Archive for the 'Bryn Mawr' Category
Posted February 28, 2008 at 1:49 AM | Tagged as: Bryn Mawr, Women! | Just 1 Comment
Due to my responsibilities on the Executive Board of the Bryn Mawr College Alumnae Association, I had the good fortune of being on campus on Friday, February 8, when the Board of Trustees appointed Jane Dammen McAuliffe as the President-Elect. Furthermore, the Executive Board had the pleasure of hosting Jane, and her husband, Dennis, for lunch on Saturday.
After a round of introductions and lunch, Jane gave us a brief bio, then spoke about her impressions of the College and what she anticipates focusing on after she arrives.
One of the first things she said, with a look that I’d describe as astonished admiration, was, “This is a place that takes the life of the mind seriously!” Of course, that brought a smile to every face in the room, as that’s exactly how we know and why we love our College. In citing that Bryn Mawr is “educating the leadership of places all over the world,” she was almost certainly referring to alumna Drew Gilpin Faust ‘68, who is now President of Harvard University, and recognizing our tradition of producing strong female leaders.
“J-Mac”, as she’s already being called by students, recognized Bryn Mawr’s “extraordinary tradition of producing science graduates”, as well as its production of non-science majors that are well-versed in the sciences. “Science literacy has become a sine qua non to be a good citizen”, she emphasized, and nearly all of my fellow alumnae in the room nodded or voiced their agreement.
So, it appears that President-Elect McAuliffe came, saw, and conquered Bryn Mawr — I, for one, look forward to her tenure.
Posted December 4, 2007 at 10:21 AM | Tagged as: Bryn Mawr, Quotations, WTF? | Comments Off
Delaware Senator Joe Biden was recently asked why he wears an American flag pin, by, as Biden put it, a “very attractive woman who looked like she just finished a sociology course at Bryn Mawr College, if you know what I mean.” According to the Washington Post, most of his audience clearly didn’t know what he meant.
Even David Karen, chair of sociology at Bryn Mawr, doesn’t know what he meant: “I don’t know what the senator means. But if Senator Biden is implying that sociology students at Bryn Mawr College are ‘very attractive’ and more liberal than he is, I wouldn’t spend any time trying to disabuse him of that notion.”
I’d guess that Biden was referencing the antiquated notion that Mawrters are so engrossed in their books and studies that they are unaware of what’s going on in the rest of the world. But hey, at least he understands that attractive women attend Bryn Mawr, so that’s progress, right?
Posted July 12, 2007 at 10:12 PM | Tagged as: Bryn Mawr, Computing, Robots | Comments Off
Over at the Institute for Personal Robots in Education Blog Natasha Eilbert summarizes the feedback from the intro CS class taught with robots at Bryn Mawr and Georgia Tech:
The class consisted, in large part, of non-science students, many choosing to take the class incidentally. However, students felt that, through the course, they learned important, basic computer science concepts, such as breaking down a problem and planning out a solution. They got the impression that computer science involves logical thinking, problem-solving, and patience, and they left feeling that computer science was fun (how great!). Most students enjoyed using the interactive, hands-on Scribbler robots, and a number of them even became attached to the life-like creatures. The students did get frustrated with the robots at times, especially over the imprecision of the robots and over hardware issues that were out of the students’ control; at the same time, they learned that it is reasonable that, like humans, robots are not completely perfect. … Happily, most of the students left the class with the feeling that computer programming was important and in some way relevant to their future life, whether in their field of study or in the every day world.
Awesome!
Posted June 16, 2007 at 8:18 PM | Tagged as: Bryn Mawr, Funnies, Meeeeeeee, Travel | Comments Off
I’m at Bryn Mawr today for a meetings, and while in one about engaging young alumnae I chatted with my old friend Carolyn Lloyd ‘99:
- Carolyn
- When are you going home?
- Me
- Umm…
- Carolyn
- Well when are you going wherever? What time zone are you going to?
- Me
- Well… I usually just operate on Eastern Standard Time…
- Carolyn
- I think you should have your own time zone. Kimmie Standard Time!
I was too tired to have a decent exchange with Carolyn, but the KST concept is pretty funny… though with all of the time zone changes I go through, maybe it ought to be called Kimmie Non-Standard Time?
Posted February 11, 2007 at 5:09 PM | Tagged as: Bryn Mawr, Current Events, People I Admire, Women! | Comments Off
It’s official! Earlier today, Drew Gilpin Faust (Bryn Mawr ‘68) was unanimously confirmed as President of Harvard!
You probably need no reminder, if you’ve heard the news, but she is the first woman to hold this office (as well as “the best candidate”, according to the senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation). As Drew herself said, “I’m not the woman president of Harvard. I’m the president of Harvard.”
CNN has the AP story, and the Harvard newspaper, The Crimson, live-blogged the announcement.
Also, don’t miss Bryn Mawr’s write-up and Drew’s 2001 Commencement speech.
