Just reading the Queen’s Alumni Review with Stephen Smith on the cover and an article talking about our daughter, Sophie de Goede. A proud Smith School of Business grad who, while following her rugby dreams, will always have a strong business degree from Smith to build on.
Thank you, Stephen Smith.
Stephanie de Goede
I just read Greg McArthur’s moving piece about the Queen’s Journal in the latest Alumni Review. It brought back all kinds of wonderful memories of the time I spent in the Journal office. In 1988, in my final year at Queen’s, I pitched, launched, edited, and contributed to what we then called the Gender Issues column. It became a focal point for campus-wide debate regarding all kinds of issues related to women and gender and gave me an opportunity to test out ideas related to my emerging political orientation. I wound up doing a PhD in feminist political theory, then I went to law school and since 2000 have been a law professor. My experience at the Journal was deeply formative and I am delighted to contribute so that other students can have the same kind of meaningful experience. I’m not sure if you are going to share these testimonials with the current staff of the Journal – or, for that matter, with Greg McArthur. But if you do, I hope you will include mine, which shows that this remarkable institution helped spawn critical thinking and launched careers even outside journalism.
Cha Gheill!
Sharon Dolovich, Arts‘89
Once again, the Alumni Review has produced both a highly readable and highly attractive edition.
Greg McArthur’s story about the Queen’s Journal was a special treat. Like CFRC, the Journal has nurtured scores of creative people who have gone on to amazing careers in Canada’s arts world.
Another thing the Journal has accomplished, in my experience, is to alert budding bureaucrats and politicians – when they were student leaders – to the legitimate role of the media and journalism vis-à-vis the political system. As a former Alma Mater Society (AMS) president, when I got criticized – and very occasionally praised! – by Journal editors and contributors, I came to realize the different needs and duties of elected folk and “fourth-estate” folk, and how their interests often diverge in a genuinely democratic system. I’m willing to bet most of my successors as AMS president would agree with me – it sometimes wasn’t easy to take the brickbats from the Journal, but it was educational!
Stewart Goodings, Arts’62
Thanks for the interesting story about the Queen’s Journal! During frosh week 1968, I wandered into the Journal office and got my first assignment: give blood at the blood drive in Grant Hall and write a story about it. I recently found the yellowed article in my late mother’s papers. With my journalistic career launched, I continued to file stories through my four years at Queen’s. While my working life after graduation hardly compares with that of the illustrious writers featured in your story, I did benefit greatly from those early years at the Journal, combined with my degree in English and sociology. The giving-blood story garnered great interest recently when I brought a copy of it to my appointment with Canadian Blood Services – ever since Frosh Week, I’ve been a regular donor, and this was my 98th donation. The staff were intrigued by my detailed description of the protocols used in the 1970s compared to today!
Thanks for bringing back the memories with your interesting story.