...............................................................................................................................................................

Fall 1999 // Volume 14, Number 1 // Northampton, Massachusetts

............................

Smith Hosts National Conference On Diversity

Congresswoman's Papers Come to Smith

Smith Voices Heard in New Volume

Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Robotics

New Book Restores Credit to Sophia Smith

Cover Story
Contents

New fellows, a new dean and a Pulitzer

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has given Smith a $435,000 grant to host four postdoctoral fellows in the humanities and social sciences over the next five years. Smith's Mellon Fellows are expected to teach and pursue scholarship in several emerging areas in the curriculum, particularly interdisciplinary fields such as women's studies, media and culture, environmental public policy, landscape studies, Caribbean literature, and Islamic art and architecture. The fellows join a growing community of postdoctoral researchers in the sciences and Smith's Mendenhall Fellows-minority scholars in residence at the college to complete their doctoral dissertations. The first Mellon Fellow begins residency at Smith this fall.
............................
Smith alumna Margaret Edson '83 received a Pulitzer Prize in drama last spring for her play Wit. A first-time playwright, Edson is a full-time kindergarten teacher in Atlanta. She had to decline Smith's invitation to attend this October's special recognition event of accomplished Smith alumnae because she was unable to find a substitute teacher for her classroom. Three other Smith graduates have received Pulitzers: the late Margaret Mitchell '25 in 1936, the late Meg Greenfield '52 in 1972, and Sylvia Plath '55, posthumously, in 1982.
............................
Smith's neuroscience program, which was established as a major in 1996, recently received a $150,000 grant from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, based in Jacksonville, Florida, to support a two-year expansion. The grant will fund faculty and curriculum development and support the purchase of high-tech lab equipment and computers for courses in neuroanatomy, neurophysiology and molecular neurobiology. It will also support student research on campus and at major neuroscience research centers off campus.

"This grant gives us an important opportunity to further prepare Smith students for a future in which scientific and technological expertise will be increasingly required for success," says Donald Baumer, dean for academic development. The percentage of Smith students majoring in the sciences, especially chemistry and neuroscience, has increased dramatically during the past 20 years. The number of graduates entering fields in science and technology immediately after graduation has tripled since 1990.
............................
In June, President Bill Clinton named President Ruth Simmons to the Women's Progress Commemoration Commission. She joins Ann Lewis, counselor to the president at the White House, and Molly Murphy MacGregor, executive director of the National Women's History Project, on the bipartisan commission. It was established by an act of Congress in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention, the first national congregation on the conditions and rights of women in the United States. The commission will be responsible for advising the U.S. Secretary of the Interior on ensuring the historic preservation of sites that have been instrumental in American women's history.
............................
Mela Dutka, former dean of students at Columbia College, a women's college in Columbia, South Carolina, became dean of students at Smith in July. She oversees residence life, student activities, multicultural affairs and international students. A native of Massachusetts and a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, Dutka has 15 years of experience in student affairs administration. She holds a master's degree in higher education from the University of Vermont and is currently a doctoral candidate in curriculum, instruction and administration at Boston College. The dean of students position was created following a 1996 study designed to find ways to enhance student life.
............................
Two Smith athletes took Smith's first-ever All-American titles last May in the NCAA Division III National Track and Field Championships at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio. Teresa Winstead, who graduated in May with high honors, took All-American in the heptathlon. Genesis Fisher '00 became Smith's first All-American shot-putter. (The top eight performers in each competition are named All-Americans.)
............................
Smith was one of only four liberal arts colleges in the United States to receive a grant from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation of Irvine, California. The $70,400 grant will be used to support the research project of four Smith students studying in the biomedical sciences. The grant, which is designated exclusively for students who are producing a senior honors project, will provide scholarships for two students each in the academic years 1999­2000 and 2000­01. Each of these Beckman Fellows will work with a faculty mentor in completing her project. Scholarship recipients for 1999­2000 are seniors Gianna Muir-Robinson of Medway, Massachusetts, who will work with Stefan Bodnarenko, an assistant professor of psychology; and Elizabeth Nolan of Niskayuna, New York, who will work with chemistry professor Robert Linck.

..............................................................................................................................................................

NewsSmithSite mapContentsMail to WebmasterDirectoryHome

NewsSmith is published by the Smith College Office of College Relations for alumnae, staff, students and friends.
Copyright © 1999, Smith College. Portions of this publication may be reproduced with the permission of the Office
of College Relations, Garrison Hall, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts 01063. Last update: 10/18/99.


Made with Macintosh