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Safety officers' quick thinking aids caller--In a drama resembling television's Rescue 911 show, MHC public safety officers recently got help for a confused and apparently wounded woman. And they did it long-distance.
In the early evening of July 1, public service officer Tony Gentile received a phone call from a woman in California asking for the "biomedical skin cancer research department." Thinking it might be a prank, he transferred the call to colleague Steve LeClair. The woman told LeClair she was bleeding, and that someone was controlling her by remote control and launching missiles at her house. Then she threatened to kill herself.
Aware by now that they were dealing with an emotionally disturbed person who might also be physically wounded, LeClair asked Sargeant Michael Kozaczka for advice. Officers got the woman's name and address and phoned the sherrif's office in her town, which sent police and a medical team to her home. Gentile called back later to check on the woman's condition, and was told that she'd been admitted to a psychiatric hospital ward.
"We do a lot of on-the-job training about how to answer calls and handle various situations," says director of public safety Paul Ominsky, "but I'm not sure you can train people to respond to every kind of call. Some situations are so unusual, people have to think on their feet." And that's just what these officers did. Because of their successful response to an unusual call, a woman received the aid she needed.
Trustee news--President Emeritus Elizabeth Kennan has been named a trustee at Franklin Pierce College in Rindge, NH.
Faculty summer work, part two--Lazy, hazy days; yet the intrepid faculty works on. Here's a look at what some of our faculty are doing.
Theatre arts professor Vanessa James will be designing a production of King Lear by the Company of Women, which will run this summer in Baltimore and at Smith and Wellesley Colleges.
Statistics professor George Cobb is approaching summer by the numbers. He is writing a multimedia guide to statistics, giving two papers at the annual meeting of the American Statistics Association, and writing an essay on quantitative literacy for a volume to be published by the College Board.
English professor Frank Brownlow is pursuing a number of projects, including a manuscript on the poems and prose of English Jesuit poet-martyr Robert Southwell (1561-1595) and an article on Richard Topcliffe, who tortured Southwell and others.
Stephen Jones of the Russian department will be finishing articles on Caucasia and the Republic of Georgia and visiting Georgia as a consultant to the World Bank, while Karen Remmler of the German department has recently lectured in Potsdam, Germany, on "The Memory of the Shoah in the Work of Contemporary Jewish Women Writers." She will also research memorial sites and Jewish identities in Berlin.
Biology researcher Leszek Bledski will be researching and writing on diverse topics from sponge infauna from Belize to the pitcher plant in northwest Massachusetts. And biology professor Craig Woodard is conducting research with student Lynn L'Archeveque '97 on the regulation of gene expression and animal development by steroid hormones. They are working with the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster.
Mary K. Campbell '29, Virginia Apgar Professor of Chemistry, is putting course materials on the World Wide Web, and starting work on the third edition of her textbook Biochemistry.
Professor of Chemistry Edwin S. Weaver has returned from two weeks touring China as part of the People to People Citizen Ambassador Project. His delegation was a group of physical chemists visiting several universities and research institutes in Beijing, X'ian, and Shanghai.
Professor of Russian Edwina J. Cruise translated two pieces by Russian writers in the 1996 ARTES, An International Reader of Literature, Art, and Music. One was "The Unmeeting" by scholar and MHC lecturer Viktoria Schweitzer. The 1996 issue of ARTES is dedicated to the memory of Joseph Brodsky.
Winners' circle--The lucky raffle winners from this year's employee benefits fair (as well as what they won and who sponsored the prize) are: Darcia Malone, telephone services ($50 gift certificate at Village Commons, from Five College Credit Union); Candace Schuller, Career Development Center (evening at Village Commons, from Community Health Plan); Jerry Blain, buildings and grounds (bike helmet from Kaiser Permanente); Debra Morrissey, library (bike helmet from Kaiser Permanente); Marilyn Pryor, biological sciences (leather portfolio from TIAA/ CREF); Jim Monks, economics (paperweight from Fidelity Investments); Linda Samano, human resources (leather portfolio from Fidelity Investments); Dee Messier, chemistry (sport bag from Fidelity Investments); Paul Ominsky, public safety (briefcase from Mass Mutual-Group Universal Life); Kathleen Holt, biological sciences (travel bag from UNUM Life/Disability); Cindy Benoit, student activities ($50 gift certificate to Delaney House, from American Benefits); Karen Griffin, alumnae association (fruit basket from Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Massachusetts); Ed Phoenix, buildings and grounds (birthday cake from dining services); Richard Horlick, academic computing (brunch for two at Willits- Hallowell); Joan Przybycien,
library (MHC sweatshirt from the College bookstore); Carolyn Dietel, Frances Perkins Program (supper for two, from Wayne Gass); and Vicha Hajdamowicz, buildings and grounds (book from Child Care Focus).
In Memoriam--Bruce Keyes, assistant business manager, died June 30 at his home in Ludlow. His wife Rita notified the College that Bruce had been suffering from serious depression, which led to his taking his life. Keyes came to Mount Holyoke in 1988, and was responsible for purchasing, Office Services, the campus post office, and the Telephone Business Office. He also served on the Operational Policy Committee and was recently recertified as a Certified Purchasing Manager through the National Association of Purchasing Management.
Because Bruce and Rita Keyes had been host parents to countless international students over the last several years, the Bruce Keyes Memorial Fund has been established to honor their involvement and to benefit international students at MHC. Contributions may be sent to the Office of Development.
In the multicultural vanguard--Northampton teachers will learn how to develop a multicultural, antiracist curriculum and classroom atmosphere thanks to a Carnegie Corporation-funded project developed by Beverly Tatum, professor of psychology and education and Phyllis Brown, a UMass doctoral candidate in education. One hundred teachers will take a course taught by Tatum and others in this two-year program, which may serve as a model for school systems elsewhere.
Gold standard--The Office of Communications has just learned that it won a gold award for our student recruitment publications package in a national competition sponsored by CASE, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. This is in addition to the bronze and gold medals CASE awarded the College this year for individual admissions publications.
Close, but no cigar department--The June 21 CSJ quoted (correctly) a report by the Mathematical Association of America that (incorrectly) lauded MHC for producing "the most female Ph.D.s in science in the twentieth century." Although we can't claim that specific achievement, MHC's record is impressive. According to the work of Norean Sharpe '82, based on women earning B.A.s between 1976 and 1986 and science Ph.D.s through 1991, MHC is in the top 5 percent of baccalaureate institutions in the number of Ph.D.s in chemistry, math/computer science, and physics/earth sciences. MHC was one of only eight institutions in the top 5 percent in all three categories. Mount Holyoke was also in the top 5 percent of colleges whose B.A. recipients later earned Ph.D.s in chemistry and math/ computer science.
Light motif--It may take you a few extra minutes to get to work, since the South Hadley Electric Light Department began work on its latest project. According to dean of administration Wayne Gass, electric wires will be put underground, decorative street lighting (similar to that in the South Hadley Falls street rehabilitation area) will be installed, and new sidewalks will be created on the west side of College Street. All this is being done in preparation for the repaving of Route 116 (College Street) from Leahey Avenue to the town common.
Working more efficiently--The College has received $250,000 to support administrative restructuring projects. Part of the grant will provide consulting and training connected with reorganizing the library and computing and information systems. The grant will also cover consulting services and training so financial processes can be streamlined after the college receives new computer hardware and financial software this summer. The grant was received from the Davis Educational Foundation, established by Stanton and Elisabeth Davis after his retirement as chairman of Shaw's Supermarkets, Inc.
More grants granted--Donald Cotter, assistant professor of chemistry, has received $20,956 from the Henry and Camille Dreyfus Special Grant Program in the chemical sciences to update the computer interface and operating system of one of the department's NMR spectrometers and to network the device making NMR data available from any ethernet port on campus.
Sean Decatur, assistant professor of chemistry, has received a Cottrell College Science Award of $30,832 from the Research Corporation for his project "Equilibrium Binding and Spectroscopic Studies of Nitrosylhemes." The grant will allow Sean and two students to devote the next two summers to studying aspects of how nitric oxide bonds with sites on proteins that contain iron atoms.
Catherine LeGouis, associate professor of French, has received an IREX grant of about $4,000 for her project "Paradoxes of Decadence: French Influence and Russian Reinvention." The funding will allow her to spend four months in Moscow and St. Petersburg investigating archival materials for her comparative study of the French and Russian Decadent movements and their interrelationship.
Eva Paus, associate professor of economics, has been awarded a DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) study grant for DM 10,500 for her project "Competitiveness, Productivity Growth, and Wage Growth in East Germany's Manufacturing Sector, 1990-1995." She is particularly interested in the role of government policy in enhancing productivity growth, and her work will complement recent studies aimed at drawing lessons from the East Asian "miracle countries."
Associate professor of mathematics Margaret Robinson, together with David Cox and Greg Call of Amherst, and David Hayes of UMass, has received a grant of $9,800 from the National Science Foundation program to fund their ongoing seminar in algebra and theory. The seminar meets weekly, with a mix of local and invited speakers, to keep abreast of research developments of interest to the faculty. Outside speakers are encouraged to have lunch and give talks for students.
Alan Werner, associate professor of geology, has received $20,660 from the National Science Foundation to fund his project "Assessment of Pre-late Wisconsin-Kettle Basins: Potentially Long Records of Environmental Change, Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska." He and two students will travel to Alaska, where they will join another geologist and a student from Utah State University. They will helicopter into Denali (formerly known as Mount McKinley) Park and raft onto two very old glacial lakes to plot the lake bottoms and use seismic techniques to study sediment fill. The study and the samples they collect will allow them to reconstruct environmental change during the ice age.
Please send news for "New & Notable" to Emily Weir, Office of Communications, or email eweir.
We want your news - Send items of interest to Emily Weir, Office of Communications, or email eweir@mtholyoke.edu.
More faculty information is coming soon to a web site near you. Six MHC professors are already profiled on our World Wide Web pages, and five more are about to debut or were recently added. New to the web at http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/profile/ are: Francine Deutsch, professor and chair of the psychology and education department; Lowell Gudmundson, professor and chair of the Latin American studies program; Joseph Ellis, Ford Foundation Professor of History; Aaron Ellison, Fisher Associate Professor of Environmental Studies; and Kavita Khory, associate professor of politics.