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Group Memory
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Jill Harrison Ellsworth, JMC '71
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I always have a good laugh (albeit an irritated one usually) at the characterization (caricaturization?) of JMC as place where students staggered about in a drug-and alcohol induced haze, attending "meaningful," pretentious T-Groups, and pretending to be "cool." I was there 1967-71, and one of the academic assistants my last two years. I got a wonderful education. While there certainly were those who could barely get out of bed by 4 due to over indulgence and drug use, that sub-culture was much smaller than imagined, and was not respected by a large number of JMC students. My experience is quite different and I would posit, more mainstream JMC. The students I knew, by and large, were not druggies, did not drink to excess, and did not attend those time wasting, navel gazing T-Groups.
Activist? Yes, in constructive ways, rather than destructive. All sorts of
activism abounded social, political, artistic, etc. Amazingly enough, most
students
JMC taught me how to learn and taught me that if I persevered, I could
learn anything math, writing, psychology, art, and computers. Further it
taught me that I could teach others and myself. The small classes created
an interesting kind of pressure if you did not attend class, and did not
come prepared, everyone knew it.
The offices for the Academic Assistants were down in among the faculty
offices, so out of class, collegial interactions were common for
students much more common in JMC than "out there."
I was one of those who went on to be a Professor and Dean (frightening
isn't it). But JMC also prepared me in a totally different way to write
several books about the Internet, including the first books written about
doing business on the Internet and marketing on the Internet.
I was there, and I DO remember.
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Jill Harrison Ellsworth
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