Letters / Home / Winter Table of Contents
Breaking
News
WE REMIND OURSELVES , a lot, that a quarterly is no medium for the news
flash. While the dozen-plus weeks of each editorial cycle seem speedy indeed
to our staff, the time we spend in production precludes our winging even
last week's news to you.
There's an upside to this: it encourages us to consider the life of campus
more contemplatively than might otherwise be possible as we pack our quarterly
care-package of stories, pictures, and news highlights about a place important
to you.
It can be frustrating, though, when last week's news last month's, by the
time you read this is as important and provocative as the birth in January
of George and Charlie, two cloned calves born in Texas as part of
the genetic engineering research of UMass
vet and animal science professor
James
Robl. Employing simpler techniques
than those previously used on sheep by Scottish researchers, and with more
potential for pharmaceutical applications because of the quantities of
milk produced by cows, the bringing to term of these twin calves has been
described as the most important scientific feat ever accomplished at UMass.
It made international headlines and has been met with understandable pride.
Also with some apprehension: the two tottery little Holsteins became instant
if inarticulate actors in a debate about the proper uses of this technology
that has been ongoing since the birth of the Scottish sheep Dolly last
year. Robl and his colleague Steven Stice '89G are clearly focused
on the medical and agricultural benefits of cloning non-human animals;
Tracey Stice '97, Steven's wife and a consultant to the scientists'
Advanced Cell Technology firm, was quoted in the New York Times
as saying that the birth of the calves "brings back to reality what
this technology is really being used for." What controls are feasible
for its future use is a question that come to think about it we're just
as glad not to treat as breaking news. Since we have time to put the question,
what would you like us to ask Professor Robl? (email your questions to:
umassmag@umassp.edu)
Stamp Act
STAMPS
ARE ADORABLE BECAUSE they're miniatures, which it then becomes enchanting
to vastly enlarge. Both dimensions of philatelic delight were involved in
a ceremony this winter at the W.E.B.
Du Bois Library, where envoys
of the postal service and representatives of the campus gathered to unveil
a signboard-size replica of a commemorative stamp honoring the library's namesake.Also
involved, of course, was regional and institutional pride, duly expressed
by Du Bois director Margo Crist, who is quoted elsewhere in this issue on
her aspirations for the library named in 1996 for one of Western Massachusetts'
greatest sons.
We often think we ought to be a mother, the way we're always nagging you
on these pages to WRITE A LETTER! KEEP IN TOUCH! INVEST IN A STAMP, FOR
PETE'S SAKE! And though as long as we can afford it your magazine reply-card
will be postpaid, here's a better reason than our nagging to stock up on
sticky little miniatures to affix to the rest of your U.S. mail: the Du
Bois commemorative is one more way to associate yourself with the finest
aspirations (make those inquiry, excellence, valor) of UMass.
LABORING IN THE CORNFIELDS
I AM NOT TAKING SIDES on the "question" ["The Cornfield Question: the Conundrum of Drinking at UMass," Fall 1997]. But I couldn't help lamenting a little at the comment "What else are we supposed to do on the weekends?" I might suggest using it in useful preparation for a better future society.
Yes, I know we can't expect students to spend all of their time in study. However, graduating a better prepared professional workforce would help. I find a surprising number of new university graduates (from all over) cannot prepare coherent reports, let alone spell or write legibly.
Richard Howard '75G
Hatfield
CORNFIELDS? HA!
AS A NATIVE OF INDIANA, I found the student protesters in "The Cornfield Question" to be absurd in the extreme. UMass, in the middle of a cornfield? Give me a break!! You haven't even SEEN corn until you've lived in Indiana.
UMass is in one of the most culturally interesting and diverse places in the nation. Instead of making sorry excuses for getting drunk, why don't those students, yes, STUDY, or else take advantage of the millions of cultural and academic opportunities around them? Maybe I'm naive, but I thought that was what higher education was about.
Emily Hyatt Olds `89
Monterey
PRECISIONETTES PAST
"1956 HOMECOMING" in the fall UMass really became meaningful when I saw [Carl Howard's photograph] of the Precisionettes. I fondly remember my years on the squad from the rigorous tryout phase in the spring of 1960 (300 or so started, to fill only twenty-thirty slots) until I graduated in 1963.
Three great years of hard work and discipline, alone with fun trips to games and parades. And, unlike the earlier years, our shows were photographed and filmed regularly! We got to be minor "celebs"!
Pat Fielding Jaouen `63
Lenox
HOMECOMING EL NINO
[Re Homecoming `56, in the Fall 1997, UMass]: Talk about punching the nostalgia button!
When you talk about getting bombed, you categorize the Homecoming '56 game against UConn in the same niche with Pearl Harbor, the Tet Offensive and El Nino!
That was the day when UConn halfback Lenny King ran through, around and over a shell-shocked UMass bunch. As an assistant in the sports information office, on sunny football days my preferred seat was on high atop the press boxwhere I was usually joined by athletic director Warren McGuirk.
That's where we were on that fateful 71-6 October afternoon. And where, at the conclusion of the debacle, Warren turned to me, peering through his thick glasses, and said, "Well, Ted, shall you jump first or should I?"
Another neat "thanks-for-the-memory" piece in UMass Magazine.
Fred S. (Ted) Raymond Jr. '59
Fort Walton Beach, Florida
MOON MISS
THE STORY ABOUT Dean Goldstein ("Taking it to the Top," Fall, 1997) starts with a statement about "...moon dust collected by moon-walking astronauts in 1968...".
Oops!
The first moon landing, by the lander "Eagle" from the orbiting Apollo 11, occurred on 20 July 1969. It was followed by five other successful landings until the final Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
In 1968, Apollo 8 circled the moon at Christmas time, but did not land. Perhaps that is the one to which you refer.
Ken Sherman '68, '75G
North Grafton
Faye Wolfe replies: "Mr. Sherman will be glad to know that the writer has just started using her first pair of reading glasses, so that the rate of misread dates and other errors tracable to the same source should be reduced."
ASPARAGUS VALLEY
IT WAS VERY HARD FOR ME to leave the Asparagus Valley in the years after graduation. The environment, from Amherst to `Hamp, Deerfield to Hadley, was so warm and cozy and familiar, and everywhere else seemed cold and frightening. That's why David Lenson's essay about how the valley was settled [North 40, Fall 1997] aroused such echoes for me.
Life in the valley seemed so seductive. Many of my friends did stay, and I did return after various traumatic experiences in the other world, to start over for a few months. I got my first real job while living in Northampton, gradually moved farther away and eventually settled closer to my boyhood home. But it took a conscious effort to leave, because I loved the place so.
So thanks for that little piece. It turned up some sweet memories. Does anybody still go to the Hatfield Barn (aka the Polish-American Club) on Saturdays for home-made all-you-can eat smorgasbords and polkas at midnight?
Peter Goodman '66
Syosset, New York
VALLEY PIZZAZZ
GOT MY UMASS TODAY [Fall 1997]. Another very nice edition. I am particularly pleased with the design. Is it internal or are you using an agency in the Valley or Boston? Keep up the good work.
Art Petrosemolo `69G
Shrewsbury, New Jersey
Looks like Boston, doesn't it? Maybe even Paris. But no, the design of UMass is pure Belchertown, being the baby of art director (and "North Pols" design studio proprietor) Elizabeth Pols `78G. Art Petrosemolo, director of alumni relations at UMass in the early seventies, is director of communications at Monmouth University in New Jersey.
STACKED DECK?
I'D LIKE TO OFFER two comments on the "Tribute to Women" issue [Summer 1997].
First, it's about time something was done on this subject. As an undergraduate, I had several wonderful professors, one being Dr. Meredith Raymond in the English department. She not only taught me a great deal about American Literature, but about people: specifically, myself. In my own teaching now, I think of Dr. Raymond as one of my guides in how to be a good teacher attentive, patient, prodding. I am indebted to teachers such as her.
Secondly, I think there might be some merit in considering the "gendered" responses to the "Tribue to Women" issue [Exchange, Fall 1997]. I do not agree with the snide comments made by several men ("How about a guys issue", "Such liberal tripe", etc.). Indeed, it makes me sad, that not only in the 1990s are there men who still feel the need to articulate opinions in such an overtly unintelligent manner, but that they are fellow UMass grads. That depresses me.
But something else also depresses me: the fact that all the negative responses to the "Tribute to Women" issue you printed were attributed to men. Even Joseph R. O'Gorman's letter could be considered somewhat negative, considering he wished an additional subject matter had been addressed somewhere in the issue.
I find it hard to believe that there was not ONE positive response to the "Tribute to Women" issue by a man worthy of publication? And, relatedly, not one negative response by a woman? I think the women you profiled in the issue would find this somewhat unjust. A "stacked deck" if you will.
That said, continue the fine work you all do on the magazine. It keeps me connected to a place that means a great deal to me.
Matthew F. Benedict `86
Notre Dame, Indiana
Balancing the sample of letters printed in the magazine to reflect the opinions in all those received is indeed a challenge. It's our policy to give particular priority to criticisms; readers can assess how well we're doing by consulting our web-page, www.umass.edu.umassmag, where all letters received are entered in full.
In the case of responses to the women's issue, we too were startled by the gender difference. While a number of men made favorable remarks in person, none wrote with the unreserved enthusiasm reflected in the many letters from women.
As time has gone by, we have received additional (mostly critical) letters from men and some from women chiding us for oversights. (See below.) Only one sharply critical response arrived from a reader identifying herself as female, and that was unsigned.
GEEZER-WARRIOR SPEAKS
YES, YOU'RE RIGHT. MISS SKINNER would have wanted me, and other people, to write [Reply card, Summer, 1997] in response to your recent issue on women at UMass, because you omitted a core group of women who are a vital part of the university's mission: the faculty, librarians, and professional staff. With all due respect to the achievements of the women administrators profiled in the articles, their opportunities are due in large measure to the struggles of the `70s, when the collective bargaining movement and the class action supported by Massachusetts Society of Professors on behalf of women faculty and librarians led to improvements in equity in salary and rank for them, and opened the way for increased recognition. But that's a story you may not be able to tell in full until we geezer-warriors are long gone.
Fay Zipkowitz `70G
Leverett
Fay Zipkowitz was a librarian at UMass from 1966 to 1977, and is a past vice president of the MSP.
I AM DISAPPOINTED IN the magazine. It seems to me that whenever the emphasis is in the pre-1970s period of alumni personalities and accomplishment, the focus is on whites, with the result of missing the hopefully growing presence of blacks and other minorities in UMass history.
If the magazine is to be an editorial opportunity for white self-congratulation, then take my name off the mailing list. There is enough white-centered public acceptance in journals. If the magazine is to become a voice to balance much-needed honor to the past while encouraging the present multi-cultural population to excel in their chosen professional fields, then count me in. I look forward to seeing youthful, clearly black faces, not the elders of the community or the coaches of winning athletic teams who are periodically honored by other press instruments.
Joan Curello Davis `75
Teaneck, New Jersey
WONDERFUL OLD MACHINES
MY NIECE, UMASS GRADUATE Jenifer Strachan `86, brought your magazine and the article on page 3 ["Chapel Clock: Quite a story," Summer 1997] to my attention. I was delighted to read about your upcoming restoration efforts, and I want to encourage you all I can.
I am a sixth generation, direct descendant of the original Seth Thomas, who began his own clockmaking business in 1813. The S.T. Clock Co. began the manufacture of public clocks in 1872, and continued in the business until the last one was installed in 1942. I believe over 3000 were made during this time period, quite a few for export. Public clocks were installed in college library towers, courthouses, churches, city halls and on city sidewalks as large post clocks, usually outside jewelry stores.
Yes, there was a time when many of these clocks were converted "for convenience" to electric winding devices, and worse, to electric drives for the movements themselves, completely bypassing the escapements. The electric drives were sometimes too strong and caused excessive, premature wear on the various gears of the movement, transmission, and motion works.
Fortunately, there is alive a groundswell of activity to restore many of these wonderful old machines to their earlier glory, so that new generations can appreciate their robust beauty and practicality. Good luck with your project. I was most pleased to read about it.
Seth R. Thomas
Brecksville, Ohio
