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Advocates of the Griffin
News of the Alumni Association • Connecting Reed Alumni Around the Globe
EDITED BY KATIE RAMSEY ’04
Help Us Help Reed
At first glance, life at Reed has looked very different this past year. Learning has taken place both virtually and in person; fewer students live on campus; COVID-19 protocols are fixtures of day-to-day life.
Yet, students have continued their quests for knowledge—and Reed has stepped up to support them in a multitude of ways. Whether it was increased financial aid, medical expenses, rent and housing security, or other assistance with urgent needs, Reed made sure that every student received what they needed to continue their educational journey.
In these times, alumni support for Reed is more important than ever. As a nonprofit, Reed relies upon the philanthropy of its community—especially alumni—to make possible all of the opportunities, experiences, and mentorships that define Reed as a remarkable place to learn. Every gift makes a meaningful and direct impact in the life of a fellow Reedie.
As Reed alumni, we all know more than anybody the enduring value of a Reed education. We hope you’ll join us in supporting fellow Reedies by making your gift today.
Visit www.reed.edu/givingtoreed or use the envelope in this magazine.
Kyndra Homuth Kennedy ’04 and Cori Savaiano ’11 Alumni Fundraising for Reed Steering Committee Co-Chairs
THE ALUMNI BOARD WANTS YOU
The Alumni Board and the Alumni Programs and Annual Fund Office invite nominations for service on the board. We seek alumni who are demonstrated leaders with a capacity for creativity, dedication, and resourcefulness to further the goals of our three committees: Committee for Young Alumni; Diversity and Inclusion Committee; and Reed Career Alliance.
The Alumni Board is a global service board dedicated to the mission of creating the best possible alumni experience through the work of its committees. The Alumni Board recruits for and oversees its working committees, which carry out programs and initiatives to benefit the alumni community. To nominate yourself or someone you know, start by scanning this QR code. Nominations are due by Saturday, July 17.
photo by lauren labarre
I have a story for you.
It’s the fall of 2004. I’m trekking up Woodstock to the beauty supply store, an establishment making bank on all the freshfaced little weirdos who live down the street. In 2021, this shop is no longer—lost forever to the sands of time—perhaps metamorphosed into the expansion of Ace Hardware (thanks, Google Maps). But it’s not 2021 yet. It’s 2004. I buy a lot of bleach, the strength of which none but a professional ought to have wielded, and in my dorm sink (Bragdon, “the new one” back then), I dye my hair green— for fun, yes, but also in the hope that at last people might stop confusing me with the other Asian girls at Reed, international students included.
It does not work.
I think I would have been more surprised if it had.
Which is to say, where race and racism are concerned, if that’s what sticks out after all this time, I had a fairly average, disappointing but frankly, expected, experience.
I’ve had scarier, but you probably guessed that already. After all, it’s 2021.
Last year, I joined the Reed DIC out of casual curiosity, unaware that other schools had these, unaware that businesses had these. I had no idea what kinds of work we’d do. But the other members were thoughtful and kind and I felt this sense of, oh yeah, like perhaps I’d avoided alumni organizing because I’d yet to connect with a purpose that reflected the relationship I wanted to have with Reed.* Specifically, one that acknowledged the multitude of other realities, like mine, woven into our time on campus.
Casually curious as well?
Join an affinity network.
We’d love to meet you.
Jen Go ’08 she/her/hers
*Short of showing up at Renn Fayre with a backpack full of glowing, gyroscopic plastic toys that I hand out for free, but that’s a me thing. Don’t worry, I’m getting vaxxed and The
Hovering Ball Brigade is coming.
I remember making a conscious decision, in my first weeks as a Reed student, to seal off the complications of my identities and lived experience. To the best of my ability, I would be nothing other than a devoted academic.
I would not be a person who used nonbinary pronouns, nor someone whose wellbeing depended on networks of people with queered worldviews. I would not be a person shaped by working class culture and resource precarity. I would not be the first in my family to pursue a liberal arts degree, would not pay mind to the chasms in my cultural and institutional know-how. Hum 110, Ancient Greek, Bio, Intro to Judaism— after my first few days of class, every nerve in me understood that if I were to make good on the opportunity that was a Reed education, I would have to make Reed, for better or worse, my whole life.
Why did belonging and succeeding at Reed preclude me being my whole self? To this day—along with pride, amazement, and deep gratitude—I harbor an unresolved ambivalence toward my alma mater and the highs and lows of those years.
In 2020, curiosity (and Zoom) brought me back to Reed for the first time since my graduation. At the Forum for Advancing Reed, I found myself connecting with other alumni in both the First-Gen and LGBTQIA2S+ affinity networks, and have continued to do so in the time since. These and the network for alumni of color have long been needed, and I’m grateful to the members of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee for bringing these spaces to life.
I remember, as a student, walking along the Great Lawn, deep into Renn Fayre one night, and saying to friends, we ought to have a weeping tent here. What makes the affinity networks so valuable is that they are a place where we can connect over the truths of our lingering ambivalence—our adventures, successes, and tales of creative adaptation, alongside our wounds, confusion, and hard feelings. At least, this is a potential that I see and value. I also see, in our collective joys and sorrows, a repository of hard-earned wisdom, marked by profound love for the institution, and giving rise to the will and energy to contribute to a shifting status quo at Reed College. Jac Nelson ’13 they/them
Learn more about the Diversity and Inclusion Committee and how to sign up for the Alumni of Color Network, First-Gen Alumni Network, and LGBTQIA2S+ Alumni Network at alumni.reed.edu.
PATHFINDERS TO THE RESCUE
Are you a recent alum who hasn’t quite figured out what to do, career-wise? The Committee for Young Alumni (CYA) is launching a new initiative aimed at helping you figure this out!
Building on the Communities of Purpose advising model used at Reed, the Pathfinder Initiative pairs you with an alumni volunteer in a specific community of purpose. As these Pathfinders are just a few years ahead of you, they can offer recent experience and advice for a constantly changing world.
To find out more, visit the Committee for Young Alumni page at alumni.reed.edu or email alumni@reed.edu.
Are you 5–10 years out from Reed, have a few years’ career experience, and want to volunteer to be a Pathfinder? We need your help! Email alumni@reed.edu to get connected.
—THE COMMITTEE FOR YOUNG ALUMNI
FORUM FOR ADVANCING REED SAVE THE DATE! OCTOBER 22–24, 2021
Connect with Reedies, learn what’s happening at Reed right now, and discover ways to get involved at the Forum for Advancing Reed, Reed’s official volunteer weekend. As we go to press, we are unsure of the format for this year’s event (in-person, virtual, hybrid) but we do know it will be informative and fun. For now, please save the date! Find out more at ww.reed.edu/advancing-reed.
BLACK AT REED
Black alumni look back at the challenges they faced, the mentors they found, and the strategies they used to make the college more inclusive—and more just.
The story of Reed has mostly been told from the perspective of white people. When people of color have been included, their stories have usually been filtered through white reporters, white editors, and a conceptual framework constructed by white people.
In this feature, we aim to turn the lens around. We invited Black alumni from different eras to open up about their experiences at Reed. At a moment when America is finally coming to grips with an ugly legacy of white supremacy and structural racism, we hope these stories will illuminate a side of Reed that has too often gone unspoken.
What follows is an attempt at montage. Discrete snapshots from separate lives show scenes worthy in their own right that, when displayed together, speak to the ineffable texture of a history. A professor’s journey to reshape Reed’s trajectory on race across three decades. A student’s search for her place in a curriculum spurs an extracurricular ethnic studies program to supplant absences across Reed syllabi. Reedies Against Racism activists grapple with recent struggles. And voices long overlooked add their own scenes in their own framing.
This is a gesture at capturing a fragment of Black life at Reed.
Brandon Zero ’11 Guest Editor 12 THE LONG ARC
Prof. Mary James has been working to reshape Reed’s trajectory on race for three decades.
16 SEIZING THE MOMENT
Frustrated by Reed’s Eurocentric curriculum, these students went rogue and built their own DIY alternative.
18 LEARNING FROM THE PAST
Protestors in 2016 looked to the experience of an earlier generation— and adapted their tactics to suit new circumstances.
20 IN OUR OWN WORDS
Reed asked Black alumni from the 1960s to the present day to reflect on their time on campus. Here’s what they said.
24 “WHAT HAVE WE BEEN THROUGH?”
Alumni of color look back on life at a predominantly white institution through the lens of the ongoing civil rights movement.
An Unresolved Chord. We found this powerful photograph (likely taken in the early 1960s) in the special collections of the Hauser Library. While the image was carefully preserved, there is no record of the student’s name—a telling omission in a history that has so often been overlooked or erased. If you recognize this student, please tell us at reed.magazine@reed.edu.
