December 2, 2015. Updated December 9, 2015.
VOL. XVII NO. 7

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CAMPUS TURMOIL,
BOSTON TEMPTATIONS,
AND PARISIAN RESILIENCE

RACE New!
Consider What "People of Color" Experience Every Day
A Rejoinder to Bill Boyer from Steve Buck

I was amazed and saddened to read the rant about race at Yale.

It drips scorn at actions put under the label of "politically correct" and "Kumbayah for Persons of Color," and sees any attempts at "diversity" and "inclusion" as "coddling."

It seems to lament that Yale is "no longer a bastion of white male supremacy" and "unrecognizable ....to older donors who felt proud to be counted among Yale's anointed few."

Well, Bill, yes, times have changed in the 53 plus years since you and I graduated from Yale. The U.S. has become more "diverse" and will become even more so. WASPs like me will become a minority, and I can live with that.

Click here for the rest of Steve's comments, including examples of why "we while males are largely clueless as to what it's like to be black in America."

Scroll down for
      Reflections on Yale's Racial Predicament 2015: A Fundraiser's Take
      The Dilemma of Arab Neighbors in Paris
      An Optimistic Pearl Harbor Day Message
      AYA Report
      Post-attack resiliency in Paris
      Boston mini-reunion update
      Necrology

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Out of line?? Click the arrow to see the YouTube video of the distressed student (back to camera) confronting the Silliman dean.

Grooming sissies? Salovey in front of his Hillhouse Avenue house on November 9 with members of the "Next Yale" student group.

RACE (Original article)
Reflections on Yale's Racial Predicament 2015: A Fundraiser's Take
"Black Lives Matter" Goes to College

By Bill Boyer

Yale's in a pickle. It has a "wicked" problem that can't be solved. Whichever way it turns is wrong and neither Salovey, Holloway, nor all of Kingman's men can put it together. Through a 40-year succession of genial leaders, Yale has acceded to so many calls for political correction that it now just can't say "no." How we got here is a long and freighted tale.

In 1960, there were about 4000 students in Yale College, nearly 100% white, American males, with a large proportion of East Coast kids, many with elite prep school training. Today white American males comprise about 28% of Yale undergraduates.ⁱ

The US Census reports that 77% of Americans are "white"ⁱⁱ and about 49% of these are males, for a total of 38% of the total US population.ⁱⁱⁱ So, Yale's undergraduate racial demographics do not reflect our nation as a whole and evidently do not intend to. We white American males are a distinct minority at Yale College today.

Since the mid-1960s, following our graduation, when our nation suffered paroxysms of student revolution over civil rights and the Vietnam War, Yale changed irrevocably, at the hands of Inky Clark and Kingman Brewster. After tumultuous displays by Black Panthers and other "radical liberals" on campus, Yale tightened its grip on the reality of free expression ... To read the rest of Bill's concerns, including his fear that "Yale is not building leaders but grooming sissies," click here.

i. Yale Factsheet (2014-2015) Facts & Statistics, 2/4/15
ii. U.S. Census Bureau definition of white persons
iii. U.S. Census Bureau, Quickfacts, 2015

Scroll down for
      The Dilemma of Arab Neighbors in Paris
      An Optimistic Pearl Harbor Day Message
      AYA Report
      Post-attack resiliency in Paris
      Boston mini-reunion update
      Necrology

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TERRORISM? New!
The Dilemma of Arab Neighbors in Paris

By Kent Ravenscroft

Last week I was sitting in our neighborhood French police station, just down the street from our apartment building. I was waiting, for two hours, to give my deposition. As I waited, I thought about the trauma. We are all on edge here, and maybe even a little paranoid.

Why was I at the police station? We have a tiny former maid's room between our apartment and the apartment across the hall. There are three or four Arabs living there, speaking Arabic and French. I can hear them through our bathroom wall. They are renting, and have only been there two months. Sometimes there are no voices, but with my ear to the wall I can hear everything but don't understand Arabic. The French is too garbled for my untutored ear and too muffled for Patti's astute ear. Sometimes there are several people there. One recent day and night there was a group, quite excited about something as the San Bernardino shooting was unfolding. We see them coming in and out but they don't speak to us or respond.

Three days ago, when Patti was getting off the elevator to our apartment, one of the guys was coming out the door. Inside she saw a huge screen, lots of wires coming out, and lots of electronic equipment. Maybe just hi-tech stuff for gaming. But -- maybe not. Several neighbors said I should not risk sticking my neck out. Find out what Kent did, and what a former US diplomat might have tried, here.

Scroll down for
      An Optimistic Pearl Harbor Day Message
      AYA Report
      Post-attack resiliency in Paris
      Boston mini-reunion update
      Necrology

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AND WHILE WE'RE ON THE SUBJECT New!
An Optimistic
Pearl Harbor Day Message
From Bill Stott

Celebrated among many of us who subscribe to it, Bill Stott's listserv usually mixes his own brief comments with choice reprints. On Monday, he wrote for his own, optimistic self, in 800 words that include "We're better than this, guys. Grow up."

My dears,

Several of you write of your alarm about America, meaning the USA, and the West. I don't share your fears and, it being Pearl Harbor Day, I want to share my confidence.

The Soviet Union-that was something to worry about. All those thermonuclear bombs. If there had been a war in which many were used, humans would survive, said J. Robert Oppenheimer, "but you couldn't be sure they were humans." We face no threat of this sort; our threats are child-size. Click here to find out what Bill thinks of them.

Scroll down for
      AYA Report
      Post-attack resiliency in Paris
      Boston mini-reunion update
      Necrology

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AYA REPORT
Salovey on Free Expression;
Curbing Sexual Abuse; Sharing Careers;
Improving Public Health

By David Finkle

Here's the report from your AYA rep who's just back from this year's annual assembly, which happened to be the 75th such event. As you may know, every year there's a theme, and this year's was "Yale and Public Health." You may also know, whatever the theme, the three-day gathering is intended to be a Yale-enthusiasm booster shot. Okay, my enthusiasm for the old alma mater is definitely boosted.

Free expression. But first a word from our president Peter Salovey and likewise our college dean Jonathan Holloway. Since the 75th occurred after a few weeks of Yale hitting the headlines for unrest - and not to mention other campuses - I was eager to hear what those in charge had to tell the visiting alums. And I figure that as rep, I was repping those interests for the rest of the class.

In the speeches they gave during late-arranged Battell Chapel Assembly Keynote Plenary addresses, President Salovey and dean Holloway were everything you'd hope... For more on Salovey, sex issues on campus, a new effort to help us share career insights, and advances in a public health school most of us don't know about, click here.

Scroll down for
      Post-attack resiliency in Paris
      Boston mini-reunion update
      Necrology

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TRAVEL AND POLITICS
We Will, Too, Always Have Paris
(And, It Seems, Arguments over Terrorism)

Ever insouciant, Kent Ravenscroft, having lived for half of the last 50 years with his wife, Patti, in the Paris village des Batignoles "in the foothills of Montmartre," recently posted the following on the website from which Patti launches her tours of "local sights and culinary delights." Even before the terrorist attacks they had planned to move permanently this spring to their other terroir in the Washington, DC area. Below that, see Al Chambers' capsule comments on what he sees as a terrorism discussion in US politics that is only just starting.

The day after the Paris attacks, we did go out and visit the new Musée Pierre Cardin, which showcases 200 of Cardin's most memorable haute-couture creations:

There is a movement afoot called "Take me back to the Café," which means getting back to enjoying the basic pleasures of life,... click here for more

Scroll down for
      Boston mini-reunion update
      Necrology

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MINI REUNION UPDATE
Spring Boston Gathering
Looking Better by the Minute

Browse Fine Arts, Newly-Relevant National Values,
Spring Blossoms and Easy Walks

Treasure within. One of the new wings you probably haven't flown through at the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum.

As our readers know, writes Murray Wheeler, one of the co-chairs, "it has been decided that Boston, an easy hop for many of us, is long overdue to host a Class Mini-Reunion. Several willing (?) ground troops have been tasked with organizing such for the coming spring, specifically the weekend of Thursday, April 28th, through Sunday, May 1st, by which time we will all probably be crying M'aidez! You're all aware of the plethora of world-class attractions in Bean Town, but if you haven't stopped by in a while, you may not realize that several of them, particularly the Fine Arts and Gardner Museums, have recently had stunning renovations and/or expansions. And for something completely different, how about letting a ConDUCKtor guide you over land and harbor on an original Boston Duck Tour, or taking in a behind the scenes visit to Fenway Park?

"With a dazzling menu of sites and activities to choose from, a top-shelf hotel in the Fairmont Copley Plaza, all amid a world class showcase of spring blossoms, we invite you to let a few congenial days in Boston be a high point of your spring. A Save the Date card is on its way. Please plan to join us!"

Adds Mike Kane, another co-chair: "Our Mini-reunion will mark, to the month, the 241st anniversary of the first battle of the Revolutionary War, April 19, 1775. This date was when British troops who had marched out of Boston in a failed attempt to capture munitions stored in Concord had to retreat back to Boston under murderous fire from colonial militias drawn from almost all the towns surrounding Boston. Many died on both sides. The Battle of Bunker Hill (Charlestown) came a few months later.

"Because of its three centuries of history dating to the founding of our country and the rich collection of architecture tracing that history, Boston is a place where just walking around is a splendid entertainment. Items like the world class attractions, duck boats, and Fenway can be a bonus. People who don't live here may not appreciate how much of Boston has been preserved as it was, and within walking distance, unlike New York where you have to look hard to find anything from, say, the 18th century and when you do, you can't walk there."

To which Murray says: "Where we are in relation to the concepts on which this country was founded has never, ever been more relevant than it is right now. I really like the idea of celebrating that as part of the weekend's agenda."

Please quickly send your own suggestions and early registration interest to Murray, Mike, and their third co-chair, Whit Knapp, at murwheels@gmail.com.

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      Necrology

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REMEMBRANCE
Necrology

We regret to announce the death since our last edition of this publication of Clayton P. Alderfer. A full obituary will appear in due course. If you have recollections or information about him, please contact Bob Oliver.

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NOTIFYING CLASSMATES OF SERVICES

If you would like classmates to be notified about your funeral or memorial activities, if we get the information in time the Class of 1962 will send information to the names on our class email list. Please ask those who will be in charge to send the details to Bob Oliver at oliver@moglaw.com, 203-624-5111, and for backup to John Stewart, Co-Corresponding Secretary, at johnhargerstewart@gmail.com, 845-789-1407. We will not send out information unless someone makes this request.

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COMMENTS

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