Sallyportal: Madly Blogging Reed

Postcard from Reed

By Beverly Lau on October 01, 2012 05:36 PM

Wouldn't it be neat if his name were George? Then he'd be George the Giant Griffin.

Hi there!

Made it out to the Reed Leadership Summit last weekend. Got to see President Kroger's inauguration. Glad to hear he's taking Hum 110 this year! (I wonder if he's doing the homework, too?) Speaking of Hum 110, I attended Friday's lecture by David Garrett, professor of history & humanities. Somehow, I feel like I understand things better. David said Hesiod thought, "The right action at the wrong time is the wrong action." Chew on that!

Weathergram welcoming John Kroger to Reed.Saw the new performing arts building in the middle of construction—it is where the tennis courts used to be beyond Anna Mann. There was lots of discussion about strategies to prepare students for life after Reed. Do you think there should be more programming to expose Reedies to non-academic career paths? Also, heard lots of talk about whether the Reed experience can be reproduced through online classes. The sentiment felt on campus seems to be a resounding, "No." But, I'm sure somebody will play devil's advocate, just to keep the discussion lively.

There were a couple of panel discussions. Mostly, they reaffirmed what I already knew: Reedies are still doing neat research with neat professors. Some 70% of Reedies live on campus, and there's talk about adding even more on-campus housing.

President Kroger said something he heard from an alumnus, which really stuck with me. He said, "Reedies do amazing things because they don't believe that they cannot do it." How right that is.

Wish you were here!
--Bev

Beverly A. Lau '06
Chair, outreach committee
Reed College alumni board

Tags: inauguration