How many of our class or even our decade have attended the ACP/AUP class reunions? Or been back to Paris for a reunion or just a visit? Do you see a change in the approach offered to the students over the years today as opposed to the goals that were the core of the college when we were there? Do you even think there was any goal identified back then beyond offering US college courses that would stand up in a transfer?
My own feeling is that there was an intent to add a quilt of additional life experience over and above just academic accomplishment that could only be absorbed in Paris. It failed miserably on delivering this on so many levels, probably since just managing to keep the institution alive took most of the administration energy. But just living, eating and commuting in Paris had a way of seeping into your juvenile brain cells despite other distractions. It has been for me, at least, truly a “movable feast” that has colored and enriched the rest of my life affecting how I look at life and the world as a whole.
Our facilities were spartan, support almost nonexistent, but Paris was our campus and our inspiration. In a reunion in Los Angeles a year or so ago, I was horrified to hear that the institution is wanting to become more of US campus and thus more institutionalized by moving to an island in the Seine. To me, the image of an “island” encompasses all the negative barriers that such a move would imply. To me, the whole value of being a student in Paris, part of Paris, was the special and unique life enriching gift of being a student at ACP. I had my face pushed against Paris and its ebb and flow, its way of life, its cuisine and scents, shop windows and pastries, Nicolas wine and the “fill your own bottle” at Monoprix. Studying on the sidewalk table at the corner cafe making an “espress” last all morning, holding my nose at the old, green, Victorian “pissoirs”.
When I expresses my thoughts to younger alum’s, they looked at me as if I were an asylum escapee. The Alum Assoc. Rep. looked personally insulted when I suggested that I thought it a bad idea.
So what are your thoughts on the evolution of ACP into AUP? Do you feel that the focus changes and a good thing or bad? Has something been lost over the decades as it gained in academic geography and reputation? I would like to hear from current students and more recent graduates too. We were part of something that was just being born with all the dynamics, faults, errors and successes both intentional and unintentional that that entails.
Please share your thoughts and experiences.
Peter D'Aprix '64-'66
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