{"id":5603,"date":"2017-04-05T08:00:46","date_gmt":"2017-04-05T16:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=5603"},"modified":"2017-04-04T20:50:16","modified_gmt":"2017-04-05T04:50:16","slug":"reflecting-life-mary-maples-dunn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/reflecting-life-mary-maples-dunn\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflecting on the life of Mary Maples Dunn"},"content":{"rendered":"
By: Jade Rayner\r\nNews Editor<\/pre>\n
March 19, 2017 marked the death of 85-year-old educator, scholar and historian Mary Maples Dunn. She is regarded as, \u201c… a champion for women- and women\u2019s history\u201d according to Smith College.<\/p>\n
Dunn did her graduate work in U.S. colonial history at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania and began teaching there as she worked to complete her Ph.D. Her career at the women\u2019s liberal arts college was extensive. Among other positions she held, Dunn took on the role of Dean in 1978, and ultimately became Academic Deputy to the president in 1981.<\/p>\n
From 1985 until 1995 Dunn served as Smith College\u2019s eighth president. During her time at Smith, she faced multiple challenges but left a positive impact by the end of her \"\"presidency.<\/p>\n
The Smith College Archives note that the time of Dunn\u2019s presidency was, \u201c… an economically troubled period for the college. Campus diversity, internal communication flow, and socially responsible investment were also significant issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dunn\u2019s hard work at Smith paid off: she helped the women\u2019s college raise more than $300 million during her time there, which helped allow the opening of the Bass Science Center and the Young Science Library on campus. Five majors were added to the curriculum as well as the improvement of on and off campus communications. Her tenure at Smith saw the introduction of the internet, email and voicemail on campus as part of her process of getting Smith on the \u201cInformation Highway,\u201d explains the Smith College Archives.<\/p>\n
Approaching retirement in 1995, Dunn stated that, \u201c… it\u2019s true that acquiring budgetary accountability is among my most important achievements, but I hope I\u2019ll be remembered as a president who helped open the college up to a more diverse population,\u201d according to Gr\u00e9court Gate, Smith College news.<\/p>\n
The New York Times reports that her work in diversity at Smith was partially prompted by a number of racist incidents that had occurred on campus. Following those incidents, Dunn\u2019s administration instilled a number of programs, one of the most notable being the 1988 Smith Design for Institutional Diversity.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the time she stepped down in 1995, minority enrollment had risen to 571 from 342, out of a student body of about 2,800. And minority representation on the faculty had increased by about six teaching positions,\u201d the New York Times stated.<\/p>\n
The programs primarily dealt with race, but also touched on derogatory language, race and physical disabilities as noted in the Smith College Archives, adding, \u201c… Dunn maintained a cheerful image and a sense of humor throughout, and persevered through the trials of her difficult position.\u201d<\/p>\n
Contact the author at journalnews@wou.edu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By: Jade Rayner News Editor March 19, 2017 marked the death of 85-year-old educator, scholar and historian Mary Maples Dunn. She is regarded as, \u201c… a champion for women- and women\u2019s history\u201d according to Smith College. Dunn did her graduate work in U.S. colonial history at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania and began teaching there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":937,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/937"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5603\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}