(posted to the MUW Alumni Listserv Aug. 26, 2007)
I am among the "oldest" members of this listserv. I have been using it to get my Mississippi fix for as long as the listserv has been in existence. I have had ample time to reflect on what the W means to me as it is my last connection to Mississippi as all of my other connections are gone. I have come to love and appreciate the young people of today with whom I correspond on a regular basis--those people I would not know except for the W, and with whom I have a lot in common. This listserv has been a strong connection to the W for me.
I entered the W in 1961 as a fairly confident person who knew what I wanted to major in, and what I wanted to do with my life. I have always been aware of the influences on my life. As a student, I knew who the President was--of the W as well as the United States. I was aware of what was going on in Columbus, the state, the nation and the world while I was a student. Through supportive teachers and friends, I discovered that I needed to be prepared for what life gave me, not what I thought I wanted and planned for.
Since my graduation I have had several jobs I was not educated for, but in which I succeeded because of the foundation of learning and critical thinking that I learned at the W. As a journalism major, I learned to look at facts apart from emotion, and thanks to Dr. Dewey Roach and his class in Logic, I learned how to evaluate what was true and what was fallacious. From a divorce, I learned to be self-sufficient and a competent business woman who was the sole support of a child.
These days I am office manager for a law firm in Richmond, Virginia. In that capacity I have learned to manage strong-willed people, the importance of learning to parse truth from rhetoric, and have gained an appreciation of the difference between what is right according to the Law, and what is just.
All that being said, I am not dumb. I try to learn something new every day. I am not easily swayed with empty answers from people who, when they accept a position, do not have enough understanding and honesty to realize that they have risen past their level of competence. I have no patience with people who attempt to obfuscate reality with vague innuendo. I have a great respect for the truth, not for "spin", and I fight for what I believe in.
I believe the W is a valuable and unique University. I believe that it was, and still is, fertile ground for raising up leadership. I believe the faculty is second to none and perhaps better than most. I know the campus is beautiful and the students are eager to learn, are challenged to do so, and receive an education that is superior to many other larger Universities.
My University President has said that she cannot get along with some members of the Alumnae Association so, rather than working with those people with whom she disagrees so that they can find common ground, she has turned her back on them and disaffiliated an organization that has been, on more than one occasion, what has saved the W. I have never been involved with a group, no matter how dysfunctional, that I could not find some good in, and work successfully with IF I TRIED. True, I have never been President of a University and would not be qualified for it, but in the business world, you do not ignore your problems and attempt to gloss over them. They will come back to bite you in the end.
If Dr. Limbert felt the alumni were trying to run the University, perhaps she should have taken a long hard look at what these people were saying. Perhaps, because of her office, she didn't know everything that was going on. Perhaps she was taking advice from a trusted associate who should not be trusted. Perhaps she should remember the old adage, "where there's smoke, there's fire."
Her actions, and hers alone, have violated the trust of all alumni of the University. This is not leadership. Others have repeatedly called for an accounting of Foundation contributions. An effective leader would have been in the position of making that happen sooner, not later. If you do nothing, you leave yourself open to speculation and inference. If you do something, you have something to defend. The truth is every one's ultimate goal. Not spin, not public relations gimmicks, not hiding behind a campaign of what you have done that is good, ignoring answering questions for which there is obviously no good answer.
I, too, want the W to succeed, but she will not thrive at the expense of losing her soul...of losing all that she has stood for for over 100 years. Focusing on what is good and right with the W is great, but not at the expense of letting her center rot. The W taught me to stand up for what is right. It taught me to think and discern truth. I love the W and will continue to love her...but I do not have to blindly agree with what is wrong with her.
Jill Holly Bethune (nation) Wood
Etiquette Advisor to the Listserv
Jackson/Columbus/Richmond VA
Journalism '65