A Message from Stephanie Cooper '65, MFA '76, Your Alumnae/i Board President
What could be more “un-Sarah Lawrence-y” than focusing on “Outcomes”? Our purpose here is really process, rather than this word’s implication of “product.” For our tribe, evolution and growth are the opposite of the sense of finality that the term carries with it. Yet it is easy to see that each of us experiences many outcomes in our individual journeys. Similarly, there are many such benchmarks in the growth and development of the College in the years since we have lived and learned there.
From Taylor and Raushenbush to DeCarlo and Ilchman, whom we now mourn, to Michele Tolela Myers, who has brought such extraordinary growth to our community, each of our presidents has put a stamp on the College. Dr. Karen Lawrence, our new president-elect, will help move us into yet another era. No matter the president, the size of the campus, the number of students or the changing variety of course offerings and programs-our pedagogy remains constant. In our common experience and role as alumnae/i, we are now at a particularly appropriate moment, I believe, to examine the question of what new outcomes we as graduates want, not from the College, but for the College.
Throughout my first year as chair of the Alumnae/i Board, I’ve asked a similar question: what should we do as an association? The many answers to this question involve a lot of growth in sophistication and professionalism so that we can support the College more meaningfully than ever before. We can participate, whether through volunteering in myriad ways or, critically, by making contributions to The Fund for Sarah Lawrence and all financial initiatives. I’m sure we all wish a tremendously richer endowment for the College, for that is central to its health and endurance. I’m sure we all hope that the reputation of the College will grow to greater heights, that worthy applications will continue to rise, that diversity will grow in every sector of College life.
Let’s all focus on these issues, and keep ourselves informed of campus developments, and of events and activities in our local communities. Let’s stay connected via the Web and our new, developing online community. Let’s think of ways to give back so that each of us is meaningfully involved in the evolving outcomes of the College.
Stephanie Cooper can be reached at scooper@stephaniercooper.com
Alumnae/i Association Board Members 2006-07
Stephanie R. Cooper ’65, MFA ’76 President
Madeline L. Goldfischer ’89 Vice President and Chair, Events Committee
Jacqueline Peu-Duvallon ’97 Secretary and Chair, Nominating Committee
Nancy Callaway Fyffe ’88 Treasurer
Yvonne R. Isaac ’71 Alumnae/i Trustee
Michael Sartisky ’73 Alumnae/i Trustee
Joan Bowman MFA ’05 Chair, CCE Committee
Molly Caldwell ’93 Events Committee
Rona Carr ’74 Chair, Admissions Committee
Beth-Ann Fischer Gentile ’65 Chair, Governance Committee
David S. Kessler ’75 DC Representative and Admissions
Michele Kotler ’90 Chair, Career Counseling
Jeannine Lally-Jones ’98 Events Committee
Haila Strauss ’74 Events Committee
Harriet Pogul Wohlgemuth ’59, MFA ’79 Events Committee, Brooklyn Chair
Jannie Wolff ’87 Events Committee