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Kenyon student dancers perform on the chapel lawn.

Kenyon in Quotes

"As we celebrate twenty-five years of women at the College, we honor especially our female founders ... We recognize our partnership with these women in a new, more inclusive College, a Kenyon of men and women, that venture that, next to the Bishop's brilliant divination, has most radically transformed the outlines of Gambier Hill." — Associate Professor of English Adele S. Davidson '75 in her 1994 Founders' Day address

Book Reviews

Alumni, faculty and Bulletin staff members offer reviews of some of their favorite books.

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Fifty Years of the Bulletin

As we celebrate the first fifty years of the Bulletin, we look back at some memorable stories from the past.

"The Paramount Problem — and a Solution," by Bruce Haywood, July-Sept., 1965.

The article offers the first glimpse into the planning by the College's administration and the Board of Trustees for the admission of women students. 

We have turned, then, to the coordinate college for women as a way of gaining the advantages we seek while preserving the best features of Kenyon. ... We propose a scheme which would the Hill as it is, with a separate campus for women sufficiently close so that joint instruction is practicable but separated by its site and architectures for Kenyon sufficiently as to propose separate identities for the two colleges.

"Letters," Nov. 1972.

William R. Chadeayne '50, secretary of the Board of Trustees, responds to the contention, voiced by some alumni and others after the College's move to coeducation was announced in 1972, that the idea of coordination had been a ruse from the beginning.

In reality, the shift of thinking resulted from experience, for even during the first year when women came to Gambier, it began to be apparent that the women themselves generally preferred coeducation to coordinate education or, in other words, that they preferred to participate in and share Kenyon traditions rather than create their own. This manifested itself in various ways, as for example protests over being excluded from the matriculation oath and not sharing fully in the student government. In short, it developed that the concept of coordinate education was becoming a divisive influence on campus rather than a unifying one, with the result that an unhealthy polarization began to emerge.

Homecoming Weekend Celebration

To commemorate the first quarter-century of women as students in the College's classrooms, this year's Homecoming Weekend, Sept. 23-25, 1994, was flush with special events. 

Among the activities were an exhibit of memorabilia in Olin Library's Special Collections, compiled by librarian Jami E. Peelle; a presentation by Jean C. Dunbar '73, a historic-design specialist who was instrumental in last summer's renovation of the Crozier Center for Women; a lively rendition of "Philander Chase: The Sequel," sung by alumnae and other celebrants; an open house and "Common Bond" brunch at the Crozier Center; a "Tea and Sharing Party" for alumnae and students; and a "Celebrating Twenty-Five Years of Women at Kenyon" recognition dinner.

Class Notes

Recent Class Notes
’19

Annelise A. Royles updates, “I teach English at Gilman School and run an after-school program through an educational nonprofit called Bridges Baltimore. I’m loving Baltimore and all it has to offer!”

’62

George Brownstone, Vienna, Austria, shares, “Having spent more than half my life here, I’m much happier than I think I’d be in the States, which has turned into a very disappointing place. Retired from practice (psychiatry and psychoanalysis), still teach and supervise (easier with Zoom), play OK golf when and wherever the weather permits, cook a lot for my busy wife, a gastroenterologist, and am gratified by our daughter’s career progress with Mastercard. Covid’s put a damper on every-body’s lives, but we’ve been four times jabbed, uninfected so far, and it hasn’t been as bad for us personally as it has for many others around the globe.”

’58

Robert S. Price, Philadelphia, attended the dedication of the new Chalmers Library last Oct. 29 and arranged with the Alpha Delta Phi undergraduates and the East Wing Association “what we hoped would be a special treat to honor President Sean Decatur,” he reports. “We knew that Sean had successfully completed the Capital Fund Drive, had gotten the new library completed, and had skillfully navigated the College through the pandemic. We honored him with a personal tour of the AD lodge and the Ganter Price Hall, led by ADs Graham Gund ’63, architect of the new library, and Board of Trustees Chair Brackett Denniston ’69. We believe the tour was a rousing success.” “The 162-year-old lodge is the oldest Greek letter fraternity structure in America,” Bob notes. “Starkly plain outside, it is elegantly furnished with a plethora of Kenyon and fraternity memorabilia. It is extremely rare — almost unprecedented — that anyone other than an initiated member of Alpha Delta Phi is admitted to the Lodge. In contrast, Ganter Price Hall next door to the Lodge has become a premier undergraduate party venue. However, a third of the building, the Squiers Room, is off limits to parties. It is an exact replica of the East Wing Bullseye Room as it existed before the 1949 Old Kenyon fire. It, too, has become a repository of both AD and Kenyon memorabilia. The Ganter is generally open to returning alumni, and we urge you to visit it when you return to Gambier.”

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