The Horace Mann Auditorium was filled to capacity for Academic Homecoming on April 25 when Harvard Professor Carol Gilligan and TC Professor Emeritus Maxine Greene held a discussion on The Oresteia and patriarchy.

Before introducing the speakers, President Arthur Levine presented Gilligan with a Teachers College Medal for Distinguished Service for her role in women's developmental psychology, and her ongoing research in gender studies.

Alumni listened with rapt attention to the scholars' interpretations of Oresteia. They spoke about how women became the scapegoat for the beginnings of various catastrophes and noted how the rise of patriarchy sent women's voices underground so they could become the "good ones" of the society.

The lecture ended with a question and response period and was followed by an awards luncheon, where three alumni received Distinguished Alumni Awards and two alumni received the newly created Early Career awards.

One Distinguished Alumni Award went to Jerome Murphy, who received his master's in Mathematics and Science Education from TC in 1962. He is Carol Gilligan's colleague as the Dean of the Faculty of Education at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. His award noted his very active role in politics and education and his expertise in leadership in education.

Another went to Bert Konowitz, who has been a member of the Department of Arts and Humanities at TC for more than 30 years. Konowitz has been commissioned to compose works of music for many prestigious occasions held at Lincoln Center. He has also founded the Lawrence Philharmonic School of Music on Long Island. Konowitz received his M.A. from Teachers College in 1954 and his Ed.D. in 1969.

The third Distinguished Alumni Award went to Frances O'Connell Rust, who is active as an educator of early childhood teachers. When she received her Ed.D. from Teachers College in 1984, she won the Outstanding Dissertation Award for Empirical Research from the American Educational Research Association. She is currently an associate professor and program coordinator in the undergraduate elementary education program at New York University.

The new Early Career Award was created to honor alumni who have made a significant contribution to education within ten years of graduating from Teachers College. Norman Atkins, who received his M.A. in 1997, won an Early Career Award for his work in creating one of the first charter schools in New Jersey, which opened the September after he left TC. He had previously been a freelance education writer and a founder and co-director of the Robin Hood Foundation, which supports creative schools and programs for low-income New Yorkers.

Grace Shen was the other winner of an Early Career Award. Shen received her M.A., Ed.M. and Ed.D. from Teachers College in the Arts in Education. She completed her studies in 1988. After working as an associate publicist for Carnegie Hall, she was appointed executive director of the Long Island Arts Council. She made significant strides for the council in their publications and their funding. She recently left her position with the Arts Council to work from her home in Westchester as a consultant.

Published Friday, Jun. 7, 2002