In love with ‘Love’

I am sure you have received many pleased responses to the “Tales of Louie Love” piece in the “Love Issue” (Summer 2014). Marty [Conant] ’58 and I met when I was a freshman, and are now in our 58th year. We may have been the first undergraduate married couple, with a baby no less. Daughter Deborah was born in April of my sophomore year. Ralph Norman’s beautiful picture of her at his picnic, taken in either ’58 or ’59, actually graced the cover of a Brandeis publication.

Peter Karoff ’59 
Santa Barbara, Calif.

I enjoyed reading the “Love Issue.” Nice organization and appearance, and charming stories. I remember Margo Howard ’62 [The Brandeis Questionnaire] as Margo Lederer, who, at the time, was dating a friend of mine, a graduate student in biochemistry.

Harry M. Rosenberg, MA’63
Raleigh, N.C.

I wanted you to know that I thought the “Love Issue” was wonderful. Love the cover! The articles were informative and interesting. I really enjoyed reading it.

Myra Snyder
Gift funds chair, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Brandeis

Privacy, please

Enjoyed the “Love Issue” in general and the “Rules of Engagement” story in particular.

My roommate Barbara and I recently shared a laugh, remembering our visit to the dean of students around 1961 to discuss the rampant make-out sessions in the lounge of our dorm. There was no way for any visitor — student, parent or otherwise — to avoid these uncensored displays of affection while entering or exiting Shapiro A, and we found it all somewhat unseemly. Our cutting-edge suggestion? Either dorm rooms or some other more private venue should be made available for intersex visitation. Rather condescending on our part, since we did not mention that our MIT boyfriends each had a comfy, cool car as well as a fraternity apartment in Brighton.

I can’t remember the immediate outcome of our visit, but I’d like to think we played some small part in the ending of parietals.

Marcia Klosk Graydon ’63
Morristown, N.J.

The story of the 1964 parietals protest isn’t quite how I remember it.

My memory is that the student council wanted to make a serious protest to show that the student body was opposed to the rule change. The hope was that donors (there were few alumni providing significant support to Brandeis in those years) would see that their children and grandchildren were being treated unfairly. We planned an all-school Saturday-night party, financed by the student council out of the student-activities fee money. The flyers for the party said it would end at 9 p.m., and everyone should go to a dorm room with someone of the opposite sex (although there were gay people on campus, they were mostly not out, so the issue did not affect them) and close the door in violation of the new rule.

Early in the evening, word came that the student council needed to meet. We gathered in Mailman Hall. We were told that, if the protest plan proceeded, all student council members would be expelled the next day. President Sachar said he had the support of the Board of Trustees.

We debated what we should do. Some wanted to stand up to Sachar. For me, the defining issue in voting to cancel the protest plan was that there were seniors on the student council who had applied to or been accepted at medical school, and they were at risk of losing their slots. (Though I wasn’t among them, I was probably worried about what expulsion would mean for me, too.) The protest was important for the students, but it was not that important. The plan was cancelled.

As it turned out, we were just ahead of our time. The issue did not end. In time, the dean of students, who seemed to be the driving force for ending the sexual liaisons in the dorms, was replaced.

The parietals protest was probably an outgrowth of the civil rights and nuclear disarmament movements. In 1964, half the student body had been exposed to Brandeis’ academic freedom protest following the Cuban missile crisis.

David Roston ’64
Coralville, Iowa

Blended ‘branding’

I find Brandeis Magazine to be an outstanding piece of university literature. Many of the articles are well written and of general interest. One doesn’t have to be a Brandeis alum to want to read it.

In many cases, unlike similar materials from other universities, the “Brandeis branding” is blended into the articles rather than being up-front. Magazines that are clearly vehicles for advertising a university and asking for money are not very interesting magazines.

If possible, I would appreciate receiving some back issues so I can distribute them to colleagues at my university.

R. Douglas Whitman, PhD’73
Interim dean, College of Education
Wayne State University
Detroit, Mich.