An Activist Leads RUS

When newly-elected Radcliffe Union of Students (RUS) Co-President Amanda (Mia) Bagneris '99 approaches, it's hard to know what you're in for. On Wednesday, strutting up to me at Johnston Gate in leather-style pants and a bright scarf the color of a perfect rainbow, the New Orleans native exuded poise and self-assurance.

But as she emphasized during a brief chilly walk through the square and a chat in Adams JCR, she is much less sure of who she is and much more focussed on who she wants to become.

"Nothing that anybody asks me can ever surprise me anymore," she pronounces when asked about how she developed to become such an involved activist student (one of the founding members of RADWAC, an Education for Action member, Lyman Common Room coordinator and Queer Action Group participant).

"Most of the things that have surprised me have concerned me personally--having my first year roommates come up to me and ask 'Who are you?' and having 'Your average, typical black person from New Orleans' not be enough, having to explain myself--has been really exhausting."

How to explain being a student who is black, Jewish, lesbian, feminist, activist (and not necessarily in that order, or any order) at a college known for making, not breaking, the mold?

Bagneris says she doesn't. And it wasn't her idea to come here anyway, thank you very much.

"I had a bad experience during prefrosh [weekend]," she explains, smiling uneasily, "I just felt really lost....I didn't really meet anyone or see anyone I felt sympathy with. And I didn't feel Harvard had done anything to make me feel comfortable. I remember seeing all these pictures of dead white men in the [Student] Union and this one bust of W.E.B. DuBois, and even he looked white in it."

But Bagneris' parents prevailed, and she eventually moved into a Yard dorm, only to move out one slim semester after, choosing an off-campus apartment on Oxford Street to share with her partner Andrea.

Bagneris's dark eyes sparkle as she discusses her goals for RUS--to give each woman on campus a space for free expression.

"Being charged with representing all the women on campus is quite a," Bagneris pauses at the thought, then laughs it off, "A HEFTY task," she finishes. "The best way is to provide every woman a chance to speak for herself."

Bagneris says she hesitated to run for president, not wanting to turn RUS into RADWAC, the radical RUS-offshoot she helped found and lead with several other students in campaigns to raise awareness concerning issues from violence against women to final clubs. In the end she decided to make the RUS leadership her latest challenge.

"I actually decided to run at the last minute," Bagneris recalls, "One of the reasons I wanted to [run] was that I wanted RUS to feel representative... I want RUS to be accountable to the women it represents."

Being accountable means leading women into an era of cooperation, where events like last year's Take Back The Night allow organizations from Latinas Unidas to Students for Choice to blend different viewpoints into a powerful presentation of ideas.

"Overall, we were able to talk about violence against women and incorporate a lot of different perspectives," says Bagneris of the Take Back the Night program she helped orchestrate last year.

For the present, Bagneris is settled, making her home in Jamaica Plain with Andrea, Andrea's dog Mutleigh and their two cats, Lillith and Yehudah, (the latter an "orange ball of fur" named after the symbol for the tribe of Judah--the lion). Once again Bagneris's patented confident grin emerges as she discusses her mentor, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham and her insistence that she attend graduate school, (she's a Women's Studies and Afro Am concentrator) and her own varied interests in the "3 A's"-- activism, art and academia.

"I've never been the kind of activist who can organize rallies, but I can make a good presentation," Bagneris says.

"I believe in the power of style. Highly sophisticated ideas do not have to come in the form of a theoretical paper or even a developed piece of art. What's important is to make them accessible, forceful and powered."

This is Molly Hennessy-Fiske's last column. She would like to congratulate new student life columnists Paul K. Nitze '00 and Pam S. Wasserstien '00, and thank all former interviewees as well as FMF, RH and KHF for a well developed conscience.