

One person’s political correctness, is, I suspect, another’s abiding grief. I have a mental illness, but don’t like being called “crazy”; and my daughter, who has schizoaffective disorder, and acts paranoid occasionally, but able to tell a hawk from a handsaw, would not find such an impersonation funny. May we all come to the point where we don’t find “crazy” jokes funny anymore, and where we treat those afflicted with brain disorders with the respect their courage deserves.
—Mary Elgin ’69
Altadena, Calif.

 Tower Article Rings Bells

Your article about the Smith Tower carillon (“Old Chimes, New Times”) in the winter issue moves me to make a confession:

An acquaintance was running for freshman class president. A group of his supporters decided to hang a campaign sign atop Smith Tower. I said I could shoot an arrow over the tower, trailing a length of monofilament fishing line. My second shot was true. We started to haul up our nylon rope. Damn! The 6-lb. test line broke. One strand was not enough. We made an eight-strand monofilament hank, capable of supporting more than 47 lbs. The new plan: one strand over the tower with an arrow, then the eight-strand hank, then a rope, then the sign.

In the early hours of Monday, Nov. 13, 1961, we began hauling up our 47-yard long monofilament hank. Oh, no! The wind carried strands into the clock hands, which seemed to reach out and ensnare our makeshift rigging.

Pull! Tug! Yank! Nothing moved except the minute hand, which flexed ominously. Not wanting to leave evidence, we jerked once more. The minute hand suddenly ratcheted from two to six. Time to go!

Worried, we dispersed at 2:47 a.m. Events the next morning confirmed our worst fears. The carillon erupted with seemingly endless chimes. I could see several strands of monofilament wafting from the clock hands, glowing brightly in the fall sunshine. I began to contemplate Life After Expulsion From Pomona.

Agonizing minutes later, I learned the real purpose of the carillon serenade. The previous night, Pomona had vanquished Washington and Lee University on the General Electric College Bowl TV program. Smith Tower was summoning all Sagehens to a rally for the team, which previously had demolished Amherst, Hood, U. of Washington and TCU. With five wins they had retired the huge silver trophy.

A few days later the monofilament disappeared. The clock was reset. I exhaled. The 47-year statute of limitations has expired, so I am now willing to share this story.

—Lew Phelps ’65
Pasadena, Calif.

 I enjoyed reading about the ringing of the Smith Tower chimes on the 47th minute of the hour. As a Smiley freshman I walked by the tower countless times on the way to and from Frary, and my friends and I frequently pulled on the heavy metal door in hopes of finding it unlocked. No such luck … until one night, the door moved!

After dinner and under cover of darkness, Jody Wally ’90 and I returned to the tower, sneaked inside and closed the door. It was almost pitch black, but we could make out a narrow, winding staircase attached to the wall, Vertigo-style. Unfortunately, a locked door on the stairs about 8 to10 feet up blocked passage. The only way around it was from the ground, by boosting and pulling each other up through a small opening on the stairs beyond the door. After a successful bypass, we climbed the stairs all the way up, where they ended at a landing underneath a long ladder attached to the wall. The ladder took us up through a hatch and outside to the platform under the bell. The view was fantastic, and it was a thrill to be up there.

We found it curious that conversations and sounds from below sounded much closer than they were.Who knows, maybe ASPC could hold a fundraising raffle for a guided tour of Smith Tower?
—John Kyl ’90
Phoenix, Ariz.

Females in Frary

Regarding “Prometheus Refound” in the winter issue, it will probably come as a shock to you, but I and numerous female cohorts dined with Prometheus in Frary during 1944–45. Clark Hall housed women during World War II and I was one of them. How long women lived in Clark, I am not sure. We had a dorm mother in residence, and Dean of Students Nicholl and Mrs. Nicholl inhabited an upstairs apartment in Clark, too.

I think the winter 2011 issue was really outstanding.

—Patricia Collins Stanley ’46
Fallbrook, Calif.

There’s More to Spanglish

I am writing in response to the letter (winter 2011 issue) from Robert L. Dennis, Jr. ’69 about Spanglish. As a Spanish major, not only have I read Scenes from la Cuenca y otros Natural Disasters, but I have also taken many classes with the author, Professor Susana Chávez-Silverman. Throughout my studies, I have become aware of many different definitions of Spanglish. While Dennis offers one of many older definitions, a more progressive and inclusive one can be found in Paul Allatson’s Key Terms in Latino/a Cultural Identity Studies. Allatson states that Spanglish “designates the many Spanish-English dialects spoken by many millions of Latino/as.” Its meaning in day-to-day practice is in flux, an ongoing discussion. However, it is clear that Spanglish exists on a wide “interlingual spectrum” in which speakers shift back and forth between Spanish dominant and English-dominant grammatical structures and vocabulary. Therefore, Chávez-Silverman’s “foray into Spanglish” is not just a foray, but a political choice that forces members of the mainstream to accept and include what could be called a “hybrid language” into popular culture. Spanglish is not only used by mainly Spanish-speaking people affected by a “combination of dislocation, poverty, and [a] lack of education.” It exists on a wider plane that Chávez-Silverman seeks to make visible. She makes Spanglish acceptable—not something to be ashamed of—which is something remarkable in and of itself.

—Gabrielle Kelenyi ’13

47 Sighting

2011 is a landmark year for our favorite number. It was 47 years ago this summer that two intrepid mathematical pioneers, about to begin their first year at Pomona, set out to prove—with tongue in cheek— that 47 shows up randomly in nature more often than any other number. Since that time, 47 has taken hold of the collective imagination of Sagehens. This semester, the College celebrated the 47th anniversary of 47 with birthday cake, giveaways, general hoopla and a 47-second video tribute that

you can see online at vimeo.com/pomonacollege/47.

Letterbox

September 2, 2011  by emae2021@pomona.edu Comments Off on Letterbox

Brain Disorders Not for Laughs

Alexander Gelfand’s story, “The Exploding Piano,” about Kathleen Supove ’73 expressed well Supove’s excitement and joy in new music. The energy she brings to her “more inclusive, accessible vision of the piano recital” speaks well to her years of the experimental late ’60s and early ’70s at Pomona. But one recital reported didn’t seem very inclusive.

Although I overlapped her, graduating as a music major in 1969, I don’t remember Kathleen Supove. I suspect neither of us, at that time, would have blanched at “crazy” jokes. But the world is better and “more inclusive” now. I hope we are both better and kinder now, and that the description of the “show” in Montclair, N.J. where she “came on stage wrapped in a blanket, holding a broom as a pretend rifle, and proceeded to act like a crazy person,” was merely media hyperbole.

One person’s political correctness, is, I suspect, another’s abiding grief. I have a mental illness, but don’t like being called “crazy”; and my daughter, who has schizoaffective disorder, and acts paranoid occasionally, but able to tell a hawk from a handsaw, would not find such an impersonation funny. May we all come to the point where we don’t find “crazy” jokes funny anymore, and where we treat those afflicted with brain disorders with the respect their courage deserves.

—Mary Elgin ’69
Altadena, Calif.

Tower Article Rings Bells

Your article about the Smith Tower carillon (“Old Chimes, New Times”) in the winter issue moves me to make a confession:

An acquaintance was running for freshman class president. A group of his supporters decided to hang a campaign sign atop Smith Tower. I said I could shoot an arrow over the tower, trailing a length of monofilament fishing line. My second shot was true. We started to haul up our nylon rope. Damn! The 6-lb. test line broke. One strand was not enough. We made an eight-strand monofilament hank, capable of supporting more than 47 lbs. The new plan: one strand over the tower with an arrow, then the eight-strand hank, then a rope, then the sign.

In the early hours of Monday, Nov. 13, 1961, we began hauling up our 47-yard long monofilament hank. Oh, no! The wind carried strands into the clock hands, which seemed to reach out and ensnare our makeshift rigging. Pull! Tug! Yank! Nothing moved except the minute hand, which flexed ominously. Not wanting to leave evidence, we jerked once more. The minute hand suddenly ratcheted from two to six. Time to go!

Worried, we dispersed at 2:47 a.m. Events the next morning confirmed our worst fears. The carillon erupted with seemingly endless chimes. I could see several strands of monofilament wafting from the clock hands, glowing brightly in the fall sunshine. I began to contemplate Life After Expulsion From Pomona.

Agonizing minutes later, I learned the real purpose of the carillon serenade. The previous night, Pomona had vanquished Washington and Lee University on the General Electric College Bowl TV program. Smith Tower was summoning all Sagehens to a rally for the team, which previously had demolished Amherst, Hood, U. of Washington and TCU. With five wins they had retired the huge silver trophy.

A few days later the monofilament disappeared. The clock was reset. I exhaled. The 47-year statute of limitations has expired, so I am now willing to share this story.

—Lew Phelps ’65
Pasadena, Calif.

I enjoyed reading about the ringing of the Smith Tower chimes on the 47th minute of the hour. As a Smiley freshman I walked by the tower countless times on the way to and from Frary, and my friends and I frequently pulled on the heavy metal door in hopes of finding it unlocked. No such luck … until one night, the door moved!

After dinner and under cover of darkness, Jody Wally ’90 and I returned to the tower, sneaked inside and closed the door. It was almost pitch black, but we could make out a narrow, winding staircase attached to the wall, Vertigo-style. Unfortunately, a locked door on the stairs about 8 to10 feet up blocked passage. The only way around it was from the ground, by boosting and pulling each other up through a small opening on the stairs beyond the door. After a successful bypass, we climbed the stairs all the way up, where they ended at a landing underneath a long ladder attached to the wall. The ladder took us up through a hatch and outside to the platform under the bell. The view was fantastic, and it was a thrill to be up there.

We found it curious that conversations and sounds from below sounded much closer than they were.Who knows, maybe ASPC could hold a fundraising raffle for a guided tour of Smith Tower?

—John Kyl ’90
Phoenix, Ariz.

Females in Frary

Regarding “Prometheus Refound” in the winter issue, it will probably come as a shock to you, but I and numerous female cohorts dined with Prometheus in Frary during 1944–45. Clark Hall housed women during World War II and I was one of them. How long women lived in Clark, I am not sure. We had a dorm mother in residence, and Dean of Students Nicholl and Mrs. Nicholl inhabited an upstairs apartment in Clark, too.

I think the winter 2011 issue was really outstanding.

—Patricia Collins Stanley ’46
Fallbrook, Calif.

There’s More to Spanglish

I am writing in response to the letter (winter 2011 issue) from Robert L. Dennis, Jr. ’69 about Spanglish. As a Spanish major, not only have I read Scenes from la Cuenca y otros Natural Disasters, but I have also taken many classes with the author, Professor Susana Chávez-Silverman. Throughout my studies, I have become aware of many different definitions of Spanglish. While Dennis offers one of many older definitions, a more progressive and inclusive one can be found in Paul Allatson’s Key Terms in Latino/a Cultural Identity Studies. Allatson states that Spanglish “designates the many Spanish-English dialects spoken by many millions of Latino/as.” Its meaning in day-to-day practice is in flux, an ongoing discussion. However, it is clear that Spanglish exists on a wide “interlingual spectrum” in which speakers shift back and forth between Spanish dominant and English-dominant grammatical structures and vocabulary. Therefore, Chávez-Silverman’s “foray into Spanglish” is not just a foray, but a political choice that forces members of the mainstream to accept and include what could be called a “hybrid language” into popular culture. Spanglish is not only used by mainly Spanish-speaking people affected by a “combination of dislocation, poverty, and [a] lack of education.” It exists on a wider plane that Chávez-Silverman seeks to make visible. She makes Spanglish acceptable—not something to be ashamed of—which is something remarkable in and of itself.

—Gabrielle Kelenyi ’13

47 Sighting

2011 is a landmark year for our favorite number. It was 47 years ago this summer that two intrepid mathematical pioneers, about to begin their first year at Pomona, set out to prove—with tongue in cheek— that 47 shows up randomly in nature more often than any other number. Since that time, 47 has taken hold of the collective imagination of Sagehens. This semester, the College celebrated the 47th anniversary of 47 with birthday cake, giveaways, general hoopla and a 47-second video tribute that you can see online at vimeo.com/pomonacollege/47.