News for the Smith College Community //January 27, 2000
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Smith Students Answer the Call By Adele Johnsen '02 The answer to Kennedy's challenge was a resounding yes. And thus was born the Peace Corps, a government program that places volunteer workers, teachers and helpers in disadvantaged nations. The Peace Corps has always had strong appeal to recent college graduates, and Smith students have been no exception. Smith ranks ninth among colleges its size in number of students who have participated in the Peace Corps, with more than 250 Smith alums having served in the corps since its 1961 inception. Currently, there are 13 Smith alums serving in countries all over the world, including Ivory Coast, Nicaragua, Morocco, the Dominican Republic, the Philippines, Madagascar, and Honduras. Smith's unusually high level of participation in the Peace Corps comes as no surprise to people familiar with the college's long tradition of volunteer involvement, or to those acquainted with its dedicated, activist student community. "It seems to me that among the Smith students, there is a strong sense of commitment to service and a willingness to explore cross-cultural situations," says Michael Simsik, Five College Peace Corps recruiter from 1996 to 1998. "Smith students seem eager to push themselves, to work independently and in situations that require a great deal of personal initative, and in general, they are open to experiencing as much of the world as they can." Peace Corps volunteers are required to commit to 27 or 28 months of service, which includes three to four months of training, then two years in the field. "Anybody with an interest and a liberal arts degree could qualify," Simsik says, although a past commitment to volunteerism and a major related to one of the Peace Corps' programs are helpful. There are many benefits to joining the program, including the experience of living and working in another country, learning or perfecting a foreign language, and 30 percent forgiveness of student loans for two years of service. Most importantly though, the Peace Corps offers volunteers the opportunity to meet Kennedy's 1961 challenge: to assist the disadvantaged and to pledge "our best efforts to help them help themselves." Fixing the Bugs in New GroupWise During the college's self-study about two years ago, a team of professionals from other universities recommended a campus-wide transition to a single messaging system, a common e-mail server, because the multiple systems on campus were causing problems. With so many incompatible e-mailing options available (Pine for faculty and staff, for example, Eudora for many students), people were frequently losing mail and struggling with tasks as simple as sending attachments and documents. As a result, Information Technology Services (ITS) shopped for a new messaging system and recently settled on Novell's GroupWise system. The implementation of GroupWise began during the summer. ITS encountered some difficulties at first. Though the GroupWise system has proven stable in commercial sites all over the country, Smith experienced complications with its particular implementation of the system. "Smith's is simply an unusual and unfortunate situation," said ITS director Herb Nickles. "We know what's happening, but we don't know what causes it." The Web interface version of GroupWise, GroupWise Web Access, sometimes stops running, giving the impression that the system has crashed. The system's hardware, which includes two servers running with several backup systems, is fine, Nickles emphasizes. The problem is with the software. Both ITS and Novell spent the fall trying to find solutions to the problem. "We've been taking error logs, taking dumps of the memory, and Novell analyzes what's wrong. They're trying to create corrections to the program," Nickles said in November. To improve the program's performance, ITS installed a few custom patches. To prevent "crashes," they moved the e-mail system from its shared server to its own independent server. And, to keep options open, technicians began reviewing alternate access options, including POP/IMAP services, the latest release of GroupWise Web Access, and the GroupWise desktop client. Ultimately, ITS chose the GroupWise desktop client as the problem's most viable solution. A software application many Smith faculty and staff have been using successfully since August, the desktop client "has proven to be reliable and easy to use," Nickles explained in a January 21 memo to students. With "many features students have requested, including the ability to do signatures, distribution lists, message archiving, vacation messaging, e-mail forwarding, message prioritizing, and filtering," Nickles says, "we believe that the GroupWise desktop client provides the best solution for students." The desktop client, which is already installed in the Computer Resource Centers in Seelye, Bass and Wright halls, will be made available to students during the spring semester, when ITS distributes the minimum hardware requirements and information regarding installation procedures. Will the debut of the desktop client spell the demise of GroupWise Web Access? No, says Nickles. In fact, Web Access is still the suggested access option for many Smith students. "ITS recommends GroupWise Web Access for students who need to access e-mail from off campus or from several different locations," he says. And since the desktop client can only function on late-model, powerful Windows PCs or Macintoshes, Web Access is also recommended "for students whose computers aren't powerful enough to run the GroupWise desktop client." ITS will continue with its improvements to the Web Access system, including "steps to improve the reliability of the GroupWise Web Access servers, [and the implementation of] a new release, due later this semester, [which] will provide additional features requested by students." ITS and the Senate Multimedia and Technical Services Committee welcome feedback on the GroupWise situation. Comments can be sent to itsfeedback@smith.edu; students can contact their senate representative. Prez Serves on Diversity Panel President Ruth Simmons recently made
an appearance at the New York Public Library, where she served
on the advisory panel for an affirmative action debate. Held
on January 13, the debate, which was sponsored by the Oxford
University Press and the Annenberg School for Communications,
focused on the topic, "Is affirmative action an appropriate
remedy for discrimination and exclusion in America?" Moderated
by ABC News' Cynthia McFadden, the debate centered around arguments
of Nat Hentoff, author and syndicated columnist, and Christopher
Edley, Jr., a faculty member at Harvard Law School and Special
Counsel to the President for the White House Initiative on Race.
As Hentoff (who argued against affirmative action) and Edley
(an affirmative action supporter) faced off, Simmons and other
panelists provided questions and comments. Joining Simmons on
the panel were Abigail Ternstrom of the Manhattan Institute;
Albert Camarillo of Stanford University; Richard Kahlenberg of
the Century Foundation, and Glenn Loury of Boston University.
The group on the panel will later select readings on the topic
of affirmative action, due to appear in a book derived from the
debate and published by Oxford University Press. Lixin Gao, an assistant professor in computer science, was recently awarded two grants from the National Science Foundation, totaling almost $400,000. The funding will support two projects under her direction that will research and develop more efficient systems for delivering computerized information to multimedia service subscribers. Gao received $200,000 under the foundation's Faculty Early Career Development program that aims to support young academic careers dedicated to scientific discovery through research and teaching. The so-called CAREER grant will fund Gao's research project that is focused on developing efficient systems for delivering interactive video-on-demand (VOD) services to a rapidly increasing body of Internet and cable consumers. "Interactive VOD services allow a subscriber to select the content of his or her choice at any time, and are likely to become one of the most successful services in the emerging broadband integrated services digital networks," Gao says in the grant proposal. The CAREER grant is a highly competitive award and is seldom awarded to faculty at predominantly undergraduate institutions such as Smith. Using the grant, Gao plans to employ student interns to assist with the project and study other aspects of mulitmedia networking. The grant will also fund the purchase of laboratory equipment designated for the research project. Gao also received $193,228 from NSF's Division of Advanced Networking Infrastructure and Research. That grant will support her project titled "Proxy Services in Wide-Area Networks," which is seeking to develop and evaluate emerging services that endeavor to improve the quality of multimedia data (such as audio, video, images and text from various sources) transmitted to subscribers' computers and networked monitors. Specifically, the project will focus on the development of proxy services that are created to deliver high-quality digital data, as well as the resource management systems utilized by the proxy services, and other aspects of proxy delivery services. For her research on proxy services, Gao will collaborate with researchers at UMass and AT&T laboratories in New Jersey. The grant also provides for three Smith undergraduate research assistants for each year of the three-year project. Gao, who joined the Smith faculty in 1996, has received three previous grants from the NSF. She has a doctorate from UMass and completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Science and Technology of China. Interterm: A Different Side of Smith By Adele Johnsen '02 I spent at least one evening struggling to narrow down my selections, finally choosing four courses that looked particularly interesting. The registration process further narrowed my list of courses; J-term classes, after all, fill up quickly. I ended up taking "Introduction to Clay: Handbuilding" taught by Emily Christensen '00 and "Road Rules: The Non-Runner's Guide to Having Fun on a Run," led by Katrina Gardner '00. I arrived back at Smith on the evening of January 9, the night before my running class began. The campus was eerily quiet. Even in my normally busy house, no doors were open, no music was blaring, no footsteps were thundering down the hallway. The dining room, usually bustling with activity, was dark. But there was life on campus, as I discovered the next morning when I headed to breakfast at the crowded King/Scales dining room, the Quad's centralized dining location. It was just not as loud or obvious as usual. I quickly discovered that the size and volume of campus life was not the only thing different over J-term. Courses also had an entirely different structure and feel. Efficiently run and extremely well-organized, my running and pottery classes nevertheless had a very laid back, low-key atmosphere. We felt free to run at our own pace in "Road Rules" and construct whatever we pleased in Christensen's "Introduction to Clay." Worries about grades were gone; homework was unheard of. We were at our classes strictly because we wanted to be there, because the subject matter was something interesting, something we wanted to brush up on or learn for the first time. When J-term concluded at the end of last week, I'd learned the basics of working with clay and overcome my rather overwhelming distaste for running. I'd experienced Smith at its wintery quietest and established or strengthened friendships with housemates I didn't spend much time with during the regular academic semester. In addition to my clay creations and my newfound ability to run miles at a time, I gained, from J-term, a great new experience at Smith.
................................................ ................................................ Sources of further information, if any, are indicated in parentheses. Notices should be submitted by mail, by e-mail (mstanton@colrel.smith.edu) or by fax (extension 2174).
Honorary Degree Nominations School for Social Work Library Hours Hillyer Art Library Museum of Art Faculty and Staff Kyoto American Studies Fellowships Campus School Open House Bonus Program Performance Appraisal Advisory Task
Force Students Graduate Study Abroad Course Registration and Changes Five College Registration Makeup Examinations S.O.S. Luncheon Meditation Stress Reduction Class Openings House Community Advisers Bridge Preorientation Study Abroad Alumnae House Teas SSSP Summer Jobs Beinecke Scholarship Consortium Internships
"Excavating the Museum II: H.H.
Wilder and Early 20th-Century |
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Sources of further information, if any, are shown in parentheses at the end of event descriptions. An asterisk following a listing indicates that the event is open to the public. Admission charges, if any, are listed when known. Items for this section must be submitted on Event Service Request Forms. Monday, January 31 Lectures/Symposia Meetings/workshops SLAC general meeting 8:30 p.m., Women's Resource Center Religious Life Liaisons First meeting of the semester. 5-6 p.m. Bodman Lounge, Chapel RELIGIOUS LIFE Other events and
activities Yoga class Noncredit, for students. Limited to 40. 4:45-6 p.m., Davis ballroom Tuesday, February 1 Lectures/Symposia Fine/performing
arts/films Meetings/workshops SGA Senate meeting Open forum. All students welcome. 7:15 p.m., Seelye 201 Religious Life Imbolc Ritual in honor of Brigid, Celtic goddess of creativity and healing. All welcome. 8-11 p.m. Lamont dining room * Other events and
activities Language lunch tables Yoga class Noncredit, for students. Limited to 40. 4:45-6 p.m., Davis ballroom Wednesday, February 2 Lectures/Symposia Fine/performing
arts/films Meetings/workshops Religious Life Buddhist service and discussion. 7:15 p.m., Bodman Lounge, Chapel Other events and
activities Language lunch tables Classical languages.12:15 p.m., Duckett Special Dining Room C Yoga class Noncredit, for students. Limited to 40. 4:45-6 p.m., Davis ballroom |
Thursday, February 3 Lectures/Symposia Fine/performing
arts/films Other events and
activities Yoga class Noncredit, for students. Limited to 40. 8-9:15 a.m., Davis ballroom SSW open house The School for Social Work invites you to meet social work graduates who are practicing in the clinical field (see notice). 6-7:30 p.m., Neilson Browsing Room Friday, February 4 RELIGIOUS LIFE Orthodox vesper service with Fr. Harry Vulopas presiding. Students of all Orthodox backgrounds are welcome. A light supper follows the worship. 5:15 p.m., Chapel Other events and
activities Alumnae House tea Duckett and Gardiner Houses are cordially invited to attend. 4 p.m., Alumnae House Living Room Saturday, February 5 Lectures/Symposia Religious Life Sunday, February 6 Lectures/Symposia Religious Life Morning worship and Holy Communion in the Protestant tradition with the Rev. Leon Burrows, interim Protestant chaplain, and student liturgists presiding. Prayers and light breakfast in the Bodman Lounge 10 a.m. All welcome. 10:30 a.m., Chapel* Association of Smith Pagans meeting. Organization for those who practice nature-based religions. Seekers welcome. 4 p.m., Lamont basement Roman Catholic Eucharistic Liturgy Fr. Stephen Ross, OCD, celebrant, priest/scholar-in-residence. Elizabeth Carr, Catholic chaplain. Choir singers should arrive by 3:30 p.m. All welcome. 4:30 p.m., Chapel* Exhibitions "Excavating the Museum II: H.H. Wilder and Early 20th-Century Anthropology at Smith College" is the second collaborative exhibition installed by students in Patricia Erikson's fall anthropology seminar, Objects, Selves and Others: The Anthropology of Material Culture. By looking at the career of Harris Hawthorne Wilder, professor of zoology, this exhibit examines early 20th-century anthropometry studies and their relation to eugenics debates, the education of women in science and the excavation of Native American burials in New England. Through February 2000. Smith College Archives, Alumnae Gymnasium, Neilson Library. "Staff Visions" is the annual exhibit of art and crafts created by Smith College staff. The exhibition runs through February 4 in Hillyer Gallery; hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.-8 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; and Sunday, noon-8 p.m. The exhibit is free and open to the public. |
