College softball highlight: WPI centerfielder saves win over Wellesley College

April 13, 2024 by Bob Brown

I happened to be passing by the Wellesley College-WPI softball game on Saturday afternoon when I stopped to check out the action since I’d never watched a game at Wellesley’s home field. I could see the bases were loaded but had no other context for the game situation other than that a crowd of bundled up fans were watching intently under a mostly gloomy sky.

The first pitch I saw thrown was smacked by the Wellesley College batter to center field for what looked like might be a bases-clearing extra base hit. But the WPI Engineers’ outfielder raced back, at first facing toward right field, then twisted and reached back facing the other way to snag the ball in her glove. I snapped a couple of pics on my iPhone.

softball wpi wellesley — WPI centerfielder gives chase to fly ball in the bottom of 7th…

Celebration ensued for the red-and-white uniformed visiting team, as the announcer revealed the game had ended by a 2-1 score in WPI’s favor.

Happened by @WellesleySball @WPISoftball game & saw the WPI center fielder Sydney Russell make a great catch to end and save the game 2-1 https://t.co/V7WZon0PDN pic.twitter.com/zm6m6vV5mD
— swellesley (@swellesley) April 13, 2024

I checked the box score when I got home to learn the center fielder’s name is Sydney Russell, a senior wearing #67 who graduated from Yorktown High School in Arlington, Va.—the same school that my niece and nephew graduated from not so long ago.

Wellesley flipped the score, 2-1 for an extra inning victory in the second game of what was a doubleheader vs. WPI.

Subscribe to our free weekday email newsletter

* indicates required

Email Address *

First Name *

Last Name *

Hillary Rodham Clinton, Nobel Peace Prize recipients headline Wellesley College democracy-focused event

April 6, 2024 by Bob Brown

Wellesley College alum Hillary Rodham Clinton (’69) is in town this weekend to launch the Hillary Rodham Clinton Center for Citizenship, Leadership, and Democracy with a one-day summit on Saturday, April 6 called Renewing Democracy: Women Leading the Way.

The exclusive event about democracy…. isn’t open to the public, and registration for the live stream has passed. The College kept promotion limited, issuing a press release on the day of the event itself.

The summit is described by organizers as exploring “the challenges facing democracy in the U.S. and abroad and highlight the many ways leaders are working toward democratic renewal. ” It will feature mostly women speakers, including Nobel Peace Prize recipients Leymah Gbowee (Liberian peace activist) and Maria Ressa (a Filipino and American journalist who co-founded the online news site Rappler).

So if you see or hear motorcades, news vans, and “Free Palestine” protesters in Wellesley today, that’s what it’s about.

Wellesley College observatory public night: Solar System Spotlight (including upcoming eclipse)

March 7, 2024 by Bob Brown

Wellesley College invites the public to its Whitin Observatory for a chance to check out the telescopes (weather permitting) and learn about the solar system (including the upcoming solar eclipse).

The free program will take place on Friday, March 8, 7-9pm.

Children must be supervised by their grown-ups.

There is no parking at the Observatory. Visitors must park in the Davis Parking Facility and walk to the observatory. There are accessible parking spaces located behind the science center. You should set your navigation to the Davis Parking Facility to get directions to the garage.

The college has an eclipse-specific event in the works, but only for the college community.

Please subscribe to Swellesley‘s free daily email newsletter.

Wellesley arts roundup: Davis Museum reopening; Symphony Orchestra concert; radiant photography, and film screening at Babson

February 5, 2024 by Deborah Brown

Davis Museum climate is officially controlled

The Davis Museum at Wellesley College, which has been closed since the end of 2022 for a big HVAC upgrade, will reopen on Thursday, Feb. 8.

The art museum will celebrate its return with an exhibit featuring the work of Lorraine O’Grady dubbed Both/And. The Davis says this is “the first retrospective of an artist who has been a critical voice in performance, conceptual, and feminist art for more than four decades.”

Wellesley College, Davis Museum. Dec. 2023

You’ll have plenty of time to catch the exhibit: It runs through June 2.

Opening celebration

February 8, 5pm-9pm. More information here.

Regular hours of operation, February 9 to June 2, 2024

Tuesday through Sunday, 11am-5pm

The Davis is free and open to the public.
All visitors to the Davis are welcome to register at the front desk.

Wellesley Symphony Orchestra to offer music from distant shores

SPONSORED CONTENT: The Wellesley Symphony Orchestra presents “Further Shores: Symphonic Music of Asia and the Asian Diaspora,” on Sunday, Feb 11, 3pm, at MassBay, 50 Oakland St., Wellesley, featuring:

Unsuk Chin: Subito con Forza (inspired by Beethoven)
Tchaikovsky: Barcarolle (arranged by Lin Yu)
traditional African-American spiritual: Deep River Overture (arranged by Lin Yu)
Bright Sheng: Brahms piano piec, Intermezzo in A Major
Xilin Wang: Yunnan Tone Poems
Tickets are available online or at the door the day of the concert. This is a pay what you want concert, with $30 suggested.

Babson College shines a light on photography exhibit

Babson Arts presents WE are RADIANT, a photography exhibit that showcases Black people all over the world who are seen in states of peace, enjoying their lives. Using photography and stills from video footage, Andrea Williams captured the exact moment where this state was being put on display. Tactile elements were then added to each image so that these photos can be more accessible to a larger part of the community. These same elements are also an invitation for viewers to interact with the photos and connect to them in their own way. This piece is an inclusive way for black people to see themselves, and those like them, being portrayed in a different light.

EVENT: WE are RADIANT, tactile Photos by Andrea Williams, artist talk and reception
DATE: Thursday, Feb. 8, 5pm
FREE and open to the public. Walk-ins welcome.
EXHIBIT: On view through March 8, Monday-Friday, 9am–pm, at Babson College, in the Hollister Gallery

Global film at the Sorenson

EVENT: screening of Past Lives
DIRECTOR: Celine Song
DATE: Wednesday, Feb. 28
TIME: 7pm
LOCATION: Carling-Sorenson Theater
FREE. Registration required HERE.

Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrest apart after Nora’s family emigrates from South Korea. Decades later, they are reunited in New York for one fateful week as they confront notions of destiny, love and the choices that make a life, in this heartrending modern romance. Past Lives uses the bonds between its sensitively sketched central characters to support trenchant observations on the human condition in this debut from writer-director Celine Song.

A post-film discussion will be held immediately following the screening led by Christina Klein.

Christina Klein is a professor of English, American Studies, and Asian Studies at Boston College, where she teaches a class on Korean Film and Popular Culture. Her most recent book is Cold War Cosmopolitanism: Period Style in 1950s Korean Cinema..

Co-presented by the Global Film Series and the Arts and Humanities Division

Construction-focused Wellesley College seeks zoning relief via citizen petition

January 10, 2024 by Bob Brown

Wellesley College is on a rebuilding and renovation tear, with a big focus on energy efficiency and ADA compliance, and all those pesky Design Review Board meetings required by the town for minor construction projects are cramping its style. Time is especially of the essence for the college on “summer slammer” projects targeted for the brief period when students and staff are mostly away.

As a result, the school’s seeking a change to the town’s zoning bylaw that would allow Wellesley College to skip the aesthetics-focused Design Review process (often 4 or so weeks) for what are termed minor construction projects on its 200-plus acre campus that aren’t visible from public ways, such as Rtes. 16 and 135. These minor construction projects impact less than 2,500 sq. ft., and there could be a couple dozen such undertakings as part of a multi-year capital improvement plan.

minor construction projects — Definition of Minor Construction Project from Wellesley Zoning Bylaw section 1.3

One catch is that it’s tough to say whether some of the internal roads (aka, “driveways,” per Wellesley College) on campus are considered public or private ways. These no-name stretches don’t even make the town’s list of accepted and unaccepted streets.

Wellesley College has gradually reopened public access to its campus since the pandemic, though it did take the opportunity during that time to put in place more parking lot gates and made more parking areas off-limits to the public. But Marianne Cooley, secretary of the Board of Trustees at Wellesley College, said the college in general is not looking to gate off its property to the public just to make clearer that its roads are indeed private. The college is well aware that many people use College Drive, the main road through campus, as a cut-through between Rtes. 135 and 16, and is fine with that as long as drivers are respectful of speed limits and those in crosswalks.

College officials have met with town officials, plus the Zoning Board of Appeals (the board rejected an appeal by the college by a 2-1 vote in March) and the Planning Board, which last month voted against sponsoring the article for Annual Town Meeting in part because members felt rushed (the board seeks to review the idea further).

This past week, the college took its case to the Advisory Committee, which vets Town Meeting articles and votes to recommend them or not. Cooley stressed to Advisory in a sort of marketing pitch at the start that the College has paid well over $2M in property taxes and construction-related fees over the past fiscal year, and has historically paid its fair share and adhered to the town’s rules.

Cooley emphasized in her comments before the Planning Board and Advisory Committee that the school takes great pride in its buildings’ aesthetics, so is not trying to avoid such considerations in skipping the town’s Design Review process for minor construction projects. “The college has significant interest in maintaining the architectural standards on our campus,” she told the Planning Board.

Clapp Library, Wellesley College, with statues covered during construction aimed at making the building more accessible

Making the zoning bylaw change would save the college money. When you consider the fees and the paid time for consultants and town employees attending these meetings, these add up, Cooley said.

The bylaw change proposed by the college started off general but has become more specific, after consultation with town officials, so that it would only apply to the Wellesley College and Babson College campuses. Babson was still considering whether to back the bylaw change as of the Jan. 3 Advisory Committee meeting (see Wellesley Media recording). Making the wording of the citizen petition specific is designed to limit unintended consequences of such a bylaw change.

Such a zoning bylaw change would be an alternative approach to the school invoking the Dover Amendment, a rule enacted by the state in 1950 that gives religious, agricultural, and non-profit educational institutions relief from local zoning bylaws. Planning Board member Jim Roberti encouraged the College to take the Dover Amendment route.

Cooley told Advisory that the College was not inclined to use the Dover Amendment. “We view that as a pretty challenging way to go about doing business and prefer to really work under the same framework that everyone else in town does,” she said, adding that she views the Dover Amendment as “kind of a nuclear option.”

In addition to asking about the Dover Amendment, Advisory members had questions about why the college doesn’t just bundle projects to reduce Design Review Board meetings (it’s not that simple, the college says, since each project is unique), why Planning and the ZBA responded as they did, and ‘Why now?’ (the college has been trying to figure out the right process for years).

Advisory did not take a vote or make a formal recommendation on the petition.

There’s still plenty of time for that: Annual Town Meeting is set to begin on March 25.

We spared you from sitting through these meetings… Please consider supporting Swellesley’s work

Wellesley Police investigating death of 70-year-old found near college walking path

December 27, 2023 by Bob Brown

The Wellesley Police Department on the morning of Wednesday, Dec. 27, responded to a report of an unconscious and unresponsive 70-year-old person in a slightly wooded area next to a Wellesley College walking path near Rte. 135. The caller who reported the incident via 9-1-1 performed CPR on the victim, as did first responders, but the person could not be revived and was pronounced dead.

Wellesley Police , state police, and Wellesley College police are investigating the incident. “This type of investigation occurs whenever there is an untimely death and is a normal procedure,” according to Wellesley Police, who said the deceased person is not believed to have any connection to the college.

The person’s identity was not released, but Wellesley Police confirmed it was not a Wellesley resident.

wellesley police photo — Wellesley Police photo

Please send tips, photos, ideas to theswellesleyreport@gmail.com

US Dept. of Education investigating Wellesley College for alleged antisemitism

November 18, 2023 by admin

Update (11/26/23): Wellesley College President Paula Johnson issued a statement on 11/22/23 regarding the federal investigation.

The U.S. Department of Education this week opened investigations into alleged antisemitism at Wellesley College and a handful of other schools based on incidents of possible discrimination and harassment that have emerged since the Israel-Hamas conflict started. The department cited an “alarming nationwide rise in reports of antisemitism, anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, and other forms of discrimination and harassment on college campuses and in K-12 schools” since last month.

The Department’s Office for Civil Rights released a list of the higher education and K-12 institutions under investigation “for alleged shared ancestry violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI), which prohibits race, color, or national origin discrimination, including harassment based on a person’s shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics.”

“Hate has no place in our schools, period. When students are targeted because they are—or are perceived to be—Jewish, Muslim, Arab, Sikh, or any other ethnicity or shared ancestry, schools must act to ensure safe and inclusive educational environments where everyone is free to learn,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, in a statement. “These investigations underscore how seriously the Biden-Harris Administration, including the U.S. Department of Education, takes our responsibility to protect students from hatred and discrimination.”

The Department of Education action follows a complaint filed with its Office for Civil Rights by the Brandeis Center, a civil rights organization, related to alleged incidents at Wellesley College. The College made national headlines following an email sent by a resident assistant to students in which it was stated that “Munger Hall stands in strong condemnation of Israel’s actions and those who have supported their actions against Palestinians. We firmly believe that there should be no space, no consideration, and no support for Zionism within the Wellesley College community.” College President Paula Johnson addressed the issue with an update to an earlier post to the campus about the violence in Israel and Gaza.

In response to the Department of Education investigation announcement, the college issued the following statement:

Wellesley was recently notified by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) that it will be conducting a review into the complaint filed by the Brandeis Center. OCR is a neutral agency tasked with ensuring that higher education institutions are complying with the law; OCR’s decision to investigate does not presume that Wellesley has violated any federal civil rights laws.

Wellesley responded quickly and decisively to the incident involving student leaders in a residence hall detailed in the Brandeis Center complaint and has shared its response in multiple communications to our community, while making clear antisemitism has no place at Wellesley.

The Brandeis Center complaint also refers to a teach-in in which several Wellesley faculty shared historical context and perspective on the Israel/Palestine conflict with students. Reports from faculty who participated in the teach-in do not support these allegations. We welcome OCR’s review of both these matters.

Wellesley has been committed to addressing issues of antisemitism on our campus and will continue to work to create an environment that supports free expression and rejects all forms of hate and discrimination.

Wellesley College this week also shared an update with its community on the school’s demonstration policy in light of student concerns about whether participation in demonstrations could lead to honor code violations.

The Wellesley Select Board last year approved a statement denouncing anti-Semitism amidst rising incidents both locally and across the country and state. That action in part was prompted by an editorial published by the Wellesley College student newspaper, The Wellesley News, that expressed support for a project that maps organizations identified as being supportive of the Jewish community for the purpose of dismantling or disrupting them. The college and the Wellesley Police Department are on that list. College President Dr. Paula Johnson condemned the project, and the student paper later rescinded its endorsement.

Davis Museum at Wellesley College slated to re-open on Feb. 8

November 13, 2023 by Bob Brown

The Davis Museum at Wellesley College, which has been closed since the end of 2022 for a big HVAC upgrade, has announced plans to reopen on Feb. 8.

You’ll have plenty of time to catch the exhibit: It runs through June 2. In the meantime, you might check out the town’s varied outdoor art.

The heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) revamp at the Davis is important for stabilizing temperature and humidity in the building to protect the paintings, drawings, and other art.

Please send tips, photos, ideas to theswellesleyreport@gmail.com

« Previous Page