To the Editor:

I am writing to make a correction to the Reporter's otherwise excellent article about the 1997-98 Muriel Roscoe Lecture, given by Charlotte Bunch. The final paragraph states that "Bunch's lecture was presented by the McGill Centre for Research and Teaching on Women." The next sentence accurately states that the lectureship "was established 10 years ago as a centennial project by the Alumnae Society," but appears to give only an historical role to the Alumnae Society. In fact, it is the Alumnae Society which presents the annual Roscoe Lectures with valued intellectual, logistical and, occasionally, financial collaboration with the MCRTW.

This collaboration is of great importance to the Alumnae Society and in no way am I detracting from it. The impetus to make this clarification stems from our impression that this inaccurate attribution of our Roscoe Lecture stems from our failure to effectively promote the Alumnae Society, its current activities and its 110 years of dedicated commitment to McGill and to the advancement of women within it.

For example, through many hours of volunteer efforts, the donations of hundreds of graduates and the generous bequests of women deeply committed to promoting educational opportunity, the Alumnae Society has built up an endowment of over $1 million to provide scholarships to deserving women students.

Most projects of the Alumnae Society are carried out collaboratively in an effort to "leverage" the scarce resources of volunteer effort: the yearly Book Fair (which raises upwards of $50,000 for scholarships) is a continuing collaboration between the McGill Women's Associates and the Alumnae Society. The Roscoe Lectures and the Alumnae Discussion Circles involve a fruitful collaboration with the MCRTW. And, of course, we collaborate with the McGill Alumni Association (formerly the Graduates' Society) in the common goal of maintaining mutually beneficial links between McGill graduates and their Alma Mater. But one result of such collaborations, it appears, is to risk becoming invisible.

It is our hope that through this letter the Alumnae Society may become better known, so that an inaccuracy such as that which prompted this letter will be much less likely to occur.

Susan Czarnocki
Member, Muriel V. Roscoe Lecture Committee
Past President, Alumnae Society