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Chronological Listing

October 31, 2000
BOSTON GLOBE
According to the Globe, paganism is on the rise on college campuses. An article headlined "Back to Nature" cited figures suggesting that more than a hundred groups have formed on college campuses in every state and at schools from Australia to the United Kingdom. At least seven Massachusetts colleges have student pagan groups, including Smith, Wellesley and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. [www.boston.com/globe]

October 31, 2000
NEW YORK TIMES
Michiko Kakutani reviewed "The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath: 1950-1962," edited by associate curator of rare books Karen Kukil. "The publication of Plath's unabridged journals," Kakutani wrote, "provides us with a fuller, more nuanced portrait of her: this 'litany of dreams, directives and imperatives,' as she once described her diary, gives us a depressed, self-dramatizing woman, but it also gives us the popular golden coed familiar to readers " [www.nytimes.com]

October 30, 2000
ENGINEERING NEWS RECORD
For its annual feature section on higher education, Engineering News Record, the leading publication of the construction industry, featured Smith's Picker Program in Engineering and Technology as a model for attracting and retaining women in engineering. ENR described program director and professor Domenico Grasso as "a man with a mission" to promote diversity in the engineering profession. Grasso noted the program's rigor ­ "it's going to be a demanding degree covering the hardest subject areas of all engineering disciplines" ­ and also emphasized its strong link to social issues and humanistic concerns. "We want to teach the use of fundamental principles to solve problems, coupled with a strong dose of social responsibility so [the students] understand engineering's impact on humanity." [www.enr.com]

October 27, 2000 (issue date)
CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
Coverage of the reconstituted Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics noted that Smith economist Andy Zimbalist was among the "most outspoken critics" of college sports invited to testify before the panel at hearings in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 18. www.chronicle.com

October 26, 2000
DALLAS MORNING NEWS
As pundits attempted to predict the effect of Ralph Nader's bid for the presidency, political scientist Howard Gold cautioned Dallas Morning News readers that Nader's impact could far outstrip that of a much-watched independent candidate of 1992. "Nader may arguably have one of the biggest impacts we've seen from a third-party candidate," Gold said, "certainly bigger than Perot." [www.dallasnews.com]
 
October 25, 2000
MINNESOTA PUBLIC RADIO
When the NCAA punished the University of Minnesota for academic fraud and other violations, Minnesota Public Radio invited economist Andy Zimbalist, author, most recently, of "Unpaid Professionals: Commercialism and Conflict in Big-Time College Sports," to offer his thoughts on collegiate athletic reform. [www.mpr.org]
 
October 23, 2000
BUSINESS WEEK
With the Boston Red Sox up for sale for the first time since the Great Depression, speculation is rife as to the price the franchise will command. It's impossible to gauge the marketplace impact of the team's emotional appeal, but Smith economist Andy Zimbalist offers a figure based on prevailing baseball economics: $320 to $340 million. www.businessweek.com
 
October 22, 2000
NEW YORK TIMES
Amid politicians' claims that this year's "subway series" will inject millions of dollars into the New York City economy, Smith economist Andy Zimbalist remains highly skeptical. "There is no basis to think this is going to be a material lift to the New York City economy," said Zimbalist, whose research focuses on the economics of professional sports. "The city would do better if the Mets were playing Seattle. Basically, you have fewer people coming in, bringing less money." www.nytimes.com
 
October 22, 2000
NEW YORK TIMES
The New York Times (and numerous other publications) carried notice of the death of Katherine Fanning '49, first woman editor of the Christian Science Monitor. www.nytimes.com
 
October 22, 2000
NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE
In a special advertising supplement devoted to issues of workplace diversity, Smith Career Development Director Barbara Reinhold argued that the first hurdle in creating a heterogeneous workforce is changing attitudes. "Einstein said that you can't fix a problem from the mindset that created it in the first place," she said. "The 21st century is the century of the diverse customer base. The customer is no longer a white guy. So customer-seeking solutions from white-guy dominated companies just won't cut it." www.nytimes.com
 
October 22, 2000
BOSTON GLOBE
Mikela Licona '02J
, founder of the campus environmental group Gaia, represented Smith at a conference in Connecticut of college students and administrators aiming to make their campuses "eco-smart." "I'm getting ideas here," Licona told the Boston Globe. ""Now I have the vocabulary for my arguments, and good examples. Smith is progressive but environmental issues are not brought up." www.boston.com/globe
 

October 20, 2000
TIMES
In its higher education supplement, the Times of London featured Smith's new engineering program under the headline "Initiative changes image of engineer." A photo accompanying the story showed program chair Domenico Grasso helping first-year student Simone Koo work out a calculation in EGR 110, "Fundamentals of Environmental Engineering." [www.thes.co.uk]

October 19, 2000
WASHINGTON POST
In a section headlined "District Extra," the Post noted the visit of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School Choir of Southeast Washington to the Smith campus. The MLK students visited Smith at the invitation of President Ruth Simmons as part of National College Week. Alumnae of the Smith Club of Washington helped to sponsor the visit. [www.washpost.com]

October 13, 2000
CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
Many fans of professional sports have lately become frustrated by the ways that money ­ or lack of it ­ determines league outcomes. Or, as Chronicle of Higher Education writer D.W. Miller put it, "The growing financial disparity between the richest and poorest teams threatens to consign some teams to perpetual mediocrity." Miller talked to a number of academics ­ among them economist Andy Zimbalist ­ whose analyses often provide documentation for fans' suspicions. Zimbalist is particularly opposed to team-owners' arguments that building new sports stadiums or arenas ­ largely at taxpayer expense ­ will create jobs and stimulate economic development. He repeated to Miller a point about stadiums made eloquently and convincingly in his 1997 book, "Sports, Jobs and Taxes": "There is no economic benefit." www.chronicle.com
 
October 11, 2000
CBS, "THE EARLY SHOW"
Just days before its 25th anniversary, Smith's Ada Comstock Scholars Program got a national boost when CBS featured it on its morning news show. The segment, hosted by Lisa Birnbach and introduced by Bryant Gumbel, featured three current Adas (all women beyond the traditional age who have enrolled at Smith to complete their undergraduate degrees): Laurah Morningstar Winder, Jeri Hise, and Anne Martindell. Martindell, who entered Smith at age 85, told Birnbach she isn't sure what she'll do after graduation; some of her friends, she says, have advised her to "take a year off to find herself." www.cbs.com
 
October 10, 2000
BOSTON GLOBE
The 2000 annual meeting of the Women's College Coalition (WCC), held at Simmons College, served as a hook for Globe higher education writer David Abel to speculate on the future of women's colleges, a topic further fueled by Emmanuel College's recent decision to go co-ed. That decision, remarked WCC President Jadwiga Sebrechts, was consistent among a small proportion of women's colleges ­ "small, liberal arts-oriented Catholic institutions that have a very slender financial cushion." The Seven Sisters, now Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Smith and Wellesley, the article noted, "are among the nation's top liberal arts schools"; applications to those institutions "have increased nearly 50 percent" over the last ten years. www.boston.com/globe
 
October 9, 2000
ESPN.COM
The October 6 announcement that the Red Sox would be sold unleashed a flurry of commentary on why the Yawkey Trust ­ the team's majority general partner ­ would put the team on the auction block. Many experts agreed that the financial setbacks encountered in building a new Fenway Park were an important factor. "The trust was intending to put the team up for sale all along and they figured they would have a feather in their cap if, before they sold it, they could adorn it with a stadium and get several hundred millions more," explained economist Andy Zimbalist. "Well, they bungled that and couldn't get good interest rates on their financing, so instead of staying on course, they decided to get out of the mess that they created." www.espn.com
 
October 8, 2000
PALM BEACH POST
The Florida Marlins claim they can't survive without a new $400 million stadium ­ largely taxpayer-funded -- to boost attendance. Professor of Economics Andy Zimbalist disagrees. Even with low turnstile numbers, Zimbalist says, the team should be able to turn a profit through television revenues, more modest player salaries, player development and scouting expenditures closer to the league average, and overall fiscal tightening. www.pbpost.com
 
October 3, 2000
NPR, "TALK OF THE NATION"
Smith alumna and trustee Gloria Steinem was a guest on NPR's "Talk of the Nation" for a discussion about the future of feminism. Steinem joined Amy Richards and Jennifer Baumgardner, authors of "Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism and the Future." When the discussion turned to the need to advance women in technical fields, Steinem held up her alma mater as a pioneer: "I've very proud of my college, Smith College, which is a women's college that has started a school of engineering with the premise that not only will engineering change women, but women will change engineering. www.npr.org
 
October 3, 2000
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
"How coeducation has redefined college life" focused primarily on new housing trends at co-ed colleges, where mixed-gendered groups of students can often live together in apartment-style suites. A sidebar to the article noted, however, that single-sex learning environments remain an important choice for many students. It cited Smith's impressive record in the sciences as proof of women's colleges' academic strength. www.csmonitor.com
 
October 2,000
WORKING WOMAN
When noted interviewer Charlie Rose spoke with President Ruth Simmons at this summer's Rising Tide Summit, a conference on culture and technology, Working Woman magazine was taking notes -- especially when the conversation turned to women in engineering. They reprinted the following quote in their October issue, accompanied by a photo of President Simmons and a description of the college's new engineering program and WITI Technology Center. "Can you imagine the impact when women are involved in designing technology and determining how it will be used? We've created an engineering program because women were being left out of the design of the future." www.workingwoman.com
 
October 1, 2000
BOSTON HERALD
Prior to the first presidential debate, held at UMass Boston, Associate Professor of Government Howard Gold cautioned Boston Herald readers about the impact of debates on election outcomes. "It is fair to guess that a decisive debate victory may well pave the way to victory in November. But short of a major gaffe, who wins and who loses is a function of expectations." www.bostonherald.com
 
October 1, 2000
DETROIT NEWS/FREE PRESS
In a lead-up article to the first presidential debate on October 3, government professor Howard Gold predicted the encounter would be far more decisive than debates in previous elections. With the race considered a dead heat, Gold commented, "the debates may very well prove to be the turning point of the campaign." www.freep.com
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