Daffodils for Remembrance

Over the Thanksgiving break, students—who were required to stay on campus for safety reasons—planted more than 2,000 daffodil bulbs in a plot of land near Munger Meadow, along the path up to Beebe and the Hazard Quad from College Road. In announcing the project, called the “Fall 2020 Legacy Landscape,” Dean of Students Sheilah Shaw Horton told students, “The bulbs will bloom early in spring, in time for you and your sibs to enjoy and reflect on the mark that you have left on this campus. In years to come when you visit the campus, you will be able to remember the strength, resilience, and beauty that you created in your fall 2020 experience at Wellesley.”

Changes in Campus Public Safety

Last summer, a coalition of students of African descent called Wellesley for Black Students submitted a list of demands to the College (see “Making Change,” in the fall ’20 issue). The group asked for changes to public-safety protocols that would minimize the presence of campus police in the residence halls. Because student lockouts are the main reason officers are in the halls, Residential Life staff created a “lockout call line” managed by Res Life and staffed by students, who handled more than 200 lockouts this fall, instead of campus police. In addition, Res Life, campus police, and the Stone Center Counseling Service have begun training together to minimize the role of police in responding to student mental-health crises. “We continue to make progress on supporting students in their most vulnerable moments,” President Paula Johnson told the community in a memo at the end of the semester. Throughout the fall, Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life Jacquelina Marquez, Assistant Provost of Institutional Planning and Assessment Pamela Taylor, and Associate Director of Talent Management and Development Sarah Staley led a series of community focus groups to solicit feedback as part of the work to create a new vision for public safety on campus.

Come, Hang Out

The campus has a new space for students and faculty to hang out, socialize, or study in the open air: the Amabel Boyce James ’74 Front Porch at the Science Center. Located under the overhang of the 1977 L-wing and looking out onto the Science Center meadow, the new space opened on a 50-degree day in early December.