REVIEW OF ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN

By Deborah Devenney and Naomi Peirce

The 1976 film All the President’s Men shows the exhaustive work of Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) as they uncover the criminal Watergate scandal. Woodward was assigned to write a story covering the break-in at the Watergate building, yet the more questions he asked, the fewer answers he received, and the story got increasingly complex and shady. The Post was very concerned, having an inexperienced reporter working on such a dangerous story, so they also assigned the more experienced Bernstein to work on it. The two spend weeks knocking on doors and taking comprehensive notes on dozens of interviews, though no one is willing to go on the record in connection with the conspiracy. In the end, their “long shot” theories are found to be true, and several politicians are arrested in connection with the Watergate Scandal, and President Nixon himself resigns.

The film won four Oscars, including best screenplay based on material from another medium, and was nominated for four others. The writing is superb, and Hoffman and Redford’s characters are natural, vulnerable, and brilliant. The film opens with some real footage of Nixon and then with a reenactment of the break-in at Watergate. It then follows chronologically the entire investigative journalism process, in all its pain and glory.

It is a fascinating story and an engaging plot. It is a treat to watch the struggles these reporters went through, and how much of themselves they poured into breaking the story. It is physically, mentally, and morally challenging. They got phone calls in the middle of the night, worked until the crack of dawn to get the facts they needed. They pieced together a crime from a thousand tiny parts, and none of them were ever complete. They broke rules, wrote new ones, and did anything they could to deliver the truth to the American people.

This movie demonstrates the purpose of having a free press. What Woodward and Bernstein did was honor the heart of journalism in a democratic society: monitor power. They refused to dismiss their intuition that the break-in was only a smaller piece of a much larger story, even when they got limited answers to their questions. The pair also displayed the disciple of verification, checking and double checking their facts before they printed anything. In the beginning, Bernstein wanted to go on instincts alone, since no one would confirm his beliefs, but Woodward insisted on verifying each fact so the story was credible and reflective of the truth. In the spirit of continuing their journalistic integrity, as a tribute to their hard work, this film is a wonderful salute to two great American journalists.

Scenes from the Music Department

Music education major Maggie Harrigan quickly scribbles some notes in the Phillips classroom. Afterwards, she played the short melody on the piano.
Sophomore Rachel-Anne Minor, a music education major, plays some Mozart in the Phllips Recital Hall.
Maggie Harrigan '13, a music education major, often does homework upstairs in Phillips.
Keinan Reilly '10, a music education and performance major, practices classical guitar in one of Phillips many practice rooms.
Music majors hanging out in the lobby of Phillips Music Center between classes.
Chelsea Anderson '13, a music education major, catches a few minutes of piano practice before her lesson.

Heard but not Seen: Music Majors at Gordon

By Deborah Devenney

It is mid-day on a typical fall Tuesday in November at Gordon College Fowler Campus. As students travel to and from classes to catch a quick lunch, some briefly experience a musical interlude just after leaving Lane. They pass Phillips Music Center and catch an eighth-note run being played repeatedly on the tuba, and later may hear a soprano hitting a high ‘A’ in the middle of her aria.

Music majors, inside the practice rooms of Phillips for hours every day, provide something of a soundtrack to student life at Gordon, but how much do others really know about them?

Music majors have a rigorous schedule. According to music education major Maggie Harrigan ’13, they are required to practice 12 hours on their primary instrument, attend 16 performances a semester, perform 3 times solo per semester, and participate in an ensemble—all for no extra credit.

“You go nonstop from when you wake up to when you go to sleep,” said Harrigan. “Even outside the music building, mentally, we’re still in the music building.”

With all the required time spent in Phillips, there can be a sense of disconnect from the rest of campus. Harrigan’s roommate Rachel Ashley ’12, a deciding major, jokes that her biggest mistake coming to Gordon was having music majors as best friends.

“Our schedules just don’t work out,” said Ashley. “They see each other in classes, but I don’t have those times with them.”

Alexandra Lefebvre ’11, a music BA major with a psychology minor, noted a similar distance from non-music majors. “I definitely have to be more intentional with friends outside of my music world,” said Lefebvre.

She came to Gordon as a psychology major and a music minor, but reversed these her sophomore year. Before, she admitted that she “never saw” music majors. Now, Lefebvre said, “I live in Phillips.”

Due to the vast amount of time spent in Phillips, relationships in the music department involve a special kind of closeness. Some music majors call the department their “family”, and Phillips their “home”.

“[Phillips] is like our own dorm, “said Harrigan.

“You critique each other all the time, “said Andrew Arnold ’12, is a music education major and Resident Advisor of the music community. “That’s not something you get in a biology major. There’s a unique sense of trust.”

Not all music majors are alike, however, in their interaction with the rest of Gordon. “It depends on the initiative and how much effort they put into it,” said Nicole Naudé ’11, a biology and philosophy major and resident advisor. Naudé has been an RA for two years and has had music majors or minors on her floor both years. “Music majors are no more absent than athletes or other majors.”

With the great quantity of work and the potential to miss out on dorm life, why are there still over 100 students, according to the department website, enrolled as music majors or minors at Gordon?

“I love everything we’re doing and wouldn’t want to give it up,” says Harrigan.

There is also the fact that to become proficient in music, you can never practice enough. Arnold said that when he decided to be a music major, he learned “if it’s a good program, its going to be time consuming no matter where you go.”

Ashley, though she misses spending time with her roommate, she understands that music is a very important part of her life.

“Maggie [Harrigan] is always excited and tired, when she comes back from Phillips,” Ashley said. “There’s no such thing as a maximum in music, and Maggie goes above and beyond the requirements.”

PHOTOS: (A) Chelsea Anderson '13, a music education major, gets in a few minutes of practice before her piano lesson in Phillips.

(B) A piano in one of the many Phillips' practice rooms littered with items left behind by the students who frequent it.

(C) Rachel Ashley '13, a deciding major, is missing something to put her arm around: her roommate Maggie Harrigan, a music education major, who is in Phillips practicing her music.

Day at the NEWSEUM

By Deborah Devenney

The Newseum in Washington, DC opened on Pennsylvania Avenue in 2008. It tells 300 years of news history through multi-media, interactive exhibits in a seven-story glass building. The light pouring through the shear walls reminded me of the ideal transparent nature of the press. The stories lining the walls tell the tale of humanity in a way no other outlet can.

When my college journalism class flew from Boston for a day at the Newseum, I learned not just an extensive history of journalism, but what my future in the service could be like. The Newseum showed me not just the unique purpose of the free press in America, but what that purpose looks like on a day-to-day, year-by-year journey.

In the “News History” exhibit, I looked at 200 years of front page stories from some of the most significant events in the world. It was as though I was walking back in time, hearing the news stories in the same way readers heard them at the time. The questions people were asking, the fears they had, and their uncertainty of the future were all frozen in time by dedicated reporter’s documentation.

The September 11 and Pulitzer Prize sections showed me the difference between a reporter’s instinct and everyone else’s. The story of one reporter who died taking photographs of the Twin Towers falling was particularly moving. The Pulitzer exhibit, filled with the dozens of photographs capturing people’s final moments in life, showed me the very specific and important work reporters have in this world.

Reporters not only experience countless events, ranging from the tragic to the joyful, but they also experience them in a unique way from other spectators. A journalist’s first instinct is not to simply witness an event, or even to react, but to document it for the larger world. Although it is distressing that reporters have to deny their emotions and human impulses on a daily basis, they are also the heroes, who constantly carry the larger picture in their hearts and heads. What discipline it must be to constantly see the greater scope of a story, when other can just take it in personally.

I know I don’t have this outlook yet, the instinct of trying to figure out how to tell a story as soon as I witness it. I am hopeful, though, that the future of the press does have a place for me in it, and in time I will learn the same lesson that countless reporters have learned over the ages. As Abraham Lincoln said, “Let the people know the facts, and the country will be safe.”

Eyes on the Prize

Film stripes show the reporters’ notebooks being filled with dark scribbles and its pages carelessly and swiftly being flipped to gain more room with which to document the events occurring. I wonder: did the paper they were writing on get wet with the water from hoses turned on black children in the park? I wonder: did the pages reek of the fierce police dogs barking harshly at the young ones?

The reporters were more involved in the story than possibly even the white bystanders living only blocks away. They had a duty, an obligation to report the injustice without apology. The reporters said to those at home, “Hey, look what’s going on! Pay attention to the facts! Are you okay with this? Is this what America should be?” The reports brought the story of injustice in Birmingham even to the world’s attention, which caused the President to be concerned and take action. The reporters helped change America, and their legacy is what I desire to carry.

Rabbi Samuel calls Modern Christians to Shepherding

Attending convocation at Gordon College on October 23 were scholars of every background from biology to biblical studies, yet the rabbi on stage encouraged them to another calling they may not have considered: shepherding.

Rabbi Michael Samuel, a congregational rabbi serving in the Midwest and author, spoke in the AJ Gordon Chapel convocation on Friday as the final installment to a three-part chapel series titled “Understanding the Psalms with Rabbis”.

Convocation began with a musical version of the Rabbi’s topic, Psalm 23, sung by a Gordon College student vocal quartet. Samuel emphasized the importance of shepherding each other, just as God personally shepherds us. “The way we come to love our neighbor comes through the Christian act of shepherding.”

Samuel urged modern Christians to remember the importance of acting on our faith in God. “God shepherds through human shepherds,” Samuel said. “All redemptive stories require human participation.”

Similar to helping each other, Samuel reminded the audience to rely on God for every need, which can be difficult in this modern age. “It is we, not God, who can provide ourselves with what we need,” he said. Modern man, Samuel said, has a “perceived self-sufficiency” that makes it difficult for him to depend on a supreme being.

Samuel also explained the differing views and uses of Psalm 23 in Christian and Jewish circles. He shared that the psalm is usually spoken at Jewish funerals, and that Jews find it hard to accept that God really “cares” about them personally.

“It’s really good to have a rabbi come speak at Gordon, specifically Rabbi Samuel,” said Sean Andreas, ’10. “Many bridges have been burned in the past [between Jews and Christians], and he’s trying to rebuild them.”

Reuniting and Reminiscing: Gordon and Barrington College Alumni Return to their Roots

BY DEBORAH DEVENNEY, ERIKA DIAZ, AND KATIE ZARRILLI

On Saturday, Gordon College’s quad echoed with the sounds of families and friends picnicking, cheering on soccer games, and catching up on the brisk fall afternoon.

Gordon’s Homecoming Weekend 2009 was filled with story swapping and familiar faces as alumni returned – many to a different campus than they had graduated from. Alumni from both Barrington and Gordon colleges, which merged in 1985 for financial reasons, met to celebrate five to forty-five years since graduation.

New Home for Old Classmates

“I love Barrington, and I always will,” said Tony Jarek-Glidden, Barrington class of ’76, at his reunion lunch at Gordon’s Barrington Center for the Arts. Others attending spoke fondly of the college no longer in existence.

“I miss it, it was quaint,” said Linda (Nelson) Malstrom, homecoming queen of ’74. “We were like a family,” she added.

Linda (Bain) Damiani,’78, said that Gordon and Barrington were sister schools. “We played each other in sports, but it wasn’t like playing ENC,” said Damiani.

Many Barrington alumni mentioned their current involvement with Gordon, with children and grandchildren now attending the united college of Barrington and Gordon.

Memories and Transitions

Gordon class of ’84 celebrated their 25^th class reunion with an elegant dinner at President Calrberg’s residence, where they exchanged memories of their Gordon experience.

Shared were “silly stories to serious moments—one of our classmates shared that he came to Christ on orientation night,” said Judy (Richardson) Morrow, ’84, who returned with husband Bill Morrow, ’84. The couple met the first day of orientation 1980. “The overall focus of the night were the relationships established . . . 25 years later, still a vivid memory,” she said.

“It’s wonderful to come and see all the changes,” said Linda Cyr, class of ’84. She especially noticed the arrival of Chase Hall in the place where Sheperd Hall, her freshman dorm, once stood.

Gordon’s 100^th Graduating Class

Gordon’s returning class of 1989 marked two decades since commencement. Hillary Wesney, ’89, said she hadn’t returned in 19 years. “It’s weird, half the buildings aren’t here anymore,” she said. “[But] it’s wonderful seeing old friends - they haven’t changed,” Wesney said.

Many stories were swapped at the alumni lunch, including Gordon’s “Legend of Dance.” “I’m responsible for bringing dance to Gordon,” said Jack Campisi,’89. He said the first dance was a copy of one he held off-campus, a 50’s-style sock-hop. Doug Wesney,’89, said he proposed to wife Hillary at that first official Gordon semi-formal dance.

With twenty years behind him, Wesney admitted he wished he could return to school. “I miss studying and learning,” he said. But apart from the education, Campisi said, “If you get anything out of this place, it’s friendships.”

*PICTURED ABOVE* Top: Members of the class of '89 get together at Chester's Place to reminisce. Pictured from L-R are Jack Campisi, Hillary Wesney, and Doug Wesney.

Bottom: Barrington Alumni gather at the Barrington Center for the Arts on Saturday for lunch and a reunion. Pictured L-R, B-F are Judd Moore '74, Joseph Gauthier '84, Richard Malstrom, Janet (Barkley) Moore '74, and Linda (Nelson) Malstrom '74.