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Smith
Hosts National Conference On Diversity
Congresswoman's
Papers Come to Smith
Smith
Voices Heard in New Volume
Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time
Robotics
New
Book Restores Credit to Sophia Smith
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New fellows, a new dean and
a Pulitzer
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has
given Smith a $435,000 grant to host four postdoctoral fellows
in the humanities and social sciences over the next five years.
Smith's Mellon Fellows are expected to teach and pursue scholarship
in several emerging areas in the curriculum, particularly interdisciplinary
fields such as women's studies, media and culture, environmental
public policy, landscape studies, Caribbean literature, and Islamic
art and architecture. The fellows join a growing community of
postdoctoral researchers in the sciences and Smith's Mendenhall
Fellows-minority scholars in residence at the college to complete
their doctoral dissertations. The first Mellon Fellow begins
residency at Smith this fall.
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Smith alumna Margaret Edson '83 received a Pulitzer Prize in
drama last spring for her play Wit. A first-time playwright,
Edson is a full-time kindergarten teacher in Atlanta. She had
to decline Smith's invitation to attend this October's special
recognition event of accomplished Smith alumnae because she was
unable to find a substitute teacher for her classroom. Three
other Smith graduates have received Pulitzers: the late Margaret
Mitchell '25 in 1936, the late Meg Greenfield '52 in 1972, and
Sylvia Plath '55, posthumously, in 1982.
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Smith's neuroscience program, which was established as a major
in 1996, recently received a $150,000 grant from the Arthur Vining
Davis Foundations, based in Jacksonville, Florida, to support
a two-year expansion. The grant will fund faculty and curriculum
development and support the purchase of high-tech lab equipment
and computers for courses in neuroanatomy, neurophysiology and
molecular neurobiology. It will also support student research
on campus and at major neuroscience research centers off campus.
"This grant gives us an important
opportunity to further prepare Smith students for a future in
which scientific and technological expertise will be increasingly
required for success," says Donald Baumer, dean for academic
development. The percentage of Smith students majoring in the
sciences, especially chemistry and neuroscience, has increased
dramatically during the past 20 years. The number of graduates
entering fields in science and technology immediately after graduation
has tripled since 1990.
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In June, President Bill Clinton named President Ruth Simmons
to the Women's Progress Commemoration Commission. She joins Ann
Lewis, counselor to the president at the White House, and Molly
Murphy MacGregor, executive director of the National Women's
History Project, on the bipartisan commission. It was established
by an act of Congress in honor of the 50th anniversary of the
Seneca Falls Convention, the first national congregation on the
conditions and rights of women in the United States. The commission
will be responsible for advising the U.S. Secretary of the Interior
on ensuring the historic preservation of sites that have been
instrumental in American women's history.
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Mela Dutka, former dean of students at Columbia College, a women's
college in Columbia, South Carolina, became dean of students
at Smith in July. She oversees residence life, student activities,
multicultural affairs and international students. A native of
Massachusetts and a graduate of the University of Massachusetts
at Dartmouth, Dutka has 15 years of experience in student affairs
administration. She holds a master's degree in higher education
from the University of Vermont and is currently a doctoral candidate
in curriculum, instruction and administration at Boston College.
The dean of students position was created following a 1996 study
designed to find ways to enhance student life.
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Two Smith athletes took Smith's first-ever All-American titles
last May in the NCAA Division III National Track and Field Championships
at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio. Teresa Winstead, who
graduated in May with high honors, took All-American in the heptathlon.
Genesis Fisher '00 became Smith's first All-American shot-putter.
(The top eight performers in each competition are named All-Americans.)
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Smith was one of only four liberal arts colleges in the United
States to receive a grant from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation
of Irvine, California. The $70,400 grant will be used to support
the research project of four Smith students studying in the biomedical
sciences. The grant, which is designated exclusively for students
who are producing a senior honors project, will provide scholarships
for two students each in the academic years 19992000 and
200001. Each of these Beckman Fellows will work with a faculty
mentor in completing her project. Scholarship recipients for
19992000 are seniors Gianna Muir-Robinson of Medway, Massachusetts,
who will work with Stefan Bodnarenko, an assistant professor
of psychology; and Elizabeth Nolan of Niskayuna, New York, who
will work with chemistry professor Robert Linck.
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