Put a Pin on It

For the first time this year, academic departments offered pins instead of stoles to graduating seniors. The reasons were financial (stoles are a lot more expensive than pins) and logistical, says Samara Pearlstein, who is the Art Department’s program coordinator, the Jewett Art Gallery director, and a visiting lecturer. “Nowadays, when everyone has the double majors and minors and then the [student organizations] … you have a stack of like seven stoles, and people are trying to arrange them in a fan across their body,” says Pearlstein, who designed the Art Department’s pins for its five majors. “With the pins, you can see all of them. You can put them on a jacket, you can put them on your bag, you can wear them to reunion, you can wear them to your office.” Each department designed its own pins, featuring details ranging from portrait of Pushkin for the Russian department (which the faculty call “the Pushpin”) to a bubbling beaker for the chemistry department. The pins have been very well received. “People have been, almost universally, absolutely thrilled by them,” says Pearlstein.

Faculty Farewells

The College said goodbye to 10 retiring members of the faculty this year, representing 352 cumulative years of service, including:

Richard French, Louise Sherwood McDowell and Sarah Frances Whiting Professor of Astrophysics and professor of astronomy, at Wellesley since 1980

Larry Rosenwald, Anne Pierce Rogers Professor of American Literature and professor of English, at Wellesley since 1980

David Lindauer, Stanford Calderwood Professor of Economics, at Wellesley since 1981

Craig Murphy, Betty Freyhof Johnson ’44 Professor of Political Science, at Wellesley since 1981

Lee Cuba, professor of sociology, at Wellesley since 1981

Margery Lucas, professor of psychology and cognitive and linguistic sciences, at Wellesley since 1984

Ellen Hildreth, professor of computer science, at Wellesley since 1991

Y. Tak Matsusaka, professor of history, at Wellesley since 1993

Katharine H.S. Moon, Edith Stix Wasserman Professor of Asian Studies and professor of political science, at Wellesley since 1993

Kimberly O’Donnell, senior lecturer in biological sciences, at Wellesley since 1997