A Conversation with President Biddy Martin
November 7, 2019
President Biddy Martin speaking in Johnson Chapel during Family Weekend 2019
President Biddy Martin speaking in Johnson Chapel during Family Weekend 2019
- My name is Avery Farmer. I'm a senior black studies and English major and the president of the Association of Amherst Students. I'm writing a honors thesis on pick up soccer in African immigrant communities and this year the AAS, Association of Amherst Students, has been planning an ambitious investment in the campus through surplus funds that have accumulated over the years and it is my absolute delight to introduce the president, the 19th president of Amherst College, Biddy Martin. Raised outside of Lynchburg, Virginia, President Martin studied English literature at the College of William & Mary. She holds an MA in German literature from Middlebury College program in Mainz, Germany and a PhD in German literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. President Martin arrived at Amherst having been a professor of German studies and women's studies and eventually provost at Cornell University and chancellor of the University of Madison-Wisconsin. Since her 2011 arrival at Amherst, President Martin's vision and leadership have guided every aspect of the college's thriving. She's committed to the highest standards of intellectual excellence and to making our beautiful campus a place where all students can express themselves, grow as critical thinkers, and reach their fullest potential. Biddy holds office hours for students. Student can sign up on the president's page at the college website and is often found cheering on our athletic teams or attending events and student presentations on campus. She has a tremendous intellect, a sparking sense of humor, and is my favorite speaker on campus. It is an honor to introduce her to you. Welcome President Martin.
- Oh, no. Now I have to live up to that. Avery is doing a great job as student body president and he deserves a round of applause for taking it on. So, how many of you were here last weekend for homecoming? Oh, good, not many. I mean, good that you were here but I want to repeat some of what I said last weekend and I want to do that because we're living in a moment when institutions are either under attack or dangerously ignored for the value they hold and I wanna say a few things about higher education. So, here's my line which I'm gonna stick to. The world needs its Amhersts. It needs educational institutions that value intellectual rigor not simply for its own sake but in pursuit of understanding. It needs colleges and universities committed to freedom and integrity in the pursuit of truth. It needs colleges devoted to opportunity for academically talented and curious young people, regardless of their economic circumstances. And they need colleges devoted to the success of every student once they arrive. We need colleges like Amherst that operate on a scale that allows for what we call at Amherst close colloquy between faculty and students. It's not only our student faculty ratio which is now seven to one that allows for the intense interactions between faculty and students. It's a culture at Amherst that has developed over many, many years in which friendship characterizes the nature of relationships between faculty and students. The country needs all kinds of institutions and it certainly needs institutions that operate on this scale that promote the flourishing of each individual student to the extent possible and that offer the kind of learning that engages the whole person and not just the intellect. The importance of a residential education that offers talented students, in a variety of domains, a great education can't be overstated in my opinion. The world needs colleges that expose all of us to the fact and the benefit of human differences and that teaches young people how to embrace those differences without fear and without hate because after all, what does America means if not opportunity, openness, freedom, equality, shared governance, and social responsibility? We need colleges like Amherst that teach students how to embrace complexity, not to think in either/or terms, not to think in black and white terms, but to learn how to embrace complexity in the sciences, in the social sciences, in the arts, in the humanities, and across all of those domains. We need young people who can make connections across all those domains and take advantage of an open curriculum where they can pursue passions but also learn methods that they hadn't imagined learning and liking when they came. Amherst combines the nurturing of talent with opportunity. So, we have an admissions office that actively seeks and identifies talented students from backgrounds where students had not had opportunities to study at an Amherst. And Amherst graduates, regardless of their backgrounds, have a disproportionate impact on the world, given the relatively small size of our alumni body. You could think about the fact that we have had five Nobel Prize winners graduate from Amherst. Three CIA directors graduated from Amherst. Extraordinary. One of whom, Bill Webster, one of my favorite alums, was also head of the FBI. The only person ever to be head of both the FBI and the CIA and regardless of what you think about the FBI or the CIA, it's an extraordinary achievement and it's an extraordinary form of service and if you got to know Bill Webster, you'd fall in love with the integrity of the man. I could give millions of examples of alumni achievements. I'm not going to go there. I might want to add to my points about colleges like Amherst that the world also needs its large research universities and its great public flagships. It needs its Cornells and its University of Wisconsins and only public investment in those institutions will allow the country to remain the best in the world when it comes to higher education. If you look at the economic development from, just take World War II on, it's the increase in the number of young people with college and university educations and the investment and research of the federal government which really got its kickstart after World War II that has led to the economic superpower that the United States became. And economics is not all that matters. But we do the country a disservice if we decide that we can no longer invest in higher education. Of that, I'm 100% confident. So, I'm hoping that you might go out and be strong advocates for higher education at a moment when one can't read a newspaper on either side of the political aisle that isn't calling for the demise or prophesying the demise of higher education in the United States, as we know it. They're taking the part for the whole. And that's because of what's happened to journalism which is not journalists' fault but when they focus on specific incidents that are indeed problematic and they take the part for the whole, they don't know what goes on day in, day out at a great institution like this one. Because what goes on day in and day out are interactions among really talented students who come to benefit from one another as much as they benefit from the faculty and a faculty that genuinely cares about student learning. This has been an especially beautiful fall at Amherst. Beautiful weather, beautiful leaves, profusions of colors that you are getting to enjoy a little bit, though many have already fallen and I would say that it's also, in my years at Amherst, the sweetest and perhaps the happiest fall semester since I've been here. There has been a very, very nice, what should we call it, the vibe on campus. I can't possibly explain why that's the case but I can tell you that many students verify it when I asked them if they feel it too. And it's a wonderful thing. Walking the campus has become very exciting. Many of you will already have seen the Science Center and for some of you, it was up when you arrived. So, you've never known the campus without it. We've known the campus without it and it's enormously exciting to have a Science Center that is adequate to the strength of our faculty in STEM and adequate to the strengths of the students that we bring here who want to study science. Math and computer science are the fastest growing majors at Amherst and we have faculty across all demographics and we have faculty in the math department who have made it possible for students who want to major in math or just to gain a rigorous education in math to do that regardless of what they had in high school, not completely regardless but to make up what needs to be made up to a degree that makes it the fastest growing major across all groups at Amherst. And it's just one department of which that can be said but it's a notable example. The campus events this fall have been incredible. I know from some of you whom I've encountered this weekend that you watched the interview with Ruth Bader Ginsburg. That's one of the most memorable events we've had and probably many students will have had before they graduate and we can say more about that in a second. I thought it might be interesting to you, and if it isn't and I apologize in advance, just to give you a sense of one week in my life at Amherst this fall, so you see what a hopping place it is. So, I'll just give you one week in September, late September, early October. The first thing that occurred was on a Thursday morning I was trying to prepare for the event that night. I had been asked to moderate a conversation between the historian Jill Lepore and the columnist and author Ross Douthat. This was part of a Point/Counterpoint series at the college that is supported by a group of alumni where our faculty who are teaching first year seminars bring people with different points of view to campus for moderated conversations and I was asked if I would moderate this discussion. I was pleased to do it. I got to read Jill Lepore's books, her history of the United States. I don't know if any of you have read it but I highly recommend it. I believe the title is our, "These Truths", thank you. I always say our rights. Thank you very much to the person in the front row. Yeah, "These Truths". It's one of the first attempts by a major historian to deliver a history of the United States in one volume and it's really a wonderful read and a great history. She spoke with along with Ross Douthat who's the author of a number of books. The one that I find especially interesting is called "Bad Religion". Ross Douthat is a Catholic who worries about how far religions, any religion but certainly Catholicism, can modernize or liberalize without losing what seems fundamental to the religion itself which I think is an interesting set of questions. So, the topic was progress and The Arc of US History. I was sitting there trying to read more about them so as to do a decent job. I never want to embarrass myself in front of our students and so there I was but I got a call at about 8:30 in the morning from our chief of police who has to be one of the best chiefs of police anywhere and he said the following to me. "I just got a call from the Secret Service "and the president of Kenya has decided "to leave the UN meeting on climate change "and come to Amherst." And it turns out, of course, that President Kenyatta is an Amherst alum. And so I said to John, "Well, what shall we do?" And John said, "Well, I don't know "because the president says he just wants to come back "to his alma mater and wander around" And he did. He came with his, what shall we say, detail and they all had on jeans. So, they thought they were not going to be noticeable, I guess. They went to Frost Library and of course, immediately, one of our Kenyan students recognized President Kenyatta so the word got around. As some of you may know, President Kenyatta's quite controversial a figure and I was trying to figure out exactly what to do. He had not asked to be received by the President's Office or by anyone else officially. But we have a significant number of students at Amherst, I don't know if you're aware of this, from Sub-Saharan Africa and probably Kenyan students make up the most significant number of those students and I thought two things. They should have an opportunity to meet President Kenyatta if they would like but they should not be put in a position where they feel like they must. And secondly, I thought he is a head of state who is recognized by the United States as a head of state and I'm going to receive him. He's an alum of the college. So, he came on campus. He wandered around. I called the head of International Student Affairs and told her to please convey the message to students that he was here and that they could meet him, if they wished, in my office. And soon, a significant number of students showed up in my office. I had had time to talk with him beforehand. He talked only about the UN conference and how it had been kind of shot off course because of the announcement of impeachment and what the impact of climate change already is in his country and what he thinks can or can't be done about it. It was fascinating. The students came in. They got a chance to meet him, those who wanted to. He took pictures with them. He told them that his four years at Amherst were the best years of his life and encouraged them to take advantage of the academic opportunities here and then sent them on their way. I then had no time to prepare more for Jill Lepore and Ross Douthat but that was a great event. The two of them were excellent and it was a packed house and their differences about what constitutes progress fascinated me and I believe probably fascinated the students and faculty who were there as well. So, that was one day. And that's a somewhat unusual day but not a completely unusual day. This is the same week that we had to choose the architects for the new student center. And I had been more involved than I might typically be. I had been part of interviewing. How many did we interview in the round before that Jim?
- Seven.
- Seven. So, seven two hour interviews with architects. I learned a lot. And I also got bored after a point. But so did you, right Jim? Our head of facilities. And we decided that it had come down to two architects and so we gave them almost no time, three weeks, four weeks to come up with a concept and compete with each other. And so in this same week, we met with those two architecture firms for three hours each. This was the day before Ruth Bader Ginsburg's visit and selected the architect that we wanted, Herzog de Meuron, from Switzerland. One of the best architects in the world, architecture firms in the world. Some of you may know, they were the designers of the Bird's Nest in Beijing. They are a firm that does big commercial projects and they also do smaller products. When I asked the partner why they would be interested in doing something at Amherst College, they gave a good answer which was really important to us and that is they showed us that they do a lot of small projects, mostly in Switzerland near Basel where they're located, in order to refine their design methodologies and that this, while not tiny, would be one of those small projects where they work out their ongoing design work. And so we're lucky to have a firm that will do something unique. But their reputation for doing things that are consistent with and integrate into the landscapes and the traditional buildings will mean a great student center, I'm sure. The student center is something I wish we already had. I probably won't serve, it won't be built before your students are out but what we're trying to do is involve as many students as possible, as many as are interested, in the process of thinking about the programming for the student center and also working alongside us so that they learn something about how the process develops. It's a space that's badly needed. Amherst doesn't have a real student center and it's going to foster, it's going to be designed to foster chance encounters and purposeful social interactions and events and it's something that we badly need. The next day, Ruth Bader Ginsberg arrived. Ruth Bader Ginsberg arrived at 3 p.m. or a little after three. Her first event was to start at 3 p.m but her flight was late. She came into my office. She had a cup of tea. And she made her way with her federal marshals to the Red Room Converse and she gave a 35 minute lecture on the cases from the last session. Students had signed up who wished and preferred to be in a 130 students large event with her over going to the larger event in the evening. And after she gave 35 minute lecture, she answered questions that the students had submitted and that Professor and Dean Sarat formulated for them but always giving, as would be his way, the students the opportunity to stand when their question was read, say who they were, talk about their majors, and introduce themselves to the justice. The questions were excellent. She was incredible and then she came back to the office, had another cup of tea and was whisked away to the Coolidge Cage where we had the interview. And I thought she was remarkable there. Her mind amazes me. The crystal clarity of her use of language just delights me. And since I'm in literature that matters to me. The mind, the degree to which she pauses, thinks, and then gives you a paragraph that is so beautifully formed and so well argued. Her memory for the details of cases, of her own writings, of the writings of others. When Scalia was here, some years ago, he spoke in the chapel, here in the chapel and we had thought the chapel was the right place for Justice Ginsburg but so many students wanted to attend that we had to move it to a larger venue. They did get to hear her talk as she does about her friendship with Justice Scalia. And she represents a lot of what the world needs at the moment. She was then whisked, the interview lasted over an hour and a half. Students and staff and faculty got to ask questions which they had submitted in advance but they posed them themselves from the audience. She was then whisked over to my house for dinner with 30 people, faculty and students and she had a moment in which we thought she should rest. She sat in the library in the house but what did she do? She asked to see people she hadn't met. She signed posters. She worked the whole time. And then through the dinner, she answered questions. She has mastered the art of eating with her mouth closed while speaking. I don't know how she did it. It was like a ventriloquist almost. I think it would be nice for, so many people, yesterday, when I ran into them, asked me what it was really like and I thought I know what it was like from my point of view but our student body president, Avery, attended the event and attended the dinner and I wondered if you'd like to hear from Avery what it was like for a student, yeah. Avery, why don't you come up here. I didn't warn him I was going to do this.
- Yeah, it was awful. No, I'm just.
- Be honest.
- No, I would say, one of the defining moments of my time at Amherst and I think even for people who have been at Amherst as professors or staff members, just a sort of stand out life moment because regardless of your political leanings, Ruth Bader Ginsburg's commitment to a sort of, a belief in the goodness of the United States and the ideas on which was founded was clear to me, both from engaging with her Supreme Court opinions but even in her time being interviewed at Amherst by President Martin and then at the dinner, it was just clear that she is devoted, not only to correctly interpreting the laws and providing intelligent answers to questions, but also to being a good citizen of the country and a sort of consumer of everything that we have to offer. So, there were students who sang operas or arias, I'm not sure the terminology, but performed for her. Professors performed for her. She engaged with us, not only in matters that she was comfortable with but also took an interest in students studies and topics far outside of jurisprudence. So, yeah I think it was just, apart from the moment of being starstruck and getting a chance to be in close quarters with someone who's definitely one of the 50 or 100 most important people in the country, in the world, moving to see someone who has been such a good citizen of the world for as long as she has and has made such a significant impact. Thank you Avery.
- [Avery] You're welcome.
- For me, what's most satisfying about events of this sort is what students get to experience and I think they will remember this. Actually, the thing I remember most from my undergraduate days was a debate. Now, the name is failing me. One of the most well known erudite conservatives of his time.
- [Man] Buckley, Buckley.
- William F. Buckley. He came to debate someone whose name I never remembered because he was so out done by William F. Buckley Junior. And it was an amazing event. Okay, students appreciate these kinds of events, the access to people who make a difference and I hope we can bring more. I will close simply by thank you all for being here and for sending us your students who are just remarkable and who make the job worthwhile every single day. And I hope that all of them are doing well and if they're not, that you will encourage them to seek help from the many people at this college who are available, who are devoted, who are talented. We have a remarkable staff at all the different levels in the college and this is a place where people want to do right by our youth and by your talented children. So, please let us know while you're here or after you return home, if there are things you think we should be made aware of because you think they might be not only an issue for your particular student but more generally or even if you just want to check in about your own child. Again, I hope you have a wonderful time. I don't know how many events you're going to attend. I know I'm going to attend many and I wish I could attend more. This is a wonderful weekend display of our students' remarkable abilities. So, have a great time and now it's time for questions and answers. Yeah, thank you, yeah. Yes, you need a microphone.
- Thank you for those remarks. And Avery, spot on in your introduction, thank you. And I think it's along the lines of your initial comments. The former Attorney General Senator Jeff Sessions was, I believe he spoke right here--
- [Biddy] Right here, literally right here.
- And noting the letter that you sent out before that I really liked, I'm wondering your reaction to how that event went and your thoughts on his point of view, your reaction to the point of view that he presented.
- Well, I think the event went fine. I think it went as well as an event of that sort can go. There were students who were eager to hear him and they did and there were students who attended and walked out of the talk. Those students were silent, that is they they didn't walk out to disrupt. They left to make a statement but a larger number of students who didn't want to hear the talk had other events that had been planned long before, an end-of-year party at Keefe. And I think what I liked about how the event went is that the attorney general, the former attorney general got to speak. There was not a disruption of his talk except before it began. There was a stink bomb apparently in the chapel and that person who decided that was a good idea was taken out and encountered discipline, underwent some discipline. That was not okay. I think the silent protest was well within people's rights and I think doing an alternative event as a way of not supporting what you don't wanna support is also well within students' rights. I'm proud that to date there's not been any talk here shouted down or canceled and I want it to stay that way but I think people exercised their rights to hear, to speak, to ignore, to protest in an acceptable way and so I thought it went well. Now, the fact that he's going around talking about close mindedness on campuses and political correctness. As you can tell from my opening remarks, I don't love that. I think that's a misrepresentation of what goes on on campuses. I think there's clearly a concerted effort but not only on the right to portray college campuses and students as communities of snowflakes who aren't resilient and can't take it and I'll tell you what I think about young people today. I think they're gonna change the world and I think that'll be a good thing. I don't think they're snowflakes. I could point to so many students right now at Amherst who've already lived through, endured, and overcome more adversity than most of the people who are making these accusations have ever encountered and so I don't like it when people generalize or take the part for the whole. There are things that have gone on on some campuses that bother me. It bothered me that our alum, Kevin McAleenan, that maybe today still acting head of Homeland Security was shouted down at Georgetown. I don't think speakers should be denied the right to speak but I do think that people have a right to protest. And I don't think our students are snowflakes. Now, that doesn't mean that young people don't sometimes go to extremes that I also wish they wouldn't go to but they're 18 to 22 years old. So, that's a little different. And they're finding out, they're figuring out what they think and what they believe. And so hope for the best as we go forward. I find Amherst students, on the whole, whether they're in the Republican club, the Young Democrats, or no club whatsoever, which is most of them, I don't mean no club but no political club, they're decent. They're thoughtful. And they're just inspiring to work with. So, of course I don't like these wholesale critiques of them because A, I believe in truth and that's false. Not of all of them in every moment but as a generalization about college students, it's wrong. The end. No other questions? Comments? Statements? Yes, anything.
- [Man] I have a question about--
- Wait for your mic so everyone can hear you 'cause it's hard, course it's hard for me 'cause--
- I don't have a question but just a comment. On behalf of the parent body, thank you so much for streaming the Ruth Bader Ginsberg interview.
- Oh, yeah, yeah.
- We at home truly appreciated that.
- Good, good. Yeah, we were happy to be able to do it and to get permission to do it because that's what we were waiting for. And not all speakers want that or feel like they can afford to have it done, so we were happy to and we'd like to stream a lot more events and having parents involved is such a great thing. I mean, one of the things I mentioned last week 'cause I mention it every talk with alumni is one of my favorite writers Marilynne Robinson has written that there are so few sources of community in the country and that alumni bodies constitute one of the remaining sources of community. And I think that at Amherst anyway and I'm sure it's true at other probably smaller institutions but also having been at the University of Wisconsin, I know it's true there too, just it operates differently, but families are as integrated a part of Amherst, at least for the four years that people's children, students are here, as many alumni and so that sense of community. Someone was telling me yesterday that the support that he got through a difficult time in his life from a series of coaches and members of his child's team at Amherst was one of the most helpful things that occurred as he was going through a difficult loss. And there are pockets whether it's the parents of students in acapella groups or the parents of students in the chorus or the parents of students on various teams, you all also help constitute communities and then a larger community that is extremely helpful for all kinds of reasons. So, thank you all for that. Yes.
- Oh, hi I heard a statement from you that this is the happiest batch of kids that you have seen in the fall and I heard that from my husband at home saying that she sounds very happy there. So, I just wanted to thank you for that.
- Oh, good. Well, thank you. I always feel like I, I wanna say I have heard from more students than ever and from more parents that the transition has been good for a lot of their children and I also know it's not true for every single individual student and that's why I ask that if it's not true of yours or maybe a friend of your students, that you let us know. But I'm glad, I'm really glad when the students are happy. What is happy? See, I'm an academic at heart, happy. Happy is good but I think there are other things we want them to be. To feel challenged. To feel that somebody is setting a high standard for them but also supporting them to meet that standard. I think that's what I love about Amherst. The faculty set very high standards but they don't then just retreat to their research labs or to their offices and write their books. They actually care that the students succeed in meeting those high standards. That's the best combination, demand and support. So, happy is good. Rewarding is good. One student I asked this week, oh, the same week Justice Ginsburg came and President Kenyatta and bunch of other things I didn't mention, I had a student in my office hour and we're doing this little study with an outside consultant to help us think about how Amherst is perceived, something colleges and universities do every so often but I said to her while we were talking, "You know, what is the one word you would use "to describe your experience of Amherst? "What stands out for you?" And she said, she thought for a minute, and then she said, "Stimulating. "Every day I learn something new "from a student or from a faculty member". And I thought that's good. That is happiness for many of us. Stimulating. Yes.
- [Woman] So, thank you for your remarks and also for your leadership.
- [Biddy] Yeah.
- [Woman] And for being that trust builder that you are because we need that. I wanted to just reflect a little bit about the time we spent in the Science Center yesterday, visiting classes.
- [Biddy] Yeah.
- [Woman] And also just as an alum from many, many years ago. Won't say how many. It really struck me that the center of gravity on campus has shifted a little bit and I wondered if you could talk a little bit about your observation about that whether it's on the recruiting side or just sort of on the social side and how that's changed how it feels to be here.
- I think the center of gravity has shifted some because we now actually have a beautiful eastern side of the campus that's usable instead of just a place you'd have to go to get to a certain building that doesn't have coherence. But I don't think the center has shifted entirely. Now, when the student center is built on the Merrill foundation, it will be clear that the new dorms, the Science Center, and the student center build a kind of transition from the iconic first year quad to the eastern part of the campus and that's why we need a really good architect because it needs to be the kind of transition that doesn't turn the center of gravity into one or the other but builds them in a way that integrates them better. But for example, where do students study? Well, the Science Center has offered a new place and a lot of students love doing their work in the Science Center but Frost is packed every night and Frost is one of the oldest feeling buildings on the campus. It's not actually one of the oldest because it was built in the '60s. But they love Frost. So, and the students love the quad. And the reason that the eastern part of the campus was designed the way it was with a completely different kind of landscaping was so it would not compete with the quad which is really always going to be the iconic center, I think, with its views, with those gorgeous trees, with the sense of the protectiveness that those trees offer, the solitude, the quiet and the look out on to the mountains. That will always be appealing. But the eastern part of the campus was just a hill that as one architecture consultant put it, a hill with buildings that seemed to tumble down the hill. Wasn't that the description, Jim? Is Karu here? Do you all wanna say anything about a shift in the center of gravity? Do you think I'm right or do you think I'm wrong?
- [Man] I think you're right.
- See, they think I'm right. That's very . Have you all met Karu Kozuma? Chief student affairs officer. By the way, he showed up on Halloween. If any of you follow me on Instagram, you would have seen this. He comes into a meeting and he unbuttons his top buttons of his shirt and what does he have on underneath? Superman T-shirt. And he has Clark Kent glasses on. And he was the hit. It's the most likes I've ever gotten on Twitter, I mean, on Instagram. Okay, go ahead Karu.
- So, I think you're absolutely right about how still Amherst maintains a lot of spots for folks to feel like that it's their center and that's the beauty of the campus that it could allow folks to still find home in Frost Library but also find new homes in the Science Center and all the spaces between. So, it's that ability to be able to have different venues and different environments that actually matches our students and their needs and how they may navigate the space of the campus each day 'cause I think our students are very complex. They have a lot of different interests. They have a lot of different moods and feelings and these spaces all can attune to all those instead of having one thing and that's the only thing we can offer.
- Yeah and we should mention Val because I don't know if you've heard from your students. I can't, it's hard not to call them children but they're not children so I'll call them students. But what else are you supposed to say? Is there an alternative to your students? They're our students. And they're your children. But they're not children. So, if you come up with a better word, help me. But Val sitting is a concept that you may have heard. Those are the students who really just like to hang out in Val not because they're eating for hours but because it's a place where you're gonna see everyone come through. And so, I think that will, as long as we have one dining hall for all students, I think that will also be a center of gravity on a different part of the campus but which has also been better integrated with the eastern part by virtue of the landscaping on the eastern part of the campus.
- Thank you. It's really fun to be in Johnson Chapel and see the evolution and I just wanna kind of say thank you both as a parent of two girls who've come to Amherst and as an alum to see the way you guys navigate the older portraits, the newer images, and then also to me, these new hangings embody the both/and concept. I mean, at UNC Chapel Hill, where I work, we have so much controversy about memorialization and the question of the past and it's very divisive and to me these banners speak to a beautiful alternative that we can have some things that are somewhat stable, we can switch up a few things very selectively and then we can have rotating images that just give such a good feeling and a good sense of what the students here are up to. So, thank you for the creativity and how you approach this space.
- Well, thank you. Where's Maria? Oh, there you are. These banners were the idea of our wonderful photographer Maria Stenzel. And so, we need to thank her. I think they're wonderful too. The one, I say this and everyone laughs as though it's not really true and it might not be but I was told when I first came that the one decision I can make without consultation is the portraits in the chapel. But I think when people told me that, they didn't expect as much change as we got but with the help of now retired Chief of Staff Susan Pikor, who's sitting up in the back at the top, the wonderful Susan Pikor, we changed the front wall and I don't even know if everyone knows who these people are. Do you know who they are? No, why would you? This is Richard Wilbur, okay to your left, at the top. Richard Wilbur is an alum of the college and taught here for years. One of the great American poets and if you love poetry and haven't read his work, read Richard Wilbur. We lost him just a year or so ago. This is Charles Hamilton Houston. Does everyone know who Charles Hamilton Houston is? No, okay I must tell you before you go. Charles Hamilton Houston was the mentor of Thurgood Marshall. He graduated from Amherst in 1915, I think. Is that right? It's either 1905 or 1915. 1915, I'm gonna say. I'll look it up later. He was the only African-American in his class. He graduated as the valedictorian and he gave the commencement speech. I've been searching for his commencement speech high and low for a long time and no one can find it, not even the Library of Congress. He went on to Harvard Law School. He then became dean of the law school at Howard and he built a faculty at Howard University that was known as the best civil rights team in the country and he developed a strategy to get to Brown v. Board, the desegregation decision in the Supreme Court. How did he do that? He came up with a brilliant strategy which was to take separate but equal, use public, professional schools so public universities with professional schools to show the difference in investment of those schools and those that were open to blacks. And he'd built to Brown v. Board case by case by case and when Brown v. Board was decided, Thurgood Marshall is said to have said, "We owe it all to Charlie". That's Charles Hamilton Houston. This is Emily Dickinson. Yeah. And these two portraits are recent arrivals. These are portraits and quotes of Emily Dickinson. They were painted by one of our faculty, Bob Sweeney and they don't show her face because it's not really known what she looked like and he was not going to make it up. There's no photograph of her later in life. So, these are portraits of Emily Dickinson whose father and brother were very important in Amherst's history and who is one of the great poets from the town of Amherst. This is President Calvin Coolidge up here, on the left, an alum. This is Hastie, William Hastie, who was the first black federal judge in the country. Also these are alums. This is Joseph Neesima who was the first person, Japanese person, first Japanese person to get an American college degree. He had to escape Japan in quite a dramatic way in order to get to this country and he then founded Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan which is on the model of Amherst and it remains a partner institution of Amherst. We have student and faculty exchanges. It's now a larger university so not any longer on the model of Amherst but it does incorporate liberal arts in the way that he had imagined. So, those are the folks here. And these folks on the bottom are former presidents. And my favorite is the one in the back, Alexander Meiklejohn who was president while Charles Hamilton Houston was here and who wrote a book called "What Does America Mean?". I highly recommend it. Anyway, I think we're out of time probably and I've gone on and on but it's good to know who these folks are because we're proud of them.
- [Woman] We have time for one last question.
- One last question. Oh, I'm sorry. Geez. This is Rose Oliver who was the first female faculty member at Amherst. She was in the psychology department and she is also responsible for having ensured that there was a women's studies program here but above all, she was a psychology teacher and scholar, made a huge impact on this college and its history and I thought not only does she deserve to have a portrait here but as a representative of the faculty, given the faculty centric college that this is, I thought it was really weird that of all the portraits in the chapel, there are no faculty members other than those who were faculty before they were president. So, that's Rose Oliver. We lost her just a few years ago. Sorry, I can't turn my neck easily enough. All right, other questions? Any last question or comment? All right, have a great time and whatever you attend, enjoy it.