Letters
Review welcomes letters from readers and will print them as space permits. Letters may be edited for brevity and clarity. Unsigned letters cannot be used, but names of the writers may be withheld on request. Send letters to Rochester Review, 147 Wallis Hall, P.O. Box 270033, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627-0033; rochrev @rochester.edu.
“Will the program give any attention to areas where females have the
advantage?” —Marc Roemer ’88, ’97 (MS)
Still Debating Susan B.
I’m intrigued by the yearlong program about Susan B. Anthony (“Still
Seeking Susan B.,” Spring 2006). I’m especially interested in how
women frame the issue of “equal rights.” Ms. [Nora] Bredes, director
of the University’s Anthony Center for Women’s Leadership, makes
nothing of the fact that women have outnumbered men in college since at least
1983. Will the program give any attention to this and other areas where females
have the advantage, such as women’s better health, exemption from military
service, reproductive and automatic parental rights, lower accountability for
crimes they commit, and disproportionate consumer spending?
I expect the answer to be “no,” because my observation is that
women strive for equal rights only when they stand to benefit, and rarely, if
at all, when they stand to lose. Nevertheless, I invite the program participants
to apply their intellectual gifts to these inequalities, using the rational
side of their being, so we can perhaps come to respect women some day as equal
partners, just as Susan B. Anthony hoped.
Marc Roemer ’88, ’97 (MS)
Washington, D.C.
I read with great interest your article “Still Seeking Susan B.”
I was disappointed that there was no reference to Antoinette (Nettie) Brown
Blackwell. A native of Henrietta, New York, she was the first ordained woman
minister in the United States. Her biography, Antoinette Brown Blackwell:
A Biography, by Elizabeth Cazden, (The Feminist Press at the City University
of New York, 1983) contains more than 30 references to Susan.
Susan visited Nettie frequently at her Henrietta home, and the two traveled
together on the lecture circuit and attended numerous conventions together.
It would be a shame to neglect this strong connection with the Rochester area.
Robert Donaldson ’57 (Mas)
Denville, New Jersey
Remembering a Teacher
I was surprised and saddened to learn of the demise of Paul Allen ’49E
(In Memoriam, Winter 2005–06). Paul and Ward Woodbury ’54E (PhD),
the director of music on the River Campus, had become friends at the Eastman
School right after World War II. When Allan Ross ’61 left to pursue graduate
work at Indiana University after the 1964–65 year, Dr. Woodbury invited
Paul to take over the men’s and women’s glee clubs and the concert
band.
Although I performed under him in the concert band for only my senior year,
I found him to be not only a good musician but also a man who was open, friendly,
and sensitive to the musical interests and aspirations of the students. He was
an outstanding teacher, and I know I am far from alone in this opinion. He will
be missed.
H. E. (Kit) Crissey Jr. ’66
Elkins Park, Pennsylvania
Wallis Rejoinder
As a proud Rochester graduate and faculty member for 31 years (1959–2000),
I take strong exception to the views expressed in recent letters to Review
regarding the presidency of W. Allen Wallis (Letters, Winter 2005–06 and
Spring 2006). Alumni Hyman, Leberstein, and Russell are apparently still disgruntled
and upset that their demands during the troubled ’60s were not obeyed.
An eminent statistician, economist, and a distinguished administrator, Allen
Wallis deserved the honor of having a University building named in his memory.
Tom Knapp ’52, ’54W (Mas), ’57 (Mas)
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii
The author was on the faculty of the Warner School and the School of Nursing
at Rochester—Editor.
Recording a Correction
The
Winter 2005–06 issue of Review failed to include the text for
a recording that we listed. Our apologies to Susan Marie Pierson ’74E,
whose debut in the role of Isolde in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde is
featured on a four-CD set produced by Titanic Records.
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