To the Editor:
Thank you for the recent article penned by Bishakha Oli ’24, “‘End of an era’: Exploring the legacy of Pembroke College.” What a nostalgic walk down memory lane for all of us who matriculated through Pembroke College — and a reminder of how things have changed!
My Pembroke class of 1968 was right in the middle of the changes that those from the classes of 1966 and 1970 described. We suffered through the same parietal rules and arcane dress codes and challenged our unequal treatment as well. In our sophomore, junior and senior years, many of us protested when we felt we needed to call attention to inequities, but we also worked to lobby for specific remedies to both campus and national policies. We are continuing this tradition of working for a better world today.
Long before the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of the internet, members of the class of 1968 were meeting in person in New York and elsewhere — celebrating milestones at gatherings that brought together classmates from around the country and globe. The advent of email strengthened and broadened our communication. Now, about 65 of us share messages daily about national and global happenings; research on historical, cultural and other compelling issues; personal news; and more. When COVID-19 hit, we pivoted to weekly Zooms that are still going strong and attracting a broad audience. The memory of Pembroke lives on in these spaces.
Today our small group has memorialized our time through the Pembroke Emergency Gap Fund endowment —you can search for the fund at https://bbis.advancement.brown.edu. This will provide a financial boost to current and future generations of women undergraduates so that they can better meet unexpected financial challenges while at Brown. Brown will disperse the first awards from the fund next academic year, but its current resources are limited and it needs all of our continued support — from alums and friends of Brown alike — to ensure that it will be self-sustaining in the future, long after many of us are gone.
Sally Kusnitz Horn ’68, P’97, MD’01
