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The Middle Ages go high tech The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded Mount Holyoke $200,000 to develop a "multimedia CD-ROM of medieval music, illustrations, graphics, and stories," according to a Springfield Union-News article. Margaret Switten, professor of French, will direct the project, which will create a CD to be used for middle school, high school, and college level teaching about the Middle Ages. Robert Eisenstein, director of the Five College Early Music Program, cowrote the grant proposal. The musical portion of the project will feature full digital quality sound and cover "three key repertories of medieval song from the twelfth to the 14th centuries."

Switten and Eisenstein believe the CD "has the potential to be used throughout the United States and the world," according to the article. "It eventually may be available on the World Wide Web." As a start, MHC will sponsor a 1999 seminar to show secondary school teachers how to use multimedia CDs in their curricula.

Clever as a fox As April 15 loomed and countless Americans were examining how best to pay their taxes, John Fox, who teaches tax policy at MHC, weighed in with a lengthy piece on the so-called marriage tax in the Boston Sunday (April 5) Globe's influential "Focus" section. Fox explored the ins and outs of couples filing jointly and individually under current federal tax codes, as well as what various reforms might accomplish.

Fond memories Lecturer in Russian and well-known performance artist Susan Scotto talked to the Philadelphia Inquirer recently about new Philly police commissioner John Timoney's knowledge of Dostoevsky. In 1994, Timoney, then a member of the NYPD brass, lectured at the College on Crime and Punishment. Says Scotto, "He knew it backwards and forwards. He was able to enter the mind of the suspect and the mind of the investigator."

Live from MHC As part of its spring series highlighting local communities, Channel 22 will broadcast its evening news program live from Skinner Green on April 29. In addition to the live telecast, the TV program will air a taped segment about the College. Information on MHC's past will be culled from the College Archives' collection and discussed by the archives' director Peter Carini; the institution's present will be discussed during an interview with President Creighton; and the College's future will be represented by two first-year students interviewed on camera.