Eye To Eye

Jewish Family Service hosts a forum to improve relations
between mothers and adult daughters.

PHOTO BY J EFF KOWALSKY

RUTH LITTMANN STAFF WRITER

Dr. Sandra Packard reflects on her tenure.

Packard Resigns
Top OU Post

JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR STAFF WRITER

W

Marilyn Hertzberg and Sara Eisemann: Dealing with intergenerational dilemmas.

S

he's home from college. Gets wants, because many conflicts
her first job. To save mon- arise when expectations differ, the
ey, she lives with mom and social workers say.
dad. She's a daughter with-
After helping to pay for a col-
lege education, the older genera-
out being a child.
Sparks fly.
tion often supposes young adults
Social workers Marilyn will be self-sufficient. But, with
Hertzberg and Sara Eisemann at higher costs of living, the trend is
Jewish Family Service are no for college graduates to move back
strangers to intergenerational home for a while.
"Parents are saying, 'An emp-
dilemmas. In mid-March, they
N will sponsor a program called ty nest? I should be so lucky!' " Ms.
"Mothers and Adult Daughters." Eisemann says. "Financial de-
The eight 90-minute sessions pendence is a huge issue."
will aim to help mothers and
daughters better understand and
appreciate each other outside of
their traditional parent/child
roles. The group is open to all
women over the age of 20.
"It should be fun for a mother
— Marilyn Hertzberg
to have a daughter and a daugh-
ter to have a mother," Ms.
Hertzberg says. "You don't have
Conflicts also arise out ofjeal-
to have a problem in your rela- ousies. Mothers envy their daugh-
tionship to join the group. You can ters' career opportunities.
simply be two adults who want to Daughters, weary of living up to
learn more about each other in a jet-set stereotypes of the " '90s
different way."
woman," wonder whether days
Mothers and Adult Daughters split between their professions
will focus on communication and families really enable them
skills. The group will encourage to "have it all."
parent and child to view each oth-
Marriage, intermarriage, sex,
) er as adults. The discussions will in-laws and grandchildren often
explore ways mothers and daugh- cause additional tension.
ters can convey their needs and
When mother/daughter con-

"There's often
a feeling of
being stuck."

flicts go unspoken and unresolved,
"there becomes an undercurrent
of anger that gets manifested in
so many ways," at home and in
the workplace, Ms. Hertzberg
says.
The Mothers and Adult Daugh-
ters group will be psycho-educa-
tional, not psycho-analytical, the
social workers stress. Confiden-
tial discussions, facilitated by Ms.
Hertzberg and Ms. Eisemann,
will focus on learning skills to im-
prove mother/daughter rapport.
The mother and daughter re-
lationship is unlike many others,
the social workers say. Women
can choose their husbands and
friends. They can't choose each
other.
`There's often a feeling of being
stuck," Ms. Hertzberg says.
"There needs to be more commu-
nication."

❑

13 The cost of NOthers and
Adult Daughters" i is S40 per:-
fliother/daugh*. couple. The
kroup is sponsored by Jewisb,::

Family Service and funded, in4:1
part, by a Jewish Federationi

Max. M. Fisher Cornmunityl
Foundation grant. Attencianel
is limited. For registration and :-
' option, callMarilyn

hen Sandra Packard
was growing up, she
dreamed of some day
becoming an architect.
But times being what they were,
she went into art education, then
considered a more suitable field
for a woman.
In a way, her dreams were ful-
filled. Several years after aban-
doning her dream, she has
become an architect of a sort,
helping to build Oakland Uni-
versity's enrollment and campus
facilities in her role as president.
Last week, she resigned from
her position at the university to
take a senior fellowship on a re-
search project sponsored by the
American Association of State
Colleges and Universities, the
governing body for such state-
funded institutions.
At AASCU's offices in Wash-
ington, D.C., she will spend the
next several months studying the
effects of computer education
technology on students, a new
and somewhat controversial
method of teaching that some col-
leges are trying.
But the study she conducts
may not be as controversial as the
moves she has made during her
three-year tenure as president,
all decisions she felt would ad-
vance the university and its stu-
dent body.
She began her term charged
with the task of cutting $6
million from the university's bud-
get to eliminate an operating
deficit. The university's board
also approved a measure to raise
tuition.
The cuts caused dissension in
the faculty and eventually were
cited for a faculty strike last fall.

Others were angered by the tu-
ition rise.
"This was not the most glam-
orous achievement but perhaps
the most important," she said.
"We laid off people and out-
sourced services but it was ab-
solutely necessary."
Professor David Bricker, the
president of the American Asso-
ciation of University Professors
faculty union at Oakland, said
the union has not issued a formal
statement on the issue of Dr.
Packard's tenure but said facul-
ty members have expressed opin-
ions on the subject.
"There is a diversity of opinion
about President Packard's
tenure," he said. "She was a hard-
working president who was able
to accomplish much in a short pe-
riod of time.

President Packard
received praise
for improving
the campus.

"A college or university presi-
dency is viewed as a very difficult
position to hold in society," he
said. "There are many areas of
constituency one serves, not all
of them are going to be pleased
all of the time."
Although the budget cuts did
not garner praise from all, she
has been widely applauded for
her work on making the campus
better for the students.
During her term, the campus
organized student services into

RESIGNS page 16