A tale of two colleges:
McCarthy, Abigail
OF SEVERAL MINDS Abigail McCarthy A TALE OF TWO COLLEGES SETTING PRECEDENTS FOR LEADERSHIP The preoccupations and problems of the academic world have for some years now been the stuff around...
...What was true for Amanda Cross's fictional Jay College in the late 1960s is, alas, still true for women's colleges- especially Catholic women's colleges- in the 1980s...
...Dare we hope that such an election will some time be held at Georgetown, Catholic University, or Notre Dame?y, or Notre Dame...
...Why a male president for a college which has produced such women leaders...
...Gallaudet had never in its 124 years had a deaf president or a majority of deaf members on its board...
...The two institutions are similar only in that their constituencies are drawn from subcultures...
...The implication was clear...
...It was felt that after all the women presidents, our commitment to women was clear...
...The other presidential appointment attracted little notice-yet one would have thought it might also arouse protest...
...In her 1967 novel, The James Joyce Murder, her heroine Kate Fansler, professor of English literature, is offered the prospect of becoming president of a fictional Jay College for Women...
...Gallaudet and Trinity were at very different moments in history in terms of the population each serves and represents...
...And Trinity had special needs...
...As for the unmarrieds, those who can hold their own in the world of college and university administration...
...Why protest at Gallaudet and no protest at Trinity...
...That a college presidency is an office of power and that it also is seen as an office of deep symbolic significance was illustrated in two presidential appointments within the past month...
...Martha Perry of Trinity's public relations office said that, faced with the realities of the eighties, Trinity's board decided on a gender-neutral search for the best president...
...Today there are more than 100 deaf persons with Ph.D.s, and the technology of communication has advanced...
...The uproar was impressive and effective...
...How does all this apply to Trinity...
...Trinity, in effect, draws from two: the Catholic culture and the world of women...
...Zinsser withdrew and a Gallaudet dean, I. King Jordan, one of the deaf finalists, was appointed in her stead...
...There are some outstanding examples of women leaders in the field, but in general there is a shortage of women who can hold their own in the world of Catholic college administration-in the areas of (to change Raspberry's words a bit) fund raising, advocacy, and in forging links to the corporation and foundation world, as well as to the male-dominated Catholic world...
...The circumstances differ significantly, it is true...
...A woman was appointed president of Gallaudet University, the national school for the deaf...
...Trinity had had nine decades of experience with women presidents-all of them members of its sponsoring religious order, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur...
...Trinity College, for ninety-one years one of the outstanding Catholic colleges for women, inaugurated its first male president...
...That her appointment was a first for women, however, was overshadowed by the fact that she, a hearing person, had been chosen over two finalists who were deaf...
...Each has a life of its own...
...William Raspberry, one of the most thoughtful and sensitive of black columnists, however, warned that the comparisons with the 1960s civil rights victories need to be drawn with care.' 'It still does not follow that every service for every special population must be administered by a member of the client group...
...Press releases stressed the fact that Trinity is the only woman's college in the country to have two members of Congress among its alumnae-Barbara Ken-nelly of Connecticut and Nancy Pelosi of California...
...Also an alumna is Kathleen Black who is vice-president of Gannett and publisher of Gannett's USA Today...
...Women's colleges have led the way in "gender-free"elections...
...There is a moment in history for each institution...
...Bernice Sandier deplored the fact that except for "the magnificent Catholic nuns" women's colleges were turning to male leadership...
...Elizabeth Ann Zinsser's academic qualifications were impressive...
...Now in the 1980s the pool of religious prepared for leadership in higher education has declined drastically...
...Just as the blacks reached the point at which they could lead their own struggle, so had the deaf...
...Gannett, incidentally, is one of the four corporations cited recently for outstanding progress in advancing women to positions beyond middle management...
...There is "a time in the history of a population" when they have to take charge of their own fate, she said...
...In a letter to the alumnae, Kathleen Black and board president Sister Regina Finnegan made that clear: Needless to say the decision to elect a lay president, a male president, was a source of deep introspection and intense discussion for the search committee, the board, and the entire college community...
...She scorns the idea but her would-be sponsor urges her to consider it for two reasons: "Kate, remember it is a position of power and power is one of the most remarkable experiences there is...
...Elizabeth Ann Zinsser, in resigning, made a very graceful and instructive assessment of the situation at Gallaudet...
...Deafness may be a handicap for a Gallaudet president-in fund raising, in advotacy, in forging links to the hearing world...
...The protest was not so much directed at her own appointment as it was an expression of a civil rights movement for the deaf- "a very special moment in time for the deaf community...
...she has been a vice-chancellor at the University of North Carolina...
...In the 1970s, feminist educator Dr...
...On balance, given Trinity's need for stability and sound fiscal management, restoration of collegial-ity, and confident leadership, we and the board believe that our election of Jim (sic) McGrath will insure a healthy, vibrant future for Trinity as a Catholic woman's college...
...First the students, then the nation's deaf, rose up in protest...
...OF SEVERAL MINDS Abigail McCarthy A TALE OF TWO COLLEGES SETTING PRECEDENTS FOR LEADERSHIP The preoccupations and problems of the academic world have for some years now been the stuff around which writer Amanda Cross weaves her literate, talky, and diverting mystery stories...
...And, "Believe it or not, there's a shortage of really competent women around, let alone women who aren't married to men whose careers or egos foreclose any possibility of their having a college president for a wife...
Vol. 115 • April 1988 • No. 7
