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Ivy Day, May
20, 2006; Second Reunion Weekend, May 27, 2006
Smith College is distinguished by its traditions, and few are more evocative than
Ivy Day. Ivy Day celebrates the history and the continuity of the college,
manifesting, in each of you, Smith's rich and distinguished past and its vibrant
future. A college president isn't advised to play favorites, but Ivy
Day is, without question, at the top of my list.
This is an exciting moment for your
college. Smith is at the beginning of a
strategic planning process. As I stand before you today, we are bringing forward
a number of strategic planning objectives that will powerfully shape the college's
future over the next decade and beyond. In this effort, the mandate we have
taken is no less than this: to re-imagine a liberal arts education, linking Smith's
past to its future in bold new ways.
That may sound audacious, and in many ways it is, but I have met enough Smith alumnae
and students to know that audacity and boldness are well within our tradition. I
have spent the last year meeting with hundreds of alumnae, in small groups, from
Honolulu to Boston, from Chicago to Palm Beach, inviting their advice -- your
advice -- as we shape the future of Smith.
Across the generations and professions, across interest
groups, classes, majors and professions, what you've told me has been remarkably consistent.
You are proud of Smith's academic excellence and distinction; you are grateful for the intensive
commitment of faculty to their students; you are excited about Smith's pioneering developments
in the sciences and engineering; you recognize the exceptional strength of Smith's programs in
the arts, as well as in international study; you value the house system; and you believe strongly that
education has a moral and social purpose. Smith, you've said firmly, must educate its students
to contribute to the world.
Like our campus community, you have a deep commitment
to developing students' personal and academic capacities. You have joined faculty, staff
and students in stressing the importance of writing, quantitative reasoning, public speaking, critical
thinking, cross-disciplinary study, intercultural competency, and civil discourse.
These marvelously rich conversations have recently
crystallized into eight strategic planning directions for the college. These will be the focus
of intensive discussions over the next year, both on campus and beyond, in person and online. With
your help, we will generate bold initiatives that strengthen essential student capacities; promote
a culture of research and discovery; deepen students' awareness of global cultures and issues;
encourage engagement with social challenges; support and promote environmental sustainability; prepare
women for work/life opportunities and choices; open doors to women of promise; and extend Smith's
impact on the world.
I want to spend a moment on those last two topics,
for they speak quite directly to Smith's mission. Our country is in the midst of a vital
conversation about who in our society will have the privilege of a college education -- particularly
the kind of transformative, rigorous, powerful education that Smith and other excellent institutions
provide.
As many elite universities and colleges struggle to
enroll an economically diverse student body, Smith is gaining national recognition for what it has
always quietly and purposefully done: enrolling, supporting and graduating extraordinary young women
from all walks of life. This is a choice, and not without economic challenges. But it is also,
in the global sense, an enormous opportunity.
In our own country and around the world, the education
of women is increasingly recognized as a force for social and economic development and for the advancement
of civil society. The future Smith shapes for itself must -- and will -- connect powerfully
to the pressing debates and challenges of our time, reaching and influencing new populations and engaging
our alumnae and supporters in new and compelling ways.
We take up this charge from a position of strength
and momentum. We have reached a number of milestones this year. The Picker Engineering
Program received its accreditation. We have obtained site approval from the city of Northampton
to proceed with construction of a new building across Green Street for engineering and the sciences. As
part of our commitment to replace apartments that will be removed for that building, we have selected
a local developer to build 26 apartments at the corner of Bedford Terrace and State Street. To
replace the housing for Adas at that location, we are building an apartment building for Adas with
children, to be named Conway House, in honor of Jill and John Conway. The Ada program celebrated
its 30th anniversary this fall.
Upholding the college's moral mission, the Smith College Board of Trustees
voted on May 6 to ban investment in Sudan, joining other colleges and universities
in pressuring the Khartoum government to seek a lasting peace in that region.
In the area of admission, for the second year in a row, we have set a record in the
number of applications to Smith. We have admitted a splendid class for the
fall -- talented and diverse.
Our current students had an excellent year in fellowship
competitions. Last year, we were the top producer of Fulbright winners among baccalaureate
colleges. This year, our students and alumnae have won even more Fulbrights, 16 award winners,
up from 14 last year. They are Jill Abramowitz, Ka'Neda Ellison,
and Lauryn McCarthy, all '06, for South Korea; Leigh Cressman, Kerstin McGaughey,
and Nora Pitts, all '06, and Lily Hart '05, for Germany; Amelia Bidwell '03, Norway;
Emma Clark '06, Botswana; Caitlin Daniel '06, Bolivia; Emily Graham '02, and Nora
Hayes-Roth '06 Italy; Sophia Johnson '03, Ukraine; Neema Khatri '05,
Nepal; Laura Medina '06, France; and Jessica Rubin '06, Nicaragua. Nora
Pitts has also won a DAAD Fellowship for study in Germany; Samantha Black has won a Rotary Ambassadorial
Scholarship. Sarah Neel Smith '07 has won a Beinecke, and Leigh Ann Gardner, Caitlin Hamill,
and Amanda Nelson, all '08, have won Borens, for study in India, Jordan, and Tanzania. Finally,
Smith College has five seniors graduating with Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowships, supporting their
undergraduate research and future aspirations for graduate level study: Sarauna Moore, Isabel Porras,
Ayoka Stewart, Toccarra Thomas, and Hassani Turner.
Taking their Smith knowledge into the workplace, some
400 of our students will participate in Praxis internships this summer, all funded by the college.
The organizations for which they will work include museums from Boston to Oaxaca; botanic
gardens from the Maine coast to Kew, outside of London; news organizations from CNN to the
Daily Hampshire Gazette; educational organizations in India, Pakistan, and Cambodia, as well
as many in the States; scientific laboratories at Harvard Medical School, Columbia, Dartmouth
Hitchcock, and Mass General; and government offices and NGO's ranging from a United Nations
Development program in Cairo to our own Jane Harman's congressional office in Washington D.C.
We have also had excellent success in athletics. Smith
Volleyball won the Seven Sisters and the NEWMAC championships; player Kate Sorensen was named to five
all-tourney teams, the Seven Sisters MVP, and a NEWMAC All American. Crew won its third consecutive
NEWMAC title, and has just received an invitation to nationals; Karen Klinger '87, the team's
coach, was named NEWMAC Coach of the Year for the second year in a row. Smith Ice Hockey played
their first ever established league competition for a total of 27 games; Smith Rugby won the prestigious
Division 2 Beast of the East tournament. Marlene Pineda '08 broke
two Seven Sisters swimming records at the Seven Sisters Championship. Judy Strong, head coach
of the field hockey team for 19 years, was named to the NCAA Division I 125th anniversary team, and
Track and Field celebrated its 25th anniversary with 40 alumnae and past coaches returning to campus
this spring.
In quite a different area of student activity, I want
to pay tribute to Smith's artists. Five College Opera staged two wonderful operas at Smith
to three sell-out audiences; five Smith students sang major roles, and our theater department created
extraordinary sets and costumes for the production. MFA candidate Ariel Gonzalez Cohen was nominated
for Dance Magazine's Outstanding Choreographer Award and was invited to perform at the Kennedy
Center in May. A wonderful season of student music, dance, and theater has ended with the orchestra's
splendid performance of Mahler's Second Symphony, and Noel Coward's Family Album.
Our students have also been very active in community
service projects this year. More than 50 of our students have traveled to the Gulf Coast to help
in various rebuilding projects, including a group that went to Biloxi in January and one that went
to New Orleans over spring break. Our students put on a Hunger Banquet that raised over $11,000
to combat genocide in Sudan and drought in East Africa; students also raised a record $6,000 for a
local organization, Friends of Children, dedicated to child advocacy. Wilson House won a house
competition to raise money for a local MassPIRG Hunger Clean Up to combat hunger and homelessness. Hopkins
House won first prize and Park House was runner-up in a new competition for community service and sustainability
projects developed by houses. The student organization Clean Energy for Smith won the Million
Monitor Award from the EPA for getting 1,800 students to power down their monitors when not in use,
beating out Amherst and Mount Holyoke.
Our faculty have continued to garner impressive awards.
This year we expect to receive $5 million in grants. Professor Richard Olivo has
received the Educator of the Year Award from the Society for Neuroscience. A recent book by Professor
Andy Zimbalist, National Pastime: How Americans Play Baseball and the Rest of
the World Plays Soccer, was named as an outstanding academic title by Choice magazine. Professor Laura Katz has been
named to the Smithsonian Institution's Biodiversity Science and Education Initiative task force. Daisy
Fried, our Conkling Poet in Residence, has won a Guggenheim Fellowship. Professor John Davis
has won a Fulbright for study and teaching in Brussels. Professor Eric Reeves has
been awarded the Williams Bicentennial Medal and will be awarded an honorary degree from Mount Holyoke
next week for his advocacy work increasing awareness of the genocide in the Sudan. Smith awarded
Professor Emerita Elizabeth Horner an honorary degree at a private ceremony in late April. Sherrerd
Distinguished Teaching Awards were presented to Professors Giovanna Bellesia, H. Robert Burger, Glenn
Ellis, and Marguerite Harrison. Students presented teaching awards to Professor David Newbury
and Senior Lecturer Robert Hosmer.
Faculty collaborate with students in much of the research
that they do. This year, for the fifth time, we held a day-long celebration of student research,
titled “Celebrating Collaborations,” in which over 180 students presented the independent
work they had done with faculty. Immediately preceding this event was a gathering of 70 of our
alumnae, engaged in careers in the sciences, technology, and engineering. Ranging from the class
of 1950 to the Class of 2005, the women who attended were powerful evidence of Smith's long distinction
in educating leaders in science.
Not surprisingly, Smith alumnae continue to distinguish
themselves in many fields. We awarded Smith medals this year to arts administrator Margaret
Byard Stearns '57, educator Roberta Schenker Kurlantzick '65, scientist and physician Beverly Mitchell
'65, and human rights activist Julia Bolz '83. T. Christine Stevens '70 has been named a fellow
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Catherine McKinnon '69 and Susan
Goldin-Meadow '71 have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Katie Hunt
'77 was named president-elect of the American Chemical Society. Anne De Groot '78 has just
been named the 2006 Rhode Island Woman Physician of the Year. Kathleen Morin '75 has won Columbia
Teaching College's Distinguished Alumna Award. Adrian Nicole LeBlanc '86 is one of
five journalists named as a Poynter Fellow at Yale. Jane Yolen '60 has been awarded an
honorary degree by the University of Massachusetts. Sharmeen Obaid '02 has won the Livingston
Award for her reporting about the Taliban. Debra Brown Steinberg '76 won the 2006 American
Bar Association Pro Bono Publico Award. Margaret Lang Bauman '60 won the Doug Flutie Jr.
Award for her work with autistic children. Elizabeth Whiston '05 founded a non-profit group
that raised more than $30,000 to build schools in rural Uganda. Carolyn Kuan '99 was appointed
first female conductor by the North Carolina Symphony in 2005 and the first female conductor by the
Seattle Symphony in 2006. April H. Foley '69 has been nominated as Ambassador to
Hungary. Linda C. Thomsen '76 has been appointed head of the SEC's Enforcement Division. Claudia
McMurray '80 has been appointed Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Oceans and International
and Scientific Affairs. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office unveiled a plaque recognizing
Eunice Hunton Carter '21 as the first black woman to serve as a prosecutor in New York State.
In the world of sport, Penny Chenery '43 received
a special award for her contributions to the world of thoroughbred racing. Bettina Jenney '55
was placed in top position for the breeding of thoroughbreds, and Diana Dodge '54 was named Virginia
Horsewoman of the Year and was awarded the US Memorial Breeder's Cup. Britton Nixon '02
took home a handful of medals and captured three out of four national titles at the U.S. National Rowing
Championships. Anne Martin '83 won U.S. Rowing's Jack Kelly Award. Midge Costin '78
was the first professor named to the Kay Rose Endowed Chair in USC's School of Cinema and Television,
and took first and second place in individual races in the World Surf Kayaking Championships.
We have made several new administrative appointments this year: Patricia Jackson
as Vice President for Advancement, Larry Hunt as Executive Director of Human Resources,
and Stacie Hagenbaugh as Director of Career Development.
Each year we recognize people who have worked for Smith and who are retiring. Elizabeth
Leidel '04, past president of the SGA, will reach the end of her two-year term
on the Board of Trustees this year. We thank her for her service. Three
faculty members are retiring: Mark Aldrich, Mickey Glazer, and Howard Nenner. Several
members of our community have died this year: retired professors Walter Morris-Hale,
Kenneth Hellman, Edith Kern, and Helen Russell, who served for many years as dean
of students, as well as Rita Wilkins, former director of SOS, and Marjorie Richardson,
former assistant dean for minority affairs.
And now to graduates. There are 737 of you. You come from 45 states and
29 foreign countries. 62 of you are Adas, ranging in age from 26 to 61. Together
you have completed 867 majors; 130 are double majors. The five most popular
majors are government, art, psychology, economics, and English. And 50 graduate
students will receive your degrees tomorrow.
You, the Class of 2006, are poised to go into the world, as the alumnae here have
before you. Use your gifts well, your privileges with care and generosity. Remember
the Grecourt Gates and the charge they represent. Erected in 1924 as a memorial
to the work of the Smith College Relief Unit that went to France to rebuild villages
that had been destroyed by the war, they symbolize the responsibility you have to
use your education to benefit others. At the dedication ceremony, Ada Comstock,
the great dean of the college after whom the Ada Comstock Scholars program is named,
described their significance: The Grecourt Gates, she said, “form a wide
gateway through which the graduates of this college will go out year by year, ready
as were the members of this unit to dedicate all they have to the common lot.”
That is your journey as well, one that begins at Smith and that I hope will bring
you back here throughout your life. I wish you Godspeed.
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