News for the Smith College Community // April 22, 1999
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From July 7 to 10 Smith will host "Physical Education and Sport in a Global Context: Honoring the Legacy, Charting the Future," a meeting of the International Association of Physical Education and Sport for Girls and Women (IAPESGW). Expected to attract some 100 of the world's most influential women in sports and physical education, it will be only the second American meeting of the IAPESGW. The organization, founded by Smith's own Dorothy Ainsworth in 1949, has members in five continents and more than 40 countries. Presenters from more than 30 countries will take as their theme the role of sport and physical education in the global development of women. Their topics will range from "Sexual Harassment in Physical Training" to "The Role of Sport and Physical Education in the Rehabilitation of War-Traumatized Women" to "Women's Football in England: The Struggle to Imagine a Community." The conference will open with a keynote address by Smith President Emerita Jill Ker Conway. She will be joined by Benita Fitzgerald Mosley, a three-time Olympian and the only African-American woman to win the Olympic gold medal in the 100-meter hurdles. On July 8, Donna Lopiano, executive director of the Women's Sports Foundation and a leading advocate for gender equity and athletic opportunity for women, will address a plenary session discussing the challenges facing women athletes. Gertrud Pfister of Frei Universitat, Berlin, president of the International Sport History Association, will trace women's achievements in athletics. IAPESGW President Margaret Talbot of Leeds Metropolitan University, England, will discuss the organization's future direction. And a gala celebration that evening will mark the 50th anniversary of the organization's founding at Smith. IAPESGW Vice President Chris Shelton, Smith associate professor of exercise and sports studies, is coordinating the conference. Helping with everything from opening ceremonies to publicity to entertainment is the Local-Arrangements Committee, made up of faculty members Susan Bourque, Ann Ferguson, Bevin Hartnett, Reyes Lazaro, Scott Taylor, Libby Wheatley and Greg White; staff members Carla Coffey, Laurie Fenlason and Kathleen Gauger; and students Lori Kauffman '99, Nickawanna Shaw GR, Kristen Skoglund '01 and Patricia Swan AC. For more information, see www.smith.edu/collegerelations/athconf.
Alum Anthology Now Available Smith Voices: Selected Works by Smith College Alumnae, edited by Patricia Skarda of the English department, arrived late last week in the Grécourt Bookshop. The collection of poetry, fiction and essays, as well as reproductions of original art by Smith alumnae -- 33 authors and 22 artists -- has been in the works for two years, during which Skarda had the assistance of two interns, two STRIDE Scholars and "an army of students who helped me proofread." Just 10 years ago Skarda edited what she calls "the pilot" for the current book. Called simply Smith Voices, it served the college well over the years as a prize presented to hundreds of high school winners of Smith Book Awards. When the 3,000-copy printing was exhausted, Linda Salisbury '78, then a member of the National Alumnae Admission Committee, stepped in to create an endowment to support a new Smith Book Award book. Although Skarda says the new volume "bears only slight resemblance" to the earlier one, they share the primary purpose of supporting the college's admission and advancement efforts. The newly published book includes literary selections from such well-known alumnae as Madeleine L'Engle '41, Molly Ivins '66, Anne Morrow Lindbergh '28, Julia Child '34 and Sylvia Plath '55. Alumnae artists represented include Sandy Skoglund '68, Pamela See '73 and Susan Hiller '61. Students who made especially significant contributions to the creation of the book were Allison C. Deets '99, who served as editorial intern for three semesters; Sarah L. Grover '99, a summer intern; and STRIDE students Sarah Willson '02 and Allison Otto '02. The book was designed by Elizabeth Pols '75.
Summer Book for First-Years is Announced What do Aretha Franklin and Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot have in common? Respect! But while Aretha won't be coming to Smith College, Sara is. Chosen to be the summer-reading author for all entering students, Lawrence-Lightfoot will be on campus during the 1999 fall orientation. Students will be asked to read her recently published book, Respect: An Exploration, over the summer. On Friday, September 3 at 8 p.m. she'll read from Respect and share the experiences of discovery that led her to write the book. A reception and book-signing will follow. Faculty and staff are invited to give of their time to lead one of 30 or more groups of new students that will meet at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, September 4, to discuss the book. If you're interested in volunteering, contact either Tom Riddell (extension 3618 or triddell@sophia) or Merry Farnum (extension 4904 or mfarnum@ais). Lawrence-Lightfoot is Emily Hargraves Fisher Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, a MacArthur Prize Fellow and the first African-American woman to receive an endowed chair at Harvard. In Respect she offers penetrating portraits of six individuals in sundry professions who share the ability to traverse social and economic barriers in reaching others. Her other books include Balm In Gilead: A Journey of a Healer and I've Known Rivers: Lives of Loss and Liberation.
Tea to Honor SGA Stalwarts All Smith students are members of the Student Government Association (SGA). The organization, whose influence extends to all aspects of student life at Smith, from the social and judicial system to curricular concerns, provides many opportunities for student involvement. Many students take advantage of these opportunities. This year more than 140 women have played an important part in SGA, filling well over 200 elected and appointed positions within the association and the larger Smith community committee structure. They have given freely of their time, explored ideas, initiated and implemented plans, participated in activities, listened to the many student voices and made their own voices heard. On Tuesday, April 27, the Office of the Dean of the College will hold an invitational tea to honor the women who have led the SGA this year. Some of those students have been active in SGA for a semester, some for the entire year; some make it their life and others add SGA to myriad other campus activities in which they are involved from athletic teams to singing groups, theater performances and work in administrative offices to serving on residence house councils-balancing all this activity with their academic commitments. Of course, SGA is not the only organization that provides opportunities for leadership and participation. More than 90 SGA-chartered organizations attend to the interests, hobbies and concerns of Smith women and are dedicated to keeping the spirit of campus involvement alive. Back to top of page
Picnic to Offer Fun and Food For the kids there'll be clowns named Pozey and Peppermint Patti. There'll be a 25-foot moonwalk (for big kids) and a 12-foot bouncy house (for kids under 10). There'll be face painters, a fingernail artist, balloon sculptures and a baseball pitch arena that'll measure the speed of a throw. And for the adults there'll be plenty of food catered by our own dining services staff, along with deejay Ali Glaiel spinning your favorite CDs just as she did for last January's Winter Party. Oh, and there will also be grass to lounge on, space for kids to run and lots of company with whom to visit. It'll all be at the 1999 Smith College Faculty and Staff Picnic and it's happening Tuesday, June 15, at 5:30 p.m. on the athletic fields. Bring your own chairs and blankets. If it rains or the fields are soaked, the picnic will move to Scott Gymnasium. Check the college's Info Line and on-line news as of noon on June 15 for the final word on location. College employees are invited to bring their spouses, partners and kids. To obtain free meal tickets, return the self-addressed R.S.V.P. ticket to the Office of College Relations no later than Tuesday, June 1, with your ticket and meal needs. Meal tickets will be mailed out to faculty and staff after May 21. Tickets can be purchased for additional guests for $10 in College Hall 5. If you'd like to contribute to Hospice of Hampshire County/VNA Alliance, which offers health care and counseling to area families, please send your gift with your R.S.V.P. ticket request or bring it to the picnic.
Yahoo Praises Smith's 'Wiring' Smith College is ranked sixth in the nation among liberal arts colleges in the May Yahoo! Internet Life survey of this year's 100 most-wired schools. Among the categories in which institutions are evaluated are hardware, on-line academic functions and free services. The magazine says it "inquired into every aspect of a school's wired life, from student Web usage and network speed to Net resources available for the seeing- and hearing-impaired." Case Western Reserve University was the top school on the overall list, followed by MIT. Among liberal arts colleges, the top five were Wake Forest, Gettysburg, Colgate, Dartmouth and Bates. In what Yahoo touted as its special college issue, topics of other stories were on-line plagiarism, the 10 best college resource sites and "the college cover girl," television's Felicity, Keri Russell.
Breakfast of Champions By Lisa Johnson AC When Amanda Chudnow was a junior at Champlain Valley Union High School near Burlington, Vermont, busily applying to Smith and other colleges, her guidance counselors told her to describe aspects of herself that college admissions personnel might not appreciate through standard application forms. Package yourself, the counselors said, and don't be modest. Inspired by these admonitions, she suddenly envisioned her smiling face on a box of Wheaties breakfast cereal. She designed her own "Amanda!" cereal box to submit with her application -- the perfect packaging solution, she guessed, to make her stand out in a crowd of applicants. On the box she inscribed: "The student you want! Available for a limited time only! Nab her now! You won't be disappointed!" The cereal box didn't sway their decision to admit Amanda, admission staff insist, but it did give them a welcome dose of levity during the grueling review process. The admission office often receives collages or other creative efforts from applicants trying to colorfully illustrate their personalities, interests, community involvement or love of sports, says Nancy Tessier, director of admission. She goes on to say that, to her knowledge, Amanda's was the first cereal box application to come through the office. Amanda and a crowd of other prospective first-years visited campus last week for Open Campus, a program designed to help them make their decision about whether to attend Smith -- to give them a hands-on feel for life as a student here. A second recent event, Discovery Weekend, gave newly admitted women of color the opportunity to meet with current students and alumnae for insights into Smith that specifically address their needs and concerns. Tessier offers the following facts about this year's applicants and incoming first-years:
Seniors Chart Their Getaways By Lisa Johnson AC Senioritis is alive and well at Smith. Even as women have diligently attended classes, made preparations for the future and socialized with gusto, life is gaining momentum now that the end is at hand. After packing their bags for the last time this spring, seniors will move in a multitude of directions. Peach Pittenger, for example, is packing up her Geo Metro to head for graduate school in Madison, Wisconsin, where she'll study theater history. There she looks forward to having her own apartment with a kitten and being in a larger town-one with men. Cherilyn Cepriano is moving to Washington, D.C., to work as a senior staff assistant doing health care policy and legislative analysis with the National Governors Association. Amy Adams is bound for China, where she'll teach English, learn to cook Chinese food and make many new friends. For Jackie Crucet, it's a very straightforward plan indeed: California, her Maine man, the couch and a dog named Bisbee. Smith women will travel to destinations known and undiscovered. When they do, they'll leave a place that has expanded their lives and offered a multitude of mixed blessings. Most say that being at Smith has changed them in many ways. Iami Badu imagines her impending release from Smith to be like that of a butterfly breaking out of a cocoon, ready to spread its wings and soar. Having had the opportunity to explore many possibilities in this cocoon, she is ready to head back into the world on her own terms, more sure of herself than ever before. Christi Smith transferred here from the University of Washington at age 21. "When I came to Smith," she says, "I was on the offensive, hoping to hold my own with snooty rich girls dripping in pearls." For her, analyzing her thought processes for the first time had a significant impact on who she is. Discovering that an elite school could be liberal and that she had been raised with working class values opened her eyes dramatically. She says she sees how important it has been to "have four years to be bombarded with the message that 'women's minds matter,' compared to a lifetime of being reduced to 'gender first, individual second.'" Pittenger says, "You know those photos of U.S. presidents looking so young and handsome when they first get into office -- and then those photos of them four or five years later, when they look so old -- worried and worn out, with bags under the eyes and lots of wrinkles? I think that's happened to me." But along with the bags and the wrinkles have come wisdom and insight. Here's some advice from members of the class of '99:
Staffer Succumbs to Cancer Marie L'Heureux, administrative assistant in the graduate office at Smith since 1981, died April 15 after a 14-year battle with breast cancer. Well known to many on campus, L'Heureux was also active in the community. Over the years she chaired several committees for the Cooley Dickinson Hospital Follies, was president of Beta Sigma Phi sorority, co-chaired the American Cancer Society of Hampshire County's Daffodil Day program and was active in the American Cancer Society's Door to Door campaign. L'Heureux leaves her husband Gerard; two daughters, Nicole and Danielle; her mother, Mildred Twarog, and two brothers, Francis Twarog and Jay Twarog, and many nieces and nephews. "Marie was a wonderful friend," said one long-time co-worker, "and so many people admired her for her cheerful outlook despite her long struggle with cancer."
Ten Things You Didn't Know About . . . The Smith Management Program
For more information about the Smith Management Programs, contact us at Tilly Hall, 585-3060, 585-3068 (fax), e-mail: smp@smith.edu, web address: www.smith.edu/smp. Back to top of page
Margaret Edson '83, mentioned in this column two weeks ago, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize on April 12 for her play Wit, which is currently running off Broadway in New York. A first-time playwright, Edson is a full-time kindergarten teacher in Atlanta, where she was told of the award as she was cleaning up after a class project about insects. Research, incomplete as AcaMedia went to press, indicates that she may be the first Smith alumna to win a Pulitzer Prize. * Ann Boutelle of the English department, mentioned last week in this column, as a semi-finalist for the 1999 Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets, went on to become one of six finalists chosen from among 1,262 poets competing for the award, which annually honors a poet's first published book. Ultimately, Judy Jordan, a graduate student in the M.F.A. fiction-writing program at the University of Utah, received the award for her book Carolina Ghost Woods. * President Ruth Simmons will be in Washington, D.C., on May 17 and 18 to participate in the Summit on Women in Engineering. According to E. Gail de Planque, former Commissioner of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and chair of the summit's steering committee, the summit's goal is "to ensure that the talents and skills of the nation's best and brightest young women are not lost to engineering, a discipline critical to our nation's health, environment, security and economic well-being. . .The summit will seek to initiate a set of nationally focused partnerships among the participants, who represent a spectrum of stakeholders for the purpose of increasing the numbers of women in the engineering workforce and maintaining and advancing those already there." * Kate Buckman '01 has received a $3,000 Dean's Award scholarship to participate in SEA Semester, an undergraduate academic program run by the Sea Education Association (SEA) of Woods Hole, Massachusetts. SEA Semester combines intensive on-shore academic courses in oceanography, maritime studies and nautical science with hands-on oceanographic study and research at sea aboard one of SEA's two tall ships. Buckman, a biology major, will be one of 49 college students in Sea Semester Class 165. She is the second Smith student this year chosen for a Dean's Award: Louise Pyle '00, a biochemistry major, was awarded the scholarship for SEA Semester class 162. Her sea semester ends May 2. * More than 40 members of the Smith faculty and staff whose work has been published (books, chapters, articles) or produced (CDs, CD-ROMs) during the past year will be honored Wednesday, May 12, from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Neilson Browsing Room at the annual party hosted by the Grécourt Bookshop. Those on the list of honorees when this AcaMedia went to press were Susan Allen, archeology; Jeane Anastas, SSW; Randy Bartlett, economics; Peter Bloom, music; Barbara Blumenthal, Mortimer Rare Book Room; Karl Donfried, religion; Lois Dubin, religion; Elliot Fratkin, anthropology; Velma Garcia, government; Stuart Getz, physical plant; Myron Glazer, sociology; Jonathan Hirsh, music; Daniel Horowitz; American studies; Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz, American studies; Jamie Hubbard, religion; Donald Joralemon, anthropology; Gillian Kendall and Ronald Macdonald, English and Ann Jones, comparative literature; Marisa Labozzetta, American studies; Anita Lightburn and Gerald Schamess, SSW; Sarah London, English; Richard Millington, English; Joseph O'Rourke, computer science; Ronald Perera, music; Marylin Rhie, art and East Asian studies; Donald Robinson, government and American studies; Stanley Rothman, government; James Sacré, French; Margaret Sarkissian, music; Richard Sherr, music; Ruth Simmons, president; Patricia Skarda, English; Nicomedes Suárez-Araúz and Charles Cutler, Spanish and Portuguese; Cathy Topal, education and art; Hans Vaget, German; Eric Weld, college relations; Louis Wilson, African-American studies; B. Ann Wright, public affairs; and Philip Zaleski, religion. * Ada Comstock Scholars Kerry Timlin and Laurel Powers spent spring break capitalizing on internships they had last summer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Timlin, whose internship was at NOAA's Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Florida, returned there in March to write scientific flyers geared to the general public, other researchers and government agencies. She is also continuing an ongoing project of writing a marine science curriculum manual for high school students for the Florida department of education. Powers, who wrote a Reporter's Guide to Oil Spills while working at the NOAA in Washington, D.C., traveled to Seattle in March to attend the International Oil Spill Symposium. Timlin's and Powers' trips were funded by the E. J. Murphy Fund of the Five College Coast and Marine Science Program. * The Strange Disappearance of Sophia Smith by Quentin Quesnell, Roe/Straut Professor Emeritus in the Humanities, is expected in the Grécourt Bookshop in June. Initiated during the Sophia Smith Bicentennial in 1996-97, the book explores how credit for the founding of Smith College, Sophia Smith's "dream come true," passed from her to someone else-a man, one of her many counselors and friends, who outlived her by half a century. Quesnell's book uses contemporary documents, unpublished notebooks and archival manuscripts to explain how that might have happened. * Ellen Doré Watson, managing editor and translation editor for The Massachusetts Review, will come to Smith next fall to coordinate the Poetry Center Series and to teach English 112, "Reading Contemporary Poetry." Watson, who has two volumes of poetry to her credit, We Live in Bodies and Broken Railings, has published translations of both fiction and poetry, including The Alphabet in the Park: Selected Poems of Adélia Prado. Of Watson's poetry, Robert Pinsky, poet laureate, has written: "Ellen Watson is an eloquent and passionate poet; generosity of imagination distinguishes both her gift for language and her emotional sympathy: interrogative, tender, wildly inventive, with the wonder of childhood and a grown women's comic sense...Watson's poetry is the real thing." For the past five years she had run a highly successful poetry series in Northampton, "Readers and Writers Live!" * During April students in Biological Sciences 204b/205b, "Horticulture," are applying what they've learned about growing plants in managed environments by doing a garden design and installation project on campus at the shade/fern garden at the northeast side of Clark Science Center. Renovation of the Lanning Fountain in 1998 led to alterations to the site, which in spring 1997 had been planted by horticulture students Amanda Austin '00, Brennan Bruss '97, Kate Burkhardt '97, Sallie Holt '00, Bev Jones '97 and Jani Kushla '97. This year's students-- Erika Boetsch '01, Betsy Churchill '00, Catherine Cook '99, Mollie Goldbarg '00, Ann Hellmold '01, Sarah Katz '01, Meg Manchester '02, Mika Matsui of Hampshire College, Erin Ostrander '00, Aryn Perryman '99, Kim Roy '00, Hillary Thomas '99, Susan Vitolo '02 and Megan Williamson '01 -- were told that the purpose of the fern garden is to assemble a collection of hardy ferns for teaching and display purposes. The plantings will represent the greatest possible range of taxonomic diversity, with emphasis on plants with known wild-collected source data. North American native ferns will predominate but hardy ferns from other regions will be included to illustrate biogeographic, taxonomic or ornamental teaching points. The students have mapped the site, created preliminary designs, compiled planting lists and revised designs. They have purchased plants for the site at local nurseries and will plant them later this month.
Calendar Key
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| Building | Weight Room | Pool | |
| May 7 | 6 a.m.-9 p.m. | 6:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m. | 4-5:30 p.m. |
| May 8-9 | 10 a.m.-6 p.m. | 11 a.m.-2 p.m. | 11 a.m.-2 p.m. |
| May 10-14 | 6 a.m.-6 p.m. | 6:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. | 6:30-8 a.m., 12-2 p.m. |
| May 15 | 9 a.m.-6 p.m. | 10 a.m.-2 p.m. | 10 a.m.-2 p.m. |
| May 16, 23 | 9 a.m.-noon | 9:30-11:30 a.m. | 9:30-11:30 a.m. |
| May 17-21 | 6 a.m.-6 p.m. | 6:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. | 6:30-8 a.m., noon-2 p.m. |
| May 22 | 10 a.m.-6 p.m. | 11 a.m.-2 p.m. | 11 a.m.-2 p.m. |
| May 24-28 | 6 a.m.-6 p.m. | 6:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. | 6:30-8 a.m., noon-2 p.m. |
| May 29-31 | Closed | Closed | Closed |
| June 1-4 | 6 a.m.-6 p.m. | 6:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. | 6:30-8 a.m., 12-2 p.m., 4-5:30 p.m. |
| June 5-6 | Closed | Closed | Closed |
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AcaMedia staff: Ann Shanahan, co-editor; Cathy Brooks, layout; Mary Stanton, calendar/notices; Eric Sean Weld, co-editor
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