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Newsbriefs
The busy sounds of hammer and buzzsaw were everywhere on
campus this summer. For the first time in its history, College Hall, built in 1875,
was completely vacated for extensive renovations. In addition to wiring upgrades and a new fire
alarm system, the building was equipped with new hot water heating and central air conditioning
systems. Finishing touches prepared the newly built Conway House on Prospect Street (below),
a 10-unit apartment building, for its new occupants—Smith Ada Comstock Scholars and their
families. Rita McCoubrey and daughter Josie settled in on move-in day in late August as did Audrey
and Wess Dakan and their son Louis.
The college welcomed new trustees to its board
in May. They are: Rachel Bartels ’88,
Ka’Neda Ellison ’06, Anne Morita ’90, Lois Perelson-Gross ’83 and James
Shulman.
Eric Reeves,
Smith professor of English language and literature, received an honorary degree from
Mount Holyoke College during its 169th commencement exercises on May 28. Reeves,
who has become an internationally prominent expert on the genocidal atrocities perpetrated
by the government of Sudan in the country’s
Darfur region, has published numerous editorial essays on the subject in the Washington
Post, the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers, and has testified on human rights
before the U.S. Congress. Reeves, who joined the Smith faculty in 1979 after attending
Williams College and the University of Pennsylvania, will also receive the Bicentennial
Medal from Williams at the college’s convocation this fall, in recognition of his Sudan
research and advocacy. The medal is the college’s highest alumnae award.
Citing the Sudanese government’s
campaign of genocide in the Darfur region, Smith College has banned investment in
companies directly or indirectly supporting that regime. The Smith College Board
of Trustees voted to take that action at its May meeting, based on a recommendation
of the college’s
Committee on Investor Responsibility, and after research undertaken at the request
of Smith’s
president, Carol T. Christ. “Withholding
investment offers the possibility that private organizations in the United States
can encourage a policy change in a foreign country, specifically, in this case, the
end of the genocidal policies of the Sudanese government,” said Mary Patterson McPherson,
chair of the board of trustees and member of the Smith class of 1957. “While the recent
peace accord is grounds for cautious optimism,” she added, “we still believe that
international pressure is necessary and compelling.” This vote by the board of trustees
is the fourth time the board has banned specific investments since a 1979 vote explicitly
affirmed that the college’s moral mission
must play a role in the investment of its endowment.
A new book by Professor Andrew Zimbalist, The
Bottom Line: Observations and Arguments on the Sports Business, examines the major issues the American sports
industry faces today. Zimbalist, who is the Robert A. Woods Professor of Economics
at Smith, has been called “one of the best writers
among economists working today.” His other recent books include National
Pastime: How Americans Play Baseball and the Rest of the World Plays Soccer (co-authored with Stefan Szymanski),
which was named as an outstanding academic title by Choice magazine, and In the Best
Interests of Baseball: The Revolutionary Reign of Bud Selig.
Academic programs
formerly known as women’s studies
and math are now titled the Program for the Study of Women and Gender and the Department
of Mathematics and Statistics.
The daily work of the
students attending the new six-week Summer Institute in Art Museum Studies at Smith
College -- the
only program of its kind for undergraduates -- provided an intensive, behind-the-scenes
crash course on the business of operating a museum. The program combined classroom
instruction, visits to museums and meetings with their professional staffs, and the
hands-on experience of mounting a small art exhibition at Smith’s Museum of Art.
Longtime student advocate Julianne D. Ohotnicky started
work in June as Smith’s new dean
of students. Formerly, she was associate dean of students at Clark University. In
her 15 years of experience in student life, Ohotnicky has held positions at a number of colleges
and universities in Massachusetts, including Brandeis University, Merrimack College and Worcester
Polytechnic Institute. Ohotnicky earned a bachelor of arts in foreign affairs and economics from
Assumption College in 1991 and a master of arts in higher education administration from the University
of Connecticut in 1995.
Smith College alumna Karen Boehnke ’99 returned to campus in September
to become director of annual support and volunteer engagement in the college’s Office of
Advancement. Before assuming her new position here, she was director of the annual fund and development
operations at the University of California, Berkeley, College of Engineering, where she began
as an associate director three years ago. Since earning her bachelor of arts degree in education
from Smith, Boehnke has served as an annual fund volunteer for the college.
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