Opening ceremony models the globe
Nellie Williams
News Writer
Participants at the opening presentation of Play of the Mind Thursday realized that they are part of a very elite group.
Each was handed a glow stick on his or her way in to the auditorium. Near the end of the presentation, the audience was asked to break open their glow sticks. Little neon lights penetrated through the dark auditorium as Sister Ann Oestreich explained what it represented.
"Our conventional globe is one model of the world," she said. "But it only shows us landmasses and physical or political characteristics of the world. Tonight we are going to turn this auditorium into a model of the world. Who would we be if all the people in the world were here tonight, if all the people in the world represented by the people here in the proportions that they exist in the globe we are modeling."
Every program had a number on it, and as Oestreich asked different numbers to stand up, she explained what each represented in the world.
"Now would just the number 72s stand up. You are the only persons in this room in this globe who have completed a college education. Think about this. What is your responsibility to the rest? In this mini world we all have a college degree or hope to have one. What does our responsibility become when this one ticket, not the only ticket, but an important ticket to the intellectual life, is reserved for so few?"
Fourteen colleges, including Saint Mary's, were challenged this weekend to think intellectually about their interactions with the global world. Students, professors and administrators all listened intently as different guest speakers spoke of how intellectual relations with the world are so important.
"Is your life a product or a performance?" student body president, Nancy Midden, asked the participants.
A product is something tangible, but if it's a performance, there is no tangible product left over.
"I think everyone's life is a performance," Midden said. "But the challenge is to make a product out of life."
Intellectuals need to interact with the rest of the world.
"You have an obligation to help shape the new century," said Dr. Marilou Eldridge, president of Saint Mary's College.
"All in this room are educators," said Patrick White, one of the directors of the conference. "All of us have a responsibility to educate one another, to call ourselves to strong action as intellectual and to as leaders. To inspire our sisters, our daughters, ourselves."
Photographs by Mariana Cook, from her book Generations of Women, were shown to "help us understand the way we are linked to the women who have gone before, to whom we owe respect, from whom we carry a legacy of thought and action," said Margaret Roma, English College of Saint Elizabeth's.
The conference was held to challenge everyone to become intellectuals, engaging in thought and action with the world around them, according to Oestreich.
"As we look at the world and at America, and at ourselves this weekend, let us keep trying to keep our eyes wide and receptive to the whole picture, to all the lights in our country and in our world," said Oestreich.
"One intellectual, one woman thinking can change the world or change our part of it," added Georgeanna Rosenbush.
All News Stories for Tuesday, February 1, 2000
