NEWS
NOTES
AND
4
TOWER
|
Winter 2015
P
iper Kerman, best-selling author, memoirist and prison reform activ-
ist, entered Schaeffer Auditorium on Thursday, Oct. 23, to thunderous
applause. The audience — KU students, faculty and community
members — had begun lining up outside at 5:30 p.m., in anticipation of
her 7 p.m. presentation. They weren’t disappointed.
“I was enthralled listening to Piper Kerman speak about her experiences,”
said TARA ELLIOT M ’15, a KU master’s degree candidate in mental health
counseling. “And her ability to transform such an unpleasant experience into
an opportunity to create positive change for other incarcerated women was
impressive. Her story is a testament to the human condition and the
ability to persevere.”
Kerman spoke not only about the folly of her youth, in believing herself
invincible and able to transport drug money across international lines without
consequences, but also of her own redemption, and realization that prison
was nothing like what she expected. Before entering Danbury Federal
Correctional Institution to serve her 15-month sentence, Kerman anticipated
encountering uncontrollable violence and unruly prisoners. Instead, she
discovered that her predictions were extremely inaccurate.
“I spent 13 months in Danbury,” she recalled. “The women I met there
befriended me and helped me. They helped me navigate my sentence, taught
me how prison worked, supported me emotionally and shared their survival
with me. I am eternally grateful to them.”
She also learned that most female offenders are moms; two-thirds are
confined for nonviolent offenses; and both race and class have a lot to do
with who ends up prosecuted and incarcerated. After her release in 2005,
Kerman knew it would be easy to forget
about the past and move on with her life.
But she was determined to remember,
and wrote “Orange is the New Black:
My Year in a Women’s Prison,” to
raise awareness about how women
end up behind bars and what really
happens behind prison walls.
“Orange Is the New Black”
Author Visits KU
VISITING AUTHOR
Six New Golden
Bears Enter
Athletics
Hall of Fame
The Kutztown University athletic depart-
ment inducted six new members into
its Hall of Fame on Nov. 1. The 36th
annual class includes: Niya Adams
Grenevich ’04, women’s track & field/cross
country; David Ben ’09, men’s basket-
ball; Stephanie Denlinger Rummel ’09,
softball; Margaret Edwards-Mayes ’98,
women’s tennis; Joseph Kemmerer ’09,
wrestling; and Shaun R. Landis ’03, men’s
track & field. The six new inductees
increase the membership to 187 since the
Hall of Fame was formed in 1977.
BEN ’09
ADAMS
GRENEVICH ’04
DENLINGER
RUMMEL ’09
EDWARDS-
MAYES ’98
KEMMERER ’09
LANDIS ’03
