{"id":914,"date":"2010-04-21T16:14:30","date_gmt":"2010-04-21T16:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hub-dev.bates.edu\/magazine\/?page_id=914"},"modified":"2017-09-06T11:38:49","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T15:38:49","slug":"open-forum","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/back-issues\/y2007\/fall07\/departments\/open-forum\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Forum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Of Ruth, Valentine, and Flowers<\/h3>\n

Thank you for honoring Ruth Rowe Wilson \u201936 (PreAmble<\/a>, Summer 2007). Mrs. Wilson\u2019s late husband, Val \u201938, became Skidmore president the year my mother matriculated there, so the Wilsons became honorary members of her class. In 1986, the year of Mother\u2019s 25th Skidmore reunion, Mrs. Wilson, by then living on College Street, learned that I was headed to Bates. When I got to Room 201 in Smith North, a vase of flowers was sitting on my desk, a gift from Ruth from her garden. I just unpacked a box from a recent move and came across that vase. It\u2019s a simple glass vase, but for me it\u2019s a treasure.
\nTina Brickley Engberg \u201990
\nMarietta, Ga.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rankled by Rankings<\/h3>\n

In April I received a Bates Fund letter as serting that Bates did not \u201cgame the system\u201d by manipulating its alumni-giving numbers to improve Bates\u2019 rank in the U.S. News & World Report<\/em> college ratings. What struck me about this letter is that Bates, like so many other colleges, is in fact \u201cgaming the system\u201d by participating in college rankings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n

About letters<\/h3>\n

Bates Magazine<\/em> welcomes letters of 300 words or fewer. Letters will be edited and published based on for style, grammar, length, clarity, and relevance to College issues and issues discussed in Bates Magazine<\/em>.<\/span><\/span> E-mail<\/span><\/a> or mail letters to Bates Magazine<\/em>, Office of Communications and Media Relations, 141 Nichols St., Lewiston ME 04240.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Can any well-educated person take these rankings as a true indicator of a school\u2019s worth? USN&WR<\/em>\u2019s primary goal is to make money, and its college rankings issue is no doubt a huge generator of revenue. This seems to be at odds with the kind of disinterested, scholarly research required on a subject as complex as the worth of a college education. I understand that in a nonbinding poll, members of the Annapolis Group, of which Bates is part, made known its intention to stop cooperating with USN&WR<\/em>\u2019s rankings, though each school will make its own decision as to whether it will continue providing information to the magazine. I do hope Bates will be a pioneer \u2014 just as it was the first school in New England to admit women from the time of its founding \u2014 and reject these rankings. Such an action would demonstrate that Bates has the intellectual independence to believe in its own worth, and not depend on a worthless magazine.
\nDavid Carpenter \u201994
\nPhiladelphia, Pa.<\/strong><\/p>\n

O-R-E-N<\/h3>\n

How do you know that Bates has made the big time? A good ranking in U.S. News & World Report<\/em>? Being listed in the Hot 25 schools in Newsweek<\/em>? No. It\u2019s a clue in the August 2007 United Airlines in-flight magazine crossword that asks for \u201cFounder of Bates College, ______ Cheney.\u201d
\nPeter Brann \u201977
\nAwaiting his Dulles\u2013Portland flight<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dick Williamson<\/h3>\n

The death of Dana Professor Emeritus of French Dick Williamson on June 20 prompted many postings to the<\/em> Bates Online Community<\/em><\/a>. A selection follows:<\/em><\/p>\n

Professor Williamson gave us Avignon in 1977. His fervor for France and the French inspired not only that Short Term experience for me, but also my winter-semester leave of absence in Chamonix, a business school exchange in Paris, and countless vacations and adventures in France since then. And I just know that he\u2019s happy that I still have the French flag from the Mairie d\u2019Avignon that ended up in my backpack late one rainy night. Dick\u2019s unexpected death reminds me of the untimely passing of his senior colleague Alfred Wright several years ago. They were fine men who gifted us their enthusiasm for a beautiful and important foreign culture.
\nJay Riley \u201979
\nDurham, N.H.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dick Williamson is, not was, what teaching is all about: enthusiastic, challenging, caring, and inspiring. I thought of him recently while buying a new edition of Georges Perec\u2019s La Vie mode d\u2019emploi to replace my tattered, decade-old copy. I smiled as I remembered Dick prancing about his old Hathorn classroom, illustrating the author\u2019s genius. Dick was also a genius, at nurturing and feeding his students\u2019 intellects and at teaching the language that he loved so much.
\nChristian Nauvel \u201902
\nArlington, Va.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"

Led by Associate Professor of French Kirk Read, Bates friends gather around an Autumn Blaze sapling planted in memory of Charles A. Dana Professor Emeritus of French Dick Williamson, who died in June 2007. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen.<\/p><\/div>\n

In Dick Williamson\u2019s classes I first encountered African and Caribbean authors and the voices of francophone Canada. I last spoke with Dick three years ago when I came up for Reunion. We spoke about independent research I had done, while finishing my degree, on an Afro-Caribbean author I had first studied in one of his classes and who is to this day my favorite author in any language. I mentioned feeling somewhat odd coming back to talk to him, as I had not graduated from Bates. But he said that people take their own paths, and I felt that he understood.
\nCarrie Curtis Young \u201994
\nBaltimore, Md.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dick Williamson is the reason I\u2019ve had the confidence to do so many things in life \u2014 to become a French major (I was convinced that I could \u201cnever become fluent\u201d), study abroad, enter the classroom as a French teacher, volunteer as a translator in Senegal, and apply to graduate school. Whenever I needed courage or a burst of energy, I wrote to Professor Williamson. Inevitably, he would bring humor, excitement, and a sense of confidence to the situation.
\nNicole Woodson Hanover \u201997
\nNewton, Mass.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I traveled with Professor Williamson to Nantes as a freshman in 1988. We were beginning intensive French immersion, and I was struggling. He knew I was homesick, so he took me to the beach one Saturday in August. He somehow found a couple of baseball mitts and we played pass and spoke English all day. It was one of the best days.
\nBob Cole \u201992
\nSudbury, Mass.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whether discussing Victor Hugo or describing cycling through France, Dick Williamson\u2019s passion and zeal overflowed. I will never forget his theatrical analysis of \u00c9mile Zola\u2019s spider-and-fly symbolism in La B\u00eate Humaine. Dick jumped from the floor to his desk, his hands and fingers imitating a spider\u2019s legs weaving its masterful web, his head tilted, his hair flying. He captivated everyone lucky enough to take his class.
\nKaren Finocchio Lubeck \u201992
\nMarblehead, Mass.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When one of my geology honors thesis committee members dropped out, I asked Professor Williamson to be on my committee, as my secondary concentration was in French. He admitted knowing little about geology but agreed to give it a shot. He was fabulous and asked some of the tougher questions. Brilliant man.
\nKatherine Osborne Munno \u201999
\nStamford, Conn.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Professor Williamson\u2019s intensive writing course required weekly essays, which I dreaded because my French wasn\u2019t strong. But he made such thoughtful comments in the margins \u2014 wise and funny things on topics from love to friends to motorcycles \u2014 that I looked forward to writing those essays, and my most truthful writing in French was done in his class.
\nSwita Charanasomboon \u201904
\nBoston, Mass.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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