Letters to the Editor

OVERSEAS EXPERIENCES

I appreciated the article on Peace Corps service ("Letters Home," Winter 2004) and on Benin ("Into Africa," Winter 2004). I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali from 1996 to 1998 and spent time in Benin working for a project on girls’ education in 2003. These experiences changed my life profoundly. I became more dedicated to a career serving others and working for a better world.

My four years at Wooster, in particular my involvement with the International Student Association and residence in the international dormitory Babcock, were the crucial first stepping stones in the development of my global awareness.

Amy MORROS ’94

Highland Park, Illinois

FOREIGN STUDENT IMPACT

Re: "Complicating the Journey" (Winter 2004): To be blunt, if students (or Wooster administrators) don’t like the stepped-up security, then go to the UK, Canada, or Australia. Ms. Edwards mentions that the cost to apply for a visa has doubled. It’s still only $100, a mere pittance compared to the price of a Wooster education. The approval process takes longer? Well, don’t wait until the last minute. The Patriot Act has made it ‘risky’ for international visitors to protest? I’d like to see an American go to a Middle Eastern country and protest anything. Any student going to a foreign country is there to study, not to protest.

It’s a fact that many known terrorists came to the U.S. using student visas. As far as having to complete written forms, personal interviews, and the like, I view it no differently than a drug test before a new job. If you haven’t done anything wrong, you shouldn’t worry about it.

While I feel badly for Wooster students who have dealt with issues of racism and profiling, I have no sympathy for those who have to complete extra paperwork and pay slightly higher fees. That’s part of the new cost of an American education. We should be glad that the government is trying to increase our border protection.

Jim Abbott ’91

University Heights, Ohio

I am encouraged to see the Wooster administration’s sensitivity towards the needs of international students in these troubling times. The security-related immigration procedures (such as SEVIS) require further adjustments to provide improved security while maintaining the possibility for colleges like Wooster to attract top talent from abroad. I had a negative experience with SEVIS recently – I almost couldn’t re-enter the country on a minor technicality after conducting part of my Ph.D. research in Mexico City.

I have graduated now and am consulting on pollution-mitigation technology, which will bring in revenues in excess of $500 million a year for a U.S. company and help the environment. Wooster gave me a chance to learn, to aim high. I hope the College and this country will benefit from its investment in international students such as myself.

Bilal Zuberi ’98

Boston, Massachusetts

Soup and bread at 30

I was thrilled to see the picture of the soup and bread meal at Kittredge (Winter 2004) and to know that the program continues. The program started in the 1975-1976 academic year as a supper once a week by a group of students, of whom I am still proud to have been a part. That’s almost thirty years, not over forty.

Part of my pleasure comes with the irony that Soup and Bread now appears to be an accepted part of the landscape. We were a group of students searching for some concrete way to contribute and not just talk about world hunger. We had to fight all the way to a personal meeting with President J. Garber Drushal.

After receiving a receptive response to our idea from the food service director, some members of the administration set about to dissuade us. We were told that it would mean that the College would lose money, so we couldn’t do it. When I sought out the friendly ear of the campus pastor, several faculty members caught wind of our predicament and set out to support us. The late 1970s was not a time of great student activism. Several of the faculty felt that if the College finally had a few caring and active students, why was the College trying to stop us? If memory serves me, there was a well-timed tantrum in the dean’s office by a member of the economics department. With the help and support of several faculty members and a few arguments that could not be countered, we started the program.

You brought back great memories.

Ruth Hutchison ’77

Chino, California

FIRST BAGPIPER PIPES UP

May I add one more item to the history of the bagpipes at Wooster (Fall 2003)? In 1939-40, the band received its kilt uniforms. Naturally, nothing would do but that there should be a bagpiper in the band, and a set of pipes was acquired. But there were no pipers.

Through a concatenation of events too long and sordid to relate here, I found myself with the pipes in hand and carte blanche to do with them whatever I could. I managed to coax "The Minstrel Boy" and a few other tunes out of the instrument – and so became, to the best of my knowledge, the first student piper at Wooster.

Marching around the basketball court and with the band on the playing field was a startling change from playing "classical" music on the violin or viola in an auditorium. But I wouldn't have missed it for the world!

Charles Chandler ’40

Lexington, Massachusetts

More MUSIC MEMORIES

Although it is possible that Robert Shaw conducted the Verdi Requiem in 1962, he most emphatically conducted it in 1952. I was a freshman when Shaw came to campus. R. T. Gore had directed all of our rehearsals up to the last several days. Gore brought in "ringers" from the Cleveland orchestra for key instrumental and vocal solo parts. When Shaw directed us in the last rehearsal, he pulled sounds from the trombones that I’d never heard before. My guess is that the trombonists didn’t really know that they had those notes in them.

You mention that Shaw came to campus in 1950 to see Thornton Wilder perform Our Town. More significant is the fact that Shaw returned in 1951 to be the commencement speaker (and earn an honorary degree).

Dr. Gore was amazing. I’ve only been to one reunion, my thirty-fifth in 1990. When Dr. Gore saw me, he called me by name and asked how my two brothers were – also by name!

The music experiences provided by Wooster have immensely enriched my life.... I continue to sing with the Opera Southwest chorus and with the chorus of the University of New Mexico. I also play guitar, banjo, and dijeridoo.

As for important figures in the fabric of musical life at Wooster, you should include the significant contributions of John R. Carruth (music, 1952-72).

Charles A. Eaton ’55

Corrales, New Mexico

As a freshman concert choir member in the fall of 1972, I attended a memorial service for a Wooster professor. Erie Mills ’75 sang "Pie Jesu" from Faure’s Requiem – the most beautiful sound I’d ever heard. I told my new friend, Marcia Ruff ’76, that 1.) I could never be a music major at a place with that kind of talent and 2.) I was never singing again if I couldn’t sound like Erie Mills.

I went on to major in religion but managed to keep singing.... I am completing my nineteenth season with Michigan Opera Theatre in Detroit. Waiting to go on stage a few years back, the director stopped me and said, "You know who you remind me of? A woman I just worked with in Dayton – Erie Mills." I had to laugh!

After many years as a banker and a few as a full-time schoolteacher, I have finally made music my "day job." I teach Kindermusik classes and Simply Music, an Australian keyboard method. I recently started teaching piano to my first Wooster friend – Marcia Ruff.

Thanks for making me count all the musical gifts I received at Wooster.

Mary Robertson ’76

Huntington Woods, Michigan

I just re-read the list of musical offerings over the years ("Headline Acts," Fall 2003). What I remember about Sly and the Family Stone’s concert was Sly being so wasted that he could barely get his guitar strap to stay on his shoulder.

You left out a couple of good shows from that era: Emerson Lake & Palmer – I’ve never seen so much electronic equipment nor heard louder sounds. Dr. Hook & His Medicine Show opened for them. They’re probably selling insurance these days. The other excellent concert was Brian Auger and the Oblivion Express – hardcore British music, this time jazz, very avant garde for Timken Gym!

For both of these shows, a bunch of other "strapping youths" and I were dragooned into being the local roadies – great memories.

Evan Reynolds ’74

Rockville, Maryland

SHOW US THE CAMPUS

I have not liked the recent cover photos on Wooster. Who wants to see a not very attractive boy, then a professor, and recently a female singer? I read the letter from Bob Flannery ’51 asking to see some pictures of the campus which we all loved. How about having Wooster scenes on the covers instead of people we don’t care about? That’s what we used to have in John D’s (McKee, Wooster editor, 1921-60) day.

Otherwise I like your magazine. I read it from cover to cover.

Agnes Carson Rice ’33

Black Mountain, North Carolina