While You Were Gone…
There was nothing lazy about the hazy days of summer on the Smith campus this year. From May 31 until the end of August, the campus was anything but quiet as people gathered to attend a variety of conferences and events, including sports and educational camps for high school girls, molecular biology camps for adults and a yoga workshop for enthusiasts. The college offered some of the programs, others were sponsored by outside organizations renting campus facilities and housing for their events, but all were coordinated through Smith’s Office of Summer Programs to ensure that the campus facilities were used efficiently and effectively during the summer.
Activists working to improve economic, labor and public health conditions in their communities were on campus in July for the Center for Popular Economics’ weeklong summer institute, while high school girls explored their dreams of careers in science, engineering and medicine during Smith’s month-long Summer Science and Engineering Program. Meanwhile, a five-day track and field day camp, directed by cross-country and track coach Carla Coffey, offered high school girls the chance to learn new skills.
Those seeking advice about their golf swing or on how to paddle a canoe could attend the annual session of Smith’s Adult Sports and Fitness Camp, held in June. Participants in the weeklong camp -- started 23 years ago by professors Don Siegel and Jim Johnson of the exercise and sport studies department, and now directed by Siegel and Kim Bierwert, assistant athletic director -- signed up to work on their fitness levels and to learn new sports under the guidance of professional instructors and in the company of supportive peers.
Professionals in the field of molecular biology were selected from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds to attend one of three 2-week sessions in which they honed their laboratory research skills. This was the 17th year for the New England Biolab’s Molecular Biology and PCR Summer Workshop, directed by Steve Williams, Gates Professor of Biological Sciences.
While new candidates for a master’s degree in social work were on campus June through August completing the academic requirements for the program, master’s-level social workers, therapists, counselors and other human service professionals were also in residence for the continuing-ed seminars of the Smith School for Social Work.
In June, scholars of the literary works of Nathaniel Hawthorne attended the annual meeting of the Nathaniel Hawthorne Society, a nonprofit educational organization.
Getting around campus, on foot or by auto, became increasingly difficult this summer as road projects repaved, upgraded and improved local streets and roadways. A paving project on Upper College Lane involved curb realignment, sidewalk reconstruction, safety-rail replacement, accessible crosswalks and a completely new road surface. Some may notice the absence of three large oak trees along the top of the bank across from Sabin-Reed. The Botanic Gardens department had recommended that the trees -- a common species represented in many locations along that road -- be removed because they were in decline and very large for their location.
Elsewhere, a half-mile stretch of West Street (Route 66) became a dusty obstacle course with heavy earth-moving equipment, deep ruts, cavernous trenches and traffic police. The work is part of an 11-mile $14-million state highway project.
See what you missed, Smithies?
