Umisha KC
Editor
To know The W is to know Dr. Bridget Pieschel.
For the past four decades, Pieschel, director of the Center for Women's Research and Public Policy and professor of English, has been an integral part of the campus, first as a student and then as an educator. Every person who has been through The W in these years has somehow been affected by Pieschel, whether in her classes or not. Now, as the school year comes to an end, Pieschel is getting ready to bid adieu to her career as an educator.
“You know, there were always things that I wanted to think about and do and work on and read. Things I didn’t ever have time to do with the day-to-day responsibilities,” says Pieschel as she muses on her retirement this year.
Pieschel has known she wanted to be a college professor since she was 14. Growing up, one of her uncles taught Shakespeare at The University of Mississippi. When she asked what he did at his job and he replied that he read, wrote, went to class and talked about literature, Pieschel knew that was what she wanted to do with her life.
Choosing to come to The W to get closer to her dreams was an easy decision. Even before she stepped foot at The W, Pieschel had ties to the campus. Three of her aunts went to the university, and she was happy to follow in their footsteps by pursuing education at their alma mater.
While a student at The W, which was still a women's university at the time, Pieschel grew more assertive by the day. A fierce proponent of women empowerment to this day, Pieschel was further inspired by the women she encountered in her time as a student.
“I saw strong women leading in every way,” Pieschel recalls.
Pieschel found herself accepted as a thinker and someone who had something important to say at The W. This solidified her belief that she belonged in the classroom. She wanted to teach students how to think, not what to think.
“That’s what The W gave to me: The ability to ask questions and to enjoy asking them over and over,” says Pieschel.
There’s no fear in admitting that she doesn’t know everything in Pieschel’s book.
“One important thing I want everyone to know is that you never feel like you know enough, and once you understand you can’t know everything, then you can start teaching,” says Pieschel.
Her office door in Painter Hall was always open. A huge people person, Pieschel loved it when students, as well as faculty, dropped by, with questions or even just to say hello.
“I can’t imagine not having that, and that’s going to be a difficult thing. Luckily, I’ve got lots of social media connections with my students. That’s the benefit of being able to retire in 2020 instead of, say, in 1990,” says Pieschel.
Pieschel has taken full advantage of technology as she continues to keep in touch with her students via Facebook.
Joy Carter Minor, a W alum, remembers that when she first opened Facebook, she looked up Pieschel immediately. A chemistry major at The W with an aversion for English classes, Minor remembers what an impact Pieschel had in her literature class.
“She made me like literature,” remembers Minor.
Even now, Minor and Pieschel are in touch, thanks to technology.
Although Brad Evans hasn’t been able to visit with Pieschel for years, he has also been keeping tabs on her via the social network.
Evans, a 2001 graduate, was Pieschel’s advisee. Evans first met her when he came to The W for advising. A first generation student, Evans was confused and nervous about navigating college on his own. Not only did Pieschel provide him with advice regarding college classes and financial aid, she was also a support system for Evans, who desperately needed it at the time.
“She made higher education accessible to me,” remembers Evans. “I knew from that moment then that I wanted to go to The W because I had someone in my life that I could go to with questions.”
President Nora Miller, an alum herself, knows The W won’t be the same without Pieschel. However, she takes solace in the fact that Pieschel will remain involved with the school through other ways.
“We know that she won’t be going too far away,” Miller says.
Pieschel, on the other hand, is reassured with Miller’s presidency. She can’t imagine leaving the university in better hands.
Having served in many leadership positions, including serving as department chair for the Department of Languages, Literature, & Philosophy, Pieschel knows it is not an easy thing to be a leader.
“The main thing I’ve learned in a position of administrative authority is you cannot make people do anything. You have to learn how to work with people,” says Pieschel. “You can’t pay anybody what they are worth, but what you can do is appreciate them.”
Pieschel has been serving The W in many ways, be it big or small. Whether it is advising the International Student Association for years or donating her grandmother’s punch bowl to Painter Hall, there are countless ways that Pieschel has left a lasting impression in the university.
“The W has treated me very well as a person,” Pieschel says.
Not only did Pieschel build an impressive career at The W, she also built a wonderful family.
She met her husband Steve, a former professor at The W himself, when he was looking for a folk singer to play around town. An apt guitarist himself, Steve was impressed with Pieschel’s knowledge of folk music. The two haven’t looked back since.
“I’m lucky that my family has always been so supportive of me and what I did,” Pieschel says. “Had I not had a supportive spouse, I don’t think I could have continued having my children, working, and getting my Ph.D.”
The Pieschel family has been around The W for a long time. Pieschel’s daughter Laura went to The W and her younger children went to Demonstration School on campus. All children took violin lessons in Poindexter Hall. The campus was their playground and now it serves as a front yard for the retired Pieschels.
Living just across the street from campus, Pieschel knows she won’t be able to tear herself completely away from the university.
One way that Pieschel will remain connected is through the Archives here at The W, along with her husband. Not only is she serving on the archives’ search committee, she is also donating her family’s collection of old letters and diaries. This donation will help enrich the collection of the domestic history of Mississippi.
She knows the campus will continue to grow and change in her absence, but she knows that the core purpose of the university will remain the same: To provide underrepresented populations with opportunities.
While the COVID-19 pandemic is a scary time for all, Pieschel has nothing but faith and optimism for her alma mater.
“Every crisis that The W has gone through, we’ve come out stronger,” Pieschel says.
Homecoming was cancelled because of the pandemic, so there will be no retirement party for Pieschel this spring, but everyone who knows her will celebrate her each time they celebrate The W. Nothing summarizes the impression Pieschel leaves on W alums like this quote from Brad Evans:
“She is The W,” Evans said. “No other person exemplifies what The W is: a place of learning, acceptance, progress and bettering yourself.”