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"And
the Winner Is..."
When Play
Is Work, and Vice Versa
Calling All
Songwriters
"Recipes
from Home" Tested on Unsuspecting Judges
In Case You Haven't
Been Watching TV Lately...
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Summits, shows, tuition and
trips
Susan Bourque, Esther Booth Wiley Professor
of Government, has been appointed provost and dean of the faculty.
Since joining the college in 1970, Bourque has been active on
several policy committees, including admissions, financial aid,
and tenure and promotion; directed the Smith Research Project
on Women and Social Change; and chaired the government department.
She is the author and editor of several books. Bourque begins
her term on June 1, succeeding John Connolly, who will become
acting president when Ruth Simmons becomes the president of Brown
University in July.
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Smith seniors are excited that Toni Morrison, winner of the Nobel
Prize for Literature and author of seven critically acclaimed
novels, will be the speaker at Smith's 123rd Commencement on
May 20. Morrison has also received the National Book Critics
Award, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Humanities Medal, and
the Library of Congress Bicentennial Living Legend Award. She
was honored with a degree from Smith in 1991. She is currently
the Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Council of the Humanities
at Princeton University.
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In April, Ford Motor Co. pledged $10 million to Smith to underwrite
a new state-of-the-art facility for the college's Picker Program
in Engineering and Technology, established in 1999. "Ford
has made this commitment to Smith as a model for bringing women
and minorities into the engineering field and into the workforce,"
said Jacques Nasser, Ford's chief executive and president, in
a press release.
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Due to the winter that wouldn't leave, the 2001 Bulb Show at
the Botanic Gardens was the most appreciated of all the shows
in the past 10 years, with more than 5,000 blooming crocuses,
hyacinths, narcissi, irises, lilies and tulips on display. This
was the last show until the $5 million Lyman Conservatory renovation
project is completed in 2003. The renovations will restore the
facility's greenhouses, expand its exhibition space and update
the technology necessary for maintaining its vast collection
of plants from habitats around the world. All Botanic Garden
offices will remain open throughout the construction.
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"Have fun and raise hell" was the advice given to Smith
students by Smith Medal Winner Molly Ivins '66 as she spoke to
a capacity crowd gathered in John M. Greene Hall for Rally Day.
Ivins, a political commentator and journalist, perhaps most widely
known as the author of Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life
of George W. Bush, was the keynote speaker for Smith's 125th
Rally Day celebration. She urged students to become active in
political issues. "This country is ours. We run it. We are
the board of directors," she said. Also honored with Rally
Day Smith medals were Pamela Bowes Davis '68, Ann Kaplan '67
and Judith Tick '64.
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In February, Gloria Steinem '56, a longtime activist in promoting
equity for women in the workplace, and Domenico Grasso, Rosemary
Bradford Hewlett '40 Professor and chair of the Picker Program
in Engineering and Technology at Smith, paid a visit to the Bronx
High School of Science. There they met with some 50 sophomore
and junior girls interested in science and technology. Recognizing
the shortage of women professionals in the engineering and high-tech
fields, Steinem and Grasso hope to encourage high school girls
to consider careers in those fields.
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One month later, Smith hosted an intensive summit on engineering
education that drew some 150 engineering executives, corporate
representatives, deans, faculty members and association representatives
to campus to formulate potential solutions to the national workforce
shortage of women as practicing engineers and computer scientists.
Among the notable speakers were Shirley Ann Jackson, president
of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; astronaut Bonnie Dunbar,
assistant director for university research and affairs at NASA;
and Thomas Magnanti, dean of engineering at Massachusetts Institute
of Technology.
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At its February meeting, Smith's Board of Trustees approved a
4.9 percent comprehensive fee increase for the 20012002
school year. The fee incorporates tuition at $24,550 and room
and board, $8,560. The student activity fee, approved by the
Student Government Association Senate, will be $192.
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With the help of the Smith math department, alumnae mathematicians
organized an April conference celebrating their field. The conference,
which was held on campus, drew an eclectic mix of participants,
including undergraduate and graduate students, mathematicians,
computer scientists, engineers, astronomers and physicists. Speakers
represented four decades of Smith math classes, among them renowned
math educator Evelyn Boyd Granville '45, who gave the opening
talk. The conference was held in memory of Ellen Borie '66 and
Laura Mayer '79.
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March 8 marked not only the celebration of International Women's
Day, but also the opening of the inaugural conference for a new
women's studies journal, Meridians: Feminism, Race, and Transnationalism.
A Smith-Wesleyan collaboration, Meridians is the first peer-reviewed,
scholarly journal related to women of color. The conference,
held on campus, featured activists Angela Y. Davis, Elizabeth
(Betita) Martinez and Sharon Hom; spoken-word performer Queen
Godis; a presentation by former Salvadoran guerilla Maria Ofelia
Navarrete; and performances by poets, musicians and writers.
The second issue of Meridians, featuring writer Edwidge Danticat,
poet Adriene Su, and essayist Paula Giddings, is currently available.
Further information can be found at www.smith.edu/meridians.
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From July 21 to August 20, it will be full steam ahead for an
unusual Smith College expedition-The 1899 Harriman Expedition
Retraced: A Century of Change-along 9,000 miles of Alaska's coastline.
A team of nationally respected scientists, artists and naturalists
will be on board the M/V clipper Odyssey, a 120-passenger expedition
vessel, along with Smith alumnae, faculty, students and members
of the Alaskan community. The trip retraces a journey made in
1899 by railroad magnate Edward H. Harriman and his guests as
they explored the coast, following the Inside Passage along the
Alaska Peninsula across the Arctic Circle to the Bering Strait
and Russia. The expedition will produce an in-depth survey of
the contemporary Alaskan landscape. Final results will be captured
in a two-hour PBS documentary feature film, produced by Florentine
Films/Hott Productions, and a Web site. For more information,
go to www.pbs.org/harriman.
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The Smith College Museum of Art is pleased with a new acquisition:
One Who Watches, a painting by American artist Emma Amos. Acquired
with a $6,000 gift from the Black Students Alliance (BSA), the
painting was chosen by museum curators in partnership with members
of the BSA executive board and Mentha Hynes, dean of multicultural
affairs. Amos is the recipient of numerous fellowships from the
Rockefeller Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts
and the National Endowment for the Arts. One Who Watches, now
a part of the museum's permanent collection, will be available
for viewing when the renovated and expanded museum reopens in
2002.
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