我们矛盾的勇气

九月，学院举办了一场预演 哈里斯·沃福德:有点疯狂这是一部关于布林莫尔第五任总统的新纪录片.  

随时准备参加活动, 伊丽莎白·莫西尔84年与哈里斯·沃福德坐下来谈论他的生活和时代. 

他和博士一起行军。. 马丁·路德·金., 曾在肯尼迪政府担任总统的民权特别助理, 帮助成立了和平队, 撰写书籍(最值得注意的是, Of 《肯尼迪和国王:六十年代的意义), 练习法, 在妇女运动兴起期间担任布林莫尔的第二任男性总统, established 和 directed the Pennsylvania Governor’s Office of Citizen Service as secretary of labor 和 industry, started the conversation on national health care reform during his 1991 senatorial campaign (to fill Senator John Heinz’s seat after his untimely death), promoted service learning through AmeriCorps as CEO of the Corporation for National 和 Community Service, 在奥巴马2008年在国家宪法中心发表种族演讲之前，他介绍了奥巴马, 和, 克莱尔死后二十年, 他深爱了48年的妻子, 与他晚年的爱人结婚, 马修·查尔顿.

会议再次

作为一个有着如此丰富履历的人，小哈里斯·卢埃林·伍福德.，是轻松愉快的. “在这里，他们什么都用威尔士语,他说, laughing as he quotes a Haverford College student trying to translate his invitation to a reception at the 布林莫尔 College president’s house, 沃福德从1970年到1978年住在哪里. 也许Pen y Groes的意思是回复!” 

现在他已经91岁了，他回到校园参加一部新纪录片的放映， 哈里斯·沃福德，《微疯》, in which 布林莫尔 claims a middle chapter in his fascinating life story filled with plot twists. 导演雅各布·芬克尔跟踪拍摄了9年, 阐明哈里斯·沃福德的生活和事业. 

在潘格罗的首映前招待会上，我提醒他我们以前见过面. In 1981, 沃福德开车送我和其他几个学生从费城的福雷斯特剧院回家, 在那里我们有幸见到了凯瑟琳·赫本，她在 西区华尔兹. 和女校友聊天, 我提到那年我在哈弗福德学院画了一间宿舍. “男人和女人住在一起!她责备道。. “我不赞成!” 

在我们回家的路上，伍福德缓和了我们的痛苦, telling funny stories about trying to coax the icon into speaking at Commencement—a gallant effort he now recalls as “one of the great pleasures of my time at 布林莫尔.” 

(In 1973, 赫本会见了高年级学生，并在厄德曼大厅作了一次非正式的演讲, 这些珍珠在接下来的几年里被重印在招生刊物上, 包括:“布林茅尔不是塑料的, 它不是尼龙的, 它是纯金的.”)  

当我第一次见到沃福德的时候，我是一个不折不扣的大二学生. I didn’t know that the “Bi-College Cooperation” I took for granted—a deeper 和 stronger relationship with Haverford that included consolidated academic departments, 交叉注册和专业, (是的, 赫本小姐)的住宅交流是由前总统的积极倡导塑造的. 

哈弗福德正在考虑接纳女性的问题, President Wofford emphasized that cooperation between the two institutions would improve education, 不仅仅是增加男女同校. 在战略上, he focused on 布林莫尔’s strength as the only women’s college in the world with (coeducational) graduate programs 和 worked throughout his presidency to exp和 our national 和 international role in educating women. 

这么多年后又见到了伍福德, 我突然想到他的幽默是架桥者的工具, 作为不同文化之间的社会纽带, 国家, 以及相互冲突的想法. 严肃地说, 我很高兴有机会感谢这位开朗的人, 感谢他在紧张和关键时期稳定地管理着布林茅尔

伍福德在布林莫尔

金·卡西迪总统告诉听众 gathered for tonight’s screening in Goodhart Hall that Wofford—whom Senator Robert Kennedy once called a “slight madman” for his compassionate commitment to civil rights—“has always been open to ideas that challenge accepted doctrines 和 has had the courage to speak 和 act for change.” She cites his trip to India with his gr和mother at age 11 as the source of his fascination with Mahatma G和hi 和 the anti-colonial political strategy of non-cooperation. This serendipitous event also seems to have inspired his sense of duty to cooperate with good, 因为他长期在政府工作, 公共服务, 教育证明.

布林莫尔, 它的传统和紧张关系, 它的希望和问题, 1969年春天，他向伍福德招手, when Barbara Auchincloss Thacher ’40 called him on behalf of the Presidential 搜索 Committee. 

正如他在1977年布林莫尔总统报告中所说的那样, “We were in the midst of a student sit-in (at the State University of New York’s experimental new College at Old Westbury, 他是那里的开国总统). 克莱尔同意给我捎个口信，但告诉了克莱尔太太. Thacher she hoped that whenever we left Old Westbury her husb和 would go to something like a country grocery store 和 not to work in any college. 夫人. 撒切尔冷冷地回答说:“我太太. 伍福德布林莫尔大学可不是普通的大学.“我们来是为了了解她是多么正确.”

His eloquent inauguration speech reveals that he could read 布林莫尔’s contradictions in the original Welsh: the “high hill” that offered a vital retreat from the world 和 that threatened intellectual 和 political isolation. As the new president spoke on Merion Green that day in the fall of 1970, his colleagues John F. 小肯尼迪,.马丁·路德·金.罗伯特·肯尼迪也不在了. 随着越南战争愈演愈烈，人们对政府的不信任也在上升. Some students in the audience had taken fall makeup exams in spring-semester courses disrupted by anti-war protests 和 the Kent State shootings in May. 

President Wofford’s words would have comforted some 和 concerned others: “American higher education st和s indicted for its readiness to invent atomic bombs 和 do weapons research, 却忽视了像战争一样的生死问题, 贫困, 歧视, 城市分类, 人口过多, 和污染,他说. “We must find the way 和 the will to bring these problems from the outskirts of the Academy, 他们主要是在课外教学还是鼓动中出现的, 成为我们学习和研究的中心.”

这就是他要做的. Although outwardly—architecturally—布林莫尔’s campus was largely unchanged in that decade dominated by the energy crisis 和 an economic downturn, 重塑我们机构特性的重要内部工作已经开始.

在一个学生对社区组织越来越感兴趣的时代, 社会行动, 上法学院, Wofford proposed a new master’s degree curriculum in Law 和 Social Policy at the Graduate School of Social Work 和 Social Research. 在充满活力的玛丽·帕特森·麦克弗森博士二人组的帮助下.D. 1969年(当时的本科院长)和招生主任贝蒂·维梅, he increased opportunities for study 和 research abroad 和 doubled the international student presence on campus to nearly 10 percent. 1976年的研究,为期四年的研讨会和专题讨论会, 他把理论和实践结合起来, 城镇和大学,"把学术, 公民, 企业, 和 political leaders to campus to discuss “the premises 和 promises of the Declaration of Independence in the light of modern American problems.这一切都是在为“第10个十年”运动筹款的同时进行的, 超过了23美元的目标收入.从1973年到1976年. 

金·卡西迪总统告诉听众, “Harris has always been open to ideas that challenge accepted doctrines 和 has had the courage to speak 和 act for change.”

Of course, that’s not the whole story; the deeper truth is in the everyday details. 在我的研究中, 我找到了沃福德校长的9月12号, 1972, 给姐妹会的信, referencing the new Black Cultural Center at Perry House 和 the campus constituencies seeking the group’s input on curriculum, 招聘, 职业问题, 新生迎新活动. Wofford wrote to “renew the commitment of the College administration to take all steps possible to assure that the experience of Black students at 布林莫尔 is a full 和 good one educationally, 社会, 在各个方面.他模仿的学生代表包括74岁的地质学家Rhea Graham, who would forge a career in environmental stewardship on her way to 和 from her appointment as the first woman 和 first African American to lead the U.S. 矿务局. 

正如卡西迪总统在芬克尔纪录片的介绍中所说的那样, “Harris challenged what was then a very traditional liberal arts college to bring the strength of the academy to addressing the problems of the world around us, 这是我们今天仍在学院举行的迎新活动.”

今晚, 哈里斯·沃福德坐在坐满了家人的观众席里, 朋友, 还有以前的同事, 我们都渴望在银幕上看到他精彩的一生.