Women and Global Crisis--Women's studies professor Asoka Banderage will publish a scholarly study that should shed new insights into some of the most pressing global issues of our time. In Women, Population and Global Crisis: A Political Economic Analysis--to be issued this summer by Zed Books of London--Banderage takes on the conventional wisdom of both the Right and Left on issues such as population growth and economic growth.

Yes, I'm going to Katmandu!--Thomas Millette spent five days in Katmandu last April. The geoprocessing expert participated in an international workshop from April 20-25 focusing on the rapid deforestation of the Hindu-Kush Himalaya, a vast mountainous region that spans Asia. The deforestation is largely due to the 48 million people living in the region. One hundred research scientists studying various aspects of the region convened at the workshop to identify a research agenda for the next ten years. One of the seven members coorganizing the group, Millette contributed to the writing of this ambitious agenda, which will be presented to such funding sources as NASA and the World Bank. His hope is that the environmental dangers the area faces will receive as much attention by scientists and the public as those faced by the Amazon.

Write on!--Lecturer in English Douglas Whynott is relocating to New Hampshire and saying goodbye to teaching. For eight years at MHC, he has taught students the craft of writing literary nonfiction, his speciality. As he packs up for his move, he has also recently wrapped up extensive research for a forthcoming book about boat building and builders in Maine. Interviewing and observing twenty-two boat builders at the Brookline boat yard in Brookline, ME, since last August, Whynott's work will be published by Doubleday in 1998. The boat yard, which he has visited sixteen times, is a family-run business owned by E. B. White's son, a naval architect who designs boats. In his book, Whynott traces the construction of two wooden sailboats designed by White. Whynott's last book documented the work of migratory beekeepers.

In his new haunts up north, he will dedicate himself 100 percent to writing, keeping busy with magazine articles and other writing. In addition to his forthcoming book on boat building, Whynott is currently at work on five magazine articles on topics ranging from the Environmental Protection Agency to dolphin trainers at San Diego's SeaWorld.

Athletic award--Director of athletics Laurie Priest was named Administrator of the Year by the Massachusetts Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (MAIAW). The MAIAW/ Jeanne Rowlands Award honors athletic directors at Massachusetts institutions of higher education who have made continuing and outstanding contributions to the field of women's athletics. Assistant director of athletics Lynne Wilkie says Priest's involvement with "many, many outside professional committees and organizations, as well as her many publications, are among the reasons she garnered this award."

Sabbatical savvy--Penny Curtis, head volleyball coach and physical education faculty member, recently returned from sabbatical. During the first semester she assisted the Division II University of Northern Colorado volleyball team. Second semester she studied with a master yoga instructor, working towards her certification in Iyengar yoga in addition to developing a curriculum for a stress management class.

NEW8 goes coed--The U. S. Coast Guard Academy and Springfield College have recently been voted into the New England Women's Eight (NEW8) Athletic Conference. The conference's current members include: Mount Holyoke, Smith, Wellesley, WPI, MIT, Wheaton, Clark, and Babson Colleges. The move from a women's athletic conference to a coed athletic conference marks the first time in NCAA history that a women's conference has expanded to accept men.

Up close and personnel--New faces: Tracie A. Aube, Asian studies/Russian department; Dennis A. Bowen, desktop technologies. Departures: Chad A. Cohen, dining services; Miriam T. Courtois, public safety; Karen L. Conlin, Russian department; John F. Nowak, dining services; Lana S. Sakelarios, Gorse Child Study Center; Lisa M. Bones, Gorse Child Study Center.