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............................   If We Build It..   Ted Hughes on Sylvia Plath: Fact or Fiction?   Visitors Deliver   Eggshell Artistry

When Ruth J. Simmons was inaugurated as Smith College's ninth president, eight Smith faculty members embarked on a lecture series honoring her investiture. The series, "Professorial Passions," is now available as a softcover book. Professorial Passions is a "celebration of the liberal arts at Smith College," writes editor Peter I. Rose, Sophia Smith Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, in the foreword, adding that the lectures "provide a small but significant sample of the rich and varied research interests and intellectual pursuits of the college's faculty." The book presents the eight lectures in their entirety with supporting illustrations, beginning with Dean of the Faculty John Connolly's lecture, "The Academy's Freedom, The Academy's Burden." Also included is "Mind Matters" by psychologist Jill de Villiers, professor of philosophy and Sophia and Austin Smith Professor of Psychology; "Polyrhythm-Wise," a highly personal, Whitmanesque poem on modern-day life and people by playwright and performer Andrea Hairston; "Seven Characters in Search of the 12th Century" by Lester K. Little, Dwight W. Morrow Professor of History; "Connections," a richly illustrated lecture on the teaching of sculpture and graphic art by Elliot Offner, the art department's Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities; "The Birth of the Stars," delivered by Suzan Edwards of the astronomy department; "The Medusa Face," an analysis of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina by Maria Banerjee, professor of Russian language and literature; and "Hollywood and America," originally presented by political scientist Philip Green on the night after the 1996 Academy Awards. Professorial Passions is available for $12.95 at the Grécourt Bookshop. To order, call (413) 585-4140. ............................ Also on the Grécourt shelves is Tea with an Old Dragon, a children's book about the life of Sophia Smith written by local award-winning author Jane Yolen '60, with illustrations by Monica Vachula '73. Tea with an Old Dragon tells the story of a day in the life of Louisa, the six-year-old daughter of the Rev. John M. Greene, who one day visits the home of Sophia Smith in search of the fabled "Old Dragon" (as Sophia was known to others in town). Much of the story told in Tea with an Old Dragon was taken from Hatfield folklore about Sophia Smith, and from her will and a journal kept by her. Smith College commissioned Yolen and Vachula to create Tea with an Old Dragon in commemoration of the life of Sophia Smith. The book is published by Boyds Mills Press of Honesdale, Pennsylvania, publisher of several of Yolen's past works. The hardcover book will be available May 1 exclusively at Grécourt Bookshop, for $15.95. For more information, call (413) 585-4140. ............................ Lianne Sullivan is Smith College's new director of human resources. She arrived in January after serving at Harvard University as associate director for employee relations. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Sullivan received her J.D. degree from Suffolk University Law School. At Smith, she directs a staff of 14 in an office that deals with employee relations, staff recruitment, compensation and benefits, staff development and union negotiations. Sullivan brings to the job a strong background in employee relations, policy-making and labor and employment law, says Ruth Constantine, Smith's chief financial officer and chair of the search committee. "We were impressed by Lianne's strengths in employee relations and her success in addressing human resources issues with people throughout the organization at Harvard," Constantine adds. "We welcome the insights and leadership skills she will bring to the college's human resource planning as Smith moves into the next century." ............................ Joan Leiman Jacobson '47 truly believes that the most important benefit of a Smith education is the opportunity it affords students to gain excellent writing skills. So when she was ready to make a significant gift to Smith, she decided that it should be in support of the college's writing program. Under the aegis of the Joan Leiman Jacobson Center for Writing, Teaching and Learning, Jacobson's gift will support such activities as the development of additional writing-intensive courses across the curriculum and faculty colloquia on the teaching of writing. The center-formerly the Center for Academic Development-is in Seelye Hall. In March the college celebrated Jacobson's gift with a lecture, "Learning to Write," by Helen Vendler, A. Kingsley Porter University Professor at Harvard. Vendler talked about the people who had taught her to write and about some insights she had gained along the way: "What propels real writing is urgent thought," she discovered when she was writing a paper about the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Writing is a "highly unnatural skill that few people enjoy and many avoid," she realized over time, even as expository writing became central to her own life as a teacher and literary critic. Jacobson, who majored in English, brought with her to the Jacobson Center dedication the English 11 (known to students as "one-one") handbook she had received when she entered Smith in 1943. Before handing the booklet to Sarah Pritchard, director of libraries at Smith, as a gift to the archives, Jacobson read a passage from its introduction that suggested that "freshman English is not only necessary in itself, butis related now and will be related in the future to every other course you will take in college.For in every course you will take, whatever the subject, you will need to write well, to think clearly and on your own, and to read with care and understanding." Jacobson received a master's degree from Columbia. She has served a number of organizations, including the Partisan Review as a member of its advisory board and the Science, Industry and Business Library of the New York Public Library as chairman of outreach. In 1978, she became the first woman to be named president of the 92nd Street Y in New York City, assuming responsibility for the renaissance and expansion of its performing arts and lecture program. ............................ Describing the response as "beyond our wildest dreams," Kara Morin '92, assistant director for alumnae outreach at the Alumnae Association of Smith College, explained that the association's new Big Sister/Little Sister Program, undertaken this year by the Student Alumnae Association of Smith College, has gotten off to a "phenomenal start." Chaired by Megan Gardner '98, the program pairs alumnae and students and asks each alumna "big sister" to describe her time and experience at Smith in an e-mail or letter to her student "little sister," to send care packages at exam time and to offer an overnight, should the little sister go to the alumna's town for an internship or job interview. The student, in turn, is to respond with information about herself and send along any other information or thoughts she wishes to share. A notice in the Smith Alumnae Quarterly invited alumnae to join the program, noting that "only 10 percent of current Smith students have a close relative who went to Smith and who thus understands the triumphs and trials of Smith life." More than 200 alumnae responded right away and new registrations for the program continue to come in at a good clip, although Morin and Gardner would like to see an even speedier expansion of the list and "are making the pitch for the program any way we can." On the student side, 70 first-years, transfers and new Ada Comstock Scholars signed up for the program in the first 10 minutes of the campus kick-off event, which featured music, poetry and comedy routines. Virtually the entire first-year class is now on board. Each year, the goal will be to pair every new student who wants to participate with an alumna, so that in four years' time all students who choose to join the program will be paired. Alumnae who wish to participate in the Big Sister/Little Sister Program should call (413) 585-2040 or (800) 526-2023, option 4.

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NewsSmith is published by the Smith College Office of College Relations for alumnae, staff, students and friends.
Copyright © 1998, Smith College. Portions of this publication may be reproduced with the permission of the Office
of College Relations, Garrison Hall, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts 01063. Last update: 4/16/98.

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