Johns Hopkins Magazine -- September 2000
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SEPTEMBER 2000
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RETURN TO AN UNCOMMON AFFECTION

VOICES OF EXPERIENCE

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An Uncommon Affection
Voices of Experience
All Photos Courtesy Ferdinand Hamburger Jr. Archives,
Unless Otherwise Noted


William Banks, BA '29:

In those days hazing consisted of requiring freshmen to stand at attention and do this, that, or the other, and the sophomores carried paddles. If the freshmen didn't perform up to the standards of the sophomores, they'd whack them with a paddle.

There were several battles during the class banquets. Our sophomore year an expedition from our class went down to Annapolis and disrupted the banquet that the freshmen were having in the armory and this turned into a fight. Several of the participants landed in the Annapolis jail for the night.

In May 1915, throngs of spectators gathered for events surrounding the dedication of Gilman Hall and the inauguration of Frank Goodnow as Johns Hopkins's third president.

Dr. Catherine DeAngelis:

The provost put out a report looking at salaries of women across the university, and the report made the School of Medicine look like an abomination. The dean was beside himself. Dean Ross asked me, "What do you think?"

I said, "I think the bottom line is probably pretty accurate. I'm sure that women are not paid the same as men. I'm sure they're not being promoted at the same rate. I'm sure there's not the same mentoring. But this isnt the way to show it."

So I did a study and it blew everybody's mind. Allowing for rank and years and eliminating all the department chairs, women weren't being paid the same, weren't being promoted at the same rate, weren't being mentored. All I did was present data. Well, the department chairs went bonkers, because nobody wanted to be seen as unfair. These are truly great people and they didn't like it.

I said to the dean before I started, "Look, if we find out that there are inequities in salaries, it's going to cost you money, because the departments aren't going to be able to foot the bill." He said, "Okay, I'm ready for it." And God love him, he kept his word. It took us two years. For the last seven years, there's been salary equity. Women are being promoted. In the 106-year history, two-thirds of all the women professors have been promoted in the ten years since we started this initiative.

Before he was president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson (who earned his PhD from Hopkins in 1886) served as president of the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association in 1889-90. At the close of World War I, President Wilson sent future Hopkins president Isaiah Bowman to France as his chief territorial advisor.

Dr. Daniel Nathans:

Virtually everyone who spends time here develops an uncommon affection for the place. Perhaps this is due to our connection with Hopkins illustrious history. My hypothesis is that its due to a peculiar virus, call it JHV, that gets into the chromosomes and there expresses its genes for the rest of one's life. In some cases, myself included, it mysteriously gets into the germ line and affects future generations. Unlike other viruses of its type, the sting of JHV is no more painful than that of a tiny arrow. However, it may loosen purse strings, and on appropriate occasions, it may cause those afflicted to hear the voice of Osler or Halsted or Welch or Kelly or Brodel or McKusick whispering in a friendly voice, "Now don't you screw up, hon!"

"Men not buildings" was the guiding doctrine of the day, according to John C. French in A History of the University Founded by Johns Hopkins, which may explain the ill repair of the walls in the chemistry lab, ca. 1900.

The School of Nursing opened with the hospital in 1889. These nurses were busy in the work area of the Phipps Psychiatric Clinic, which was completed in 1913.
Photo courtesy Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives

Ernest A. Bates, BA '58:

I was told that I was going to be the first African American in the arts and sciences school. I was a bit surprised when I got there that I didnt have a roommate. I called up the admissions director and he said, "Well, Ernie, we thought that was a bit much, to ask a student to room with you. Were trying to minimize the problems, so if you don't mind, you will not have a roommate." Well, I was a little upset, but the second day, twenty people offered to be my roommate. I was just overwhelmed by that. But as it turns out, I did not accept any of them, and the reason is I met the African-American students who lived in Baltimore, the townies. Baltimore at that time was segregated. The restaurants were still segregated, the movies. The school systems were just beginning to desegregate. Hopkins was ahead of its time in letting these students come. So this was much more traumatic for them than for me because I had been in integrated school systems before.

My room became the meeting place for them. It was where they left their books, their sandwiches, their coats. That room became one of the most popular rooms in the dorm. It was very good for the African-American students because they got to see dorm life.

The entire time I was at Hopkins, there was not one incident of discrimination. At no point was I ever treated less than any other student. It wasn;t true off campus, but on campus you would have never known that I was the first in arts and sciences. My cohorts who lived in town they were in engineering they, too, did not have any problems.

Well before word processors and ergonomic concerns surfaced, student hunkered in tight dorm rooms over portable typewriters, erasers at the ready.

As the world grows more complex and the university's influence continues to expand, Baltimore's traditional gatherings, such as the Easter Parade, on Charles at 28th Street in 1921, have become charming memories.
Photo courtesy News American Photo Archive, University of Maryland Archives, Special Collections

Wilbert "Bill" Locklin, BS '57:

When Stewart Macaulay hired me after the war, he said I was to be assistant director of admissions and social and athletic director of the dormitory. At three o'clock every Sunday we had dinner in the dining room. We had waitresses in the dining room. We had a guy play the piano, and we would sing the alma mater.

I observed that dress was getting to be a little more casual than I was satisfied with. The guys were coming in from the athletic fields sweaty; they didn't have a tie or jacket. I said, "You know, its a disgrace to have you here in this condition. Next Sunday I'm going to be at the front door. No one is going to get past me who's not wearing a jacket and tie."

The next week, I was there at the front door at five minutes till three and they all started streaming out of the dorm. Every single one of them had on a jacket. Every single one had on a tie--not a stitch of other clothing, not a shoe, not a sock, not trousers, not a shirt--just jackets and ties. I just died. We had these nice ladies who were serving us, and they roared. They thought it was hilarious. We stood there and sang the alma mater, and they sat down and ate. The next Sunday everybody came fully dressed, and I didn't have any more trouble.

Engineering students got hands-on experience early since by 1914 they were responsible for the maintenance of the four boilers, reciprocal engines, steam turbines, and electrical generators in the powerhouse of Homewood.

Johns Hopkins: Knowledge for the World will be available at bookstores beginning next month or can be ordered through Johns Hopkins University Press (1-800-537-5487; www.press.jhu.edu) for a special price of $45.


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