“It was a bittersweet feeling, the beginning of something new, this merger, and yet a loss at a change in what we held dear, and uprooting,” wrote Alexandra Polydefkis AA ’73, a member of the final Abbot class, in the final Abbot yearbook. Forty years later, the Coeducation@40 committee was created to help commemorate the merger of Abbot and Phillips Academy in 1973. The group works to highlight long-standing Abbot traditions and start a conversation about the history of the merger and women at Phillips Academy. Chaired by Debbie Murphy, Director of Alumni Affairs, and Tony Rotundo, Instructor in History and Social Sciences and Interim Co-Director of Brace Center, the committee is comprised of students, faculty, administration and alumni. The committee is planning events that will span the whole year to raise awareness of the Andover-Abbot merger. Movie Series The committee plans to screen two or three documentaries per term about gender to continue discussion at Andover about gender issues in the US and around the world. On November 15, the committee will show “Girl Rising,” a film that focuses on the education of girls around the world, followed by a Q&A with Kayce Freed Jennings ’76, the filmmaker. They also plan on screening “The Mask You Live In,” a film that analyzes the effect of gender stereotypes on men and boys around the world. While Lowers and Uppers take the PSAT on October 2nd, Juniors, who are exempt from the test, will watch “Miss Representation,” a documentary that analyzes the pressures put on girls and women in the media, and discuss the larger implications of the film. “For us, the main goal is to spark discussion, because based on discussion comes education, and to really make people aware of gender issues,” said Adéle Bernhard ’14, one of the coordinators of the series. Online History Exhibition Rachel Murree ’14, a Brace Research Fellow, has partnered with Paige Roberts, Archivist and Head of Special Collections, to compile an online historical exhibit about Abbot Academy and Phillips Academy before and after the merger. “[The exhibit] is geared towards students to learn more about the two schools and the schools’ histories. It’s also geared towards alumni, because there are a lot of Abbot alums who feel like they’ve lost their school and who aren’t as pleased with the terms of the merger. This is honoring Abbot’s legacy and their history,” said Murree. The website makes use of the research Murree conducted in the spring of 2013 for her Brace Center Fellowship paper on the merger. The online exhibit will also include various multimedia components, including videos, photographs, course catalogs and letters written during the merger. “The great thing is that you can keep on adding to [the exhibit] because it is online: we can launch it with an initial group of documents, and then we can always build onto that in the future,” said Murree. Murree and Roberts expect to complete the exhibit by spring of 2014. A Documentary Film Charles Stuart ’62, an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, is in the process of filming “A History of Abbot Academy: Recollections of Alumni,” a documentary on Abbot history narrated by Abbot Alumnae. Stuart conducted video interviews with Abbot alumnae of all ages, including Donna Brace Ogilvie AA ’30, the benefactor of the current Brace Center for Gender Studies. Stuart also filmed Abbot alumnae during last spring’s Reunion Weekend, which the Abbot class of 1973, the last class to graduate from Abbot, attended, said Debbie Murphy, Co-Chair of the Coed@40 committee. The film will be screened for the Phillips Academy community during Spring Term. Abbot Bazaar For many years, the current Spring Carnival was called the Abbot Bazaar, formerly a large arts and crafts fair, auction and maypole. To reunite the Spring Carnival with its roots, the committee is planning to incorporate bits of Abbot tradition to the carnival, most notably moving the carnival to Abbot Campus. Forums in December With the charges of the Coed@40 committee in mind, a forum series has been planned to address questions related to the merger and its repercussions so many years after, said Rotundo. Rotundo emphasized the need for a larger campus discussion about co-education’s impact on current day gender dynamics on campus. The committee is still in the planning stages of the forum series, but it hopes they will begin during the two-week period of Winter Term in December.
