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Hollis's paper wins top award A paper by Professor of Psychology and Education Karen Hollis on the role of conditioning in reproduction has won the Frank A. Beach Comparative Psychology Award for the best paper published in the Journal of Comparative Psychology in 1997. Its title was "Classical conditioning provides paternity advantage for territorial male blue gouramis (Trichogaster trichopterus)." Hollis received a plaque at an American Psychological Association conference last month.

Making spaces Joe Smith, assistant professor of art, will have a solo exhibition at the 55 Mercer Gallery in New York City's Soho neighborhood. The show will display sculptural works completed by Smith during the past two years. Using a wide variety of materials and largely abstract in form, the pieces will, according to Smith, "get at a sense of objects within landscape by having the objects create a place or envelope--whether actual or suggested--for themselves." This exhibition, running from September 29 until October 17, will be Smith's fifth one-person show. For more information, call 212-226-8513.

Good information Mount Holyoke's redesigned Web site has been named the College Site of the Week by Kaplan Educational Centers (the test preparation folks) who have their own presence on the Web and review the Web sites of colleges and universities on a regular basis.

Their review of MHC's site, at www1.kaplan.com/view/article/0,1275,634,00.html, hypes both the College and its Web site with language like this: "Mt. Holyoke's home page does a very nice job of organizing their Web site with its top-tab navigation categories (with nifty javascript roll-over text) for each of the ten or so main areas of the site. These tabs are complemented by additional left-hand navigation buttons in these areas themselves and more descriptive text-based links 'below the fold.' Overall, the Holyoke site is especially well organized with clear, consistent navigation options and an overall unity of design."

The redesigned College site was unveiled in April. The redesign was spearheaded by the Online Information System Committee and drew on the expertise and work of Cheri Cross, Susan Perry, Dan Wilga, Fred Kass, Michael Crowley, Tim Toffoli, Sujeong Shin, and others. Cybernauts, we salute you.

Taking women seriously For a quarter-century, research has proven that women's colleges are exceptionally successful at graduating women who reach high levels of achievement later in life. M. Elizabeth Peters Tidball '51 has been a principal investigator on much of that research, and a new book for which she is lead author explains what makes women's colleges so effective and how these characteristics can be applied to coeducational institutions. Taking Women Seriously: Lessons and Legacies for Educating the Majority, written in collaboration with Daryl G. Smith, Charles S. Tidball, and Lisa E. Wolf-Wendel, gives a historical overview of higher education for women over the past forty years.

New head resident L'Tanya Robinson will serve as head resident in Buckland Hall this year, replacing Paula Gardner and Greg Elmer, who were forced to resign from their position shortly before the beginning of this semester due to a family illness. Robinson received an AB in philosophical psychology from Smith College. She is currently employed as a teacher at Westover Job Corps, and will also serve as a community research associate at the Five College Women's Studies Research Center this year. Robinson has extensive teaching, writing, and counseling experience.

New Athletics Department staff Russell Powell brings twenty years of public relations and marketing experience to his new position as sports information director. He is also in his second year at MHC's indoor track coach. New coaches include David Allen (head swim coach), who has served as swim coach at the University of Rochester and University of Minnesota; and Andrea Whitcomb (field hockey and softball), who was field hockey and lacrosse coach at Montclair State University in New Jersey and was named New Jersey Athletic Conference Coach of the Year for 1997.

In memoriam Edward J. Rytuba died September 15 at the age of 80. He had been employed as a carpenter at Mount Holyoke, and was a well-known pumpkin farmer as well. Born and educated in Hadley, Rytuba was a collector at the Holy Rosary Church for fifty years, enjoyed bowling, and was an honorary member of the Hadley Men's Club. He is survived by his wife, a son, and a daughter. Memorial contributions may be made to any church.