UPCOMING ALUMNI EVENTS

New England Chapter
At 6:30 p.m. on April 11, the New England Chapter will play host to a reception and discussion with Professor Emeritus Allen Greenberger at Henrietta's Table in The Charles Hotel, 1 Bennett Street, Cambridge, Mass. The cost is $15 per person, and $10 per person for 1991-2001 graduates. For information, contact the alumni office at ext. 18130.

Washington, D.C., Chapter
At 11 a.m. on April 14, the Washington, D.C., Chapter will play host to a brunch and discussion with Professor Stu McConnell at a location to be determined. For more information, contact the alumni office at ext. 18130.

Chicano/Latino Student and Alumni Dinner
The third annual Chicano/Latino Student and Alumni Dinner will take place April 16. Invitations soon will be in the mail. To reserve your place now, contact the alumni office at ext. 18130 or e-mail james_lippincott@pitzer.edu.

Alumnus Shares His Thoughts on New York Event

Pierre Ratte '76 recently helped put together an event in New York with Professor Emeritus Allen Greenberger.

It is nice to see that the Socratic method is alive and well, and that enlightenment from that noble tradition still radiates through Allen Greenberger. Allen held forth on the subject of history and memory at the Algonquin Hotel in the third of a series of informal gatherings. Allen's topic, "History and Memory," was introduced with the question: Why do we have memorials? Through anecdotes, challenging questions and audience participation, we communally considered the meaning of the battlefield at Gettysburg; Auschwitz; the Stad at Nuremberg; the Lincoln, Jefferson and Washington memorials; the Vietnam memorial, the one in Washington and those in Vietnam; and we tangentially visited the issue now being discussed in New York, of the "why" and "what" of a future World Trade Center memorial.

While no answers were provided, we agreed that memorials themselves shape our view of history. Their design, which might once have defaulted to neo-classical form, now considers their shaping role in symbolic terms, a self-conscious, institutionalized historic perspective is produced. For better or worse, memorials are place holders for something important in the past. As such it is worth moving beyond the symbolic, the skewed, to the history of facts and circumstance that surround the event worth remembering.

If Pitzer taught us anything, it taught us to strive to discern the world as it is, to look beyond symbolism and institutionalized process and memory. Allen's suggestion to delve into the facts, to go beyond memory and belief, brought that home again. In so doing he reminded us that the best of Pitzer, in addition to bringing the world into focus, also gave us the optimism and courage to shape it into a more meaningful and fulfilling experience.

The New York Alumni are grateful for Allen's presence, wisdom and continued teaching. Thank you Allen, for a "memorable" and "historic" evening.