Elizabeth Szatkowski
83 Kent Street
Portland, ME 04102
May 11, 2011
Professor William Wagner
Dean of the Faculty
Williams College
Williamstown, Massachusetts
Dear Professor Wagner and Members of the Art Department
I met Sheafe not through a class but through a job. I spent a lot of my time while at Williams working. I would often leave meals early because I had to go to work. My fellow diners would say that they too had a lot of work to do that day and might mention a paper or reading or a test. Usually I would not correct them but nod and smile and move on to one of several jobs that paid for part of my tuition, my living expenses, books, supplies, telephone and travel home. On occasion I would let people know I was going to work at a job where I got paid money. The usual reaction was one of quizzical amusement. “How interesting!” “How did you arrange that?” “Is it some kind of internship?” I would become the focus of their curiosity but not part of their common experience.
A friend of mine had worked for Sheafe and thought I would be well suited for his employment. I worked in his office filing letters, organizing papers and shelving books. Often students would come in asking for guidance, extensions on papers, ideas for the project they had not yet started. Rarely did he give direct answers but would encourage these students to think outside their comfortable boxes. He asked me about my own background, what it was like growing up in rural poverty, what it was like for me being at Williams with the blue bloods. I found Sheafe to be refreshing and honest. In a place where people made a lot of assumptions about each other’s affluence and privilege I often felt like I was passing. Rather than helping me to fit into the dominant culture of Williams he was interested in who I already was and how I had gotten there. It wasn’t until I went to graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Social Work, where the mission was social change and the elimination of racism, that I found that same caliber of conversation about race and class in an academic setting. In graduate school we were expected to look at and openly discuss oppression and how our own biases affected others. I know that many college students are not ready for that kind of self examination or level of inquiry but I was glad that I had someone to discuss these issues with as I tried to make sense of the elite culture and privilege at Williams.
Sheafe arranged conversations and meetings between his students and people he knew in the world. These were people doing interesting things and he wanted to expose his current students to a wide range of ideas and experiences. Many years after I graduated, while working at a center for homeless and low-income people, I got a call from one of Sheafe’s students asking if I could talk to him about the architecture of homeless shelters. The student had an interesting idea and many assumptions to support it. Sheafe did not send this student to me because I am an architect but because I know a lot about what goes on inside homeless shelters. I know what some of the architectural considerations are to create safety, movement, quiet and respect. Our conversation was not what the student expected. But that was often the case when you took Sheafe’s suggestions or followed up on one of his leads.
About a year after I graduated from Williams I was teaching at a small alternative school in Washington, DC. Someone started calling me asking me to set up an interview for a job I had never applied for. It seemed odd and I ignored the messages until the persistent woman got me on the phone. I was relieved to finally let her know that she had been calling the wrong person. She assured me that she was calling the right person. She was a Williams alum about 10 years older than I. She had asked Sheafe if there was anyone he knew from Williams that could join her team in a rural part of West Virginia assisting high school students getting to and staying in college. Sheafe told this woman that he only knew of one person who would be suited for that kind of work and gave her my name. I decided to follow up on Sheafe’s suggestion and drove to West Virginia for the three-day interview. I accepted the job when the Williams alum offered it to me and we began a working relationship that turned into a deep friendship. We have been on countless adventures, created programs, built, sewn, and painted useful things, shared child rearing, cooked enormous meals, helped people in distress, experimented with a wide variety of cheesecake flavors, helped each other through tough job situations and celebrated significant life events. None of this would have taken place if we had not trusted Sheafe’s nudge.
One of the top attributes of Williams College is its excellent student to teacher ratio. There is much emphasis placed on students having access to professors who are outstanding scholars. The metaphor of the log is held up as the epitome of the educational experience at Williams. What I found was that teachers were very willing to discuss theories, research and philosophy but few were willing to talk about the practical experience and knowledge that they and their students possessed. It was hard to get real at Williams. I hope that Sheafe will be recognized and honored for how he challenged students to look beyond academic knowledge. He was able to take the resources of an elite intellectual community and open the door to real life. By asking peculiar questions and focusing on offbeat topics he helped people move into new and unique spaces and experiences. To be successful in this journey students had to use inner resources that were not often engaged or praised in the traditional classroom. Being provocative and unpredictable may knock someone off the log but what one learns from that tumble and scramble to regain balance is invaluable.
It is important to recognize the contributions that Sheafe has made to the Williams College community over his long and illustrious career. He has focused his intellect, curiosity, creativity and enthusiasm on this institution and its students. So many people are grateful that their paths have crossed his. I hope the College is able to acknowledge Sheafe’s deep connection to so many students at Williams and the profound influence he has had on their lives. I am sure the College will find a fitting way to honor his unwavering commitment and boundless contributions.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Szatkowski
Class of 1986
