President’s Note: Mary Ann Miya, N’66, serves TFoNC as the Vice President of Programming. Programming? What does that mean to you? Do you have to sit and listen to some lecture? Take notes? Is there going to be a test? All good questions to ask! I can feel the tension level rising as you read! Relax. And smile. I think we will find the answers very quickly as together we read Mary Ann’s article below.

Mary Ann is continuing our conversation that Cheree started in the last DaisyChain. She is asking us to not only enjoy being one of The “IT” Sisters, but also to tell her how we see ourselves moving forward. What we tell Mary Ann will form the basis for TFoNC’s planning for next year. Our conversations with Mary Ann will help create the ideas for our projects and programs. What we discover about The “IT” Sisters will determine how we build this new place for Newcomb College alumnae. This will be where we meet to catch up, talk, dream, learn, teach, and enjoy one another’s company.

So, grab a pencil and jot down your ideas as you read. Zip off an email to Mary Ann at  ideas@newcomblives.com, start a list, draw some diagrams, circle some keywords – whatever it is that you do to get your thoughts in order. Call a friend, forward this DaisyChain, visit the TFoNC website  www.newcomblives.com or send us a handwritten note. Just be sure that you make your ideas heard. And just be sure that you are here with the rest of your “IT” Sisters!

Remember, it is here that “Newcomb Lives!”

Karen

************************

“’It’s over.’ Not yet. That’s the best news of all. We are so not over. But we are moving on.”

(from “The ‘IT’ Sisters” by Cheree Cleghorn in The DaisyChain, October 17, 2011)

Gail Collins begins her wonderful book, American Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates and Heroines by saying: “When I look back through all of American history, the one moment that stays with me is the image of women standing on the deck of the Mayflower, staring out at a whole continent of dense forest.”  Surely, this was an “IT” moment. Consider all that happened after.

They had no idea.

And, here we are – so not over, but we are moving on. You might think that this is not an apt comparison. Yet I venture that those women just wanted to find a place to live, wash their hair, change to clean clothes and get on with their lives. Who knew where it would lead?

We, too, are standing on the verge – verge of what – who knows? But we are moving on.

As The Future of Newcomb College goes forth, we want to include every one of you to the extent that you wish to be known and a part of the vision.  What ideas do you have that might enrich yourself and each other, enliven our conversations, enlarge our vistas, broaden our knowledge of each other and the world in which each of us lives.  I ask you to consider the following as if there were no restraints and let me know what you think:

What is your wish for TFoNC?

What is your wish for yourself as a participant in TFoNC?

Is there a particular direction that you see TFoNC might follow? Or not follow?

Are there concerns that you may have about our undertaking?

Do you have stories that you would like to tell? Our stories are sacred and  sharing them is an act of community creation.

Do you have a talent, skill or resource that you would like to share?  Do you know someone else who might?

Are you interested in taking part in conversations using online forums? Blogs? Social networking? Interactive website?

Would you be interested in joining a local group in a shared program or undertaking?  And/or attending an occasional annual event located in a different venue each year?

Are there questions you would like to ask of your fellow DaisyChain readers? Or the TFoNC Board?

Is there something you wish that I would have asked, but didn’t?

I will compile and analyze your responses regarding your hopes, wishes, ideas and comments to find themes, trends, collective and individual ideas to help usto create a program that will support and inform the emerging vision of our new world. I wish to serve as a clearinghouse for your thoughts about our joint undertaking. We know that our readers include Newcomb alumnae from the 1930′s through the 2000′s. This is an incredibly broad generational expanse. Each of us has something to offer. Please tell us more about yourselves and your wishes.

Already, I sense an excitement about our continuing existence even among people who are not directly involved. How can we build upon this excitement?

Like the women on the Mayflower, who knows what lies ahead?

I can be reached through ideas@newcomblives.com. I promise that I will read your messages thoughtfully and respond to them as promptly as I am able. Please send anything and everything.

Newcomb Lives!

Mary Ann Miya, Newcomb ‘66

Vice President for Programming

**************************

WATCH THIS SPACE

“Mama said there’ll be days like this. There’ll be days like this my Mama said.”

And I know some of you are singing this while you dance across the floor. And why not? Mama did say such things. And lots more. Amen.

The times may have changed since the Shirelles put those words out on the airwaves. Our circumstances have surely changed. But other things haven’t and never will. And we all know that Mamas don’t change.

And so, no matter who your Mama is or was, you are going to feel like you are right back at home next month. Just wait – you’ll recognize that voice, those words. Oh yes, you will. She’s back! And guess what! She’s been right all along.

“Mama said there’ll be days like this….”

Watch this space for more about Mama in Cheree Cleghorn’s next column.

*********************************************

HELP WANTED

Desperately Seeking 1938 Newcomb College Class Ring

A 1938 alumna writes that she could not afford a class ring during the Depression but that she always wanted one.

In reply to our offer to join her in her search, she writes, “Thank you so much for your kind response to my plea. I have literally been searching for years without success, and your note gives me new hope that after all this time something good may happen.”

She has longed for that class ring for 73 years.

She has looked everywhere. Adler’s. Balfour. Yes, they did have them, but no, they did not keep the forms. Her class ring can’t be replicated.

Any clues, any suggestions? Do you have one you could part with? Know someone who may?

Please help if you can.

Send suggestions, leads, or other replies to news@newcomblives.com.

*******************************************

NOT TOO LATE FOR “HOMECOMING” CONTRIBUTIONS:

In our excitement about new programs like those described by Mary Ann Miya and all the new things that are planned for the DaisyChain and our website

(http://www.newcomblives.com), we must not forget that TFoNC still has an outstanding obligation. We absolutely must retire our legal debt.

Before we begin to dedicate major funds to future plans, we must focus all our efforts on raising the necessary funds to accomplish this. The TFoNC Board, aswell as alumnae and friends who see this obligation as a priority, realize that we must do so in as short a period as possible.

It is customary for colleges to ask for support during Homecoming season. This month, which would have included Newcomb College’s Homecoming Week, TFoNC asks you to honor Newcomb College and the stand that TFoNC took in its defense. This especially is the time for each of us to commit to doing our necessary part.

Please be a donor to our Debt Retirement Campaign and help us finish this one last task. Be with us as we plan for our future and celebrate our past. Remember that “Through Us, Newcomb Lives!”

You may contribute by sending a check to:

TFoNC

c/o Brenda Leder

P.O. Box 1947

Decatur, GA 30031

You can also use a credit card at our website, www.newcomblives.com. Please

include your name and address, a “Debt Retirement Campaign” notation, any

dedication you wish to make, and an indication that you would like to be

recognized among our donors on our website.

YOU’RE IT!

 President’s Note :

Cheree Cleghorn, N’66, is a board member who will be writing as a Contributing Editor to DaisyChain.   Her column will poke and probe around what makes Newcomb women and the women’s college experience special; what is the “IT” that we shared, that we feel so fortunate to have had and that we hope to celebrate through TFONC.

As you might imagine, we spent much time deciding on that name. Everyone seems to know that “IT” exists, but we are all at a loss to actually define it.  So, this is where we are going to try to do just it!

Cheree’s column is unofficial, not approved by TFoNC, and not the thoughts and words of the Board.  She offers only her thoughts on this topic, with a few Amens from the chorus. We decided “The ‘IT’ Sisters” was irreverent enough to make it clear that this is not official.  And yet, it is relevant enough to our concerns that it describes what will appear here.

I think you will find this fun and thought provoking. We hope you will write Cheree and let her know what you think about the “IT” subject . We will be  talking about this and many others things that we think define us as Newcomb Women.  We want you to be a part of the conversation, too. You can reach her at: opinions@newcomblives.com. You can read about her credentials in her biography on our website.

So, it is with great joy and excitement that I say to you all:  “Welcome, ‘IT’ Sisters! Let’s go!”

Karen

*****The “IT” Sisters Have Arrived*****

Despite—or perhaps because of—a fondness for bourbon with breakfast, lunch, and as an after-class refresher (bottom desk drawer), one Newcomb professor taught me much about how to think about thinking, to challenge conventional wisdom, and to be absolutely clear that being a smart female was a very good thing indeed.

All of that in six semester hours.

Too bad I don’t remember what his favorite bourbon was. Maybe you do.

Our other teachers worked at those things well, no question, with their own ways of transmitting what they thought important.

What made this professor different was not substance, but style. He appeared more off-handed than the others, yet he often was more direct. On the first class day, he explained to Tulane students that they might have trouble “keeping up.” Just so you know, fellas. You’ll run hard. It does not get more direct than that. He said this out loud! I was amazed. You don’t tell boys straight out girls can be smarter, do you? He did.

He tested us each week on readings of the original history documents which shaped this nation. I learned you don’t get behind that way, even with heavy-duty material. I learned never to believe anything until I read the original source. I learned, seemingly effortlessly, to see where anyone should have questioned versions of American history which had been diluted, twisted, or totally revised. This was riveting reading for those of us who loved history. People wrote textbooks which were demonstrably wrong. We had studied them, believed what was in them, made A’s on tests based on what we had “learned.” Asking lots of questions, in general, is highly recommended in History and in life.

Despite the fact that some days he couldn’t quite pull off roll call after lunch, he worked at this. Teaching is very hard work, with or without bourbon. Today, the slang that applies is this: He gave me a “new normal” for learning and using that learning. I use what he taught us every day.

That, ladies, is a liberal arts education at its best.

Years later, my stepson came home from college.

To me, he is nearly-perfect, but he was much less nearly-perfect then. Today he is the wonderful father of two daughters, the kind I hoped he’d be when I was whacking on him about how to treat women, how to relate to them. Forgive this necessary digression, but it makes a point about our Newcomb experience. (He asks that I stipulate: He was not then, nor was he ever, a troglodyte. Done.)

These comments of mine prompted him to describe the whacking discussions this way. “You know how you are.” Then, he’d begin. Carefully.

We have Newcomb to thank for helping us get uppity and stay uppity as we went out into the bigger world. Be smart. Do our homework first. Hold our ground. Speak up. Speak out when necessary. Remember, there is an honor code. Manners matter.

Nearly Perfect-Darling Son was co-editor of his college newspaper. There was a huge controversy. Should this college admit women? His paper had to take a position.

As if he were the editor of The New York Times, he began. Deep breath.

“You know how you are. I wanted to tell you myself that I have decided our editorial position will oppose the admission of women.”

He waited for the whacking. It didn’t happen.

“Well, I would be a total hypocrite if I didn’t support your right to a single sex education. I had mine and I loved it. You have to do what you think is right.

“However,” I said, “your father and I write much too big of a check for you to write anything that resembles what your classmates put on their ridiculous picket signs.” This hot debate had been going on all year.

‘Girls in the hay but not all day’ was my favorite ridiculous picket sign. I beg your pardon, gentlemen. Not all day? Really? Who reared you? Who taught you? Who fed you and kept you passably presentable? Female persons, that’s who. All day.

My son never would have considered carrying that sign with or without me, but we already had had what the State Department terms a “full and frank” exchange about this issue, his class, and that school when I saw that hay picket sign picture in their paper.

He had good reason to be unsure about how this would go.

“Write what you believe, but you must make your case as well as it can be written. I will support your right to make it.”

Bewildered, yet again.

How did these women’s angles work out in life? What just happened? He expected protest and got agreement. What he got was a lesson in critical thinking.

You either believe there is value in this single sex education experience or you don’t.

I did.

My son did then.

I still do.

You still do or you wouldn’t be involved in The Future of Newcomb College (TFoNC), even though there is no more Newcomb College as we knew it.

What we have are plenty of ideals and ideas about why this educational experience was so important.

What we have, as a community, is the sense of possibility that these ideals and ideas need not die because the college is gone. Newcomb lives.

Learning, as we were taught, is a daily event. It is quite possibly still an hourly one if you are engaged in paid or volunteer work which requires brain “upgrades” often. Just like Newcomb. In any class at any time, you suddenly saw that your brain needed more than was there. Fix that yourself. You are the only one who can.

We who joined TFoNC are on a journey together, a community whose members want to discern how Newcomb can live on now and beyond us.

I have two granddaughters 16 and 12, and two neighbors for whom I am honorary grandmother. They’re 12 and 10, enrolled in a fine girls’ school right up the street. I went to Grandparents Day. It was like being at Newcomb—showing me some common threads between our schooling then and theirs today.

This female-centric learning experience still produces exceptional young women. A related boys’ school offers experiences comparable to ours with Tulane, so their school structure is close enough to ours for comparison purposes—only for younger, 21st century students.

The science teacher was working with these girls to interest them in science just at the breakpoint when so many say, “forget that.” There is a national shortage of women in the sciences, long-standing, puzzling, and unacceptable. What is the answer? Nobody knows yet. A female-focused science class might be one way.

This teacher is in the trenches, fighting for one female future scientist at a time. She links science to anything else girls are interested in. The science teacher teamed with the history teacher to connect an Egyptian history unit to the study of metrics.  Each girl’s carrot got its own sarcophagus.  They tracked the carrot-mummy’s measurements at intervals, learning metrics fairly painlessly, although the preservative grossed them out. (It wasn’t.)

Give that creative teacher an A +. Give the girls an A for making their way through that icky white stuff to get to the carrot. (It was like sand. No ick.)

There are original documents to check, proving this female educational system still works. Grades.  Accomplishments of earlier grads. Charitable work they all do as naturally as breathing. Their personal talents.

Newcomb had something that holds us still. What was it?

With this column, we will start talking about the “IT.”

That’s our purposes here—to distill what you all think the “it” is so our community can decide how to go forward. You talk. I’ll report from the field.

E-mail me at: opinions@newcomblives.com about your thoughts. I will read every one and reply when my other work deadlines are met.

Thank you for the privilege of coming along with you.

I already have laughed five years’ worth in a very short while. I already have found a group of women who are as smart as I’d expect, as passionate about this as I’d expect, and determined that Newcomb will live on through us.

That would not be expected.

After five years, most would say, “We did our best. It’s over.”

Not yet.

That’s the best news of all.

We are so not over.

But we are moving on.

Please accept my assurances that there is a virtual bourbon bottle in my bottom desk drawer, in case that helps with critical thinking.

__________________________

(Disclaimer: This column’s purpose is to help the discussion along. It does not purport to represent our board’s views. All mistakes are mine alone.  As we go into 2012 elections, no politics in this column. Our issues transcend politics.  Cheree)

**********WATCH THIS SPACE**********

 So what is it this time, in this “watch this space?”  Are you expecting to see something that will make your hair curl or your heart beat faster? Are you looking for fun in all the right places?  I really hope so, because this is where you will find it. In our next DaisyChain you will be introduced to our Vice President of Programming, Mary Ann Hyde Miya, N’66, who has been charged with leading us to discussions, conversations, adventures, and learning experiences that are relevant to who and what we are today, as well as what we think we were yesterday. She will be introducing us to subjects and topics that cover just about everything. And if that weren’t enough, she’s even agreed to let us take her off-topic to discuss what WE want to discuss. Can’t get any better than that. So sharpen your pencils, get your iPads ready, blast Pandora on your iPod, and get ready to send her some good questions – what do YOU want to know about, talk about, tell us about, march on Washington DC about? Or, we can just chill out and remember the good times and plan to get together in small groups or big hordes to celebrate us – after all, we are “The ‘IT’ Sisters!”

***”HOMECOMING” CONTRIBUTIONS***

 We are excited about all the new things that are planned for the DaisyChain and our website, and are looking forward to the programs and projects that will begin in the next few months. However, we must not forget that TFoNC still has an outstanding obligation. We absolutely must retire our legal debt!  Before we begin to dedicate major funds to future plans , we must focus all our efforts to raising the necessary funds to accomplish this. The TFoNC Board, as well as Alumnae and friends who see this as a priority, realize that we must do so in as short a period as possible.  Will it be hard work? YES. Can we do it? YES. Will you help us? We are hoping that this answer is YES also.

Now is the time for our fundraising efforts to become Priority Number One.  It is customary for colleges to ask for support during Homecoming season. This week, during what would have been the Newcomb College Homecoming Week, TFoNC asks you to honor Newcomb College and the stand that TFoNC took in its defense. This week especially is the time for each of us to commit to doing our necessary part. Please be a donor to our Debt Retirement Campaign and help us finish this one last task. Be with us as we plan for our future and celebrate our past. Remember that “Through Us, Newcomb Lives!”

You may contribute by sending a check to:

TFoNC

c/o Brenda Leder

P.O. Box 1947

Decatur, GA 30031

or use a credit card. Please include your name and address, a “Debt Retirement Campaign” notation, any dedication you wish to make, and an indication that you would like to be recognized among our donors on our website.

From the President’s Pen:

Exciting news from TFoNC! New Board members and officers have been elected and they have hit the ground running! We have already crafted a new structure that brings our updated mission to life. In the next few months you will find your DaisyChain exploding with new programs and opportunities for each of you to be a part of this independent association of Newcomb College alumnae and friends. Our webpage will sport new design features and creative content; we’re already working on it. Our newly created Vice Presidencies will focus on Programming, Communications, Development, and Membership. Visit “About TFoNC”  to learn more about them and about the rest of our new Board members. Just thinking about what this means is enough to make us all want to be a part of it. But that is just the beginning – we have many roads to explore and stories to tell. Read more »

New Orleans, LA – Newcomb College alumna Karen Depp, ’66, has been named the new president of the The Future of Newcomb College (TFoNC), Inc., the independent organization of Newcomb alumnae and supporters.

“The Newcomb alumnae and friends who make up The Future of Newcomb College community are honored to have Karen Depp at the helm,” said Renee Seblatnigg, outgoing president of the five-year-old nonprofit. “She has been involved with TFoNC since its founding, will lead the group as it moves beyond its legal activities and into the future.”

Read more »

Dear Professor Sally J. Kenney, Executive Director, Newcomb College Institute:

We appreciated the carefully written letter signed by you and targeted to alumnae of Newcomb College. However we feel compelled to address some of the faulty assertions and inconsistencies in it and the university’s follow-up fundraising appeals.

Read more »