May Day 2010
Dear Classmates,
Over half the class filled out the questionnaires, which we thought
was
quite a good response rate. We would like to thank the 80 who sent
them to us
– even those who were a little tardy – did any of you hand in your term
papers
three months late? The responses were frank and thoughtful, sometimes
creative, always interesting. As you can imagine, tabulating the
answers to the
discrete-point questions was relatively easy, while summarizing the
responses
to the open-ended questions was a good deal more challenging. We
began by
listing all the responses, then sorted them into broad categories and
finally did
our best to summarize each category, sometimes quoting or
paraphrasing a
response that seemed to encapsulate the thoughts of several people.
We hope
that each of you will find some elements of your own views in what we
have
written.
There were a few surprises among the responses: Remember how
many people smoked when we were on campus? The survey results
revealed
only one person who still smokes regularly! Regarding party
affiliation, we
found sixty-one Democrats and three Republicans, and a majority
identified
themselves as liberals within their party. We had no idea Bryn Mawr
was such
a breeding-ground for liberals. As for plans for old age, we were
amazed to
find so many planning for Never-Never land.
We would like to thank Ginny Naudé and Nancy Morrill for their
encouragement and suggestions, and for keeping us on task, as well as
Lindsay
Brinton for making our report look better than we could have done.
Finally,
given the amount of time it took to compile the results from the
questionnaires
we received, we would also like to thank those who did not
participate for not
increasing our workload -- though we hope that even if you didn’t you
will
come to Reunion and add your opinions to those we received. And we
hope
you will all enjoy reading this summary of the experiences and
opinions of our
classmates. In many ways we’ve all changed a lot, but even after half
a century
(a rather surreal thought) we’re somehow recognizable as Bryn Mawr
women.
Nancy Beals Nina
Garrett