In poetry and paintings, spring inspires images of young lovers amid fragrant flowers and green trees. And at Northwestern, students aren’t the only couples holding hands.
This institution of higher learning is, for some faculty members, an ideal home for an institution of another kind: marriage.
Weinberg professors Rae and Leon Moses are just one of many married couples working at NU. Married 34 years this August, they met at an NU faculty cocktail party and have been Wildcats together ever since. For them and other NU couples, being married to their work has afforded them many luxuries not available to couples who work apart.
“There are no drawbacks (to working with your spouse) and the benefits are numerous,” Rae Moses said. “We like it.”
The Moseses said they usually eat lunch together and see each other at meetings.
“We often are on different sides in a faculty meeting, but that seems to bother the folks around us more than it bothers us,” Rae Moses said.
Not all married couples at NU, however, are able to enjoy such close interaction with their spouses at work. Mary Ann Weston, Medill associate dean and professor, and her husband Michael Weston, vice president for legal affairs and general counsel, said they rarely cross paths at work.
“We both have very busy and separate schedules,” Mary Ann Weston said. “We don’t get together during work time.”
The Westons met each other in Detroit on a blind date arranged through a mutual friend, got married and ended up at NU together by coincidence. For them and other NU couples who work in separate areas of the university, marriage and career rarely meet.
“We work for the same institution, but as far as our occupations are concerned we could easily be working at different companies,” Michael Weston said.
Alan Cubbage, vice president for university relations, and his wife, Charlotte Cubbage, head of the University Library reserve, met in Iowa as undergraduates at Grinnell College. Like the Westons, they rarely see each other during the workday, though they still reap some benefits from working near one another.
“The good thing about both of us being on campus is that it makes the logistics a lot easier,” Alan Cubbage said. “If we’re going down to Chicago after work, for example, it’s no hassle to meet and go down together.”
NU also offers opportunities for couples like the Westons and Cubbages to spend time together during their free time.
The Westons said they like to attend concerts at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. The Cubbages frequent student theater performances with their two teen-age sons and have season tickets to the men’s basketball games. In the summer they grab ice cream cones at Norris University Center and take a campus stroll.
The Moseses favorite campus activity is eating lunch together and taking a lakeside walk.
Married faculty at NU are also connected by their love for the school and its students.
“We share a strong belief that education benefits society in many ways and a respect for Northwestern University as an extraordinary institution,” Charlotte Cubbage said.
