New & Notable

Double medalist--Crew coach Jeanne Friedman earned two medals in the U.S. Rowing Association's master's national regatta in late August. With Carol Ann Smalley '78, Friedman (who was stroke for the team) placed second for a silver medal in the lightweight four. In the lightweight single competition, she braved poor weather conditions and still won a bronze medal.

Good things come to those who wait--The College archives recently received several nineteenth-century letters, including two letters from Mary Lyon. Other correspondence deals with fund raising for Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in the mid-1830s, and with the Ipswich Female Seminary, the last school at which Mary Lyon taught before founding Mount Holyoke. Former College librarian Flora B. Ludington learned of the letters' existence in 1956 and asked the owner for them a full forty years before they arrived on campus.

According to archivist Peter Carini, the letters were donated by John M. Beale of Auburn, Maine, who unexpectedly found them in an attic earlier this year, along with a 1956 letter from his mother promising them to the College "after her son agreed to the gift." Beale doesn't remember his late mother's ever mentioning it, but made good on her wish when he discovered the letters.

The Mary Lyon letters include a short note and a four-page missive describing an 1836 meeting she had with Catharine Beecher, another important figure in the education of women.

Carini said that although anything with Mary Lyon's signature is important, the two letters written by Eunice Caldwell Cowles are also significant. "Two describe Mary Lyon's early attempts at fund raising through the eyes of the woman who went on to become her assistant," he explained. One describes a meeting in a friend's drawing room that raised $3,000 of the $30,000 needed for "the erection of buildings free to the students." Cowles was a student of Lyon's at Ipswich Seminary, became associate principal of Mount Holyoke Seminary, and finished her career as head of Ipswich Seminary.

A new face in New Haven--Daniel Czitrom, professor of history, has been appointed as Cardozo lecturer at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. As visiting professor of history for the spring term of 1996-97, he will teach one graduate seminar and an undergraduate course.

The trials of tarmac--As anyone who's driven to and from campus lately knows, the Town of South Hadley's construction project has involved digging along Route 116. "It's like World War III out there, with the power company digging up one side, the cable company digging on the other side, and the College's crew cutting across the street with steam pipes," says Marvin Kuipers, associate treasurer. Then on August 26, construction workers accidentally cut one of the major MHC telephone cables feeding all buildings on the west side of Route 116. Service was restored to 160 phone lines in Merrill House, Newhall Center, Pearsons Hall, Pearsons Annex, the observatory, Frances Perkins House, and the president's house the next day around noon, according to Darcia Malone, telephone office supervisor.

Workers are scrambling to complete all digging before the state resurfaces Route 116, which may happen as early as this fall. No cuts are allowed in repaved roads for five years. When the project is finished, all utility lines will run underground.

Activist minister named interim chaplain--Andrea Ayvazian has been named interim Protestant chaplain. No stranger to the College, Ayvazian has taught in the psychology and education department, and (with psychology professor Beverly Tatum) addressed the community about racism last semester. She is a licensed minister in the United Church of Christ; is director of Communitas, an educational service working to dismantle racism; and is a singer/ songwriter and longtime community activist. She's also active in another sense, having recently scaled the summit of Mount McKinley.

Seeing the forest and the trees--Thomas Millette, assistant professor of geography, spent parts of July and August in Arizona and New Mexico. He worked with Lisa Graumlich, director of the Tree Ring Analysis Laboratory at the University of Arizona, cowriting a NASA proposal for research combining satellite imagery analysis and tree ring analysis to look at forest change in the Himalayan mountains of Nepal. Millette also worked with Bill Krausmann of the USDA Forest Service in Albuquerque, developing student research opportunities to apply satellite imagery and aerial videography to studying forest fire behavior and the impact of controlled burning on national forests in the Southwestern United States.

Russian masterpiece unearthed--David Shengold, visiting instructor in Russian, worked this summer with prominent conductor/director Sarah Caldwell. In Ekaterinburg, Russia, Caldwell recently conducted the Russian premiere of incidental music Sergei Prokofiev wrote for a suppressed 1936 play version of Pushkin's novel Eugene Onegin. Caldwell is preparing a CD of the piece from tapes of her concerts and from supplemental tapes made by Ekaterinburg actors. With Caldwell, Shengold has been listening to the tapes, cutting inappropriate material, and getting the music and dialogue into the sequence intended by Prokofiev and the playwright. (They have Prokofiev's copy of the play, with handwritten notes in the margins, as well as musical material Caldwell unearthed from an archive.) They will also write English narration to explain the scenes for English-speaking listeners. "It's wonderful music and a fascinating project," says Shengold, "and it has been an honor to work with a brilliant woman who has pioneered cultural exchanges with Russia and who led the American premieres of several Russian works I teach in my MHC course in Slavic Opera, Nationalism, and Cultural History."

From ambassador to professor--Among the interesting new faces on campus this fall is Richard Bloomfield, the former U.S. ambassador to Portugal and Ecuador. With the U.S. Foreign Service from 1952 to 1982, Bloomfield joins the faculty for the first semester as Cyrus Vance Visiting Professor of International Relations. He will teach a seminar, U.S.-Latin American Relations after the Cold War. Bloomfield's curriculum vitae can be accessed on the World Wide Web at http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/bloomcv.htm.

New student advisers--The Office of Residential Life has named the student advisers (SAs) for the 1996-97 academic year. Student advisers serve as peer advisers to residents of their own halls, after training in community development, health-related issues, and interpersonal skills.

Here are this year's SAs, listed alphabetically, by residence hall. Abbey Hall: Insiya Rasiwala '99, Markeisha Miner '99, Madelyn Baez '99; Brigham Hall: Angela Bellas '99, Norma Anderson '99, Caitlin Skinner '99; Buckland Hall: Shanthi Divakaran '98, Meredith Garey '99, Carol McGinnis '99, Portia Siwawa '99, Naa Norle Lokko '99; 1837 Hall: Lisa Yasufuku '98, Analisa Ivins '98, Judith Dickey '97;

Ham Hall: Michelle Hoffman '98, Adrienne Hovey '99, Stephanie Gooding '98, Kirtana Biddapa '98, Stephanie Lewis '98;

MacGregor Hall: Jennifer Horton '99, Stephanie Mackler '98, Darcey Paquette '98, Monica Walker '98; North Mandelle Hall: Jennifer Kunkel '99, Mariah Devereux '97, Kristin Young '97; South Mandelle Hall: Milena Uribe '98, Nicole Schubert '97, S. Lauren Hibbert '99; Mead Hall: Chau Ly '97, Heather Allison '99, Lauren Mackey '97, Ceara Carder '99;

Pearsons Hall: Jessica Maynard '97, Meghan Freed '98, Elizabeth Harvey '97, Kelly Lambert '98, Shabnam Koirala '99, Pyumi Samaraweera '99; Porter Hall: Megan Pickett '97, Meher Dalal '99, Catherine Kiefer '99, Nicole Pitsavas '99; Prospect Hall: Angie Smith-Simonello '97, Mina Lani Ohuchi '99, Kathleen McNelis '97, Kimberly Brolin '97, April Stroud '99; North Rockefeller Hall: Lora Gotcheva '99, Blair McCracken '98, Sharlene De Steph '98;

South Rockefeller Hall: Katherine Marsh '99, Rebecca Hart '99, Naveen Balkhi '98; Safford Hall: Stephanie Peacock '98, Amy Johnson '97, Beth Hutton '99; Torrey Hall: Michelle Cunningham '99, Leah Doris Johnson '98, Petra Scamborova '97, Zia Nariman '98; Wilder Hall: Siena Chrisman '99, Lauren Cook '98, Rose Pawlikowski '98, Lauren Gregg '99.

What's new with you?--Please send news for "New & Notable" to Emily Weir, Office of Communications, or email eweir@mtholyoke.edu.