SWEET BRIAR, Va.
College’s closing criticized by commencement speaker
The keynote speaker at what is likely the last commencement exercise at Sweet Briar College in Virginia has criticized the closing of the 114-year-old women’s school.
Columbus, Georgia, Mayor Teresa Tomlinson is a 1987 graduate of Sweet Briar.
She told the graduating class to loud applause on Saturday that the school’s closing provided a lesson in leadership. She said that had students been the ones making the decision, the outcome might have been different.
President James F. Jones Jr. had said he would not be in attendance Saturday because of fears his appearance could spark disruptions by faculty and alumnae angered by the decision to shutter the school in August.
Leaders of the 530-student college cited insurmountable financial challenges as the reason for the closure.
NEW YORK
Class reunites sisters separated by adoption
Two women who took a writing class at Columbia University found that their own stories were better than fiction.
They were sisters born to the same teenage mother in the early 1980s and adopted by different families.
The New York Times reported that Lizzie Valverde and Katy Olson discovered they were sisters during a writing class in January 2013.
Valverde grew up in New Jersey while Olson grew up mostly in Florida and Iowa.
Olson figured out the connection when Valverde introduced herself to the writing class and talked about being adopted.
The 35-year-old Valverde will graduate on Monday.
The 34-year-old Olson and their biological mother, Leslie Parker, will be there.
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo.
Bison gores teenager posing for picture a few feet away
A 16-year-old girl has been gored by a bison in Yellowstone National Park while posing for a picture near the animal.
The National Park Service said the unidentified girl’s injuries were serious but not life-threatening. The incident occurred shortly after noon Friday in the Old Faithful area. The Park Service said the girl was a few feet from the bison when she turned her back to it.
The Park Service advises staying at least 75 feet from bison.
– From news service reports
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