Reports from Around Campus
Last fall, empty red dresses swayed from tree limbs around campus. They were impossible to miss, or ignore. The installation, part of the REDress Project created by Jaime Black, a Canadian artist of mixed Anishinaabe and Finnish descent, was brought to campus by Wellesley’s Native American Student Association (NASA).
Red Flags
The work memorializes and draws attention to the more than 1,000 missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada and the United States. Black seeks to “evoke a presence through the marking of absence,” according to a description of her work at the National Museum of the American Indian. Emma Slibeck ’24 (above), president of NASA and a descendant of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, hopes the REDress Project will make the Wellesley community aware of MMIWG2S (which stands for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People). “The REDress Project is a great way to get the conversations going … but on a more elevated level, I hope people feel empowered to involve more Native voices and stories in their own lives and activism,” she says.
The Wellesley cross country team qualified for the NCAA Division III Championships in 2021, for the first time since 2015. Seven Wellesley runners participated in the championships, considered the most significant race of the season. All seven Blue runners earned personal records. Ari Marks ’22 finished second in the 6K race with a time of 20:28. After missing last season because of the pandemic, “It’s really exciting to actually be able to compete again, just to be filled with adrenaline and that excitement of really getting to push yourself to a whole new level,” Marks says.
“Leaders aren’t created out of thin air. They are created out of their environments. They are created with learning, with peer relationships, with all types of mentors.”
Total number of participants
Class year of the No. 1 team
Total steps walked by all participants
Equivalent number of miles walked
Members of the winning ’90 green team