Campus roundup: Wellesley College not an island; Babson taps first Black trustees chair; MassBay all in on vaccines

September 21, 2021 by Bob Brown 5 Comments

Our roundup of the latest news from Wellesley’s colleges:

Wellesley College not an island

President Dr. Paula Johnson said during a recent panel discussion with peers that colleges and universities need to support one another and the wider community.

“This experience has made it very clear that we’re not islands,” said Johnson, as reported by The Wellesley News student news site. “It’s not just about keeping our campus safe. It’s about how we can improve the health of our entire community. And we’re not going to get beyond this pandemic until that is the feeling that we have across the country, and quite frankly across the world.”

According to the article, Johnson said Wellesley College offered dorm space to first responders in COVID-19 isolation.

Students are doing their part to support the wider community by again offering to create customized signs for Boston Marathon runners. It will be interesting to see what the Scream Tunnel— where some students typically aren’t shy about smooching sweaty runners—looks like this Oct. 11 in light of the college’s efforts to protect its community from the virus.

We have confirmed that Wellesley Repertory Theatre remains on pause for live indoor performances for the public while the campus is closed to the public. Though the theatre company will be ready when public performances are allowed—it has joined with other Boston-area theatre companies in requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative test for all those performing in, working at, or attending such performances.

Artistic Director Marta Rainer assures us that “we are devoted to creating compelling student work this semester… We’ll be interpreting a selection of plays from Pulitzer Prize-winner Suzan-Lori Parks’ ‘365 Plays in 365 Days’ collection—which will have live audiences who have sanctioned campus access —both in the Ruth Nagel Jones black box, and outdoors throughout the semester.”

The college is exploring ways to stream performances to a wider audience.

Babson taps first Black trustees chair

jeffery-perry-1200x630-1 — Jeffrey Perry (photo via Babson College)

Babson College has named 1987 alum Jeffrey Perry, who as a Cleveland teen learned about Babson through an early access management expo, as its Board of Trustees chair.

He becomes the first Black chair, as well as the first chair to have a child attending the school at the same time.

Perry founded the firm Lead Mandates after a long career as partner with professional services firms EY and A.T. Kearney.

MassBay all in on vaccines

The presidents of Wellesley’s MassBay Community College and other community colleges across the state have declared that they will require students, faculty and staff to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by January, 2022. An exception will be made for students taking fully remote classes and that have no plans to visit campus.

According to a statement issued by the schools: “During the last eighteen months, the Massachusetts Community Colleges have prioritized the health and safety of our communities while also recognizing that many of our students have been disproportionally impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. While a significant number of students, faculty, and staff are already vaccinated or are in the process of becoming vaccinated, the fifteen colleges are seeking to increase the health and safety of the learning and working environment in light of the ongoing public health concerns and current guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

MassBay and the other schools will continue to make vaccine clinics available on site.

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Wellesley college campuses still closed to visitors for now

March 25, 2021 by Deborah Brown 4 Comments

It’s been over a year since Babson College, Wellesley College, and MassBay have closed their campuses to all but students and employees of the schools due to the pandemic, and there is no sign of the ban being lifted anytime soon. Perhaps thinking back to last March, when cars lined up along routes 16 and 135 and unloaded piles of people who flocked to the Wellesley College campus, a rep contacted us with this message: “We are trying to get the word out to folks that the Wellesley campus is still closed to the public right now due to the pandemic—that includes folks walking to campus and then walking on campus, even outside. We know with the lovely spring weather and the state opening up some regulations that folks are very eager to get out, but this policy hasn’t changed and we are really hoping that folks can respect this for the time being.”

Lake Waban boardwalk, Wellesley, Summer 2016 — Lake Waban boardwalk, 2016. The popular walking path is closed off to those outside the Wellesley College community due to the pandemic.

This Wellesley College closure includes the 2.5 mile walking path around Lake Waban, a very special spot where Wellesley residents are itching to return. The entire lake is surrounded by private property, some owned by Wellesley College, some by the Hunnewell family.

We checked in with Babson and MassBay representatives, who echoed the plan to proceed with a cautious approach. MassBay, which this year is celebrating its 60th anniversary (albeit quietly), is delivering most of its learning online, with very limited academic activities taking place on its Wellesley campus. Babson, too, is waiting to welcome neighbors back to enjoy campus when it is “safe to do so.”

No word yet on when this all might change. Policies are likely to be revisited as vaccination rates rise and the pandemic slows down.

Wellesley College presents Grammy-nominated artist JP Saxe

March 15, 2021 by admin Leave a Comment

Wellesley College, JP Saxe Join Wellesley College on Thur., March 18 at 8:30pm for an exclusive concert followed by a Q&A with Grammy nominated artist JP Saxe. All proceeds raised via this Zoom event will go towards UNICEF’s Sustainable Development Goals to fight gender inequality. JP Saxe is a Canadian artist best known for his hit song, “If The World Was Ending,” featuring Julia Michaels. He is currently working on a new album, and has a recently released single with Maren Morris titled, “Line by Line.”

DATE: March 18, 2021

TIME: 8:30pm

Tickets are $10. REGISTER HERE.

Virtual Authors on Stage event set for Dec. 8

December 1, 2020 by admin Leave a Comment

The annual Wellesley College Alumnae of Boston/Authors on Stage event, which highlights the works of current authors, goes virtual this year via Zoom on Dec. 8 from 10:30-11:30am.

The event is free of charge, but reservations are required.

For questions: [email protected] or (781) 489-5339

Featured authors and books:

Maggie Doherty (The Equivalents: A Story of Art, Female Friendship, and Liberation in the 1960s)

Five of the first fellowship recipients at the newly-founded Radcliffe Institute for Independent Study—poets Anne Sexton and Maxine Kumin, painter Barbara Swan, sculptor Marianna Pineda, and writer Tillie Olsen—called themselves “the Equivalents” and went on to shape the course of feminism. Maggie Doherty is a literary scholar and historian based at Harvard.

Helen Fremont (The Escape Artist)

This memoir begins with the author discovering that her father has disinherited her. The Escape Artist is the story of a family inextricably bound through secrets and loss, and the profound effects of the Holocaust. Helen Fremont, a Wellesley graduate, writes fiction and non-fiction, and is a public defender in Boston.

Emily Nemens (The Cactus League: A Novel)

This debut novel is a character-driven odyssey through the world of baseball. Jason Goodyear – an outfielder enduring the hot Arizona desert during spring training – is handsome and famous, but nonetheless coming apart at the seams. Emily Nemens
is editor of The Paris Review.

My giant Wellesley regret: Never picnicking high above Paintshop Pond

September 24, 2020 by Bob Brown 7 Comments

I’ve run by the spot dozens, maybe hundreds, of times over the years along the Boston Marathon course in Wellesley and have often thought to myself: I really should picnic there some time.

Not that I picnic often. But when I do, I like it to be a little different.

And different this would have been, overlooking the once notoriously contaminated Paintshop Pond, which sits between Lake Waban and Morses Pond just south of Rte. 135.

Someone plopped a picnic table atop the dam some years ago that would put you at a safe distance from any lingering junk swirling around the pond. An excellent story map about the pond from Jessica Ostfeld, Wellesley College ’20, refers to “a lovely picnic spot up at the northern end of the Pond” that I assume refers to this most distinct and carefree piece of patio furniture. A few years back we included the table in a roundup of top Wellesley picnic spots, alongside those at Town Hall and various other Wellesley public spaces.

But alas, the Paintshop Pond table is no longer there. New wooden stairs are, along with a shiny new “No trespassing” sign that warns all to steer clear.

As if losing another Rte. 135 running route landmark, “Coney” the sidewalk Catalpa tree, wasn’t a big enough blow.

wellesley paintshop pond picnic table — Picnic table overlooking Paintshop Pond near Wellesley College campus (photo from 2015).

Getting to the bottom of this

I’ll confess that my first thought when I saw the picnic table was gone was that Wellesley College’s fun police had confiscated it and put up the sign.

But apologies to that crew. It turns out this is actually Wellesley Department of Public Works/Water Department land.

“The Park & Tree Division recently installed those steps to make access to the dam a bit safer for our folks that need to get down there for inspections,” says Wellesley DPW Director Dave Cohen.

The Wellesley DPW, however, isn’t taking credit for the picnic table’s demise.

Origin story

Legend has it, according to Cohen (who can’t confirm this), is that “the table was seen floating by and was plucked out of the water and enjoyed a nice stay on the ledge.”

Such a dramatic rescue story only adds to the mystique of this secluded spot.

Being the romantic fool that I am, I assumed the table would stay there forever. It’s not like the area was never used. I’d seen others who had discovered the somewhat secret waterfront location. How I now regret that I’d never put into action my dream of one day breaking out my special picnic backpack—a weirdly brilliant giveaway from a former employer—that I’d been holding on to for just the right moment.

And now, like so many dreamers before me, I must face the bitter disappointment that my picnic has been rained on.

As it turns out, the water giveth and the water taketh away.

According to Cohen, someone apparently pushed the table back into the drink recently, “probably out of COVID boredom.”

His team first removed it from the water, and then banished the table from the area rather than have to deal with future vandalism or safety issues on the ledge.

Meanwhile, I eagerly await the possible reopening of the Wellesley DPW Recycling & Disposal Facility give-and-take area. Might the picnic table turn up there?

Probably not. But I think my picnic backpack just might.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s 1998 Wellesley College speech: ‘The Supreme Court: A Place for Women’

September 19, 2020 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

The late Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg delivered the annual Wilson Lecture at Wellesley College in 1998, and titled it “The Supreme Court: A Place for Women.” That was five years after President Bill Clinton appointed her to the court.

WILSON LECTURE“The Supreme Court: A Place for Women”Delivered by
The Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Associate Justice
The Supreme Court of the United Statesat
Wellesley College
November 13, 1998Two frontrunners are responsible for my visit this evening: Diana Chapman Walsh, Wellesley’s President, highly regarded in academic, medical and management circles, and celebrated, too, in the pages of Runner’s World, and Barbara Preiskel, a dear friend whose extraordinary service on Fortune 500 boards is surpassed by just one thing – her devotion to making opportunities to aspire and achieve genuinely open to all people.

To gain an introduction to Wellesley, I watched in the company of my Court staff, a videotape called “Hillary’s Class,” a film made by a young woman I knew in her growing up years. It is a remarkable documentary of the way things were and an aid in thinking about the way things should be.

My talk tonight centers on the same themes—the way things were, are, and will be. The setting is the place I know best nowadays; the title, The Supreme Court: A Place for Women. Let me begin with a question Justice O’Connor and I are sometimes asked. Does it make any difference that you are there? Do women judges decide cases differently by virtue of being women? As a first response, I have several times quoted, as has Justice O’Connor, the words of Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Jeanne Coyne. In her experience, Justice Coyne said, “a wise old man and a wise old woman reach the same conclusion.”

And so they do. But it is also true, I am convinced, that women, like persons of different racial groups and ethnic origins, contribute to the United States judiciary what a fine jurist, the late Alvin B. Rubin of Louisiana, described as “a distinctive

[Read more…]

How to legitimately access Wellesley’s Lake Waban path during the pandemic

August 21, 2020 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

To be clear: We’re not suggesting you should break Wellesley College’s COVID-19 rules and venture onto the campus or Lake Waban path this summer or fall. The school needs to keep its community safe.

(Whether the college can legally restrict the public from accessing Lake Waban, technically a Great Pond, is questionable.)

But if you’re desperate to wander the campus, and in particular hit the trail around Lake Waban, there is a legit way short of forking over $76K to attend the school. Yes, we’re talking about working there.

Among the gigs that the college is hiring for: