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HHMI Grant Highlights Gifts to College
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has awarded Smith College
$1.6 million to expand its current science programs and to create new ones.
The grant, which is the largest science grant in the college's history,
is given by HHMI to colleges with outstanding science programs. Smith, Villanova
University and Xavier University received the highest single awards.
The resources provided by the grant will have an impact on almost every
aspect of science learning at Smith, from expanded research opportunities
for undergraduates to the acquisition of new state-of-the-art laboratory
instrumentation.
In addition to Smith, HHMI awarded grants to two other area schools.
Hampshire College received $1,300,000 and Mount Holyoke College, $900,000.
A medical research organization, HHMI is the nation's largest philanthropy.
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In addition, Smith science faculty and programs have received more than
$170,000 from other corporations and foundations to support the college's
efforts at providing superior educational opportunities in science for women.
They include:
- science education for high school girls (Smith Summer Science Program,
$25,000 from NYNEX for scholarship aid to students from Massachusetts who
attended the 1996 Summer Science Program);
- development of innovative teaching methods (mathematics professors
James Callahan and Katherine Halvorsen, $49,067 from the National Science
Foundation to develop computer aids to help students in undergraduate math
courses visualize complex geometric relations);
- new research projects explored by students and faculty--botanical sources
of pharmaceuticals (Smith College Botanic Garden, $37,775 from Pfizer,
Inc.), the processes governing molecular crystal growth (physics professor
Nathanael Fortune, $25,000 from the Petroleum Research Fund), atom traps
(physics professor Doreen Weinberger and Smith junior Marina Brown, $2,500
from the New England Colleges Fund) and "nuclear spin structure"
(physics professor Piotr Decowski, $32,861 from the National Science Foundation);
- promotion of gender equity in secondary-level science and math education
(Current Students/Future Scientists and Engineers program, $2,500 from
Raytheon and $2,500 from Analog Devices to fund the participation of teachers
from Lawrence and Norwood, Massachusetts public schools).
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Many non-science faculty and endeavors at Smith received grants or awards
in recent months as well. They include the following:
- $18,000 from the George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation to Smith
music professor Jane Bryden to underwrite a festival of the music of Luigi
Dallapiccola;
- $29,825, a Fulbright Scholarship, from the U.S./Israel Educational
Foundation to religion professor Karl Donfried to fund six months of lecturing
and research at Hebrew University in Israel;
- $15,000 from the J. Walton Bissell Foundation; $10,000 each from the
Aetna Foundation, the Samuel Freeman Charitable Trust and the Ensworth
Charitable Foundation; and $5,000 each from the George A. and Grace L.
Long Foundation, Fleet Bank and the Seth Sprague Educational Foundation
to Community College Connections, a program that encourages women, especially
underrepresented minorities, to transfer to four-year institutions;
- $4,000 from the New York Times Foundation to the Sophia Smith Collection
to help improve public awareness of and access to this valuable women's
history archive in the Smith College Libraries.
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In Case You Missed It
 A profile of Smith College President Ruth
Simmons appeared on "NBC Nightly News" in August as part of a
week-long series that featured five American women whose life stories they
considered exceptional and inspiring.
NBC cited Simmons' lifelong interest in learning, which brought her from
humble beginnings in Grapeland, Texas, to her current position as president
of Smith College.
Simmons shared the spotlight with Bonnie St. John Dean, a paralympic
bronze-medal winner; singer/songwriter Gloria Estefan, who in 1990 survived
a near-fatal car accident; Sarah Buell, a domestic abuse victim-turned-activist;
and Charlotte Beers, CEO of Ogilvy & Mather, who is credited with the
international advertising agency's dramatic turnaround.
Camera crews for NBC News filmed at the Smith campus in addition to Grapeland
and Houston, Texas, where Simmons grew up.
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Study: Smith to be "Best College in
the Country"
Smith 2020, an ambitious self-study project designed to move Smith toward
what President Ruth Simmons calls "the next level of academic excellence,"
is now under way. It was officially launched with a reception for the study
team members in early September.
At the gathering, Simmons emphasized the importance of the yearlong self-examination
and urged participants to think beyond the vested interests or particular
needs of individual departments and fields of study. "This is an earnest
effort to look at what we are doing now at Smith [to carry out the academic
mission of the college]. It is not a cost-cutting exercise. It is not a
downsizing exercise," she stressed. "It is important that everyone
brings to the process what it would take to improve the educational offerings
of the collegeto make Smith, already a superb college, the best college
in the country. It is about establishing priorities for what Smith might
be 10, 20, even 50 years from now."
More than 100 people from the Smith community have been assembled into
12 teams, each charged with evaluating a designated area of college operations.
The study teams are asked first to examine the academic mission of Smith
College and every aspect of the institution that contributes to that mission.
Officially, the study will be used to prepare for Smith's upcoming reaccreditation
review, a rigorous evaluation and site visit scheduled for October 1997
by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). Smith was
last accredited in 1987; reaccreditation is required once every 10 years.
But in addition to a preparation process, Simmons also sees it as an
"opportunity to describe and evaluate the current Smith experience
and to look at the initiatives we may wish to undertake as we move into
educating the next generation of Smith students."
To comply with the NEASC mandate, the college must describe and assess
areas of its operation; for each area, a committee composed of students,
staff and administrators, as well as faculty members, oversees the evaluation.
The self-study committees and their team leaders are: Mission and Purposes
(Howard Nenner); Planning and Evaluation (John Burk); Organization and Governance
(Don Baumer); Programs and Instruction (Joe O'Rourke); Faculty (John Connolly);
Student Services (Ann Wright); Library and Information Resources (Sarah
Pritchard and Herb Nickles); Physical Resources (Bill Brandt); Financial
Resources (Ruth Constantine); Public Disclosure (Carey Bloomfield); and
Integrity (Susan Bourque).
Overall, the endeavor is led by a four-member team chaired by Nenner.
The other team members are vice chair Ann Burger, administrative director
Marta Staiti and administrative assistant Chris Forgey '96.
Between now and November, the project's teams will concentrate on the
descriptive and evaluative parts of the study. A first draft of the findings
should be ready by Thanksgiving. Then the next and, according to Nenner,
more interesting phase begins. "We will be asking, 'Are there any new
initiatives we want to take with the academic mission of the college?'"
While looking for original ways to enhance educational opportunities,
Simmons directed team members to test each new idea against probing questions.
She offered her own examples: "How important is this idea to the academic
mission of the college?" "Does this make us unique?" "Is
exemplary performance [with this idea] evident, or is it possible, in the
near future?"
She encouraged the group to think of other tests as well. "Thirty
years from now," Simmons told them, "some of the next generation
will be standing right here where you stand today...and I hope they will
say we got it right!"
The self-study will conclude at the end of summer 1997 and will be followed
by a site visit by NEASC accreditors in October 1997.
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New Faces, Time-Honored Places
A number of new faces have appeared on the Smith campus since the most
recent issue of NewsSmith--and some familiar faces are being seen in new
places.
 Carmen Santana-Melgoza has been named
assistant to the president and director of institutional diversity. Her
leadership role with institutional diversity replaces that of the former
director of affirmative action, who was responsible for overseeing hiring
and civil rights practices on campus. In addition to those responsibilities,
Santana-Melgoza will also explore broader ways in which Smith can continue
to evolve as a multicultural community, and she will lead and direct campuswide
efforts on diversity and campus climate issues.
Santana-Melgoza comes to Smith from New Mexico State University, where
she was an associate professor of management, teaching courses in human
resource management and strategic management. Santana-Melgoza also taught
at Arizona State and the University of Texas. She previously worked for
the Civil Rights Division of the Arizona Attorney General's Office and the
Texas Employment Commission. She is co-author of Human Relations in Organizations
(West Publishing Company, 1994).
Smith's new dean of the college is Maureen A. Mahoney, former
dean of the School of Social Science at Hampshire College. She succeeds
Ann Burger, who stepped down after 12 years in the post, and will supervise
all academic, social and health services at the college, as well as other
student services.
A psychologist who has conducted significant research on women's development,
Mahoney began her academic career 19 years ago at Hampshire College, serving
since 1994 as dean of social science. She also was a lecturer in the Smith
psychology department in 1989; from 1983 to 1985 she served as a fellow
at Wellesley College's Stone Center, researching the ties connecting a woman's
work, her social support systems and the quality of her relationship with
her first-born child. She is the recipient of fellowships from the National
Endowment for the Humanities, the National Institutes of Mental Health and
the Salzburg Seminar, and is the author of numerous professional articles.
 Kim E. Tripp, the former Putnam Research
Fellow for living collections at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University,
has joined the college staff as director of the Smith College Botanic Garden,
which includes the campus arboretum as well as the Lyman Plant House. Before
joining the Arnold Arboretum, Tripp was curator of conifers and a post-doctoral
associate at North Carolina State University, where she earned her Ph.D.
in horticultural science. She will serve as a lecturer in the department
of biological sciences at Smith, teaching horticulture and working with
students on independent study projects.
Smith's new director of residence and dining services is Kathy Zieja,
who has served as acting director since August 1995. She began her career
at Smith in 1977 as the supervisor of residence and dining services, overseeing
the dining rooms of the Green Street houses. In her new leadership role,
Zieja promises to continue cherished Smith traditions, such as Friday teas
and Thursday sit-down dinners, while amending menus to include the healthier
fare that today's students are requesting.
And sharp-eyed readers will notice a new name on NewsSmith's masthead.
Jan McCoy Ebbets has joined the office of college relations as assistant
director of publications and NewsSmith editor. Ebbets comes to Smith
from Springfield College, where she served as communications specialist.
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Students of Color Enrollment Increases
"One of the major enrollment goals at Smith is to improve campus
diversity," says Ann Wright, dean of enrollment management. This means
bringing in more students of color and more students with varied backgrounds.
As costs have escalated for private education, the numbers of these students
have declined at Smith over the past few years, in spite of a strong financial
aid program and energetic recruitment activities.
This year's results indicate a major increase in students of color compared
to the numbers in 1995. Assuming there are no last-minute changes in the
numbers, Wright expects a 16-percent increase in students who describe themselves
as Asian American, African American, Latina, Native American or multiracial.
In mid-May, that increase was announced as even higher, but because last
year's numbers grew over the summer due to late deposits from minority students,
that larger gap has now narrowed to an increase of 16 percent for the class
of 2000.
Some of that increase is due to a highly successful Discovery Weekend
for minority students in April; 49 percent of those participating subsequently
enrolled. In addition, the outstanding STRIDE and Dunn Scholar groups include
record numbers of students of color this year. Of the 35 STRIDE students,
six are minority students; there are also five Dunn Scholars from minority
groups.
The college has a number of new initiatives planned for this year, says
Wright, and looks forward to a successful year of recruiting students of
color for the class of 2001.
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