PACKARD HONORED Becky Wai-Ling Packard, assistant professor of psychology and education, was honored for her mentoring work by Girls, Incorporated of Holyoke, a nonprofit agency that provides afterschool and teen programming for Holyoke girls, at a dinner November 1. Among the other five women honored was Northampton mayor Clare Higgins. The honorees were celebrated as role models of "strong, smart, and bold women," according to the organization. TIMELY LETTER TO THE EDITOR A letter by Liddy Gerchman '02 appeared in the November 8 issue of the New York Times. Gerchman wrote the piece in response to a November 6 Times article titled "Immigrant, Detained for 3 1/2 Years, Emerges From Labyrinth." "After spending an emotional week volunteering at Freedom House, a refugee center in Detroit, three years ago, I find that I am not startled by Patrick Mkhizi's story, but it does make me sad," Gerchman wrote. "The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act has led us to treat our refugees like criminals. At Freedom House, I met a champion soccer player from Angola who spoke five languages fluently, an elderly woman from Sierra Leone who did not know if her children were alive or dead, and a young man who has spent most of his life having his family's case tried and retried by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. I cannot understand why we would ever want to turn such worthy and talented people away from our ‘golden door'." BIG! In November, art professor Joseph Smith had a one-person show of his sculpture and drawings at 55 Mercer Street Gallery in New York City. Created this year, the pieces are much larger in scale than Smith's usual work. He used wood, stone, steel, wax, and wire to make them.

Center for Environmental Literacy Lecture Series Kicked Off November 8

Jacobson-Hardy on Campus

Michael Jacobson-Hardy.

Photographer Michael Jacobson-Hardy delivered a slide presentation titled "Photographing in Factories, Schools, and Prisons" November 9. Jacobson-Hardy, who is noted for his documentary work on social justice, addressed issues of race, class, and gender in social institutions. The presentation was part of a campus photography workshop led by the photographer and organized by the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum. Under Jacobson Hardy's guidance, ten MHC students participated in a six-week workshop, learning the basics of photography in order to examine the campus through the lens.

Lilian Hsu Named Elizabeth Page Greenawalt Chair in Physical Sciences

Lilian Hsu.

Professor of biochemistry Lilian Hsu was named the first occupant of the newly established Elizabeth Page Greenawalt Chair in Physical Sciences. Hsu has chaired both the biochemistry (1991-1997) and chemistry (1998-2000) departments; has served as the College's sponsored-research officer (1997-1999); and has trained scores of MHC students who have gone on to careers in the life sciences. She conducts research in transcription, the process by which the information encoded in DNA is copied into RNA.

In the 1960s, Gail Hornstein read with fascination Joanne Greenberg's novel I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, the story of an institutionalized teen's treatment for mental illness. The novel's therapist, Dr. Fried, later surfaced as the real-life Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, whose acclaimed Principles of Intensive Psychotherapy was required reading for Hornstein in graduate school. Today, Hornstein, MHC professor of psychology and director of the Five College Women's Studies Research Center, is the author of the first biography of Fromm-Reichmann, To Redeem One Person Is to Redeem the World: The Life of Frieda Fromm-Reichmann. It was published by Free Press/Simon & Schuster in December. Hornstein read from her book November 30 at the Five College Women's Studies Research Center.

Election Implications

The Weissman Center concluded its fall series on democracy with a panel discussion titled "Elections 2000: Implications for American Democracy" November 13. Moderated by Christopher Pyle, MHC professor of politics, the panel discussion featured Theodore J. Lowi, a leading political scientist; Ellen Story, state representative; and Sean Wilentz, a noted American historian who served as an expert witness during the Clinton impeachment hearings.

Yerma at MHC

The tragic play Yerma, which focuses on motherhood and marriage and was written in 1934 by Spanish poet and dramatist Federico García Lorca (1898-1936), was performed at MHC November 9-11. Presented by the theatre department, the play was directed by Chuck Mike, Distinguished Five College Artist.

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