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Our Magazine Correspondent, Judy Siskind, has submitted class notes to the magazine. They will be published in December. Our Communications Chair, Lynn Thurber, has posted them on our ’68 website under Featured News on our homepage, so you can read them hot-off-the-press. Plus, they are attached at the bottom of this email. Our Treasurer, Marion Flores, has received our financial report from the college with the updated expenses from our 60th Reunion Chair, Tish Busselle. We are in the black with a balance around $40k.
As requested at reunion, I, Judy Harte, have put together a presentation (~30 minutes long) describing the exciting, controlled fusion ignition that was achieved in December and again in July at my laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. These experiments mark the first time ever, anywhere in the world that fusion ignition has been achieved in a controlled setting. Should you wish to hear my presentation it will be a
Class of 1968 zoom meeting on Sunday, October 15th at 2 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 5 PM Eastern Daylight Time, etc.
Hope that time and date will work for you. You will receive a zoom invitation from the college just like you did for the meeting with President Johnson.
It was wonderful seeing many of you on campus at reunion and I look forward to more good times together. Please stay in touch.
I am honored to be your new class President and delighted that my first message to you describes our special opportunity with our Wellesley CollegePresident Paula Johnson. For these next five years, I will do my best to keep everyone informed, probably quarterly, when class notes are available. I will not overstuff your inboxes. I want to hear from you with any ideas for the class via an email (harte1@llnl.gov), call or just write.
Our class had a terrific meeting with President Johnson last Tuesday afternoon. Here is a summary for those who could not attend. There are 9 parts:
1. Introduction,
2. College Reunion Records Broken,
3. Supreme Court Decision,
4. Legal Fund,
6. Alumnae Admission Interviews,
7. WCAA Status Change,
8. Scholarships, and
9. Wrap-up.
Scroll down to what you are interested in or just keep reading. At the end below my signature block, our Reunion Chair, Tish Busselle, has added some important reunion links.
1. Introduction:
It started off well with all of us gathering via zoom. Everyone wanted to say hi and chat. Cindy Rainey reported on the “President Paula Johnson (PPJ) look-alike” on the stage at her husband’s Harvard reunion in May. That “dead ringer” for PPJ turned out to be our actual president, receiving a Harvard Medal for "extraordinary service" to the University from the Harvard Alumni Association! Then the meeting started with PPJ welcoming us and thanking us for our Class of 1968 extraordinary support of Wellesley College. She then pointed out the major event since Reunion - the Supreme Court decision on Affirmative Action. She said while the College will comply with the law, they are looking into the entire admissions process for various means to recruit a diverse class and will need to invest more to achieve this aim. Next, she opened the floor for questions.
2. College Reunion Records Broken:
The first question concerned the Alumnae Meeting at Reunion and the fact that our class was not recognized for our record-breaking performance. Remember, we, 1968, broke two College 55th reunion records. We had both the most Durant Society members (81) and the largest amount of money ever raised for a 55th Reunion Class. Our “5 year” total contribution of $23.37 million accounts for more than one third (actually 36%) of the total contributions from all of the 15 reunion classes this year.
1-9-6-8 Wellesley RAH!
PPJ acknowledged and apologized for the oversight and, more importantly, promised that changes will be made to ensure that omission does not happen again. Again, she sincerely thanked our class for our incredible support both financially and as Wellesley ambassadors. [Note: Only Class Records have been recognized at the Alum Meeting for the past two years. The Development Office has assured us that College Reunion Records, like the two records we broke, will again be recognized in future years.]
3. Supreme Court Decision:
Many of the questions involved the recent Supreme Court decision on race-conscious admissions. PPJ reiterated her commitment (as stated in her earlier message to the entire Wellesley community) “to enroll the best students from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences.” She described how the race data would be redacted/deleted from the universal application forms filled out by prospective students. However, that data will become accessible once students are admitted so that the effect of the court decision can be tracked. She said they would indeed follow the law and mentioned that she was sure that “groups” would be carefully monitoring the top institutions in hopes of catching them breaking the law! Geez.
4. Legal Fund:
Others asked if a legal fund was being established. PPJ did not think that is necessary now and predicted that any litigation would involve more than just Wellesley, a group of institutions that will have common interests in defending their admissions decision-making.
5. Legacy Admissions:
PPJ also addressed preference for legacy admissions (where a mother or grandmother attended Wellesley) and athletic admissions. Legacy admission at Wellesley is quite small, less than 6-8%, and the same order of magnitude as that for colleges that disallow it. Basically, I went to Wellesley, not because my mother got me in, but I wanted to go there because she did. For athletics (we never had that!) student athletes meet the same academic admission standards as non-athletes. They constitute ~12% of the student body. The important point for us is PPJ’s reiteration that the College needs to rely even more heavily on its alumnae for outreach and recruiting.
6. Alumnae Admission Interviews:
Another interesting question was “why do alumnae no longer perform admission interviews?” PPJ answered that specific interviewing training is now required and it would not be possible to train all the alumnae interviewers. But she said the alumnae are still so important in recruiting and encouraging and helping incoming students. She even said that the Wellesley Club “Teas” and outreach for current students and families are a very important tradition.
7. WCAA Status Change:
Ellen Hoffman is our current Vice President. Ellen noticed something PPJ mentioned at the WCAA meeting that probably didn’t get picked up by many, but as a former board member of the WCAA she heard it loud and clear. That is, the WCAA will no longer be an independent entity. Their endowment will be transferred to the College endowment. Ellen asked about the “how, why and when” of this change. PPJ answered that it used to be important to have two separate entities, but that is no longer the case. She also said that it isn’t cost or efficiency that driving the decision. The motivation is closer coordination. When the WCAA was set up separately there were almost no women, much less alumnae, on the Board of Trustees. Now 80% of Trustees are alumnae. She stressed that alumnae are critical to the College’s efforts, with trust having developed over time, and said there is “a unity of work to do.” It was mentioned that the alumnae will have to vote on this. More to come, I am sure.
8. Scholarships:
A final question asked about funding and scholarships. 60% of the students benefit from financial aid and the average grant is over $60,000. The maximum load debt accrued is capped at $15,000.
9. Wrap-up
The meeting was scheduled for 30 minutes. Her staff tried to cut it off at that time (as they should), but there were still some hands up. PPJ generously gave us bonus minutes to answer all the questions. The total number of attendees at one point was 50. Four were PPJ and three college employees. That makes 46 of us. It was very successful.
PS REUNION LINKS Here are the links to our post reunion information, including pictures, some of our class events, etc. If you've missed them in previous messages, take a look when you have a chance. You will need your Wellesley ID/email and Password as this part of our class website is protected so that only classmates may view these posts.. If you have forgotten or lost your ID or Password, contact the Computing Help Desk at 781-283-7777 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (ET), Monday - Friday orhelpdesk@wellesley.edu
Link to the class meeting, class remembrance gathering, and Kay's presentation of the highlights from our surveys over the years. This link will get you to both the recordings and the slide decks for each of them.
