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Global Classrooms
‘Sisters’ Colleges See a Bounty in the Middle East
By TAMAR LEWIN
Published: June 3, 2008

Women’s colleges are a dwindling breed in the United States.
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So this spring the admissions deans of the five leading women’s colleges — Bryn Mawr, Barnard, Mount Holyoke, Wellesley and Smith — went recruiting to a place where single-sex education is more than a niche product: the Middle East.
For three weeks they visited schools in Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, describing what a liberal-arts women’s college can offer academically ambitious students. (They skipped Saudi Arabia, where, their trip coordinator warned, they might need a male escort.)

Everywhere, they talked about how women benefited from having their own colleges where women make up a large part of the faculty and students are encouraged to excel in male-dominated fields like science and math. And they flaunted their accomplished alumnae, including Hillary Rodham Clinton, Emily Dickinson, Diane Sawyer, Katharine Hepburn and Madeleine K. Albright.

“We still prepare a disproportionate number of women scientists,” Jenny Rickard, dean of admissions at Bryn Mawr, said in describing the presentations. “We’re really about the empowerment of women and enabling women to get a top-notch education.”

Like universities nationwide, the five women’s colleges are expanding their overseas recruiting, and although reaching out to the Middle East seems logical to them, in some ways it is an odd fit.
While single-sex schools in the Middle East are protected environments, reflecting women’s traditional roles in Muslim society, the American colleges, for all their white-glove history and academic prominence, are liberal strongholds where students fiercely debate political action, gender identity and issues like “heteronormativity,” the marginalizing of standards that are other than heterosexual. Middle Eastern students who already attend these colleges tell of a transition that can be jarring.

Pasangi Perera Weerasingag, who attended a coeducational British-model high school in Dubai, said that when she arrived at Mount Holyoke last year, she was shocked by the presence of so many lesbians among the students. But she adjusted, she says, and now loves the environment, with the widespread willingness to discuss race and class (“so refreshing”) and her classmates’ engagement in politics.

On their trip to the Middle East, the American deans visited American international schools, British-model schools, Indian-model schools, coeducational schools filled with children of expatriates and schools of local girls who do not much mix with men. Reactions varied, according to e-mail messages from counselors and students at the schools, but over all the region seemed fertile ground for recruiting. For some families, the colleges represented a compromise between the familiarity of home and an all-out plunge into American ways.

“You could almost see light bulbs going off in student’s minds, as if, ‘Why didn’t I think of them a while ago?’ " said Jennifer Melton, a counselor at the American School in Dubai.
“You could also see parents exhale with less anxiety around the process,” Ms. Melton said, “and the fact that there really are institutions that are a good fit for their daughters.”
In the 1960s, there were some 300 women’s colleges in the United States; now there are fewer than 60. But Bryn Mawr, Barnard, Mount Holyoke, Wellesley and Smith — known as the Sisters, those of the storied Seven Sisters left after Radcliffe merged with Harvard and Vassar began admitting men — are thriving, attracting record numbers of high-achieving applicants, who are drawn by their history of academic prominence.

Still, most American high school girls never consider applying to a women’s college. And because the Sisters do not get as many applicants as comparable coeducational colleges, they are not as selective as other top institutions. So an influx of applications from the Middle East would be especially welcome.

But the admissions deans say their foray to the Middle East was not an effort to find young Muslim women who could be comfortable only in a world of women. “People keep waiting for us to say we went because we were expecting it to be so conservative that it would be a great fit,” said Jennifer Desjarlais, Wellesley’s dean of admission. “That wasn’t why we went. That never occurred to us.”

The idea, she said, grew out of an international conference, where counselors from the Middle East said they wished more American liberal arts colleges would visit their schools.
Ms. Weerasingag, who is Sri Lankan but grew up in Dubai, said that when she told friends she was going to Mount Holyoke, “they all said, ‘Why, why would you go to a women’s college?’ and immediately began to make jokes about homosexuality.”

She said the number of lesbian students on campus “was the only part that came as a culture shock to me.”

“It was very open — there were open displays of affection,” she added. “At the beginning, there were times when I’d have to close my eyes and say, ‘O.K., I’m at Mount Holyoke, and it’s different.’ But that lasted only a week or so, and now I have so many friends who are openly gay, and it makes no difference.”

Ms. Weerasingag, 20, finds other aspects of Mount Holyoke life invigorating. “We didn’t have a political atmosphere in Dubai,” she said. “At Mount Holyoke, during the primaries I couldn’t even sleep, because everyone around me was so involved.”
At the recruiting presentations, some students saw the women’s colleges as their best route to the United States. “My options of traveling to the United States are limited by my conservative upbringing,” said Ascia al-Faraj, a student at the American International School in Kuwait. “But the chances of attending one of the Sisters schools is more likely.” She plans to apply to several of the Sisters.

Mark Ray, a counselor at the school, said he believed that in general, “parents would be much more likely to send their daughters to one of these schools rather than to a coed university.”
But in many Middle Eastern families, it remains unthinkable to send an 18-year-old daughter to America alone. So there were questions about transfer admissions from young women who planned to start college close to home, said Diane Anci, dean of admission at Mount Holyoke.
“We also, on some occasions, got questions about living off campus, and the neighborhood around the college,” she said, “which meant, ‘Could my mother or auntie come and live in an off-campus house with me?’ ”

Even before the trip, the Sisters had been told that single-sex residences might be an important draw for Middle Eastern students, Ms. Anci said.
Students were more interested, though, in hearing about the freedom they would have at the women’s colleges, Mr. Ray said.

“The greatest concern expressed by the ladies, which was quickly dispelled, was their idea they would be in a lockdown environment,” he said.

The deans made clear that was not the case. “None of us is a nunnery, so much of our presentation is to reassure young women that there are opportunities to interact with young men,” said Audrey Smith, dean of enrollment at Smith College.

Indeed, at each of the presentations, the Sisters stressed the frequent contact with men at nearby colleges, the possibility of cross-registering for classes and the coeducational clubs.
Kristen Duff, an Australian student at the American School in Dubai, said that she planned to apply to Barnard but that many of her Arab and part-Arab friends had not been won over.
“They have conservative parents,” she said, “and I think that in their independence in college they really want to attend coed schools in a foreign country. Going to a girls’ school would seem like a step backwards.”

Over all, the deans said, selling single-sex education was less difficult than selling the liberal arts in a region where professional education is more the norm.
“The question we got most often was, ‘What would I do afterwards?’ ” said Ms. Rickard, of Bryn Mawr. “I talked about how liberal arts prepared you for the jobs that haven’t been invented yet. The example I’d give is my own career. I was a liberal arts student when there were no computers, and then I found myself at a software company.”

Several high school counselors said their students had been impressed with the lively confidence of the deans, viewing them as role models. Ms Anci, of Mount Holyoke, recalls a like moment.
“After one long presentation in Dubai, where the audience was rapt,” she said, “one of the girls came up afterward, very bright-eyed, and said: ‘I don’t know exactly what I want to do, but I know I want to do great things. And I know if I come to one of your schools, I will do great things.’ ”

Thoughts?

Julia '08

proud to be a "cracker?"

One lovely spring day I was sitting at my computer, content to do nothing as school had just ended. I decided that I would do some carefree facebook stalking, as nothing is more relaxing. However on this day I was shocked to find that someone had this bumper sticker on their facebook page:

For those of you unfamiliar with facebook and unfamiliar with the new “bumper sticker” application, its kind of the newest way to accessorize your page- to really let your personality shine through. You can add these stickers your self or send and receive them from your friends.


ANYWAY, I was SO appalled at this particular bumper sticker and tried to think why anyone would want to have this on their facebook as an “accessory.” Is this a way of embracing whiteness or an effort to move to some sort of positive white identity?? Or is it possible that the majority of white Americans have no clue as to what being a “cracker” means? To be honest, only recently did I learn the origins of the word "cracker."

After staring at this picture of a saltine cracker for over a half an hour I debated whether or not I should send an “educational message” to this person describing why they probably would not want this “accessory” on their page if they knew what it meant…

I didn’t send the message though. I came here instead in hopes that more than one person would get the message.


The Origin of the Word Cracker and its Present Connotation


“This definition involves the whip, its pieces, its sound and those who used the whip. One theory is that cracker was coined by black people in reference to the whip-cracking during enslavement; by extension any white person. (Smitherman,100)”

• (Green, 264) The sound of whips cracking was heard when Florida cattlemen would drive the oxen that pulled their carts and wagons and when Florida cowboys herded cattle.





• (Tonyan) 1842 BUCKINGHAM, The Slave States of American (London, 1842, p.210) They are called by the twos people "Crackers," from the frequency with which they crack their large whips, as if they derived a peculiar pleasure from the sound. (OED)





• 1887 Beacon (Boston) 11 June, The word Cracker..is supposed to have been suggested by their cracking whips over oxen or mules in taking their cotton to the market.
  

“This definition of cracker is the racially charged one and is best understood after carefully considering all previous definitions as to how it evolved.”


Cracker is also a…name for whites, especially those thought to be racist. (Allen 50)

• 1977. Smitherman Talkin 252 Cracker, negative term for whites, especially those who are extremely racist. ( Cassidy 826)
  



• 1980 Sun Times (Chicago, IL) 5 Mar Letters [From R.I. McDavid), I must deplore…Jay McMullen’s tactless, racist designation of President Carter as a "Georgia cracker." It is one of the most offensive terms that can be used about whites, and it has been traditionally used by blacks to designate the poorest, most degraded whites with whom they come in contact. (Cassidy 826)

Being "proud of being a cracker" is synonymous in so many ways with being proud of being racist, not being proud of being white. Of course sometimes whiteness and racism are mutually exclusive but they don't have to be. Also, I don't think a picture of a saltine really captures the meaning of the word.

Julia '08

"don't do stupid shit like this" 101

• Do not single out the only person of color (domestic or international) in the room and use her as a "representative" of a culture, race or country. This is racist.
• Just because we have an enormous international population on campus, do not conflate this with racial, or socio-economic “diversity.”
  
• Don't "pull a JoJo" (I saw this with my own eyes) in which you respond to a student's mentioning of her background with, "Oh, wow! How EXOTIC!" Bad word.
  
• Don't treat non-European people and societies as homogeneous monoliths
  
• Don't exoticize different countries, cultures and races (like the Hampshire hippie Indo-phile in my South Asian Studies class did). I'm not even comfortable repeating the spectacularly “Orientalist” and racist comment she made.
• Don't ask someone where someone is from in order to essentially find out why they're not white, or why they have a name that is "unpronounceable" to you.
• One girl complained in a seminar that the film we watched should have had subtitles, basically arguing that it would have been more "effective" if it catered to people who speak English with the mainstream US accent and outlook that she has. The film was about the Jamaican national debt.
• Faculty don't give a white person kudos for repeating a point a student of color just made.
• White students, don't conclude that race doesn't matter, just because it doesn't matter to you.
• During class discussion, pay attention to whose ideas you respond to with follow up questions/comments/reflection and whose you leave alone and move on from (i.e. I've seen in my classes in the past that white students will engage with each other's comments but just sort of ignore the comments made by students of color).
• During class discussion, do not dismiss students' discussions of lived experience as somehow less authoritative or real than the sanctioned theories or dominant views you are teaching (i.e. don't tell a student of color that her story is "an interesting personal experience, but...")
• Faculty be open to students interpreting a paper assignment on their own terms in order to revise any racially-biased criteria you may not have been aware of--don't hold fast to it for the sake of being "right."

have any more? Add them to the list

Sulekha '09, Shannon '09, Julia '08, Laura

Dear White People at Mount Holyoke

When ambiguous but racially charged incidents at Mount Holyoke open a flood gate of pain within the student body of color, many white peers solidly reaffirm their commitment to “colorblindness.” In an understandable effort to carve the wall between their white skin and the label “racist,” my sister white students neglect the simple wisdom offered by poet Pat Parker in her poem called “For the white person who wants to know how to be my friend." To the white person looking to do right, to steer clear of “racial” situations, Parker cautions: "The first thing you do is forget that I'm Black. Second, you must never forget that I'm Black."

Perhaps for many white students this is a frustrating double bind, especially because we so often want to “see each other as equals” and forget race altogether. Many of us white students proudly say that “we don’t even notice the color of one’s skin”- that race, to us, does not matter.

However, whether we want it to or not, race does matter. It matters in many ways for many different people in this country. But right here, right now: it matters to our sisters of color here at Mount Holyoke whose academic experiences are frustrated and hindered by thoughtless comments outside of class, by being asked to speak on behalf of their culture in class, and by the pervasive assumption that Mount Holyoke College is somehow above our society’s problems. They are frustrated by the belief that Mount Holyoke is not a place where racism is an issue.

Even the most critical among us cannot presume to be outside of the culture that raised us. A culture where pantyhose and makeup of the color “nude” are akin to pale skin; where “good neighborhoods” often refers to homogenous, white areas; a culture where a white woman is never asked to categorize her hair as “good” or “bad” because of its texture; where white people are not followed suspiciously in stores; where white people are not called “exotic,”- a culture where economic control still lies primarily in white hands.

This is the same culture that houses our College and therefore, without our active rejection of those elements of our culture, we live and reproduce its ugliness even here at Mount Holyoke.

Of course people of all backgrounds are effected by prejudice, stereotypes and bias. But *racism* -that is, prejudice supported by a system of power and privilege- racism benefits white people in the United States. Race, then, does matters to us white people too.

Indeed, racism is white peoples’ problem. It is our problem not in that we are its targets, but because we are its beneficiaries. We are responsible to acknowledge this privilege, learn how it works, call it by its name, publicly reject it. It is our job to acknowledge white supremacy in our culture, it’s our turn to recognize where racism comes from: our own communities.


Are you, my sister white students, guilty? Are you a racist because you are white? That is not the question I pose. I am asking a different, more empowering question: Are you for our collective liberation from racism’s ugly hold? And is there any passive way to be an anti-racist white person?

No, passivity is complicity. One of the most active steps toward anti-racist living for a white person is to look critically within. Don’t allow guilt to confuse your desire for justice. As one scholar put it, “Guilt is intellectual laziness.” And it’s certainly true that to unlearn deeply ingrained racist thinking, to bring to light what is purposefully made invisible—is a serious but crucial challenge to the mind and heart. Working toward an anti-racist college community, white community members, let’s challenge and support one in our personal and collective journey toward an actively anti-racist white identity.”

Clare ’04
AWARE-LA
http://awarehome.blogspot.com/

Advice

I have been asked a lot, "why do you just talk in Debunking Whitenes." I personally don't think that Debunking Whiteness just talks but I never know how to respond. So I emailed a mentor of mine and asked for advice. This is what she told me.

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Hi Julia,

I hear your frustration in that... situation where the student (s) saw Debunking Whiteness as "all talk." This is a perpetual critique of reflective spaces. Action is always very sexy... but it's not always strategic... or responsible. Especially for white folks-- if white people just jump in at every hot activist moment-- we actually might do more DAMAGE than good (especially) if we are unreflective and haven't worked on "our own shit" as white people.

Social movements have been greatly harmed by well-intentioned and activist white folks who wanted to jump in and do dramatic things, without seeing there socialization and building trusting communities over time. It could also be seen as characteristic of the dominant white culture to be very "results oriented"-- where there is a problem, white people must fix it.... which avoids sitting inside of tension, which is sometimes what is asked of us by people of color. The importance of the Debunking Whiteness space is to supplement (not replace) multiracial work over time.... it's a space for reflection -- in relationship with action... one with out the other could be questionable. But it's tricky- because in the case of Mount Holyoke College-- "collective action" doesn't always look like a campaign, a boycott or a walk out (although- when the organizing and momentum is right, it could and has...)

-- "multiracial collaboration" for white people at MHC also means being an ally in the classroom, at school-wide forums on race, in editorials of the school news paper, etc. None of this is to say that action is not essential. It's true that there a TONS of "activist" groups that talk and talk and struggle for the perfect analysis and never DO anything. My take is simply that the most effective kind of action is long term organizing of communities, to build power, so that when there is a TACTICAL opportunity to take action (like a demonstration or a walk out) then that tactic is actually *impactful* because there is a base of people backing it up.

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-Julia 08