Thank you Wink. Good afternoon everyone. My name is Mari Carriedo, I am a member of the class of 2005.

On behalf of the Sociology 224 class I would like to extend a warm welcome to the members of Mount Holyoke College class of 1955, and to all the husbands and other guests of the class of 1955. We're very excited that you all could join us here today. We would like to include husbands and any other guests in today's interview. Each guest is assigned to a small group and is encouraged to participate in the interviewing process.

Our class this semester focused on qualitative research methods and this interview is the culmination of what we have learned. All semester we have been discussing the concept of community, specifically how the students, faculty, staff, and alumnae of Mount Holyoke College comprise community. We have spent much time in the archives researching primary documents related to Mount Holyoke in the 1950s in order to obtain a better understanding of the composition of the Mount Holyoke community at that time. One question we are exploring in the interviews today is the ways in which diversity impacts the "feeling" of community.

Throughout the afternoon, Carlyn Saltman, Mount Holyoke College class of 1980, will be walking around videotaping segments of the interviews to help us document this event. Eleanor Townsley will accompany Carlyn with a wireless microphone to assist her in achieving the best sound quality for the recording. Do not be alarmed when Eleanor and Carlyn approach you with the camera and mike. Carlyn will be putting together a DVD from the footage she captures this afternoon. If you would like a copy of this DVD, order forms are available in your folder.

The schedule today is as follows: in a few minutes we will begin our small group discussions of about 6 people, which will run for about an hour. If you brought a keepsake this will be a good time to talk about it. Try to bring out your keepsake when the camera comes around to your group. We will then take a ten-minute break, after which we will reconvene for a half hour report back session. During this time some of my classmates have devised a few ways in which to summarize our small group discussions. Towards the end of the afternoon, we ask that everyone present fill out the evaluation forms included in the folders set on the tables. Lastly, Willits has asked us to vacate as close to 5pm as possible as there is another event taking place in this room tonight.

The students that are running the associated video project have asked me to thank those of you who have volunteered to participate and to remind you that the location for this project is in the Cassani Seminar Room in Shattuck Hall.

If you haven't already done so, please register and sign the guest book before leaving. This is an important record of today's events, and is also being donated to the archives.

Once again, thank you for your participation in today's events. Ready . . . set . . . interview!