 |
Smith Women Who Can Do
Anything...and Everything
Although Carol Tecla Christ assumed the
presidency of Smith College on June 1, 2002, it wasn't until October 19 that
she was officially inaugurated as the 10th president. The festive installation
ceremony took place in the college's Indoor Track and Tennis Facility before
some 4,000 guests. At Christ's request, her inauguration celebrated the wealth
of achievements, intellectual life and other unique assets that distinguish Smith.
Six prominent alumnae, representing Smith education
over some 50 years, recounted during Inaugural Weekend the ways in which Smith College
shaped their public activism. An audience of more than 600 students, their families
and friends, Smith alumnae and visiting dignitaries gathered for the sweeping, reflective
roundtable discussion, held on a wet Saturday afternoon in October -- one of the
many public offerings during the weekend celebration of the installation of President
Carol T. Christ.
The alumnae, in order of seniority, were:
|
|
|
 |
Gloria Steinem '56,
writer, editor and feminist activist, a founder of Ms. magazine
and of the National Women's Political Caucus, the Coalition of
Labor Union Women, and an inductee into the National Women's Hall
of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York. |
|
|
|
|
|
Molly Ivins '66,
best-selling author, columnist and political satirist; former co-editor
of the Texas Observer; former Rocky Mountain bureau chief for
the New York Times; and frequent guest on network radio and
television shows. |
|
|
|
|
|
Linda Smith Charles '74,
deputy director, human resources, Ford Foundation; commissioner with
the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education; trustee
of Marylawn of the Oranges Academy; and a member of Smith's diversity
board of counselors. |
|
|
|
|
|
Julia Erickson '80,
executive director of City Harvest, the largest and oldest food rescue
program in the world; former associate commissioner for public/private
initiatives at the New York City department of employment. |
|
|
|
|
|
Shirley Sagawa '83,
co-founder and principal of a consulting firm that defines and guides
the social ventures of corporations and nonprofit institutions; former
deputy assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff to the first
lady in the Clinton Administration, 1998 to 2001; former managing director
of the Corporation for National Service, which includes Americorps. |
|
|
|
|
|
Katrina Gardner '00,
in her second year as a Peace Corps volunteer in Baitadi, Nepal; president
of the Student Government Association in her senior year; and a trustee
of the college for two years following her graduation. |
|
|
|
|
Sagawa initiated the discussion by asking the women
to characterize the attitudes about public service that were prevalent during their
undergraduate years.
Molly Ivins '66 described how, during the early
1960s, the notion of public service meant joining the PTA or the garden club.
Katrina Gardner '00 (left) had a very different experience. Photo by
Jim Gipe. |
Public service in the 1950s, Steinem said, meant volunteerism. "I
got the idea that [public service] was a frill, not something that was organic to
our own lives…it was not attached to profound social change. The big change
is that [public service] has become much less an implication of privilege.…It
is now clearly attached to all the sex, race and class issues that affect us every
day. So it feels like a huge, huge difference."
"Public service was the PTA and the garden club
and -- if you were very ambitious -- the park board," quipped Ivins.
When Tom Mendenhall, then president of Smith College,
recommended that Ivins, a history major, read some of the letters Smith students
had written to one another at the turn of the century (now part of the Sophia Smith
Collection at Smith), she realized that these were very impressive women, then and
now -- women who thought they could do anything.
"I do think that was an ongoing attitude [at Smith],"
Ivins said. "And this is the biggest gift I got from Smith: It wasn't that
Smith taught me that women can do anything. Smith taught me to simply assume women
can do anything! And as I went forth to conquer the world in 1966, I didn't
yet realize what a great gift that [concept] was. It took me a long time -- and I'm
still grateful for it."
Linda Smith Charles '74 and Gloria Steinem '56
discussed the unique ways in which their ideals of public service had been
shaped during two different decades at Smith. Photo by Jim Gipe. |
"By the time I got to Smith," Julia Erickson
said, "Betty Friedan's book was out and ‘political' was the
watchword of the day. Smith was my community. My act of public service was
to be deeply involved with the life of the college. I was active in student government,
active in my house, active in the government department as a liaison…I worked
on the Project for Women and Social Change …and when I got to New York [after
graduation], I wanted to be involved in the life of the community there."
Katrina Gardner, the most recent graduate, recalled
her first convocation in John M. Greene Hall. "All four of the speakers that
day -- including then-President Ruth Simmons and [former Provost] John Connolly --
told us, "All of you are going to be successful women leaders someday, … and
for my generation the question was, ‘how am I going to serve?' There
were always leadership positions available to women on campus, so you just expected
to be a leader when you got out into the world."
Not surprisingly, this ideal of public service had been
reflected in President Carol Christ's inaugural speech delivered earlier in
the day.
Smith College, Christ said, "has built its distinctive
sense of community through uniting the culture of the New England private college
with a socially progressive vision." Smith's hallmark, she said, is that
it is "a private college with a public conscience." |
|
