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Newsbriefs
Famous Faces: Watercolor portraits
of some of the most influential American women in the past 35 years,
by New York artist and feminist Linda Stein, were on display in March
at the Morgan Gallery in Neilson Library in commemoration of Women's
History Month. Stein, a prominent and sometimes radical activist in the
women's movement and other political causes in New York since the
1970s, has published and spoken extensively about art and feminism, and
many other topics. The exhibit included one of Stein's first portraits,
of Virginia Woolf, as well as renderings of Gloria Steinem and Bella
Abzug. Stein has agreed to donate her diaries and sketchbooks to the
Sophia Smith Collection's permanent holdings.
Same Places,
New Names: Since it was built some 40 years ago, the Wright
Hall Auditorium has been known as just that. But in a dedication
ceremony on April 18 the frequently used campus venue took
on a new name: Leo Weinstein Auditorium. Weinstein, who taught
at Smith from 1952 until 1991, was the Esther Cloudman Dunn Professor
Emeritus of Government at the time of his death in 1999. An authority
on constitutional law and political theory, Weinstein received the
John M. Greene Award in 1991.
The Leo Weinstein Auditorium joins a
few other venues on campus that are named after influential
college associates. The Campus Center has dedicated three of its rooms
with new names. The large hall heretofore known as the Multipurpose Room
(208) has become the Carroll Room, named after Jane Chace
Carroll '53;
the pre-performance space outside the Multipurpose Room is now known as the
Wilson Atrium, named after Isabel Brown Wilson '53; and the cozy -- but
generically named -- fireplace lounge is now called the Goldstein Lounge
after Patricia Redeker Goldstein '55.
 Photo
by Barbara Conn
Women
Business Leaders on Campus: A conference on
women in business, "Women at the Top: Leading Business, Leading Change," was
sponsored in late March by Smith's Women and Financial Independence
in collaboration with the Committee of 200 (C200), an organization of
successful women entrepreneurs and business executives from across the
United States. C200 sponsors conferences annually, but this is the first
time the organization has offered a program to an undergraduate college
audience. In full group and small breakout sessions, eminent C200 members
discussed such topics as networking, entrepreneurship and using a liberal
arts degree in the business world. Among the C200 members leading the
sessions were Smith alumnae Shelly Braff Lazarus '68 of Ogilvy
and Mather Worldwide; Ann Kaplan '67 of Circle Financial and Goldman,
Sachs and Co.; and Robin Brooks '77 of Brooks Food Group. Smith
students who attended the event could apply for one of 10
summer internships, each with a $5,000 stipend, sponsored
by the companies of C200 members.
New Teaching Award
Honors Smith Faculty: Four faculty members were named the first winners of the Kathleen
Compton Sherrerd '54 and John
J. F. Sherrerd Prizes for Distinguished Teaching. The new
Sherrerd Teaching Award is to be given annually to Smith faculty members
in recognition of their distinguished teaching records and demonstrated
enthusiasm and excellence. The winners of the first Sherrerd Teaching Awards
are David Cohen, professor of mathematics; Shizuka Hsieh, assistant
professor of chemistry; Mahnaz Mahdavi, associate professor of economics;
and Vittoria Poletto, senior lecturer in Italian language and literature.
The four faculty members were honored at a presentation of the award on
April 21.
Students, Faculty Working
Together: More
than 100 student presentations composed "Celebrating Collaborations," a daylong event held
April 17 as a showcase of student collaborations with faculty members
on projects representing a variety of the academic disciplines at Smith.
During four concurrent sessions in several campus locations, students
presented their findings and results of working with Smith faculty members.
Presentations consisted of panels, poster sessions, exhibits and performances
in three categories: science and technology; performing arts; and social,
cultural and literary studies. Some of the presentations, such as "Expression
Analysis and Functional Domain Mapping of RimJ, an Environmental Regulator
of pap Fimbrial Transcription in Escherihcia coli," by A. Lyn LeClerc '04,
Jessica L. Slack '06 and two recent alumnae, reflected ambitious
scientific content, while others, such as "Explaining the Determinants
of Happiness: Income and Inequality," by Ashley Herzog '04,
promised more universal application. "Celebrating Collaborations," an
annual event, is now in its third year.
Winter-weary visitors converged on Smith's
Lyman Conservatory in March to take in the colors and fragrances
of the Annual Spring Bulb Show, a sensate array of some 5,000
bulbs of blooming crocuses, hyacinths, narcissi, irises,
lilies and tulips. The bulbs, which normally flower weeks
apart, were forced into peak bloom in early March; many were
potted by students in the horticulture class in October and
then put in cold storage. In January the bulbs are transferred
to the temperature-controlled greenhouses. Photo by Fish/Parham. Rally Day 2004: Exuberant
seniors, wearing their graduation gowns for the first time
and inventive headgear in the place of tasseled mortarboards,
flocked to John M. Greene Hall on February 18 for the annual
Rally Day festivities. The annual observance has morphed from a celebration
of George Washington's birthday into a time for students to celebrate
their institution as well as to honor distinguished alumnae and outstanding
faculty. This year's faculty teaching award, given annually by
the Student Government Association to one junior and one
senior faculty member, went to James Callahan, mathematics
(senior), and Marc Lendler, government (junior).
Prestigious Fellowship: Thomas S. Litwin, director of the Clark Science Center, is
one of 20 outstanding academic environmental scientists from across the
United States and Guam who were selected to receive an Aldo Leopold Leadership
Fellowship for 2004. Litwin, who has been at Smith since
1989, is a member of the college's department of biological
science and the environmental science and policy program
as well as a graduate faculty member in the State Department
of Wildlife and Fisheries Conservation at the University of Massachusetts
at Amherst. At Smith, he was the founding director of the environmental
science program; and in 2001, Litwin was the expedition leader for the
1899 Harriman Alaska Expedition Retraced. Aldo Leopold Fellowships provide
scientists with intensive communication and leadership training to help
them convey scientific information effectively to non-scientific audiences,
especially policy-makers, the media, business leaders and the public.
Poetry Center Gets
a Permanent Home: Thanks in large part to a gift from an anonymous donor, the
campus space heretofore known as Wright Hall Common Room
has been transformed into the permanent home of the Smith College Poetry
Center. The new space includes a library with signed copies of books
by all the poets who have visited Smith, as well as a welcoming reading
space open to the Smith community. Exhibitions of manuscripts and books
from the Rare Book Room will add artistic enrichment to the space: the
opening exhibition highlights selections from the college's
Sylvia Plath collection.
The Poetry Center, now in its seventh
year, has operated without a permanent space but began with
the goal of eventually establishing a facility on campus. The center,
which is directed by Ellen Doré Watson, lecturer in the
English department, has grown in prominence and popularity on campus, regularly
attracting students and community members by the hundreds to its scheduled
readings by prominent poets. The Poetry Center formally opened on April 27
with a reading by Poet Laureate of the United States Louise Glück in Leo
Weinstein Auditorium.
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