Newsbriefs
Smith College was ranked first
among liberal arts colleges in economic diversity by U.S. News and World Report:
27 percent of Smith undergraduates receive federal need-based Pell Grants. The schools that followed
Smith include Mount Holyoke with 19 percent of its undergraduates receiving Pell Grants; and
Bryn Mawr and Wellesley colleges, both with 17 percent. Smith was also recently cited in The
New York Times for its socioeconomic diversity. Nineteen percent of entering Smith students in
fall 2005 were first-generation college students.
Laura Katz, associate
professor of biological sciences, joined a new Smithsonian Institution task force
to examine the deteriorating condition of the earth’s biodiversity.
The Biodiversity Science and Education Initiative (BSEI) aims to identify critical
knowledge gaps and conceptual approaches that must be addressed for a better scientific
understanding of biodiversity. The work of the BSEI team is supported by a grant from the John
D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Judith Strong, head coach of Smith’s Division
III field hockey team for 19 years, has been named to the NCAA Division I 25th Anniversary
Field Hockey team. The athletic conference will celebrate its quarter-century anniversary throughout
the 2005-06 season.
The Smith Pioneers
defeated U.S. Coast Guard Academy on November 5 with a 33-31, 30-19 and 30-26 match-up,
to win the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference
(NEWMAC) championship. Smith advanced to the championship round after defeating
MIT 3-0 on November 4. This title marks the team’s first NEWMAC championship title. The
NEWMAC named Pioneers coach Bonnie May coach of the year and senior outside hitter
Kate Sorensen athlete of the year.
Smith College Professor of Biological Sciences Richard
Olivo was named “Educator of
the Year” by his peers at the 2005 Society for Neuroscience meeting that recently drew
an estimated 30,000 scientists to Washington, D.C. Olivo received the award on November 14 from
Smith alumna and former student Jean C. Hardwick ’83, who is now a faculty member at Ithaca
College. Given annually to a member of the society’s Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience
group, the award recognizes efforts that promote neuroscience education and research at
the undergraduate level.
As fall colors surrounding Paradise Pond faded in November,
a riot of color was unfurling across the street inside the Botanic Garden’s Lyman Conservatory.
The popular annual chrysanthemum show featured a variety of multicolor blossoms,
including flowers resulting from the hybrids made by the previous year’s horticulture class.
Photo by Madelaine Zadik. |
